Learning

How do you achieve the best value fit: Inside out or outside in?

July 22, 2017By Mike Hohnen

Everywhere you look, every ‘expert’ on service is telling you that the name of the game is to provide values. And that is true. No value, no business. Everytime you see a high profile brand or product tanks and disappears from the horizon, just think Nokia, Polaroid Kodak, it is basically because they lost it. From the customer perspective, they were no longer providing values.

In the drawing above, the square box represents the company’s offering. It is deliberately drawn as a square to illustrate that we often fall into the trap of having a set solution, a basic service package, our way of doing it. The polygon illustrates the uneven, ever-changing needs of our customers. So, when we overlay what we offer with what they need, we get three zones. The overlap represents the fit (A) where we meet customer needs. The better the fit, the more values we are providing. B is the part of our offering that we charge for, but what the customer does not actually need. And C is the money left lying on the table, in the sense that this is what the customer would really like, but they cannot find it with us and, therefore, either go without it (frustration) or source it from someone else.

Market leaders in a given segment easily get wrapped up in the beauties and benefits of their own products. When they do, the value fit shrinks.

Typically what happens is that they drift slowly from being the customer-centric companies that they were when they were created, and as a result of over-focus on their own attributes and brilliance, they gradually become more and more product-centric.

This is the danger that lies in the asymmetry that is at the core of the service purchase. What the customer purchases is not what the supplier thinks he is selling. When we forget that, we get lost.

In order to avoid that, we need to understand the the crucial difference between an inside-out and outside-in customer strategy

Basically you have three options:

I stay behind my own walls, convinced that what I do is great. Great service, great product. It is so great that the world will always beat a path to my door, as they have done in the past. Those who are not here with me must be idiots.As a consequence, I become a hostage of my own past patterns. I look at and understand the world through a filter that is primarily composed of what has worked previously, not realising at all that none of the tomorrow’s problems will be solved with yesterday’s solutions.

I venture to my window from time to time to look out and observe the world. Still, from the security of my own tower, I shake my head at what is going on out there and thank the Lord that I have the right solution. I may feel some concerns, or even frustrations, that out there “they” don’t get it. Maybe I should start thinking of ways to make them listen and understand, possibly turn up the advertising, or make more noise. Or maybe I should start by sending out a survey. I delude myself that I have understood the world by looking out the window.

I leave the security of my tower. I stand next to my customers and together we look at what it is that I am offering. I even try to walk in their shoes for a while and gradually I start to understand what it really means to be in their place. It scares the living daylight out of me to suddenly be in such a vulnerable position.

Only option three will enable you to maximise the value fit.

That is is why the whole philosophy of Service Design Thinking is so important. This is the toolbox that will help you transition from inside out to outside in thinking in your organisation.

The real key to creating the eternally fantastic experience

April 14, 2022By Mike Hohnen

The Kano model teaches us that a service experience has 3 layers. There are basic attributes that need to be in place and that all services in a given category need to have to even qualify as a service. Then there are the performance features, attributes that define the better experience from the very basic experiences. And finally, there is a category of attributes that we call delighters. Things that make our most loyal customers come back again and again. Not only do they come back, they also tell all their friends.

But as we saw in my previous blog post, the trouble with delighter is that they have a tendency to fade over time. There is this notion of drift. Free high-speed internet in a cafe is a great example of this. So this puts all service providers under pressure to constantly innovate. They need to come up with new ways to delight their audience or risk fading into oblivion.

But there is actually another way to do it. There is one type of delighter that somehow never goes stale, that always stays fresh, and that is incredibly difficult for your competition to copy.

The key to understating this is likability.

Think about your own patterns. There are some services that you’re frequent not because of their physical attributes or technical specifications. You may even visit these services despite them not being quite up to par on some of these physical attributes. But there is one or often a whole crew of people that you find likeable. When I lived in Cape Town, we often used to go to Roberto’s. It was not the smartest cafe in town. It was also not the most elaborate culinary experience. But Roberto’s had one thing none of the smart cafes could match; there was Roberto and Roberto was immensely likable. Ah, you may be thinking, but that is a question of DNA, the Italians, the Greeks they know how to do to that, the rest of us don’t have those genes.

