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Lean CX Vlog 002 – DESIGN YOUR WORK

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Are you unhappy in your job?  Do you hate your work?  Is your life boring?  I’ve got something that you may find controversial, and if this is you I want to say that it’s NOT your fault.  Your leader has not intentionally designed your work for ease of use and engagement – probably because they don’t know how.

So the question is – if they’re not going to lead, then who is?  And the answer is YOU.  YOU are the leader your team needs to get intentional about designing your work for ease of use and engagement, and when you do, no matter what industry or work type you are in, you will start enjoying those 8 to 12 hours everyday we call “Work”.

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Transcript:

David McLachlan:  It’s an absolutely beautiful morning in the city, this is gonna be a great ride.  But I really want to talk to you about something super important, in fact one thing that we haven’t really spoken about over the last couple of videos is a little thing called designing your work.

Like I said I really want to talk to you about designing your work, and more specifically designing your work for ease of use.  So what does it mean to design your work?  Well think about it from this perspective.  Have you
ever had to call a company, or deal with another department in your company, and you can just tell they don’t really know what they’re doing?  You know, they have to redo things over and over again, they have to hand off to another department or another person, there’s a lot of waiting in between steps and the person that you’re dealing with or even a team or another department, and the person that you’re dealing with is just dragging their feet and everything is too hard for them.  And all of this grates on the experience.

So pretty soon you’re not wanting to do business with these people or this
company because of all of this extra friction, and it’s quite obvious that they don’t like their job.  I’m gonna say something a little bit controversial and that is it’s not their fault.  It’s actually because their process and their work has not been intentionally designed for ease of use.  Because when you design your process in your work and your job for ease of use you’re making things easy naturally so then it wouldn’t matter these things would be easy for that person to do, whether they were having a good day or a bad day.  And we all have bad days but there’s absolutely no excuse for having a bad process.

So why is it important to design your work, and specifically design for ease of use?  Well, a recent study found that more than 50% of people in their jobs
actually don’t know what’s expected of them at work.  And because of that they’re not doing the best job that they can do.  And of course out of those people who don’t really know what’s expected of them at work there’s a higher proportion of people who are disengaged in their work – just like that person we were talking about before who’s dragging their feet and everything’s too
hard.  These are everyday people trying to do a good job but they may not
necessarily be able to, because it hasn’t been made clear what is expected.  The outcomes and the steps have not been made clear.

Disengaged workers  – the impact that has on your business is, their sales rates are lower their productivity is lower.  Happiness has a big impact on your bottom line.  Now look at it from the other perspective as well.  Recent research by Stanford University actually found 35 percent was the difference in results of people who had clear outcomes and people who had not clear outcomes at all.  Teams and companies that didn’t have clear outcomes actually performed 35% worse than people and teams and companies that
did have clearly articulated outcomes and clearly designed steps to get there.

Now there’s another study as well that was done on happiness and flow, and it’s by a great man called Mihali Csikszentmihalyi, and in the 1960s he took a thousand people and interviewed them when they found the most happiness
and meaning in their lives and there were a handful of things, but three of
the most prominent were they had control over the outcome when they were doing the task, they had a clear objective when they were doing the task, just like the Stanford University study and just like the Gallup study as well, and the task gave immediate feedback.  Now all of these things are actually part of the
ease-of-use framework which I’m going to share with you over the next couple of videos.  So everything is starting to tie together all of the research is pointing in a very very very similar direction, and that direction is making sure that we’re clearly articulating things, intentionally designing the work, and
designing it specifically for ease of use.

Now I’m going to go into the five steps of the ease-of-use framework in other
videos but really quickly they are: making your process repeatable so it’s
the same great repeatable process every time, reducing those steps to a customer getting what they want, making it visuals so they can see exactly what to do first time without having to ask, making it impossible to make a mistake and checking in so that we know whether they got what they want or not.

