Chapter 4

Tapping the Organization’s

Hidden Strengths
 Internal Customer Focus
 Initially, we must maintain an associate-first orientation, that is
everything we do is based on satisfying the needs of our internal
customers. We need to communicate with them and listen to their
concerns and ideas.
 We also need to know how satisfied our associates are.
Feedback surveys must be conducted, and we need to maintain an
open communication within the entire team.
 Managing by walking around (MBWA) it means that managers
should never go directly to their office upon arrival at work; they
should tour the operation or part of the operation and greet as many
associates as possible.
 The recognition of associate success is also very effective.
Recognition does not have to wait for awards banquets and the annual
evaluation. It can be done almost on a daily basis, and it is particularly
effective when it takes place in front of the associate’s peers.
Associates as Creators and Deliverers of Service
 Associates are customers in the sense that they have needs to be
identified and satisfied, and expectations to be met or exceeded.

 “Management must listen to staff suggestions.” The

management should ask the associates for the following:

Suggestions that would help to do the job better

Suggestions for improving customer service
What they like most about the job
What they like least about the job
Suggestions for improving those tasks liked least
Suggestions for reducing costs or increasing revenues
 Synergism, Diversity, and Empowerment
 Synergism
-are decisions that produce services and products that no
individual alone would have been able to achieve

-conditions such that the total effect is greater than the sum of
the individual effects.

 Diversity
-Includes race, religion, personality, personal objectives, and
financial/ cultural background.

 Empowerment
-providing direction for what needs to be done, the tools
to do it, and then getting out of way so people can achieve
the results.
 Associates’ Values
 First, the CEO and the executive team must develop a broad
common purpose and vision. This must mirror the goals of the
organization, but it also must be able to be adopted by all of the
diverse groups in the organization.

 Second, every associate must be convinced that “it is not I or me,

it’s us.”

 Management must build positive relationships among

individual associates and associate groups.

 Obviously, the organization’s value system must include

cooperation as one of its key components. When associates use
compromise in dealing with the synergism gained from placing the
organization ahead of personal agenda.
 Respect is another important part of the value system’s foundation.
For the most part, respect should be earned. This is accomplished
more easily among associates who work closely together.

 The primary reasons for success seem to be the ability to get along with
others, strong communication skills, respect for differences, and
confidence is needed for vision, values, and processes of the
organization to be successful.

 Another important ingredient in a value system is trust. An

environment of trust within the team brings openness, effective
communication, and creativity. Low trust levels breed territorialism,
defensiveness, protectiveness, and ultimately legalese and the need fro
abundant documentation.
Three key components in
associate empowerment namely,

Sharing information
Autonomy,
and Self-directed groups.
 Sharing Information
 To have all associates enroll in the vision, mission, and core values
of the organization, management must teach and share as much
information as possible.

 So, how do we get managers to become great coaches or mentors?

They need three attributes:

The ability to teach

The desire to teach without fear of the associate taking their job
The ability to recognize and reward for success.
 Autonomy
 Autonomy, associates with functional limits who are independent
and do not fear failure or making mistakes.

 Teamwork simply enhances one’s ability to make the proper

decisions. Teamwork also leads to a higher degree of
communication between associates.

 Independence, on the other hand, leads to an associate’s

willingness o take a position on an issue and make a decision that is
right but not always popular.

 The downside of independence is an attitude of arrogance. This

attitude can breed disrespect, destroy teamwork, and lead associates
away from focusing on the important aspects of the business.
 Self – Directed Groups

 The third key to successfully empowering associates is the use of

self – directed groups. These are teams that work with little
oversight or direction from management.

 The major difference between the use of self – directed groups

and hierarchical direction is that associates, not management
make up the self – directed groups. These groups are empowered to
resolve issues and decide on the best course of action.
 Human Resources Process Model
 The most valuable resource in a high performance service
organization is the human resource; the human resources
process allows these organizations to hire and develop strong
associates.

