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Hi everyone and welcome to today’s webinar, Customer Centricity: Five Strategies for Everyday Leaders – hosted by HRDQ-U and presented by Lauren Angle.

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My name is Sarah and I will moderate today’s webinar. The webinar will last around one hour. If you have any questions, please type them into the question area on your GoToWebinar control panel, and we’ll answer as many as we can during today’s session. We also have Dr. Judith Cardenas online with us today, and you may hear from her as well a little bit throughout the session.

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Today’s webinar is sponsored by Strategies by Design Group, helping foster the culture of innovation needed to stay competitive in today’s modern, ever-changing market. The Strategies by Design Group applies innovative techniques and approaches to achieve immediate engagement and growth and enhances the connection between behavior design and human centric design.

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Learn more at strategiesbydesigngroup.com.

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Today’s webinar is presented by Lauren Angle. Lauren is a dedicated workforce development professional with over 13 years of managing and leading command-wide programs that support employee life cycle in the Department of the Navy.

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Lauren is the Deputy Director of the Navy Acquisition Career Center, located in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania.

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She is responsible for providing the Department of the Navy Acquisition Enterprise with the workforce development tools and programs that enable the delivery of the products and services required by the warfighter. In addition, as the NACC’s Acquisition Workforce Programs Division Head, she oversees the facilitation of acquisition training, education, and certification requirements and the Acquisition Workforce. Thank you for joining us today Lauren.

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Hi everyone, hello, thank you so much.

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Let me see here.

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Sorry everyone. The presentation just disappeared here.

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Let me turn off the camera.

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All right. Sorry about that, everyone. Can you see the screen OK?

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Yes. All right. All right. Sorry about that. Little technological snafu there. Well, good afternoon, fellow leaders. My name is Lauren Angle, and I work for the Department of the Navy. As a civilian I’m a. proud to serve as the Deputy Director at the Naval Acquisition Career Center. I’m so thrilled and honored to share this topic with you today, Customer Centricity, Five Strategies for Everyday Leaders. You know, there’s nothing like a community of practice. So, I’m so glad to be here with all of you, talking about topics that are important.

2:50

So, like Sarah said, throughout this presentation, we’ll take a few polls so I can learn what’s happening in your organization. And then at the end of the presentation, I would be glad to take any of your questions in the chat.

3:03

So time is so precious. So thank you to all of you for joining us today, and a special thanks to … DQ, Ms. Sarah. And, of course, the sponsor of today’s session, The CEO of Strategies by Design, doctor Judith Cardenas for this incredible opportunity.

3:19

So a little bit about myself, I was born in Seoul, South Korea, and I was adopted to the United States when I was three months old. And I was adopted to and live in to this day Central Pennsylvania. So I live near the capital of Harrisburg, but I also live near another city you may be more familiar with. And that city is Hershey, Pennsylvania, Love the Hershey Chocolates. So, for my passion for people started when I was a little girl, I was sitting on the playground at recess, counseling, the trials and tribulations of my fellow elementary school rates, and this love of people led me to major in psychology.

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And my career path eventually led me to the organization.

4:02

So, as a workforce development professional, and my passion for people extends to helping people and organizations thrive, as a leader in our organization.

4:12

You know, when employees choose us, I take that responsibility very seriously. You know, I want all our employees to feel valued, respected, heard, and appreciated.

4:25

So, before we get into customer centricity, I wanted to share a little bit about the organization. I work for the Naval Acquisition Career Center, or as we call ourselves the NEC.

4:35

So at the NEC, we execute the civilian employees life cycle. So through recruiting through training and development. And we also facilitate the attainment of certification requirements for a group of personnel called the acquisition workforce.

4:50

Now, if you’ve seen the movie, the movie of the summer, the blockbuster hit Top Gun: Maverick.

4:57

Our defense acquisition personnel are a critical piece of that readiness.

5:02

So when you saw Maverick flying the incredible aircraft or if you’ve ever been at a base and you’ve gotten to see the huge carriers at sea, which are moving cities, the ships the submarines.

5:14

It is our acquisition personnel that provides everything those platforms, sailors, and Marines need to operate, fight, and meet the demands of the assigned missions.

5:25

So half of our business here at the NEC is managing the Naval Acquisition Development Program.

5:31

So, this is the Premier Developmental and Leadership Program in the Department of the Navy and the Department of Defense.

5:38

It’s designed to refresh the talent and leadership pipeline, capacity, and capabilities.

5:44

Oh, the program is so awesome.

5:45

It offers entry level personnel the opportunity to obtain professional certification to travel and external rotations at ted leadership trainings, and rapidly advance. So in 2 to 3 years, when personnel graduate, the program, they’re already at the mid-career level, which is rapid rapid in the government world.

6:06

So many successful participants have gone into high ranking positions in the Navy, which is a further testament to the power of our program in developing future leaders.

6:17

The other half of our business is dedicated to facilitating pay attainment of that professional certification.

6:23

And then the money part of funding to make it all happen, so you know, at the neck, we’re really proud to say that we are the focal point driving this look and management of several of the most important programs within the Department of the Navy.

6:38

So here is our mission statement To provide Navy’s acquisition workforce with those workforce development tools and programs that enable the delivery of products and services required by the warfighter. You know, at the end of the day, we are civilians to remember who we serve and that is the sailors and Marines around the globe.

6:58

So I would be remiss if I did not me read it the Navy’s. Who are We statement? And it goes something like this.

