Know how to TED?

TED is driving communications.  Are you ready to be TEDified?  You could do worse.

If you feel a little under-a-rock about TED, have a look.  TED conference presentations are one of the current darlings of social media, forwarded and shared like crazy, garnering millions of views.

Why?  Because 18 minutes turns out to be an almost ideal time frame to deliver stories and ideas--even complex ones.    And it's significant what types of stories are most popular on TED: they're the ones that follow a pretty standard arc of Here's who I am, Here's something I tried, Here were the results.  In most cases, the results are surprising or delightful and almost always inspiring.

TED presenters are also allowed to use slides and videos, but not to distraction; the clear focus is on the presenter on an open stage, no notes or script prompts, showing that they are open, responsive and knowledgeable.

Business presentations should take a page from TED.  If you say there are some corporate messages that don't fit the TED arc, I would ask: why not?  Are you really resigned to the belief that certain messages must, by nature, be a big bore?

The laws of good storytelling are as ancient as our race.  What's the next presentation you need to make -- and how could you take it from okay to great?

Executive presence: some people have it . . .

I've known a number of executive coaches, and their value is being able to customize their counsel to fit their client.  But if they had to boil down basic executive communication skills into a manageable list, this would be it.

This is the list you should print out and post nearby and commit to reading at least weekly for at least a year.  What I like about the list is that each tip is really a stand-in for an important aspect of executive leadership.  Why master a sense of humor?  Because it's a sign that you are well-rounded, sensitive to appropriate topics of conversation and basically comfortable with other people.

This is also a great link to send along to your mentees or direct reports whom you're counseling for advancement.

I take to heart the reminder to keep posture in mind when speaking in a group--which of these would you choose to work on?

Bonus content: here's a list of ten communications mistakes, if you want to look at the dark side.  Both lists are from Forbes.

Image courtesy of imagerymajestic / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Big Data being used by Small Minds?

This video clip form David Court at McKinsey takes the hot trend of Big Data down to brass tacks: Now that your business has its hands on more sophisticated data, are you sure your people are going to get the most out of it?

A number of things (pun intended) could happen.  One is that a range of functions seize implications from the data and have different ideas of what to do next.  Another is that your people have a lot of enthusiasm but not much skill or direction in using it.  The introduction of Big Data into an organization, by itself, isn't going to guarantee results.

The norms for accessing, analyzing and acting upon sophisticated data have got to be considered elements of the corporate culture.  Those norms are going to illustrate very vividly what you really mean by shared leadership, by accountability, by quality and by team work.  And like every other culture shift, if the journey to the new culture is not thought through and planned out in advance, waste will be created (passive voice intended).

Have a look at the video and think through where, specifically, things could go very well or very wrong with the introduction of Big Data into your business.  Have you got the right transition planning team to accelerate success and realize benefits quickly?  (Hint: Is there a communicator on board?)

Need engagement? Don't communicate

I've posted along these lines before, but because the hot topic of engagement doesn't seem to be going anywhere soon, it's worth a refresh--and this brief article from Forbes online make the point again.

Businesses seek engaged employees because the unleashed energy will drive the business farther and faster.  But the focus and energy of engagement aren't the same thing as "happiness."  If anything, they're more like "hope."

As the article mentions, one more team lunch at Olive Garden won't do the trick, probably because that lunch will be seen as 1) the shallow gesture it is and 2) the time spent now means I'll be getting home later.  So much for happiness.  People get energized about their work when they can see that their best efforts can make an important difference: product quality, business reputation, recognition, pay, new opportunities (and no, you can't add "you get to keep your job" to that list).  People have to be hopeful their increased energy and investment will pay off for them.

Will a strategic communication campaign get that done?  Probably not.  As the Broadway song put it, "Don't talk of June, don't talk of fall -- don't talk at all! -- show me!"  The goal is that employees have first-hand experiences of the effectiveness of their efforts and the responsiveness of their leaders and systems.  Communications can support those experiences, but it can't deliver them.  

One of the most tried-and-true tactics to take when facing an unengaged workforce is to stop and ask people to articulate what's grinding them down.  First, you get credit for listening.  Second, you're likelier to get the solution right.  And be sure that "listening" doesn't feel like just another employee survey.

