Changing outcomes is also a PROCESS! Helping someone else change their past decisions is a bit magical!

Before we move on to the element of SERVE let’s take one more look at the challenge of UNDERSTAND….

I was reminded this week of an aspect of today’s world, and the balance that exists between what is, and what we want to have happened.

Today, our clients have a supplier source for every single product that they use today in their manufacturing. They have spent decades in many cases, tons of money in the selection, qualification, system-level evaluation, and manufacturing of every single part of every product that they make today.

And they have spent tremendous amounts of time and energy in making all of these decisions about all these things.

They have had design engineers, component engineers, quality engineers, manufacturing engineers, safety engineers, and every kind of product and technology expertise we can imagine, all put their official stamp of approval on every component level source decision needed to build their end products.

Decisions have been made, deployed, accepted, and lived with for their current end product offerings, and in reality, those same decisions will likely stand for almost all of their next generation of new end products created by our clients.

We like that stability when we are the chosen “one” and their use of our solutions starts, stays, and grows.

We don’t like that stability as much when we are NOT the chosen source for their solutions in our offering space.

There is the challenge.

The reality in most product offerings of any kind in our world today the new solutions offered for use by our clients in their own end products are for the most part “evolutionary” in nature and seldom offer a truly competitive differentiation that will make a significant difference to our clients versus solutions already offered in the market place.

To state that the world of products in general (ours and our clients) is pretty much one giant commoditized bag of the same stuff is a bit harsh, but not totally untrue. Incremental improvements and feature expansion do certainly add to the discussion levels and give us something to hang our “ours is different” hat on. At least at the surface level.

The table stakes in today’s environment is having great products amongst all of the elements of price and delivery as well.

NOTE… we have GREAT products, technology, and tools…absolutely!

So where is this going with respect to UNDERSTANDing our clients?

Well, that is simple AND complex.

Simply, the harsh reality is that if we are going to gain market share, grow the number of clients we have, and grow within those clients we already serve at some level… we must help them to CHANGE their thinking about the work and the decisions that they reached in the past with respect to their choice of suppliers in a given solution set. We must help them CHANGE their thinking, to CHANGE their beliefs, to CHANGE their actions… and choose US. And that is the complex part…CHANGE!

However complex it might seem or be, we CAN achieve it. It is quite doable. We know how, and many of you are good at it already.

Next week we will look at the magic in the use of SMEs and the PIVOT, in helping guide our clients through the CHANGE process.

OK, LET’S ROLL! Thru the change!

Mitch

We can MAP the journey to profitability in a new product introduction with a client. That is something that most don’t do. Here is the story of the process that we can help them deploy….

A challenge that has existed since the beginning of creating new products by manufacturing companies is that of effective collaboration of those involved and the creation of measures of excellence in that journey. Today more than ever, advanced manufacturers must create new products that will make the most profit in the least time. And the search for a simple metric that can be used to spur that along had been searched for extensively. But what metric can managers of inter-functional teams use to direct their employees’ efforts toward this outcome?

Ideally, such a metric would encourage the ongoing monitoring of a new product development project. It would allow people from different disciplines to assess the impact of their decisions and their colleagues’ decisions on the entire project. The metric would encourage collaboration among different functions: engender challenge and criticism without encouraging presumptuousness. It would serve as a prompt for learning and improvement. It would be easy to read and interpret, something to sketch on the back of an envelope while in a coffeepot discussion. And it would provide a way of visualizing progress holistically.

In fact, Hewlett-Packard has been using just such a metric since 1987—they named it the “Return Map”—and it is so simple and elegant that it has become a staple of the company’s product development cycle. The Return Map graphically represents the contributions of all team members to product success in terms of time and money. First and foremost, it includes the critical elements of product development—the investment in product development and the return or profits from that investment. But the Return Map also shows the elapsed time to develop the product, introduce it, and achieve the returns.

Not surprisingly, the Return Map’s crucial coordinate is the point at which product sales generate sufficient profit to pay back the initial development investment, that is, when the project breaks even. But the map’s greatest virtue is not in what it says so much as in what it does. It provides a superordinate goal and measure for all the functions and thus shifts the team’s focus from “who is responsible” to “what needs to get done.” Even more important, the map forces members of the team to estimate and reestimate the time and money it will take to complete their tasks and the impact of their actions on overall project success. In giving a comprehensive picture of the common task, it helps to create the only discipline that works, namely, self-discipline.

So, what does this have to do with our use of SMEs and UNDERSTANDING?

A lot!!!

