I thought it was a good idea to to start a business blog to supplement the journal articles I write on change management.
PDF Articles Curiosity is probably one of my key drivers because it focuses my attention to look for new and unique approaches that can be implemented quickly. I trust that some of the issues raised here may be of interest to you to pursue away from this blog of ideas and thoughts. The blogs run in date order with the most recent at the top of this page.
When I meet people I am always interested to assess whether they are energy radiators or energy drainers. I distance myself from the latter, making my excuses as the door swings behind me. I love energy radiators. These are people who emit a high degree of enthusiasm and optimism, and always find a way to do new things, challenge what is not working and get on with it. I am very lucky this week because I seem to have been surrounded with such people. I am an addict for the energy and ideas that others radiate.
Buzzing with the Institute of Marketing
I have had a really busy week and I have to say I am buzzing after arriving back in Edinburgh late Sunday evening. Whoever said "success is loving what you do" was spot on 100% accurate. After running a two day programme on "Presenting Magically," I ran a short session on 'Influencing Skills' (using Myers Briggs profiling) for the Edinburgh Branch of the Institute of Marketing. The session lasted for about two hours. I loved the session but not as much as talking with the attendees later. It's a great way to formulate and test new ideas. Find a bright audience, bounce some ideas off them and listen to their response. I would recommend it. It helps you develop your thinking to expand beyond current horizons if you can take the feedback! The result is worth it!
High-Octane Fuel
I get such a buzz from meeting new people and listening to what they do. I met so many high-octane fuelled people at the event that my diary is filling up with new ideas and meetings. Nick Price the ever super confident and competent entrepreneur from Bright Purple Resourcing was in attendance, asking challenging questions and probing. Keep asking the questions Nick - it keeps me on my toes.
Milton Keynes - Great Business and No Concrete Cows
I travelled down to Milton Keynes to meet several existing and prospective new clients, as well as working with my colleagues in Woburn Consulting
Milton Keynes was once famous for their display of concrete cows in a field. Critics would scoff at the art and the attempts to build a city North of London. Milton Keynes is in a frenzy of business activity. Now famous for unemployment rates as low as 1% and attracting record numbers of businesses. Key to the area is the collection of the big European Automotive giants including their Financial Services businesses. I am pleased to say I do a lot of business with these people and love to see an area grow and prosper. There are lessons to be learned for some of Scotland's cities of MK's huge commercial success, responsive local government, effective traffic management and balanced environmental planning.
Christmas Ball in January!
We stayed near Milton Keynes attending the Christmas Ball of White Clarke Group Now you might think that January 26th 2007 is a little late for the Christmas Ball for WCG, but they are so busy with existing and new clients it's the only time of year they could stage the function, at the prestigious Whittlebury Hall. What a great venue and what a great time and a fantastic MC, 'mistress of ceremonies!', - Denise Canvin - WCG's Marketing & PR Guru.
Without Leadership, there is no Change
I love bright and challenging people. I have been working with my close Woburn associates, Peter de Rousset Hall, Terry Dann, Dara Clark and Debbie Carroll, on several new White papers based on 'Change in the Asset Finance' industry. We all agreed that the businesses that seem to implement changes with ease are all peopled and led by high energy CEO's. We believe we should change the name from Chief Executive to Chief Energy Officer. It would certainly shake up some Board Rooms.
Chief Energy Officer creates the Culture
The CEO demonstrates and models to others high-octane thinking and a focus on implementing change and delivering results. In our mindset, passivity is not an option. Speed of delivery, critical thinking and a focus on action will always separate the winner from the 'also ran'
When we use the term CEO we mean Chief "Energy" Officer. We see the role of leaders as those who drive change and are impatient for success. They inspire and energise others to achieve results. The ENERGY characteristics of the people who we think are more successful in business are noted........... Here are some of our ideas………..
THEY......
Utilise focus and the energies of all as a critical behaviour in gearing up to the next level of performance
Create a challenging mindset driving self development, providing a road map for others to learn and practice new behaviours
Inspire self and others to go the extra mile through modelling the core behaviours
Lead and Build cross functional teams working with the end result of 'synergy' in mind
Implement change swiftly, and commit with an obsession with making change stick
We believe that ENERGY is probably the biggest asset that any leader or manager should demonstrate.
