The Journey Shapes Customer Perception

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The Journey Shapes Customer Perception

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

Ralph Waldo Emerson, the American philosopher, is often credited with saying, “It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.” The idea is that the journey is just as important—maybe even more so—than arriving at the destination.

I recently attended a lecture by a magician who shared his “secrets” for creating a show that people want to come back and experience again and again.

The message was clear. No matter how amazing the tricks are, it’s the personality and patter (the words used throughout the show) that make people laugh and entertain them along the way—as in the journey created on the way to the end of a trick.

The concept of the “destination, not the journey,” not only applies in life and magic shows but also in customer service. Have you ever had a disagreement with someone in a company? (Of course, you have.) You knew you were right. You pleaded your case, asked to speak to a manager or supervisor, and after spending more time than necessary, the wrong was righted. The destination, as in the resolution, was what you wanted. The journey, as in what it took to get there, was a disaster.

Not all that long ago, I wrote an article about a parking lot that had open spaces. Everyone could see them, but the employee at the gate claimed there were none. He dug his heels into the ground and refused to let me park in one of the half-dozen spaces we could both see. I asked to speak to the manager. He made a call, and five minutes later—even though it seemed like more—he begrudgingly let me in. Did it have to be that hard? Of course, not!

The Journey Taints the Destination

Was this a fight where I won, and he lost? That’s what it felt like, but it shouldn’t have been like that. Too many times, a customer has an unnecessary “fight” with a customer service rep to resolve an issue. If the end result is what makes the customer happy, don’t make them fight to get there. That journey taints the destination, sometimes to the point where the customer, even if they get what they want, won’t come back.

In customer service, the journey is what truly shapes the customer’s perceptions. Businesses should strive to create a seamless, easy, and enjoyable experience at every touchpoint, just like a good magician’s show delights the audience from start to finish. By prioritizing the journey, companies can ensure that the resolution not only meets the expectations but also enhances the overall experience, encouraging repeat business and fostering trust and confidence, which leads to repeat business. Remember, it’s the memorable journey that will get your customers to say, “I’ll be back!”

Image Credit: Unsplash

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The Role Platforms Play in Business Networks

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The Role Platforms Play in Business Networks

GUEST POST from Geoffrey A. Moore

A decade and a half ago, my colleague at TCG Advisors, Philip Lay, led a body of work with SAP around the topic of business network transformation. It was spurred by the unfolding transition from client-server architecture to a cloud-first, mobile-first world, and it explored the implications for managing both high-volume transactions as well as high-complexity relationships. Our hypothesis was that high-volume networks would be dominated by a small number of very powerful concentrators whereas the high-complexity networks would be orchestrated by a small number of very influential orchestrators.

The concentrator model has played out pretty much as expected, although the astounding success of Amazon in dominating retail is in itself a story for the ages. The key has been how IT platforms anchored in cloud and mobile, now supplemented with AI, have enabled transactional enterprises in multiple sectors of the economy to scale to levels previously unimaginable. And these same platforms, when opened to third parties, have proved equally valuable to the long tail of small entrepreneurial businesses, garnering them access to a mass-market distribution channel for their offerings, something well beyond their reach in the prior era.

The impact on the orchestrator model, by contrast, is harder to see, in part because so much of it plays out behind closed doors “in the room where it happens.” Enterprises like JP Morgan Chase, Accenture, Salesforce, Cisco, and SAP clearly extend their influence well beyond their borders. Their ability to orchestrate their value chains, however, has historically been grounded primarily in a network of personal relationships maintained through trustworthiness, experience, and intelligence, not technology. So, where does an IT platform fit into that kind of ecosystem?

Here it helps to bring in a distinction between core and context. Core is what differentiates your business; context is everything else you do. Unless you are yourself a major platform provider, the platform per se is always context, never core. So, all the talk about what is your platform strategy is frankly a bit overblown. Nonetheless, in both the business models under discussion, platforms can impinge upon the core, and that is where your attention does need to be focused.

In the case of the high-volume transaction model, where commoditization is an everyday fact of life, many vendors have sought to differentiate the customer experience, both during the buying process and over the useful life of the offer. This calls for deep engagement with the digital resources available, including accessing and managing multiple sources of data, applying sophisticated analytics, and programming real-time interactions. That said, such data-driven personalization is a tactic that has been pursued for well over a decade now, and the opportunities to differentiate have diminished considerably. The best of those remaining are in industries dominated by an oligopoly of Old Guard enterprises that are so encumbered with legacy systems that they cannot field a credible digital game. If you are playing elsewhere, you will likely fare better if you get back to innovating on the offering itself.