Not true.

As Rohit Bhargava explains in his lovely book Likeonomics, research has made the secret available. We know the components of likability and we can apply them to our own way of working and when can train our crew to practice these principles as well.

The key ingredients are: Truth, Relevance, Unselfishness, Simplicity, and Timing.

– Truth: you trust them. When the waiter says the special today is delicious, you know he would not say it if he did not actually mean it. He knows you and when he says you won’t enjoy that wine, you are so grateful

– Relevance: The service provider is not trying to upsell you like a robot (I so hate that expression “upsell”). They make relevant suggestions that actually enhance your experience.

– Unselfishness: They go out of their way no matter what to make sure that you have a great time, even if it is not always the most convenient for them. A hotel where I have conducted workshops recently has two crews working the restaurant. One crew always sets the lunch table for my group in the window area where there is a pleasant view and lots of light. But it is the furthest from the kitchen. The other crew always sets the lunch table at the other end of the restaurant, not nearly as nice. But it’s closer to the kitchen. One crew is likeable, the other one much less so. It comes through in all the little details of how they work because likeable is also an attitude.

– Simplicity. As my vegetarian chef friend says to create a great salad, use only three ingredients; that is what makes it delicious and elegant. As opposed to the salads where they dump the whole fridge into your salad bowl, they mean well I know, but…

– Timing: The person servicing you understands empathy. They are aware of what is going on for you and they adapt their service delivery to suit you. They understand the difference between coming in for dinner before a movie and coming in for dinner to celebrate your spouse’s birthday. And that is all about timing.

Now think again about some of those service experiences that you keep returning to again and again. I will bet you that it is because they are likeable.

And if you can implement these basic ingredients into your service experience, you have discovered the Holy Grail of delivering fantastic service experiences. The concept is simple. The execution is what makes it hard.

Check out the book: Likeonomics: The Unexpected Truth Behind Earning Trust, Influencing Behavior, and Inspiring Action

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One thing that will dramatically improve your performance

July 5, 2017By Mike Hohnen

Think about it for a moment…, what is one thing you could work at that would dramatically improve your performance as a leader?

My theory is that most of us could improve the quality of our decisions. When I look at my own life and try to identify some of the main causes of difficult times, frustrations, etc., they can quite clearly be attributed to decisions that I have taken or possibly not take, which is in itself a decision.

So why is it hard for us to take consistently great decisions?

We are not as rational as we would like to be. We like to think of ourselves as super rational, but in reality, we are not. We make up a story that explains the irrational decision we took in order to convince ourselves and others how rational we are. Often, not always, it is bullsh*t.
We don’t understand what is really going on. We are looking at a situation through our own limiting mental models, and we confuse what in reality is just our perspective with reality or the truth.
We don’t take the trouble to gather enough information. We take decisions based on a few facts plus our own gut feeling. Sometimes it works brilliantly, but more often than not is doesn’t. A classic in this category is confusing our assumptions with facts. We think we know, but in reality, we are just assuming, and as my favourite coaching colleague from the US always used to say: Never forget Mike, that assumption is the mother of all f… ups.

So how do we work on improving the quality of our decisions? Once again it comes back to awareness. What we are aware of we can control, what we are not aware of controls us.

So the first thing to do is to start a decision journal.

Dedicate a notebook to this. And whenever you need to make a consequential decision, take a moment to think through: What are the options? What is your decision and what do you expect to happen? Make a note as well of your current state (tired, happy, stressed or whatever). Make space on the page for you to come back at a later time and note down what actually happened and what your key learning has been.

Start the decision journal today, by which I mean get it ready and commit to using it. Then the next time you need to take a significant decision, take the trouble to document it. Then on a regular basis go back and review your notes. Is there a pattern? What are you learning?

If you would like to get more sophisticated about this, check out this blog post from Farnam Street.