 One classification scheme suggested by Bernadette Kenny, Chief

Operating Officer of global services organization Lee Hecht
Harrison follows:

 Gold medal contenders – fit in and are positioned correctly

within the organization
 Olympic qualifiers – fit in the organization but need to be
repositioned
 Olympic hopefuls –potentially fit within the organization
somewhere
 Non – qualifiers – either don’t fit or don’t want to fit
 Other aids to or sources for recruiting applicants include the following:
Signs inviting external customers to join the team.
Radio ads using the demographic information of the radio station
to target the right audiences of potential associates.
Partnering with high school-to-work programs.
Retired people who want to work part time and typically have a
strong work ethic.
Special needs populations.
Immigrant groups.
Working with community leaders to fill positions.
Churches and groups that encourage women to re-enter the
workforce.
 Selection
 The goal is to screen applicants and identify people who share the
organization’s vision, mission, and values.

 How do we assess attitude? One way is by asking particular

questions during the selection interview:

Think about one word that best describes you. What is it?
Why?
If you could choose whatever you wanted as a career position,
what would you choose? Why?
Describe a situation that made you laugh. Why did it make you
laugh?
Talk about a positive service experience you recently had.
Tell me about a time when you were on a team that achieved a
desired result. What did you achieve? how did it happen?
 Orientation

 Orientation is where people understand how to make the vision and

mission real if they are to make contributions in positive ways.

 During this step in the process, active listening skills can be used and
an overview of the processes and team building exercises should be
included.

 They must understand their role and how it contributes to the success
of the organization as it exceeds the expectations of customers.
 Training
 The requirement for training are fundamentally the same for all
new associates, but they will differ somewhat based on the
associate’s specific functional area.

 The constant is a review and deeper exploration of the

organization’s vision, mission, principles, and standards. Training
should begin with a discussion of these then move the focus to the
functional area and the specific role of the new associate.

 Training also includes specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes so

that the new associate may understand and successfully contribute
to the mission and needs of the functional area.
 Validation of Training

 Validation of training is the next step in the process. Unless the

results of training are assessed, there is no way to know whether the
training has been effective.

 Validation of training provides a way to compare. Training

validation includes technical skills and knowledge, as well as
attitudes.

 Training is validated by associates and mangers in each functional

area. Additional validation is provided by customers, both internal
and external.
 Empowerment
 Empowerment is the next step in the process. It is only possible if
associates have been selected, properly oriented, carefully trained,
and training has been validated.

 The empowered associate is responsible for following up with the

customer to determine that the problem or hassle has been
addressed to the customer’s satisfaction.

 In the spirit of continuous improvement of quality, an incident

form is completed to describe the problem or hassle and how it was
solved. Incident forms are rich resources for the identification of
process hassles by the quality teams.
 Self – directed teams

 Self – directed teams are the goal in the next step of the human
resources process model.

 In some high performance organizations, the priorities for problem

resolution are defined by members of the quality improvement
teams.

 In other cases, the teams working to fix the process prioritize the
problems and work on them from top priority on down.

 In either case, the top priority hassles are those that are chronic,
severe, and have dramatic negative impact on the level of quality in
the products or services created and delivered.
 Assessment of Results
 Once an associate has been selected, oriented, and trained, we need
to assess the results.

 Broadly speaking, this assessment occurs in three different, yet

related, areas: internal customers, external customers, and
financial assessments.

 Internal and external customers provide verbal and written

feedback regularly for assessment.

 Financial assessments are essential and might include the

various financial assessments as well as a series of ratio analyses.
This set of assessments determines how the organization is doing
relative to the needs and expectations of the owners.
 Leadership
 Leadership is the final step in the human resources process.

 This step refers to more than just top management in the

organization.

 Leadership is possible in any position in an organization.

 When internal customers use leadership skills to make their

decisions, they put the core values, vision, and mission into action,
making them come alive as part of the experience for themselves,
other associate, and external customers.

 Associates who have effective leadership skills are not afraid to take
action to meet customer requirements .