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Yet, one simple "rule of business" remains constant. Your organization's ability to execute is the ultimate determinant of your success. And, when it comes to effective execution your potential roadblocks are many.
At Ford Business Consulting, our specialty is helping organizations overcome obstacles to superior execution by tuning the human system to support the business strategy.read more...
At Ford Business Consulting, our specialty is helping organizations overcome obstacles to superior execution by tuning the human system to support the business strategy.read more...
The Customer Experience and Culture
I often like to take care of an errand during my morning walk. It saves on gas and gives the walk a direction and purpose. This morning, I decided to walk over to the bank to close my account, having recently changed to a new bank. I looked on the web to see what time the branch opened - 7:30am. I arrived at the bank at 8:15 to find that only the drive-up opens at 7:30; the lobby opens at 9:00. Fine, I thought. The drive-up teller can probably close the account for me. Through a speaker that made it hard to hear with a video screen that showed only part of her face, the teller informed me that she couldn’t close the account. She didn’t apologize for my inconvenience; she just told me to come back when the lobby is open.
Part of why I am closing the account is that I’ve found this bank (like so many others) to be very inhuman. The people just don’t seem to care. My experience this morning validated that impression.
I’m just one customer and this is a large bank. I doubt I’ll be missed. But, how many of us are there, walking away from this bank because of the quality of our experience with the staff?
It’s all in the culture. This bank’s culture - that 800 Pound Gorilla that does whatever it wants to - tells employees that there is no need to bother with customer relationships. Their Gorilla cares more about the transaction than the relationship. This customer is taking her business elsewhere because of that Gorilla.
Is your Gorilla driving customers away or bringing them closer? Is your Gorilla costing you money or earning you higher profits?
For monthly tips on taming your 800 Pound Gorilla, subscribe to my free ezine.
read more...
Part of why I am closing the account is that I’ve found this bank (like so many others) to be very inhuman. The people just don’t seem to care. My experience this morning validated that impression.
I’m just one customer and this is a large bank. I doubt I’ll be missed. But, how many of us are there, walking away from this bank because of the quality of our experience with the staff?
It’s all in the culture. This bank’s culture - that 800 Pound Gorilla that does whatever it wants to - tells employees that there is no need to bother with customer relationships. Their Gorilla cares more about the transaction than the relationship. This customer is taking her business elsewhere because of that Gorilla.
Is your Gorilla driving customers away or bringing them closer? Is your Gorilla costing you money or earning you higher profits?
For monthly tips on taming your 800 Pound Gorilla, subscribe to my free ezine.
Labels: corporate culture, leadership, stakeholders
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A little less talk?
Raise your hand if you’d like to spend more time in meetings. Yeah, right…
How about spending more of your meeting time in vital and productive conversations about significant issues affecting your organization’s success instead of the usual suspects saying the usual things about the usual topics?
As a leader, you must anticipate threats and opportunities before they slap the organization in the face. To do this, you must take in confusing and conflicting data about the environment from multiple sources and discern the patterns in the data. In other words, your job is to make sense of the ambiguous and contradictory mess of data to anticipate changes. You’ll do this individually sometimes, sometimes with your team. To learn more about conversations that produce results, join Dr. Jan Elliott and me for the teleseminar on June 21.
To make your team sense-making conversations productive and prevent the “usual suspects” problem, you must practice two key principles.
(1) Question rigorously.
Keep the questions open rather than leaping to solutions and actions too soon. Slow the pace down to allow for thoughtful response instead of instant reaction. Ask open-ended questions to explore each others’ thinking.
(2) Include respectfully.
Ensure that each idea is considered on its own merits, rather than because of who said it. Notice the small habits that my exclude different voices and change them. If you tend to assume that a question has one right answer, challenge that assumption.
These two principles are explored in much more detail in my new book, The Fourth Factor: Managing Organizational Culture, due to be released in September. Watch for details next month!
By questioning rigorously and including respectfully, you can create conversations that help your organization make sense of the environment more quickly. These conversations are vital to your organization’s success.
Action Tip
Next time your team is discussing a business challenge, notice whether there is a thorough exploration of the problem and all its facets before the team jumps to solutions. If not, see if you can re-open the question.
Guaranteed Results
Interested in executive development with a 100% money-back guarantee? Call me at 512-707-1090 to learn about business-focused development for executive teams.
read more...
How about spending more of your meeting time in vital and productive conversations about significant issues affecting your organization’s success instead of the usual suspects saying the usual things about the usual topics?
As a leader, you must anticipate threats and opportunities before they slap the organization in the face. To do this, you must take in confusing and conflicting data about the environment from multiple sources and discern the patterns in the data. In other words, your job is to make sense of the ambiguous and contradictory mess of data to anticipate changes. You’ll do this individually sometimes, sometimes with your team. To learn more about conversations that produce results, join Dr. Jan Elliott and me for the teleseminar on June 21.
To make your team sense-making conversations productive and prevent the “usual suspects” problem, you must practice two key principles.
(1) Question rigorously.
Keep the questions open rather than leaping to solutions and actions too soon. Slow the pace down to allow for thoughtful response instead of instant reaction. Ask open-ended questions to explore each others’ thinking.
(2) Include respectfully.
Ensure that each idea is considered on its own merits, rather than because of who said it. Notice the small habits that my exclude different voices and change them. If you tend to assume that a question has one right answer, challenge that assumption.
These two principles are explored in much more detail in my new book, The Fourth Factor: Managing Organizational Culture, due to be released in September. Watch for details next month!
By questioning rigorously and including respectfully, you can create conversations that help your organization make sense of the environment more quickly. These conversations are vital to your organization’s success.
Action Tip
Next time your team is discussing a business challenge, notice whether there is a thorough exploration of the problem and all its facets before the team jumps to solutions. If not, see if you can re-open the question.
Guaranteed Results
Interested in executive development with a 100% money-back guarantee? Call me at 512-707-1090 to learn about business-focused development for executive teams.
Labels: execution, leadership, learning
read more...