We spend a lot of time asking reasonable questions like:
- What will change in the future?
- What should we do more of to be a better leader?
- What should we add to make things better for employees?
But sometimes asking the unexpected question gives us a different perspective.
This article is part of our Leadership Series — reflections on inspiration, influence, and the choices that shape meaningful achievement.
Sometimes we discover more by asking the unexpected question.
What Won’t Change in the Next 10 Years?
In a popular video, Jeff Bezos shares that he is very frequently asked the question, “What will change in the next 10 years?”
He goes on to say that he almost never gets the question “What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?”
Then he glances around for a moment and says:
And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two. Because you can build a business strategy around the things that are stable in time.
He points out that at Amazon, he knows Customers want low prices, vast selection, and fast delivery.
And in ten years, no Customer is going to say they love Amazon but wish the prices were higher and the delivery was slower.
So the effort and energy Amazon pours into the things Customers want today will still be paying off years from now.
In the disciplines of CX and Contact Centers, alongside the ongoing discussions about AI, perhaps we take a deep breath and consider what we can learn from Jeff Bezos — specifically, what won’t change?
Off the cuff, these points came straight to my mind:
- Customers will still have emotions that factor into the decisions they make
- Visions and aspirations that speak to employees will still matter
- Having someone support your development at work will still matter
Whether you like my short list or not is almost irrelevant.
My thoughts here don’t matter.
It’s about you and your team asking that question, and potentially doubling down on what you find to be true.
What Should We Do Less Of?
Half of the leaders that I meet don’t need to learn what to do. They need to learn what to stop. — Peter Drucker
Recently Marshall Goldsmith shared this wisdom from one of his mentors, Peter Drucker.
Drucker applied this principle to products and businesses, as well as outdated management practices, policies, processes, and traditions.
He said:
The first step in a growth policy is not to decide where and how to grow. It is to decide what to abandon. — Peter Drucker
Marshall Goldsmith took that lesson into his own leadership work, focusing on behaviors leaders may need to stop.
In fact, he says it helped inspire his book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.
He wrote this on his LinkedIn account (which was the inspiration for this post):
Many leaders believe improvement comes from learning new skills. In my experience, improvement often comes from stopping old behaviors. — Marshall Goldsmith
Now let’s port this wisdom over to the disciplines of CX and Contact Centers.
With a view to leadership at all levels, what leadership behaviors might we choose to stop?
I didn’t have to think hard to jot down this list:
- Stop assuming the root causes of performance problems lie at the individual level before examining the system in which people operate
- Stop assuming people don’t want to have meaningful conversations with leaders because “they already know what is expected of them and what to do”
- Stop treating Frontline professionals as if they were children
You may agree or disagree with my three bullet points.
They aren’t meant to be a referendum on the industry.
Just observations from our training work with different clients.
The more important question is:
Have you and your leadership talked about this question, and considered which beliefs and behaviors may not be serving you and your people well?
Before You Jump In to Solve a Problem
Without realizing it, we can default to adding new things when we look to solve a problem.
Let’s say we want to improve the well-being of our Contact Center Advisors — an important topic.
We might begin with a list of on-site wellness programs, new employee benefits, and other initiatives.
But sound management practice guides us to look first at the system in which our Advisors operate.
We could ask questions such as:
- Are we staffing appropriately?
- Are Occupancy rates regularly too high or low?
- Have we sufficiently prepared our Advisors for the complex and emotional interactions they face today?
- Do we allow for easy schedule change requests and swaps?
- Are we measuring Advisor performance on the right metrics?
- Are we clear about the kind of Quality we aim to deliver?
- Do we train Team Leaders appropriately to lead a team of Frontline professionals?
Start with the things that affect their daily experience of work.
Equipped with that understanding, then you can consider what else might contribute to well-being.
Because you can’t compensate for poor Contact Center management practices by implementing a well-being initiative.
In Closing
There is a famous quote most often attributed to the fashion designer Coco Chanel.
Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.
With these somewhat parallel lessons from Jeff Bezos, Peter Drucker, Marshall Goldsmith, and even Coco Chanel, we can seek a new perspective by also asking the unexpected question.
- What will change? → What won’t change?
- What should we do? → What should we do less of?
- What should we add? → What should we fix first?
And if you’re a fashion person:
What should I remove from my outfit before I leave the house?
Continue Exploring
What Do We Really Mean by Contact Center Best Practice?
The Art of Conversation in Service
Personality Is Not a Prison Sentence
Thank you for reading
I regularly share stories, strategies, and insights from our work across Contact Centers, Customer Service, and Customer Experience. If this article resonated with you, I’d be pleased to stay connected.
Feel free to get in touch anytime, or explore more of our work below.
Daniel Ord
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