Digging for gold...

Data, Data, Data!!!! Does it ever end. A running joke in the BlackBelt world, when asked "what did the data tell you?" is to respond with "what do you want the data to say?" Data can be minipulated to tell your story. Creating fancy charts and graphs that woo the people around the conference table is as age old as using two pieces of flint rock to start a fire.

Many times I have seen people build a deck (this is a common term for a powerpoint presentation that is designed to provide much more commentary than the time for your meeting allows - you put the easy stuff in the front, and leave the harder stuff in the back - and if the presentation gods are shining down on you, you never get to the latter part during your meeting and through a sweat drenched smile you end with "wow, we covered alot. I will have to set up another meeting to go over the rest"... situation avoided for now)that is designed to tell their story and get them out from under the spotlight as quickly as possible. The more big words and intricate pictures you use, and the faster you skim through information on the slide, the faster you numbify your audience and get them to do the synchronized swimming nod of agreement. Stupify your audience into not asking questions and you win. That's the game, right?

Wrong. Even though we have all set through these types of presentations we know that is about as effective as trying to blow up a car tire with a bike pump. So, when presented with the fact you need to present information, and data is required, how should it be approached?

Here is the first thing to remember. Data is an output. Outputs have inputs. Inputs are the foundation for identifying root cause. I have never seen root cause in an output, it is only the fossil in the rock that tells me there was life here at one time. Inputs are the real deal.

Let me explain. In any given contact center around the world, on any given day, quality is measured. Quality of conversation, of information given to customers, of sales, of blah blah blah. How many times have you seen a manager (this is where I call out the difference between a manager and a leader - managers are easy to spot by the way they scuttle around like little squirrels finding things to keep them busy and saying things like "you need to improve your game", or "you need to get better at delivering quality", or some other phrase that allows for no more growth than you have seen from the rocks in your driveway) talk about numbers? Numbers are nothing more than indicators, outputs, results... results from what? Inputs, of course.

Inputs in the service/sales world are usually behaviors. The act of doing something that results in a quantifiable indicator. I worked with a Sales Manager at one time that came to me and wanted to let one of his worst sales people go. "She's just not doing as well as I thought she would - her numbers are low and she is not closing the deal". Well, 'nuff said. Bring out the proverbial data noose and let's have a hangin', right? I decided to take a different route.

I believe in the idea "it is 90% your process and only 10% people" (another blog in iteself). I agreed to spend time listening to her with him, so we dialed into her calls, unannounced and without detection (I love that part), and we sat. What was heard was a young lady stumbling all over herself like Otis on Andy Griffith (google it...). He turned to me and said "see, she just can't have a good conversation"... After several calls I picked up on what I thought might be a root cause to this broken legged balarina's dance with the customer, and asked him to go sit with her, turn her away from the computer and have her do nothing but talk to the customer. He needed to drive the system, enter the data, input the sale, etc. A little dismayed that I didn't call her in and ax her on the spot he did so.

Long story short she sold 3 of the next 5 customers she talked to. So, what did I hear that made me take that route. It was simple. Throughout each call I heard over and over "...um, let me find that screen... hold on, my screen is coming up... I am looking for that... wow, my system is slow". Over and over she was trying to do what she had learned in training. Intertwine your conversation with a customer along with navigating a rather complex system that allows you to "build the sale" as you move along. It was a disaster. By removing the hinderance of the system, and allowing her to do what she was great at, which was having conversation, she became a top sales person. Yes, it meant in the short term she would talk, sell, and then navigate the system and that takes a little more time, but we used that as a catalyst for changing our systems and tools to be easier to use "in the moment of truth" with the customer.

If I would have only focused on the output "low sales" I would have lost a great talent in my organization. Taking the output into consideration, defining the root cause to the output, allowed me to alter the input, or in this case a behavior, that created the desired output.

So, for now, don't allow data to be your down-fall. Allow yourself the time to define what is important in your business, measure it, and with those outputs ask the question "why"... and dig until you strike oil. You might just find that driving change through identifying triggers, digging to root cause, and adjusting the inputs will have a meaningful impact on your organizations performance.

See you on the left....