So where do we go from here?  A very simple thing that you can do straight up is just simply write out the steps that you take to perform a few of the tasks in your work and then try and reduce those steps so by reducing the steps you are actually reducing the complexity making things easier just straight off the bat just doing those two things alone will have a massive impact on your business and the rest of it comes down to the ease-of-use framework which I absolutely cannot wait to share with you over the next coming videos.

I hope to see you then, chat soon.

David McLachlan

Leadership Card 19 – Flow, Happiness and Immediate Feedback

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Engineering Happiness, Engagement and Flow in your Team

Leadership is a funny thing.  We naturally look up to those risk takers, the ones who “made it”, who did something outrageous against impossible odds, and won.  It’s easy to write an article about those guys (and gals), and it’s easy to think “if only I had done this or that, maybe I could have been that leader too.”

But here’s the thing about those high flying, outrageous risk taking leaders – they’re full of sh*t.

They’re full of sh*t because of a very simple psychological principle: Survivorship Bias.

What is Survivorship Bias?

Survivorship bias is our tendency to look at people who have done something against all odds, see them a lot because the news loves their story, and believe it is easier than it really is or that we can do it do, or that it is even more common than it really is.

When the reality is we see more of them because they are the ones who made it, making it look as though it is easy to do and more people are doing it.

Case in point – look at all the people who try out for American Idol, because they can sing.  Even just a little bit.  Even only in the shower.  So they go on the show and they get obliterated by the judges, because real, true, burning talent is a hard thing to find and in reality it takes years and years of hard work.  Now look at it from the other perspective – how many of these tens of thousands of people go on to have long, successful careers as entertainers?

Very, very few.  Even the ones who “make it” on the show have short lived careers that fizzle out relatively quickly.  And yet we see them in the spotlight, while they are there, and we hail them for their seemingly incredible life.

So Here’s What We Don’t Do

We don’t celebrate the grinders.  The workers.  The ones who are building a solid foundation for their team and engineering an environment that makes them happy to come to work, engaged in the work they do, and feel as though they are working towards something bigger than themselves.  And people who don’t make it to the spotlight – the majority of people – are the ones who need that engagement and happiness in the work they do.  And that happiness leads to the “Flow” state, where you can lose yourself in the moment, do things effortlessly, and forget to eat.

Engineering Flow in the Work Your Team Does

How would that be, if you could engineer that flow state in your team and their work?  Do you think their results would be affected?  You bet they would.

And so far we’ve seen a few key ideas in designing our work to create a state of flow in our team.  This last one is a key idea not just from Mihaly Csiksentmihalyi, who originally coined the idea of the flow state, but from many other methodologies as well – namely the Lean CX Score, Agile, Lean Startup and more.

This last key idea is fast feedback.

The idea is feedback because have you ever been doing something – making something really special or important, and working very hard on it every day?  But imagine this – you’ve worked on it every day for many months, even years, and at the end of that time for whatever reason it turns out it’s actually not the right thing.  It doesn’t do what you wanted and nobody wants anything to do with it.

That is what happens when you don’t get fast feedback.

The Lean Startup method is built around fast feedback – creating a Minimum Viable Product, a small product that does just enough to test in the marketplace and see if it works and gather feedback from real customers.  The Net Promoter Score is built around fast feedback – if you’re not doing well the customer gives you a score below 8 and you’re meant to follow up immediately to find out more and adjust if you can.

Feedback is almost priceless.  It is extremely valuable in business, and yet most businesses are afraid of it.

Asking for, and receiving feedback can be quite tough.  It’s tough on our ego, who doesn’t like things rocking the boat.  And yet to thrive in business we need to know if our customers aren’t getting what they want, and if it’s not ridiculously easy to get what they want.

It’s Like Playing A Video Game

Finally, I’ll say this: what else has clear rules, a clear objective, is neither too easy nor too hard, and gives you immediate feedback if you’re winning or not?