In the case of managing context in a high-complexity relationship model, it is friction that is the everyday fact of life worth worrying about. Most of it lies in the domain of transaction processing, the “paperwork” that tags along with every complex sale. Anything vendors can do to simplify transactional processes will pay off not only in higher customer satisfaction but also in faster order processing, better retention, and improved cross-sell and up-sell. It is not core, it does not differentiate, but it does make everyone breathe easier, including your own workforce. Here, given the remarkable recent advances in data management, machine learning, and generative AI, there is enormous opportunity to change the game, and very little downside risk for so doing. The challenge is to prioritize this effort, especially in established enterprises where the inertia of budget entitlement keeps resources trapped in the coffers of the prior era’s winning teams.

The key takeaway from all this is that for most of us platforms are not strategic so much as they are operational. That is, the risk is less that you might choose an unsuitable platform and more that you may insufficiently invest in exploiting whatever one you do choose. So, the sooner you get this issue off the board’s agenda and into your OKRs, the better.

That’s what I think. What do you think?

Image Credit: Pexels

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of February 2025

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Top 10 Human-Centered Change & Innovation Articles of February 2025Drum roll please…

At the beginning of each month, we will profile the ten articles from the previous month that generated the most traffic to Human-Centered Change & Innovation. Did your favorite make the cut?

But enough delay, here are February’s ten most popular innovation posts:

  1. Innovation is Dead. Now What? — by Robyn Bolton
  2. When Best Practices Become Old Practices — by Mike Shipulski
  3. 3 Keys to Improving Leadership Skills — by David Burkus
  4. Audacious – How Humans Win in an AI Marketing World — Exclusive Interview with Mark Schaefer
  5. Which Go to Market Playbook Should You Choose? — by Geoffrey A. Moore
  6. Turns Out the Tin Foil Hat People Were Right — by Braden Kelley
  7. Are You a Leader? — by Mike Shipulski
  8. Time to Stop These Ten Bad Customer Experience Habits — by Shep Hyken
  9. Beyond the AI Customer Experience Hype — by Shep Hyken
  10. A Tumultuous Decade of Generational Strife — by Greg Satell

BONUS – Here are five more strong articles published in January that continue to resonate with people:

If you’re not familiar with Human-Centered Change & Innovation, we publish 4-7 new articles every week built around innovation and transformation insights from our roster of contributing authors and ad hoc submissions from community members. Get the articles right in your Facebook, Twitter or Linkedin feeds too!

SPECIAL BONUS: While supplies last, you can get the hardcover version of my first bestselling book Stoking Your Innovation Bonfire for 44% OFF until Amazon runs out of stock or changes the price. This deal won’t last long, so grab your copy while it lasts!

Build a Common Language of Innovation on your team

Have something to contribute?

Human-Centered Change & Innovation is open to contributions from any and all innovation and transformation professionals out there (practitioners, professors, researchers, consultants, authors, etc.) who have valuable human-centered change and innovation insights to share with everyone for the greater good. If you’d like to contribute, please contact me.

P.S. Here are our Top 40 Innovation Bloggers lists from the last four years:

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Getting Buy-In for Change Now That Innovation is Dead

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Getting Buy-In for Change Now That Innovation is Dead

GUEST POST from Robyn Bolton

Innovation is undergoing a metamorphosis, and while it may seem like the current goo-stage is the hard part (it’s certainly not easy!), our greatest challenge is still ahead. Because while we may emerge as beautiful butterflies, we still need to get buy-in for change from a colony of skeptical caterpillars who’ve grown weary of transformation talk.

The Old Playbook Is Dead, Too

Picture this: A butterfly lands, armed with PowerPoint slides about “The Future of Leaf-Eating” and projections showing “10x Nectar Collection Potential.” The caterpillars stare blankly, having seen this show before.

The old approach – big presentations, executive sponsorship, and promises of massive returns within 24 months – isn’t just ineffective. It’s harmful. Each failed transformation makes the next one harder, turning your caterpillars more cynical and more determined to cling to their leaves.

The Secret Most Change Experts Miss

Butterflies don’t convince caterpillars to transform by showing off their wings. They create conditions where transformation feels possible, necessary, and safe. Your job isn’t to sell the end state – it’s to help others see their own potential for change.