There are still opportunities for businesses to reflect their true potential by tapping and releasing the creative energies and curiosity of their people to progress to the next level. We are confident that personal ENERGY is probably the key to making this happen.
Human Capital - Performance Matrix and a White Paper with Nick Price
I have had mixed feedback from my Blog of 13 January, especially regarding the Performance Matrix, noted below.
High Flyers - what are they?
First the positives. We can agree that the top right left hand quadrant "High Flyer" does not refer to those who will go on to become CEO's. All it means is that anyone who falls into this segment is doing a cracking job now and has huge potential in the future. This has nothing to do with their respective position in the hierarchy.
High Potential
Current Performance Low
NEW SHOOTS
“Still needs guidance and support to become a high flyer. Full of energy and drive – but needs constant coaching. If left to their own devices could become 'Question Marks'”
High Potential
Current Performance High
HIGH FLYER
“They have evolved from the Backbone and the New Shoots. They are excellent at what they do - as high flyers they are in control.”
Low Potential
Current Performance Low
QUESTION MARKS
“Decisions need to be made about whether or not these people are performing. Those in this quadrant may not want to make the effort to change. Too many 'Question Marks' is seriously hazardous to your organisation and may put your business at risk. Deal with the issues before they further erode performance!”
Low Potential,
Current Performance High
BACKBONE
“These are the mainstays of the business – work well in teams, work well in a matrix across the organisation. Great potential but their development has probably been over-looked by others – need some enthusiasm and investment to enable them to be high flyers.”
Neglected 'Backbone'
Many also agree that by default, a number of people in the organisation seem to have gravitated to the bottom right quadrant. These "solid citizens", the 'Backbone' of the organisation, have probably been over-looked precisely because they do a fantastic job. However, commentators agree we need to stop taking them for granted help these people and maximise their potential.
Young abandoned IT professional
I had a young project manager email me about the top left quadrant - the "New Shoots" quadrant. He said it placed him perfectly. As an IT graduate in his late 20's he'd been given lots of opportunity to succeed with new roles and new responsibilities. He had also been given the poisoned chalice.
He had no support, development or any attempt to provide him with a mentor or coach in his new role. Up to now he had succeeded, but he foresaw a time when he may not. Just a point for those operations people out there who think that youth and enthusiasm is sufficient to take young professionals to the next level. They also need support and mentoring into the new role. The alternative is that these vibrant "New Shoots" could fail without the required support and end up in the "Question Marks" quadrant.
Question Marks or 'Deadwood'
Some do not seem to like the identification of the folk who people the bottom left hand quadrant as 'Question Marks' These are identified as not contributing to current performance and not showing much interest or talent for the future. I had one respondent who used different terminology and and unfairly labelled this quadrant "Deadwood". I would disagree with this because the people are not 'Deadwood' - how they have been led and managed (or not) has led to their status as 'Question Marks'.
Poor Performance
I agree that managing poor performance is a serious issue for many businesses. There are people who are not contributing to the organisation yet rewarded on the same basis as consistent achievers, but no action is taken to resolve the anomaly. If this remains the case then others witness the inaction and presume that the 'very low performance standard' is acceptable. There is a danger that this could become the norm, and, thus, performance further falls and with it morale.
Human Capital; White paper on Key Issues
Nick Price of Bight Purple Resourcing and I were discussing this and other issues with a very positive outcome. From this debate, we have decided to write a short "White Paper" on the issues under the title "Human Capital: Constraints, Issues & Strategies for Improvement". Look out for this on this site and Nick's.
We have developed an interesting approach that will require us to involve some key people in the business world as a "Think Tank" and explore options and possibilities, which many businesses can implement.
What Nick and I are sure of is that 'Human Capital' issues are right at the top of the agenda in most businesses, but not enough is being done to anticipate and prevent HR Resourcing, retention and performance issues escalating and impacting the 'bottom line.'
I have had nine responses to my Blog of 15 January. I am deliberately encouraging people to use our cContact Form rather than have an interactive 'commentary' for confidentiality reasons. I have replied to three comments off line and hopefully the Matrix and the issues will help people resolve their issues. Keep your responses coming and I will incorporate as many of your issues as possible in future Blogs.
Are we only tapping 50% of the potential of our people?
