SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

FROZEN ON A BED OF COALS

               I have got a Google desktop toolbar that helps me access information – any information that I have stored in my personal computer. Thanks to Google I am now able to locate that particular information eg any references to knowledge management which I have forgotten about perhaps and the toolbar helps me locate it in quick time.

               The internet and the Google search engine have enabled research on any subject to be virtually conducted in the comfort of the study room and have made information available readily at the click of the mouse.

               But the idea of organizational learning and knowledge management is not only about access to information with the help of technology but about the use of the information to produce value – which is what some have referred to as the idea of managing knowledge. Carla O Dell, the President for American Productivity and Quality Centre (I got her latest credentials by typing her name into the search engine) has defined knowledge management as “a conscious strategy of getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time and helping people share and put information into action in ways that strive to improve organizational performance”

               The business excellence criteria do not explore the philosophical dimensions of managing knowledge though. From a practical perspective – it is looking at how the organization selects information, collects and captures information and analyzes this information for managing performance. Seems straightforward enough – this is typically seen in the information architecture of the organization and how the organization uses systems and technology to bring information and data together to make meaning and help the organization to plan and produce performance improvements.

               A classic example is given by Carla O Dell in her seminal book on managing knowledge. She quotes a British supermarket which collected data on buying behavior, took the data and ran correlation analyses among the seemingly unrelated points to reveal buying behavior patterns. The supermarket found a clear correlation between the purchases of diapers and beer on Friday afternoons and hypothesized that men on Friday afternoons are likely to buy beer for themselves and pick up diapers as per their wives’ shopping list. As a result of that the supermarket took action and reconfigured the location of its diapers and beers on its shelves.

               The point to be made is that the supermarket had used data – defined as inputs on buying behavior – to make meaning out of it – which the gurus define as information – and had taken action on it – which therefore was translated into knowledge.

               The challenge for organizations – if they are small and medium size enterprises – is to put in place such a system. The challenge for organizations which are more mature – is to put in place a system that enables learning and innovation to take place – that’s another aspect which the business excellence model advocates.

               It’s the challenge which knowledge management experts like Takeuchi and Nonaka explores in their book “Knowledge Creating Company” – how do we translate tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge?

               How do we create learning in the organization? How do we harness the experiences and the knowledge that is in the organization for the benefit of others and to generate greater learning and improvement?   

               Carla O Dell quoted Arthur C Clarke who once observed that cave dwellers froze to death on beds of coals. The coal was right under them, but they could not see it, mine it, or use it. It’s the hidden resources of intelligence that exist in almost every organization which is relatively untapped and un-mined – that is the challenge of managing knowledge.

               Want to know more about managing knowledge? A very funny spin is given to it on You Tube at : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHd2ww1hw8Q Perhaps we can learn a few things about what not to do when we want to manage knowledge.

               Information is always available – it’s how we tap and make use of it that counts   

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

ARE WE THERE YET?

               I remember when we drove from Perth down to Albany and my young children, who were anxious to reach their destination and anxious to find out what was going to happen next, would ask the typical question that most young kids would ask of their parents, "Are we there yet?"

               And I remember on the same trip making a stopover in Margaret River, how shocked we were to find out that there was not a single room available for our one night stay when we had arrived in the evening. I had assumed that we would be able to check into any bed and breakfast when we arrived but I guessed I was wrong. I remember we had to call desperately for available rooms and finally were directed to the only other room available- but this was at a motel in Augusta which was 50 km or more from Margaret River. We were only able to check into the motel close to midnight that evening and I remember waking up the next morning in Augusta and whilst busy with breakfast, immediately started planning and calling and making sure the arrangements for the rest of the journey were confirmed and that we would not end up in a similar dilemma.

               It's like the old adage, "He who fails to plan, plans to fail"...

               The Singapore Quality Award criteria has an explicit criteria simply devoted to planning.and organizations that are visionary have a plan to realize that vision.

               The Institute of Technical Education in Singapore won not just the Singapore Quality Award in 2005 but they also won the global IBM Innovations Award in Transforming Government administered by Ash Institute for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government, two years later in 2007.

               This is a great testimony to the power of vision, committed leadership and the deliberate pursuit of a plan to realize the vision.

               ITE started off as a post secondary technical education institution in 1992, taking over an earlier technical institution known as VITB, and had a poor brand image in the eyes of parents and the public in the early days. But through a process of several strategic initiatives and strategic blueprints starting with the ITE 2000 (a 5 year strategic initiative from 1995-1999) and subsequently through the ITE Breakthrough (a 5 year strategic initiative from 2000-2004) and the current ITE Advantage which covers the period from 2005-2009, the organization has managed to transform itself dramatically into a world class institution of repute.

               Another organization that has transformed itself rather dramatically is also the Singapore Prison Services which won the Singapore Quality Award in 2006..through the establishment of a radical vision which totally changed the way prison officers perceived their roles. Prison officers were called Captains of Lives and their mission was to get criminals out of prison. It was a complete paradigm shift to say the least.   

               With that articulation of a singular vision and the tenacious commitment of the leadership team and I might add, the clear strategic thrusts, objectives and initiatives put in place.the organization introduced several key initiatives which radically altered how things were carried out. These included the Home Detention Scheme, a Prison school for inmates' education and the launch of the Yellow Ribbon project which hopes to change the public's awareness and acceptance of ex offenders so as to facilitate their re-integration back into society.

               Again it is important to remind ourselves that the best laid plans are not sufficient without the tenacity to follow through on them. I suppose this is what separates the best practice companies from the ones that aspire to be the best.

               Ram Charan, the highly acclaimed speaker and advisor to CEOs of Fortune 500 companies said in his book "Know-How: the 8 skills that separate people who perform from those who don't".."Everybody knows the announcement of goals is not enough, followers align emotionally with visions, mentally with the goals, and physically with priorities. Businesses have become so complex that leaders end up with too many priorities, or are overwhelmed when it comes to picking the right ones. Its choosing a few, and the right ones, and sticking with them that creates excellence in execution".

               "Are we there yet?"...don't end up some place else or take too long to get where you want to go. Plan now.

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

THE TORCHBEARER FOR EXCELLENCE

               How many of you agree that leaders are a critical success factor in organizational development, growth and performance?

               Well, the primary message in the business excellence model is that leaders drive the system which leads to results. The criteria does not dictate what kind of leadership style is most desired for organizational performance, however it does allude to the fact that leaders in an organization should provide the vision, mission and define the character of the organization.

