Train for Success

In these trying economic times, the training budget is a sure casualty. Even in good times, most companies today spend less than 1% of their payrolls on training. World-class organizations are spending 5% or more of their payrolls on training.
There are two elements to consider when setting up your training processes: hard skills (job processes) and soft skills (culture and attitude). Most organizations do a fair job of teaching the hard skills of the job. The soft skills are at best glossed over, or at worst completely ignored. It is important to create a customer-centric culture in good economic times; in times of economic uncertainty, however, it’s a necessity.
How much soft skills training do your employees receive? Is it reserved for the higher level “professionals?” Success comes from unleashing the talents and ideas all employees, not just the so-called "professional" managers. The attitude that "the front-liners are non-professionals," translates into behaviors that damage organizations.
The Walt Disney Company sends every new employee through a multi-day Traditions course on the Disney culture prior to on-the-job training. But remember… training alone is not the answer. All training must be reinforced through focused experiences and continuous feedback.
During your next rounds of budget cuts, try to maintain the core elements of soft training that instill your culture, vision and values. Economic times will get better. Will you be ready for the up turn with a core group of employees who radiate your culture? Or will you be trying to catch up to the world-class competition?

The Motivated or Not So Motivated Workforce

A 2006 Gallup study of U.S. workers discovered alarming facts about their interest in work. 29% of the employees reported they were engaged in their work; 56% of respondents said they were not engaged in their work and 15% actually admitted they were actively disengaged!
When asked, “Do I feed off the creativity of my colleagues?”, 61% of the engaged employees strongly agreed, while only 9% of the disengaged workers gave the same answer. 85% of the engaged employees stated that they had grown in their ability to positively affect the company’s customers while only 19% of the disengaged felt the same.
The Gallup study calculated that lower productivity of actively disengaged workers cost the U.S. economy $328 BILLION! Instead of relying on massive government bailouts, we should find ways to make the work environment more exciting and unleash the potential of the entire workforce.

Why People Work

Some time ago, a Fortune magazine study surveyed all levels of management, from CEOs to frontline supervisors, “why they worked” – (excluding financial reasons) what was the real meaning to them…

Fortune’s three top reasons “Why People Work”:
1. To make the world a better place
2. To belong to a team
3. To perfect their own technical skills

Do not underestimate the power of these values. One of our consulting roles at Bristol-Myers Squibb Corporation was facilitating infant formula production teams. One of the teams would meet for one hour, once a week, to analyze needed improvements in quality and productivity. Approximately six months after the team began their team journey, they presented several recommendations to management. Bill was involved in one of the management debriefs during which a manager, after listening to the impressive team results, asked the team members, “How do like this team concept?” A member named Sue responded, telling them that she was always proud to tell people she worked for Bristol-Myers Squibb. However, she also said that when people asked her about the specifics of her job, she would always change the subject. Here’s why: Sue was a line attendant assigned to watch the bottles and cans being filled with formula, day after day. If there happened to be a problem, she was there to correct it. Since the line worked fairly smoothly most of the time, the job was routine and boring. Sue went on the tell the managers that when she became part of a team, she was reenergized and now tells people that she is “a member of a team who’s job it is to produce the best quality infant formula for the most affordable price for mothers and babies throughout the world.”

Talk about pride in workmanship! The small change to her job – attending a team meeting one hour once a week – led to both a huge change in her desire to excel and her fulfillment level at work.

Similarly, a clear VISION – making a difference in society and in the lives of customers – can make a major impact on the productivity and commitment of an entire organization’s workforce. Consider an industrial parts distributor. For them, a vision of merit would include striving to be the most cost effective and provide the most efficient service to the building industry. A successful construction industry greatly contributes to the economic success of the region. A healthy local economy means more jobs, better schools, and more opportunities. Most people can find meaning in their careers if they simply rethink the impact their roles have on the community.

You Can't Save Your Way to Success

It is the beginning of a new year, and many are making their New Year’s resolutions. Given these turbulent times, many companies are trying to “save their way to success.” While cost reductions and reductions in staff may be necessary, too many companies jump into these efforts with little or no long-term thinking. The result: no effect on the bottom line (reducing customer service ultimately reduces sales) or, at best, short-term, shallow results. The first element of a cost reduction process must be a Disneyesque Dream or visioning process.

Questions that must be answered:
1. How do the guiding members of the organization envision the future?
2. How will success be measured?
3. What kind of organizational culture is necessary to achieve success?
4. What are the values and principles that guide the company?

