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Leadership Card 29 – Reduce The Steps, Lean CX Model

Leadership Card 29 – Reduce The Steps, Lean CX Model

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There’s an old saying that goes: “The journey of 1000 miles begins with a single step.”  It’s a great saying, and it’s a nice way to remind yourself to keep going and keep taking those steps when things get tough.

The only thing is, let’s say you’re a company selling software and you make your customers take 1000 steps to get what they want.  They might do it for a while, especially if you’re the only one selling that software.

But then another company comes along, and it gives your customers what they want in one step.  One single step.  Not 1000.  Just one.  Pretty soon, all your customers have gone to your competitor for the simple reason that it was easy to do so.  Nobody really wants to take that “journey” of 1000 miles or 1000 steps.

I bring this up because this is what many companies are doing in real life – they are making their customers jump through hoops, take extra steps, and take extra actions just to get what they want.  And they are doing this, of course, until Amazon comes along, gives customers one click ordering and ridiculously fast delivery and the other company falls apart.

Reducing the steps to people getting what they want is the master key to huge success in business.  It’s success with your customers, and it’s success in your teams.  The simple fact is that most companies and teams have not clearly articulated what they do, the outcomes they give, and how to get to those outcomes.  After all, that’s too mundane, right?  Why should they write down the steps they take to get customers (internal and external) what they want?  And you might think that way too, until you hear that nearly 50% of workers actually aren’t sure on what is expected of them in their job.  In other words, 1 in 2 people probably aren’t doing what you need them to do, because they simply don’t know what it is.  Why write it down?  Because you can’t reduce what you haven’t articulated in the first place.

Uber gave customers one-tap ordering of a ride, and now it’s a 70 billion dollar company.  Amazon Kindle gave you one click ordering of eBooks, and it has all but decimated physical book stores around the world.  Microsoft gave you Windows so you could click on what you wanted, when DOS (typing into a green screen) was still a thing.  Most of you won’t remember DOS because it basically disappeared from view once Windows was released.

Also, have you ever noticed that complicated things tend to break more often?  That complicated system, complicated code, complicated buying process, complicated risk review or complicated creation of the annual shareholder report – where things are complicated with too many steps, hand-offs, rework, and waiting, then things tend to break.

Reducing the steps is one of those keys to making things more robust, making things easier to do, easier to use.  And when things are easier to do, people tend to do them.  That means the people in your team, and helping them to do what you want.

So many leaders, when I speak to them, blame the people for not doing what they want them to do.  But when it comes down to it, it’s the complicated and uncertain process that causes their team to flounder.

Simplify things, and you will see incredible rewards.

Chat soon – Dave

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Lean CX Infographic – More Incredible Benefits Of Employee Engagement

Lean CX Infographic Employee Engagement Benefits

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Employee Engagement It’s Official: It Matters

Which would you rather, having a team full of people dragging their feet, complaining, making excessive mistakes and who hate coming to work?

Or a team full of highly engaged, happy, motivated people who can’t do enough for you?

Yep, I thought so.  Employee engagement matters, and having a team who is in the top quartile for employee engagement makes a huge difference, not just to your happiness but to your bottom line as well.

These top companies and teams see 28% less theft.  41% less absenteeism, meaning more and more staff turn up to do their work because they enjoy it.  And a whopping 59% lower staff turnover.

And do you think these things affect your profit and cost as a company?  You bet.  How much does it cost to advertise, interview, hire, train, and level up a new person to replace someone previously?  And how much do staff accidents and even a little bit of theft here or there really cost?  It’s more than you think.  And it can be avoided by focusing on engaging your employees.

What Engagement Doesn’t Mean

Now I’m not talking about the latest rah-rah retreat, where everybody gathers around, drinks smoothies (or cocktails) and whiteboards a bunch of baloney that will never get done.

No. Freaking. Way.

I’m talking about culture.  But not “Culture” as a broad, flimsy, consultant-type term.  Oh no.  I’m talking about culture where I can give you specific steps that anyone (and everyone) can perform every week to create a culture of high engagement and problem solving.

It’s called Designing your work for Ease of Use.

Designing Your Work for Ease of Use

Designing your work for Ease of Use is one of the easiest, fastest, and cost effective ways to improve the engagement of your team and the profit of your company.

The Ease of Use framework may seem simple, but its methods are based on research such as that above, where we are looking to improve the engagement of your teams and make the people you work with happier (and more productive) as a result.

Having a standard, repeatable process with clear outcomes may seem boring or simple, but did you know that 50% of American workers don’t know what is expected of them at work?

Making things visual so you know what to do first time without having to ask may seem mundane, but did you know that every time you have to redo something you’re not sure of, you are effectively doubling, tripling, quadrupling your cost for the same outcome?

Checking in regularly may seem unnecessary to some, but did you know that leaders who check in at least once a week with their team mates and focus on their strengths see a 27% increase in engagement?

Designing your work for ease of use matters.  It makes a difference.  And as it improves the ease of the work your team performs, it reduces their frustrations and improves their happiness too.

Chat soon – David McLachlan

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Lean CX ScoreGet "The Lean CX Score" now, and start creating disruptors in your industry that completely annihilate your competition.

Oh and good news!  You'll be improving the speed, morale and engagement of your teams at the same time.  Get the Lean CX Score now.

Leadership Card 1 – Introduction

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Welcome to the first Leadership Card by David McLachlan.

So many studies have shown the benefits of intentionally designing your work, designing your customer experiences, and designing your products for Ease of Use.  Huge benefits, like outperforming other companies in the stock market by 76% on average over five years (during market crises too), enabling customers to stay for six years on average (instead of just one), and much much more.

The Leadership Cards will bring you research and frameworks, packaged in a neat card for you to collect each week as you improve your business, your leadership, and your life.

Please enjoy!

Leadership Card Deck 001 Introduction - Lean CX Ease of Use

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Chat soon – David McLachlan, author of the Lean CX Score

Lean CX: Recognise Disruptors Before They Become A Reality

Recognise disruptors before they become a reality.

Lean CX is a step by step framework for Operational Excellence and how it relates to disruptive companies and technologies – especially as they grow and are ready to scale.

Disruptive companies are those that can deliver something a customer wants faster, cheaper, with better quality and sufficient brand recognition.  Think McDonald’s in the 1950s, the model T Ford in the early 1900s, the Apple iPod in the early 2000s or the iPhone in 2007, Uber disrupting the cab industry, Netflix disrupting DVD hire and Amazon disrupting retail.

All of them have at least three of these four in common:

Disruptive DeliveryDisruptive QualityDisruptive CostDisruptive Brand

To take advantage of these customer driven measures, crush compliance and regulation, build your start-up to scale and move toward disrupting an industry, use the step-by-step framework of Lean CX for operational excellence.

Lean CX Lean Management Operational Excellence

Get “The Lean CX Score” book by David McLachlan now, and scale your business, crush compliance and regulation, and achieve operational excellence.