By caring enough to UNDERSTAND our client and bring a MAJOR amount of SME expertise to the party we can have a MAJOR impact on several things. Through the use of the Return Map (google HP Return Map and read the HBR article) at the start of the client’s new product development cycle and our deployment of well-orchestrated SME teams, we can significantly reduce the amount of time that our clients take to bring their products to market and have them break even in terms of development cost. Our data shows that we can reduce that break-even time by as much as 40%. Have that conversation with a client and see IF they are interested in reducing their ‘time to money” of their new products by 40%. I know what the answer will be…. “tell me more”! Time for SMEs to come do their magic.

There is an even more impactful aspect of the SME utilization process. Let’s dig in a bit.

In our normal cycle of client engagement, we have a multitude of things to do. Actually, plan/do/review! Elements such as client engagement plan creation, deep understanding and analysis sessions, strategic fit, and implementation ideation. If this was a process flow, the steps would be many and really quite circular in nature. With all of the process variables in play, there is just ONE that can make the true difference of the measure and creation of success from beginning to end. SME utilization. Every step of the journey we take with a client must have the component of SME utilization included in the thinking. In the beginning, we ask, what SMEs can we bring to create curiosity that matters to the client. As we dig in deeper we look for more breadth of expertise to the conversation. EVERY step of the way and every conversation should have an element of SME inside of it... What SMEs now, what next, what more, what have we missed? Have we asked the clients about what more they may want to know about the current situation, the future of their direction, what we see in their industry? More, more, more….

This variable drives outcomes. This variable is measurable and can be acted on every day for maximizing that outcome. This one conversation can make a difference, unlike almost anything we can ask. And it matters to the client because it is all about THEM!

Client engagement teams… have this conversation amongst the entire team every day! Start the day with a 5-minute client team-based SME round-up!

We CARE! We work hard to UNDERSTAND!

Time to start to SERVE for real… next week!

SERVE without expectations!

OK LET’S ROLL!

Mitch

“Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be UNDERSTOOD”. – Marie Curie…

…a quote for today from a hundred years ago!

There are a lot of thoughts about the art of UNDERSTANDING. Two of the best quotes from others are….

“Listening is not understanding the words of the question asked, listening is understanding WHY the question was asked in the first place” – Simon Sinek

“Any fool can KNOW. The point is to UNDERSTAND!” – Albert Einstein

And there is another aspect in the art of understanding that is summarized by the following quote that seems to come from various sources. “The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.”

Moving back to where we ended last week. Surely you recall the statement from last week…

Next week we will dig into a specific UNDERSTANDING process that will demonstrate the power of the SME (Subject Matter Expert) in the process of serving a client. There is a direct correlation between the amount of SME time that you spend with a client (or teammate, or anyone you serve) and the success of the outcome. PROCESS of SME utilization! And we all have them at our disposal for co-creating excellence.

Well, next week is here, or thereabouts. So, let’s dig in. As a baseline, we are going to assume that we are all involved in the world of a complex solution provider space and that requires a TEAM of people to execute a client engagement that matters to the client and ourselves. In other words, it takes a TEAM to win! If this is not the case, then perhaps your challenge is how much SME time can you create and deliver on your very own. That’s a pretty big challenge.

Assuming our baseline dynamic of, it takes a team to win, let's jump into what we know to be factual about the use of SMEs. In our own direct studies of our client engagement team serving over 8000 clients globally directly, we constantly learn what really great client service and success look like. We know because we CARE enough to ask our clients.

Great conversations with many other folks in our leadership role at other companies tell us that this data holds true regardless of industry, country, or economic cycle.

Simply stated, the higher the number of SME’s that a team utilizes in a client engagement the higher the success rate and the higher the measurable outcome becomes.

Let’s stop and look at what an SME can be. A Subject Matter Expert is normally folks of the product or technical specialist persuasion. They can be application-based, market segment-focused, or specific technology gurus. They can also be financial specialists, supply chain experts, quality experts, or resources specifically knowledgeable in any unique way that a client needs to help them understand THEIR world more. SME’s can be within your local team, your regional, national or global team. They may even be SMEs that you provide from outside of your own company. Legal and regulatory SMEs are in that vein.

Today, more than ever, we ALL need people that help us understand more about what we DON’T know. Your role is to understand what knowledge is missing and find ways to bring those resources to aid the client, or whoever you are serving.

We have found that good teams bring 2-4 SME’s into the aid of their clients. GREAT teams bring 8-12 SME’s into the journey. And GREAT teams bring in 4-6 times the quantifiable outcome vs the good teams.

Well-planned and utilized SME’s are the key differentiator between good and GREAT client engagements! It is the singular, most powerful, controllable variable in client engagement that makes a difference in the outcome.

