tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85273968615284697972024-03-13T01:49:38.280+00:00FIVE NINE FIVETaking the customers' journey to the boardroom. Hands-on operational review. Rapid diagnosis. Sustainable results.matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.comBlogger73125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-29614709231225808702021-08-28T18:12:00.002+01:002021-08-28T18:12:31.964+01:0010 Year Anniversary<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yhnbbxnHhik/YSpuH2O2pkI/AAAAAAAAAjM/61XEwCTADnILqskryI6vE2gn3MWKCLHVgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1920/pexels-magda-ehlers-1339845.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1291" data-original-width="1920" height="215" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-yhnbbxnHhik/YSpuH2O2pkI/AAAAAAAAAjM/61XEwCTADnILqskryI6vE2gn3MWKCLHVgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/pexels-magda-ehlers-1339845.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Wow - 10 years flies by! </span></p>
<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">10 years of running my own business. </span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Now a total of 18 years of business transformation using systems thinking methods - helping leaders, teams, departments and whole organisations improve how they deliver service to their customers.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Thank you to all those who have sent me good wishes on this anniversary.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">And thank you to all of my past, present and future customers - I am very grateful that I have a job that I love so much.</span></p>
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<p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Matt</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">07775 595 595</span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p><p style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p>matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-68233057216381988672019-11-07T17:30:00.000+00:002019-11-07T17:30:18.888+00:00It’s all about the people.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s all about the people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was talking to someone this week about “the people” in transformational change. Its always about the people, and often in ways you might not expect.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve worked with Lisa and her <a href="http://www.madabout.org.uk/" target="_blank">Madabout</a> team for years (we’ve known each other about 20 years now…) and I remember vividly one of our first collaborative conversations - about a new piece of work she’d won to help train hotel receptionists.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The receptionists were getting lower than expected scores on their NPS. So some ‘happy’ training planned.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was obviously delighted with her win.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Then I asked some questions.</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why are the receptionists unhappy?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Surely the HR Director didn’t recruit unhappy receptionists?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">What has happened to make them unhappy?</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It certainly turned the assignment on it’s head.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And using some basic root-cause analysis soon highlighted the real issues - management had tasked the receptionists with jobs to do at vital times - such as cashing up the till at 8am as the guests were trying to check out… </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And the root cause of that was because the central Finance Director needed cash reports at a fixed time in the afternoon, and the message had been relayed down the chain - whilst everyone forgot about the customer, and about purpose…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, yes, people did need training. But not the happy people that had been employed, and who’d then got upset…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This happened many moons ago - and yet it’s a common issue that I continue to see.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At a seminar this morning hosted by Michael Page and <a href="http://www.changeassociates.com/" target="_blank">Change Associates</a>, the guest speaker - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Taylor_(political_strategist)" target="_blank">Matthew Taylor from the RSA</a> - talked about the challenges of employment in the modern age (not just IR35 issues) having been tasked by the PM in 2017 - and produced the paper : <i><a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/good-work-the-taylor-review-of-modern-working-practices" target="_blank">Good Work: The Taylor Review of Modern Working Practices</a></i>. He also talked about how business should be focussed on “Creating Community with a Cause” - and I couldn’t agree more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Having been undertaking system change programmes for years, I’ve left my clients with all sort of ‘nice problems to have’:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Council Chief Executive who was surprised at the smiles on his teams’ faces, and ‘thank you’ cards from citizens,</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Contact centre managers where staff weren’t leaving because they were enjoying their jobs because they were allowed time to investigate issues and resolve to conclusion,</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Managing Director who is driving his business, taking control of sales, and is successfully expanding, and</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Working with a couple of bright-young-things in a council Highways department who very quickly picked-up the baton and ran with some tremendous service improvements.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You can’t beat it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Want to know more:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - about <a href="https://595or.blogspot.com/p/matthew-arnold.html">Matt Arnold</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - give me a call on 07775 595 595</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - email on <a href="mailto:matt595@me.com">matt595@me.com</a></span></span></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-47741607541530185482019-10-17T17:31:00.001+01:002019-10-17T17:31:17.135+01:00The right information - right first time<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue"; font-size: 12px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Whether it be electricity billing, payroll services, or fixing potholes, ensuring the work starts correctly with the right information is often the first issue I discover as I undertake my diagnosis.</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why aren’t all the electricity bills going out? Because not all the information about the customer has come from sales, and/or not all the meter technical details have been transferred across, and/or other data that was due in still hasn’t arrived….</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why is the person that has left still being paid? Because the process for a manager to contact a remote HR/payroll team is too complicated, something else causes a distraction, and the deadline gets missed…</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why are gangs of workers not able to fix the problem on site? Because they’ve been given inaccurate, incorrect, or out of date information to undertake the work. They arrive on site and then can’t complete the work…</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s easy to dismiss these things as simple issues that happen sometimes. But in all of these examples, they were happening every day, day-after-day, and often for years. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">All of them hit the bottom line directly.</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve seen double digit percentages of unbilled utility accounts, all hitting profit, undoubtedly worth £m’s… We analysed the system of work, and the majority were resolved over a few months.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve seen teams of people dealing with over and under payroll payments - all of them unnecessary if they had the information right-first-time - certainly worth many £000’s per year… Designed out in hours, and fully implemented in weeks.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve seen organisations where at least one of their twenty gangs (man/men in a van) have been stuck in the depot each day. They don’t earn if they’re in the depot. Approximately £1000 a day. £1/4m per year…? Re-engineered over a few weeks with all the team on board, and the problem resolved.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It has the potential to happen anywhere, sitting there undiagnosed and often unseen, and yet can be the key to customer service, and improved margin.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Want to know more:</span></div>
<div style="color: #dca10d; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - about <a href="https://595or.blogspot.com/p/matthew-arnold.html">Matt Arnold</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - give me a call on 07775 595 595</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - email on <a href="mailto:matt595@me.com">matt595@me.com</a></span></span></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-20251260060951331242019-06-11T08:28:00.000+01:002019-06-11T08:30:57.504+01:00Are you twice as busy as you should be...?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In my last post, I talked about the potential waste in systems and processes in the service industry, call centre, and processing centres. So I’d thought I’d add another simple example.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was helping an HR Director with one of her Payroll Managers and teams. The team just seemed so busy - twice as busy as the felt they should be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, we got stuck in and looked at the flow of work:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Timesheets : about 10,000 were received each month, with half arriving from outside the UK. We soon found that many were coming through with errors - incorrect cost code, no signature, can’t read the writing. Many had to be returned. And then even some of those were sent back with further errors. Back and forth, back and forth. The total number of touches was closer to 20,000. Literally doing all the work twice.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Expense forms : same again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Leavers : a complicated process, often resulting in the continuation of payment of the employee had left, resulting in difficult additional work to collect he over payment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Literally, doing everything twice. Everywhere. Every day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And it’s worth remembering:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">everyone was trying to do a good job</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">and if you’d walked through the office, everyone would be looking busy (probably a little frazzled)</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It takes different thinking to stop, look at purpose, the value work, the waste work, the flow - and to start thinking about a different way.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve seen the same in banking, billing, debt collection, payroll, HR, ‘man and van’ systems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And automation isn’t the answer - without the right approach, it’s very easy to think these working practises are ‘normal’ and end up embedding them into a new automated system/process.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, doing everything twice - costing twice as much as it should, or half as efficient as they could.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Need a hand taking a look…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> - give me a call on 07775 595 595</span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> - email on <a href="mailto:matt595@me.com" style="color: #cc66cc; text-decoration: none;">matt595@me.com</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> - about </span><a href="https://595or.blogspot.com/p/matthew-arnold.html" style="color: #cc66cc; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-decoration: none;">Matt Arnold</a><br />