Next time you have the urge to sink resources into that campaign-theme video, sit down until the feeling passes.  It could just be another kind of breadstick.

Who's ready for BYOD?

Two articles: one a trend piece, the other a cautionary tale.

Shel Holtz, in the newest CW Magazine, talks about the "bring-your-own-device" culture that is emerging in the workplace:

"Some refer to this phenomenon as the consumerization of IT.  Others label it technology populism. . . Technology populism has weakened IT’s ability to keep the hatches battened down by simply controlling what people use.  What’s more, IT has been forced to deal with a growing demand among employees to use their personal devices—smartphones, tablets and more—at and for work.  BYOD has gained momentum among employees who would just as soon use their preferred technology as anything the company would give them."

Implications:

• employees want to be able to access company assets (intranets, file servers) from their own devices
• employees want their business apps (sales tools, logistics trackers) to go onto their personal devices
• employees may NOT want to receive typical corporate communications this way
• employees may not fully understand the risks they're absorbing (lost unprotected devices, redistribution of proprietary info)

I carried around two phones for a while—mine and the company's—and it sucks.  So BYOD is a trend that won't reverse, especially after IT starts to report some cost savings.  But is someone in your business thinking through those implications and how to manage them into effective communications?

The cautionary tale is from DiversityInc.  They give an example of how hot—in this case, racist—election rhetoric can find its way into the workplace via technology.  It's a very short distance from reading or downloading to discussing or, worse, forwarding.

IT, Legal, HR, division leadership and Communications are going to have to work on this together.  What should be your business' first step?

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Your employee's new world

This fairly simple graphic from the Corporate Executive Board -- in their usual, elegant style -- says it all. This is the big change that has occurred to everyone working in organizations: matrixed relationships.

Multiple accountabilities, multiple influencers . . . and the task of integrating it all falls to the employee as it never has before.

The implications of this shift for corporate communications are enormous.  You can no longer assume that the voice of senior leadership is the most important voice to hear.  Now senior leaders have to earn their credibility, not only through knowledge and relevance but also through acumen of how employees hear, learn, grow and act.  For executives formed in the old environment, operating in the new environment is not intuitive.

How would you support a leader to be effective in this new world?  You'd have to start by pointing to those new levers of influence that they can uniquely wield -- authority, authenticity, clarity -- and then consider how to deliver their particular insights in smaller and more surprising ways.

Is your leadership -- are you -- ready to do this?

Image from "The communicator's new reality: Building an agile organization"

© 2012 The Corporate Executive Board Company.  All Rights Reserved.

Your memo did not change my life—sorry

We're hopeful creatures.  We want people to think and behave rationally, and to respond well to facts and rational arguments.  In business, we just know that if we explain things well enough, everyone will a) understand, b) agree, c) feel enthused and d) take a new course of action.

Never mind that this is contrary to our own experience.  Research continues to show that the place inside us that weighs attitude changes is much nearer the heart than the head.  And the kinds of evidence that we admit -- or the kind of person who delivers it -- don't capture our attention just because they seem rational.

Marketers, who place high value on word-of-mouth and third-party validation, know this.  But somehow this recognition hasn't jumped over into organizational communications that assume that Facts Delivered By The CEO are the key to behavior change.

This article from the New York Times Magazine last Sunday leads with the topic of moral beliefs and the phenomenon of political flip-flopping, but you'll see the relevance to how businesses might better achieve a), b), c) and d) above.  There's probably a comms plan in your email that shows the messages and vehicles and delivery dates and audiences for an upcoming announcement or campaign, but where is the column in the plan that weights the potential effectiveness of each tactic?  That memo you're editing may be efficient, but it may also be useless.

How can you plan to really communicate with employees in ways that matter to them and to your bottom line?

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Teen attitudes toward social media: some surprises

There's a new study out from Common Sense Media about attitudes among US teens about social media and technology use -- and it's got some surprises.  Be sure to click through to the full report.

You know who teens are, right?  They're your next generation of employees.  And it turns out their loyalty to social media may be less monolithic than you think.  How many wish they could go back to a time without Facebook?  How many may be having their life online tainted by encountering bias content?

Spend a minute with some of the anxieties and interests reflected in these teens' responses -- and then reflect on how your use of social at your business could seize the opportunity to be different and valuable.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What have you got to give?