My personal experience of doing this is that I became aware that I had a tendency to take a certain type of decision very quickly, typically when something had not turned out as I expected and I felt an urgent need to correct the course. But what I had not previously noticed is that whenever something turns out different than what we expect, it triggers an emotional reaction and that emotional reaction would often tilt my decision toward the first idea that came into my mind.

Once I became aware of this, I have tried to postpone that kind of decision, to give myself time to get a different perspective, to resist the urge and that has definitely prevented me from a few bad decisions in the past 6 months.

Proving the point that more than anything, becoming aware of our own decision-making process helps us avoid the really bad decisions more than it makes us genius decision makers, but already that is not too shabby an outcome for many of us.

Once we have the decision journal in place, it’s time to practice getting better. A good place to start is to read Decisive: How to Make Better Choices in Life and Work by Chip and Dan Heath.

And what about your team? What is the one thing that really causes you frustration when you look at the people who report to you? If you in any way resemble many of the leaders that I coach, you will say: The quality of their decision… If only they could be trusted to take better decisions, my life would be so much easier.

Can you help your team make better decisions as well? Absolutely! It’s all about awareness, remember. We will have a look at how to do that in next week’s blog post.

This the thirteenth blog post in a series where Mike is exploring: Why is it important to develop not just yourself but also the people around you? You can read other posts in this series on Mike’s blog.

Building capacity is at the heart of the Service Profit Chain. If you are not familiar with the intricacies of is model, don’t forget to check out Mike’s online courses where you will find a lot of great tools, resources and knowledge on Leadership Development and The Service Profit Chain.

Are you an accidental diminisher?

April 14, 2022By Mike Hohnen

In my previous blog post, we looked at two very different leadership approaches: multipliers vs. diminishers.

In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at the diminisher.

So how much output do we get from someone when we hire them to do a fair day’s work?

Well, there is quite a lot of research that indicates that on average, we are getting somewhere between 30 and 50% of what people are actually capable of.

This is also reflected in the Gallup engagement research that shows that +/- 65% of the workforce is not particularly engaged in their work. If you are not engaged, you are probably also not giving it your best.

So what are the barriers for our people to give their best? The top three, according to the research are:

Rules, regulations, and structure in the organisation
Lack of feedback and encouragement
The leadership style of the immediate supervisor

So to put it in a nutshell: If you are not getting max output from your team, it is probably because of you.

Yes, let that sink in for a moment.

That is not because you are a slave driver with psychopathic tendencies, at least I hope not.

More likely your are just an accidental diminisher. Accidental because when you have a diminishing impact, you are likely to be completely unaware of it and probably the last to know.

The first thing you need to think about is your own assumptions and beliefs.

You see, diminishers see intelligence as based on elitism and scarcity. Diminishers appear to believe that really intelligent people are a rare breed and that they are of that rare breed. This naturally leads them to conclude that they are special and that other people will never work out what to do without them.

They also seem to follow a logic that says people that don’t ‘get it’ now probably never will. Therefore, I need to do all the thinking around here.

This is what Caroll Dweck, author of Mindset, would call a limiting mindset.

The Multipliers, on the other hand, have a growth mindset, which is a fundamental belief that basic qualities like intelligence and ability can be cultivated through effort.

Multipliers get more from their people because they are leaders who look beyond their own genius and focus their energy on extracting and extending the genius of others. And they don’t get just a little more back; they get vastly more.
_Liz Wiseman

As we all well know, our assumptions and beliefs govern our behaviour.

So the diminisher typically displays some or all of the following behaviours:

Micromanage things
Do most or all of the talking at team meetings
Have the answers and ask few questions
Be judgmental and critical of others
Create stressful environments that often do not feel safe
Take fast decisions (as opposed to getting everyone buy in)
Drown the team with new ideas and initiatives

So here are a few questions to ask yourself and reflect on:

How might I be shutting down the ideas and actions of others, despite having the best of intentions?
What am I inadvertently doing that might be having a diminishing impact on others?
How might my intentions be interpreted differently by others?
What messages might my actions actually be conveying?
What could I do differently, that would make more space for the to contribute and grow?
These questions can be tricky to get feedback on from your direct reports, for obvious reasons. But what you can ask when there is the right opportunity is: Is there anything that I could do differently that would help you do a better job?

