Communication – Innovative Management Tools

PERCEPTIONS – Details Analysis Activity

Patrick — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 15:08:55 +0000

A 2005 book titled, “Broken Windows, Broken Business: How the Smallest Remedies Reap the Biggest Rewards” by Michael Levine showcased the power of perceptions and the human brain’s ability to come to false conclusions.

In an online introduction and description of the book, some very valuable insights are shared:

1) In the world of business, the perception of the average consumer is a vital part of every business.

It starts, clearly, with something as seemingly insignificant as an inadequate supply of toys to go with Happy Meals, the prepackaged product aimed at young children. Because McDonald’s does a great deal of advertising and promotion to children, and emphasizes the Happy Meal toy in all of it, children will often ask to be taken to the restaurant specifically to get that particular toy. When the franchise owner or manager has not ordered an adequate number of toys, or the company itself has failed to produce enough and supply its restaurants, the child is disappointed, the parent frustrated, and the cycle of dissatisfaction set in motion.

2) Service is the absolute center of broken windows for business.

Call [a large corporation] sometime and have a stopwatch handy. See how long it takes for you to speak to a living, breathing human being after you’re done with all the automated phone system prompts.

3) Can little things turn a consumer against an entire brand? … The ‘weakest link’ theory is at work here, and it is very strong.

To create a personality for a business, and to have that personality permeate every aspect of the business, to have it become the business in the minds of customers, is the goal of branding… But all these things are tied to a larger concept: the idea of trust. For customers to accept a brand, to have an opinion—preferably a favorable one—about the brand, and to embrace it to the point that the mention of the brand name is enough to evoke a positive image in the mind, it must never disappoint. When the bad impression is made on the first experience with the company, however, it’s extremely unlikely the consumer will become a regular customer. In fact, it’s better than even money that you’ll never see this particular customer again. Ever.

4) Employees who go above and beyond the call of duty are the ones who will spot and repair broken windows. Motivating employees to do so is one of the most important jobs a manager has.

The saying that a chain is as strong as its weakest link has great resonance in the world of the broken windows for business theory. An employee—especially one who has direct contact with customers—is the most visible type of broken window imaginable. Nothing will drive customers away faster than an employee who isn’t with the program.

In all these cases, when there is a negative perception, the brain can begin to think that the entire company is broken or on the verge of collapsing.

The Customer Journey, Voice of the Customer (VoC), and other tools and frameworks help identify “broken windows” inside a company.

The Conversation Framework PERCEPTIONS – Details Analysis Activity is a collaboration tool that allows people from all over the company to come together to identify what “broken windows” they are seeing or hearing about when interfacing with customers – the “what”. It also moves into the “how” to fix the “broken windows”. Identify and set a plan for repair – two crucial pieces to the equation.

When talking about “broken windows”, two scenarios are frequently selected in an on-going organizational challenges survey conducted by Innovative Management Tools. Those scenarios are the following:

“Customers complain or ask questions about the stability of the company because of certain “details” that seem to go unattended.”

“The office upkeep/improvement budget was cut and it is beginning to show the consequences of that through “small” maintenance and upkeep details around the office.”

While the lack of attention to details might not have an immediate impact on a business, the long-term impact is a risk that few companies want to have dangling in front of them.

Paying attention to these details and issues on a regular basis, perhaps once every six months, is a good practice for companies to adopt. To its contrary, leaving multiple “broken windows” broken and in plain sight of customers will compound the situation and potentially push it to the point of no return or impossible to repair without requiring substantial money and effort.

The moral of the story is this: Take care of the small things before they become big things.

PERCEPTIONS embraces the concept and ideas set forth in Michael Levine’s book from almost 20 years ago. The timeless messages set forward in the book remain challenges to today’s companies. PERCEPTIONS brings those messages into action with this Conversation Framework.