               My own experience tells me that leadership plays a critical role in organizational development.  Leaders need to provide a vision of the future for the people.  It's true what King Solomon once said "Without vision, the people will perish".  A great story is shared in Warren Bennis's book "Organizing Genius" about the great Walt Disney. In 1934, Disney dreamt about producing a full length animated feature movie entitled "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". Walt had many detractors and unbelievers about the project. A rival studio head dismissed the entire idea as ludicrous and was quoted to say "Who would pay to see a drawing of a fairy princess when they can watch Joan Crawford's boobs for the same price at the box office?"  But Walt was undaunted.

               He had told his animators then that "If you can dream it, you can do it".  That was his credo and his basic philosophy.  Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs eventually broke all box office records and made the equivalent of what the Titanic made at the box office today and the movie received a special Academy Award.

               Warren Bennis concluded that the leaders of such groups which created the movie, are purveyors of hopes, not necessarily voices of reason.  These leaders are the ones who believe most passionately.

               Jim Collins in his book "Good to Great" discovers what he calls a Level 5 Leader which he defines as having or demonstrating the following almost paradoxical characteristics. They are not just humble and modest but they have an equally ferocious resolve .."an almost stoic determination to do whatever needs to be done to make the company great".  He goes on to point out that "Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce results"

               It may seem that the business excellence model advocates a prescribed approach towards leadership performance ie that all best practice business leaders need to develop a vision and a mission and defines its core values and everything will work out fine.  However, an important perspective is how this process is instituted and carried out.many leaders have experienced difficulty in carrying out and fulfilling the vision of the organization simply because of the approach taken in carrying out the vision.

               Research by Kousner and Posner over a 10 year period shows that effective leaders must not only articulate a compelling vision but must be good role models, that they must encourage the heart of their followers, empower the team, and they need to always challenge the people to innovate and take risks to improve the organization. 

               Great visions alone do make great leaders.  Great leaders realize great visions through the people.  It's the execution that counts and it is in this process that an attempt is made to assess the effectiveness of the leadership.  

               To what extent are leaders visible and present?  To what extent are leaders demonstrating and reinforcing the core values of the organization?  More practically, what do the staff and customers have to say about the leadership?  What fills the leader's calendar and how is the leadership team engaging with employees on a continual basis.  What results can leaders show for their effectiveness?  Do leaders learn and improve as a result of feedback?

               Max Depree, who was Chairman and CEO of Herman Miller and who has written "Leadership is an Art", said, "Leadership is much more of an art, a belief, a condition of the heart, than a set of things to do.  The visible signs of artful leadership are expressed, ultimately, in its practice."

               Businesses which are truly world class and excellent demonstrate the practice of leadership.

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

THE JOURNEY TO EXCELLENCE

Whether it's a new start up or a company that's mature, the SQA model for business excellence is useful as a model for assessing the journey to excellence. As I had shared earlier, the model is founded on some foundational principles for business excellence and derived from best practices of companies that have succeeded in the process.

The basic premise is that leadership - defined as the group of senior managers who decide on the policies and directions for the company - is the primary driver of the entire system. The leaders influence and direct the "system". The system in this case comprises the following dimensions :

a. Planning and how planning is done

b. Information and how it is used to drive the business

c. People and how these are mobilized and equipped to support the business

d. Processes of the organization and how these are managed to ensure the business meets its objectives

e. Customers and how the organization manages these relationships

These different parts of the system must be working in an integrated and systemic manner before the requisite results can follow.

By integration and integrated - the focus is on how the different component parts of the system are working together and seamlessly to produce a desired outcome. There are shared efforts, learning and each division or working group leverages on what each does. Although there is diversity but each works toward the organization's mutually desired strategic objectives.

Inherent in the system is the idea that the organization engages in continuous innovation and learning which form the basic foundation for organizational survival in the new economy.

What's interesting is that the criteria specifically draws attention to not only the way each part of the system works but also the "extent" or the term that is usually employed.. is, the "deployment" of the approach within the system.

To what extent is there a shared vision?

Are the different business units or the other regional offices adopting a common approach towards managing human resource; towards developing relationships with the customers?

In the jargon of Organisation Development, the model advocates what is termed as a "tightly-coupled" system against what is termed as a "loosely-coupled" system.

Now we all know that there are always new ways of doing things and new decisions to be made...that the formulation and articulation of a strategy is always the easy part. The litmus test is often the execution of that strategy and how quickly the organization is able to respond to changes in the environment in order to make the policies and the strategies relevant and applicable.

So the criteria focus on agility and continuous review of the integrated approach. It focuses on the whole idea of continuous learning and improvement to the systems and the way things are done. It promotes a spirit of change and engaging change in a deliberate manner and an attitude that says "never settle" and "how can things be done better?"

Has the way leadership engage with the staff changed over the years?

Has the approach to employee motivation and training and development changed over the years?

Have there been fresh approaches towards engaging with the customer and what have been the results of these different approaches?

What changes has the organization made to its key processes?

Finally, the focus is on Results.   In fact, a heavy emphasis and weight is placed on the outcomes of the integrated approach.   The principle in this case is that if the driver (leadership) and the system (ie planning, information, people, process and customer) are aligned and the system is working together - it should produce the desired results.

It's a journey as they often say ..and in the words of Bob Galvin of Motorola."it's a journey (a race) without a finish line"

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

A MODEL FOR EXCELLENCE

I am beginning a new series to share my learning from being a consultant for organizations applying for the Singapore Quality Award.   I hope that it would be useful for those of you who are keen to know more about the award or simply want to see how the framework might apply for the purpose of organizational development and improving organizational performance.

The Singapore Quality Award is a framework for business excellence.   It is modeled on the Malcolm Baldrige Award from the United States and which is a world renowned award and framework for organizational excellence.   In Singapore, the first award was presented in 1995 and over the last decade has been given out to organizations which have achieved a certain level of world class excellence based on a set of performance criteria.   These criteria are by no means arbitrary.  

Principles for organizational performance by which the award is based has been drawn from and based on extensive studies of organizational performance such “The Evergreen Project”, the first statistically rigorous search for the key to “evergreen” business success and “Built to Last” which attempted to identify best practices by comparing winning companies' behavior with a control group of average performers or with losing organizations.