 Here’s how:

Start With the Hungriest Caterpillars

Find those who feel the limitations of their current state most acutely. They’re not satisfied with their current leaf, and they’re curious about what lies beyond. These early adopters become your first chrysalis cohort.

Make it About Their Problems, Not Your Vision

Instead of talking about transformation, focus on specific pain points. “Wouldn’t it be easier to reach that juicy leaf if you could fly?” is more compelling than “Flying represents a paradigm shift in leaf acquisition strategy.”

Build a Network of Proof

Every successful mini-transformation creates evidence that change is possible. When one caterpillar successfully navigates their chrysalis phase, others pay attention. Let your transformed allies tell their stories.

Set Realistic Expectations

Metamorphosis takes time and isn’t always pretty. Be honest about the goo phase – that messy middle where things fall apart before they come together. This builds trust and prepares people for the real journey, not the sanitized version.

Where to Start

  1. Identify your first chrysalis cohort – the people already feeling the limits of their current state
  2. Focus on solving immediate problems that showcase the benefits of change
  3. Document and share small victories, letting others tell their transformation stories
  4. Create realistic timelines that acknowledge both quick wins and longer-term metamorphosis

What’s your experience? Have you successfully guided a transformation without relying on buzzwords and fancy presentations? Drop your stories in the comments.

After all, we’re all just caterpillars and butterflies helping each other find our wings.

Image credit: misterinnovation.com

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Are You Preaching the Wrong Change Gospel?

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Are You Preaching the Wrong Change Gospel?

GUEST POST from Greg Satell

Today it’s become an article of faith that we live in a VUCA world (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous). Business pundits tell us that we must “innovate or die.” These are taken as basic truths that are beyond questioning or reproach. Those who doubt the need for change risk being dismissed as out of touch.

This is the change gospel and it is worshiped with almost religious fervor. Yet the evidence suggests exactly the opposite. An even relatively casual examination of relevant data would reveal that, for incumbent businesses at least, the era we live in now is far more stable, less innovative and less productive.

In a nutshell, we are talking about change more, but doing it less. That’s a problem. Managers who want to be seen as change leaders launch too many initiatives. Employees, for their part, get jaded and wait for the newest idea to fail, just as the others before. The result is inevitably innovation theater, rather than meaningful change. We desperately need to fix this.

A VUCA World?

Let’s start with the basic premise that the business world has somehow become more volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The term first arose in the aftermath of the Cold War, when a relatively stable conflict between two global superpowers fragmented into a multi-polar, multi-ethnic clash of civilizations.

In this new era of conflict, cultural, religious and ethnic identities replaced ideologies as previously subjugated groups sought to be recognized. The Soviet Union broke up, the Balkans disintegrated into war and strife. Despots around the world, now suddenly cut off from their superpower backers, had to confront internal rifts.

In stark contrast to the world of geopolitics, however, the sphere of business and economics moved solidly toward a new orthodoxy known as the Washington Consensus, which preached market fundamentalism and deregulation. Many of these reforms were sorely needed in many places, but policy soon became dogma decoupled from reality.

Today, in part because of lax antitrust enforcement over the past few decades, businesses have become less disruptive, less competitive and less dynamic, while our economy has become less innovative and less productive. The fact that the reality is in such stark contrast to the rhetoric, is more than worrying, it should be a flashing red light.

Disrupting People, Not Industries

Go to just about any industry conference these days and you will likely hear a version of the same story: Traditional firms are under siege. The forces of disruptive innovation, agile startups and technological advancement mean that organizations need to be in a state of perpetual transformation in order to keep up.

The data, however, tell a different story. A report from the OECD found that markets, especially in the United States, have become more concentrated and less competitive, with less churn among industry leaders. The number of young firms have decreased markedly as well, falling from roughly half of the total number of companies in 1982 to one third in 2013.

A comprehensive 2019 study from the National Bureau of Economic Research found two correlated, but countervailing trends: the rise of “superstar” firms and the fall of labor’s share of GDP. Essentially, the typical industry has fewer, but larger players. Their increased bargaining power leads to more profits, but lower wages.

The truth is that we don’t really disrupt industries anymore. We disrupt people. Economic data shows that for most Americans, real wages have hardly budged since 1964. Income and wealth inequality remain at historic highs. Anxiety and depression, already at epidemic levels, worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Change Fatigue And The Great Resignation

It is through this prism of increasingly powerful companies and vulnerable employees that every change initiative should be viewed. While leaders often see change initiatives as energizing and exciting, to employees they can seem like just one more burden on top of many others from both inside and outside of the workplace.

