Change in Programming

While part of this article deals with technology, it addresses how organizations need to deal with the change of a new system. Does your company have many proprietary systems? Or, perhaps, you have just one large one that has gathered steam over the years and the only people who can keep it afloat are your current IT people...The good news for them is job security...the bad news for the company is complacency...In a way, we all have a small fear of change, but if we don't change, we don't grow...

Think about how many organizational changes you have had in the last year, or the last five years even. If your systems have not adjusted to meet even those changes, maybe change should be balanced better.

Read the article here our our Shanachie Techie Blog:
http://www.storyinstitute.com/blog/2008/06/vista-choose-when-to-change.html

Service Sense: Volume I - Customer Service That Slipped

After much thought and consideration...added to recently poor customer service experiences, Story Institute asks for your stories about service for an upcoming book. The book will be sold on Amazon and other select sites, plus available directly from us.

For this volume, we are looking for customer service stories that turned bad. If you have waited all day for a shipment of furniture that never showed...were overcharged for an item you ended up not able to return, or encountered a rude customer service representative, please share it with us. We will use your story and your first name with your permission. We will add a summary to each story, along with tips for companies on how to correct these horrible experiences, and learning opportunities for organizations to improve their services...or, sense of service at least.

With this new title, we hope to show companies that poor service is not good for business and there are ways to improve instead of just giving up on it all together.

Send your stories to: customerservice@storyinstitute.com

Thank you for helping us assemble this industry changing book.

Story Institute Expansion

There comes a time when the material piles up and you have to do something with it...so...we will be incorporating under Story Institute and adding a site and expanding our vision...check us out in these locations...

Story Institute Vision
We will inspire you to imagine, enhance, and grow your stories personally and professionally while helping you share your successes in print, online, and in person.

Story Institute Mission

Though Integrity, Ingenuity, Inspiration, Influence, Impact, and Excellence,
We will:
* Evoke emotion within our customers that make connections to our communities.
* Engage our customers, their families, and clients in active tales that connect their emotions to past knowledge and experiences.
* Empower our partners to use their new knowledge while growing their families, organizations, and stories into a world of their own.

Story Institute Entities
Story Institute - Imagine your Stories Again - Story, Poetry, and Contests for the writer in most of us.

Timeless Tales - Enhance Your Stories Now - Candy Wrappers, Family topics, home décor, kid fun for the now.

MySkillCenter - Grow Your Stories for the Future - Personal and Professional Enrichment within HR, People Skills, Manager/Leader, Career Pathing, Measurement.

Excellence Takes Time

So, you listened to those external consultants who told you that you can have results if you followed their recommendations. They also told you that you can get the results you want in the short time that you said you needed it...

What they did not tell you was that the results were temporary and usually only last until they leave the project...or, shortly thereafter...and, since you did not understand, or want to understand the measurement strategy, you can not duplicate the measurements or results without bringing them back...When they return, they find other things wrong and want to "help" you improve the rest of your operations...slow down, don't jump in yet...take your time...

Take your time and learn. Learn what the "expert" consultants tell you is going on in your organization before you trust their techniques for improvement. Learn the measurement strategy they will use and how you will continue it when they leave. Learn the objectives, both general and specific, on what they will be accomplishing and how it benefits your organization. If they can not provide this, they are not the experts no matter how many people they have "helped" or how many projects they have undertaken before. They are simply consultants who have experience, not necessarily "experts." An individual who makes burgers at a local fast food place for 10 years has experience in cooking, but they may not be an "expert" chef...think about this for a minute before you just let someone else impact your organization, especially if you think you are just too busy.

If you are a leader in a publicly traded company, you have a commitment to your stockholders to maintain long-term equilibrium. This means that your decisions are good for the long-haul, not just the short-term. If someone sells you quick quality, ask how good it really is and how long it can be maintained. Remember, you have to maintain it. Your company deserves the best. Focus on delivering excellence not numbers. Numbers drive more numbers...Excellence drives loyalty...Loyalty drives results that are good for the organization and the stockholders.

Even if you get results, make sure you can duplicate them. You can duplicate them if you understand them. Good luck and lead well...

Leading by Avoidance

Have you ever worked for a leader who just avoided you? Has this same leader then used the at-will clause or position elimination to finally have a conversation with you? I can honestly say that I have not...however, I have worked with these people as my peers. I have watched as they blamed their inefficiency on the many people they let go..the interesting thing is that these same people were still inefficient after the others were gone...but the blame game got them moved to another area or role so that they can start the process all over.

This style is called leadership through avoidance. While some say this is just how they are, think about the humanity behind it. Avoid your partner and employees and maybe they will just go away...That really isn't leadership...it is self-preservation...

A unique idea here would be that if you do not work well with others or have difficulty even having a conversation, let alone have a difficult conversation, you should either work on improving your skills or stop being a leader. There really are individual contribitor roles that meet your needs...please look for them...

This became more of a rant than a direction and insight, but right-fit roles are important in keeping everyone sane and your business thriving...

Good luck and lead well..

Lead Away Before Being Lead Away

Walking the thin line of leadership sometimes involves stepping over the line. Or, perhaps even erasing the line all together and re-drawing it yourself. If you are in a position of leadership, take the responsibility to reconsider your line. If you do not, who will...? Remember, you are the leader...you set the example. Draw an ethical line. Or, another path will be decided for you.