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And America’s Navy, water and salt flow through our veins in the same proportion as the sea.

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That mighty force is the lifeblood of the greatest Navy Navy ever to sail upon it. Flip beneath it or fly above it.

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It shapes Americans from every quarter of the nation into sailors with the courage to protect liberty back home.

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We are America’s Navy, and we are all forged by the sea.

7:30

So what the … are a small but mighty team of 33 personnel, supporting over 60,000 acquisition workforce members comprised of civilians and military personnel.

7:43

So how do we support so many? Well, our guiding, our guiding principles you’ll see here in these pillars of excellence, integrity, trust, and respect are the pillars of our organization.

7:55

We have this relentless drive to serve our customers, and, of course, model being balanced service, servant leaders to our employees and sailors and Marines. And at the end of the day, we will remember as civilians, we, too, are forged by the sea.

8:12

As I shared, we run one of the best developmental programs and the Department of Defense know, our program is over 30 years old with over 13,000 graduates.

8:22

And instead of resting or being satisfied with maintaining the status quo with our past success, we embrace what Google calls. How can we be 10 times better?

8:34

As an organization, when you ask yourself this question, it requires some serious self reflection and honesty.

8:42

So, when we’re faced with this large scale challenge, how do we improve a program that is already a well oiled machine?

8:49

Well, design, thinking was the answer.

8:52

At the heart of design thinking approach is human centered design.

8:57

What that means is, we simply put the users at the center of it all.

9:02

We asked the people for their idea and insights.

9:05

We asked the people themselves for the solutions, and then we prototype the ideas with them.

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By using design thinking, the power is literally with the people.

9:17

You know, once upon a time, I had a discussion with a senior leader, and I wanted to tackle the organization challenge.

9:23

The leader said to me, I, Laura, I’d like good idea, but this has been the same problem for the last 30 years.

9:30

And so, my response to the senior leaders was well, you know. We need to change our strategy a bit. We need to ask the employees the people for their stories and experiences.

9:40

We need to ask for their ideas and we need to test solutions directly with them.

9:47

So, what is customer centricity? Why customer centricity and why now?

9:52

Well, customer centricity is the ability of people in the organization to understand their customers, situations, perceptions and expectation the customer is the focal point of all decisions related to services and experiences, so you may be wondering How is customer centricity different than customer service?

10:13

Well, customer service is a part of customer centricity. But, customer centricity is larger in scope.

10:21

You know, the organizations who are customer centric think about creating an experience before, during, and after a purchase or service, and then what drives customer decisions is the experience an organization creates, everything is about experiencing experience.

10:41

So, why are we focusing on customer centricity, nows an organization?

10:45

Wow, we assessed our external environment, our customers are being tasked with developing their own development with developmental programs. So we never wanted to get to this point where our customers say, well, we developed our own program and it’s the best. Why are we continuing to use this developmental program. And then the realization that there have been many other Navy developmental programs that launched and due to constrained budgets, you know, they were shut down.

11:16

So, I went to Disney World recently on a trip, have a lot of Star Wars fans, and my family. And the highlighted the trip was riding the new Star Wars ride. Star Wars, rise of the resistance ride. I, you know, most rides when you think of disneyworld, my goodness you waiting a long line, just sit on the ride, NaN later, it started.

11:37

But on this new ride, the experience starts in the line. You know, the ride to ted. These are dressed in costumes and they pretended to be members of the first order.

11:46

The ride itself takes you on different experiences. You know, on one hand, I’m in a spaceship with the captain. The next thing, I’m taking pictures with Stormtroopers and then I physically move into another part of the ride and it feels like I’m in this climactic battle against the first order.

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You know, after the ride, you step into the Star Wars Galaxy itself. You’re fully immersed. I felt like I was in the Galaxy. In fact, my mother-in-law was in tears because she was so positively overwhelmed by they experienced created by Disney.

12:19

Customer centricity also comes into play with a dissatisfied customer.

12:24

So I have an employee who was a former restaurant manager. and one day a customer requested to speak to the manager.

12:31

And they were irate because there was a stone in the food and a chip there too.

12:36

Now, most circumstances an organization is quick to share an apology, a voucher, provide a refund.

12:42

You know, although that’s a nice gesture, it can feel like a band-aid fix to the customer.

12:48

So in this interaction, the manager not only offered an apology but we’re sure he had a ride to the emergency room. He researched the problem.

12:55

He looked into competency company policy and he identified there was a quality issue at the plant where stones got mixed in with the food.

13:04

The manager made the time to check on the customer, you know, informed him of the steps he took to resolve the problem.

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And when he spoke to the customer, he did. So with empathy. He listened. He cared to the point where the customer is now a lifelong fan of the restaurant.

13:21

So, what are our organization?

13:23

We needed to shift our employees mindset to focus on the customer’s experience and not solely our own, oftentimes our customer centricity and our grant station. It was just way too focused too heavy on just the transactional relationship.

13:39

Meaning, a customer has a question we answer promptly good experience.

13:44

But as we shared, customer centricity is more than just a one-time transaction focused on customer service. It’s thinking longer term, focused on building the relationships and sharpening how we listen and provide services to our customers.

14:02

You know, today’s Navy and Marine Corps, we face numerous challenges.

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Know, Schiff’s ships and aircraft are imported material condition.

14:10

Some old rival countries are reasserting this themselves.

14:14

Private sector companies with cutting edge technologies are finding it difficult to work with the Department of Defense.

14:21

Then cov, it happened right, the great resignation occurred.