Research undertaken by PwC before the pandemic bears this out. In a survey of more than 2,200 executives, managers, and employees located across the globe, it found that 65% of respondents cited change fatigue, and only about half felt their organization had the capabilities to deliver change successfully.

It gets worse. 44% of employees say they don’t understand the change they’re being asked to make, and 38% say they don’t agree with it. Perhaps not surprisingly, employees view new transformation initiatives suspiciously, taking a “wait and see” attitude undermining the momentum and leading to a”boomerang effect” in which early progress is reversed when leadership moves on to focus other priorities.

Covid has exacerbated these underlying pressures. Since February 2020, millions of Americans over the age of 55 have left the workforce, driving a major labor shortage. For the first time in decades, workers are seeing a significant increase in their bargaining power and they are leaving in droves. Should anyone be surprised?

Focusing On The Meaningful Problems That Matter

Clearly, every organization needs to drive meaningful change. However, too many initiatives can undermine genuine transformation, leading to change fatigue and innovation theater. We need to make better choices about the projects we pursue. We can’t evaluate each program in a vacuum, but must take into account employee and organizational health.

In Mapping Innovation, I made the point that innovation isn’t about coming with ideas, but solving problems and I think that’s a good place to start when evaluating a transformation project. If successful, would this project solve an important problem? Is there a general consensus that it’s a problem we need to solve? How would solving it impact our business?

One of the things I’ve noticed in helping organizations pursue transformation is that questions like these are rarely considered. In fact, executives are usually surprised when we bring them up at the very beginning of the process. All too often, change is seen as an end in itself, rather than as a means to an end.

We need to rethink the change gospel. There’s far too much talk and not nearly enough impact. Change should be an inspiration, not one more burden in an otherwise exhausted workplace. It’s time to refocus our efforts on change that matters. In most organizations, that will mean committing to fewer initiatives, but seeing them through.

— Article courtesy of the Digital Tonto blog
— Image credits: Unsplash

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Six Keys to Effective Teamwork

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Six Keys to Effective Teamwork

GUEST POST from David Burkus

Teamwork is the secret that makes common people achieve uncommon results. However, effective teamwork doesn’t just happen; it requires careful planning and implementation. This article provides six keys to effective teamwork that will help you build a high-performing team. These keys are not just theoretical concepts, but practical strategies that have been proven to work in real-world settings. They are designed to address the common challenges that teams face, such as lack of clarity, poor communication, personality clashes, fear of taking risks, lack of diversity, and lack of motivation. By addressing these issues, you can create a team that is not only effective but also enjoyable to be a part of.

1. Set Clear Goals

Setting clear goals is the first step towards effective teamwork. Goals provide direction and purpose, and they help team members understand what they are working towards. It’s important to set goals at both the team and individual levels. Team goals help to align everyone’s efforts, while individual goals help each team member understand their role and contribution to the team.

Setting clear milestones is also crucial. Milestones are like signposts on the road to success. They help you track progress, identify issues, and celebrate achievements. So, don’t just set goals, but also define clear milestones to guide your team’s journey.

2. Communicate Activity

Communication is the lifeblood of any team. Effective teamwork requires regular communication that keeps everyone on the same page and fosters a sense of camaraderie. One way to facilitate communication is through daily huddles or standups. These meetings provide a platform for team members to share their completed tasks, upcoming focus, and potential obstacles.

Regular check-ins also enhance collaboration and teamwork. They allow team members to share their progress, ask for help, and offer support to others. So, make communication a priority in your team, and watch as it transforms your team’s dynamics and performance.

3. Understand Differences

Every team is a melting pot of different personalities, strengths, weaknesses, and behaviors. Understanding these differences is key to effective teamwork. By recognizing and utilizing individual strengths and weaknesses, you can create a team that is greater than the sum of its parts.

A “manual of me” can be a useful tool in this regard. This is a document where each team member shares their preferences, strengths, weaknesses, and support needs. It helps team members understand each other better and work together more effectively.

4. Create Psychological Safety

Psychological safety is a state where team members feel comfortable taking risks, speaking up, and sharing failures. It’s a culture where people feel safe to be themselves and express their thoughts and ideas. Creating such a culture requires encouraging a safe environment for interpersonal risks and disagreements, embracing failures as learning opportunities, and modeling vulnerability and trust as a leader.

Remember, a team that fears making mistakes will never innovate. So, foster a culture of psychological safety, and watch as your team becomes a hotbed of creativity and innovation.