Keys to Successful Dream/Visioning:
· Invite all direct reports to participate. CEOs need the collective energies of the entire team.
· Start with the story of where you would like the company to be in ten years, and work backwards. If you feel you can readily achieve that vision, you have not allowed yourself to dream.
· Do a thorough investigation of the driving forces affecting your business. These include suppliers, competitors, customers, distribution channels, and technology. Make sure to look outside your own environment; do not assume you know all the external forces that are affecting your business.
· Create a plan that is customer focused. The best reason to be in business is to provide "blow their socks off" products and services to your customers.
· Once you have established your plan, share it with all employees. Too many strategic plans are kept under lock and key simply because the CEO does not want the competition to know the company strategy. Unfortunately, the employees don’t know the plan either. How can an organization accomplish great feats if the “players” don’t understand the goal?
· Include specific, measurable objectives as part of your plan. Here’s an argument that doesn’t compute: "We cannot commit to measurements that are so far out in the future." How will you know that you have achieved your vision if you cannot measure it?
· The best way to establish strategic alliances with your key suppliers is to involve them in the planning process. Don’t forget to ask your key customers if they agree with your strategies; find a good facilitate who will assist in eliciting honest feedback and protect them from defensive “corporate” behaviors.
· Test how well the plan is being executed by doing the following:
1. Hold a meeting with your team two months after the completion of the strategic plan, and ask all members to bring their calendars.
2. If you determine they have been spending over 60% of their time on strategic customer-focused issues, your chances for accomplishing your vision are pretty good. If you want to do even better, discuss how everyone can begin spending 80% to 90% on these issues.

In these troubled times, we need to envision how we can add even more value to our customers rather than cutting costs and services.
Focus on long-term service, not short-term savings.

Reinvent Your Policy Manual!

We can’t believe it is already December! Why not spend the remaining weeks streamlining your policy manual? In many companies, this archaic document is the biggest barrier to becoming a customer-centric organization. Here are some guidelines to begin to reinvent your policy manual:
Remove any policy that does not add value to the customer, supplier or coworker. Replace old verbiage with "work hard and be clever."
Review the manual for "rules" that hinder the delivery of exceptional customer service. If you allow your frontline staff to say, "We cannot help you because it is against our policy,” your culture needs a shake-up. Begin by enabling employees to “use good judgment" in everything they do, from team interactions to solving customer problems.
Identify any policy that infers that you do not trust your employees. Particularly examine your expense account policy. We know of one company that decided to allow employees to issue their own expense checks. They had guidelines for tax documentation that were followed by all. The result was the elimination of most of the accounting approvals and a reduction in overall travel expenses. Over the years, we have worked with several companies in which senior managers have multi-million dollar budgets and are responsible for hundreds of millions of dollars of product production, yet they must obtain corporate approval for $500 to attend a workshop! This policy makes absolutely no sense.
Try adding the words "have fun" to your policy manual. It has been said that if you find a job where you can have fun, you’ll never have to work again.
A friend of ours is a business school dean of a prestigious university. His entire policy manual is “work hard, be clever, use good judgment and have fun.” Nordstrom’s policy manual is one page; it reads: “use good judgment in all situations. There will be no other rules.”
The typical corporate policy manual is written to send “warnings” to employees when they should send “encouragements.” Trust your workers, and they will reward you with superior performance.
So…start the New Year out right and reinvent your policy manual!

The Learning Organization

The learning organization is one in which all employees are continuously improving their personal work habits in order to delight their customers. A key goal of learning is to develop positive behaviors that benefit both individuals and organizations alike.
Our belief is that proper habits are developed from obtaining knowledge, skills and attitude. Knowledge is the understanding of what, how and why we need to do something. Skill is how we apply the knowledge in a practical situation. Attitude is the desire or motivation to transform knowledge into skills and ultimately into a habit.
Your organization may provide customer-driven training and reinforce its application, but employees may lack the attitude to develop certain skills into habits. Unfortunately, attitude cannot be taught. In fact, Holocaust survivor Victor Frankl defines attitude as “our response to what we have experienced.”
Your organization must act as the catalyst that motivates employees. But it is an individual’s prerogative whether or not to choose a proactive attitude and behaviors that will ultimately produce a successful learning organization.

You Can Become a Learning Organization!
Create the vision, mission, and values of the organization that are clearly understood by all employees and that promote continuous learning.
Determine what training is needed for solving customer problems and discovering their wishes. Create an individual developmental plan for each employee with specific learning objectives.
Reinforce the learning organization through:
Regular one-on-one coaching sessions
Monthly skills-refresher sessions
Quarterly learning retreats
Individual self-study programs
Aristotle said, "We are what we reportedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." Creating a learning organization may be the key to gaining a competitive advantage in the years to come!

Note: We will be out of the country for the next three weeks. Blog posting will resume December 1. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

What Commitment Means

The American Heritage Dictionary defines commitment as
"being bound intellectually or emotionally to some course of action."
Ask most managers if they are committed to customer service, quality, and employee development, and nearly 100 percent would utter the expected response: "of course we are!” But ask them three more questions: "Are you emotionally engaged in continuously improving your products and services? Do you spend at least 5 percent of gross sales on training? Do you grant employees the power to ensure that customers have a positive experience with your company?" ... and their eyes glaze over.
Forget specifying exact methods or means for achieving the results you desire from employees; otherwise, you will be buried in micro-management. When employees fail to produce results because they were forced to adopt someone else's roadmap, they become discouraged and disenchanted with their jobs. We often hear, "I did what I was asked to do, so it's really not my fault." Sadly, these stiffled employees end up "checking their brains at the door!" But, when employees know what is expected of them, and they are entrusted to apply common sense principles to execute their jobs, they will do whatever is in their power to create those magical moments for their customers. The result: true commitment that may surprise even the employees themselves!