14:25

Our developmental program attrition is the highest. It’s been in the last decade. You know, people are leaving the federal government or private industry.

14:34

And now more than ever, when employees have job options, there are no longer going to tolerate toxic cultures led by poor leaders. We will talk about organizational culture later in the presentation.

14:47

So the first, the pictures here, I love them. Here’s the first warship in the last commissioned ship of the Navy.

14:54

And as I read earlier in the Navy water, salt flowed through the veins like the sea And as with that true grit we take on challenges by remembering who we serve.

15:04

Which is our sailors and Marines?

15:08

You know, as our world continues to change, You know customer centricity we recognize will set us apart.

15:15

In fact, President Biden issued an Executive Order called Transforming the Federal customer experience and service delivery to rebuild trust in government.

15:25

The order goes on to say that government must be held accountable for designing and delivering services with a focus on the actual experience of the people whom it is going to. Work.

15:42

The needs of our customers continue to change.

15:45

There is a new generation entering the workplace, and they’re called Generation Z It was for people born after 1996.

15:54

So, here’s a little information about this new generation entering the workforce.

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This is the first hundred percent digitally intuitive generation. You know, this is the group that had cell phones in elementary school.

16:07

50 poor, 4% of Gen Z believe their first job will come through digital and social connections.

16:14

Now, one may make the assumption with this new generation, that face-to-face connection is not a priority.

16:21

Research shows that connecting face-to-face helped Gen Z form trusting relationship, and they desire that personalized communication with recruiters.

16:32

So as an organization, we quickly realized we hadn’t no social media presence. We were way behind the times. So we are currently focused on building an employee influencer network by using LinkedIn.

16:46

Know the day our LinkedIn page was even built, a recent graduates referenced our developmental program in a LinkedIn post and it just goes to it really became clear to me. This generation they’re hungry to connect and show where they’re working on social media.

17:03

In our organization we hire two employees to focus on outreach efforts.

17:08

You know these two folks will be our story chasers as I call them and they’ll post all the incredible things happening in this program on LinkedIn.

17:18

You know, one story that our outreach team is working on now is one of our program participants did a rotation at NASA, and now they will get the opportunity to present at that big International Electrical Engineering Conference.

17:31

Know, another example of a story to share on LinkedIn is, when we reach our 14th 1000th graduates no, we’ll share a profile that program graduates.

17:41

So current program participants, they really need to see the exciting career opportunities after graduation and the exciting things that are happening within the program itself.

17:55

So we, when we were engaged in that design thinking process I mentioned earlier, you know, we did that hard work as self reflection with ourselves as an organization. And one of those items we needed to recognize was the fact that our organization was working in silos.

18:13

Meany teams were engaging with only their teammates, and they were not collaborating across teams.

18:20

So, in addition, our organization’s tactical plan was heavily focused on execution.

18:26

You know, if I’m being very honest, we got a little too comfortable with the fact that our program is over 30 years old and we have 13,000 graduates.

18:34

We forgot that we needed to rebrand our program and connect with our new customers. Some of our biggest fans of the program retired and this ushered in new leadership that was just unaware of the did our developmental program and the incredible program outcomes.

18:51

So, we decided that we needed to ground our tactical plan into a strategic plan.

18:58

So, through discussions with leadership and employees, we decided that we must become a center of excellence.

19:06

Now, a Center of Excellence is a group of people with specialized experience, whose job it is to support others by providing tips. Training, research! And one of the outcomes of a center of excellence, is bringing together internal resources to be shared amongst the teams. So, this will also help us break down those siloed walls and bring organizational efficiencies and create a more consistent customer experience.

19:34

You know, our organization, we’re proud to say, we’ve always been the organization that our customers come to for guidance.

19:41

But now, we’re shifting our focus on providing great customer service and customer value.

19:49

So a Center of Excellence example, as a new effort, we’re starting, and we’re calling them program reviews.

19:56

So with our new customers, not understanding our purpose combined with that high program attrition, we’re having, we’re hitting the road And we’re going to go meet our customers face to face.

20:08

So we’re going to inform them of our purpose, our share our social media account, and our brand new recruiting brochure that has a beautiful QR Code printed on it that will link to our new LinkedIn page. We’re gonna meet with program participants themselves and engage them in conversation around their culture and work environment.

20:31

We will seek to obtain local best practices and share it forward across the Naval Enterprise. And then when we’re on these visits, we’re going to share training on topics built from questions we typically receive from the workforce.

20:44

And most importantly, on these visits, now, we want to build partnerships and working relationships with our customers.

20:54

Our process was simple, much powerful, to explore the topic of customer centricity.

21:01

So we started with a review to benchmark other federal agencies, and we did a lot of research from industry talk. Thank you doctor Cardiff.

21:13

So we use this benchmark data as inspiration. But I gotta tell you, we didn’t do a simple copy paste because our organization has unique purpose and unique needs.

21:26

So we realized we needed to revise our marketing materials, meaning our programs brochure, the our social media, gosh, our overall strategy, our outreach and our communication plans, and the birth of our Center of Excellence.

21:43

And then we needed to revamp portions of our program.

21:47

We’re centering a lot of revamp efforts on communication, because that’s what everything comes down to.

21:53

Our program’s purpose again, it wasn’t clear to recruiters, They didn’t even know, we realized they didn’t know what to say about our program.

22:00

We’re relying on antiquated communication strategies, and by that I just mean e-mail and we have had an outdated website, that candidates told us it would take me hours to find the link on the website.