It is build around a set of core values which typically characterize best practice business organizations.   These include a focus on visionary leadership as opposed to directive leadership; customer driven excellence versus a purely product driven approach; a strong focus on organizational and personal learning and innovation.   It views employees, suppliers and partners as an integral contributor to organizational success and takes a systems perspective to organizational development with a strong emphasis on results achieved in all areas of performance (think balanced scorecard) including that for community and environmental contribution.

The model can be compared to similar models for organizational development such as the McKinsey 7S Framework or the Burke-Litwin Model for organizational performance and change.

Studies in organizational development, change and performance are always interesting.  Such models provide a perspective to view and understand how organizations perform.   There isn't one model that can guarantee organizational success because organizations exist in what is called an “Open System” and is subject to various and unexpected changes in the external environment which impacts on the organization, however, having a way to think about the various facets of organizational performance is helpful and provides a good roadmap for organizations looking to go the longer distance.

The SQA model is a good working model to begin that diagnostic.

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

ON ATTITUDES

I had just completed a training program recently over a weekend for a group of frontline employees. I would have to say that the outcome of the training session was far from desired. One of them gave all the indications through her non verbals that she was totally disagreeable with the program. She was doodling whilst the session was going on, she would toss her head back and slump in her seat to show how bored she was and at one point she was reading the newspapers whilst an emotional story was being shared. I believe her attitude transferred to some others in the group as well as it showed in the terrible scores that I had obtained overall. I suppose one can say it takes two to tango and that I had probably something to do with it as well. However, as I reflected about this critical incident, I would have to say that I had honestly delivered in the same manner and with the same level of passion as I had done for the same series of training on many other successful occasions.

A similar episode occurred when I was on a service audit of a hotel recently. The similarity was in the attitude of the staff which was displayed. My family and I had checked in on Friday night and had breakfast at the Club level of this particular hotel on a Saturday morning. It was a rather busy morning with at least 15 others at any one time having breakfast. There were only 2 staff available then, a butler who was presumably the more senior person and a hostess whom I later discovered was new to the club level. However, what irked me was the attitude of the butler who was actually reading his e-mails (I knew this because I had sneaked a peek at what he was doing) whilst the poor uninitiated hostess was struggling to serve the never ending stream of guests leaving and coming in.

At one stage, my wife had requested the hostess for crackers to go with the cheese and she, being new, then enquired the butler about the crackers. We were told that the crackers were only meant for tea which was in the afternoon and that they do not serve crackers for breakfast. That was one of the most outrageous acts of service by far and I could not blame the poor hostess for it either. As we always discover in the good old mystery novels, "the butler did it".

Thank God there is always a glimmer of hope in the people we encounter in any situation. In the same training session that I had mentioned earlier, there were others who actively participated and saw the benefits of the program. In the hotel incident, another butler who had attended to us at the same club floor breakfast on a Sunday morning turned the situation around completely and left us with strong positive feelings and a hope in human beings. This particular butler by the name of David greeted us as we entered, ushered us to our seats and established rapport with us by asking me whether I had watched the match (it was during the world cup season) last night. When we asked for crackers, simply to find out if we would obtain a similar response, David quickly responded and personally took out a jar of crackers from the cabinet in front of us and presented it on a nice plate and served it to us with a warm smile. It was a totally different experience unlike the one which we had encountered the morning before with the other butler. There were still 2 staff available then, it was the same inexperienced hostess but the difference was a butler who cared for his customers and who demonstrated passion for what he did. I have always wondered what makes the same employee who works the same shift and who probably gets the same wages and who wears the same uniform act so differently and in the process create such a vastly different experience for the customer.

I have concluded that it's probably in the beliefs that one holds onto. There's something which I always include into the program that I teach and that's about the model that our beliefs determines our behaviors and which eventually determines the results. I had asked the class of frontline employees earlier as to who believed in this - and many of them did not bother to raise their hands - they either did not believe in the model or they were simply not bothered to respond. And that I suppose was the root cause. In spite of my addressing attitudes as a key to the new behaviors which would govern our outcomes, I was actually witnessing it in action. I sensed that this group of people, thankfully not all of them, lacked the passion and the pride in what they did.

I like what Zig Ziglar, the well known motivational speaker said,. "It's your attitude, not your aptitude which determines your altitude" and what Herb Kelleher, the famed visionary leader of the very successful South West Airlines, said.. "We hire for attitudes and not for aptitudes".

It's alright to get goats through the gates but when we get "wolves" in sheep's clothing.that's when we need to raise the alarm bells.

Maybe its time we need to re-look at our hiring policies.

A Monthly Column from Caleb Chua, Principal Consultant, The Right Change

October 2006

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

The Power of Feedback

I went to an Organisational Development Group (ODG) interest group meeting sometime ago. The > topic focused on a concept called "The Well" - which are conversations to promote authenticity amongst members in a team. Coincidentally I had explored the topic in a different way as well in a one hour 15 minutes presentation at the Singapore Institute of Management's Open House. Conversations intrigue me - because I think that the main context for our existence is the kind of conversations that we have with each other. A conversation is the lubricant by which we build the relationship or tear down the relationship, a conversation is the fodder by which we open up new insights into each other and create new ideas and a conversation is the basis for personal growth and development.

The "Well" is a process where members of a team engage in authentic feedback, facilitated by a coach. The people in the small group of about 5-6 are invited to give feedback and the person who is receiving feedback has a prior discussion with the coach on areas in which he or she would like to have feedback. These questions are the ones then which are brought up to the team members who engage in genuine feedback.

Some questions are "What qualities do > you particularly appreciate in me?"; "In what ways do I speak for what I believe in and challenge the status quo?" "In what ways could I increase my influence in general"; "What metaphors would you choose to describe me?"

There is an explicit understanding amongst the team that honest and open feedback is appreciated. The appraised person demonstrates the openness by inviting specific persons for the feedback and in the process genuinely listens and gently asks for clarification if the feedback received is not clear. The facilitator occasionally intervenes if the feedback received from the appraisee seems unclear as well.

Feedback is written down first before the group engages in a conversation. There is an iterative process which is natural and not forced. Finally, the appraisers leave and the facilitator or coach meets up with the appraised person and does a debrief with him.

We have all heard of the 360 degree feedback process - except that the person receiving the feedback would not probably understand what are some of the things that are said about him and thus may not be entirely useful. In this process, you know who is giving the feedback and there is the space to clarify if you don't understand - the process encourages trust and openness and enhances relationship building.

