Three things I learned from Houston First Corporation's CMO

This month I attended an American Marketing Association luncheon. The presenter was Houston First Corporation's CMO Holly Clapham-Rosenow. The story about her tenure at Houston First Corporation and the results her team has achieved for the City of Houston was truly inspiring. Here are my three takeaways from her presentation.

1. Houston is awesome. I already knew this, but hearing about the initiatives Holly and her team have launched remind me of how accepting Houstonians are of others and how much we have to offer. Visit visithoustontexas.com, mygayhouston.com and visitahoustontexas.com/ to see how they are bringing tourists, new residents and businesses to Houston.
2. Your team's culture impacts your results. This seems intuitive, but how many companies do you know that don't have a strong culture and are not high performing? This article has some good points; however, to succeed a company needs to have a strong mission (aka lofty purpose) and values that resonate with and inspire employees. These values should help guide the company and determine fit with new hires. Here are Houston First's mission, vision and values.
3. Strive to hear "not yet" instead of "no". You have probably heard of the "meeting before the meeting", but do you consistently do this? Gaining agreement or at least socializing your agenda prior to a meeting helps increase your chance of success during the meeting. Holly shared she used to hear "no" all the time, but then realized if she educated the leaders before the meeting about why she wanted to launch an initiative and the benefits it could bring the organization, they were more likely to say "not yet" at the meeting. I would add that framing in the domain of losses (what will be lost if the new initiative isn't adopted) would increase the likelihood leaders will listen and agree with you. Read Chapter 8 of Originals and about Prospect Theory to learn more.