22:18

We adopted a firm methodology that includes, well, you know, the age old saying, to know where you’re going, you have to know where you’ve been.

22:28

So, to start, we looked at historical data, like attrition recruiting, past experiences, Then, based on the research and benchmarking data, we started with a survey out to program participants.

22:42

The surveys provided us trending data, and on the survey itself, we asked participants for their information and their contact information, if they wanted to participate further with us.

22:54

So for those employees that wanted to further participate, we moved into focus groups and brainstorm together. We jumped on calls and asked them, How might we questions? This is the quintessential design thinking question.

23:08

So, some of those, How might we questions? We asked our customers, while big one is, How might we enhance your experience during your first 90 days?

23:19

Next, we built customer journey maps. Maps are a powerful source that tells the customer experience through their own stories.

23:28

The maps also reveal key customer touchpoints and interaction.

23:32

And I will share an example of a journey map later in the presentation, and then prototyping new ideas. So instead of trying to guess what’s important to our users, we asked them directly.

23:46

Oftentimes, they give us ideas. We had never even considered, and they even offered to help us.

23:52

For example, we were testing a new recruiting brochure with candidates, and they provided some great suggestions, but then they went on to say, Please share this brochure with me, and I’ll post it on my social media account.

24:05

It was really a wonderful thing to see, their engagement and willingness to contribute.

24:11

So now we find ourselves upon strategy. Number one, our mindset people first.

24:18

So I’m sharing a lot of strategy, plans, initiatives, and goals with you today, but leadership is all about the people and an effort to be people centered before reaching out to our external customer Re, we reached out to our employees first.

24:35

So, using the methodology described, we reached out to our teams. We wanted to send a clear message to employees that internal customers, meaning our fellow colleagues and teammates, are important as our external customers. So, we asked our employees questions like, how can we improve our internal communication strategies?

24:55

What are your ideas for Overbroad and recognizing one another?

25:00

And if folks on the line, if you like us are trying to transform your organization and culture centricity, I want to assure you. Oftentimes, the solutions are the little things that make a big difference.

25:15

Microsoft did a study shortly after Cov it started, and they found when you approach a massive effort, like transforming culture, it’s the little things that count.

25:27

So, for Microsoft study, they found the more supervisors reached out to employees to just check in on them, to show they care, to talk about non work matters. The more connected to Mission and one another employees felt.

25:44

Ooo, I’m very excited. So, before we describe our journey, let’s take a quick poll.

25:51

And one of the first question says, As it pertains to understanding the needs of your customers, what strategic initiatives have you designed in the last 12 months? So, Sarah, could you please launch our first poll?

26:06

Paul Live, you can take a few moments, here, maybe NaN or so, to respond, and then we’ll get the answers up on the screen.

26:19

Oh, great, We see those responses coming in.

26:28

Up, Let’s give you 15 more seconds. I see a lot of responses. So streaming in.

26:43

OK, great, I’m going to get those results up on the screen. Do you see that on your side, Lauren?

26:51

Yes, I do.

26:52

Wonderful.

26:55

Apps. All right, so I see that 44% of people said connecting more frequently as their strategic focus. Absolutely. Just like the organization, Microsoft found. Just simply connecting more frequently and saying things like, you know how you do and how are you doing? What are you done this fall? What are you doing this weekend?

27:13

Connecting is such a beautiful way thing to do, not only with one another, our fellow colleagues and teammates, but our customers as well.

27:22

On the next step, we’re still creating our next steps. Beautiful.

27:27

Well, I wish you all the very, very best and hope you are able to get a small nugget from today’s presentation. Thank you so much, everyone, for participating, and that was great.

27:48

OK, so when we go to Changing a Mindset and Culture Turning coven, and all the other external challenges that we have. It seem like quite a Herculean Challenge.

28:03

Know some initial reactions from our leadership received from some employees was defensiveness, mistrust, and a little complacency and all those negative reactions. Well, that stem from our previous culture.

28:18

So an organization wide meetings for inspirational purposes. We started to share inspirational messages. Like goodness, how can we be 10 times better?

28:29

And even videos, like having a growth mindset.

28:33

So at the start of our weekly organization meetings, leadership also embraced this important phrase, Connect before content during meetings, and what does that mean? So, before meetings. And before we dive into work conversation, just ask connection questions meant to generate, not non work conversations.

28:56

Know, one of the things I just asked, my team must, what’s the first thing you’re gonna go do this fall? So, in Pennsylvania, that means a lot of Apple fests around the area. I asked people, what television shows, is everyone watching?

29:10

Again, an effort to connected, Because during cover what we were staying home, so much, I needed to do TV shows.

29:17

You know, when employees feel more connected to one another, we share stories, we laugh with one another.

29:23

It completely transformed our weekly meetings, and it transformed it to, all of a sudden, employees started doing these beautiful things, like knowledge sharing, giving IT tips, invitee, one, another, the things, Hey, guys, I’m going on a walk for cancer this week, it’s at this location, join me.

29:41

We started doing public recognition, an evening offering internal training events during our weekly meetings.

29:49

So once our team members felt connected to one another, an effort to build on the strengths of our organization, the leadership team started adding more cross divisional projects that are ongoing in our organization.

30:06

Strategy number two are values, the journey begins.

30:11

So, from our brainstorming sessions, we had with our own employees, they shared that, you know, they weren’t so clear on what our organization values were.

30:20

They wondered what efforts and what behaviors get rewarded in this organization.