Measure, measure, measure

When your organization or team measures a process, a product, or person, be sure to connect the measurement to something higher within the organization such as your core values, your core competencies, or certain behaviors. Without this connection, it will be challenging to show how any change impacts your ROI. You would just have random changes. Alignment before you develop drives buy-in as well since individuals can connect the expected bahavior change to a reason other than...because I said so...

Promote Passion

Passion can be misinterpreted as not being a team player...the best teams thrive on the passion they show...you may not have the most talented staff, but passion and dedication will make the the most talented team. The most talented team builds a more successful business. Promote passion and embrace the growth...

Driving ROI Available

Here it is...you may have seen the electronic version, now you can order it in paperback without delay...

Sales with Synergy...

So, you saw that movie, or perhaps that new tv show, and now, now the spin-off merchandise is hitting the shelf, just in time for the holidays...worse yet, your children are now asking for that new children's show high-tech item that will undoubtedly break the bank...Or, perhaps Santa's back...

Sales are all about timing and connections. These days, companies plan for distinct merchandising patterns. They evoke emotion with the original storyline within the movie or tv show. They engage you with the commercials and allow you to test out the products when at the store. Lastly, they try to empower you to purchase the products...OK, OK, it has happened that way for years. This is how advertising and marketing work. During this holiday season, however, remember the E-III model and get caught up in the holiday itself, not necessarily the planned marketing behind it...if you do receive many new items, remember to share the stories of the new items within your life with others...it will become how you or your family interact with the products that bring the value and ROI to the season of giving...enjoy the season or the synergy, but enjoy it...

Good Customer Service is Always Personal

So, while the original article was a little longer on this subject, I decided to shorten it a little and put it here...

How often have you heard that this is just a job? Maybe, you believe that you are just working job and leave the work at work. Well, good for you. For the rest of you do you wish that you could go home and stop thinking about what happened during the day...? It is a little scary to think that you just turned off the majority of your life...Oh, right, wait, it is just a job...a job that takes up the majority of your waking hours...a job that takes you away from your family so that the most you spend with children under 10 is about 3 hours a day if you are lucky...OK, OK, so the just a job pays for the things your family has, including the food on your table. But, have you thought about your job taking up the most time during your day? You spend more time with your co-workers than you do with your family. Given this, it can become a little difficult to think of what you do as just a job.

Have you had a moment with a server or a cashier in which they exceeded your expectations and were overly pleasant to you and treated you like a VIP customer? While these moments may seem to be growing less and less prominent, they still exist. So? You may ask. So...imagine if these people thought of what they did as just a job. Oh, right, maybe that is why the exceptional customer service moments are fewer and farther in between. Too many customer service workers believe they are there because it is just a job. Companies hire people to fill roles, but they may not be the right people for the right roles. They may be just people, just working a job. We then feel less like a person ourselves.

Your job effects other people, especially if you are in a customer service role. However, even if you are not in a customer service role, and your company sells or provides a service to the public, you effect other people, making how you spend the majority of your day more than a job. Think about whom you effect before you say that you just have a job. Think about how different companies would be if people would actually take pride in their role. Think about your personal time and behaviors and bring some of that passion and commitment with you to your job.

Good luck.

The full article with side stories will appear here at a later date. Thank you for stopping by...now, back to work...smiles abound...

Hiring Leaders not Managers

It is difficult to tell from an interview whether you are hiring a manager or a leader. Don't fool yourself in thinking that these two are one in the same. Managers arrange and rearrange things...whereas leaders provide guidance and inspiration to their teams.

For some roles, you need to hire the best manager. An example of this may be in a warehouse. If someone is not good at organizing things and has the ability to keep things functional, your warehouse would be a mess. You would constantly be looking for products and resources only to find that they were not ordered in the first place. Listen for examples on how the individual handles multiple tasks and completes jobs that impacted the bottom-line.

For other roles that require an extensive amount of people interaction, you should hire the best leader. You need a person who stayed or left an organization because of the people. If someone is good at communication and inspiration, they can help people do more than they think they can do themselves. Listen for examples on what role this individual played during a time of change. If they sat back and let it happen or just went along with it, this is not the leader you were looking for...If they took an active part in helping the organization or the people translate the change into how it connects for them, you have found your leader...

This is just one set of tips in identifying differences between managers and leaders. Decide which one you need before you start your interview process. If you need both, stay tuned for future hints and goals...

Laying Claim

Technorati Profile

Training Sense...Cents...

We often look to others for the answers to problems within our organization especially when it comes to training. For some reason, we believe that maybe, there is a better answer out "there"...somewhere... We look to the "training gurus" and wonder whether they can bail us out of yet another situation. When often, the answers are right within our organization. In fact, we probably dismissed them, turned them out, and just plain ignored them. We've heard them but refused to listen to their stories. We each have them in our organizations. They are who/what makes sense ans saves cents. However, we sit back and say, "it can't be that easy..." and we rely on others outside of our inner circle to help tell our stories.

Would we ask a neighbor to tell our children that the dog ran away? Probably not, so why would we look outside to have someone tell our story...Well, it starts with perspective...we hope the "gurus" have a different perspective and can pull more out of less.

Trainer Assessment Tool

Have you sat in a class and wondered how people found such a wonderful trainer? Well, that's for another post. However, if you are wondering how to begin assessing the performance of a trainer/facilitator, click on the title of this post and you will be taken to an example of a tool that you would use as a trained observer. This resource aligns with the Satisfaction Survey shared in this site as well. Combine both to obtain a bigger picture of the trainers performance and how well the material is being received by each trainer.