{"id":660115,"date":"2017-05-18T11:32:49","date_gmt":"2017-05-18T18:32:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/customerthink.com\/?p=660115"},"modified":"2017-12-14T00:15:30","modified_gmt":"2017-12-14T08:15:30","slug":"build-a-diverse-cx-team-to-boost-everyday-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/build-a-diverse-cx-team-to-boost-everyday-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Build a Diverse CX Team to Boost Everyday Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_660116\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-660116\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ks_innovation-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Source: Shutterstock\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-660116\" srcset=\"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ks_innovation-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ks_innovation.jpg 681w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-660116\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Source: Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure><p>\r\n\r\n        In 2012 I stood in line with great anticipation for the Seth Rogen and\r\n        Barbara Streisand movie \u2013 \u201cThe Guilt Trip\u201d. I\u2019m not sure if these\r\n        actors are your cup of tea, but I enjoyed every angst-filled moment of\r\n        this family road trip. What I didn\u2019t anticipate was that this movie had\r\n        a great lesson for business.\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n\r\n        Seth Rogen\u2019s character Andy Brewster is an organic chemist and inventor\r\n        who is trying to get his environmentally friendly cleaning solution\r\n        \u201cScioClean\u201d into major stores across the country. While his product\r\n        ticks all the boxes \u2013 all purpose, easy to use, non-toxic, highly\r\n        effective etc&#8230; Andy has no takers after multiple pitches.\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n\r\n        Enter Andy\u2019s mother played by Barbara Streisand who steps in with ideas\r\n        of her own. Annoyed that his mother who has no business or chemistry\r\n        experience thinks she has something to offer, Andy keeps her at\r\n        arms-length. Until one day, out of sheer desperation he takes one of\r\n        her suggestions and drinks ScioClean on live TV \u2013 part of a home\r\n        shopping segment &#8211; to prove it is safe for pets and children.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>  This is the tactic that finally peeks the interest of consumers and\r\n        retail giants alike and gets Andy on the map.\r\nHis product was sound and had what people were looking for, but he\r\n        needed another perspective, different ideas for making it compelling to\r\n        his market. That help came from an unusual place!\r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>\r\nAs Andy learned, be generous with the seats at your CX table.\r\nThe more diverse your table, the more ideas you\u2019ll generate, and\r\nthe more innovation and better solutions you\u2019ll have. All in less\r\n            time too.\r\n \r\n<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2>Everyday Innovation<\/h2>\r\n<p>\r\n    With CX having become the competitive battlefield and the bar always moving\r\n    a little higher in delivering excellence, brands\r\n    need to differentiate to win, and \u201ceveryday innovation\u201d is one of the\r\n    proven ways to succeed. Continuous generation and application of new ideas\r\n    to everyday problems can have just as much business impact as a \u201cBig I\u201d\r\n    innovation like ground breaking new technologies, products or services.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n    <em>At TELUS one of our values is \u201cwe have the courage to innovate\u201d. <\/em>\r\n    The TELUS Innovation Program (TIP) is a community that provides every day\r\n    problem solvers with the opportunity to work in teams and explore\r\n    opportunities that drive innovation within our organization. With team\r\n    members working together to be creative, strategic and allowing for big\r\n    picture thinking, the entrepreneurship mindset is encouraged, which in turn\r\n    leads to solutions that better serve our customers.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n    The <a href=\"https:\/\/mindyourmind.ca\/interactives\/thinkfull\" target=\"_blank\">Thinkfull<\/a> App was one of the products of our TIP community. You can\r\n    check out this video for a quick overview.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zajZbw87P-I\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\r\n\r\n<h2>Cross-Functional Team<\/h2>\r\n<p>\r\n    Years ago I had the pleasure of working with our \u201cTELUS Partner Solutions\u201d\r\n    team &#8212; the team providing what you would traditionally think of as\r\n    \u201cWholesale\u201d products and services.\r\n    I enjoyed every single second of my time working with this high-energy\r\n    team. One of the most impressive things to me was their cross-functional\r\n    approach to reviewing customer feedback and action planning.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n    Their CX Team included the usual suspects: Sales, Marketing, Call Centre\r\n    Care etc.  But it was bigger than that. Their Contracts, Legal, Human\r\n    Resources, and Finance teams to call out just a few, were also represented.\r\n    They also invited external input, for example their Customer Insights\r\n    partner (they were very clear\r\nthat these people were not transactional \u201cvendors\u201d but true    <em>partners<\/em> in their success!) to the table to ensure they\r\n    were leveraging the external CX lens as well.