5. Disagree Respectfully

Disagreements are inevitable in any team. However, it’s how you handle these disagreements that determines the success of your team. Encourage your team members to disagree respectfully and value diverse ideas and opinions. This not only prevents conflicts but also leads to better decisions and solutions.

Active listening and asking questions instead of making statements can be a powerful tool in this regard. It helps to explore the assumptions behind differing ideas and promotes understanding and respect. So, don’t fear disagreements, but use them as an opportunity to learn and grow.

6. Celebrate Small Wins

Finally, don’t forget to celebrate small wins and milestones. Celebrations not only boost morale but also foster a sense of achievement and appreciation. Regularly share and celebrate individual and team wins, recognize contributions, and create a culture of appreciation and motivation.

Remember, a team that feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected. So, make it a habit to celebrate small wins, and watch as your team’s motivation and performance soar.

Effective teamwork is not a destination, but a journey. It requires continuous effort, commitment, and learning. However, with these six tips, you can make this journey smoother and more enjoyable. So, start implementing these tips today, and watch as your team transforms into a high-performing, cohesive unit that is capable of doing their best work ever.

Image credit: Pexels

Originally published on DavidBurkus.com on December 4, 2023

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People, Time and Money

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People, Time and Money

GUEST POST from Mike Shipulski

If you want the next job, figure out why.
There’s nothing wrong with wanting the job you have.
When you don’t care about the next job it’s because you fit the one you have.

A larger salary is good, but time with family is better.
Less time with family is a downward spiral into sadness.
When you decide you have enough, you don’t need things to be different.

A sense of belonging lasts longer than a big bonus.
A cohesive team is an oasis.
Who you work with makes all the difference.

More stress leads to less sleep and that leads to more stress.
If you’re not sleeping well, something’s wrong.
How much sleep do you get? How do you feel about that?

Leaders lead people.
Helping others grow IS leadership.
Every business is in the people business.

To create trust, treat people like they matter. It’s that simple.
When you do something for someone even though it comes at your own expense, they remember.
You know you’ve earned trust when your authority trumps the org chart.

Image credits: Unsplash

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FORO: The Fear of Reaching Out

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FORO: The Fear of Reaching Out

GUEST POST from Shep Hyken

We’ve all experienced long hold times, repeating our “story” because we get transferred from one customer service rep to another, etc. It’s an ugly customer service experience that gives many customers FORO, or the Fear of Reaching Out.

FORO is the result of an experience marred with time-wasting friction that makes customers dislike having to reach out to customer support. Our annual customer service and Customer Experience (CX) research (sponsored by RingCentral) finds that 43% of customers would rather clean a toilet than call customer support. The support experience can be so bad that 60% of customers admit to hanging up on a support agent, 34% admit to yelling at an agent, and 21% admit to cussing at an agent. So, it does make sense that customers would have FORO due to poor experiences they have had with some companies and brands (not all) in the past.

Because some companies get it right and others don’t, the inconsistency makes the customer wonder what the next time will be like. Their past frustration, anxiety or memory of a bad experience creates the unwillingness to call.

I had a chance to interview Gaurav Passi on Amazing Business Radio, and he introduced me to the concept of FORO. Passi is the co-founder and CEO of Zingly.AI, a platform that empowers customers to collaborate with a company, either through AI or with direct human-to-human interactions, to have their questions answered and problems resolved. Below are some of Passi’s most intriguing points, followed by my commentary:

  1. The next 15-20 years will be about the end customer experience. Many consulting companies and business experts recognize that customer experience is more important than a company’s product. Most customers can buy the same product—or at least similar products—from many different sources. What differentiates the companies and brands that sell these products is the experience. Passi agrees and adds that the way companies deliver support is changing. The future of CX is a blend of AI, digital and human/live support. That prompted me to ask Passi a question that concerns many people, especially customer support agents, “Do you see AI replacing live agents in that time frame?” He answered, “I don’t see a world where humans are completely taken out.”
  2. Customers don’t want to talk to a human being — until they do. Passi says that customers often don’t want to talk to a human. They just want an answer as quickly and efficiently as possible. If they can’t get it, then they want to talk to a human … as quickly and efficiently as possible. Even with many customers desiring this self-service approach, Passi cautions that companies should not make the mistake of 100% deflection to digital self-service. He asks, “Even if you achieve 100% deflection, what will happen to your customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores?” Passi shared an example of a client who had chosen to deflect 100% of customer support to digital self-service and had an outage. Because of the outage, the employees ended up talking to customers, human-to-human. Amazingly — or not — CSAT went up. Why? Passi says, “Because there was a human touch when needed.”
  3. Customer patience is at an all-time low. This is a primary symptom of FORO. Customers don’t have the time or patience to go online to a company’s website, find the customer support number, wait on hold, get authenticated, etc. They want, as Passi calls it, a “One shot, one kill experience.” Using the company’s self-service options, often fueled by AI, you ask a question, and an answer comes back. It’s as simple as that. The customer appreciates not having to get on the phone, wait on hold, etc., etc.
  4. AI is not the final answer! While AI is revolutionizing customer service and support by enabling businesses to scale their operations efficiently, maintaining the human touch with customers to foster genuine relationships is still important. But the human touch doesn’t have to kick in until it’s needed. And in the perfect world, the platform will recognize customers’ reactions when they aren’t getting the answers they need. Passi is proud of what he refers to as “the most magical component we’ve created in the past three years,” which is a technology that understands when the customer is not getting the right answer and seamlessly passes them to a human agent to take over.