How does this work in organizations you wonder. How will one know that the process will not create more enemies at the end of the day and the people that you thought had really a genuine respect for you actually turned out otherwise? Can the process work in a culture where people cannot express themselves and people want to save "face" so to speak and feel bad about embarrassing each other.

It seemed to me like a multi > perspective feedback process except that the ground rules weren't that clear to me. It reminds me again about the nature of feedback and what it does for the individual as well the team. Feedback needs to help another person to S.O.A.R. It's a simple formula to > remember the purpose of feedback.

So here goes. the first thing, though not necessarily in order of importance, in order for it to be truly useful, feedback has to be: SPECIFIC. It's not going to help someone change if the feedback is "you are doing OK!"..". "Duh!! so what or how am I doing OK ?". It would probably be better if we say "you did great! You delivered the presentation clearly and succinctly and with great humour!".

Feedback needs to be OBJECTIVE. I used to remember one General Manager, I had to report to a long time ago when I was an junior executive, who said that I was "lazy". Hmmmm.I had just been upgraded by an earlier boss and now this new boss tells me I am "lazy". That kind of feedback is definitely not helpful. Instead of focusing on my behaviour he was instead commenting on what the feedback literature calls "personality". What did I do that made me "lazy"? Describe in objective behavioral terms what the person has done wrong. Did he fail to make the call?..did he submit the request late? Did he fail to process the order and that had affected the outcomes? None of these actions imply laziness. An action was done and that had resulted in a consequence, so now the more important question is what can we learn from it and how might we do it better the next time? Passing a judgement without exploring and understanding the behaviour behind it is one of the fundamental sins behind giving feedback.

Feedback needs to be AUTHENTIC. Feedback that is authentic, builds up rather than tears down. Proverbs tells us "faithful are the wounds of a friend, but deceitful are the kisses of an enemy". If someone is always saying nice things about you, that will not really help, but genuine feedback "tells it like it is" peppered with an encouraging word and a genuine desire for the other person's good.

Finally feedback that makes others soar.is feedback that is RESPONSIBLE. It's about coming alongside the person and providing assistance and support when it is needed. It is about working together with the person to help the person change if necessary or just being present and near.

Good coaches and good feedback enables others to SOAR...

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

The Top Ten List of Employees and Management

So how do we begin to address these gaps in perception? It's probably important to remember the following simple rules of engagement for both sides to consider

.and maybe, .just maybe.the list wont be so long.

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

Organisational Development Lessons from the World Cup

I must admit that I am not particularly a follower of the English league or even close to a football player. I was not good at the game early in life. I could never kick the ball straight and figured early on that it's probably not my kind of game. I can however, appreciate the game and during the period of the world cup had followed on the actual play on television whenever I could and had taken an interest to read the reports on the game in the daily papers. Now that the World Cup has finally concluded with Italy winning by penalties over France.I thought I might want to draw lessons from it from the perspective of organizational development.

Pride is an important factor in human performance, I concluded from the way the Germans performed in the semi finals. Although they were the underdogs they held out rather admirably against Italy inspite of the odds. And the flipside of that is also true - losing heart can lead to poor performance, as seen from the second goal which was scored almost within minutes after the Germans conceded the first goal. How can we build pride in the people such that they would strive to defend their position and their honour. How do we get service providers to develop a deep sense of pride so that they will uphold the integrity of the brand?

Winning is a team thing - I guess that's a no-brainer. A team can have its Rooney, its Zidane, its Cristiano Ronaldo and you probably need them but it's the individuals; working together that's going to get the goals. A group of individuals does not constitute a team, a team is one where individuals depend a great deal on one another to accomplish a desired outcome. Each team member has a role to play - a Cannavaro makes a great defender and a Buffon makes a great goal keeper. You need the individual skills and competencies to produce a great result. Basketball coach, Dean Smith, is quoted to have said to Michael Jordan in his freshman year, "Michael, if you can't pass, you can't play!".

Zinedine Zidane's headbutt had generated a lot of views and controversy. Whether it was the right action that he took or it was an action that was not justified, it brings to mind the importance of the issue of values and the importance values play in determining one's conduct or for that matter an organisation's conduct. Values determine the way individuals, teams and organizations conduct its business and define its actions - think Levi's and IBM and Southwest Airlines and 3M.

It was reported that a billion people were watching the world cup. It seemed that one game had captured the attention of the whole world when it was played. What has contributed to these phenomena such that many lose sleep over it, such that it has spawned new businesses, generated additional sources of revenue from late night orders for burgers and take away dinners? Ask Thomas Friedman, the author of the book, "The World is Flat" and he might probably say that its due to globalization and how the world has been made smaller and flatter because of the unimaginable state of connectivity that is taking place right now. This in fact is the key challenge in the new world of organizational development - how might we respond to the incredibly accelerated manner in which we can access the world on our lap - tops that is..

The team's success or failure is often attributed to the coach's abilities and the decisions they make. England's coach Sven-Goran Eriksson was often criticized for making poor choices and for playing it safe. On the other hand, the German coach Jurgen Klinsmann and Portugal coach, Scolari were all applauded for transforming their teams and helping them to achieve peak levels of performance that they were not capable of before. What does it take to be a good coach or a good leader? Leadership is a key factor in organizational success..the challenges of leadership the subject of many books. Like Henry Kissinger used to say "the role of a leader is to bring his people from where they are to where they have not been", how are we performing as leaders in bringing our organizations to another higher level of performance..have we established a road to Berlin for them?

The euphoria of the world cup has ended.life goes back to normal, but the game continues in the different clubs. New players are being nurtured, the veterans move on to a destiny that only they determine for themselves. Organization development is about sustainability and building the capacity to remain in the game.

I wish you all success until the next World Cup!!

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

On Asking Questions

A couple of situations have raised in my mind the importance of questions. Just last week whilst I was in Thailand someone asked me a very interesting question…what would you do if you had 40 billion dollars? When I was at the airport about to leave for Singapore , someone asked me as we boarded the coach for the Thai aircraft which was parked away in the tarmac; “Are we going to Singapore by bus?”

The June holidays has just ended…and I am sure if you had kids in tow on a self drive holiday, the most important question you would have encountered would have been “Are we there yet?”

Or I remember the questions that my boy, Zachary asked me once when he much younger. “Daddy, where does the poo-poo go to after you flush it? …Or “Why is the sky blue?”

I have a power point of Albert Einstein with a blurb that says “Never stop asking questions”.

