Our Thoughts

I recently had the opportunity to view an agenda for a two-day strategic planning meeting; although I wasn’t the facilitator, I had been asked to provide suggestions about the process. My responses would also hold true for any planning meeting, which brings in participants from diverse backgrounds, and after which those involved are responsible for implementing the agreed-upon work. My after-email explanatory comments for you are in [brackets]. So here goes …

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Your agenda is overly-ambitious. Allow more time for discussion. [How about your meeting? Don’t cram it so tight that folk can’t connect. Allow time for the unexpected … you’ll be pleasantly surprised.]

I don’t see a formal place in your agenda for establishing meeting norms. Although I often think before a meeting that “this group won’t need that” for one reason or another, I almost always find myself coming back to it later because the group isn’t working as efficiently as it might. I’d suggest that you incorporate this and have the collected norms posted in all of the breakout areas. [EVERY group needs to formally agree FOR TODAY on how it will act together; this sets a powerful contract that helps you govern the meeting later. Remember it.]

For each of the 10 areas, I would suggest that each group clarify its own vision, it’s particular picture of their part of the new reality that they hope to create, for that area. This is more than a wordsmithing task: before one can do a real gap analysis (which is what you seem to be attempting), we need a factual understanding of where we are now as well as a clear picture of what we’re trying to create. Your overarching vision serves to keep all of your strategies in alignment, but without finer details in each of the 10 areas, participants in each of the 10 groups don’t specifically know what they’re aiming for. The end result is that any idea or strategy is a “good” one because it generally moves us in the right direction. [And each is an equally bad one because we don’t know what we’re really going for. And if push comes to shove, we don’t know which one is more important. What if money starts to become tight? Which will be “priority” then?]

I’m assuming that the “Review of Research (20 minutes)” is where you factually describe the current reality. If it is, it seems to be very short in duration. [Another “SWOT” - given how this is usually done, it adds little value to the thinking and discussions.]

How will you document the ground covered and decisions reached in the various sessions? You don’t want to be retreading the same ground in a meeting a year from now, so good documentation and distribution is essential. [Pay for a documenter. College students are good choices here.]

What accountability structure will you put in place to determine action on your plans and progress toward your goals? The real work begins, of course, when people leave the room, and that is also when all of the other pressures of life enter in and tend to squeeze out our best intentions. You will want to avoid the “great thinking/no action” dynamic that can be characteristic of events such as these, so how will the members of this group hold one another accountable? How will you build in regular feedback? Rewards for performance? Sanctions for non-performance? [Performance systems analysis is key here too. Every performer works within a system that you should engineer to promote the desired behavior. Yes, even volunteers.]

Best,
Rob

Here is a test:

Do you believe that …

1. Your ability to do your best quality work (in whatever endeavor) is directly related to the quality of the information that you have to work with?
2. In cases where you need more information, the quality of that information is directly related to the types of questions that you ask?

I’m hoping that you’re answering with a resounding “yes, of course. So what’s your point?” (If you’re not, re-read the two previous questions, try to find one instance in which both DON’T hold true, and if you do find one, post a comment - I’ll eat my hat.)

My point is this: we know that successful troubleshooting (finding root cause; taking appropriate action to minimize the effects while we search for root cause; avoiding costly, incorrect actions which don’t really address the problem; etc.) requires both good data and sufficient knowledge and experience to be able to correctly interpret the data and choose a course of action.

Given, not everyone in your organization has the knowledge and experience needed to properly analyze the data, but the fact is that your engineers most likely won’t be operating the unit or process when a deviation occurs; they won’t be clear on exactly what’s not working that should; they won’t have seen what happened just prior to the deviation’s occurrence; they won’t be aware of the first stage in the life cycle in which the deviation occurs. Someone will have to collect this data for them and be able to communicate it clearly, in a manner which can be understood. Your managers need to know what questions to ask to get the needed information; your operators need to know what data to collect. Furthermore, you don’t want your operators taking costly, time consuming incorrect actions which, if they knew trouble shooting fundamentals, would be ruled out by a basic analysis of the data that is readily available.

If your organization has identified the development of problem solving skills as key for reducing downtime, scrap and overall costs, then you must invest in everyone who is connected to your key processes, not just your managers and engineers. Your operators and maintenance personnel may ultimately need help to resolve the issue, but they must be prepared to collect and communicate data as well as avoid taking actions which cost you time and money.

