Customer Experience University - Winning Loyalty & Engagement One Customer at a Time

How to DRIVE employee engagement (part 1) | Customer Experience IS Team Member Experience

This is the fifth post in a series titled "Customer Experience IS Team Member Experience."
As this post's name implies, there are many best practices when it comes to increasing employee engagement (EE). For our purposes, I’ll stick with evidence-based approaches (those that show reliable and replicable results) featuring 10 employee engaging activities this week and 10 more to close out the series next week. 

What are the REAL benefits of employee engagement? | Customer Experience IS Team Member Experience

This is the fourth in a series titled "Customer Experience IS Team Member Experience." 
Generally, the benefits of a highly engaged workforce fall into two categories – increased financial performance and improved employee performance and well-being.
Since employee engagement looks like the best thing since sliced bread, how do we increase it in our workplaces?

How do you know if they are engaged? | Customer Experience IS Team Member Experience

This is the third in a series titled "Customer Experience IS Team Member Experience."
As promised, this week we will look at how to best measure attitudinal and behavioral elements of employee engagement or EE.
While many commercially available employee engagement metrics exist, I am a fan of the Gallup Q12.
Next week, we’ll look at employee engagement outcomes. For now, here are three challenge questions:
Do you measure the engagement of your workforce? 
If so, how are you using what you learn to craft action plans that decrease the "squatters and renters" while increasing the "owners?"
If you don’t measure workplace engagement, when are you going to start?

Vigor, Dedication, and Absorption | Customer Experience is the Result of Team Member Experience

I’ve spent considerable time talking about adaptivity and learning resilience. As such, I’m intrigued by the role of "vigor" and “absorption” in concepts of employee engagement.
As you'll recall from my last installment, employee engagement or EE was conceptualized in 1990 but didn't gain research traction until approximately 2008. In that post, I asked you to think about whether employee engagement is an employee trait, a state created by your organization, or a set of attitudes or behaviors.

What‘s Science Got to Do With It? | Customer Experience Is Team Member Experience

This is the first post in a series titled "Customer Experience IS Team Member Experience."
As much as I am a people person, I worry that some human-focused leaders and consultants veer a bit too far away from research and data when it comes to understanding team member and customer behaviors. Amid extreme staffing challenges, I have read and heard a lot of employment guidance that runs in opposition to the science behind employee engagement. 
So, what is known about employee engagement (also referred to as role, personal, work, job, or organizational engagement)? Which widespread claims about employee engagement, or EE for short, are supported by research and which are not? 

Reflect and Integrate | Mindset & Agility – The Rocket Fuel for Customer Experience Success

Previously, I've unpacked the first six skills outlined in Professor W. Warner Burke's research-based model of learning agility, namely:
Flexibility
Speed
Experimenting
Performance Risk
Interpersonal Risk Taking
Collaborating
In this installment, we’ll explore the final three skills presented in Dr. Burke's book, Learning Agility. Those skills are:
Information
Gathering Feedback
Seeking Reflecting

Take Risks and Reach Out | Mindset & Agility – The Rocket Fuel for Customer Experience Success

Risk can come in the form of stretch opportunities or interpersonal sharing. In all cases, we need to proactively leave our comfort zones to grow and spark innovation. Volunteering for a new assignment, increasing appropriate, personal disclosure, and reaching out to others for collaboration, all require a courageous stretch.
Think of a project or task that would force you to grow. How would you approach "volunteering" for the new possibility?

How to Learn and Lead with Agility | Mindset & Agility – The Rocket Fuel for Customer Experience Success

Professor Burke is an organizational psychologist who began studying the characteristics of high potential individuals and high-performance teams. In 2017, Professor Burke released his ground-breaking book, aptly title Learning Agility, Dr. Burke, along with partners at the Center for Creative Leadership, assessed hundreds of leaders to determine the behaviors needed to adapt and maximize leadership potential.
Dr. Burke defines learning agility as a set of skills for dealing with new experiences flexibly and rapidly. These skills involve trying new behavior, getting feedback on those attempts, and making quick adjustments, so new learning occurs when there is no clear path to success.
How has your learning agility affected your impact as an individual contributor or leader in your organization?

Why Customer Experience Equals Open Mindset

Dr. Dweck is a Stanford University professor of personality, social, and developmental psychology. Her work looks at how beliefs shape individual differences, and her book Mindset -The New Psychology of Success is a must-read for anyone trying to drive personal or organizational change. Mindset offers insights on how belief systems foster or hinder growth and development. The good news from Carol Dweck’s work is that fixed mindsets don’t have to stay fixed. Like all behavioral change, the first step in transformation requires an honest assessment of the areas where your mindset is fixed. The next step involves a calculation of the risks that come from staying stuck and the benefits of growth. With honest self-assessment and a reason to change, the next step is to craft a plan that challenges underlying assumptions or breaks through those beliefs that keep you stuck. How would you rate your organization on a 10-point scale, with one being completely fixed and ten being completely growth-oriented? In what areas is your organization stuck, and in what areas are you growing?

Remove the NOT | Mindset & Agility – The Rocket Fuel for Customer Experience Success

Given the complexity of business, specialization is a natural and powerful force. Often in larger organizations, the research and development department owns much of the innovation. For example, a customer experience leader might enlist the services of their agile team to gather input, create a minimally viable solution, and iterate product or service improvements. In that case, it's easy to conclude innovation is NOT your area.
I’m convinced all of us can and should nurture our innate creative skills. As such, I often ask my clients to think beyond easy solutions by asking questions like "What else might you do?" or "Let's assume that option isn't available – now what?" As my clients internalize those types of questions, they hardwire creative inquiry and idea hunting into their company culture.
What excellent customer service ideas or innovations have come from people other than those tasked to generate them?