This solid blog from Rock The Post is a great summary of current thinking on how and why social media works.

The bottom line: social is about what you've got to give.  If a business wants to use social media internally, for its people, it has to think through what the medium will give people (and that had better be something they actually value or want).

Much corporate comms doesn't feel like a "gift" at all.  Even when it's pleasant, it only feels like a fist in a velvet glove.  But if you're giving people what they really want to know, your social platforms will light up like fireworks.

Do you know how to discover what your employees really want to know?

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Is it "crisis management" — or the new normal?

A problem hits.  Leaders huddle.  What do we do about the problem?  And what do we tell people about the problem and what we're doing about it?

In today's social media environment, delay is seen as lying—or, at best, figuring out how to spin.  A group of leaders basically has a few minutes to figure out what to do.  Which really means they need to have figured out options well in advance so they can use those few minutes to pick one to use.

This used to be the sole domain of crisis management, and the end goal was preparing a crisis management plan.  But now, in everyday matters as well, standards for speed of response and transparency are higher than ever.  If you have a well-oiled communications engine, you'll be ready for both crises and quick relationship opportunities.  This article from Listed nails it: "The more places and ways in which people can find you, the more ways you can influence or ensure you're a part of the conversation."

If you don't know if you're ready, you're probably not.   So where are your lists of:

• The types of things you can say immediately and the types of things you can't
• Who can go out—live, right now—and start responding
• The internal and external channels you always want to use
• Places where you'll be able to do real-time measurement of impact
• Who's on your quick-response team as you proceed (Legal, PR, HR, Marketing)

Or you could just wait a while and see what happens...

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Another set of eyes

"Planning for the future with a rearview mirror" -- great phrase that came back to mind today, from a Gallup blog.  This is easily one of the bigger besetting sins of working in corporate communications.  Sometimes, there's just no time to innovate.  And if you feel like you're being asked to help with the umpteenth benefits change communication plan . . .

If only you had a trusted communications executive colleague, someone outside the organization, and could just pick up the phone and run the background and plan by them.  Not a half-day meeting, not an exorbitant fee.  And what you get are some challenges you wouldn't have anticipated, some new tactics, some new questions to ask.  A fresh point of view: a micro consultation.

I cannot tell you how many times I would have found this valuable.

I offer this service.  Drop me a line if you'd like to explore a micro consultation for you or your team.

Image courtesy of FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Greater expectations

Here's a great overview, from a marketing angle, of the touch points that social media provide and how businesses can understand them.  There's an awesome graphic in the middle of the article that limns it all out.  (It's from McKinsey Quarterly -- you may need to join for free to read it.)

There's an employee-engagement angle in here, too: these social-media functions are radically changing people's expectations of how they should receive information from their own companies and should have access to participate and respond.

Put another way, I'll call this Campbell's Credibility Quotient:

                                                effectiveness in communicating with employees
credibility of leadership    =          ------------------------------------------------
                                                effectiveness in communicating with customers

If people feel leaders are more committed to being effective with customers than with employees, that perceived gap harms the credibility of leaders.  Commitment to rapid, fair, clear, two-way and engaging communications with customers -- the pillars of social media -- needs to result in the same approach or better for employees.

Have a look at that graphic and ask if your employee communications hit those same touch points.  Social media have already changed your people whether it's changing your business model yet or not.

Serious about social? Really?

SOCIAL LUMAscape

 View more presentations from Terence Kawaja

Welcome to social media!

This graphic, or LUMAscape from LUMA Partners, is pinging its way around the 'net, probably both because it's useful and because it's not.  Be sure to full-screen it to get the total effect.

When you're asking the question about whether using social media is a good business strategy, the answer is a strong "Possibly."  For the right kinds of content, for the right audiences, it's actually essential.  But -- as with any medium -- you've got to start with a clear picture of what you're hoping to achieve, in very concrete terms and with specific outcomes.  Otherwise, this is the landscape that's going to greet you, and good luck with that.

Here's today's topic for comments: Would you or would you not like to be the person charged with keeping this graphic updated?

Communication is when people understand

At the same time companies are feeling a crush of internal communication, some functions say there isn't enough (see this survey).  Of course, "Communication" (the formal, planned messaging that's generated from the top) isn't the same as the routine communication that people need to feel plugged-in, valued and effective.