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REORGANIZE – Internal Restructuring Activity

Patrick — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 14:53:53 +0000

In recent years there was a reset within companies around the world. Everything as we knew it was put into question and scrutiny. Employees started moving around more, leaving companies for a different position, challenge, work environment, or lifestyle. Some companies downsized; some closed their doors. Some company owners decided to hand over the reins to the next generation.

The reality is that the people movements of the last few years and tendency for people to move more and more presents challenges for companies. No company is immune from people movement at some point.

81.0% of surveyed companies about common and recurring challenges identify with two scenarios that impact a company’s org chart and structure:

“There is new senior management or owners. The time is right to review the structure for possible changes to the org chart.”

“Some departments have shrunk in headcount, and it might be time to consolidate people and departments.”

When faced with the need or even curiosity to entertain the idea of considering a restructuring of the org chart, that activity should be done intentionally and with an open mind, thinking about the how, why, and who. Org chart redesigns can be super stressful to employees and when done poorly, impact the company negatively in many ways.

This is where the Conversation Framework REORGANIZE – Internal Restructuring Activity can assist. This framework guides a group through the org chart redesign in a structured, organized, and collaborative manner. It helps the group step back and look at the company’s org chart from different perspectives with the goal of designing an org chart that meets the needs of today and also ensures that it will make sense to the employees.

This collaborative, facilitator-led activity allows the group to step back and see things at a different level, through different lenses. Redesigning an org chart can become more successful to all parties involved when the conversation and activity is placed in a structured and organized environment where everybody works toward the same objective and goal – company structure clarity and performance improvement.

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HOSPITALITY – Customer Service Analysis Activity

Patrick — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 15:26:12 +0000

Without customers, there is no company. Customer service should always be top-of-mind. The Customer Experience is much more than just the product or service when being used. It is everything from the first to the last touch point in the process, spanning many departments from sales, implementation, delivery, customer service, finance, and a myriad of other departments. Let’s throw on top of that the website experience, the automatic messages and billing, and other ways to make OUR life easier.

But what’s the customer’s perspective? Do you have high customer churn or cancellation? Do you have more complaints than you want? Have some areas been targeted and criticized for having a poor service level?

83% of the companies that we have surveyed find that they are facing Customer Service Challenges. The most recurring challenge is the following:

“There is an inconsistent customer journey experience during the customer journey that management wants to make more consistent.”

Followed closely by: “The company has received poor customer satisfaction survey results and/or customer complaints.”

This is where the Conversation Framework, HOSPITALITY – Customer Service Analysis Activity comes in. This facilitated, small group activity focuses on the customer journey across the various touchpoints with the company to better understand the experience from the customer’s perspective. Is the experience consistent? Are there more positive or negative moments? How can you turn negatives into positives?

This video walks you through the high-level steps of HOSPITALITY. If your company is facing these challenges, reach out to me and let’s talk.

Additionally, if you are interested in assessing your company at various levels to know what your most frequent challenges are, contact me to discuss. Within two weeks your organization could have insights into the challenges that are impacting performance, morale, and productivity.

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BRIDGES – Communications Analysis Activity

Patrick — Tue, 17 Oct 2023 16:50:41 +0000

Communication, communication, communication. It is at the heart of everything we do. Before the pandemic we thought we had an ample amount of communication tools. That was shadowed by the tools that emerged a couple years ago.

But isn’t it ironic, funny, or maybe even a little sad that despite all of the communication tools we have at our disposal today, 94.44% of our on-going Organizational Challenges Survey respondents cite that they have challenges with “Communication”? It ranks #3 in the challenges list.

Want to know what the most cited challenge is? Something that seems so simple but is impacting employees, our businesses, and their productivity over and over. Ready? Here it is:

“Employees complain that information needed to do work arrives late, or not at all, impacting their performance and productivity.”

Seems so simple to fix, but something is getting in the way. That is where the Conversation Framework BRIDGES – Communications Analysis Activity comes in. BRIDGES tackles the sticky topic of working with those who voice their complaints about lack of communication to get their job done and works with them to resolve the problem. It helps open up the communication BRIDGES (yes, pun intended) to improve things. Sometimes a little communication about the communication problem is the solution.

