lean six sigma - CX Obsession - for CX and Process people

The Customer Feedback CONSPIRACY

Of course, you are asking for customer feedback. Yes?

Opps, sorry, that is one of the dumbest things you can do. Don’t take my word for it – watch this amusing video with James Dodkins keynoting at the recent Lean Six Sigma conference in Iceland. ‘The Customer Feedback Conspiracy”

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iSJ-B8VZ4M?feature=player_embedded]

Catch James at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamesdodkins/

Join us to learn the Secrets of Apples, Googles, Zara, Zappos and Emirates success

Certified Process Professional Masters Champions (CPP-Master) Program (and ACXP)

http://www.bpgroup.org/training.html

An internationally recognized program with proven track record delivered by been there and done it coaches more than 270 times, in 119 cities with delegates from 132 countries.
The program, now in its sixteenth year, utilizes the BP Groups approaches and framework to help you and your organization win the triple crown – simultaneously reduce costs, grow revenues and enhance service.
Producing Immediate and sustainable business results across any industry and sector.

Become a qualified CPP-Master or Accredited Customer Experience Professional (ACXP) and validate your professionalism
http://www.bpgroup.org/training.html

Do you want to embrace advanced Customer-Centric thinking and become Outside-In?

https://lnkd.in/djWxB8m

👉 Step #1 – Review the upskilling options to become an ACX Professional & ACX Master: https://lnkd.in/dANgYX59

👉 Step #2 – Get The Book: Outside-In The Secret *FREE* https://bit.ly/OI2021now

👉 Step #3 – Connect With The Community: https://linktr.ee/SteveTowers

👉 Step #4 – Keep Pace with Change: Recent Keynote – The Hard Benefits of XM | https://cemnext.com/xmroi2023

👉 Step #5 – Review the Testimonials Accredited Customer Experience Professional – BPG (bpgroup.org)

The 5 Secret Steps to Process Masterdom

Do you ever have that sneaky feeling that we can get so much more out of our business processes? Are you Struggling to get support from the organization for your change? Are you curious about what are the best proven techniques (that go way beyond Lean and Six Sigma)?

If so you are in the right place!

THE USE OF THE RIGHT APPROACHES WILL REDUCE COSTS BY AT LEAST 30% (and at the same time significantly improve customer satisfaction!) – 100% Guaranteed
Steve Towers

This FOUR day 5 Hours per day program shows you how using the REAL LIFE work you are doing! Come get upskilled and take back IMMEDIATE improvements that realise tangible benefits from the get-go.

Review the Preview here: https://experienceprofessional.com/cppm_preview

REVIEW THE CPP MASTERS HERE

Here are just some of the recent testimonials:

Let me take this opportunity to thank Mr Steve. Your teachings are timeless and they stick perfectly and forever in our minds. We shall never forget you wherever we find ourselves on this planet. Thank you so much, Steve 🙏
Benignus Otmar, Tanzania

Thank you, the experience was enlightening, empowering, educating, encouraging and engaging.
Natasha Doren, South Africa

Thank you, Steve, I have never enjoyed anything more than the CX course, The weight of knowledge I gained and the enlightenment that I got is indescribable.
Reem Elsadig, Sudan

Thanks Steve for such an excellent program, the dedicated manner you use to share with us your wonderful knowledge and wisdom in CX, and time to response all our questions! God bless you, thanks a lot!
Yanese Angeles, Dominican Republic

You started me out on this journey my friend. Thanks for letting me live out my passion!
Molly Redenbaugh, Iowa, United States

Thank you! It’s been an amazing journey and you have been a great mentor.It was an honor taking your class, I am now a confident CPP Master🙏🏾
Masele Masudi Msita, Tanzania

Thank you Steve for high-quality wonderful Master. I thought the course was brilliant.Thank you for everything.

Join our upcoming Coaching and Accreditation sessions online, LIVE & Interactive

Professional Webclass	Starts	Duration
Accredited CX Master (ACXM)	16th Nov	4 days @ 5 hours per day
Certified Process Professional Coach (CPP-Coach)	3rd Nov	4 weeks @ 3 hours per week
Certified Process Professional Champion (CPPC)	9^th Nov	3 days @ 5 hours per day
Certified Outside In Master (COIM)	17^th Nov	7 weeks @ 3 hours per week
Certified Process Professional (CPP)	23^rd Nov	2 days @ 5 hours per day
Certified Process Professional Master (CPPM)	23^rd Nov	4 days @ 5 hours per day
Accredited CX Champion (ACXC)	1^st Dec	3 days @ 5 hours per day
Certified Outside In Champion (COIC)	8^th Dec	3 weeks @ 3 hours per week

The pioneer of all things Outside-In?