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-20153861390586037882019-05-01T12:12:00.000+01:002019-05-01T12:12:29.712+01:00Doing a good job? Or not? Or not sure…?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZL1Y7n2Jh_o/XMl8ozJVtPI/AAAAAAAAAZE/Aw7-uz7sYCgRmiDkUx892K3Eu2OjsHnbgCLcBGAs/s1600/recording-2570056_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="851" data-original-width="1280" height="265" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZL1Y7n2Jh_o/XMl8ozJVtPI/AAAAAAAAAZE/Aw7-uz7sYCgRmiDkUx892K3Eu2OjsHnbgCLcBGAs/s400/recording-2570056_1280.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s easy to walk into a large contact centre or processing office and see lots of people, head-sets on or working from screens - all looking busy - but are they really being effective…?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But take a closer look, and it doesn’t always look so rosy. Without purpose, you can very quickly find yourself, and your organisation, getting very busy, but unknowingly going around in circles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Let me give you an example I came across a few years ago, a large government body who was managing ‘grants’ (for want of a better word) to certain vulnerable adults to help them live an independent life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Prior to meeting their CEO, I took a look through their glossy report and accounts for the year. In large, bold writing across a number of pages they showed how hard they were working by quoting the volumes of work they were processing: </span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Staff c.280</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Applications of c.9000 (per year)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Post at over 150,000 items (per year)</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Sounds good doesn’t it - nothing to see here.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And trust me, everyone was working hard, was well-intentioned, and committed to doing a good job.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But when you understand purpose, customer, value demand and waste work, you begin to understand where to look and which questions to ask.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, some simple maths from the example above:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is equivalent to giving 1 application, to a cross-sectional team of 8 people, and allowing them a whole day between them to complete the application.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> ie, 8 man-days to complete one application.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And each application appears to involve, on average, 17 pieces of post.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This doesn’t sound very efficient.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And it’s like this everywhere I go:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I worked in a large service centre where 100 or so agents are working on billing customers.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Each month, a few customers weren’t billed,</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">and those customers weren’t billed the next month either, and so on.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This got to the point where 10% of the customers where unbilled at the end of each month.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Working with the team, we uncovered the complexity of the unbilled accounts, worked them a different way (by working to conclusion, account-by-account), and resolving root cause issues for the whole customer base.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In-month unbilled reduced to 2% within just a few months.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My first assignment at a Housing Benefits department was taking 59 days end-to-end to complete each claim.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was able to reduce this to 19 days by doing things right-first-time and removing the waste work.</span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The last time I was in Housing Benefits, we managed to reduce the work such that half of all claims were undertaken in less that one hour.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The advantages of doing it right in both these examples is enormous.</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Massive improvements in customer satisfaction. </span><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A significant cost reduction as work is processed once, and not multiple times. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Massive improvements in staff satisfaction.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As I said above - these services are full of great people, doing some great things. What’s difficult to see in the day-to-day busyness of the office, is that much of the work is just contributing to going round in circles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This isn’t just changing the processes. It’s changing the whole system, including the management system and the way people think about their work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Most of these examples were solved by:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">senior management looking at the root cause</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">allowing staff to spend as much time as needed to resolve the issues, rather than the usual ‘2.5mins’ allowed in calling handling</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">working on ensuring information is gathered right-first-time.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s the management team that need to understand there’s a better way of doing things.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve recently been getting involved with some organisations that help vulnerable adults and homelessness - great people, doing some great things, helping those most in need. The system of work is surprisingly similar to office type work, and I’m worried the same thing is happening there.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">These are examples of waste-work that is locked-in the system - hiding in plain sight. I have no doubt that it is the same in other industries:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">health care - we know there is great work going on in hospitals and surgeries, and yet there is the frustration of multiple visits, poor communication between departments, the feeling of being forgotten, the next appointment in 2 months etc…</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">adult social care - where a vulnerable adult is passed from one siloed department to another, each team getting a ‘tick’ for completing their thing, but leaving the customer feeling like they’re going round in circles…</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">homelessness - where having poked around this system in recent months, I fear there are many many people, all working hard, but probably in a way that is sustaining the problem, not resolving it…</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">For a better understanding of where the benefits lay, click on the links below:</span><br />
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<ul>
<li><a href="https://595or.blogspot.com/2015/03/systems-thinking-and-why-lean-tools.html">root cause analysis</a></li>
<li><a href="https://595or.blogspot.com/2014/06/keeping-things-simple.html"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">waste </span>work</a></li>
<li><a href="https://595or.blogspot.com/2014/06/cost-exist-to-be-reduced.html">cost reduction</a></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Want to know more:</span></div>
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<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - about <a href="https://595or.blogspot.com/p/matthew-arnold.html">Matt Arnold</a></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - give me a call on 07775 595 595</span></div>
<div style="color: #dca10d; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - email on <a href="mailto:matt595@me.com">matt595@me.com</a></span></span></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-45263010166581295632019-04-11T15:59:00.000+01:002019-04-11T15:59:38.303+01:00Take your customer's view<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J1MimTxmeZ8/XK9Vt_Ek6sI/AAAAAAAAAYI/wTwLY8npdq0LngbawtzW4KBes22f3VeNQCLcBGAs/s1600/IMG_2125.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1025" data-original-width="1600" height="256" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J1MimTxmeZ8/XK9Vt_Ek6sI/AAAAAAAAAYI/wTwLY8npdq0LngbawtzW4KBes22f3VeNQCLcBGAs/s400/IMG_2125.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I came across this picture a while ago. It’s a bit of fun, but a good reminder to always take your customers’ perspective - what’s it really like to interact with your own service?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, the question for the picture above, what number space has the car parked in?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve seen some great examples over the years:</span></div>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">incorrect telephone (IVR) paths that don’t work, where no-one had tested it…</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">continually chasing customers for bill payment, where the bills were continually full of errors…</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">customer services teams focusing on customer complaints, rather than what is actually causing the complaints in the first place…</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you really want to find out how good your service is, go and be a customer. Shadow some customers through your service and see what they experience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Need a hand with this, then call me on 07775 595 595.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Oh, the answer : 87</span></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-70452547809148397282019-02-27T16:26:00.001+00:002019-04-24T10:14:35.810+01:00Book Review : Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3Qjxw8egozc/XHa5v05AyJI/AAAAAAAAAXk/9eVhdE0BgiswDYNnPkQecvAaB_smSBQHQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen-Shot-2017-04-05-at-08.26.50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="804" data-original-width="806" height="319" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3Qjxw8egozc/XHa5v05AyJI/AAAAAAAAAXk/9eVhdE0BgiswDYNnPkQecvAaB_smSBQHQCLcBGAs/s320/Screen-Shot-2017-04-05-at-08.26.50.