Note that this is an Accountemps survey of CFOs -- interesting because finance functions are especially attuned to whether employees understand the workings of the business.  When they do, departments make better budget decisions (and better budgets), T&E keeps from ballooning out of control, and new-business proposals are smarter.  Finance, like everybody else, hates feeling like they're either an internal cop or continually cleaning up messes.  Clear communication helps keep that from happening.

Do the branding, do the promotion, do the employee engagement.  But don't neglect advising line leaders on their day-to-day communications methods and styles.  When people feel they're getting clear, ongoing communication from leaders and managers, they do less re-work and they get excited by forward momentum.  That's a benefit worth more than an in-house masseuse, every time.

Is your communication team helping you with this?

Image(s): FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Social at work?

It's the communications question near the top of the list for businesses now: how do we use social media internally, for our employees?

Behind the question there seems to be the assumption that people want to communicate with their business colleagues the same way as with their friends.  There's also an assumption this would lead to business effectiveness.

Be sure to test both those assumptions.  "Social" is the key word in social media: people participate to make connections that benefit them personally, and that driver may have little to do with how they want to get their work done.  What they may prefer is to channel their skills at using online platforms into using virtual workrooms among their teams, with focused outcomes.  So some methods may be the same but with a very different purpose.

As for business effectiveness, everybody hates a time suck.  If hanging out -- with work colleagues -- means longer hours at work and fewer with actual friends, then the price of hanging out is too high.  The test, as it's always been, should be whether better outcomes result when new platforms are introduced.  This will be the test of SharePoint; while it's not a social platform per se, it's going to have to consolidate or reduce other activity -- emails, meetings, review loops -- if employees are going to run with it.

Ask your people to test your proposals.  They'll tell you.

Image: David Castillo Dominici / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Engaged with what, exactly?

Taleo, acquired by Oracle, sells performance management software solutions, among other things.  In a recent ad, they suggest that better aligned performance management is key to mitigating employee disengagement.

The idea is that, if the carrot-and-stick part of the employment proposition is clearer, people will be better focused and more engaged.  Relevant goals (entered into Taleo's proprietary software) show people how their efforts tie directly to business success, and those goals will increase focus and engagement.

Taleo, with respect: there's more.  A very significant component of an engaged career is not whether one's efforts matter to the business, but whether the business matters.  More and more employees identify with being a "99-percenter" and the suspicion that hard work makes the rich richer and everyone else not so much.  If better goals only clarify the mechanics of that, then oops.

Here's business coach and writer Tanveer Naseer:

"Measures . . . are merely the outcomes of your organization’s shared efforts and not the real driving force which motivates your employees to contribute their full talents and abilities. For that, employees require something deeper and more meaningful – a noble cause which they are internally driven to rally around and bring to fruition.

"Our noble cause is that shared purpose that allows us to move past focusing only on the ‘how’ and seeking to answer the ‘why’, fostering a deeper sense of meaning in what we do and an understanding of how our efforts can impact others beyond our office walls.

"It’s the reason why some companies have managed to thrive and expand their market base despite the uncertainties present in today’s global economy, because they’re not simply reacting to what’s going on around them. Instead, their efforts are based upon a reflection of how to respond to current conditions in a manner that holds them on course to their shared purpose."

What would you tell your next rock-star recruit?  How does your business make a difference?

Image: scottchan / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

A powerful leadership moment

We were scheduled to video Ernst & Young's Global Vice Chair, Beth Brooke, for a video the firm wanted to submit to the Trevor Project in support of LGBT youth at risk.  Beth had been asked to appear in her role as global leader for diversity and inclusiveness, and we'd submitted a draft script of her remarks for her review.

The morning of the shoot, I sat at breakfast in my hotel in DC, thumbing my Blackberry, and I came across an email from Beth.  Attached was the script as she had revised it.  In her version, she was choosing to come out as a lesbian.  I think I said "Whoa!" out loud.

We spent time with Beth before the shoot that day, talking about what this would mean for her, not only as a leader at Ernst & Young but also as a prominent advocate for women's leadership globally.  Ultimately, we were all confident it was the right thing to do.  But it was a very dramatic day.