And then listen very very carefully.

Check out Lis Wiseman’s book for yourself: Multipliers, Revised and Updated: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter

This the twelveth blog post in a series where Mike is exploring: Why is it important to develop not just yourself but also the people around you? You can read other posts in this series on Mike’s blog.

A great course gives you just 10% of what is needed to grow the team.

June 13, 2017By Mike Hohnen

Participants attending the GROW leadership course

Quite a few years back now, the Center for Creative Leadership developed the 70:20:10 model for learning and development. The research behind the model shows that most of our learning (70%) stems from hands-on, on-the-job experiences. We mainly learn from what we do.

When we learn from others, it is typically in the form of coaching, mentoring and various forms of collaboration. This accounts for roughly 20% of our learning, and finally, the last 10% of our learning is based on courses, books, lectures etc., what we also call formal learning.

This then raises the question: Should we just forget about the formal part? Are courses and books just a waste of time?

If we look at the research on how high performers learn and develop, it becomes clear that there is a pattern.

High performers are typically quick to grasp the basics and when it comes to new learning, they often get this in the form of more formal structured courses, training or books. The 10% is their foundation. That is what they use to build their development on.

What makes them high performers is that the new knowledge inspires them and drives them to want to practice. They spend hours trying out their new learning. Through trial and error, self-testing and feedback, they gradually improve their capability.

They are also not shy to seek the support and help of colleagues. They may even take a coach for a period in order to make sure that they really get to master whatever the new skill is (Just look at any top performer in music, acting or sports and you will see exactly this pattern). They are not born like that, they work hard to get there.

It is their drive to improve that makes them high performers.

So back to the question about formal courses. Do we need them?

Yes, we do.

Because we need that basic input, that initial inspiration. But we must understand that if we do not reinforce the message and help set the scene for the additional 70% on the job learning and the 20% collaborative learning or coaching, then we have wasted our time and efforts.

That means that if you, as a manager, have had one of your team members on a course, you need to think about how you are going to support that person in developing and improving their skills, building on the foundational knowledge that they have acquired on the course.

Most of them are probably not what we would define as high performers, they are just great team members. And therefore, they do not have the drive or natural inclination to do this by themselves.

The knowing-doing gap
The first step in that process is to have a follow-up conversation with your team members when they return from the course. What have they learnt and most importantly, where do they see the knowing/doing gap? What is it that they now know, but that they are currently not doing?

How can you then, as this person’s manager, make sure that your team member gets to practice these new aspects? This takes us back to our famous GROW model.

If you have forgotten what that is about, check it out here.

You multiply the value of the course experience by at least 10 times if you help them actually implement what they are learning. But don’t forget, no feedback, no learning.

If you want to further maximise their learning, make sure that they team up with one or two others who also did the course and have them form an action learning triad or let them have the support of an experienced coach. That way you will also make sure you have covered the 20% that comes from collaboration and/or coaching.

In my experience, this is the way to create sustainable change. The key is not the learner as much as their immediate supervisor.

In this context, the immediate supervisor comes in one of two basic types: the ‘Multiplier’ and the ‘Diminisher’. Being one or the other makes all the difference, as I will explain in next week’s post.

This the tenth blog post in a series where Mike is exploring: Why is it important to develop not just yourself but also the people around you? You can read other posts in this series on Mike’s blog.

The secret to faster team development is a shorter year.

June 3, 2017By Mike Hohnen

Seriously.

Let’s first deconstruct how do you know what to work on in order to ensure that you and your team are developing?

One way to get a grip on that would be to ask yourself: “If I was doing this reflection one year from now and looking back on the year that has passed, what should have happened during this past year in order for me to feel that I and/or my team have made serious progress?”

