8 steps to building better relationships with your customers
October 31, 2010Simple steps for building a customer service led culture from one of the world’s best
November 4, 2010
Earlier this year I wrote a post called Here Are 10 Things You Can Do to Foster a Culture of Innovation and Creativity… Now that we are emerging from the recession (apparently), how fast we grow as businesses and an economy will largely be driven by how innovative and creative our businesses are in the face of challenges and uncertainties we face.
In the previous post I listed 10 things that I believe are essential practices in creating an innovative and creative business culture. What I would like to do over the next few weeks is to take each point and expand on it so that we can develop a set of practical tips and strategies that we, as businesses, can start to implement so we can start developing our own cultures and drive our creativity and innovation forward.
The first point was:
- Live with many possibilities. Every problem has many possible solutions. Believe in the idea that you and your team can find a better way to do anything you put your minds to…….and you will.
We face countless problems and questions in business every day and often we ‘know’ the answer as that is the way that we have always done it. However, that does not always guarantee that we have the best answer or best solution for our particular issue.
Here’s my theory: We can find alternative solutions if we take the effort to look for them.
Whether the problem is in finance, marketing, sales, customer service, administration, management, strategy or leadership I think there is merit in pausing on a regular basis to consider or to ask the following question:
If I was faced with that situation again what would be 3 alternative solutions to that problem?
At this point, you may scoff and say that that sounds like a waste of time. And it may be. And there may not be 3 credible, alternative solutions.
BUT, I believe, the merit is not just in the alternative solutions that we can come up with but it is in the very fact that we are pushing ourselves to think of credible alternatives and three of them too. Remember it’s about ‘Live with many possibilities’. Only when we start to allow ourselves to be curious about the status quo that we can we can start to question how we do things and whether there is a better way.
Can you think of any area where you have encountered a problem in the last day or two? Can you then think of 3 alternative solutions to overcome the problem?
I’d love to hear your stories. Why don’t you pop a comment in below.
18 Comments
“Here’s my theory: We can find alternative solutions if we take the effort to look for them.”
I think this theory is spot on Adrian. Problem is most people are to asleep, bored or just could not care to try and find these. Especially in the larger organisations — Suppose that’s why the small business will win the customer so much easier.
Hi Michael,
I think you might be right about larger organisations. I have another theory that larger organisations will start to see this writing on the wall and will see that, in order, to compete they will have to reorganise themselves into smaller businesses turning a larger corp into a federation of smaller businesses.
What do you think? Credible theory?
Adrian
I think that is a fair point Adrian. I think the biggest challenge that they will face is undoing the learning they have. If I look at many large multi national marketing departments, they have become very adept technicians. They have habituated a process and will struggle to redefine how they do things. I also think that this is a very opportunity for people like you and me and how we can help these giants change direction :).
Michael
I hope they will be willing to change and ask for help. We would be happy to help.
Maybe what we need is a bit of creative destruction 😉 That’s not as bad as it sounds but is more a a theory of innovation and progress popularized by the economist Joseph Schumpeter. In his book Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, he used the term to describe the process of transformation that accompanies radical innovation in a market or economy, where innovative entry into a market by entrepreneurs was the force that sustained long-term economic growth, even if it destroyed the value of established companies and laborers. Recent examples of how this work include Xerox in copiers or Polaroid in instant photography who have seen their profits and dominance fall as new rivals have launched improved innovative new products or have found better, faster, cheaper ways of doing business.
Adrian
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Hi Adrian.
I spent many years working in social services so I chuckled to myself when I thought about your concept set within their organisational culture and for the life of me could not see it working. But I guess you’re not talking about this type of organisation.
What I’ve noticed with young companies is that they become a little stuck on the hamster wheel so do not always allow themselves time to stop and think more creatively. It reminds me of working within social services the whole service became reactive rather proactive moving from one fire fighting situation to another that just refused to stop.
Wendy
Hi Wendy,
Thanks for your comment. It’s interesting what you say about social services and how this would not work in that type of organisation as their approach is more reactive than proactive.
I guess there has to be a will and a raison d’etre [like my french 🙂 ] behind starting a journey like this and it seems that there was no reason or will in the organisations you are reflecting on. Is that right?
Adrian
Cultures don’t think creatively, people do.
One manager trying to “live with many possibilities” can make a difference — whether they’re in social services, a hamster wheel, or the most dynamic place possible.
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Hi Adrian,
A very interesting question I had to think about it!
On refection I think in some circumstances it would be very effective! The difficulty comes when you have to make decisions set by statutory law so there is no room for manoeuvre it’s a very clear yes or no.
Nick
I think what makes it difficult set within a hierarchical, bureaucratic organization such as social service is the culture it breeds. So its culture smothers its creativity. While individuals can of course think creatively you are still working within a system that is structured in such a way that you have to follow the flow otherwise you will be very sharply kicked back into line.
I personal believe that due to the complexity of the issues social services is facing that cultures have in some situations become oppressive rather than empowering. The system itself is keeping people dependent rather than empowering them. Many staff feel powerless and are over stretched combined with a high level of locum staff in teams and the older more experienced workers leaving therefore leaving the younger team members fend for themselves.
So I don’t personally feel that it’s just about 1 person thinking creatively it’s about a whole structure that needs to change which would have to come from the top down.
Wendy
Hi Wendy,
I understand that there are rules and regulations that govern what we can and cannot do and that will, in large part, define the culture of the organisations that we work for or within. However, what I’d like to see is more people challenging those rules if they don’t think they are optimal and not just settling for the status quo, particularly in things like social services where some of the front line workers know that the way that things are getting done is not optimal. Perhaps, then the creativity comes from changing the system first and not just assume that a challenge is a lost cause. Idealist perhaps but necessary I think.
Adrian
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Really nice post,thank you
Hi Ron,
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment. Hope to see you round here again soon.
All the best,
Adrian