So what is the point that I want to make?

Questions open up possibilities and opportunities. Sometimes we go through life rather mindlessly until someone asks a question that makes us sit back and think about how we are living our lives or the missed opportunities we had simply because we failed to stop and ponder and reflect and ask the important questions about what we are doing. The question “What would you do if you had $40 billion” …set me thinking about what am I really living my life for….if you really didn't have to work so hard everyday….what would I be doing and more importantly, why do I have to wait until get $40b before I do what I need to do?

Questions facilitate understanding. Talking is directly opposed to questioning and listening. When we ask the appropriate questions such as “Could you tell me more….”; “what I am hearing you say is….” We enter into another person's world and attempt to understand her perspective and feel what she feels. The key to effective dialogue is about asking the right questions and listening – a process called advocacy and inquiry. The fundamental competency in all interpersonal interactions is founded on the ability to ask the appropriate questions for a start. Effective coaches apply the right questions to improve performance, experienced consultants ask the right questions to suggest appropriate interventions and successful sales people offer the right solutions because they have asked the right questions.

Questions empower creative thinking and creative explorations. “Where does the poo poo go to, Daddy?” is an interesting question and unless you are working in the Ministry of Environment or an engineer who works in a waste treatment plant….you would probably have to do some fact finding before you can give a reasonable answer. Neil Postman once quipped that children enter schools as question marks but leave as full stops….its always important to encourage children and adults to ask questions for by doing so – it promotes discovery, learning and invention. The problem with grown ups is that we think we already know and therefore do not ask or we are afraid to ask because we might end up being perceived to be silly; so although I was rather amused initially with the question “are we going to Singapore by bus?” – it made me think about other questions such as “how come the aircraft cannot be parked at an aerobridge bay?” or “how can airlines or airports educate customers better?”.

Gerald Harmon, a consultant on innovative techniques and the inventor of the KnowBrainer Innovation toolkit says that questions are like fishing hooks and lures, they attract ideas. Creative people need a fishing tackle box filled with questions to fish for ideas. In his toolkit, he asks idea generating questions such as “What if?”; “What is impossible to do today, but if it could be done would change the situation?” and “What might be substituted, combined, adapted, magnified, put to other uses, eliminated, rearranged or reversed?”.

Try asking “What if?” or “Why not?” in a discussion ….it might irk some others but it is a key that opens up the brain and allows ideas to flow through. It is one of the keys to innovative thinking when we begin to question assumptions that we have held too long.

Have you got a question?

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

On Affirmations

I was conducting a coaching program the other day, and during the afternoon tea break, I had mentioned to my client that the coffee that was served through the coffee machine was rather thick and I therefore gave it a miss. Before I knew it, the service provider by the name of Carol, a fifty-ish lady who was the server on duty that day and who had overheard me making the remark, came up to me and to my surprise, offered me coffee that was brewed especially for me – without it being too thick…

“This is wonderful!” I thought, and I praised her unreservedly saying , “thank you for the great service Carol!”, noting her name from her tag pinned on her well pressed uniform. I could see that she was beaming with pride after I had said that.

Later that evening, after I had concluded the first day of the workshop, I had a chat with Carol as she tidied up the seminar room as was her duty to do so. I found out that she had worked in various hotels and had preferred to work part time in the current hotel…again I thanked her for the outstanding service she had given me during the afternoon break.

Before I made my way home that day, Carol came forward to me and presented 2 plastic bags containing 6 boxes of miniature croissants, small rectangular pieces of cheesecake, nonya sweet cakes, mini chicken pies and mini popiahs – all presumably leftovers from the tea breaks from the various seminars conducted at the hotel during the day.

I was again pleasantly surprised at her gesture – and all because I had commended her about the coffee.

The next day, dear Carol was still on duty but I had not received my coffee, “Oh well!”, I thought, “ she did great already and I can't expect too much!”. But to my pleasant surprise, when I had returned to the room, there was my coffee – specially brewed – and waiting for me. Carol did not fail me during the afternoon tea break as well – my coffee was served just as I had thought it would.

I don't know Carol from Adam – and this was the first time I had met her – but I figured that it must have been the positive reinforcement and the affirmation that I gave her that really motivated her to do the extra that really delighted me.

It was a timely reminder and a great story that I had shared with the participants that day about how a little affirmation can go a long way to make people behave differently.   Coaching is about affirming, coaching is about releasing the positive energy of people to be the best they can be. Tom Rath and Donald Clifton in their bestselling book “How Full Is Your Bucket?” share that the number one reason people leave their jobs is because they “do not feel appreciated”; and in a study of more than 10,000 business units and more than 30 industries, they found that individuals who received regular recognition and praise ….increased their individual productivity, are more likely to stay with their organizations, received higher loyalty and satisfaction scores from customers and had generally increased engagement amongst colleagues.

Take time today to affirm someone – especially the guy who has been working late nights to get the project done – the team member who has stayed back to ensure all the day's emails are cleared – the old faithful who has done the job right for the umpteenth time – it's about time we raised the positive emotions at our workplace with a simple word of affirmation and encouragement.

And by the way,... thanks for the words of encouragement I had received from some of you on the stories I had shared…it just makes me want to write a better column.

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

On Perceptions

Just the other day, I was returning on a flight from Thailand and sitting beside me in a crowded SQ 63 was a rather young guy who took out his computer and started opening a folder of photos – one of which contained that of a naked female body from the waist down – well at least, that's what I thought I saw. I was wondering what this guy was up to.  And because the flight was due to take off, he had to turn off his computer. He then took out his portable audio device and plugged in his ear phones and started closing his eyes and hummed to the beat of the music on his portable audio device. “Now who is this weird guy sitting next to me!!,” I thought to myself. Anyway, I too fell asleep as the plane took off.

And it was only after lunch was served on board, that he resumed his examination of the photos once again. But on a taking a closer second glance, it turned out that he was looking at photos of a conference that he had presumably attended earlier and some of the photos and text from the conference indicated that it was actually some kind of medical conference….It was then that I realized that I had misjudged the poor fellow; jumping to conclusion quickly that he was a “pervert” of sorts. I never did disclose this to him anyway – since he was a stranger but it did remind me about how easily we can all slip into making false assumptions and jumping to wrong conclusions about people which can often be totally misplaced and can often lead to misunderstandings and other problems.

I teach about this all the time but yet here I was – a victim of the very same circumstances that I tell others to be weary of.