Over the last few days we have been discussing the issues on customer retention and whether can apply the same concept internally to our businesses in terms of motivating and retaining staff. The time is long overdue to begin this process. I would assert that...........
"By failing to create a high performance team driven culture, and capturing the potential of their people, many organisations never achieve their true potential. This huge waste in terms of energy, enthusiasm, commitment and drive can be radically reduced by focusing on inspiring staff to move beyond their zone of comfort and commit to optimal performance."
Relatively few organisations understand that the true financial cost to their business of failing to master the potential of their people is huge in terms of wasted energy, enthusiasm displayed but never tapped and many 'opportunities' for improvement just lost. Even fewer organisations have come to terms with measuring this human cost and taking action.
Just Imagine the Business in which you work belongs to you.
The quality of the service you provide in business is determined by the quality of your people, and this in turn is determined by how they are managed. So now, just imagine that the business you work within belongs to you - the salaries and wages paid to the staff now come from your own pocket.
Would you manage people differently if your personal circumstances were impacted upon directly by their performance?
What current organisational and managerial issues, which if resolved could result in substantial business improvement?
Leadership Demographic Shifts & Achieving Results through Others
People are the most important resource a company has to employ to meets its objectives. How they are led or managed is critical in generating value added to any business.
The key issue here is that there is a smaller pool of talented people available from which to choose. Organisations and companies are competing head on for quality candidates. There is a crisis in many industries and many business sectors. The ability of a business to retain good quality staff is critical as is the ability to motivate others beyond poor performance.
Good quality and high calibre candidates are in short supply and now have the pick of the 'quality' employers. Candidates for key positions in businesses are very demanding and will only commit where they feel they will enhance their experience, display their creativity, and grow.
In recent months I have been asked by several companies who have had difficulty attracting high calibre people to these posts;
Candidates to fulfil the role of Quality Director, Operations Director and HR Director
Sales staff who are self starters, disciplined, socially confident and can gain rapport, influence and sell Financial Services.
Managers to lead cross functional teams in Financial Service Sales, Customer Focused Teams in Banks, Managers to lead technical services, and good IT Managers focused upon working with IT contractors on a large scale implementation.
This all means there is a crisis in both staffing our organisations with great quality people and at the same time retaining our high calibre people.
The Performance Matrix
There follows an analysis that can be conducted on the organisational, functional, departmental or at team level. I have even used it when we appraised a Re-Engineered Customer Focus Process to help identify how to bridge the gap between 'current' and 'future' requirements.
It is time to assess where people fit within our very simple matrix.
High Potential
Current Performance Low
NEW SHOOTS
“Still needs guidance and support to become a high flyer. Full of energy and drive – but needs constant coaching. If left to their own devices could become 'Question Marks'”
High Potential
Current Performance High
HIGH FLYER
“They have evolved from the Backbone and the New Shoots. They are excellent at what they do - as high flyers they are in control.”
Low Potential
Current Performance Low
QUESTION MARKS
“Decisions need to be made about whether or not these people are performing. Those in this quadrant may not want to make the effort to change. Too many 'Question Marks' is seriously hazardous to your organisation and may put your business at risk. Deal with the issues before they further erode performance!”
Low Potential,
Current Performance High
BACKBONE
“These are the mainstays of the business – work well in teams, work well in a matrix across the organisation. Great potential but their development has probably been over-looked by others – need some enthusiasm and investment to enable them to be high flyers.”
The 'Question Marks???'
The Jury is still out on the contribution of these staff. Are they performing consistently below requirements? Are they aware of their performance and how they rank against the norm? No! You generally get the people you deserve. It sounds like someone probably needs to 'stand up' and support and coach them to perform. My experience is, people who lack focus do so because they are not being led with with energy and direction.
The 'New Shoots'
The 'New Shoots' are usually people who have moved to new positions or their role may have changed - but they have not! These people may be lost in their role. Re-equipping staff with other capabilities to stretch to the demands of the role is critical. So focus on staff who have not made the transition which could include those who have just been promoted or who have changed their job and are ill prepared to deal with their new role.