If you’ve been following my work, you know I’m focused on helping my clients create amazing customer experiences. As Passi and I wrapped up our interview, he mentioned that amazing is what Zingly is about. He shared that his mission, like mine, is to help his customers create amaZINGLY great experiences for their customers. With an increasing demand for customers to have more control over how, when and on which devices they communicate with businesses, the combination of AI and human expertise, paired with transparency and collaboration with customers, can create a more personalized, effective and amaZINGLY great customer experience.

Image Credit: Pixabay

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Digital Customer Experience Drives Bottom Line Results

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Digital Customer Experience Drives Bottom Line Results

GUEST POST from Howard Tiersky

Several years ago, Jake Sorofman, from Gartner, Inc. wrote that “Customer Experience is the new battleground.”

This has been requoted numerous times by companies including Forbes, Altimeter and, McKinsey, etc. And now it looks like FROM.

Not to beat a dead horse, but are CEO’s convinced? In our experience, clients whose leadership is on board with investing in a great experience report greater financial advantages vs. those companies who are not focused on Customer Experience (CX) or are dabbling in it.

In fact, the Aberdeen Group conducted a detailed study on Aligning the Business Around a Customer. In the report, the Best in Class (BIC: defined as the top 20% of participants by reported performance) reported significant financial advantages. For example, the Year over Year (YoY) change in Company revenue is 35.4% for the BIC and 7.7% for all rest.

Other interesting findings include Customer Retention Rate: BIC 85% the rest 40%. YoY change in Customer profitability: BIC 18.2% the rest 2.9%.

Aberdeen Group Aligning Around the Customer

How do companies get results like these? Our clients don’t just fix touchpoints but use Journey Management to Innovate Exceptional Experiences that Customers Love. A simple 6 step process works:

  1. Know your customers and their behaviors
  2. Map their journey and identify friction points, gaps and enabling systems
  3. Establish metrics and analytics based on your business strategy
  4. Ideate and innovate based on new technologies, analytics, and trends
  5. Blueprint the new experiences using a service design based method
  6. Deploy new capabilities and implement the new journeys

6 Step Customer Journey Map Process

Of course, measurement against the metrics set up in step 3 allows us to optimize over time and keep the journey fresh. It also allows us to see potential new friction points that should be resolved. Many companies are looking at personalizing the experience, really understanding their customer behavior and building an environment for co-creation. Powered by ethnographic research, user-centered design can help to focus on what the customer wants to accomplish and how best to get the desired outcome.

So, this works for the rest of the companies, but what about the Best in Class group? Yep, the true innovation to deliver exceptional experiences is never really done. There will always be new tech, and of course, competitors and other companies are investing in their experiences and creating the next big thing.

Need more detail on the benefits of implementing a CX Operating Model and using journey management to deliver Exceptional Experiences? Here is another study that is about 15 months old, also by the Aberdeen group, that details some of the most common areas of value companies are reporting.

The Employee Engagement comparison is staggering. Companies that use Journey Management get almost 15% more employees engaged than companies who work on their journeys, but do not have a cross-silo mature management program. As you may know, engaged employees have a profound impact on the Customer experience. ROMI, Referrals and Sales Cycle Times are also areas that carry large financial rewards.