The second most cited communication challenge is the following:

“There is a general perception or evidence that there is poor or inadequate communication in the company and a task force or team has been assembled to look for ways to improve.”

While task forces or teams can be effective at identifying where some issues lie, the question comes back to HOW to correct the problem. Again, those identified people fit nicely into the BRIDGES activity.

I invite you to watch this short video about BRIDGES – Communication Analysis Activity and reach out if you feel that it could help tackle issues in your organization.

Interested in assessing your company at various levels to know what your most frequent challenges are? Contact me to discuss. Within two weeks your organization could have insights into the challenges that are impacting performance, morale, and productivity.

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WIRED – Employee Awareness Activity

Patrick — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 13:59:32 +0000

When employees have something in common with coworkers, be it similar hobbies, having visited the same place, a similar values system, or any one of a variety of other topics, bonds are created that bring them together and build a level of respect for the other person.

Every small amount of awareness in another person we can have opens the potential for an improved work environment.

The Conversation Framework WIRED – Employee Awareness Activity is designed to identify a wide variety of commonalities across a diverse group in a non-intrusive way, opening the door to new interactions with new people.

Ideal for off-site events, ice breakers, new team members, or merged departments to get people interacting.

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CURRICULUM – Content Development Activity

Patrick — Wed, 30 Aug 2023 22:40:10 +0000

Deciding the type and detail of information to put into a training course or program requires organization, insight, and intentionality. There is purpose and logic to what is going to be presented at which moment, how the knowledge fits into mastery of the topic, and a progression or scaffolding of information to support the various levels of expertise.

CURRICULUM helps course developers (both novice and expert) map out the content flow for a course or program in a collaborative and visual way with subject matter experts and other stakeholders. This Conversation Framework is flexible enough to outline 1 to 6 levels of expertise and 5 forms of mastery.

For those who want to be able to “step back” and see the content progression and depth across the course all in one place, this is your tool.

As a L&D or Instructional Designer professional who is tasked with creating a course for another person, CURRICULUM is a great way to engage the SME into the co-creation and logic of the course, minimizing rework and misunderstandings because they show and build the flow with you.

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DIFFERENTIATE – Intentional Isolation Strategy

Patrick — Mon, 14 Aug 2023 14:28:17 +0000

In a world of aggressive competition and the need to stand out from other, similar offers or competitors, the small things you do as a company can amount to a distinct differentiating factor when your prospect or customer decides to buy.

Looking at 12 areas where an organization can stand out from the rest, intentionally isolating itself from the competition, this Conversation Framework, DIFFERENTIATE, help you identify where you can make changes that will give you a distinct position in the market.

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Overcoming Barriers: Getting Traction for Progress

Patrick — Sat, 12 Aug 2023 14:49:40 +0000

Many managers face open resistance to changes taking place in their organization. What is most important to understand is whether the resistance is based in a positive or negative spirit.

In another post I talked about How to Change People (7 Tips on How to Get People to Change). In that post, I mentioned that the first thing to do when trying to change people is to let them change themselves. The second bit of advice I gave was to focus on the processes so that people would truly understand what an upcoming change means to them and their daily workflow.

As managers, leaders, and agents of change, we possess the power to kindle willingness rather than compel change. Our role is to inspire individuals to embrace new mindsets and actions, fostering a path towards the promised rewards of improvement. What we can do is inspire the people to want to adapt their mindset and actions to reach the goals and promises that come from an improvement. We can provide a safe, open, communication-friendly, no-blame culture where people are encouraged to ask any and all questions they have about a change or improvement.

Most people react to change with very simple questions about how their work will be affected and how their world will be impacted. While they don’t use these exact words, they really are most interested in knowing if their workspace is going to turn upside down, or not. I view these types of questions as positive. I would even go so far as to say that employees have a right to pose questions like this before they are expected to jump on the support bandwagon for a change. Even those who have been burned again and again by poor change implementation are not mean-spirited. They are simply very skeptical and need more convincing and information to counter their previous experiences.