If I'd been impressed with Beth before, I grew to be even more so, as I watched her step forward and exhibit a type of leadership many corporate executives rarely need to exercise: merging her business profile with her deeply personal experience.

What happened as a result?  Watch the video.  And here's a link to the original Trevor Project video, featuring not only Beth but a number of other remarkable professionals who stepped forward in the same spirit of leadership.  In my years in corporate communications, this was one of my most deeply meaningful projects.

6 principles for managing info overload

Continued from last post . . . So here are those six principles for helping employees feel less overloaded with information.

• Intrigue readers by being both understandable but also "pleasantly surprising": Familiar Surprise.
• Start out with an overview that tells employees what they're receiving in the communication and its value to them, with "pointers" to what's inside: a Detailed Overview.
• "A high degree of novelty of message format and content" can cause overload, but use standard formats that can be flexible personalized: Flexible Stability.
• Quantity overloads, so "reduce messages to their essential elements" and provide an easy way to navigate complex facts: Simple Complexity.
• People absorb information in different ways, so use multiple formats; but aim to stay crisp and consistent:  Concise Redundancy.
• "Although the provided information should be complete, it should still leave opportunities for recipients to elaborate on it": Unfinished Completeness. 

These feel a little sterile as stated, but they really work when you're up late pulling together the next round of routine communications.


Again, all from "Preparing Messages for Information Overload Environments," by Martin Eppler and Jeanne Mengis, available here from the IABC.

The surprise factor

Continued from previous post . . . Sometimes all it takes for a message to cut through the clutter is to be surprising (and raising the bar as you go along).  TRANSFORM messages by:

     CONTEXTUALIZING . . . embed information where it's needed and relate it to previous information

     PERSONALIZING . . . develop various versions with various levels of detail for targeted groups

     ELABORATING . . . create value-added information (action items, ratings and rankings by the community on information usefulness, stories, metaphors, etc.)   [Ed. note: Sparingly.]

     STANDARDIZING . . . set guidelines for communication and information formats, such as e-mail and reporting etiquette.  (Heard of the "Bill Gates format" at Microsoft?)

     VISUALIZING . . . graphs and diagrams, but also qualitative methods like visual metaphors or sketches

I'm a big fan of visualizing.  Note how the White House has picked up on this.

Five mechanisms for transforming messaging, from Eppler and Mingis.

Final post on this topic: their six RECOMMENDATIONS for communicating in an "overload environment."

Putting comms on a diet

Continued from previous post . . . Eppler and Mingis have six RECOMMENDATIONS for reducing communication overload; and additionally they describe MECHANISMS that help comms get attention, enable quick comprehension and create info easy to remember and act upon.

The MECHANISMS fall into two categories: reducing and transforming.  Give them a try, and model your behavior to others (ask your team members to give them a try as well).

Mechanisms that REDUCE

Compress . . . limit e-mail to one topic per message; adjust intranet content to avoid scrolling; provide an executive summary with every report; at meetings, keep statements short and iterate contributions.

Aggregate . . . provide digests of group discussions via e-mail; provide a discussion group (newsgroup) instead of e-mail conversations; provide intranet site map/portal and tag clouds, if applicable; build reports with the main implication, key findings and underlying facts as a summary; pull together live summaries of meeting content using graphic facilitation (tools like lets-focus.com).

Sequence / bundle . . . e-mail digests that summarize; RSS feeds; fixed meeting dates and times.

Next post: mechanisms that TRANSFORM.  Then on to those recommendations.

Image: m_bartosch / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Info overload? Take action

In my view, information overload is at the heart of stressful corporate cultures.  It can be both a symptom of chaos and the disease itself.  I can almost guarantee that no one you talk to has a clue what to do about it.  It seems embedded, enterprise-wide . . . and everyone's too stressed to tackle it.

I'm going to run a series of posts that hone in on specific solutions, from an outstanding IABC publication, "Preparing Messages for Information Overload Environments," by Martin Eppler and Jeanne Mengis.

To start off, I thought this breakdown of what makes up overload was pretty cool.  It's more than just quantity.