Who started #customerexperience ? Well, there has always been a customer experience, however, it is only in the last 20 years that companies have realized the need to get scientific about shaping and innovating #CX. Who was the pioneer that did that first? And in doing so shifted the emphasis from Industrial Age thinking to Outside-In practice. Let’s jump into the time machine and rediscover Steve Jobs back in 1997.

Moving from Product to Customer-Centric

Back then it wasn’t understood that designing Customer Experiences and delivering Successful Customer Outcomes went way beyond being product-centric. Steve Jobs anticipated this shift towards customer-centricity, and evolved Apples approach to rapidly shift to Outside-In strategy and operations.

Many of the concepts we accept, such as defining the customer experience from the customers perspective, and not the organizations, were developed in the cauldrons of Apple mountain. In fact, one of the key techniques within the CEMMethod™ was initially referred to as the ‘Apple Innovation Approach’.

Why so many still get it wrong

Here’s a great mini video explaining the difference in viewpoint Inside-Out v. Outside-In.

The CX Rockstar tells us why many get the definition of CX wrong.

James Dodkins aka CX Rockstar has many similar takes over at rockstar.cx

We saw that at work in Outside-In design of products like the original iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. Now taken for granted the last century was a mish mesh of competing chunks of technology (think the early MP3 players) that often required an MSc to understand the menu system and driver updates.

It isn’t what they want, it is what they NEED

Nowadays the major consumer product companies understand the requirement to articulates the needs of customers, and only then design products that meet those needs. That is Outside-In in action.

You would be right in saying he was the pioneer of Outside-In.

If you would like to dig deeper I talked about the difference in approaches of Industrial Age v. Customer Age/Outside-In in this article.

This item has caused quite a stir over at LinkedIn, you can join that discussion here.

Other Outside-In resources to Explore

6 Ways to Transform Process and the Customer Experience (at the Same Time)

Where do I start?

I was keynoting a conference in Europe recently, and senior executives in the room were getting the rationale behind moving Outside-In. However, there seemed to be two perplexed groups in the place.

One was what a refer to as the ‘traditional process guys’, and the other ‘the customer is first people’, and interestingly they both asked the same question “Where do we start?”

My honest and most direct answer is “You do not have a choice. You have got to start where you are and go from there!” OK, I get what you’re thinking, how could they take that away and begin to transform their organizations?

So, I walked them through TWO distinctly different ways to navigate to Outside-In working and practice, depending on your mindset, enterprise history and maturity. For the two categories of customer in the room, the NEEDS are the same, just the way they navigate to achieving them is different.

What are the Results?

From a results perspective, both approaches focus on winning the triple crown, that is Improving Service, Growing Revenues and Reducing Complexity (and hence lowering costs).

Approach	Process Engineering	Customer First
Focus	Process is the starting point	Starts with Customer Needs
Scope	Reengineering the Processes	Aligning everything to Customer Needs
Intention	Build out from Process to Department to Division to Enterprise	Articulate Successful Customer Outcomes and Remove the complexity of things that do not contribute to it
Benefits	Local wins building to business-wide transformation	Immediate delivery against Triple Crown benefits
Executive Buy-in	Slow burn, however when they see the benefits and ‘get it’ the support is significant	Starts at the strategic level so influences everything the organization does
Recommendation	If your remit is just ‘improving processes’ this approach will get you their steadily, however, the challenges facing traditional business are seismic so is there time? So, make immediate gains but push hard for more quickly.	By demonstrating the value of ‘customer first’ in terms of the triple crown the enterprise can align quickly and effectively. Importantly avoid the ‘soft and fluffy’ sentiments expressed by many in the customer experience world.

How can I Implement?

Back in 2006 the BPG launched the CEMMethod™ and built out an approach, using the 50+ techniques based on global next practice from companies like Virgin, Zara, BMW, Zappos, Apple and Emirates. Since then more than 3,000 companies in 116 countries have become accredited and certified to transform their processes and organizations.