There is a small percentage of people who will try to sabotage efforts and resist change efforts in a negative fashion. Find these people and make sure they do not influence others in the department or company. However, I caution you not to be too quick to judge people as negative unless you have ample information to come to this conclusion.

When I’ve come across change initiatives that have stagnated, I like to bring in the people responsible for effecting the change and have an open dialog with them. I first review the current state of the situation. Sometimes I’ll go back to a previous state and show the group how they have grown/changed to get to the current state. I then flesh out the desired future state with the group. Once I get everybody to agree on the benefits of the future state, understanding how their jobs will change, I then probe into the obstacles that are keeping them from reaching the future state.

Once the obstacles are identified, I ask the people to provide solutions for removing the obstacles. Getting their ideas on how an obstacle is “removed” from their perspective and yours may be totally different. Don’t assume your way is their way. Embrace diverse perspectives.

Now I can tell you that if a future state involves downsizing people and those people are present, don’t expect them to jump on the bandwagon. While you may not be able to change what will happen to them down the road, you can always coach them for the future and ask them if they want to be part of the change process, knowing their future state.

And if the proposed change will indeed make their life chaotic, unstable, and frustrating, then why would they support the initiative? Your responsibility at that point is to work through the chaos, instability, and frustration to help them find a calm, stable, pleasing environment. This may need to be done one-on-one.

So, let’s put this into perspective with a very simple example. Let’s say you wanted to reorganize your office layout, and started that project three months ago. Not a huge, life-shattering event to you, but the project has stagnated, and nobody has taken the initiative to start the shifting around process. What could come out of a simple group barrier analysis session is that one key person in the chain of dominoes moving around is unhappy with his/her new location but wasn’t asked for input before the plans were finalized. While in group session, if that person does not bring up his/her discontent with the new location, then shame on him/her. If he/she does, then find out what the solution is and see how the request can be accommodated.

The answer should not be to let the project stagnate. Define the problems, generate solutions, and implement the solutions.

Yes, this was probably a simple example for you. However, simple changes like this can get very emotional and personal for some people. What’s a non-issue to you may be a huge issue to someone else. Dig in, explore the reasons, and get people aligned to the goal as quickly as possible.

Benefits of running Barrier Analysis Sessions

1. Lower costs by accomplishing projects as quickly as possible with as few distractions and resistance as possible

2. Increase productivity by taking a stagnated initiative and breathing new life into it

3. Improve morale by opening communication lines to learn the real concerns people have about a change initiative

4. Develop management by giving them a vehicle for creating a culture where people can voice their concerns in a constructive manner

5. Proactively handle the situation early and avoid reactively solving the problem later

Best Practices

1. Conduct a barrier analysis session when initiatives become stagnated or derailed

2. Make sure that the project champion or department manager participates in the session

3. Use a facilitator from outside the department to bring fresh perspectives and unbiased suggestions to the group

4. If you don’t have a framework or structured way to run the barrier analysis session, consider using the Conversation Framework HURDLES, by Innovative Management Tools. A collaborative activity that leverages the power of a specifically designed Miro interactive whiteboard on this topic.

Until next time!

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QUADRANTS Thinking Styles Assessment Overview

Patrick — Thu, 10 Aug 2023 01:22:07 +0000

QUADRANTS is a short, 5-minute assessment that identifies how a person naturally and with the least amount of effort processes information when not given a specific way to think about the message. This awareness tool provides an incredible amount of personal insight and opens the door for better communication when interacting with others. Available in both English and Spanish.

The English link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=DQSIkWdsW0yxEjajBLZtrQAAAAAAAAAAAAO__ZV-FmxUNkhGTzRNSVg1RVhES0IzWE0yUUNONERNUC4u

The Spanish link: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=DQSIkWdsW0yxEjajBLZtrQAAAAAAAAAAAAO__ZV-FmxUOVBOUzIzTjVKRk45RzdFT1BNTURVSEg4Ry4u

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