That’s right, a video game.

And people play video games for hours and hours.  They forget to eat.  They forget to sleep.  Some people become quite addicted to them, which has unfortunate results but it happens for good reason – they are the perfect example of the things that need to be present in order to engineer the flow state.

Do This For Your Own Teams, And Win

So find a way to give your team a process that is neither too easy nor too hard, and that gives them immediate feedback if they are on the wrong track.  It’s like a pilot checking in on the flight plan.  Are they on course or off course?  Are they moving towards their destination?  Because if you’re a pilot you need to know.  In fact, if you’re a human being you need to know.  But most leaders first don’t clearly articulate the process and objectives for their team, or don’t improve the ease of use of that process, and then finally they don’t check in to see how their teammates are tracking towards that goal so they can assist and make changes to the process as necessary.

Objective.  Process.  Feedback.  Improve and repeat.  You’ll soon be on your way to your destination when previously you were only flying around in circles.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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Leadership Card 16 – What Workers Want

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It’s Not About The Money (Money, Money)

Apart from being the lyrics to a catchy tune in 2011 by Jessie J, it turns out it really isn’t all about the money when it comes to your team and the people within your business.

When Richard Florida took the responses to an information week survey and filtered them for the things that made people want to do a good job, even he was surprised.  Having “Challenge and Responsibility” came in at number one, where a person is given autonomy in completing a task that isn’t too boring for them.  Flexibility came in number two, and job stability at number three – and these two things match up with other studies and research you will see in these Leadership Cards, such as Anthony Robbins’ six human needs where Variety and Comfort are both necessary to our happiness, even though they can be conflicting.

After all of those things, came money at number four.  Yes, we need money to eat, pay the mortgage, put the kids through school and go on date nights with our partner, but it turns out people put a lot of things ahead of it when it comes to their happiness at work.

Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivators

You see, there is a very large difference in motivating factors within your team.  Sure, there are the obvious ones, like them getting up in the morning and going to work because you’re paying them.  Money and other physical benefits – something external to that person – are known as extrinsic motivators.

But have you ever done something for someone else just because?   Without the need for money and without the need for something in return?  Chances are you’ve experienced an intrinsic motivating force, where you are compelled to do something because it gives you an internal payoff.  Things like working back extra time because you like your leader, or the things you do for your kids or your family or your friends, or perhaps creating something like a drawing or piece of music.

Daniel Pink found three main intrinsic motivators in his book “Drive”.  they occurred when a person had:

  1. Autonomy: Where they are given free reign in solving a problem
  2. Mastery: Where they can work continuously towards mastering a worthy skill
  3. Purpose: Where they are contributing to something greater than themselves

Can you find a way to engineer these into your own work and process?  If you can, the results just might surprise you.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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Leadership Card 15 – Design The Situation

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Design The Situation For Ease of Use And People Will Do What You Want

In a study by three researchers featuring college students, and seeing what it might take to get them to donate to a food drive on campus, Nisbett, Griffin and Ross found something very valuable.

Before they started, they interviewed their subjects and separated them into two groups – those who they believed would give to a food drive, meaning they were kind, charitable people by nature, and those who they believed would not give to a food drive.

The funny thing is, the students they believed would not give to the food drive actually gave more than their so-called charitable counterparts when they were given clear instructions on how to do it, where the box was to donate to (including a map of the campus), and asked to think about the exact item and day they would go and donate.

Clarity Matters

You see, it’s not enough for someone to just be “naturally” good at something.  The environment shapes a large part of a person’s results, which is ultimately good news because we can shape the environment to make it easier for our people and customers to do the things we want.

If something is hard to do – if there are many obstacles, it’s not front-of-mind, it has too many steps or we need to redo too many things, or there’s too much waiting around or there are too many hand-offs between departments – then there is a much higher chance that a person won’t do it.  That can include a customer buying your product, or a team member performing work for you.