How much?  Intensity: number of messages per time unit
                     Quantity: number of messages and amount of information per message

What kind?   Uncertainty of information . . . sources are unclear, evidence is contradictory
                     Ambiguity of information . . . multiple interpretations are possible and equally likely
                     Diversity of information . . . similar information is in different styles and formats
                     Novelty of information . . . new and unknown insights in unusual style or format
                     Complexity of information . . . number of info items and interrelations are high

It would seem the solution is just "simplification."  But stay tuned.

I'm available to consult with you or your business if you'd like to do a specific analysis of your own communication environment and pilot some solutions.

Telling a customer they're the "axis of evil" ??

Heard a remarkable story from a web broadcast panel from Social Media Week.  Adobe had encouraged some of their knowledge experts to blog externally as a way of extending the company brand.  And at one point, the CEO had to personally make an apology call to a customer because one of their employees had written a blog entry calling that customer "the axis of evil."

Oops.

Rather than fire the employee, they worked with him instead to bring him along, show him the reach of their brand and what issues could emerge, and wound up with someone with a deeper understanding of the benefits and pitfalls of community communications.

This is the way of business use of social media: you've got to be committed to continuous learning.

Happy Social Media Week!

Feb 13-17, in case you missed it.  Just watched a great archived webcast from the SAP Conference for Social Media Week.  Mark Yolton of SAP, Rachel Happe of The Community Roundtable, and Maggie Fox of the Social Media Group delivered a lot of insights about the new ways employee engagement and marketing work in the social media environment.  Some of my favorite bits, with implications for internal communications:

• When you're dealing with truly engaged social communities, you need to be prepared and willing to embrace the quirks of human behavior.  (Mark Y.)  Meaning you need to basically like people and who they are, and not basically fear what "they" will do to "your" social media.  
• As you build online communities, have the sponsorship and executive coverage to allow you to "fail forward fast." (Mark Y.)  Being completely careful will likely mean you will be passed up in the emerging marketplace.  Correct quickly and move on.
• In a business world where every conceivable process has been optimized, relationships and culture are the only sustainable advantage.  (Rachel H.)  My own take on this is that professional communicators can really help sustain that advantage by saving people from drowning in social options: streamlining.
• Present state of marketing: no filters + low barriers to entry = high noise-to-signal ratio.  (Maggie F.)  Contrast that to the day when TV advertising ruled.  Not news for consumer marketing, but now the true description of what it feels like in the internal comms environment as well.  

Over 90 minutes, but many "aha" moments make it well worth the time for your communications team.

iPads in the Legislature? How about in your meetings?

They're not just debating the issues in the Vermont legislature; they're debating how to debate.  This story describes how a state legislative committee chair was taking real-time cues about facts and issues via his iPad as he was answering questions in open assembly.

Does your business operate in real time?  When you meet or present to stakeholders, or large groups of employees, at least some are surfing to check your facts while you speak, or reference past statements of yours, or pull up competitors' claims.  They may even bring you news that's just hit the wire, and ask for your response.

You don't to be prepared for every eventuality.  But you do need to practice how to make extemporaneous responses.  Your presentation style will need to flex between conversational and formal. When you show that you're comfortable and confident, that's arguably the largest part of your message.

So: do you know how to feel comfortable and confident?

Credibility: one brick at a time

As a business leader, you build either credibility or lack of trust in the same way: one brick at a time. You show that you grasp the issues, or understand what it's like to work at the company, each time you speak. Or you sound out of touch, or insensitive, each time you speak.  Each act puts a brick in place, and soon you've got a wall: your reputation.

Besides your words, your actions also speak: the policies you champion, the events you do or do not attend. You establish, over time, who you really are.

If you don't like your reputation, you can dismantle it and build a new one -- but one brick at a time. Stay consistent in your next three or four messages, and you have the chance to move in a new direction. Planning your communications to establish credibility lets you actively manage your leadership style.

I worked with a group executive whose pattern of communications in his small group was to work the halls, be available, keep it friendly.  When his group was reorganized and was suddenly much larger -- at multiple sites -- he needed to drop his casual communications for more planned and formal messages. He disagreed at first and made large-group presentations with his particular style of humor and informality, but they fell flat. With some coaching, he soon discovered his own way of blending his personality with structured messages. Employees began to say things like "He's really growing into the role."

Look at feedback from your last three messages.  Is your credibility growing?  Or diminishing?