Because as Peter Drucker famously said: “What managers manage is change. The rest is admin.”

So that is the project.

That is what needs to change in order for you and/or your team to feel that you are actually developing. And as I have written about earlier, development is not only important because it means that we are making progress, it’s a key to our well-being, motivation and job satisfaction

But a whole year’s worth of change is a lot of change. So what typically happens is that we undershoot the runaway and don’t get to where we wanted to be. It was a nice dream.

We fall short of our own expectations.

The problem is not that we are being over ambitious, we need to be ambitious. The problem is that we are trying to chew off too big a bite.

So now ask yourself the same question but reframe it to just 3 months, the magic 90 days: If I was doing this reflection 90 days from now and looking back at these 90 days that have passed, what should have happened during these 90 days in order for me to feel that I and/or my team have made serious progress?

This is a horizon that is within our reach, we can almost see the contours of the finish line as we get going. It’s not that far, we can do this. We have set a goal that we can see ourselves completing within a reasonable time frame.

So personally I have given up yearly goals and targets. I have a long-term plan, which is more a direction that I am heading than it is a measurable goal. With that direction in mind, I work in 90-day sprints. It gives me a completely different sense of accomplishment.

Try it out for yourself.

And if you need more resources to get you going, here are my favourite tools:

Best self 90-day planner – This is at the core of my productivity.

If you would like to study this 12-week-year principle more in depth, here is a great book that originally inspired me:

The 12 Week Year: Get More Done in 12 Weeks than Others Do in 12 Months

This the ninth blog post in a series where Mike is exploring: Why is it important to develop not just yourself but also the people around you? If you would like to read other posts in this series, don’t forget to check out Mike’s blog.

How to replace the drama with real learning

April 14, 2022By Mike Hohnen

Have you found yourself binge-watching the Netflix series or impatiently waiting for next week’s Scandinavian Noir episode to come on screen?

If you have, it is probably because you were attracted by the unfolding drama.

So let me quickly show you how it is done.

All the great stories are built on the same principle. You need three elements. A victim, someone who get into trouble. And in order for that to happen, we need a persecutor, someone or something that does the bad stuff. And then of course, we need someone to save our poor victim, a hero.

That in all its simplicity is the mechanics of the drama triangle. And if you pay attention, you will see that many of your favourite books and films follow that structure.

Now if you would like to spice this up a bit and make it run forever and ever. You let the participants change roles. Suddenly the hero is the victim. The persecutor becomes the new hero and the former victim is now the persecutor. If you have ever had the opportunity to watch Elisabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in “Who’s afraid of Virginia Woolf”, then you will recognise that this is what unfolds for the two riveting hours the movie runs. It is a masterful demonstration of the drama triangle.

Great entertainment, emotions all over the place, but no learning and no solutions.

Unfortunately, many of us chose to play out these drama triangles in our own lives with the same result. Lots of emotion no solution.

We make victims of ourselves as we complain about traffic, the boss or the weather. We call our best friend each Friday evening and once again ask so how is the job going, well knowing that it will be the same sob-story as last week (The job is a disaster, the boss is an idiot etc.) but we satisfy our inner hero by encouraging our poor friend to tell that story again and again.

Or even worse, we give space to our inner persecutor by criticising a spouse or colleague only to turn around the next minute and be their hero by telling them not to take it so hard etc.

On and on it goes, you probably have your own version.

Just watch in your next management meeting, how this unfolds time and again, and how you already know who is going to play what role. Only here there is not much entertainment because we know the script and it is so, so boring.

We need to break the habit and stop playing this game with each other. The trick is to make a conscious decision to GROW out of it. There are no constructive solutions in a drama triangle. And the way to stop it is to ask yourself or your colleague the magic question: What would you like to do about it? Or what do we need to achieve?

This is where the GROW coaching process comes in handy. It is your magic wand that instantly dissolves the drama triangle:

What would we like to achieve? (Goal)
What is the current Reality?
What are our Options?
What are we going to do now? (Will)

Every time we find ourselves in one of the three drama triangle roles, we need to apply this simple but powerful process. It stops the drama, creates solutions and furthers our learning and development.