30:25

So after discussion with our employees, leadership created intentional values, we started with a purpose statement that would explain why our organization exists.

30:37

And the purpose statement, you know it needed to be powerful and serve as a call to arms to our employees. So we could go arm in arm and celebrate our values.

30:47

So, I share it that we set up our first ever organization Culture Committee.

30:54

This team consists of members from each division, and our culture team is going to serve as our purpose champions.

31:02

So, one of the priorities we’re asking our culture team to take over is our value statements we came up with.

31:10

And we want them to write intention statements, which would be like promises to one another on how they will work together, how we will work together.

31:19

For example, collaboration is one of our value statements.

31:23

So, from the employer perspective, we want their intention statement to describe, oh, they will collaborate.

31:31

Then to reinforce our values, leadership will recognize employees that carry out our organization values.

31:41

So culture eats strategy for breakfast.

31:44

Peter Drucker, a management consultant, famously quoted this.

31:49

And so he used to say, you know, Before you tell me about your organizational strategy, tell me about your people.

31:55

So when people think of culture, I think they think that means all the fun stuff, and certainly, that is an important component of culture.

32:04

But culture efforts run deep.

32:06

Company’s culture is described as a collection of self-sustaining, patterns of behaving, thinking, feeling, And it does things determined the way we do things around here, in other words, the way we work together.

32:20

So, when you build a culture, you want to hone in on those positive behaviors you see from your high performing employees. You know, for example, seek out employees who have a skill for talking with customers or successful ways for LinkedIn meetings.

32:36

Then, we want to take and translate that behavior into practical steps and show their steps with all your employees.

32:45

As I mentioned previously, we are currently working on building a center of excellence strategy.

32:49

And, we know right now that one of the pillars will be culture, know, another way to reflect the importance of culture and an organization. It comes from a great quote from Simon Sinek who said, Customers will never love a company until the employees love at first said so simply and so true.

33:10

Our values are mission critical.

33:12

Know, oftentimes purpose and values, they can get lost because they’re not lived down because they’re not connected and aligned.

33:20

So, to put them in the forefront of immunizations minds, we’re going to connect them to everything.

33:26

So, our values are going to be in our interview questions. We want to express our values as we welcome new employees.

33:33

Our values will be important how we train our employees.

33:35

You know, we’re going to put our values on our social media platforms, in our performance plans, and our recognition program, in our organization stories, and our values will be highlighted in our organization’s strategic plan.

33:52

So, here is our organization’s purpose statement.

33:55

Again, this is a call to arms, then the right hand yossi, the values.

34:01

So, again, these values were developed by the leadership team, and they were themed, and they were themed around voices to highlight the critical skill a listing. It’s so important to our organization’s leadership team to model those model listening, to understand, and not just listening to respond.

34:21

So, it all starts at the center with our own neck teammates. The voice of our teammates is one of our values.

34:28

Our teammates are central to the mission to all the voices in this circle.

34:34

The voice of our customers, you know, an example, this represents our program participants, the voice of all the commands. These are the customers we have a regular and ongoing relation ship and partnership with.

34:47

And, of course, the voice of our stakeholders is Navy leadership and industry itself.

34:53

As I mentioned earlier, we provide these values to our culture team. Again, this is our team of promoters, and we will ask them to write those beautiful. We will intention statement’s, can’t wait to see what they come up with.

35:05

Because we want our employees develop these statements. An effort to own our values and own our culture.

35:14

Strategy number three, Metrics matter.

35:18

So I’m someone who loves words. Words build partnerships, words, influence. But when you add metrics and analysis, it tells the complete story to your audience.

35:30

And when you have a complete picture of stories, metrics, and analysis, decision makers can make thoughtful decisions, you know, not based on bias agenda or personal opinions. In other words, what gets measured in an organization gets done.

35:48

I mentioned earlier that we use to survey that was sent to our internal and external customers. And we looked at three different measurements: eez, effectiveness, and alignment.

35:59

So, ease means, are our services easy to access, understand, and act upon?

36:05

Effectiveness is how effective is our work and meeting our customers current and future needs.

36:11

And alignment is the direct alignment between our daily work and the strategic direction of our organization.

36:18

By the way, customers, external customer shared effectiveness was their most important metric to them.

36:25

So, one of the ways we’re refocusing our metrics is with the leads of all our program areas, You know, for years leads collected metrics because that’s what their predecessors did.

36:36

And when we asked, why does this metric matter, the question was a little challenging to answer.

36:41

So, as part of our powering people to own their work, we’re guiding them to track metrics that have meaningful value to our stakeholders and our customers. Which goes back to the whole listening.

36:54

What does that mean? We’re always asking them, What does leadership ask you? You know, what do our customers continuously ask for?

37:02

This is also a great developmental learning opportunity to encourage our employees to develop a metric mindset, you know, I share with my own leads. If you’re walking down the hall and you run into leadership, and they ask you, Hey, what was the total attrition for the year? You know, as a lead, you should have those numbers ready to share.

37:22

Gather data frequently.

37:24

So I was talking to a colleague, and we discussed that, you know, we gather data heavily when employees come in our doors, but then it sometimes seems like the next time we collect data is when they leave our organization. But we missed all those data points and collections in the middle. So we are looking at something called pulse surveys, which are shorter and more frequent than the typical annual surveys that go out.

37:50

So, pulse surveys align with our own values to listen effectively.

37:55

Pulse surveys will allow us to plot trends over time and provide employees and customers the opportunity to provide feedback more frequently.

