Archive for October, 2008
♦ Open heart surgery
♦ Unfreezing the global credit market
♦ Contracting / bidding on a multi-million dollar service
There’s an arc of experience to things. No one is born fully knowing the intricacies of any area of life.
It’s about learning. And through learning comes awareness of grey areas. Subtleties that make a ton of difference.
I once read the true test of intelligence is to hold two conflicting ideas in one’s head while seeing both as true.
Experience in life and business has a lot of that going on. As one learns.
However, those without experience still work alongside the experienced.
Obviously beginners are not to be ridiculed or disdained. The experienced have a responsibility to coach, mentor, teach. And recognize the struggle beginners have trying to hold those 2 conflicting thoughts.
But when it comes to the list above, and millions of other areas, beginners will participate - and if you’re on the receiving end you really hope they’d get some help.
Beginners will bid on that million dollar service contract.
And beginners will put out a Request for Proposal for that million dollar bid.
With access to the experienced, beginners can better shape the impact they’re going to have on others’ business. Hopefully moving it closer to their intended outcomes. But only if they’re open to conflicting ideas that may both be true. And only if the experienced recognize their place in the learning food chain.
How are you leveraging experience for beginners in your organization?
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Chris Arlen
President, Service Performance
Technorati: service contracts, contracting
October 21st, 2008
This past week several senior level clients, in different organizations, shared their frustrations about their inability to get initiatives launched.
The executives above them didn’t buy off on them. And these were smart, big win ideas. Ones that could produce significant results. But the executives who could pull the trigger, wouldn’t.
The answer to my client contacts’ problems seemed clear.
Maybe because it’s a very engaging election year, but what’s apparent is “how” the message is presented matters. As much as “what” the content is.
Consider these examples:
- Bernanke & Paulson’s proposal to Congress for buying bad mortgages (a 3-page document for $700 billion when a sub-prime loan takes 8-10 times as many pages)
- A husband explaining to his wife why he hadn’t done something she’d asked (but using the voice he reserves for the cashier at the DMV window)
These 2 examples point out that even if “what” you have to say is correct, right and true, it doesn’t matter a hill of beans. If the recipient can’t hear it, forget it.
And although this may seem elementary, it’s not.
It’s very political high up any organization. And success at the top is directly proportionate to one’s ability to shape and guide the message so that it’s received appropriately. Rather than spat out like sour wine.
This means considering how the message is framed and presented requires as much work as the content.
Yes, in the adult world there’s a constant checking if artfully crafting the “how” manipulates the meaning of the “what”. But consider the alternative. Focusing solely on saying exactly what one truthfully thinks leaves you with a room full of great ideas atrophying in the dust.
How skillful are you with messaging’s “How”?
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Chris Arlen
President, Service Performance
Technorati: communicating, implementing initiatives
October 15th, 2008
If I could ask the wisest person on the planet 2 questions about support services I’d ask:
#1 Why do support services exist?
#2 How can you tell if a support service fulfills it’s purpose?
Hold on, hold on. Before you click off this page or delete this email, stick with me a minute.
These questions aren’t as innocuous as they appear. The payoff from them is potentially very big.
Get them right and you’ll know exactly how much to budget and spend for your organization. You’ll also know who and what resources can help you get there. And you’ll know exactly if you are getting there.
Go down the wrong rabbit hole, and your stuck in a permanent fog at night without a light.
So, back to the questions and their answers.
#1 Why do support services exist?
Theoretically, a support service is there to support an organization’s employees who are working on the real stuff. The core competencies of the organization. Right?
You (the support service) are there solely to help your “core peers” (I just made that up).
When you do your job well, core peers aren’t distracted. They’re free to focus on their work. Which makes them better able to do what they do. And that, in theory, leads to the organization’s success.
That’s the reason support services exist. To remove distractions so peers can focus on their work.
#2 How can you tell if a support service fulfills it’s purpose?
Here’s the tricky part.
The answer to this question may not be what’s typically given by support services. The typical answer contains Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Service Level Agreements (SLAs), performance to industry benchmarks, etc.
However, these metrics show a service’s performance relative to itself or alternative providers. But not relative to removing distractions from core peers.
A more appropriate answer to the question may be:
Since support services enable core peers to focus on their work,…
…the measure of success is the degree to which core peers are free from distractions.
Or put another way…the degree to which support services remove distractions from core peers.
This just hasn’t been the way most support services define or measure their success.
There is one metric that deserves a special comment: customer satisfaction.
It’s the one metric that comes closest to determining a support service’s success. However, it fails. It fails because customer satisfaction doesn’t ask about distractions to core peers. It asks about happiness with the service.
And core peers are familar with these types of questions. They’ll tell you whether they’re happy or not. But their happiness isn’t why a support service exists.
Right? It’s about removing distractions so peers can focus on their work.
How do you know if your support service is successful?
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Chris Arlen
President, Service Performance
Technorati: contract services, contract performance, KPIs, SLAs
October 6th, 2008