Getting intentional about designing your work and customer experience, and designing it specifically for ease of use, can make all the difference.

And as we saw in the charitable giving example, that can mean giving clear instructions, a map of where to go, and a clear vision of what to give and when they are going to give it.  In other words – How, What, When, and Where.  For you in your business, it might be simpler.  Knowing who your customers are, what they want, and the steps to get there is a great start.  Then you can improve the ease of use for your customers simply by reducing those steps in getting what they want.

Try it for yourself, and I believe the results will absolutely astound you.

Chat soon – David Mclachlan

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Leadership Card 10 – Tie Outcomes To Meaning

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Giving Your Team a Purpose

There’s nothing worse than getting up at your alarm in the morning, getting the kids ready for school, downing a morning coffee and rushing in to work… only to have that work mean absolutely nothing in your broader life.

You’ve been there before, haven’t you?  The work is either boring and too easy (or too hard), or too little or too much.  It’s rarely ever Goldilocks – just right – and it’s almost never a part of your real dreams, passions, or purpose.

There’s A Lot Of Disengagement Out There

And the stats on this are pretty brutal.  Nearly 67% of workers are disengaged at work – dragging their feet, making additional mistakes, and  having significant time off before leaving altogether.  But the research also shows that people want to do a good job, it’s usually leaders lacking in real team motivation, psychology and operational management skills that cause people to lose their engagement and their drive.  Which makes sense, because no one really ever teaches you this stuff, do they?  Especially not in an easy to use framework like the one from “The Lean CX Score” book.

Tying the outcomes of your team to a higher meaning has been proven to improve the engagement and purpose of your team, and the results they get.  The good news it doesn’t have to be a fancy meaning like curing world hunger, it just has to be a meaning higher than the work they’re doing now.

Things like:

  • Your work will have a direct impact on meeting our profit target in this way, or;
  • The customers you help are impacted in that way, or;
  • You are helping your broader team achieve something by doing your work, or;
  • Even almost any “because”.

Just Saying “Because” Increased People Saying Yes By 93%

During a study by psychology Ellen Langer, she wondered what sort of words she could use to get people to let her cut in line before them at the copy machine.

She used many different variations and ways of asking, but it turned out that almost any reason was enough – the highest performing sentence included “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I’m in a rush?” with a 94% compliance rate.  But just giving any reason also gave a 93% compliance rate, such as “Excuse me, I have five pages. May I use the Xerox machine because I have to make some copies?”

Just including a “because” in your request brings a different meaning to things – a meaning that’s not just all about you, or the other person in the moment.

So when you tie the outcomes of your team’s work to a meaning, give it some thought, but don’t overdo it.  Don’t spend six months coming up with the perfect “meaning”, when a simple higher meaning will do.  And then watch your team blossom just that little bit more, as the engagement within your team grows.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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Leadership Card 9 – Setting Clear Outcomes

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A Simple Way To Improve Engagement

In the research Leadership Cards previously we’ve seen that a big part of getting where you’re going is having a destination in the first place.  It’s that old cliche, worn out but it’s true, of setting goals to have success in your business and your life.

But setting goals can sound boring, can’t it?  Instead, we could look at it this way – it’s not so much about setting goals as it is about getting stuff done.  And further to that, getting the right things done.  Setting a clear outcome, a clear destination for your team, puts them on the right path, gives them clarity in their work and life direction.

If you were a pilot taking off from an airport, you would want to have somewhere to go.  If you just flew round in circles for a few hours, you would run out of fuel and crash.  That’s what’s happening with your teams.

The research also showed that setting outcomes collaboratively, where you sit down with your team, choose tasks that suit their strengths, improved results by up to 35%, and in some cases more.

So make it clear!  As part of the Ease of Use framework, outlined in the book “The Lean CX Score”, you find your customers (the people you serve), find what they want, and outline the steps to get there.  That’s clarity.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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Leadership Card 8 – 50% of Employees Don’t Know What is Expected

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If You Don’t Know What’s Expected, What Are You To Do?

