The British fishing industry accounts for only 0.1% of GDP. It is one of the three major terms of this Brexit agreement. Nowadays, Brexit has become a seasonal soap opera. It is impossible to find a definitive solution to such a crisscross problem. Politicians can only put it into "Clue management", hoping to create improved conditions through symbolic political behavior art. The seemingly insignificant fishing clause is such a kind of political behavior art of "sign management"
Spitting water cannot be gathered, and once some crises happen, it is a marathon tug-of-war. On June 23, 2016, Britain held a referendum to decide whether to leave the EU. As a result, 52% of voters supported "Brexit". Since then, Britain and the European Union have entered into marathon negotiations for four years. After three prime ministers and three postponements, on December 24, 2020, Britain and the European Union reached a post-Brexit trade agreement. On December 31, the transition period of Brexit ended.
The post-Brexit trade agreement signed this time has three main points: 1) maintaining the institutional environment of fair competition. 2) Reduce the fishing share of EU fishermen in British waters by 25%. Maintain the current fishing agreement for five years. 3) Establish arbitration methods for disputes over trade in goods. The more important service economy between Britain and the EU (accounting for 80% of the economic transactions between Britain and the EU) is not included in the agreement.
The three main points of the agreement, two are retreat. The main purpose of the remaining fishing clauses is to convey signs of success in political negotiations to their respective stakeholders. British Prime Minister Johnson needs to use the fishing agreement as a symbolic sign to show that Britain maintains its sovereignty over the EU. EU President Ursula von der Leyen will use the arbitration clause as a symbolic sign to declare the EU’s principled position. French President Macron used the basically intact fishing agreement as a symbolic sign to express his full efforts to protect the interests of French fishermen, because he needed fishermen’s votes in the 2022 general election.
When it comes to the intractable crisis, there are many lessons for politicians to learn from the "sign management" strategy. In fact, it is not the political forces that struggle, but the caring medical institutions that do the best.
It is a natural ability for many people to induce emotions with the layout of grass snake gray lines. However, by raising emotional clues to sign management, Mayo Clinic has achieved a scientific and systematic level. The following short story reflects that sign management has become a part of its organizational culture.
Mary Ann Morris keeps a pair of old shoelaces in her office. Every time a newcomer joins the company, Mary will tell the story of "a pair of shoes".
When she was young, Mary worked in the laboratory of Mayo Hospital. According to hospital regulations, experimenters, like nurses, should wear white coats and white shoes when going to work. Once, Mary rushed to the hospital because she was late to settle her two children, but was stopped by the supervisor and asked her to clean her shoelaces covered with dirt because of her hurry. Mary was very dismissive and thought it was a mountain out of a molehill. The supervisor explained that the patients and their families who came to Mayo Hospital had a pair of eyes like detectives. They subconsciously collect their own signs and make judgments on the service performance of hospitals and doctors. Even without medical knowledge, visitors will make judgments. Their judgment is based on various signs and clues captured at the scene. Although the shoelaces are small, the signal is strong.
Mary’s story is only part of the comprehensive and systematic "sign management" strategy of Mayo Hospital. Leonard Berry, a famous scholar, once visited Mayo Hospital for one year. In addition to collecting the above examples, he also summed up three important dimensions of "sign management" in Mayo Hospital.
The first is the sign of "professional function". It mainly embodies the professional core competence that an organization and its professional members should have. Doctor’s training and education, medical experience, recognition and recognition by professional organizations, expert status, etc. Any sign related to the above professional level can strengthen people’s confidence and trust in service quality.
The second is the sign of "hardware environment". It is mainly reflected in the tangible details of humanized space design and workflow arrangement. Signs of hardware environment often reflect the ideological attitude and technological level of an organization’s excellent service. Service performance needs physical background and carrier. Hardware environment is a tangible system carrying professional functions. The subtle signs it shows help to strengthen the views of the clients.
The third is the sign of "humanistic care". It is mainly reflected in the interactive relationship between professionals and clients. Whether professionals love their major, whether they are full of care and love for the clients, and whether they can consider the personal characteristics and preferences of the clients thoughtfully. Any signs involving the above-mentioned interactive activities can bring extra surprises to the clients.
Mayo Hospital applies sign management to a variety of medical services, especially to the treatment of terminal diseases. Taking cancer medical treatment as an example, Mayo Hospital recognizes that there are many factors that cause cancer, and the process of treating cancer is far more than just eliminating cancer cells. It also involves patients’ views on life, the conditions for later recovery, the degree of family members’ involvement in governance and so on. During the course of cancer treatment, patients are highly nervous, the treatment result is uncertain, and there is a long-term psychological shadow during the recovery period. It is a personal health crisis with long-term negative effects. To heal wounds and relieve pain, Mayo Hospital does not unilaterally emphasize the power of medical technology, but designs positive signs from technical functions, hardware environment and humanistic care to help patients discover the meaning of life.
Sign management makes encounter a necessity of careful design. The psychological moment of patients’ self-liberation is often the result of many clues laid out and guided in advance.
Many crises are similar to cancer treatment. They often have no clear end nodes, long-term sequelae, and even impossible medical thorough treatment. In response to the crisis with "long-term psychological shadow", a better method is "sign management", that is, through subtle persuasion, it helps stakeholders to know and extricate themselves. Next, we introduce a design method that can guide the specific practice.