The Backbone
These people have extensive experience which takes them outside of their functional or technical role. They have stretched and work across boundaries. They may never be real high Flyers but they are dependable, trustworthy and an asset. It is probably the business which has let them down. So invest in your trusted 'associates' or they may join the ranks of the 'Question Marks'
The High Flyers
These people are excellent at what they do, at whatever level. Being a High Flyer means ;being all you can be. It's applicable to any position whether team member, manager in any function in a business. High Flyers have perfected their ability to work with others and constantly look for challenges in what they do. All staff have this potential.
Cause and Effect - the real problem.
Where is the real barrier to creating excellence in staff and corporations? It resides in the actions (or rather inactions) of executive managers. The cause may be found in circumstances when they are afraid to take the first step and consider the requirement to change the way the way they do things.
Final Thoughts
People bring a host of challenges, dreams, creativity, talents, experiences, aptitudes, competencies and attitudes to their business each day. I believe in we probably only tap 50% of their potential with the other 50% being wasted or untapped - but expressed elsewhere, when they are not working in the business!
Is there anything we can learn from Customer Retention and is there a relationship with People Retention?
The average service provider loses 20% of their customer base each year simply because customers move away, die or change allegiance through natural attrition. So, it makes sense to develop a customer retention strategy to win the support of our existing customers so that we can create a relationship with them for 'life time value'. That's my ambition and my credo.
Okay - what if we don't retain our customers - have we set in place a strategy for acquiring new business and new customers? If we don't our customer base will decline as will our income. So that is one issue for business to consider for the New Year. But is this part of a wider problem?
How many companies have developed a customer retention strategy? Very few - most seem to believe that the 'hit or miss' affair will do the trick.
This thought occurred to me. If companies fail to have a customer retention strategy, what is their attitude to 'people retention?' Has the average company assessed its core talent and undertaken a simple 'risk assessment' of what would happen if key talent left to work elsewhere? What strategies or policies do they have in place to retain the 20% of folk who add 80% of value?
Again another opportunity to review the approach to people. You don't need vast legions of HR professionals for this - just someone who understands the motivation behind what makes people tick.
But it's worth considering - if we retained our best people, encouraged the poor-performers to work for the competition, and retained our customers whilst winning new ones with 'life time value', business would be a breeze. Do you agree?
Don't you just love the rare opportunity when nothing goes wrong and you get exactly the service that you are promised. There are great opportunities again for those in the motor trade to learn to do things better. My son has been waiting for days to get a component from the company that sold him his Fiat from new six years ago. No matter how much loyalty we display with regular servicing, the same story is evident. They really do not care for the customer and once the sale is completed, then service declines.
So its back to Kwikfit in Dundee Street in Edinburgh, to come to the rescue to fit the component with a smile and at less cost.
But this makes me think of all the times when service providers are judged by their customers. Many don't realise that 'quality is what the customer says it is' - not what the service provider judges as passable.
Originally, the idea evolved from Jan Carlson, CEO of Scandinavian Air Services (SAS). He calculated that every day his many 000's of employees who each have 00's of moments of truth. The MOT, (not to be confused with the annual test for the old banger), was when an employee encountered a member of the public - either a passer-by but more likely a customer.
The MOT was a very short time period - maybe only seconds, when the recipient of the behaviour of the employee could assess whether that interaction had been positive or negative.
Bearing in mind people approach staff all the time - asking for directions, help or whatever - these are all periods when one forms an emotion towards the service provider.
So as a business, what are moments of truth. Certainly, how and when you answer the phone, response via the Internet, email, or letter fall within this category. How about the manner in which we deal with other people? How about including the quality of service - how we greet people, our follow up service etc.
As each of us experiences 'MOT everyday', we create them also. I find it a good way to appraise how I do business and focus on improving relationships with that most important person, the customer.
Woburn Consulting - a New View of Partnering to create lifetime value and loyalty with Customers
It is an unpleasant fact that many organisations fail to comprehend the extent to which poor customer management can sabotage even their best-made plans for business expansion and do not develop a strategic approach to customer management. Many fail to realise that they can shape customer retention through analysing the customer's preferred route to market. Instead, they rely wrongly on their perception of the customer's decision-making process rather than the actual behavioural process.
This thought has occupied the attention of us in our new business of Woburn Consulting for the last three months. We believe we can create a customer centric organisation based on understanding consumers as unique, authentic, sophisticated decision makers, rather than as the rational economic animals they have been labelled by many organisations.
