in this issue
	Find A Partner Tough Customers Manager's Investment Judgment Day

Find A Partner

Have you ever noticed that it can take forever for people to find a partner for an exercise? It doesn't have to be that way. Here are some fun ways to create pairs. Find someone wearing the same color shirt. Find someone with the same type of shoes (sneakers, loafers, sandals, pumps, etc.). Find someone whose middle initial is the same as yours (if there aren't enough matches, find someone with the closest letter to yours). Find someone who had the same breakfast as you. Find the person at the table whose birthday is closest to yours. Find someone with the same type of cell phone (and then turn them off). As people enter the room, give them a colored dot; have them find someone with the same colored dot. Use a different way to match each time they work in pairs. It's fun, keeps them wondering what's coming next, and makes it easy to find a partner.

Tough Customers

A customer service manager is looking for ways to build the communication skills of his team. As you might expect, some people on his team are better than others at dealing with angry customers. I created a meeting plan for him to use in staff meetings so that the group can analyze actual calls. Here's how it works. The manager asks team members to flag some tough calls they get. The calls can be ones that went well or ones that didn't go so well. Since all calls are taped, they can be used in staff training meetings. He reviews the call tapes and chooses one successful and one unsuccessful call for training. During the staff meeting he starts with the unsuccessful call, periodically stopping the tape to discuss. Some questions he will ask are: What's the problem? What does the customer want? What questions would you ask? How angry is the customer? What would be some good things to say to the customer at this point? What could you say that might not move the call in a positive direction? After discussing the unsuccessful call, he will follow the same process with the good call, stopping the tape periodically to ask the group what they would do or say. The value in this approach is that the group doesn't simply listen to a call and say what went well or poorly. They are acting as the customer service representative on the call, and can then compare their approach to the one on the tape. It's a great learning opportunity. One caveat: You need to make it safe and worthwhile for people to volunteer their calls, especially the ones that don't go so well. Avoid ridiculing or punishing people for volunteering a difficult call. Instead, recognize the challenges in the call and comment on what they did well.

Manager's Investment

The goal of this activity is to motivate managers to invest time in the right activities that will pay off in the future. You will need a series of cards for this activity. Create the cards by first folding card stock in half. On the outside of the card write a type of financial investment (company stock, lottery ticket, IRA, name of a high risk stock, savings account, money market, etc.) and the amount of that investment. On the inside, write how that investment would likely pay off. For example, the outside of a card might read: $100 Savings Account. The inside might read: Annual Return: $103. Tape each card closed so that the return is not visible. Divide the group into pairs or trios. Have each group choose a card. Have them discuss the potential risk and return in their chosen investment without opening the card (3-4 minutes). Then have groups identify management activities that have a similar risk and return to the card they chose. Then have them open the card and read the return. Have teams share their ideas. Debrief with questions like: How big is the risk? What's the best that could happen? What's the worst? How much of a gambler are you with money? With your time as a manager? What factors influence how much of your time you will invest in a management activity? How distant does a payoff need to be to motivate you to invest time? How well do you invest your time today? What changes would you like to make to the way you invest your time? This activity makes the point that we can invest our time in things that yield good returns or we can just waste our time. Poor management practices are a waste - they cost us time and cost the company money. Good management practices may not always have an immediate payoff, but in the long run, they yield positive results.

Judgment Day

Have you ever wondered how to get people to think? There are some people who seem to have a knack for making good calls and others who consistently do the wrong thing. The difference is in the thinking process used to analyze a decision. The more experience we have with decisions, the better we get. Here's a way to give people practice in decision making without risk to the business. Prepare by creating a series of case studies unique to the target audience. If your audience is customer service people, the case studies might be situations in which you might bend the rules to accommodate a customer. If training managers or supervisors, they might involve employee performance decisions or potential delegation opportunities. Create cases with enough detail that a decision can be made. It's usually a better learning experience if there isn't an obviously "right" answer. The goal is to get them to use judgment, not simply identify the right policy to apply. Here's an example: You have a team of customer service representatives. The client calls and wants a rush shipment they didn't forecast. The error is on their end - they didn't anticipate their needs. Standard policy states that 4 days lead time is required for shipments. They are not a key account and their business has been gradually decreasing in the past 9 months. It is possible to accommodate their request, although it will take significant effort and some favors. You will have to deal with resistance from the plant manager, who reluctantly helped out on a similar request just a week ago. The account manager is putting pressure on you and has copied the Regional Sales Manager on an email to you about the reasons you should bend the rules. [Include the email in the case.] What would you do and why? It will take some time to create good case studies. Work with the department to develop the cases and be sure there is enough detail to allow for debate on the proper action. This approach can be used in a training workshop or can be incorporated into a manager's staff meeting. If you have a manager who wants to develop judgment in her team, build a series of case studies that she can use in weekly staff meetings. At the end of the group discussion, the manager can explain what she would do and why. This activity is another example of how you can support development by providing resources for managers to deliver.