Emotional signs have unexpected ice-breaking effects. Former US Secretary of State Schultz recalled that he went to the former Soviet Union to negotiate in 1973. During this period, he and Patolichev, the foreign trade minister of the Soviet Union, participated in an activity to commemorate the soldiers killed in World War II. Talking about the cruel struggle and great sacrifice experienced by the Soviet Red Army, Patolichev, a tough old man, couldn’t stop crying. Before leaving the cemetery, Schultz asked for permission to salute the fallen soldiers, because he himself participated in World War II and lost many comrades. Schultz gave a standard marine salute solemnly facing the cemetery. When the two sides returned to the negotiation room again, Schultz found a subtle friendly change in the negotiation atmosphere.
Because sensibility and rationality affect decision-making at the same time, emotional signs often set the tone of rational calculation. Schultz’s actions and language help set a friendly emotional intention. It subtly influenced the subsequent interaction with the negotiating opponents. In the past, we classified this sign management as an individual’s emotional intelligence, and relied on the individual’s natural personality to exert his/her emotional intelligence effect. And sign management raises the perceptual communication of panorama to the level of organizational ability and strategy. We can create a field effect that is conducive to crisis communication according to the systematic sign management method without being subject to the natural personality of individuals.
Regarding the role of sign management in hospital environment, Professor Barry summed up the above three principles. In view of the complexity of the crisis phenomenon, we further developed the following sign management guidance framework. It provides concrete design contents of sign management in four aspects: Functional, Animal, relative and Mechanical. Taking its initials in English, we call it the design principle of FARM. (see the picture below)
Our sign management strategy has 16 design dimensions. If we choose a small but fine case to illustrate the four dimensions of sign management, then André, a Michelin-starred restaurant in Singapore, is a classic.
André restaurant was rated as the 50 best in the world. With the careful design of chef André Chiang, guests meet with signs of beauty at any time and place. André has eight elements in each dish. They provide professional "Functional clues" to shape the three-dimensional cognition of quality. André restaurant has its own way of entertaining guests. After the opening, they stood outside the door to greet the guests and brought them into the house. This is a Relational clue of their interaction with the guests. Andre Chiang designed and customized his own tableware, which he regarded as a prop. He asked his partners to pay attention to the guests’ dining process and put the dishes on stage as scenes. The quality of products is controlled. The quality of service is performed. Andre pays attention to the Mechanical clue of the temporal and spatial flow of objects, because it is the physical stage of performance. Every detail of the interior layout of André restaurant in Singapore focuses on the quiet relationship between nature and people. Even its kitchen is hailed as the quietest kitchen in Asia. Andre Chiang said: We have prepared 99 details. If the guest (subconscious) feels one, it has been successful. Prepare 99 details for guests’ subconscious perception, which represents "Animal clues" design. We use 5% consciousness to recognize. At the same time, 95% of the subconscious mind is always in a state of positive perception.
In André restaurant, accidental meeting with beauty is the necessity of careful design. If you want to visit, it’s too late. On February 14, 2018, the restaurant made the last feast for the old customers. Create a gourmet artwork in 10 years, and it will end when it is finished. This is the time rhythm design in "sign management". Rhythm, which defines the beauty of all order.
By other’s faults, wise men correct their own. Signs management seems complicated. André restaurant helps us to see all aspects of its system design.
On November 24th, 2020, I had the honor to meet Professor Barry online. Taking cancer treatment as an example, he explained the importance of humanistic thought to medical health. For patients with advanced cancer, the latter is more important between being able to live Takuwa and how to live meaningfully. At this stage, the value of sign management is also more obvious. The language and attitude of doctors and nurses, the spatial layout of hospital wards, the control of color and noise in the medical environment, and the participation of family members and patients in the decision-making process are all woven together to become a field effect that affects the psychological rehabilitation of patients.
There are great similarities between medical cancer and crisis management. Many crisis phenomena not only have long-term psychological shadow, but also have the characteristics of scattered factors, diverse treatment conditions and long process. We call it the "long tail crisis" because it is a flat normal distribution on the statistical distribution map of the generating factors and eliminating conditions of the crisis. There are long tails on both sides of the negative area and the positive area. Generally speaking, the long tail crisis is not caused by a few factors and will not disappear with the change of a few conditions. Be prepared to fight a protracted war.
Brexit is a long tail crisis. Its causes are not only economic and trade factors, but also social, political, cultural and psychological factors. Nor will it disappear with a trade agreement. For the long tail crisis, managers should not cut the gordian knot, otherwise there will be endless hidden dangers. At this point, the best way is sign management. On December 24th, the agreement reached between Britain and the European Union did not involve 80% of Britain’s service trade with Europe. However, it sends a series of positive signs. This is what politicians on both sides can do.
Proverbs describe extensive crisis management as: holding a hammer in your hand and seeing nails in your eyes. This year, around the world, we have seen too many extensive crisis management. Under the current situation, considering that most crises have the characteristics of "long tail", even if they have strong material resources, the principal needs to practice sign management.
(The article only represents the author’s point of view. The article was first published in The Paper. The author authorized the interface news reprint. Editor’s mailbox: yanguihua@jiemian.com)
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