And all it takes is one simple question: What would I like to create?

This the eighth blog post in a series where Mike is exploring: Why and how to develop not just yourself but also the people around you?

Building capacity is at the heart of the Service Profit Chain. If you are not familiar with the intricacies of the Service Profit Chain, we have a special treat for you:

For this month only, you can access The Essential Leadership Instrument course on Mike’s training library for FREE using this coupon A2A3HUVRWV. It is only available for the first 50 people so first come first serve! Sign up HERE!

Honest feedback that propels you forward!

April 14, 2022By Mike Hohnen

There are many ways to make sure that you learn and develop. Last week, I wrote about setting up a mastermind group as one way. This week, I would like you to consider coaching.

Great coaches can do much more than just influence behaviors; they will be an essential part of the leader’s learning process, providing knowledge, opinions, and judgment in critical areas. Which brings us back to the key issue of honest constructive feedback. For many managers, their coach may be the only place they get totally honest unfiltered feedback, from someone who only has their best interest in mind

To begin this process, you need to start the search inside of yourself. No amount of coaching is going to do you much good unless you are highly motivated to change, develop and or learn whatever the case may be.

Part of motivation includes being very clear with oneself that the only time any real learning and development occurs is when we are slightly outside our comfort zone.

“Executives who get the most out of coaching have a fierce desire to learn and grow.”
– HBR survey

Bottom line, do you really want to change and are you prepared to suffer a bit as you do?

If not, forget it.

Assuming that you are ready, you need to be very clear about what it is you would like to be different.

What is the challenge that you are facing? Is it a skill set your need to build? Is it behaviour that you would like to change? How will you know that the coaching has been successful?

Most good coaches work with a specific methodology and within certain fields, and the more clear you are about what it is you would like to work on, the better the chance of finding the right ‘specialist’.

Where are the good coaches?

I have still to come across a good web based ‘find a coach’ service (There are endless directories/listings but that is not much help. What is needed is a review based neutral service, a TripAdvisor for coaches if you like; if you know of one please do let me know). So as with so many things, you need to use the word of mouth method and start asking around.

Reach out to people you know and trust who might be able to recommend a good coach. Ask friends and colleagues, post on Facebook and LinkedIn. Once you start getting some names, you check them out in more details for fit.

A few good questions to ask the person referring a coach:

What specific things did their coach help them do?
Was there goal setting and were those goals clearly met?
What was the most valuable (or a couple of the most valuable) thing they got from the sessions?
Did they see a direct impact on their business because of the coach?
Did they genuinely enjoy working with the coach and if so why?

Eventually, you end up with maybe 3-5 possible names.

Then you schedule a first conversation with each of them. Most coaches worth their salt will give you a first conversation or shorter session for free. The reason the good coach will do that is that they too need to assure themselves that there is a good fit. (Personally, I turn down as much as 25% of the requests I get because I am unsure about the fit.)

“Good chemistry is a decisive factor in establishing a productive coaching relationship.”
– HBR survey

Online or face-to-face coaching?

Five or ten years ago it would have been a no-brainer. Coaching was almost per definition a face-to-face process. Today that is no longer the case. Face to face is still great but there are a huge amount of people out there who are benefiting enormously from coaching that is either done via SKYPE or even phone.

The perfect coach for you online/phone is in my view still much better than a so-so fit that you can meet with personally.

From a financial point of view, it is also my impression that you get more coaching for your money when you go online as the coach does not have to calculate travel time and expenses into their fee.

So what is holding you back?

Ask yourself that first crucial question. If I was reflecting on this a year from now and looking back on the year that had just passed, what would have happened this past year in order for me to feel that I had made serious progress?

And off you go…

This the seventh blog post in a series where Mike is exploring: Why and how to develop not just yourself but also the people around you?

Building capacity is at the heart of the Service Profit Chain. If you are not familiar with the intricacies of the Service Profit Chain, we have a special treat for you: