In this article I share the lessons learned from delivering 60 CX values and culture workshops for a single Client — a major telecoms provider in Asia.
To capture lessons like these, we created this Life At Work Series — articles about the practices, challenges, and lessons we encounter at work.
This article is also part of our Craft of Training & Speaking Series — a collection of practical tools and techniques for anyone who teaches, facilitates, or speaks, designed to help people think, change, and act.
I Won a Tender for 60 Classes
Some years ago I won a corporate tender to deliver a customized CX values and culture workshop across every employee of a telecoms provider in Asia.
I’ll start by saying the Client was terrific and focused on Customer-centricity. Their goal was to bring their newly selected values to life across the company.
So we decided to develop and deliver two versions of a full-day workshop — one for Frontline roles and one for Backline roles.
For example, the Frontline version was designed for folks who dealt directly with Customers — people who worked in Retail, the Contact Centre, or specialty roles such as the VIP Queue.
The Backline version was designed for those in background or support functions — people from HR, Marketing, Operations, Legal, Procurement, IT, Finance and the like.
We kept class sizes manageable to allow for interaction and scheduled about 60 runs over a two-year period.
The workshops were very well received — there wasn’t one group that didn’t respond positively.
That doesn’t mean there weren’t any questions or concerns. As you’ll see, we wanted questions and concerns.
Here are some of the things I learned.
Help Folks Be Proud of Where They Work
The Client Team I worked with was amazing.
Amongst their many contributions was an in-house video that shared the company’s history, famous advertising moments, accomplishments, and awards.
Layering CX culture and values over that sense of pride made everything easier.
As we tabulated the comments and themes across the sessions, we found a regular comment (paraphrased) to be:
Thanks for reminding me of what a great place this is. I was proud to see our accomplishments across the years.
Thanks for reminding me of what a great place this is. I was proud to see our accomplishments across the years.
Part of successful culture change is recognizing what people and the organization have already accomplished.
You don’t go into the room to tell folks how ‘bad’ they are or how ‘bad’ things are out there. That’s not a really great way to motivate change.
We took the approach that the world was changing and what brought us here wasn’t necessarily going to get us there. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t celebrate what had already been accomplished.
Lesson learned: We work in a great place — let’s take some time to celebrate that. Culture change is part of our success for the future — not a reflection of a failure from the past.
Buzzwords Are Less Understood Than You Might Think
We set aside part of the session to cover some terms and let everyone talk about what they meant.
Terms like Omnichannel, Big Data, Digital Transformation. Even terms like Customer Service and Customer Experience.
I think in some companies it’s just assumed that people have a common understanding of terms like these.
But that’s just not true.
Participants shared that they weren’t really ‘fluent’ in these terms and appreciated discussing what they meant — especially their relevance to the company and their own job roles.
Shared accomplishments require a shared vocabulary.
What do we mean by Big Data? What do we mean by Customer Service?
If you just throw around buzzwords without defining what they mean to you and your organization, you leave people confused.
In this day and age we’re all a little tired of constant buzzword bombardment.
Lesson learned: Buzzwords are just that. You need to contextualize their meaning for your ambitions and your organization.
Give People a Chance to Express Their Concerns
I think one of the smartest things we did was build a formal way for Participants to express their concerns.
We used the term ‘barriers’.
As in, what specifically, in your job role, holds you back from achieving these values.
Over the course of nearly two hours, participants worked together, documented their barriers, and then formally presented them to the entire group.
The best part of being a Facilitator is just that — facilitation.
The point was to let the experts — the people who actually worked there — talk about their work and the values they had been asked to consider.
People got heated, passionate, and a few of the Presenters should consider a career in public speaking — it was that well done.
It was fascinating to watch Marketing people talk to Finance people about their challenges, and Retail people compare their barriers with Contact Centre people.
Lesson learned: Don’t avoid talking about what is going to get in the way. Bring the barriers front and center.
As a Facilitator Share What the Values Mean to You
I made it a point to only ‘hold the floor’ for about 45 minutes in the morning — immediately after the morning warm-up.
Rather than lecture endlessly on how important values are (boring!), I used that time to share my personal experiences with each value.
And with each opinion I attached a story.
If the value was ownership, for example, I explained what ownership meant to me and shared a story from my own work that brought it to life.
What I learned a long time ago is that while loyal long-term Employees are great, their experience can naturally become very company-specific.
While the Client could have used internal Facilitators for the two-year engagement, one of their reasons for bringing in someone from outside was to expose Participants to different experiences and perspectives.
If you’re a Facilitator working on a values-based program, be willing to share those outside perspectives.
And even if you work at the organization, find outside stories that expose participants to different experiences and perspectives.
You’ll have plenty of time to focus back on your own organization throughout other parts of the workshop.
Lesson learned: Earnestness and preachiness don’t work really well in values-driven programs. Storytelling and treating adults like adults work a lot better.
Be Realistic About What Happens in a Values-Based Workshop
At the outset I was clear about what I expected would happen during our day together.
My main job was to help them understand the values — to use storytelling, humor and reflection to help them grasp and feel why these values were important.
But the next two steps belonged to the Participants.
After Understanding Comes Belief
I’m very clear with Participants. No one can make anyone believe anything.
I can’t force “belief compliance” for CX values and culture.
I once had a tender presentation where the organization asked me how I could make their people believe the prescribed values — in one day.
They kept asking me — “How will you do it?”
I said I couldn’t. Because that’s true.
Do you really want a room full of people at the end of the day who ‘fake’ enthusiasm and give thumbs up in the group photo only to then roll their eyes and go back to work in the same old way?
I didn’t get that deal — but I think I dodged a bullet there.
With that said, belief matters.
I wanted our workshop day to flow in such a way that belief had every opportunity to be considered.
My objective was that by the end of the day, those who already believed in the values would feel more confident in them, while those who were still mulling things over would at least be willing to reconsider their point of view.
The Final Step: Action
Once I believe in something — let’s say ownership — I act that way.
It becomes a choice. And that’s when the values start to matter.
Lesson learned: Don’t walk into a values-based workshop with the mindset that you can force, preach, or cajole people to believe. Different people have different motivations. Design the workshop in a way that encourages the willingness to believe.
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Thank You for Reading
I regularly share stories, strategies, and insights from our work across Contact Centers, Customer Service, and Customer Experience.
Feel free to get in touch anytime, or explore more of our work below.
Daniel Ord
[email protected]
www.omnitouchinternational.com
