In my direct experience as an employee and a consumer, as a senior leader with responsibility as both a customer and a vendor, and since 2012 as a consultant / advisor helping entire Value-Chains to serve society better, I have detected 3 key things:
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Many organizations have strayed from their mission and poorly communicate their reason for existing...
- with employees, by failing to include them in Strategic planning and by constantly priority switching, leaving work unfinished – which robs employees of the satisfaction of seeing their effort actually benefit a Customer, all while creating an unsustainable pace with less time for family.
- with customers, by failing to include them in the Product/Service Design process, leading to long lead times, poor quality, and overall failing to meet their need [while top organizations are finding ways to exceed customer expectations].
There has been a systemic breakdown in the Inclusion of people in decision-making.
- Companies are failing, evident by overuse of chase strategies, including substantial layoffs, in an attempt to satisfy liquidity ratios and short-term expectations of shareholders. The capital investment game is broken and must be fixed.
- A return to laser focus on the company mission is essential. Leveraging ALL of the talent in that organization, in pragmatic ways which inspire ownership to delight customers, will create the greatest stability and return on investment for both Banks funding operational cashflows and investors bringing capital with the expectation of seeing true Innovation.
- Top-down unilateral decisions under Command [but little] Control management practices have brought companies to their current reality. Too often, the same behaviors are used to try to work their way out of the mess. Servant leadership is the only way out. The problem affects everyone in the organization, therefore, we should leverage everyone to aid in the recovery of the organization.
People talk to each other, especially when very unhappy. Organizations have lost sight of the obvious fact that their employees are also consumers, AND that their customers are also employees elsewhere.
- Each interaction between a team member (employee, volunteer) and customer should seek to inspire BOTH the team member and customer to remain loyal to their organization’s mission.
- A customer is on a mission of their own, and seeks help from the supplier of a product/service to fulfill their own mission. We must retain sight of the overlapping missions and tactical strategies, as we conduct business between our organizing causes.
- Organizations often patronize concern for Customer Care / Loyalty through contradictions and ethical conflict in those CC/L programs.
- Worse yet, they give lip service to insincere attempts to support and inspire the talent in their organization, through failing Employee Engagement initiatives.
- Employees should also be consumers and customers of their own organization’s Product/Service offerings.
- Too often, we fail to monitor for this reality.
- A simple Net-Promoter-Score review is all you need to see reality for the organization.
- What does it say about the organization’s culture, if an employee won’t refer the company’s business to their network and loved ones?
- Social media’s reach has raised the curtain on a failing organization’s culture. To survive in a Service-based economy, organization’s must give their heart to the Teams that deliver on their organization’s mission.
- Too often, Management has excuses about why certain NEW ways of operating “won’t work here – we’re too complex, unique, or that degree of engagement isn’t really necessary for what we do here”.
- We must remember that we are all in the same universal business of People Serving People.
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Every perspective resides in the Middle of some hierarchy of exchanges amidst a Shared, Evolving Experience.
If we are mindful of our impact on this co dependency, we naturally converge towards shared perspective and the best possible Realization of enjoyable experiences.
The Ripple Effect through a Value Chain
We must inspire those within our organization first, before we can acquire and retain inspired Customers, who might in turn pay it forward through the Value Chain. When customers are tough on your employees, please sincerely and thoroughly ponder why.
Are the employees of your Customers in a similar collective mental state as your organization?
Were your employees or those customers used to a certain stability/consistency from their experience with you, which is now transitioning as part of your intentional organizational change?
It’s possible that your product or service is actually improving, but for someone who has been coerced and incentivized NOT to adapt quickly, they may perceive the change as negative, when it is actually improving shared reality. This consideration pertains to both sides of ANY transaction: employees of the Customer you seek to serve well, as well as your own employees servicing those customers.
It’s also possible that Customers coming from a more inspiring, shared-reality experience, whether as part of their work organization or just their personal experience of Life overall, may be shocked by the disconnects within your service model. Their frustration is likely twofold. First, annoyance of the personal impact of your service experience. Secondly, they are likely frustrated on behalf of your employees, who are clearly disempowered and disconnected from their mission – the reason for their service model’s existence.
Inspired people wish for others to have great experiences. Inspired people receive joy through others receiving joy. The most “valuable” experiences are where expectations were met and exceeded – a delightful surprise was realized. Delighted customers should be your most valuable customers. Retaining inspired customers improves an Entire value chain’s experiences. We retain relationships through an intentional ongoing shared reality with other. We sincerely and continuously ask how they’re feeling and what we can do, together, to remain connected in meaningful, delightful shared experiences.
We must think beyond the boundary of our organization, to spark inspiration that is self sustaining for the organization amidst transition in a desire to connect better with other organizations.
The Key Point
And here is a key point … customers are rarely isolated individuals … they are usually seeking to solve a problem or seize and opportunity as part of a bigger equation – as part of a broadING Value Chain of experiences.
As employees directly experience a sampling of what could/should be, under better alignment and inspiring influence of the org’s Mission, we must inspect their “up / down stream” behavior shifts as well.
For example, are change-resistant employees expecting too much from ‘vendors’ in personally biased ways, where they have retained some semblance of former [pre change] “artificial authority”? Or are change-advocating employees over zealous in their expectations of others, now that they’ve “had a taste” of healthy Team dynamics?
Change occurs across the entire hierarchy, although our view is often myopic and blind to the broader transaction of experience. This requires well-timed and synchronized attempts ro Reflect and Adapt collective mindsets and incrementally adaptive, shared action.
What’s truly unfortunate, is when misinterpretations on both sides of a service transaction are leading to unreasonable ‘demands’ and attempts to ‘supply’.
Its’ unfortunate when partially enlightened people – meaning, pragmatically aware and attempting to share reality better – from one context, impose imbalanced systemic expectations on another organization, who might very well be attempting similar change, but hasn’t yet matched the pace or quality of the experience of the other organization. These are complex issues to unravel and synchronize, requiring substantial energy and time, typically 12 to 36 months based on scale and degree of “all in approach” by the org.
David has vast experience to mitigate the risks and maximize the benefits during such a transition. How you Communicate and what you Assess as leading indicators of successful adaptation, matters greatly. Give David a call to review the state of change, both within your organization, and the effects of change across your Value Chain?
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Don’t hassle your employees by excluding them from decision making and your Customers will feel the genuine empowerment in each transactional exchange.
The mission of your organizing cause lives through each and every exchange. Sensing a more genuine, empowered exchange with employees, customers will lighten up on their own fear-based demands because your Product/Service model is now mutually cooperative and beneficial (viable for your org, and valuable to them). Stakeholders can then participate meaningfully in shared outcomes, instead of “drawing lines in the sand” as part of preemptively defending business Viability-biased interests. Viability bias originates from the fear of personal / career survival.
What a vicious survival cycle we initiate, when we forget why our organizing causes exist, and for whom.
Organizations across America need to rediscover their framework to ensure adaptive, courageous decision-making that includes and sincerely supports team members who desire inspiring experiences in service of society. This is the origin of Servant Leadership.
My passion is to help individuals and organizations define and own their “Decision Framework”. Let that Framework be intentional and all-inclusive.
Treat lovingly all you witness as ‘other’ in Life, because That’s You!
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