On The Question Of Intent

If you've been reading any of my blog posts (like here) or follow me on twitter you know that I've been enamored with the concept of "intent" and how much it matters these days in business.  But I'll freely admit that getting your arms around exactly what the word means can be difficult.  Just take a look at the comments in a post Amber Naslund wrote on the subject, it's obviously not something that is easily defined.  Add to that the fact that people like me complicate it further by narrowing intent to both explicit and implicit forms (I'll leave that for another time).

So today a friend asked me to explain the consumer perception of intent, or rather why I argue so strongly that it can have a profound impact on your business.  To be honest, I had to stop for a moment to try and come up with an analogy everyone could relate to.  My answer was this; "It can be the difference between the way you feel when a co-worker asks you to do some of their work to allow them to get out of the office early and go to a party vs. when they are giving 110% and struggling to overcome an overwhelming workload."  

Intent is essentially the combination of transparency with authenticity.  Put simply, if your companies belief system is based on the premise that the greater the value you provide to your customers the more successful you will be then you have nothing to worry about, because the focus of your efforts across the organization should be in alignment with that belief.  If on the other hand it is based on the premise that margins trump all, then I'd highly recommend treading carefully in the social media spectrum as it excels in exposing your true intent.

Cheers,

Matt Ridings - @techguerilla
Posted on Monday, May 24, 2010 by