38:04

And then, for us, as an organization, to have the chance to react More quickly to that feedback, we want the voice of our teammates and the voice of our Customers into our business decisions more regularly, which will enhance our culture.

38:24

Gather data in many different formats.

38:28

So, surveys are great for trends and anonymity, but I would encourage folks to follow up on surveys, when you can, with a more personal touch, like setting up focus groups and having brainstorming sessions.

38:41

So, brainstorming questions can help an organization dig deeper into the meaning of the responses on the survey, through follow up questions.

38:49

Then, during the brainstorming sessions, I would recommend to make sure to ask thoughtful questions. You know, don’t ask questions that are too broad and general. So, I have a teenager at home and I learned this lesson early on if I ask her how a school today, the response I get is OK. But by, but if I ask my daughter, you know, what were the low and high points of the team day, then I get lots of stories.

39:16

So, most importantly, when you gather all this data, we want to take action on the topic, set hands, and involve the promoters in your organization to one with it.

39:27

Do align the actions to strategy and values.

39:30

So, I remember working at another organization who frequently surveyed their employees, which is great because it’s nice to be asked, right.

39:39

But after a bit of time, I found myself saying another survey, which means another committee, And I found myself no longer volunteering for those committees, because I felt like the committees gathered together.

39:52

But it didn’t seem like any actions were being taken, because nothing, you know, those things, the results, the ideas, were not communicated out, You know, communicate and all the ways to communication is everything.

40:06

So, when talking about data, we’re coming up on our second poll. What has been your most successful way of gathering data, polling, surveys, focus groups, others? So, Sarah, thank you for launch in that poll.

40:19

We’ll see what people say, and, again, we’ll give you about NaN or so here, you can submit your answer, I’ll get this result up on the screen.

40:32

And I see responses streaming in.

40:45

OK, 10 more seconds, if you haven’t voted, please do so.

40:54

OK, great, now those results are up on the screen.

41:01

Right, 57% is surveys, of course. They’re quick. They’re easy, inexpensive, absolutely, 23% focus groups.

41:10

Great to see polling and other ways too.

41:14

Know, and whatever ways you collect data, it always provides us such rich information, isn’t it?

41:22

OK?

41:32

All right.

41:33

Strategy number four: Understand the customer’s journey.

41:39

So customer journey maps are the actions, thoughts, and emotions experienced through different touchpoints and their interactions.

41:49

These journey maps help us navigate the complex world. It creates shared understanding, reveals hidden insights, and is a call to action to co-ordinate those actions.

42:02

Know, at another organization, one of my first experiences creating a journey map was for new supervisors to share their first year of supervise their supervision journey with Leadership. Oh my the map told a powerful stereo story.

42:17

You know, during the first week, supervisors shared with me that they were excited. They shared things like, I’m not going to be like my supervisors of the past.

42:27

three months later, supervisor said, I feel like I’ve been hit by a train by month six supervisor shared. I want to seem like I can do with, Oh, no, I don’t want to be seen as a problem, but I’m not going to ask for help.

42:42

And by the end of the first year, supervisors were considering other job options.

42:47

So, for the leaders in the room, that’s all this supervisor journey map. This led them to connect with their stories. You know, there was this shared understanding of what happened. Senior leaders said something like, Oh, I experienced that, too when I was a supervisor.

43:03

The senior leaders jumped to immediate action.

43:07

So, your leaders need to hear the journey story, experiences that they’re happy with your customers and in your organization.

43:18

Galle gain a clear and concise understanding of the friction points and services that delight your customer.

43:25

Well, the journey map is to create our visual artifact. It shows the time, the process, the actions of the customer and organization over time.

43:35

A journey map reveals influences the customer and organization perspective, the customer and organization encounters, and then the outcome of those encounters.

43:46

So when creating a customer journey map listening is key, You know, you want to ask your customers for those friction points, meaning the negative experience that prevent progress.

43:58

Customers will get frustrated when a process makes them look foolish or incompetent.

44:03

So an example that I would hear about some of our employees would be something like this. I ask them a question. The employee is quick to reference policy back at me. And they’re like, I got it. I can read. I just want to speak to someone live.

44:19

So in addition to friction points on services you provide, you know, it’s also as important to ask customers. You know what, services, the lights you?

44:28

I had a customer that called me about one of my employees the other day, and the customers said, Your employee is one of my favorite people. I’ve worked with my career, and those are pick words, you know. I asked the customer, What did he do specifically.

44:43

I wanted to get those details, right, Like, he picked up the phone, she said that he jumped in the system with me, and went step by step.

44:50

He was so patient and respectful, and after the call, he even followed up, And then, as another step, he even e-mailed me with the screenshots we talked about on the very call.

45:03

Then, what I did as a supervisor, I took that example. I recognize the employee at our organization meeting, and I shared those customer centric specifics forward with the organization.

45:17

So, here’s an example of a customer journey map with our developmental program participants.

45:23

We asked them to tell us about their experience and timeframes, and the timeframes we looked at, you know, before your first day, the first day, your first 30 days, and up up to 90 days.

45:37

Now, our program participants are hired across the country at different Navy bases. Our organization does not touch base.

45:45

We found out through these maps with new hires, and so they get access to their computers, which typically sad to say, can take you know, two weeks and employees through this, going through this journey map experience with them while they were very clear. They said that we should be reaching out to them on day.

46:03

Number one, congratulating them, connecting with them, and then explaining some things that they should focus on early on within the next two weeks.

