3 Vital Questions by David Emerald

Author:David Emerald
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Polaris Publishing
Published: 2019-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Shifting Focus

And now it was time for Lucas’s monthly meeting with his boss and fellow team leads and supervisors. Together, everyone in the meeting held responsibility for the organization’s customer service data analytics.

As Lucas entered the room, he readily saw that he wasn’t the only one feeling uneasy. Half a dozen men and women were taking their places around the conference room table in silence. Those already seated were staring at their smartphones. Maybe they had messages they needed to respond to, but Lucas thought there was a nervous feeling in the room, with so many people avoiding eye contact.

At precisely the time the meeting was scheduled to begin, Lucas’s boss hurried into the room and took his place at the head of the table. “Okay, people,” he said curtly, “let’s get started.” He looked down the table. “The main agenda item I have for our meeting today has to do with the number of reports that get returned by our internal customers asking for more information or rework.” He singled out the man sitting to Lucas’s right and said, “Mark, your return rate last month was over 25 percent, and that is downright unacceptable.”

Mark shifted in his seat, turned beet-red, and mumbled, “I’m sorry. I’m down two people on my team and everyone is overworked.”

“That doesn’t cut it,” their boss replied. “No results plus a good excuse still equals no results! And that goes for everyone around the table. Things have got to change. From now on, I want every report that comes back for more info or rework to be shared with me.”

Lucas felt his anxiety start to rise and noticed, once again, how he saw his boss as a Persecutor who made those around him feel like Victims. But this time Lucas tried to respond differently. He paused, took a deep breath, and started to wonder what might be behind his boss’s tirade.

Their boss continued, “I’ve also noticed in the months I’ve been here that each group seems to have its own way of formatting the reports. If I were one of our customers, I wouldn’t know what to expect from the next report I was about to receive.”

Lucas decided to take a risk. Heart pounding, he raised his hand. When his boss stopped and looked at him, Lucas said, “Can I ask a question?”

“Go ahead,” his boss said.

Lucas stammered a little, but went for it. “Can you help me understand, uh, what outcomes you want for the reports we produce? I mean, how can we improve what we deliver?”

The boss put down his pen and leaned into the table. “Fair question, Lucas. I’ve been thinking about that quite a lot. I want you all to produce reports that are useful to our clients. They deserve to get information that helps them make informed decisions and in a format that is easy to read and understand.”

“And I heard you say that one problem seems to be that our teams produce reports in different formats,” said Lucas.

“That’s right, there’s a lot of inconsistency.

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