Many organizations have so-called teams, yet High Performing Teams don’t happen just because you have suddenly given a department or group the label “team.” At core, teams are defined as a group of individuals with complementary skills and abilities who are united to achieve one goal for which they hold themselves mutually accountable. High performing teams have deliberately addressed and implemented

1. Clear Direction: The team is clear about its values, vision, mission, strategies, goals, and priorities. These are cooperatively structured by the entire team which results in a high degree of individual focus and commitment. The direction is felt to require stretching but to be achievable. Energy is mainly devoted to the achievement of results.
2. Sufficient and Appropriate Structure: The amount of structure and the number of procedures are viewed as appropriate by team members. Roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and differentiated among team members. Job design is changed so that the best possible match between individual goals and the team’s goals can be achieved. Administrative procedures support a team approach.
3. Effective Team Processes: Decision-making procedures are matched to the situation. Consensus is sought for important decisions. Controversy, conflict, and differences are seen as a positive key to involvement, the quality and creativity of decisions, and the continuance of the group in good working condition. Communication is two-way with emphasis on the accurate expression of both ideas and feelings. Ability and information determine the influence of team members. The members periodically evaluate the effectiveness of the team and decide how to improve its functioning.
4. Supportive Atmosphere/Relationships: The team has developed an atmosphere in which people feel supported, accepted, included, trusted, and liked. Cohesion is maintained by this caring atmosphere, and feedback is both encouraged and listened to by team members. As a result, team members feel a sense of belonging and synergistic cohesiveness.
5. Strong and Flexible Leadership: The team manager uses appropriate and flexible leadership styles to develop a team approach and allocates time to improving teamwork. Individuals other than the manager are given the opportunity to exercise leadership when their skills are appropriate to the situation facing the team. Participation and leadership are distributed among team members. The leader represents the team fairly and accurately to the rest of the organization and both monitors and influences the other four key areas in the model.

We specialize in assisting groups to understand their strengths and weaknesses as a team and then to transition from being a team in name only to being a true High Performing Team. More information on our focused team interventions available here.

We were recently asked to provide our thoughts on how to turn an unhappy customer into a loyal supporter, and we posted some of our ideas in an earlier blog entry.

While we were pleased to have been asked to contribute, we believe that this is really the wrong question for most businesses. Once you have created an unhappy customer, you are “fighting uphill,” so to speak. The right question is how do you create “raving fans” from their first encounter with you?

Obviously, you must provide an excellent product or service at a price that the customer considers advantageous, given the value received.

Clearly, your customer service needs to be superior, and most proactive business leaders will make sure that those personnel who interface directly with the customer are given thorough customer service training.

What seems to be less apparent to most organizations, and why most customer service training initiatives fail to increase customer satisfaction long-term, is the understanding that all service is driven and controlled by the service an organization provides to its internal contacts. The level of service or the quality of product the outside customer receives never, over the long haul, exceeds the lowest level of service given to internal contacts.

So as you are designing your customer service training, we suggest that you first focus on how to increase the level of service given to and received from those inside your organization. Done well and rolled out throughout the organization, an intervention of this type creates a new ethic around service, improves employee satisfaction and aids in retention.

Want more information on World Class Service? Creating this service culture does involve more work than simply pulling a customer service training off of the shelf, but you have to consider: how much does just one disgruntled customer really cost me? How much is one raving fan really worth?

We were recently asked to contribute to an upcoming publication on how to turn disgruntled customers into raving fans . A few of our thoughts included:

Understand – Own Up – Make Good

1. If we have an unhappy customer, it means that, at core, his or her expectations were not met. His belief in you, his trust, have been chipped away at. To begin, assume good faith on the part of your customer (he’s not just looking for a freebie), and then deal with him from that basis.
2. LISTEN first. LISTEN second. LISTEN until you understand where he is coming from. Do NOT get defensive and rattle off what you did or tried to do. Your very silence will speak volumes at this point.
3. If you agree that there was any dropped ball on your side, apologize sincerely. Not “we regret that this occurred,” but “I apologize. We did not appropriately …”
4. Show your commitment to stand behind your product or service. Provide a free service or product of equal or greater value; if you provide a product, expedite the shipping and have it waiting on your customer’s doorstep when he goes out to get the morning paper. Include a coupon with 50% (or whatever your markup is) off on his next order and a handwritten note of thanks for his bringing the quality issue to your attention.
5. If it is unclear how to make good with the customer, ask him “how can we make this right for you?” Don’t barter at this point; do what he suggests.

Turning around an unhappy customer means meeting him at a human level to re-establish his good faith in you, and you do this by truly understanding his perspective, clearly owning up to your errors, and providing real value that overcomes the negative experience he had with you.