46:13

They were also clear that they wanted several connection points during their time in the program. Again, they deeply desire connection.

46:21

They even shared a great idea, great to set up an alumni network, LinkedIn is a great place to do that.

46:27

And they wanted a Graduate’s sponsor located there with them, You can then walk them through the program for the next couple of years.

46:37

When we walk through this journey map with them, we ourselves, we remember whether it was like to be a new employee, Everyone is new to you. You don’t have access to your computer for a bit, people hand you binders that you don’t understand in meetings, you feel lost in conversations, because colleagues use so many acronyms, especially, and they go from it. And in speaking with our program, participants, we gained shared experience and it only further propelled us to work on meaningful experience.

47:13

Coming up on our last poll question, how often does your organization create journey maps?

47:20

So, Sarah, if you can launch our last poll. Thank you so much.

47:26

Great. Yeah, responses, streaming.

47:28

And we’ll give you, again, NaN here, and the results on the screen.

47:43

OK, 10 more seconds.

47:54

Great, Let’s get those results up there.

48:00

OK, so thank you for your, your honest feedback, rarely, and 15% said sometimes, Well, I would encourage you, you know, journey. Those customer journey maps. They’re, they show the history. They show the story, and there is power.

48:27

I right onto our last strategy, number five, create a culture of collaboration and accountability. Like I said earlier, culture is our organization’s story culture as deep roots, an organization culture is learned.

48:41

There’s this great book called, Turn the Ship Around, of course, Navy and Navy Book, by David Marquet. He was a submarine commander. The worst performing submarine in the Navy, and when he walked around the ship and ask people what they did, they said, I just do this because they told me to do.

48:58

So David Marquet shared that he had to shift the culture and the mindset.

49:02

Instead of sailors coming to him and asking, what should I do? He turned the question around, what do you recommend?

49:08

And he moved the decision making to the seller, empowered them to own their work, and eventually they became the best performing submarine the Navy.

49:17

So during the pandemic and working from home, one of the other items that was helpful was using a collaboration tool. And the collaboration tool we decided to use what’s called Sprint Base because it was aligned to the Design thinking approach and philosophy. Though in using this tool, you know, it’s great because participants get to generate an inspiration and ideas before the meeting. You know, they would post articles, videos, pictures, research, and then, when all the items were posted, all the participants could view all the submitted information.

49:50

So, when the meeting started, they were ready to discuss new ideas, because all was prepped and ready to go.

49:56

So, even when you’re actively discussing a topic with a group, the collaboration tool gave voice to the introverts in the room, and it eliminated groupthink.

50:06

You know, for example, if we posted a how might we question to the audience? We would have quiet reflection time for each individual to post their ideas in the Collaboration board.

50:16

You know, since the Collaboration Board was open to All participants, it also created transparency to hold one another accountable to those promises and commitments. When true collaboration occurs, it creates that for a mentor, for the Project and Initiative.

50:33

So there’s a great, great quotes, The past is where you learn the lesson and the futures where you apply the lesson. So, here’s a few of our lessons learned that we’re actively implementing in our organization.

50:45

Influence is a critical skill for any workplace transformation. I was listening to the radio and there was a discussion on friendship, you know. How do you know if someone is really your friend and the topic of influence came up?

50:57

The panelists agree that if you’re able to influence your friends, even in the smallest ways, you know, what restaurant, you, either what nail color, so they use, their most likely, your friends.

51:07

Those are a fantastic book that speaks to influence called How to Win Friends and influence People by Dale Carnegie.

51:14

And the author’s response to this question: How do you win friends and influence people, is to actively listen, get people talking about themselves, and they will like you, and then they’ll respect you, and with time, they’ll follow you.

51:26

As leaders influences one of the most important competencies to master, in the workplace complex, simply asking people for their ideas, insights, concerns, solutions, is how we empower people to carry out the mission.

51:43

Culture is key.

51:44

I wanted to share that I recently come P Laded Harvard course, called Building Organization Cultures: A Framework for Leaders. And in that course, part of the successful culture framework is having a clear organization of purpose and values. You know, sitting in Central Pennsylvania every day, we don’t sit see the Navy’s mission and I wondered, how can we connect our employees to that mission?

52:08

So, our employee, our organization culture team, is running with a new idea called, Mission Series.

52:13

And those series are going to be panels on various topics, meant to connect our employees to the mission, you know, to give them that active touchpoint into the lives that they’re impacting, to see the impact and the fleet through the salary, marine experiences.

52:28

And it’ll also expose our employees to senior leaders have been impacted by our organization, It is our intention with our culture team, to build connection to mission, and to one another, Celebrate the small accomplishments.

52:44

I listened to a podcast one day and the question went something like this. How do you know when you first loved your significant other? It most likely wasn’t this big grand gesture or moments, but it was all the little things along the way. So for me, it’s when my husband writes me encouraging notes when he listened.

53:01

To me practice this presentation, when he makes me coffee every morning, and insists on driving me to the airport when I travel. So in the workplace, it’s the little things that will transform an organization. So, here’s the way we celebrate a small accomplished.

53:16

We accomplishment we reached our hiring numbers for the year. That was fantastic.

53:21

So, the leadership team broadened sparkling juiced and we had a little breakfast together, and we did the cheers.

53:28

It was beautiful connection time, and there was no work talk.

53:33

Patience, patience, patience. This will makes me smile. It’s my Achilles heel.