A recent Class 93.8 FM TV advertisement also tries to play on the power of perceptions. There's one which shows a kitchen scene and the back view of a kitchen staff – presumably a cook- who seems to be doing some kind of disgusting “peeing” motion and you hear the loud trickle of water accompanying his “movement”. The first time my wife saw the ad – she said that it was “disgusting…what are they going to think of next!”. But it turned out that in the next moment, as the kitchen staff turns around, that he was actually pouring a bottle of wine into a mixing pot……

Again, our mind picks up the stimuli – loud trickle and man engaged in a peeing posture – and you conclude that he is indeed peeing when actually he's not.

It's just how perception works. There's a couple of thoughts that I would just like to share from these 2 examples. Firstly, we often take action based on the interpretation of the stimuli that we pick up. However, as both examples have shown these can often be wrong. Secondly, the more intense the stimuli; the more we tend to pick it out and remember it. So how do we apply these ideas? Well, for one thing – always clarify our assumptions first before taking any actions. That's the basis of any effective dialogue process and a good heuristic for establishing healthy and open and trusting relationships. The other reminds me that we need to manage our stimuli – I suppose that's what Michael Porter means when he says that strategy is about being different – how are we making our stimuli – what people perceive, so different that they will stop, look, listen experience and remember?

The next time you sit next to someone on the plane – don't be too disturbed by what another person is doing – its probably not what you think….and by the way, if you don't wish to be remembered – be just like the guy next door – eat your meal and watch your in-flight video quietly.

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

On Managing Change

There's a new book out on the shelves which I just saw recently. Its called “Cinderella to CEO” which draws on fairy tales to provide guidance and insights for women at the workplace. Another recent piece entitled “The Ugly Duckling Goes To Work: Wisdom for the Workplace from the classic tales of Hans Christian Anderson”; draws from Hans Christian Anderson's tales of the Ugly Duckling, The Emperor's New Clothes and other tales to draw insights for wisdom at work.

These books remind me of the power of stories at work. A recent story which I shared at a recent change management workshop is drawn from one of the stories which I read to my kids before bedtime. I find it a very powerful anecdote to demonstrate certain truths about change.

It's entitled “The Magic Thread”, and is a French tale about a boy named Peter who was a strong and able boy, but who did not enjoy going to school and he was forever daydreaming. Peter was always looking forward to the good things, in winter he would look forward to the summer and in winter he would look forward to the skating, sledging and warm fires of winter. He would long for school to be over so that he could play with his friends and he would long for the holidays to come quickly. One day Peter went into the forest and was resting on the soft forest floor when he heard someone calling his name. It was an old lady who offered him a silver ball from which dangled a silken golden thread.

The old lady told him that if he wanted his life to pass quickly all he had to do was to pull the thread a little and an hour will pass like a second. However, there was a catch. Once the thread was pulled, he would not be able to push it back again and if he did, it will disappear like a puff of smoke. Peter was to tell no one about this gift or else on that very day, he would die.

All these seemed exciting to Peter. He was able to avoid school simply by pulling the thread and the school day would end and that was what he did. One day he was scolded by the teacher, and all Peter did was to pull a little of the thread and the day was over and he avoided the punishment from the teacher. He had a girlfriend whom he liked very much and Peter was eager to marry her and so he gave a hard tug on the thread and he was all grown up and he ended up marrying Liese, his girlfriend. When the war came, Peter was recruited into the army but he wanted to be with Liese, so again he gave a hard tug on the thread and he was happily with her again without having to go through the pains of being in the army. When Liese was ill, he would pull at the thread just to avoid the pain that she would have to go through. Eventually, Peter realized that life had passed by so quickly, his mother had grown suddenly so old, his children had grown up too fast and he had missed all the opportunities that life had to offer. But he could not change anything – he could not push back the thread. He went back into the forest one day and met the old lady again who had given him the magic thread. Peter was eager to return the ball of thread to the old lady. Life had passed to swiftly for Peter, he never had to wait or to suffer for anything in his life, he felt he had no time to take in what has happened to him, neither the good things or the bad. He pleaded for the old lady to give him his life back just as it was when they had first met. Suddenly, Peter woke up in his own bed at home and he was a little boy all over again.

He looked forward to going to school now – he noticed what a bright summer morning it was, he felt good to be alive, he looked forward to meeting his friends and even the prospect of lessons did not seem so bad. He could hardly wait for school.

What lessons can we derive from this story about change and managing change? Many of us want to avoid the pains involved with the process of change – but its something that must come together with the fruits and benefits of change. Studies by Elizabeth Kubler Ross on dying patients point to a stage where all of them go through a process of denial and anger and depression before they finally accept what life has to offer them. Every process of change that we encounter is albeit painful at the beginning but soon we realize that there are precious lessons to be learned from it when its over and we have grown and matured with it.

Peter realized the many opportunities that he had missed by avoiding the avoiding the process of change. People who cope with changes well see change as an opportunity rather than an obstacle and it is in the process of realizing and acquiring that mental model that makes someone resilient in the face of change.

Peter made a choice finally to return the golden thread to the old lady – he realized his folly and wanted his life back again. Stephen Covey has a quote in his book the 8 th Habit which says “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space lies our freedom and power to choose our response. In those choices, lie our growth and happiness”. When life deals us a lemon, how do we choose to respond? When we are thrown the proverbial curved ball, what choices do we make in response to it?

Go and find a bedtime story to read to our kids…..we just might pick up some valuable lessons for ourselves!!

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

Romancing the Customer

There's romance in the air. I heard a radio talk program about the Romancing Singapore initiative and am reminded “Why not have a Romancing the Customer Month in February?” as well. There's even a book out called Romancing the Customer with a subtitle “Maximizing brand value through powerful relationship management” which frankly hardly explores the romance theme, and a more recent title “Love thy customer” which is a rather basic book on customer service by two PhDs.

On 6 February – a Straits Times reported that retailers are not aware of what the customers expect of them and instead of responding with assurance, responsiveness and empathy – retailers instead focus on loyalty programs, discounts and promotions.

All these remind me of how important it is to “romance” the customer. There are a couple of factors to ignite the romance, I suppose, in a relationship. Firstly, there is the declaration of love. To rekindle the romance in any relationship, I suppose one must be able to recognize the importance of the relationship in the first place. How important is the customer to the organization – do organizations really believe that the customer is important or do operations or making the sales far more important than a focus on the customer. Its not a momentary surge of feelings for the moment – that's passion. We are saying it is a sustained commitment to renew the relationship each time – that's romance.