This article originally appeared on the Howard Tiersky blog

Image Credits: Pexels

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Turning Bold Ideas into Tangible Results

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Turning Bold Ideas into Tangible Results

Exclusive Interview with Robyn Bolton

Innovation doesn’t happen without the right kind of leadership, it’s not all about the lightbulb moment or the idea that results. Innovation begins with an insight and it is effective leadership that helps pay off my definition of innovation:

“Innovation transforms the useful seeds of invention into widely adopted solutions valued above every existing alternative.” — Braden Kelley

It is no easy task to identify an insight worth investing in or to organize and lead a team to successfully pick the right idea out of a sea of possibilities, to develop it, to understand its potential advantages versus the alternatives it must displace, and to align the organization in the ways necessary to overcome any idea’s fatal flaw and shepherd it to successful launch and possibly even market development if the market for the solution does not already exist.

Innovation of course requires leadership, but do the same leadership principles apply to successfully leading innovation?

Today we will explore this question, along with many others surrounding culture, obstacles, process, strategy, and other aspects of innovation success with our special guest.

Unlocking Innovation for Leaders

Robyn BoltonI had the opportunity recently to interview Robyn Bolton, who works with senior executives at medium and large companies who are committed to using innovation to confidently and consistently drive revenue growth. She works with companies in various industries, including industrial goods, healthcare, consumer goods, and education under her consulting firm MileZero. She is also a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art & Design in the Master of Design Innovation program. Prior to founding MileZero, Robyn served as a Partner at Innosight, the innovation and growth strategy consulting firm co-founded by Harvard Professor Clayton Christensen, worked as a consultant and project leader for The Boston Consulting Group in both Boston and Copenhagen Denmark, and earned her MBA at Harvard Business School.

Below is the text of my interview with Robyn and a preview of the kinds of insights you’ll find in Unlocking Innovation: A Leader’s Guide for Turning Bold Ideas Into Tangible Results presented in a Q&A format:

1. Why do so many companies struggle to innovate?

Companies struggle because they think innovation is an idea problem. It’s not. It’s a leadership problem. What I mean by that is executives who excel at running the core business are often asked to innovate (create new things) while they operate (run the existing business). Naturally, these executives rely on the very instincts and behaviors that made them successful – making quick decisions based on data and experience, striving to rapidly eliminate risk, and repeatedly and consistently delivering results. The problem is that these behaviors doom innovation efforts. They demand detailed financial forecasts when no data exists, expect quick returns on long-term investments, and try to eliminate risk from an inherently uncertain process. Success requires leaders who recognize that innovation is the opposite of operations and are willing to do the opposite of what made them successful operators.

2. Why is it so hard for innovation labs to last more than a couple of years?

Innovation labs struggle because organizations treat them like startups but expect them to operate and produce results like the core business. Executives launch labs with promises of freedom and flexibility but quickly start demanding predictable results and quick returns. By the start of the second year, executives are anxious for tangible financial results, especially as economic pressures mount, core business results slip, or a new executive arrives questioning innovation investments. Without a plan to demonstrate measurable progress in Year 2, deliver tangible results in Year 3, and a leader willing to advocate for innovation and the organizational clout to stave off skeptics, labs are easy targets for cost-cutting.

3. What does it take to build a solid foundation for innovation?

A solid innovation foundation requires a holistic approach, what I call the ABCs: Architecture, Behavior, and Culture. Architecture includes the strategies, structures, and processes that guide how work gets done. Behavior – specifically leadership behavior – turns words into actions and demonstrates what the organization truly values and believes about innovation. Culture establishes, expands, and sustains an environment where creativity and experimentation can thrive. But behavior is the most critical element because without leaders modeling the right behaviors, the best architectures fail and cultures crumble.

4. What is it that makes innovation almost the opposite of operations?

Operations exist in what Rita McGrath describes as a high-knowledge, low-assumption environment where leaders can predict outcomes based on past experience. Innovation occurs in low-knowledge, high-assumption environments where no one knows what will work, and past experiences are more likely to be misleading than helpful. Operational excellence comes from eliminating variation and risk. Innovation requires embracing uncertainty and learning from failure. The mindsets and behaviors that make someone a great operator – decisiveness, risk elimination, decisions based on quantitative historical data – hinder innovation success.

