None is One

On Pike Place in Seattle, I visited the original Starbucks this week.

My stop reminded me of a favorite statement by Jean-Paul Sartre, "Even when I make a cup of coffee I change the world."

The philosopher meant your every action—large or small—affects all others.

Even though you may not want the job, you are "a legislator deciding for the whole of mankind."

What are you up to today?

The Economy is Broken Because Trust is Broken

A "trust deficit" is hampering an economic recovery, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Public trust, "an essential lubricant for economic activity," is broken, the paper says.

"You don't have to look hard to find examples of fraying trust in American society today," the paper says.

"Lance Armstrong admits to cheating to win seven Tour de France titles; Democrats and Republicans can't seem to work with each other; Wall Street keeps delivering new scandals."

Besides Wall Street and the federal government, large corporations, labor unions, newspapers and TV networks are among the most mistrusted institutions in the US today.

But there are glimmers of hope.

Last year's Edelman Trust Barometer "showed big increases in measures of trust toward government, media and business compared with a year earlier," the paper reports.

How can your organization combat mistrust?

Learn from my free white paper, Path of Persuasion.

Dan Pink on the Secret to Must-Read Emails

Best-selling author Dan Pink contributed today's post. His new book, To Sell is Human, occupies the No. 1 spot on the best-seller lists of The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post; and the No. 2 spot on The New York Times.

What's the secret to a must-read email?

Researchers from Carnegie-Mellon University studied this issue by sitting with email recipients and asking them to narrate which emails they opened and why. The researchers' conclusions were stark: the most effective email Subject lines appealed to either utility or curiosity.

That is, the emails most likely to be opened had Subject lines that either:

• Indicated the email was directly related and relevant to the recipient's work; or
  
  
• Provoked a level of uncertainty that made the recipient curious about what the message contained

The principles of utility and curiosity operate somewhat differently based on the situation of the recipient. The researchers found that utility works best when people have a heavy email load—and that curiosity can be extremely effective when the email load is lighter.

Since people have so much email these days, my approach is generally to use Subject lines that emphasize the usefulness of the email's contents—and emails themselves that are as concise as I can possibly create.

Perhaps the best advice is not to get caught in the mushy middle.

Craft the Subject line so that it's immediately clear that the contents of the email are useful (for example, “Three solutions to our paper supplier problem”). Or craft the Subject line so that it gets people curious (for example, “You're not going to believe what I learned about paper suppliers!”). But avoid falling in between those poles with Subject lines like "Followup," "Question" and so on.

The mushy middle is where emails go to die.

The Role of Chance

Business is frightfully competitive. So we tend to believe only the fittest survive.

But success may take more luck than pluck.

Investment strategist Michael Mauboussin thinks so.

He claims we're too quick to discount the role chance plays in business.

“People attempt to extract lessons from what is mostly a random process,” Mauboussin tells readers of Inc.

“Once something has been successful, we start to believe it was the only thing that could have happened.”

By idolizing business winners, Mauboussin says, we forget there were others who followed the same strategies, but failed.

Remembering those failures helps you “keep your mind open to other possibilities,” he says.

Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould observed the same thing in nature. Gould thought chance was a deciding factor in the evolution of life on earth.

He based his conclusions on fossilized animals discovered in Canada’s Burgess Shale.

The animals in the Burgess Shale were all exquisitely suited to their environment. But none left modern descendants.

From the fact, Gould concluded that fitness is no guarantee of survival.

Survival is really a matter of luck.

5 Newsletter Must-Haves

Promoting an event?

Digital marketer Juli Cummins, writing for Innovation Insider, says these five features should be included in your next newsletter:

Videos. Videos are smart because they're easy to share and watch on mobile devices. Including one on how to use your Website can boost registrations.

QR codes. QR codes drive readers to videos, Websites, photos and other content you can't include in the newsletter.

Personalization. You can boost readership by segmenting your list. Segment attendees by category, interests or preferences and blast targeted newsletters.

Special deals. Reward readers with newsletter exclusives like gift cards and discounts.

Short cuts. Devote a chunk of your newsletter to Web links to useful info. Include a single sign-on link that lets readers register without entering a username and password.