Imagine this: in a high performing company there are two teams.  One team is given a clear objective and is clear on their path to get there.  The other team is given no direction at all – in fact some of them are not even sure why they turn up each day.

Which one do you think will do a better job?  And if you’re a business owner, which team do you think will be worth the wage you’re paying them?

When we put it like this, it seems obvious, doesn’t it?  The team with the clear direction, objective and path will certainly outperform.  Yet recent research shows that around 50% of employees in work today are not clear on what is expected of them at work.

And when they’re not clear, as we found above, they’re probably not going to be doing a great job for you or your customers.  Here’s the thing about people who aren’t clear on what their objective is – they perform 35% worse and are 34% more likely to be disengaged in their work.

So set clear outcomes.  Better yet, do it collaboratively with your team.  You will be pleasantly surprised by the results and the improvement to your revenue and profit.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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Leadership Card 7 – The Benefits Of Clear Outcomes

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Having Something To Aim For Makes A Difference

Have you ever tried crumpling up a piece of paper, taking aim at the nearest waste basket, doing your favorite basketballer impression and shooting a three pointer while an imaginary crown goes wild?

Well, maybe your version wasn’t that elaborate (or maybe it was), but being able to see the waste paper basket – knowing it is there and having something to aim for makes a big difference in whether you get it in or have to take another try.

Can you imagine walking, blindfolded, into a room while holding the same crumpled up piece of paper, and throwing it in any random direction with the hope that it somehow makes it into a waste paper basket?

Well that’s exactly what the majority of businesses, startups, and teams within those businesses are doing today.  They’re going into business without a clear idea of what to aim for.  They’re delving into their work without clear outcomes.

Clear outcomes mean you have a clear objective – a goal, an aim, a target – and have taken the time to outline clear steps to get there.  Are the steps going to be right every time?  Of course not.  Despite what some people will tell you, no one can see the future.  But having something to start with and get you on your way certainly helps.

Now a few business disciplines have been misinterpreted and been taken completely the other way.  Agile, iterative planning, continuous development, the Lean Startup and Minimum Viable Products can (and have) been used as an excuse by lazy managers not to do any planning or set any clear outcomes at all.  Those managers say they will test and learn, and they don’t know what they don’t know.  And those managers are missing the point.  “Iterating” towards something still means you have to have a clear objective to iterate towards in the first place.  And having clear steps to start with is like having a flight plan that you can take off with, and adjust it as you go.

Apart from all that, the research actually backs up the approach of setting clear outcomes in a big way.  Teams and companies who set clear outcomes outperformed those who didn’t by 35% in their results, according to this Stanford University study, and found no less by the man who invented SWOT analysis (an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats, well known by your typical MBA graduate).

So set clear outcomes with your team, do it collaboratively, and you will see a big improvement in your results.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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Leadership Card 6 – Employee Engagement and Defects, Theft and Safety

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Have You Ever Been Happy?

Silly question, I know.  But… have you?  Really, truly happy?  Do you remember what it’s like?  Maybe it was this morning, maybe it was yesterday, maybe it was last week or maybe it was last year.  But the thing about happy people – people who are fulfilled, at peace with their place in life, and satisfied with what they have, is that they are nicer people to have around for a variety of reasons.

Sure, they are happier, they don’t grumble as much, and are generally more fun to be around.  But the statistics also take it a step further, because people who are happy, find meaning from and are completely engaged in their work actually make fewer mistakes, have fewer safety incidents, and steal less.

Employee engagement is so important when it comes to safety incidents, in fact, that one CEO I recently worked with used to have a rule: “Don’t tell me the engagement score, just tell me how many safety incidents and absentees your team has had.”  That was all the information he needed to know to get a gauge on whether or not the team would be working well or far off track.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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