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A fascinating book that explores the economy as a system of many factors, offering up a new way of measuring success as we face multiple global challenges.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How do we measure the state of the economy - easy - GDP%. A single number - 1.5%, 2.0% 3.0% - and we immediately have an understanding of whether things are good, bad, or changing. Or do we? What is growth? What does it really mean? And is it really right for the 21st century?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In Doughnut Economics by Kate Raworth, Raworth asks these questions and begins to formulate a way to pull together the keys issues of the 21st century, and builds an economic framework around: resources, climate, pollution, as well as the social foundations for health, wealth and well being.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It highlights how the economic models of the early/mid 20th Century may have been useful then, when it seemed like ‘growth’ would continue forever with infinite resources available and the earth could service anything, but we need to look differently now. It’s a ‘Whole System’ approach that ensures we balance the system, and consider all aspects of modern life.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It makes you wonder how we survived with measuring such a complex system with just one percentage figure….</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Read more about Doughnut Economics here:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">https://www.kateraworth.com/doughnut/</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Buy the book here:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1847941397/ref=asc_df_184794139758652889/?tag=googshopuk-21&creative=22110&creativeASIN=1847941397&linkCode=df0&hvadid=310762413837&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=9444474135448822074&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006965&hvtargid=pla-429877715220&th=1&psc=1">Amazon : Doughnut Economics</a></span></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-15459623854351213402019-01-04T11:57:00.000+00:002019-01-04T12:03:59.843+00:00Stick to Purpose, and remove the Waste Work.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yFREijf-lsQ/XC9JokMAttI/AAAAAAAAAXI/Bd4WOYLMYLg_ekNDgS_tzQ7wpRZdgXKpwCLcBGAs/s1600/adventure-daylight-desert-6496.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1033" data-original-width="1600" height="206" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yFREijf-lsQ/XC9JokMAttI/AAAAAAAAAXI/Bd4WOYLMYLg_ekNDgS_tzQ7wpRZdgXKpwCLcBGAs/s320/adventure-daylight-desert-6496.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve just completed a great assignment with an electric company - a rapid change to their collections processes that now focusses on outcomes rather than activity.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In little more the two months, the team changed their priorities to tackling the larger/hardest debts first, dealing with them to conclusion, resolving upstream issues, and allocating more resource to problem resolution away from basic dialling. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The buzz in the office was amazing. The advisors were clearly active on the phone, investigating, chasing and progressing issues. The numbers spoke for themselves. And the staff satisfaction level leapt up.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">All based on core Systems-Thinking principles of purpose, customer, demand and eliminating the waste work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It’s amazing what a simple scientific method can lead too, and quickly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Happy New Year!</span></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-74698264644668304872018-12-03T12:15:00.000+00:002019-04-23T18:12:26.527+01:00Like a Rubiks Cube<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RNJsXRvq4b0/XAUdv0TtGKI/AAAAAAAAAW8/BmRtZcJQIAMTsunVJb-73Zo4V_Fi8vzbwCLcBGAs/s1600/Rubiks-cube.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RNJsXRvq4b0/XAUdv0TtGKI/AAAAAAAAAW8/BmRtZcJQIAMTsunVJb-73Zo4V_Fi8vzbwCLcBGAs/s320/Rubiks-cube.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I love my job. That might already be clear from articles that I write.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There’s good reason - every day is like solving a Rubik’s cube. However difficult a situation is, I know there’s an answer. The solution is right there in front of you - you just need a method to work it out.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There are 42 million million million combinations of Rubik’s cube. But aged about 10, I was given some instructions on how to solve the puzzle. After some learning, I was able to complete the cube in about 2 minutes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I find solving process-flow issues in contact centres, processing centres or service systems just like solving the Rubik’s cube. These organisation rarely involve rocket-science - most send bills, fix customer queries, chase money - but many I see have tied themselves in a knot and ended up with service in decline, backlogs forming, and the teams struggling to get on top of things. But I always know the solution is in there somewhere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If only there was a method to apply to solve this puzzle.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Good job that there is then:</span></div>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What’s the purpose?</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What is the customer demand?</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How we are dealing with customer queries?</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What’s stopping us dealing with issues right-first-time?</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What are the root-cause issues?</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why is the customer unhappy?</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why are there backlogs?</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How many times is the customer contacting us?</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How many touches are there to resolve the customer issue?</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Who’s measuring the backlogs?</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What does the backlog look like?</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">How long does it take to resolve the issues?</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And of course, don’t forgot the people and the management:</span></div>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Are the leaders in the work, understanding how the work works?</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What’s stopping them doing that?</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Are they focussing on and prioritising the customer journey?</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Are they looking for ares of waste and rework?</span></li>
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<li style="font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">What measures are they focussing on?</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Systems Thinking approach, when applied to the service industry, soon highlights the real issues, surfaces where the waste work is being undertaken, and where rework and unnecessary customer contact is coming in.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It’s not complicated - when you’ve got a method.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Want to know more:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - about <a href="https://595or.blogspot.com/p/matthew-arnold.html">Matt Arnold</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - give me a call on 07775 595 595</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - email on <a href="mailto:matt595@me.com">matt595@me.com</a></span><br />
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-64447700737743620062018-11-02T18:49:00.001+00:002019-04-24T10:15:51.762+01:00Strategic v Tactical…. or is it fundamental? Part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sFZbOZkxAL4/W9ybnUDe7FI/AAAAAAAAAWw/o_M6fZOICFslcL4wxEqgAh5sp2JisA0FwCLcBGAs/s1600/amusement-park-1492099_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1107" data-original-width="1600" height="221" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sFZbOZkxAL4/W9ybnUDe7FI/AAAAAAAAAWw/o_M6fZOICFslcL4wxEqgAh5sp2JisA0FwCLcBGAs/s320/amusement-park-1492099_1920.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In my last <a href="http://595or.blogspot.com/2018/10/strategic-v-tactical-or-is-it.html">article</a> I wrote about the difference between strategic and tactical thinking with respect to large processing / contact centres, and, in my opinion, explained why I thought this was just wrong-headed. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When a large part of the organisation is there to ensure customers are happy, it’s fundamental to ensure queries are cleared as soon as possible, or better still, avoid queries all together.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, how do organisations get into this situation in the first place…?</span></div>
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<li style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A lack of consideration of: purpose; the customer demand and; what they are actually there to do. Many of my articles explain this further.</span></li>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69); color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But I think other issues start to arise too.</span></div>
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<li style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As people get promoted, from agent, to team leader, to senior, to manager etc, they get further from the work. Many want to get further from the work - they’ve been there long enough, it’s someone else’s turn - especially if the customers aren’t happy because they’re spinning around in the waste work.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My point: as people get more senior, they need to understand the flow of work better than ever - to explore the true customer journey, looking for blockages and hot-spots - to ensure purpose is being met.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A good leader needs to understand the bigger picture AND understand the detail. They need to understand what the customer experiences, and understand the work that such a huge and expensive resource undertakes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve seen many large scale operations where most of the work being undertaken is processed twice-over - think of the cost. I’ve also seen organisations where the work seems to just continually spin round and round...</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>In a “man-in-a-van” housing repairs operation I reviewed a few years back, the director soon picked up on what I’d discovered.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>On almost every visit to a customer, we were welcomed with “Hello, nice to see you again.” “Again?” - we’d come to fix something, and someone had already been out to fix it, but failed. A trip to the depot, picking up parts, a drive across town, have a go at fixing something - all done twice over.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>When reporting this back in the board room, the director immediately understood - “have we got twice the number of men and vans we should have…?” Possibly. Better still, use the existing team to fix the work in a shorter time, and complete more work. A reduced cost-per-fix, and happier customers.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you really want to understand what your team is doing, go and review a customer journey:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Was this the customer’s first contact? Was it fixed right first time? Could we have done better? Could the problem be resolved all together such that no other customers repeat that journey?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Leadership is about understanding what’s really happening on the floor, and helping your team achieve great service for your customer.</span></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-10266317417013668322018-10-10T17:33:00.000+01:002018-10-10T17:34:04.958+01:00Strategic v Tactical…. or is it fundamental?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KBjLQd3YHro/W74pW_4oZCI/AAAAAAAAAWk/4yPPkDPRFlI9FGzJlC43oJDD4P7y6yw5gCLcBGAs/s1600/ferris-wheel-731511_1920.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KBjLQd3YHro/W74pW_4oZCI/AAAAAAAAAWk/4yPPkDPRFlI9FGzJlC43oJDD4P7y6yw5gCLcBGAs/s320/ferris-wheel-731511_1920.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Much of my work is undertaken in the service industry, and often in large processing centres where the work is done, customers phone in, problems are resolved, and often payment is chased. In recent times, these have included utility companies, banks and councils.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve had a few really interesting discussions over the last few months as to whether this work is tactical, or strategic. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Undertaking my work, I’ll spend a fair bit of time talking to the Operations Director and/or the CEO about where the problems are, why this is happening, how we might fix it, and any changes to structure that may be required. Equally, much time is required in the work, looking at the real detail of what is going on: the processes being followed (or not), keeping up with housekeeping / exception reports (or not), and tracking work load (or backlogs).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Ultimately, I think the strategic/tactical debate is just plain wrong.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If the organisation has a clear purpose (and many don’t), and the diagnosis is that many of the staff are not in a position to be able to complete their work (mostly it’s not their fault), then this isn’t tactical or strategic. It’s fundamental.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At a utility company in 2017, I was reviewing an entire customer journey end-to-end. The contact centre looked very busy, but they knew they had issues - they just couldn’t work it out. My review found amongst other things:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">high levels of customer query backlogs</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">manual billing processes where upstream errors had created very complicated situations for new CSAs to attempt to rectify</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">processing work that was being “interrupted” by customer queries.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve seen this situation in many service centres, across many service areas. It was like they were going round in circles.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One thing that is always guaranteed:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">everyone was working hard</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">everyone wants to do a good job</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">there are lots of really good people working in these centres.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But, if you’re not careful, you can very easily get tied in a knot:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">you answer a call, and begin to understand the customer issue</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">you complete the call, and begin to spend a little time resolving the problem</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">then the next customer calls (and you haven’t finished the last one)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">you don’t get a chance to complete the first customer, who then calls back a week later</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">repeat</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Taking time to resolve the root-cause, and also the root-cause so that it doesn’t happen to other customer too, is the way to lead the team into great customer satisfaction.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Sounds easy - when you know how.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve seen whole contact centres do this - 100’s of people, going round in circles:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Meeting KPIs : average call time, number of calls a day, reasonable customer satisfaction etc.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But failing to complete the true task</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- failing to meet purpose.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Just think of the cost:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">100’s of salaries paid for CSAs to go around in circles</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">unhappy customers stuck in these whirlpools of problems</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Getting to the heart of these problems and lining up the work to avoid waste isn’t tactical or strategic - it’s fundamental.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Want to know mare - call me - 07775 595 595</span></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-2356494158462703172018-07-03T13:50:00.000+01:002018-07-03T13:50:45.646+01:00Changing the system to get very different results.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4o9C75s3yfw/Wztu8-JSyFI/AAAAAAAAAWY/C5woIvTxc20kWJkg5B69JaZKI49BcNxegCLcBGAs/s1600/accident-barrier-caution-923681.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4o9C75s3yfw/Wztu8-JSyFI/AAAAAAAAAWY/C5woIvTxc20kWJkg5B69JaZKI49BcNxegCLcBGAs/s320/accident-barrier-caution-923681.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve posted before about how small changes in the system can deliver dramatic results. I especially like the ones where the answer isn’t where you’d expect it to be. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One has to really study the system first:</span></div>
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<li style="color: #454545;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">what is the purpose of the operation?</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">what is the customer journey?</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">what other factors are playing out?</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">what demands are being placed on <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);">the </span>work?</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I came across a fascinating one today - one that has already significantly reduced loss of life…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A previous examples - in fact my very first blog - and I frequently re-tell the story of the bins in the fast-food store:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://595or.blogspot.com/2011/08/design-problem-out.html">https://595or.blogspot.com/2011/08/design-problem-out.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you make the bin holes smaller, the tray can’t be thrown away.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Another previous example - The Lincoln Memorial issue was similar:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><a href="https://595or.blogspot.com/2015/03/systems-thinking-and-why-lean-tools.html">https://595or.blogspot.com/2015/03/systems-thinking-and-why-lean-tools.html</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A small change in the system, at literally zero cost, drastically altered the outcomes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The one I heard about today involves a story that we’ve all seen in the news over recent times - mostly in the US, frequently involving race connotations, and it’s pretty much what started The Black Lives Matter movement.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A study of the way US police officers pursue and intercept targets has shown that its the heat of the pursuit that affects decision making, potentially leading to death of the suspect.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545;">From the BBC Inquiry podcast “Can you train people to be less prejudiced” - a change in the system of pursuit that lead to dramatic reduction in fatalities. By taking the heat out of the situation, adding more time into the equation, and helping the officer re-assess and balance any bias they may have, has <span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);">dramatically</span> changed </span></span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(69, 69, 69);">outcomes.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The whole podcast is worth a listen, but the key message is described from 17:01, and takes less than 2 minutes:</span></div>
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<a href="https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/can-you-train-people-to-be-less-prejudiced/id932499233?i=1000414269329&mt=2"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/can-you-train-people-to-be-less-prejudiced/id932499233?i=1000414269329&mt=2</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">By changing the current ‘hot’ “foot pursuit” policy to one where they hold back, call for help, and surround the situation, the officer-involved shootings have gone down - dramatically.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And of course, there are business opportunities here too:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Taking the heat out of rapid decision making</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Taking a step back and seeing the whole picture</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Identifying potential bias situations</span></li>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">could lead to improved </span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">decision making and outcomes.</span></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-3960574499734865552018-06-12T15:31:00.000+01:002018-06-12T15:31:05.869+01:00FACTFULNESS by Hans Rosling<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FoHD8jE8oGs/Wx_YYYK3S_I/AAAAAAAAAWE/8D1RtEW6LCEgdx7OoWpO6gSpU5VWCd1JwCLcBGAs/s1600/511egzEHSgL._SX322_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="499" data-original-width="324" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-FoHD8jE8oGs/Wx_YYYK3S_I/AAAAAAAAAWE/8D1RtEW6LCEgdx7OoWpO6gSpU5VWCd1JwCLcBGAs/s320/511egzEHSgL._SX322_BO1%252C204%252C203%252C200_.jpg" width="207" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Wow - I’ve just read this book, and its quite amazing - I’d recommend it to everyone. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">You may have seen or heard Hans Rosling in TED Talks in recent years, simply explaining that our mental models of the world today are broadly wrong - very wrong. His approach, very much like W Edwards Deming, is to look at the numbers - and with clever presentation, clearly demonstrates where the real issues are based against poverty and wealth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Armed with great data, better decisions can then be made. One of my favourites: when a midwife in a poor country (level 1 poverty) was asked what she most needed to do her job properly, her response was needing a torch so she wasn’t killed by a snake whilst trekking to a patient in the dark.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you want to dive in and spend 10 minutes understanding a little more, here’s their test, and see how you score on world poverty, health and wealth:</span></div>
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<a href="http://forms.gapminder.org/s3/test-2018"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://forms.gapminder.org/s3/test-2018</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Their main website:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.gapminder.org/"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">https://www.gapminder.org</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The book:</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Factfulness-Reasons-Wrong-Things-Better/dp/1473637465/ref=sr_1_1/258-9003093-5818558?ie=UTF8&qid=1528811721&sr=8-1&keywords=factfulness"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">https://www.amazon.co.uk/Factfulness-Reasons-Wrong-Things-Better/dp/1473637465/ref=sr_1_1/258-9003093-5818558?ie=UTF8&qid=1528811721&sr=8-1&keywords=factfulness</span></a></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-65805258573980293772018-05-09T18:56:00.000+01:002018-05-09T18:56:28.359+01:00Some businesses are 14 times better than others<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2pneQpXIKBY/WvM1jfZN6RI/AAAAAAAAAV0/raDGghgijnsk04oK1uItowBIieW0jjtfgCLcBGAs/s1600/call-center-2006866_1920.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1140" data-original-width="1600" height="227" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2pneQpXIKBY/WvM1jfZN6RI/AAAAAAAAAV0/raDGghgijnsk04oK1uItowBIieW0jjtfgCLcBGAs/s320/call-center-2006866_1920.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">As many of you may know, I’ve worked in quite a few Local Authority Housing Benefit departments - these teams provide benefits to vulnerable adults to assist with rent and council tax payments if they are on low incomes. Not only is there usually ample scope for improvement, it also means those that need the money get it sooner.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I continue to do research on the national figures, and they’re interesting reading - the difference in performance is far larger than you might expect:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - some councils undertake their claims in an average of 4 days,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - other take as long as 57 days, and</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - over 200 councils take longer than 20 days.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, some councils are 14 times better than others.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the past, I helped one council enable them to pay half of their claims in less than one hour - it can be done - it’s better customer service, and considerably cheaper.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why is this important?</span></b></div>
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<li style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s much better customer service, the customer makes less contact, and they get their issues resolved more quickly</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s cheaper for the business because everything gets completed sooner, and</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The staff love it because they get a chance to resolve customer issues properly.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Example</b>: If you had financial difficulties, how often would you chase your payments? - once a week? In the examples above, one council would be receive no chasing telephone calls, whilst another might be receiving as many as eight chasing calls, ie one business needs a large call centre, the other doesn’t.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>Example: </b>again, in the examples above, one council would be drowning in a sea of claims paper work that I estimate at over 1000 claim files, the other would have approximately 20 files as work-in-progress. So, one council would need a large and expensive document imaging system, the other, possibly a shelf?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">But this doesn’t just happen in the public sector - they’re the ones that are brave enough (or instructed to) provide consistent figures so that consultants like me to can undertake some comparative analysis.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>It happens in businesses too - I see it regularly. </b> Whether its on-line gambling, electricity or engineering (all recent assignments) I see situations where:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - purpose has been forgotten</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - the same predictable issues occur time again</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - there is little attention to understanding root cause</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - the work flow has not been understood from the customers’ perspective, and</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - there’s failure to truly design the process based on what is actually required.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Examples I’ve seen lately:</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - sending engineers to site with incorrect or out-of-date drawings meaning that they can’t complete the work</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - not sending out bills because of blockages upstream in the process, causing problems in customer services and credit control</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - not being able to see the underlying “production line” of work flow, resulting in ineffective controls of highly regulated areas of the business.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This isn’t just about some changes to the tactical plans of the business, it’s fundamental to the strategy of the leadership agenda. It’s not just a process thing - it’s at the very heart of what a business is there to do. In all of my recent assignments, the benefits to the customer journey, the staff, and the bottom line have been significant.</span></div>
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<br />matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-42892973991426986722017-08-15T16:44:00.000+01:002017-08-15T16:44:10.541+01:00Lessons in strategy from Formula One<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5jWB49DEUig/WZMWGJtQgzI/AAAAAAAAAVU/_R7qciMCA2wBDhZ6Z6EcwIpI2IOKgawIQCLcBGAs/s1600/automotive-2491105_640.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5jWB49DEUig/WZMWGJtQgzI/AAAAAAAAAVU/_R7qciMCA2wBDhZ6Z6EcwIpI2IOKgawIQCLcBGAs/s320/automotive-2491105_640.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I read a fascinating book recently all about Ross Brawn’s achievement in F1, how he sees the whole team as a system, and the similarities with running any large organisation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Ross Brawn has played a major part in many leading F1 teams, including the winning streaks at Ferrari, Brawn GP and Mercedes. Having semi-retired a few years ago, he has recently been in an the news again as he takes a place in the leadership team of F1 after Bernie Ecclestone’s departure.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I found it a fascinating book, especially as a fan of F1, giving a wonderful insight into winning in Formula One over the last 30 years. And this isn’t just about winning a race, it’s about how to take a team (of up to 1000 people), understand the environment they operate in, and lead them to excellence in everything they do - drawing many parallels with running large and complex organisations.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It certainly seems like Ross Brawn is a “System Thinker”, with one of Adam Parr’s main observations of Ross as being that he sees strategy as a system - a philosophy from which process flows, a philosophy of <i>processes</i>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It’s going to be fascinating to see how Ross Brawn brings his magic touch to the whole F1 circus.</span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Total Competition - lessons in strategy from Formula One</span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">by, Ross Brawn and Adam Parr</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Total-Competition-Lessons-Strategy-Formula-Ross-Brawn/1471162389/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502811742&sr=8-1-fkmr0&keywords=total+competition+ross+brawn">Buy the book here on Amazon</a></span></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-56458920272965910182017-07-07T11:23:00.000+01:002017-07-07T11:23:43.115+01:00Where is the start of the queue?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My last two posts have been about queues - I promise, this will be last one about queues for a while….!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This one goes back a few years, but I see it time and again, in offices, contact centres, post offices, coffee shops…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I was helping a council with their Housing Benefits claims, and spending a lot of time in their contact centre. A pattern was appearing, there was always a queue after lunch - at it’s worst at about 3pm.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The team had lots of ideas about why that was happening:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">it’s the weather</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you were in that queue, you might be thinking…</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">why am I in a queue?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">they’re always busy after lunch</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">they don’t care about me.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So what’s happening?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For a start, the queue didn’t ‘arrive’ at 3pm. The queue began the moment that demand was greater than the supply of staff to help. For example, if there were 5 positions open, and 6 people walk through the door as it opens at 9am, then the queue started then. If the same happens again at 10am (and for ease of maths, assume it takes an hour to deal with each person), then there will be 2 people waiting in a queue. And so on…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Until lunch, when some staff have their lunch break (seems only fair) and the queue grows further more quickly. You see what’s happening…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And it’s my belief that … drum roll … queues are entirely ‘man-made’ and can be eliminated if they are approached with a different mind-set.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, back to the original scenario, although there were 5 people serving at 9am, there were more behind the scenes doing ‘other’ work. (More about the ‘other’ work later…) What if we pulled a member of the team into the front desk as soon as we needed to meet demand from the 6th customer. Queue gone - at 9am. And when it happens at 10am - the same again.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It’s simple, match the supply of staff to the demand of the customer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Remember, all the customers get seen in the end anyway - now without a queue - better customer service.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, what about the ‘other’ work? Well, when the queue was long, some customers turn on their heals and disappear. They may phone in, or write in at a later date. This is the ‘other’ work that has to be dealt with later, but is now more difficult, because it’s harder, or impossible, to interact when not face-to-face. So this way eliminates waste work.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve helped my clients many times with problems of this type. And it’s great to see those that have benefitted most still in the top 10 on national league tables.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Where are your queues? - because they’re not always people in reception. A backlog of emails? Uncompleted work? A unusually large level of debt on the aged debt list?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">You know where I am if you’d like to know more.</span></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-68830761240360792102017-05-30T13:08:00.000+01:002017-05-30T13:08:58.356+01:00So, how do you make a cup of coffee?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bKWjAsRRdB0/WS1ex0JFEUI/AAAAAAAAAU0/RCMVKooh-JMxT7MaT0wIOC35s0IfoVSnACLcB/s1600/cup-of-coffee-laptop-office-macbook-89786.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1065" data-original-width="1600" height="212" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bKWjAsRRdB0/WS1ex0JFEUI/AAAAAAAAAU0/RCMVKooh-JMxT7MaT0wIOC35s0IfoVSnACLcB/s320/cup-of-coffee-laptop-office-macbook-89786.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In my last blog, I discussed the queuing issue at low-cost supermarkets, and mentioned the difference between the way Starbucks and Caffe Nero make your coffee order. Did you spot the difference the last time you were in?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">As I mentioned before, if you wonder in without looking, you’ll come out a few minutes later with a coffee. But if you study it, their working practices are very different. Both work OK when under ‘low-load’, but during very busy times, one will fail, and the other continues to work smoothly.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why am I writing about coffee shops on this blog? - because the same ‘queuing’ issues arises time and again in organisations of all shapes and sizes:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the passport office - does it really takes x weeks to process a passport?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">the post office - why is there a queue at lunch time…?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">service organisations - why are you really on hold? - again?</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, what’s the difference in the coffee shops?</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And why is it important?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">*** Spoiler Alert *** You’ll never look at a coffee shop queue in the same way again ***</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At Caffe Nero, a person takes you order, then also takes your payment, and they also make your drink - serving you food too if you’ve asked for it. This is called “one piece flow” - take a customer’s order, and complete it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">At Starbucks, one person takes you order - writes it down, and passes it on. Sometimes, another person takes your payment. And a third person makes the drink. Ever experienced a “lost” coffee when your’s doesn’t arrive? Or the conversation behind the counter when one person can’t remember the message? Or the barista asks you what your order was again? And then when it gets busy…. Hand-offs, waste work and re-work everywhere.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, why does this matter?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">If you’re in the coffee shop head office, you’ll never spot these issues, the profits roll in, and it all looks OK. Not so, if you’re a customer. It becomes a distinctly average experience.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And why I am writing about it here?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Well, it’s easy to spot the errors in a £3 cup of coffee, when you know where to look.</span></div>
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<li><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But what about when you’re asked to pay £130 for a new passport that takes weeks, and can be late?</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or on the phone to the bank / insurance co / mobile co / electricity company - again…!?</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or the paperwork for your new employee is taking a long time and they miss their first pay cheque?</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Or when the £20,000 engineering work you’ve asked for is late or wrong?</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Do you regard these as minor customer service issues? - or fundamentally missing the very purpose of your organisation?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">These things matter. Missed deadlines. Poor customer service. We’ve all experienced it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Do you know what’s happening at the sharp end of your business? Are customers of yours experiencing this, and you haven’t spotted it…?</span></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-41438721619673953422017-04-02T17:11:00.000+01:002017-04-03T10:46:51.035+01:00Why the queues?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">There was a interesting item in the news a few weeks ago regarding a plateauing of sales at the discount food stores, relating to the shopping experience, particularly the often poor queuing process.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Call me sad (!) but I regularly look at the different queuing systems businesses use. The post office. The benefits office. Petrol stations. Payroll. Passport office. Billing departments. Coffee shops.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The difference between the Starbucks and Caffe Nero - that’s a great one to study. If you wonder in without looking, you’ll come out a few minutes later with a coffee. But if you study it, their working practices are very different. During a training session a years back, I took a team of senior execs to both coffee outlets to take a look - it was a fun way to learn. Both work OK when under ‘low-load’, but during very busy times, one will fail, and the other continues to work smoothly - can you tell which one? More on that another time!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Back to the discount stores. They offer great food, at great value, and seem to have taken the larger, more established businesses by surprise.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So why are the queues long, and the experience so bad?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I’ve seen reasons such as:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> - they need new technology, and</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> - there aren’t enough staff on the tills.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">I disagree.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, what’s happening?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">When I go through these tills, it feels like the items are flung at me - the bleeps of the till going mad. My guess: that the local management measure the performance of the staff by the speed of the bleeps. It’s easy to obtain this data, it’s easy to review this data, it’s easy to compare the team members. But the customer is forgotten, because the need to get people through the tills has been replaced by the speed of the till bleeps.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And that’s the problem. The beeps are quick, but then they have to wait for the customer to complete their packing. A clear case of “hurry-up and wait”!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, when you study a system, you start to see the world differently, and other possible solutions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For a start, the objective at the checkout isn’t to bleep as quickly as possible. Surely the objective is to get customer through the “unload basket, scan, pack, pay, leave” process as soon as possible. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One simple improvement - when all the items have been scanned (quickly or not) why doesn’t the member of staff help bag-up the items? A little extra work by the checkout operative, means the customer leaves the shop more quickly. The point being, the purpose has changed - to helping the customer through the end-to-end process. There are many other tweaks and changes that can be applied - drop me a line if you’d like to know more.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So, why doesn’t this happen by itself?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Because counting bleeps is easy, and measuring end-to-end throughput is often much harder. The system is a service production line - it’s generally not viewed like that - and the right data isn’t often easily accessible to make the right decisions. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So why is it important? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the immediate term - there may be no impact - shoppers will still come, buy, and go - getting a little frustrated each time. It costs no more to help pack - and neither does it save the shop money, so there’s no obvious benefit to them - other than short queues and happy customers…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But longer term, it’s a better customer experience, and won’t impact on potential future sales. And it’s happening to every customer, in every store, every day - and is being covered in the news.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It’s no different in other similar systems:</span></div>
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<li style="color: #454545; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The benefits office - it usually takes less than 30 minutes to complete a claim, so why do many vulnerable adults have to wait over a month?</span></li>
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<li style="color: #454545; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Passport office - it can only take 20 to 30 minutes to actually process a passport, why then are there occasional delays and backlogs during some summers?</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They are production lines, but in the service industry. And as I’ve said to a number of my clients recently, if the production line was making washing machines, it would be easy to see which ones were broken or wonky - but it’s much harder when the process is ‘hidden’ in computers and paperwork.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Understanding the service production line is vital for great customer service. It helps remove the re-work - speeding up the end-to-end process. And re-work is expensive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This quote seems fitting: “Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” (CS Lewis).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">More queuing blogs to come…</span></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-65973475543424245132017-02-20T11:30:00.001+00:002017-02-20T11:30:48.405+00:00Housing Benefits - Long-term data and improvements in performance.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TY4gSrxy0LM/WKrSS4HwIRI/AAAAAAAAAT8/CZunnXkUA_IReXFwCq9KZFzFVcPMtyoRwCLcB/s1600/pexels-photo-42384.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TY4gSrxy0LM/WKrSS4HwIRI/AAAAAAAAAT8/CZunnXkUA_IReXFwCq9KZFzFVcPMtyoRwCLcB/s320/pexels-photo-42384.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve helped quite a number of Housing Benefit departments in the last 15 years, including helping Darlington move from 60th in the national league table to the top 10 - where they remain (based on customer end-to-end time). I also helped Milton Keynes reduce their end-to-end time from 60 days to 20. Likewise Middlesborough. And quite a number of others. And all during a time of cuts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve been undertaking some Housing Benefit research lately, analysing some of the government data that councils have to lodge - and it’s not been easy!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I trained as a Chartered Accountant, and was soon brought in to the fold of month-ends and year-ends. Fine, the accountant needs to draw a line in the sand, but back in operations, it’s just another day. Long term performance in operations requires an understanding of how operations have performed repeatedly over long periods of time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Benefits performance data that the government logs are quarterly, and split into geographic region, making it difficult to see performance over time, and difficult to compare similarly sized departments.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I’ve now pulled together all of the long term data into a database to make it easy to compare performance. This covers:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">6 years of quarterly data, and</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">379 councils. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It makes for some interesting analysis - those that do well, and others that seem to struggle - and it enables the real questions to be asked:</span></div>
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<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">how are some performing well? - what’s special about what they’re doing?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">others are struggling, why is that? - what could they be doing differently?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">why isn’t everyone sharing what they’ve learned to offer great service?</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And it’s not because of budget cuts - good performance in systems of the this type is cheaper, because it eliminates the waste work:</span></div>
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<a href="http://595or.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/keeping-things-simple.html"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://595or.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/keeping-things-simple.html</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://595or.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/cost-exist-to-be-reduced.html"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://595or.blogspot.co.uk/2014/06/cost-exist-to-be-reduced.html</span></a></div>
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<a href="http://595or.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/does-it-really-take-6-weeks-to-get-my.html"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">http://595or.blogspot.co.uk/2011/10/does-it-really-take-6-weeks-to-get-my.html</span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I also have considerable experience of similar improvements in Finance, HR, Payroll, Council Tax, Planning, Housing Repairs, Streetscene and others. And in the private sector, including IT help desks, billing performance, claims and banking.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Want to know more, drop me a line: <a href="mailto:matt595@me.com"><span style="color: #e4af0a;">matt595@me.com</span></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Matt</span></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-45657444929734816782017-02-08T13:53:00.000+00:002017-02-08T13:53:00.180+00:00Learning by experience<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fjXS072ugjE/WJSMQUdLqPI/AAAAAAAAATk/eCB-4jeYkvAFXzadKHgw1jNu-ard0sAsgCLcB/s1600/Slide1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fjXS072ugjE/WJSMQUdLqPI/AAAAAAAAATk/eCB-4jeYkvAFXzadKHgw1jNu-ard0sAsgCLcB/s400/Slide1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I came across this little gem - a fantastic reminder of how people learn.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've seen many people (and experienced consultants) tell people how and what to change - and they always seem surprised when things don't quite 'stick' in the weeks to come.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Combining a "whole system" approach, together with an active "working-together" ethos during the change process, will always increase the changes of success and lasting change.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It's a good reminder of <a href="http://595or.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/from-to-b-difference-between-change.html">the difference between Change Management and Work Design</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-74996298237180452052017-02-01T18:00:00.001+00:002017-02-03T13:46:53.827+00:00The keys to a system of work<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tMKv3puhwUI/WJIhy4Mp7JI/AAAAAAAAATQ/alYpj0GTypU3_7Wp72YjIbwNMvWVLNxxQCLcB/s1600/pexels-photo-213377.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tMKv3puhwUI/WJIhy4Mp7JI/AAAAAAAAATQ/alYpj0GTypU3_7Wp72YjIbwNMvWVLNxxQCLcB/s320/pexels-photo-213377.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It was a busy 2016, with a really mixed set of clients, including, amongst others:</span></div>
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<li style="color: #454545; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: normal;"></span>a London-based lightning-conductor design, engineer and install business</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: normal;"></span>a large southwest-based firm of solicitors, and</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: normal;"></span>preparing payroll systems for one of the world’s largest car rental business</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It couldn’t have been more diverse - so what do they have in common?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">They were all having problems with their “system” (not IT system) and were all scratching their heads. And all required changes to thinking to enable a different approach to the work. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">My belief is that different systems have a ‘key’ - a focal point if you like, that is at the heart of the issue, which then helps the rest of the business/process to fit into place.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For the teams of engineers who were spending a little too often parked-up outside the office rather than on site delivering and earning, we discovered:</span></div>
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<li style="color: #454545; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: normal;"></span>they were often being sent to site with incorrect or old design drawings</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: normal;"></span>the site said they were ready for the works, but actually were not, and</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: normal;"></span>the project managers didn’t have time to be pro-active (because they were fixed stuff that had gone wring before)</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">For the legal firm:</span></div>
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<li style="color: #454545; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: normal;"></span>encouraging more team work</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: normal;"></span>a little more formal communication, and</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: normal;"></span>ensuring the whole team, from top to bottom, understood a little more about how the whole business worked.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The car rental company:</span></div>
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<li style="color: #454545; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: normal;"></span>considering the end-to-end data flow from the employees perspective</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: normal;"></span>ensuring the various data flows are all collected right-first-time - collecting payroll data for hours worked, commission due, and</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: normal;"></span>eliminating the failure demand at the end of the process by ensuring accuracy at the start.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Where I’ve studied the work in business systems, the ‘keys’ are often the same, and that’s because “the system” is same. An insurance claim, looks like a benefit claim, looks like anti-money laundering event, looks like a planning application, looks like an engineering install.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">A few of the most common 'keys':</span></div>
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<li style="color: #454545; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ensure a common purpose for the whole team, from the customers' perspective</span></li>
<li style="color: #454545; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">put the effort in upfront to make sure you start with clean data</span></li>
<li style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545;"><span style="line-height: normal;"></span>only do the value work, and</span></span></li>
<li style="line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="color: #454545;">do it right-first-time.</span></span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Want to know more? Give me a buzz.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Matt</span></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-11693024442232589902017-01-05T13:17:00.002+00:002017-01-06T19:37:52.846+00:00New Year’s Resolutions<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A New Year's resolution is a tradition in which a person resolves to change an undesired trait or behaviour. We all know that - right? So why do so many of our New Year's resolutions fail?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Researchers have looked at success rates of peoples' resolutions:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the first two weeks usually go along beautifully</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">but by February, people are slipping, and</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">by the following December, most people are back where they started, often even further behind.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Why do so many people not keep their resolutions? Well, there are a number of reasons:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">people aren't ready to change their habits, particularly bad ones</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">they set themselves unrealistic goals and expectations, and</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">when it doesn't “change your life”, they get discouraged and revert back to old behaviours.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Making resolutions work is essentially changing behaviours and in order to do that, you have to change your thinking and "rewire" your brain. (It sounds a bit like Systems Thinking to me…)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, if you're going to make New Year's resolutions, here's some tips to help you make them work:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Focus on one resolution - rather several</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Set realistic specific goals - e.g. losing 10 pounds in 90 days</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Don't wait till New Year's eve - make a difference everyday</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Take small steps - one step at a time</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Have an accountability buddy - someone close to you that you have to report to</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Celebrate your success - including between milestones</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Focus your thinking on new behaviours and thought patterns - it takes time to change habits</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Focus on the present - what's the one thing you can do today</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, with that in mind, what I am going to do differently in2017? Well, I’m going to post a little more frequently - once a month. See you again in February.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Many thanks for the advice from <a href="http://raywilliams.ca/">Ray Williams</a> via <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/">Psychology Today</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/201012/why-new-years-resolutions-fail</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Web: http://raywilliams.ca</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Twitter: @raybwilliams</span><br />
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-8355764119783043042015-10-03T19:01:00.002+01:002019-04-04T16:54:27.802+01:00Working with MadAbout<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I regularly work with colleagues at MadAbout - people I’ve known for over 15 years(!).</div>
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Our collaboration brings together a focus on:</div>
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<li style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Applied Behaviour Analysis, and</li>
<li style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">End-to-end system/process view using Lean and Systems Thinking techniques.</li>
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It’s a match made in heaven - ticking all the boxes in the wider Socio-Technicial Systems Design approach to transformation - it’s worth a google.</div>
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As is often the way, we turn to three key models for analysis, review and solution building:</div>
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<li style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">"Purpose to People” - <a href="http://595or.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/succesful-re-structures-as-part-of.html">see previous blog for the model</a></li>
<li style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Understanding Behaviours - guiding the whole team towards "what good looks like”. (See my next blog soon)</li>
<li style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">Service By Design - designing the ideal customer experience - from first contact, understanding client need, to problem resolution right-first-time.</li>
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It’s a great framework covering:</div>
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<li style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The technical details of the whole end-to-end process for the service</li>
<li style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The behaviours of the teams undertaking the work (remembering Deming’s view)</li>
<li style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">How the whole organisation works together to ensure the service is delivered to 000’s of customers</li>
<li style="font-family: Helvetica; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">The people and behavioural aspects of the management team</li>
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The result is a rich picture of how the organisation is performing, revealing insights into what’s really happening, and leading to an array of solutions - from quick wins to long-term strategies.</div>
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Want to know more? 07775 595 595 </div>
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Working with: <a href="http://madabout.org.uk/">MadAbout.org.uk</a></div>
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matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-91710348467111956242015-04-05T22:35:00.001+01:002015-11-04T11:15:11.868+00:00Change Readiness: DVF > R<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9Q1DspV9u-U/VSGpU60kONI/AAAAAAAAARs/QA3pfndcYMM/s1600/Slide1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-9Q1DspV9u-U/VSGpU60kONI/AAAAAAAAARs/QA3pfndcYMM/s1600/Slide1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Why don’t some people want to change? Even when ‘we’ know things can be improved, often dramatically, we still seem to puzzle with those that seem less enthused.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">And of course, we never truly know what drives the behaviours, unless they tell us. But that doesn’t happen particularly often in the work environment.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'helvetica neue', arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">So, what can we do?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This is a particularly useful little tool that may just help ‘oil the cogs’ of change, and help you appreciate what might be happening to the people you’re working with.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">To overcome <b>R</b>esistenance to change - <b>R</b> - we need to:</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><b>D</b> - understand how <b>D</b>issatisfied they are with the current state - where is their pain?</span> </blockquote>
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<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">V</b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> - paint a clear </span><b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">V</b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">ision of the future - what does “good” look like?</span> </blockquote>
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<b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">F </b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">- prepare the </span><b style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">F</b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">irst steps - even Everest is climbed with just one step at a time.</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Although as consultant you may never explicitly state this equation, helping your change sponsor / leader / CEO understand these key areas is vital if change is going to happen. It’s all part of change readiness - and all part of the initial relationship building around “What’s really happening in your business?"</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>matt595http://www.blogger.com/profile/12811284943182541812noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8527396861528469797.post-57666276740570102272015-03-27T13:12:00.000+00:002019-04-23T18:19:07.079+01:00Systems Thinking, and why lean tools don't work on their own<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xgOPq-mdiX0/VRVPFTRGg5I/AAAAAAAAARY/KNp5eqLFxiU/s1600/737x415xWASPH_P086_Lincoln_Memorial_1280x720_54628.jpg.pagespeed.ic.-67RdJJkhw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xgOPq-mdiX0/VRVPFTRGg5I/AAAAAAAAARY/KNp5eqLFxiU/s1600/737x415xWASPH_P086_Lincoln_Memorial_1280x720_54628.jpg.pagespeed.ic.-67RdJJkhw.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This remains one of my favourite stories about how systems work together.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We all know about the "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5_Whys">5 Whys</a>".</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But how do you know how many times to ask "Why?" if you don't fully appreciate the system in which you are working? (Clue: it's not always 5 times...)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The <a href="https://wallbuilder.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/the-lincoln-memorial-and-the-5-whys/">Lincoln Memorial story</a> explains it beautifully.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Initially, the authorities had a problem where the facade was deteriorating rapidly. They were concerned.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">It would be easy to dive straight into solutions requiring builders, scaffolding, repairs - all costing $$$.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">But the solution wasn't there. The root-cause was the timing of the evening illuminations which attracted bugs. I small change to the timing, and the results were enormous:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Less bugs meant less spiders.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Less spiders meant less birds.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Less birds meant less droppings.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Less droppings meant less washings.</span></li>
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<li><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Less washings meant less deterioration of the stone on the outside of the memorial.</span></li>
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<span style="caret-color: rgb(51, 51, 51); color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In the real world, the issue can often boil down to a consulting dilemma:</span></div>
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<li><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">take "the brown envelope" and assist in the multi-million $ repair program, or</span></span></li>
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<li><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">find the clever, simple, solution that is far more powerful and effective</span></span></li>
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<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 23px;">I find this decision easy.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Want to know more:</span><br /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - about <a href="https://595or.blogspot.com/p/matthew-arnold.html" style="color: #cc66cc; text-decoration: none;">Matt Arnold</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - give me a call on 07775 595 595</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - email on <a href="mailto:matt595@me.com" style="color: #cc66cc; text-decoration: none;">matt595@me.com</a></span></div>
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