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n    The experience working with this team was:\r\n<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n    <li>\r\n        <strong>Inclusive:<\/strong>\r\n        They sought input from a larger vs. smaller group of team members\r\n    <\/li>\r\n    <li>\r\n        <strong>Open:<\/strong>\r\n        \u201cGreat! Tell me more\u201d was the common response to new ideas\r\n    <\/li>\r\n    <li>\r\n        <strong>Hierarchy-free:<\/strong>\r\n        Input was invited and expected from all team members and all levels\r\n    <\/li>\r\n    <li>\r\n        <strong>Collaborative:<\/strong>\r\n        Team Members were encouraged to share ideas for challenges and\r\n        opportunities outside their \u201cofficial\u201d area of expertise and solutions\r\n        were typically the result of 2 or more ideas being combined.\r\n    <\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>\r\n    You could say they were clearly proponents of \u201cdiversity of thought\u201d before\r\n    it was \u201ccool\u201d.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n    And their results? Outstanding.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n    <li>\r\n\r\n            They solved the more difficult CX challenges <em>faster<\/em>\r\n            than other groups\r\n\r\n    <\/li>\r\n    <li>\r\n\r\n            They had the <em>highest<\/em> Customer Experience feedback\r\n            results at TELUS\r\n\r\n    <\/li>\r\n    <li>\r\n      They were <em>ahead<\/em> of competitors\r\n    <\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>\r\n    Our main CX KPI used a 100 point scale and their results hovered in the\r\n    80s!\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n    We borrowed this approach to CX governance for our other Business segments\r\n    and guess what? They got better too.\r\n    <strong>\r\n        Improvements in Customer Experience feedback metrics leapfrogged\r\nbetween 10 and 20 points on that same 100 point scale        <em>within the year<\/em>.\r\n    <\/strong>\r\n    So we stuck with it.\r\n\r\n<h2>Diversity Breeds New Ideas<\/h2>\r\n<\/p><p>\r\n    One of the best pieces of advice I was ever given to help spur new ideas\r\n    and better problem solving was to reach out to those people with whom you\r\n    typically butt heads.\r\n These are the people who      are going to have ideas very different from your own, and THAT is going\r\n        to get you further faster!\r\n\r\n<\/p>\r\n<p>\r\n    Some other ideas for getting more diverse thinking into your CX plans?\r\n    Consider the following when looking for new people to work with. Always\r\n    look to increase the variety of these at your table.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n    <li>\r\n        <strong>Thinking style<\/strong> \u2013 analytical, emotional, contingency planners,\r\n            blue-sky idea builders,\r\n\r\n        ROI modellers, skeptics etc.\r\n    <\/li>\r\n    <li>\r\n        <strong>Generation<\/strong>\r\n        \u2013 Silent Generation, Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, Gen Z\r\n    <\/li>\r\n    <li>\r\n        <strong>Career stage<\/strong>\r\n        \u2013 interns, fresh out of school, 5 year veterans, 10 year veterans,\r\n        mid-career, near retirement, retired\r\n    <\/li>\r\n    <li>\r\n        <strong>Perspective<\/strong>\r\n        \u2013 Consider people outside of your company and outside of your field \u2013\r\n        colleagues in other industries, family, neighbours and friends can\r\n        often see things you have become blind to and\/or question assumptions\r\n        that might have made sense at one time but are now out of date\r\n    <\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>\r\n    Working mainly on your own? Try some of these to get your everyday\r\n    innovation mindset going:\r\n<\/p>\r\n<ul>\r\n    <li>\r\n        <strong>Be your own devil\u2019s advocate<\/strong>\r\n        \u2013 write an opposing argument for each of your ideas\r\n    <\/li>\r\n    <li>\r\n        <strong>Let others take your ideas for a test drive &#8211; <\/strong>\r\n        Book coffee and lunch meetings with people outside of your group and\r\n        ask for their input &#8212; pros and cons &#8212; to your ideas\r\n    <\/li>\r\n    <li>\r\n        <strong>Flip your assumptions upside down<\/strong>\r\n        \u2013 what if the opposite of your assumptions were true? A fantastic idea\r\n        of this is \u201cDiner en Blanc\u201d (dine in white). What if there was an\r\n        exclusive dining event where they didn\u2019t serve food? \u201cDiner en Blanc\u201d \u2013\r\n        the most exclusive Manhattan dining event of the year \u2013 is built on\r\n        this <a href=\"http:\/\/nypost.com\/2016\/09\/14\/you-have-to-bring-your-own-table-chair-to-this-exclusive-dinner-party\/\" target=_\"blank\">quirky reversal of traditional dining<\/a>.\r\n    <\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<p>\r\n    <em>\r\n        So, don\u2019t be so exclusive. Be generous with the seats at your CX table.\r\n        Amp up your idea generation and everyday innovation. Extend your reach, multiply your impact, and build a culture that enables\r\n        your CX vision instead of eating it for breakfast.\r\n    <\/em>\r\n<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2012 I stood in line with great anticipation for the Seth Rogen and Barbara Streisand movie \u2013 \u201cThe Guilt Trip\u201d. I\u2019m not sure if these actors are your cup of tea, but I enjoyed every angst-filled moment of this family road trip. What I didn\u2019t anticipate was that this movie had a great lesson [&hellip;]","protected":false},"author":11157,"featured_media":660116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[82,328,84,14,9],"tags":[406],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660115"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11157"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}