Now in version 11, the choice you make in deployment is based on your ambition and remit within the enterprise.
If you are a leader needing to embrace the digital customer ‘Customer First’ leaps out as the main option. Alternatively, if you are in a traditional process-based business (lean, six sigma, BPM etc.) the more conservative ‘process engineering’ approach may be preferred.

You can access the following resources that will help you make an informed choice:

CEMMethod™ – review its potency and pedigree:
www.cemmethod.com

Outside-In The Secret of 21^st century companies (free access): http://bit.ly/StevesOIBook

The Accredited Customer Experience Program 2018-19: https://www.bpgroup.org/acxp1819.html

The Certified Process Professional Program: https://www.bpgroup.org/certifiedprocessprofessional.html

I look forward to guiding you to transformation when you are ready!

Bridging the Gap (Industrial Age > Customer Age)

During my encounters with global business leaders, I am frequently asked the question of what is the difference between Lean Six Sigma (LSS) and Outside-In thinking and practice?

Often the question is prompted as a consequence of the huge investment many large corporations have made into up-skilling their people and processes to LSS. Many times those same executives are querying the return on those investments and hence now looking at more progressive alternative approaches to evolve their business performance.

For those familiar with Outside-In thinking and practice the difference is fundamental however if you haven’t been exposed to such training or working in one of the worlds leading Outside-In companies it would be good to have a short comparison of the key thematic differences.

In the interests of full disclosure, I was an Industrial Engineer qualified as a Lean Master and Six Sigma Master black belt and I see and witness the significant differences every day. Does the implication of the difference mean we should abandon LSS? No, far from it. In fact, integrating the Outside-In perspectives into existing programs is a proven tried and tested way of advancing LSS to the centre stage of winning performance.

Case in point is a North American plastics extrusion company. They had previously been a powerhouse of Six Sigma, grown into and become a Lean ‘Toyota way’ dynamo only to run into the problem of diminishing returns.

Investing just as much in getting better the decreasing returns and eroding margins made it an issue at the top table. In true pragmatic Texan style (their CEO is from Dallas) they embraced Outside-In big time. Over 6-9 months people were upskilled for the Customer Age and then let loose to transform the organization. Not only did they save their bacon they are now a world-leading company. And what do they call their program? OIL – Outside-In Lean. Nice eh?

So be pragmatic. Look for the bridges from here to there and you can have the best of both worlds.

Table 1: Comparison of some differences between Lean Six Sigma and the CEMMethod™.

Element	Lean Six Sigma	Customer Experience Management/Outside-In
Mindset	Industrial Age	Customer Digital Age
Focus	Improve current work	Align to achieve SCO’s
Intent	Process will exist at the end of a review	Processes may be removed
Results	Focused on improving outputs	Focused on delivering Outcomes
	Cost reduction	Triple Crown achievement (Cost/Service/Revenue)
Structure	Accepts the functional hierarchy	Proposes the appropriate structure to deliver SCO’s
Techniques	Effect based activity (value/ non-value added – waste identification – SPC etc.)	Causal based activity (what creates the work in the org. then let’s fix the causes)
Intelligent Processes	No mechanism exists to ensure processes are intelligent	Specifically designed to implement and mature intelligent processes
Customer	End to End working e.g. SIPOC	Centric working – the customer is at the heart of everything that happens
	Are at the end and the beginning of processes	Are enlightened, Promiscuous, Rebellious, Prosumer, Multi-channel, high expectations
Enterprise objectives	Operational and tactical. Aims to fix process.	Strategic and Operational. Aims to implement a sustainable architecture.
Scope	Process based improvements	Enterprise-wide transformation

Other Customer Age resources to explore:

Outside-In The Secret: www.outsideinthesecret.com
CEMMethod™: www.cemmethod.com
Certified Process Professional: www.certifiedprocessprofessional.com
Training: www.bpgroup.org/training.html

Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetowers/

The 5 most popular Lean Six Sigma Articles

Google tells us that lean thinking and practice has had its heyday. However, the overlay of ‘digital everything’ makes processes more important than ever, so what are the leading Lean Six Sigma articles of the last 12 months?

5th: Why Lean Six Sigma is a necessity in every industry

Intelligence Quality
Intelligence Quality is a Management and Business consulting firm that specializes in Lean and Six Sigma strategies.

“There is a false notion about Lean Six SIgma wherein it is a waste of money to incorporate the concept in the company, however, one fails to realize that like any other department, Lean Six Sigma is a necessary method that every industry must follow in order to rectify their financial curve.”