53:39

There’s a great quote from Adam Grant who is an organizational psychologist and author. He said, leaders are nine times more likely to be criticized for under communicating that over communicating.

53:49

Those who say too little can come across as unclear and uncaring when you’re tired of your message, it’s just starting to land.

53:57

When you try to lead organ, transformational change, change is hard for some. In fact, like I said, some may come, become defensive and have the attitude. Like, we’re perfect.

54:09

So, this is why clear communication, values, painting the vision, the direction for your organization, is so important. Find the promoters in your organization.

54:20

Find the people with the right attitude.

54:22

Your promoters are your influencers.

54:25

Sometimes it’s easy to get stuck in the negative, listen to the centers, again, but focus on those promoters.

54:31

Ensure that the people you hire into your organization align with your organizational values and the people you promote. They have to be your future champions.

54:41

Empower your people. Empower your customers. There was a time I worked for an organization that led the old way command control, and if I even need to just send out a simple e-mail, I needed to go through three levels, layers of approval. I eventually left that organization, started a new position as a program manager, and I remember continuing to send e-mails to my new boss. And she called me in her office one day and said, Lauren, thank you so much, but I 100% trust you to send those e-mail.

55:09

You’re the expert on the topic, and it was such a small act of trust and belief, But the fact that she trusted me, it’s, it empowered me to take bigger ideas to her innovative ideas outside the box. And the same concept applies with our customers. I’ve sat in meetings where top leadership led by command and control. And what happened is the room eventually became full of silence.

55:36

People, decisions didn’t get made.

55:39

In a Healthy organization, it’s a leadership’s job to take care of their teams, provide them with that technical knowledge, the tools and the organizational clarity so employees can make the decisions on the projects and programs they own.

55:54

The voice of your customers is powerful. one of the most surprising things about design thinking is hearing the customer solutions.

56:02

I remember I was sitting with a group of recent graduate graduates, and as the facilitators, Isola participant was from Philadelphia, and I asked him, I have an important question for you. Whereas the best place in Philadelphia to get a cheese steak.

56:16

And we had Greg conversation, and later on, while we were creating solutions together as a group, I asked for, you know, how can we make things better?

56:25

The gentlemen on the call said, Laura, and all I need is for people asked me, where’s the best place to get a Philly cheesesteak mean what people truly ask, or is connection?

56:36

When employees get in the habit of being asked for their ideas, ideas start to come faster and faster.

56:42

Bringing those voices together led by a leader who embraces the value of collaboration is going to strengthen those trust and partnerships and the overall outcome.

56:53

I’ve had the privilege to be a part of a lot of Federal employee retirement ceremonies and at every retirement, an implosion, an employee’s emotions are high. And every employee retiree says something like, There are great days, terrible days, and everything in between. And if you think back to your own work journey, I remember when I first started, and there were times I would linger on things that bother me.

57:16

And I take it home to the dinner table in conversation and through beautiful things like experience and a little wisdom alone to shrug those things off and shift my focus and energy to the mission itself.

57:28

It’s been a journey of self reflection, humbly learning experiences, finding those mentors for support and guidance along the way.

57:35

And finding sponsors to say your name, when they’re in a room full of leaders, and then, changing your behavior to continuously push yourself to go outside your own comfort zone.

57:48

Time goes by so fast. We are on already on our summary slide here of those five strategies.

57:55

Put people first, identify core values, metrics matter, understand the customer journey, and create a culture of collaboration and accountability. You know, as leaders where the experience architects, we can design better organizations. And as leaders, we always have to lead with our head, our heart, and our guts.

58:16

So having this community of practice is everything. So here’s my LinkedIn information, I would love to connect with you, and learn from you, so please feel free to route, reach out to me and continue that conversation forward.

58:31

So I just wanted to say thank you again to HR DQ Macera and CEO strategies of design, doctor Judith Cardenas.

58:40

Sarah, do we have time for any questions? Great. Thank you so much, Lauren, for a really informative session today. We are nearing the top of the hour. But I would like to answer this one question today that we have from Jenny and Jenny asks, how did you influence culture participation from employees?

59:03

Yes. Great question. Great question. You know, when you’re a positive leader, when you share you care about employees, you will naturally attract positive employees, and it’s so important to connect with them on everyday topics. I remember of a former employee mindset Amelia with me, so I assume she wanted to have a career discussion or something like that. And, but when she showed up, she just wanted to show me her arts and crafts projects She was working on in her personal life.

59:34

And now, because we connected in such a beautiful way, I encouraged her to join our culture team that we started in our organization.

59:42

And she’s using her creativity in everything and every outcome and product. And that goes out to our organization. So, you know, sell your employes on why join in a culture commit or matters.

59:55

You know, you’ll get to lead organization on net initiatives, you’ll get to network with colleagues and again, lead with your head heart and guts, and you will find that employees will follow you and listen to your message.

1:00:09

Thank you so much for that great question.

1:00:12

Well, great. Thanks so much, Lauren, That does bring us to the top of the hour.

1:00:19

All right, and today’s webinar is sponsored by Strategies by Design: Strategies by Design Group applies: Innovative Techniques and Approaches to Achieve immediate engagement and growth, and enhances the connection between behavior design and human centric design. You can learn more at strategies by design group dot com. That does bring us here now. To the closing of our webinar, again, thank you so much, Lauren, for your time today.

1:00:47

Thank you so much for your thoughtful question, insights, and time today, Everyone, all, the best to you, Thank you so much.

1:00:53

Yes, Thank you all for participating in today’s webinar, training.