5. What would your advice be to an innovation professional on how to prevent innovation zombie projects from emerging?

Unlocking Innovation Book CoverZombies exist because managers are reluctant to kill projects because that may mean that they were wrong. Instead, they put the projects on pause or delay work until the next round of funding. The key to preventing zombie projects is recognizing and communicating that the decision to start wasn’t wrong. It was based on the information available at the time. New information is now available, resulting in a different understanding of the situation and, therefore, a different decision. This learning process becomes infinitely easier when you have a (relatively) objective and (completely) transparent decision-making tool outlining clear criteria for what makes an innovation attractive and worth pursuing – what I call an “innovation playground.” This framework defines what’s “in play” (attractive), “in bounds” (worth discussing), and “out of bounds” (not worth pursuing) across multiple dimensions like strategic fit, customer benefit, and required capabilities. Of course, this tool is only as useful as the people who use it, so leaders need the courage to make and stick to hard decisions about stopping projects that don’t meet the criteria.

6. Which is more important for innovation success? Leadership, strategy or culture?

Leadership behavior is the foundation for everything else. I’ve worked with companies that have brilliant strategies or are famous for their innovation cultures but are unable to get results from their innovation investments because their leaders don’t demonstrate the right behaviors – embracing uncertainty, making decisions with incomplete information, treating failure as learning. That’s why the “B” in the ABCs of Innovation (Behavior) comes first. Executives must recognize that their instincts and behaviors need to change before they can become successful innovation leaders.

7. Is there any such thing as a perfect innovation process? If not, what are the key components for any innovation process?

There is no perfect process. Innovation isn’t baking, where following a precise recipe guarantees success. However, there are essential components that every innovation process needs: diagnosing the real problem to solve, designing multiple potential solutions, developing and testing assumptions, de-risking through experimentation, and delivering value. The order of these steps matters, but everything else – the specific activities, tools, metrics, and timelines – can and should be adapted to your organization’s needs and culture.

8. What makes one innovation culture more successful than another?

Successful innovation cultures share three characteristics: First, they’re authentic to the organization rather than copied from another company. Second, they recognize that operators and innovators are equally important and valuable to the organization and work hard to strike the right balance between protecting innovation teams and connecting them to the core business. Third, and most importantly, they’re actively demonstrated through leadership behaviors, not just written on posters or mentioned in town halls.

9. Innovation labs/teams/groups often have a different culture from the rest of the organization. Is it possible to spread the culture out of the lab and infect the rest of the organization? How?

Yes, but it requires patience and intentionality. Start by sharing stories that make innovation relatable and relevant to everyone. If you can’t answer “What’s In It for Me” for each person in the organization, you can’t expect them to change their focus or behavior. When people express interest, invite them into your team’s traditions and events. Don’t force participation – remember that not everyone wants to or needs to be an innovator. Most importantly, teach and support those who are interested in innovation while celebrating the operators who keep the core business running. Culture spreads through pull, not push.

10. One of the most dangerous moments for any promising innovation project is the transfer of out of the lab and into an operational unit of the main organization to scale it. How can organizations do better at scaling up innovation experiments into equal members of the organization’s solution catalog?

The valley of death is real! The key to crossing it is to view it as a relay rather than just chucking something across the chasm. Historically, executives have been afraid of distracting core business teams with uncertain projects so they wait until launch to involve the people who will ultimately own the innovation. While this still occurs, I’m starting to see companies over-correct and bring operators into the process at the very start, including them in activities and decisions when the team is still operating in a highly ambiguous and uncertain space. Success requires meeting in the middle. When innovation teams know more than they don’t know, that’s when collaboration between innovation and operational teams starts. From that point through launch, innovators and operators should work hand-in-hand to understand and navigate uncertainty while adapting their plans, processes and metrics to ensure market success without losing the critical insights that sparked the innovation. Most importantly, Senior leaders must stay engaged, understanding and supporting the additional time and resources needed during the transition period.

11. Anything you wish I’d asked?

I wish you’d asked, “What does innovation leadership success really look like?” Because while revenue and survival rates are measures of success, I believe that the real measure is the lives you change. Given that only 0.002% of incubated ideas generate meaningful revenue, and 90% of innovation labs shut down within three years, there’s no guarantee that your work will become a wild, world-changing success. That doesn’t mean that you failed. For me and so many of the successful leaders with whom I’ve worked, success is also giving someone the courage to challenge the status quo because they see you doing it. It’s inspiring someone to take risks when you break the rules thoughtfully and responsibly. If you’ve helped even one person discover their potential as an innovator or creative problem-solver, you’ve succeeded.

Conclusion

Thank you for the great conversation Robyn!

I hope everyone has enjoyed this peek into the mind of the woman behind the insightful new title Unlocking Innovation: A Leader’s Guide for Turning Bold Ideas Into Tangible Results!

Image credits: MileZero (Robyn Bolton)

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