Secondly, any romance has to do with listening and understanding the language of the relationship. Gary Chapman, has a book on the 5 love languages. He says that we must know the language of our loved one, whether its our spouse, our children etc in order to connect better with them. In the same way, I can draw a parallel with our relationships with the customer. Do we know what is the language of our customer? The Straits Times report focused on 3 key areas. It's nothing new. Research by Valerie Zeithmal, Leonard Berry and Parasuraman has identified the 5 key expectations of customers as far back as 15 years ago when the research first came out. Yet, we still hear that retailers are not getting the message.

Its probably not in the fact that they do not know – its in orchestrating the delivery that there is a performance gap.

Thirdly, romance is all about creating the experience. I read about a couple who has been married for that many years and they are still going out for moon-lit walks by the beach or having a romantic dinner for two without the kids. Romancing the customer is also about creating the experience as well.

Joseph Pine and James Gilmore posited the whole idea of the “Experience Economy” in their 1999 thesis. Their basic point is that the new economy is now an experience economy – that the customers are looking for staged experiences and surprises. They talk about “staging the unexpected” and urge service managers to leverage some service dimension in order to stage memorable surprises.

When was the last time we surprised our loved one – maybe with a bunch of roses or simply cooking a meal for our loved one – or have a themed evening out – I once watched a Japanese movie focused on noodles and before that took my wife out for a Japanese meal.

It's time for romance!!

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

Vision

I am facilitating at least 2 sessions on developing a corporate vision and mission for clients during this period and I suppose it's timely since it is the start of the New Year.

It's always important to be clear where one is going and a corporate vision and mission statement often provides that clear articulation of a desired future state which gives a sense of direction and purpose to the people in the organization.

It is a means of rallying the troops and if used well provides a roadmap for inspiring the people. Henry Kissinger used to say, that the role of a leader is “get his people from where they are to where they have not been” – and vision statements allow the leader to clearly articulate a desired future state.

However, like the New Year resolutions that we make – often times it's not the formulation that matters, it's more the execution that counts.

Strategy + Business magazine recently asked their readers to vote on the 10 most enduring business ideas that were carried since its inception in 1995, and the one that came out tops was the concept about Execution. Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan pointed out in their book Execution, that the most critical quality for managers is the ability to put ideas into action. William Joyce, Nitin Nohria and Bruce Robertson identified 4 primary practices and 4 secondary practices which all successful companies share in a massive five year study of 160 companies. And one of the primary practices was that of Execution ie developing and maintaining flawless operational execution.

So what must an organization do to ensure that what it formulates gets done and gets carried out effectively? I would just like to share some thoughts on this and as a kind of coat hangar to hang some of these ideas, I would like to look at the word CHANGE.

C – is about Communication. It is absolutely key that the change message gets deployed through every available channel. All members of the senior management team needs to get involved with the communication of the change message. Corporate collaterals are one thing but real communication lies in the alignment between carefully crafted exhortations and the actual behaviors that leaders demonstrate on the ground.

H – is about Handles. Often times, there is a lot of rhetoric but no real plans and clear initiatives and action steps to move the change forward. People on the ground need handles for implementation. Having a vision is the first step but the vision needs to be further translated into clear action steps and initiatives that staff can identify and associate with ..

A – is about Alignment. Aligning the practices and policies with the desired core values of the organization. Aligning rewards with the desired performance standards required of the staff. Aligning the people strategies, with the long term directions of the organization. Aligning the operations and design of new services with the key strategies of the organization.

N – is about Names. It's getting the right “names” on board. Who are the people who can drive the change initiative? Repeatedly, we see this principle emphasized in real experience and through the literature. Jim Collins talks about it in the principle of “First who…then what”; Larry Bossidy says, “If you don't get the people process right, you will never fulfill the potential of your business”.

G – is about Groupthink. Often change gets stalled because implementers believe that the system is already doing OK so why change. There is no questioning of assumptions and challenging the way things are done. An important question that managers need to ask in moving forward is “What If…?”

E – is about evaluation and evolution. There is a need to review the progress and see how much has been accomplished. Organizations that realize their strategic initiatives review their plans, follow through and are relentless in seeing their vision accomplished and not give that up for the next flavor of the month. Jim Collins found that in the good-to-great organizations, a simple truth consistently showed itself – these companies “turned the flywheel” in a consistent direction over an extended period of time until they inevitably hit a point of breakthrough.

I suppose a last important key factor is the energy and the enthusiasm to see the change happen. It's often the stoic resolve and the strong belief that leads to successful execution. Like Walt Disney used to say, “If you can dream it, you can do it”.

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

Gratitude

Someone gave me a gift book sometime ago as a Christmas present. It was the whimsical poem by Shel Silverstein called “The Giving Tree”.

I was already familiar with the poem and it was a delight to have it in a gift edition which I could keep and treasure. It's a wonderful short poem about a little boy and the tree that loved him so dearly. I thought I would share it (in an edited format) with you, …especially during this time of the season when we all should sit down, put aside all the deadlines (at least for the moment), reflect and think about those that mean a lot to us, the giving that we have gotten and the love that should have been returned but maybe up till now, have yet to be returned and what we can do for each other. After all, it is Christmas – although we may not feel Christmassy especially with the 33 degrees heat and blistering sun out today. The Christmas period to me is a time to ponder about true service and true giving…..and expressing our gratitude.

They played hide and seek in his younger years. He swung from her branches, climbed all over her, ate her apples, slept in her shade. Such happy, care free days. The tree loved those years of the boy's childhood. But the boy grew and spent less time with the tree. On one occasion the young man returned. “Come on, let's play,” invited the tree…but the lad was only interested in money. “Take my apples and sell them” said the tree. He did …..and the tree was happy.

He didn't return for a long time, but the tree smiled when he passed by one day. “Come, play, my friend. Come, play!” But the boy – now full grown – wanted to build a house for himself. “Cut off my branches and build your house,” she offered. He did, and once again the tree was happy.

Years dragged by. The tree missed the boy. Suddenly, she saw him in the distance. “Come on, let's play!” But the man was older and tired of his world. He wanted to get away from it all. “Cut me down. Take my large trunk and make yourself a boat. Then you can sail away,” said the tree. And that's exactly what he did…and the tree was happy.