Next week we will journey into the impact that this process has on time to money for client new products as well as other benefits of the SME UTILIZATION process, such as “in process control of outcomes”!

Process above all else!

OK, LET’S ROLL!

Mitch

There is ALWAYS time to UNDERSTAND!

Make it your first action.

UNDERSTANDING comes from doing the work….and having VERY clear 2-Way conversations. From a motivation of CARING, we take the great amount of time and preparation needed to dig into the PROCESS of UNDERSTANDING. The outcome is less important than the process. Through the well-developed process, we co-create outcomes that matter. You don’t start with a focus on the outcome. In fact, you don’t really even go there. Our process of research, inquiry, exploration, and co-creation of excellence is where we spend our precious time. Process matters the most!.

A T-Shirt was recently seen with the following on it…

PROCESS > OUTCOME

Meaning, the process is greater than the outcome. And in this respect, this was being worn by and reflecting the attitude of a HIGHLY trained life and death-focused individual. No small point considering the stakes that were at play.

In our engineering world of semiconductors, there are many brilliant people that have spoken to the process first perspective. One of the most prominent is W. Edmonds Deming. One of his quotes is “we must work on our process, not the outcome of our processes.” His most telling statement is “if you can’t describe what you are doing as a process, you don’t know what you are doing?”

From another sage, Dr. Eric Thomas comes the sentiment, “Fall in love with the process, and the results will come!”

Process is greater than outcome, and the process of UNDERSTANDING is a specific process that can be outlined, executed, embraced, and loved.

Next week we will dig into a specific UNDERSTANDING process that will demonstrate the power of the SME (Subject Matter Expert) in the process of serving a client. There is a direct correlation between the amount of SME time that you spend with a client (or teammate) that will determine the outcome's success. PROCESS of SME utilization! And we all have them at our disposal for co-creating excellence.

So, in the meantime… think about what you are doing and see if you can describe your actions with the following leading words…. What I am doing is the PROCESS OF….

OK, LET’S ROLL! (the process of getting going NOW!)

Happy New Year to all! Let’s work on optimizing 2022 for the very best process and outcomes that we can co-create!

It's time to apply our CARING….

From the realm of CUSP, we have spent some time on the motivation factor of it all CARING. Because we CARE, we do the work! Because we CARE, we choose to take the next steps in serving those that we do. CARING is our motivation for taking the rest of the time to co-create the outcomes that make a difference for people.

The work starts with UNDERSTANDING! It is the process of research, discovery, deep conversations, and much time spent looking with a fresh eye at all of our assumptions and data that represent the people that we are working to serve. UNDERSTANDING comes over much time and many cycles of PLAN/DO/REVIEW. UNDERSTANDING, like every other element of CUSP is not a point in the process. It is a stage of thinking that goes on during the entire engagement that you will have with an individual.

It is at this point that we need to be really clear about the CUSP cycle. While we start with CARING and move on to UNDERSTANDING, and then to the rest, the reality is that we never leave any single element and go on. CUSP is a matrix of engagement and NOT a serial string of events or conversations or happenings.

Specialization in each element is needed, and yet we will likely be executing all 4 elements of CUSP at any one time. A deep understanding of the outcomes desired is difficult. Many times the biggest challenge exists in helping a client (or anyone) fully understand their own personal or corporate change process, hurdles, and participants, and getting them to develop their own understanding and execution. And the deeper challenge to this is the only way to move to action is that THEY must WANT to make the move. We cannot want it for them, THEY must have the “WANT”.

From a tactical perspective, the art of the conversation is critical. We won’t get anywhere if we can’t engage with true listening. There are experts in that art so I will leave you in their hands. Do not ignore this as the art of the conversation is key to any true communication.

There are two elements of great conversations. They are the aspect of conversational layering and the basics of a 2-Way conversation. Both of these tools bring different understandings and approaches. They both require the creation of curiosity to be of significant value. The creation of curiosity as the genesis of understanding through great conversations is the summary of where we will take this as we dig in further to the current topic in the next few weeks.

AND let me close this with one of the greatest quotes of all time in this arena. From Steven Covey…”Seek first to understand….before being understood.” No better advice ever in this complex time regardless of what you are doing or who you are talking with. It is a really difficult challenge for those of us in “sales” as we have been told for years to “tell them all about our great stuff”. Sadly, it does not work that way, and it never has!

CARE greatly,
UNDERSTAND deeply,
SERVE endlessly, with
PURPOSE

This works!

OK, LET’S ROLL!

Mitch