It is our contention that the consumer and customer are sharper thinking, more critical, faster moving and make informed decisions quicker than most companies can adapt their CRM to stay ahead of the game. Ultimately, consumer behaviour seen in buying decisions will determine who survives and who does not.
The customer is king, and those who design their customer management processes around the sophistication of the customers' psychology, rather than rely on their own perceptions, will be those who win the loyalty of the ever fickle customers.
Customers in all markets seek authenticity.
They are suspicious of business, traditional marketing ploys and sales practises.
Their attention spans are shorter and waver over new ways of satisfying their needs as consumers and customers.
They hate bureaucracy, the orthodoxy and all that red tape of traditional customer management.
They want to deal with responsive organisations, not Call centres that are designed around the needs of the business rather than the customer.
They want to be treated with genuine respect - not patronised with slick and rehearsed phrases from Call Centre or Sales operatives.
The age of the gullible customer is dead and has been for the last decade.
Customers know they are unique and there are many providers to satisfy their needs.
They are keen to experiment and act on word of mouth of trusted friends.
The 'Tipping point' re customer decision-making is influenced more by one's social network than a snazzy ad campaign.
The rating and approval of suppliers to consumers and customers in general is supported by the 'social grapevine', and travels faster than the old business CRM process can handle.
Customers are emotional and make buying decisions based on their psychological needs according to the role and place in society.
Traditional categories of segmentation are of little value to the organisation, which is still organised on the 'baby boomer' culture.
The view of the customer as making rational economic decisions is outmoded
The reality is that mapping behavioural decision-making is the key to the consumer pathway to the door of suppliers.
Many companies do not learn that 'buyer's remorse' creates a huge hole in their customer retention rate.
Being treated poorly and experiencing 'buyer's remorse' is a strong driver in shaping current consumer decision-making behaviour.
Few understand the design of processes by which 'buying behaviour' and decisions can be shaped to reflect the customer's preferences.
When customers find the 'purchasing process' matches their psychologies and their temperament, then a new loyalty is formed.
New players and providers who offer variety and precision in meeting customer needs, easily win customer loyalty.
Some corporates do not realise that the customer is far more sophisticated than their own marketing guru's and technology boffins who design the customer processes.
In the age of the Internet - customers gather far more market intelligence before they purchase major items or decide to purchase a major service.
High net worth customers research the Internet for six hours before making a major purchase including houses, cars and FMCG's.
Our contention is that this is a fast growing trend with a new informed customer perceptions howver customers are categorised
The decision on how to fund the consumer's expensive products and services is also well researched.
Decisions on funding major purchases are often made in the absence of talking with providers of finance including mortgages, loans and other leasing or HP agreements.
What is concerning is that many companies still rely on outmoded data to drive their customer management strategies.
The result is that the marketplace is in chaos.
For too long, companies have believed their customers fitted with the technology, the processes and the infrastructure the company has designed to facilitate customer satisfaction. It seems that nobody has actually asked the customer what they want or have articulated the 'preferred route to purchase in the market' that is desired by the customer.
Technology and processes from the company perspective have guided interaction with the customer, resulting in hitting the 'cold' rather than the 'hot' buttons. Our view and initial research indicates that new 'consumer pathways', using behavioural science and modelling consumer behaviour, is the best route to creating a strong foundation for customer retention and acquisition.
Many companies focus more on winning new customers in the short-term without devoting themselves to creating 'life time value'. They risk losing the lifetime value of the customer for short-term quick wins. The market has changed and it is the consumer who is creating the changes. That is why our research is so important. It focuses on creating partnerships with the consumer or the customer and not along the lines of rational-economic man.
It is about time that organisations woke up to the fact that consumer behaviour is driven by mixed motives, emotions, and time and research devoted to them has huge payoffs. Just suppose you could unravel the buying behaviour of various categories of consumers and go far beyond the Baby Boomer and Generation X populations - what impact could that have on your business?
Just suppose you could then redesign your existing customer management processes, strategies and delivery around those consumer pathways - what edge would it give you over your competitors?
Just suppose you have designed your customer management strategy around the 'consumer pathways to purchase' and achieved 'life time value', what impact would that have on your bottom line and long-term survival?
Just suppose you have to present a new company initiative to an unknown audience - how do you start planning for the event? What is important is that you win their commitment.