Many seasons passed – summers and winters, windy days and lonely nights – and the tree waited. Finally, the old man returned…too old, too tired to play, to pursue riches, to build houses, or to sail the seas. “I have a pretty good stump left, my friend. Why don't you just sit down here and rest?” said the tree. He did…and the tree was happy.

I trust that the story of the Giving Tree has meant something for us during this season. I wish you all a truly blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year and thank you again for your kind support and the relationship we have build over these many years and I look forward to our ongoing friendship.

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

The Power of Empathy

Exactly what is empathy? As I train participants in customer service and relationship strategies, this word takes on greater significance each time. As part of an empirical research conducted by Leonard Berry, Parasuraman and Valerie Ziethmal, over a period of 10 years and released in their seminal book Delivering Service Quality  they found out that this attribute is something that many customers would like to see in service providers. They very simply define it as “the caring and individualized attention given to customers”.

In his latest book, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell referred to an interesting phenomena. Analyses of malpractice lawsuits show that there are highly skilled doctors who get sued a lot and doctors who make lots of mistakes and never get sued. The research showed that “the surgeons who had never been sued spent more than 3 minutes longer with each patient than those who had been sued did (18.3 minutes versus 15 minutes). They were likelyt to make “orienting” comments, such as “First, I'll examine you, and then we will talk the problem over” or “I will leave time for your questions” – which help patients get a sense of what the visit is supposed to accomplish and when they ought to ask questions. They were more likely to engage in active listening, saying such things as “Go on, tell me more about that,” and they were far more likely to laugh and be funny during the visit. Interestingly, there was no difference in the amount or quality of information they gave their patients, they didn't provide more details about medication or the patient's condition. The difference was entirely in how they talked to their patients.” Alice Burkin, a leading medical malpractice lawyer is quoted as saying “When a patient has a bad medical result, the doctor has to take the time to explain what happened, and to answer the patient's questions – to treat him like a human being. The doctors who don't are the ones who get sued”. He calls this the power of blink or the power of the glance and first impressions. Go and read the book, there are lots more interesting insights.

Another great example of empathy, comes from a story by Marcus Buckingham in his latest book “The One Thing You Need To Know”. Buckingham tells the story of New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy. I quote “He was asked what he thought the final body count would be. All manner of answers would have been possible, and acceptable. He could have responded with a curt “I don't know”. He could have turned to the agency heads standing behind him and passed the question off to them. He could have given a practical, dispassionate answer such as “We have not compiled and reconciled all the different lists. ….”But he didn't say any of these things. Instead he sighed, looked down, looked up, and replied: “I don't know what the final will be, but it will be more than we can bear”.

Buckingham goes on to conclude “And with those eight words – “It will be more than we can bear” – he won us. He revealed himself to be a leader who understood what all of us, all 12million diverse, disagreeable, discordant New Yorkers, were going through. He found the emotion we were all feeling – This day is unbearable – and he articulated it for us. And in so doing, he eased our fears just a little. We didn't know what was going to happen next, but we now knew that in him we had a leader who would do right by us, who would steer us through the uncertainty.”

He goes on to say “this ability to cut through individual differences and fasten upon those few emotions or needs that all of us share is at the core of great leadership. This ability is called extended empathy . No matter how admirable his achievements, or how valuable his experience and expertise, when a leader lacks extended empathy , when he loses sight of those things we all share, he loses the ability to lead.

In this age of experience and where customers seek an emotional connection, the power of empathy becomes an even more potent tool for building lasting relationships and effectiveness whether you are a frontline customer relationship officer or the CEO of an organization.

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

What drives individual performance?

The question that always surfaces is how do we drive the performance of the individual employee to deliver service, or to respond positively to a change or to adopt a new approach.

So how do we actually drive individual performance? I have been involved with training and equipping staff in organizations for many years, and one of the critical levers for delivering the service experience of course, is the people factor and how service is actually delivered on the frontline depends on how motivated, how pumped up and how passionate each individual service employee is at that critical moment of truth. What can we do to create the encore performance from the employee?

If I may just throw up some thoughts on this matter, on this wet Thursday afternoon, as I seat at my workstation….

Empower is a word much bandied about. So why don't I use that as an acronym to hang some of my thoughts…

E – Encouragement. I feel this is critical for frontline employees to perform well. How often do supervisors drop a note or even write on a piece of submission “well done!!”, “great job!!” or even simply say “Thank You”. Don't fret about elaborate strategies for encouragement…just think about that short in-the-moment piece of appreciation.

M – Money….money is not key but definitely its important for people to move on to doing something greater…people who do not receive what they are worth or what they perceive they are worth, will have divided loyalties.

P – Power – to make decisions. Most attribute empowerment strategies to giving more power to make decisions. But more importantly, its about having the sense of dignity that comes with the power to make decisions that enables…

O - Openness – Information needs to be shared to create a sense of mission and the feeling that “we are in this together”. Lack of transparency leads to lack of trust, lack of trust leads to poor relationships and it simply leads into a tail spin of low morale and poor performance.

W- We-ness. I know there isn't such a word. But probably that should creep into the corporate vocabulary, because it is a very important piece in driving performance. How well do the team members support each other in the performance of their tasks. Cultivating We-ness is a key competency for corporate managers – because any play of favorites often leads to distrust and again enters into the cycle of failure,

E - Equipping. Staff need to be equipped sufficiently in order to deliver the expected levels of service or needed outcomes. People need to have the requisite skills before they are put on the job, they need the necessary technological support in order to do a good job and they need the proper training aids to facilitate performance on the job.

R – Recruit the right people. After all is said and done, it is important to recruit the right people into the organization. Of course, this is difficult for some jobs that are considered un-glam but often times, getting the right people with the right disposition is the 1 st step towards creating the right experience for the customer. Herb Kelleher is often quoted to say “Hiring starts off looking for people with a good attitude – that's what we are looking for – people who enjoy serving other people”. Its no wonder, South West Airlines has remained the most profitable airline in America .

SERVE RIGHT By Caleb Chua

The Prime Minister has called on industry and employees to give better service…saying that “It's a critical success factor if we are going to develop a service industry”….Raymond Lim wants to work towards September 2006 to improve service levels. These are commendable initiatives however the pursuit of the holy grail of service excellence seems to be rather illusive based on reports and the many initiatives that have taken place over the many years.

Minister of Manpower Ng Eng Han made a reference to finding the service DNA…which is an interesting way to put it. So what is the service DNA?