A three decades long trail of failed organizational change efforts stretches back to include excellence, customer focus/service, total quality management, continuous improvement, team building, reengineering, employee engagement, process management, strategic planning, new technologies, IT systems, safety, and Lean/Six Sigma. And that’s to name just a few! Failure rates of these efforts are 50 – 70% […]
Read post »Many organizations today are striving to increase their customer service or product quality levels. Legions of executives are declaring themselves "customer-focused" or "customer-centric." Yet customer service levels are slipping and many of us are frustrated by attitudes of indifference, navigating technological mazes ("press one to hear that your call is very important to us"), or […]
Read post »Whether it’s to increase service/quality levels, boost engagement and morale, strengthen teamwork, or improve safety, we’re working with many organizations to strengthen coaching and developing skills across the organization. Through this work we run into some or many of these pitfalls and traps: Confusing “What” and “How” – this comes from confusing inspiration and knowledge […]
Read post »We can gain such great perspective and leadership lessons from looking back at how previous generations handled the sweeping changes and crises of their day. I’ve been in London, England three times in the last few months working with an international executive team based there. As a classical art and history buff I add some […]
Read post »The New York Times recently published an in-depth look at the zany – and wildly successful – culture that propelled Southwest Airlines to become the largest U.S. domestic carrier over the past 40 years. Entitled “Pushing 40, Southwest is Still Playing the Rebel,” this entertaining and educational article explains how the company’s very powerful culture […]
Read post »The continued increase in registrations for my blog posting notifications and the steady growth in complimentary subscriptions to The Leader Letter (a monthly compilation of my biweekly blogs) leads me to believe that many readers feel they are getting more than they’re paying for from my writing. Because I am a “leadership nerd,” I quite […]
Read post »We are working with four executive teams this fall who are looking to implement major new initiatives aimed at dramatically shifting their organizational culture and performance. One is a large international retailer completely revamping their entire supply chain process. Another is a major global mining company determined to dramatically boost their safety performance. A mid-sized […]
Read post »Many of this month’s blog posts have been around improving the rampant levels of declining customer service levels in most organizations. Managers often point to frontline servers attitudes as the source of the problem and look for quick motivational or training fixes. But who hired the servers? Who trains them? Who provides the systems and […]
Read post »A television producer called me recently to discuss a story she’s working on around declining customer service levels and what to do about it. We agreed that there’s been a big drop in customer service over the past two years. I believe this problem is rooted in three common causes: Misuse of Technology – forcing […]
Read post »A big city public transit system just released a report addressing its terrible service and image problems. While some of the panel’s recommendations deal with the organization’s culture, much of it is focused on “fixing” drivers, counter staff, and other frontline service people through training and “attitude change.” The way too common “fix our customer […]
Read post »Strong leaders – whether in appointed roles or taking leadership action – build highly effective teams. Where teams have been effectively organized and led, the list of team outcomes have led to dramatic improvements in productivity, customer service, quality, process management, innovation, cost effectiveness, job satisfaction, morale, and financial performance. My last blog post looked […]
Read post »Failing to understand, believe, and share a sense of urgency for why higher levels of customer service – or other organizational transformations are needed – is a major reason the failure rate for change and renewal efforts hovers around 60 – 75%. Today’s younger generations of workers have an even higher need to buy-in to […]
Read post »My last blog post (The Why Generation) argued for investing much more time and effort in getting today’s younger generations of workers to understand and buy-in to why changes are needed in the programs, products, or services they support or provide. Strong and continuous education and communications is critical. If you’re leading efforts to improve […]
Read post »There’s lots of talk these days about effectively leading Generation X, Y and other demographic groups in today’s workplace. While each group has varying needs and interests, a very common need is understanding why team or organization changes are needed. Parents and teachers from “The Boomer Generation” spent more time than their parents ever did […]
Read post »Teams and teamwork are ever more critical in today’s organizations. Effective teams are central to higher customer service, continuously increasing quality, increased productivity, and greater innovation. Strong and effective teams also increase engagement, development, and retention. Lots of managers fall in these common traps when trying to increase teamwork and build more effective teams: What […]
Read post »Last month Return on Performance magazine asked me to respond to a series of questions on motivating employees to attract new customers in a recovering economy for their “Winning Tips” section. My responses below reflect many of the internal service and servant leadership themes found throughout my work – and this month’s issue. Ask yourself… […]
Read post »3D is all the rage today. Movies like Avatar take us to a new level of realism. TV manufacturers are furiously announcing new 3D systems. Apple has reportedly filed patents for special 3D glasses technology. Adding the third dimension of depth to a movie brings us up close and puts us into the action. Are […]
Read post »Recently, I was approached by a misguided manager looking for training and motivation programs to “fix” their frontline service staff. This is a fairly wide spread and common problem showing a lack of understanding about basic customer service cause and effect. And it’s focused on treating symptoms rather than the underlying disease. How reasonable would […]
Read post »The June issue of my monthly e-newsletter, The Leader Letter, went out last week. In it I included an item from my April 30 blog posting responding to a workshop attendee who read one of my articles with a chart on moving from casual or moderate to intense levels of customer service. She also asked […]
Read post »Last week we sent out the Improvement Point below to subscribers. “Despite all the talk – passionate speeches, glossy brochures, clever ads, high tech videos, convincing sales pitches, snappy slogans, strategic plans, and solemn annual reports – the service and quality action delivered by most organizations is mediocre at best.” – from Jim Clemmer’s article, […]
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