The secret to winning the support and admiration of your audience is to establish rapport with everyone attending, but this can be difficult because everybody has differing interests.
You can be sure that some people want the 'big picture', others require 'nitty gritty' detail, then others focus on the 'how issues' of the process, and yet others will focus on 'what if' possibilities. So where do you start?
Start with the end in mind. Present the big picture and then outline the structure you will be taking in your presentation. Five minutes is sufficient time for this.
Next, move towards addressing the benefits of the approach. This means highlighting the "why's" of the approach. This is really important, because it gives reason and direction to the subject that you are presenting. You audience will then understand the rationale and the benefits that will accrue to your approach.
Now focus on the 'what's' of the initiative and outline the content and the cause-effect relationships that will generate the results that are to be expected.
The process now has to be explained - which is the "how's" of implementation. How will the processes work that support the initiative?
You might want to address the interests of the audience that look beyond the possibilities of your current ideas - these are the "what if" people. You will have addressed many of these issues with pre-planning. Sometimes a Q&A session is sufficient to cover these issues.
Then to finish off, you might want to draw people's attention to the implications for the business of 'not committing' to the initiative, and also the benefits that will accrue when they do commit.
This is a simple structure referred to a "4 Mat" (as developed by US Educationalist Bernice McArthur) dealing with the 'Why's', 'What's', 'How's' and 'What if's' of good learning design which can be used for any training or presentation event.
This is a famous experiment with business students at an American University, which goes back to the 80's. To demonstrate the importance of presentation skills, the researchers set up an experiment covertly with a highly skilled actor and presenter called "Dr Fox". Dr Fox was presumed to be an accomplished academic. He presented to large groups of students on various aspects of business management, and was rated by the audience after the events.
He consistently achieved very high ratings on his presentations, far higher than his Professorial colleagues did. At the end of the experiment it was revealed that the majority of the proposals and ideas that "Fox" had presented were flawed, and would not stand up to reasonable academic scrutiny, but still the student body loved Fox.
It transpired that his ability to win over the audience lay in his ability to present with passion, rather than argue "the case" rationally. How can we use this in business? We do not substitute process for content, but learn that 'how' we present things and how we 'change the emotions of the audience' are at least equal to the content of our presentation.
"It is not just what you say - but it's the way that you say it" is central to presenting. We know, for instance, that although words and the structure of sentences are important in conveying a message to a large group of people, this is not as important as we think. Apparently, words only convey about 7% of an effective message whereas tonality contributes 38% and our posture and body language adds a whopping 55%.
Using our body language to reinforce and generate consistency in how we communicate is central to winning the attention of others.
Research tells us that be are born with two fears built into our neurology - the fear of loud noises and the fear of falling. That is interesting in indicating how as a race we have survived up to now but does not explain the fact that people spend their lives picking up fears here and there.
You only have to listen to people at training workshops such as one I ran just before Christmas on 'Presenting Magically'. Prior to the event I heard participants say "I hate presenting" - " I am terrified of standing up" - " I am not good with large audiences" - "My mind goes blank…….." etc.
Just to let you know, research tells us that the number one fear that people display is the fear of public speaking. The fear of death comes 7th on the list, which is interesting!
Most people can improve their presentations and their emotional state with ease if they follow a few major precepts! More on this in the January Blogs.
That has to be the dream of every presenter, consultant and trainer, yet few achieve it. 'Presenting tragically' is the fate for many wannabe presenters when they get up to speak. The reason they do not always succeed is they forget to plan for the event. One of the best sales people I ever met performed the worst 'best man speech' at a wedding I have ever witnessed. He told us all for weeks before the event that he had not yet mastered his speech - but was relying on his natural wit and repartee on the day to see him through. He failed miserably!
You see, any presentation is based on controlling four things - firstly, self and one's emotions and fears, second the content; third, the media one uses, and its delivery and fourthly the emotional state of the audience. To do this requires two things - preparation and objective setting, and rehearsal. As Lee Trevino, the old golf master, used to say - "the more I practise, the luckier I get." That is as true for presenting as it is for golfing or any other activity in life.
While every one else is thinking of New Year resolutions, I have one major objective this year and that is to increase the number and variety of presentations I give to large groups, and introducing new novel processes to aid learning and retention. This will be the theme for the next few days!
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