Do you feel like you are being drowned by jargon? Grammarly recently researched the most popular phrases used in the work context and the list includes these gems…
Low Hanging Fruit
Leverage (do you leverage leverage?)
Open the Kimono (that is creepy, sexist and racist all at the same time!)
Giving 110% (which of course you can’t)
Learnings (what were yours last year?)
Out of Pocket (who’s pocket were you in and why?!)
Drink the Kool-Aid
Bio break (too much information)
You can review the full article and more of the same here.
Here is a great article on the same theme, published in New York’s ‘Vulture’ highlighting just one office workers experience:
Have you got a North Star metric? It’s one of the essential things for any company looking to innovate and drive growth. If you haven’t created one yet, it is time to seriously figure it out. And today, I will be explaining what a North Star metric is, why it’s essential, and how to come up with one.
The North Star metric is the most critical. It is that Metric that would consistently deliver Successful Customer Outcomes (SCO’s) and drive sustainable growth if you focus on above all else.
For Facebook is ‘daily active users,’ Airbnb is ‘nights booked,’ and for the BP Group, ours is ‘monthly organization upskilling.’
Why is having one important?
Because delivering SCO’s and driving change is a lot of work, and it’s easy to dilute effort and resources on things that don’t move the needle. Additionally, getting distracted with the latest and shiniest new ideas is a common problem. Having a North Star metric keeps everyone in your company focused on the most critical Measure for your company’s success. Chosen wisely, it will connect the dots from the front line to the top team
Creating Your North Star metric
You may already have created it in your Successful Customer Outcome CanvasĀ®[1] (SCOCĀ®). Even if you haven’t yet the steps are straightforward by examining your current key performance indicators and assessing what could be a lead Metric. Examine the metrics in the context of what creates the best outcome, for the business and the customer. It is especially effective when you aggregate the SCOC’s against all your customer categories and bringing out the most significant ones and deciding decide which is the most essential Metric.
Defining that North Star metric can have a considerable impact not only on your immediate customers but on how your company operates overall.
Your North Star metric will be different from other organizations, as is how it’s rolled out and communicated.
Connect the dots, Draw the Lines
Anyone involved in delivering Successful Customer Outcomes and driving growth for your company, from the ‘C’ suite to the marketing team to the operations team and all of your external agencies, should be clear on your North Star metric and their role in driving it forward. If you don’t have one and your success maybe isn’t where it needs to be, perhaps you should consider defining one for your organization.
Set up a time with key stakeholders,
Identify your customer categories,
Agree on the SMART needs,
Choose the most important one, then
Brainstorm what it should be across the entire organization.
It starts with understanding who are your best customers are and why. You will need to cut through all distractions and noise to identify the one metric that will have the most significant and most sustainable impact on your business performance.
It’s a significant process, and sometimes it can be challenging to see the forest for the trees.
It will take a concerted effort, but it is one of the most worthwhile things an organization can do to connect the strategy to execution. Realistically isn’t that desirable for every organization seeking to make winning systematic?
The Guiding Light
The North Star metric becomes the guiding light. It is tangible, objective, and touches everyone and everything. It is a simple concept and as a result everyone can understand it.
You can explore the North Star Alignment approach within the Certified Outside-In MastersĀ® program. Review the short video introduction here: https://cemnext.com/oi2020
I just wanted to reach out, so you donāt miss out on this limited time offer on my new book Outside-In The Secret of the 21st c. leading companies.
You might be thinking, what is Outside-In?
To sum it up, āOutside-In The Secretā reveals the fundamental difference between the top-performing companies and the failing also-rans. It is a massive shift in perspective that revolutionizes work forever.
The insights shared are based on my work and research with companies like BMW, Emirates, Zara, Zappos, and Amazon over the last two decades.
But hey, donāt just hear it from meā¦
So, I have codified the learning and the āSecretā approaches, tips, tricks, and hacks to make them accessible to all. Initially published in 2010 and it is now wholly updated as Edition 10!
My colleague and BP Group co-founder says this…
Why You Should Read Outside-In The Secret
You may be wondering why you should invest your precious time reading this book. With all the pressures of the current business climate, why will this investment be worthwhile?
Iād like you for a moment to think of āhigh jumping.ā This is a sport that has been pursued actively from the Ancient Greeks in the original Olympics to modern times. And for nearly 3,000 years, people jumped using similar techniques. Then an innovator, Dick Fosbery, thought of a new approach that was incredibly simple and yet at the same time delivered ābreakthrough performanceā levels enabling him to win the gold medal in the 1968 Olympic high jump bar. He leaped over the bar backward, overturning thousands of years of ābest practice.ā
So I would like you to give yourself permission to consider that you, too, can achieve ābreakthrough performanceā in your own business endeavors. In this book, āOutside-In,ā Steve Towers will introduce you to some remarkable concepts that at first seem simple and obvious, and yet when applied, will allow you to win the gold medal in your own field of business.
John Corr, Director, Alix Partners, London, England.
And Guess What? Do you want something special?
It is FREE for a short period of time…
This is what you need to do RIGHT NOW to get your copy:
P.S. ā this book is the real deal. James Dodkins said that itās: āthe map that will allow you to turn your specialized knowledge, talents, and abilities coupled with this new perspective into a way of working that transforms you and your company! This is one of the shortcuts of the New Stellar Performers.ā ā and TODAY, you can get it for free, right here:
My previous book, Dare! Became an Amazon Number 1 Best Seller in February 2020. This book Outside-In The Secret will also beā¦ get your FREE copy here: http://bit.ly/OI2021now
I revisited my lists of sources, contacts and influencers, brought them up to date (the last two years or so) and collated the best across the domains I operate in. I included the recent Award winners acknowledged for their contributions to business. The result you can access below which contains the people, their LinkedIn connections, their best videos and in some cases additional resources.
My work takes me all over the planet and I get to meet some awesome people who are generous with their time and ideas. I then test, optimise and codify these great ideas into techniques and approaches we can all access.
Dare! Amazon Number 1 Best Seller (2020)
I was relating this approach at a keynote in a conference in Romania recently following the publication of our new Amazon best selling book Dare!
The keynote went well (see the extract version below) and everyone adjourned to the bar to relax and network.
At that drinks reception several people wanted to know my sources of inspiration, so naturally, we started trading names, some well known and some not yet so. As I was doing this it struck me this was one of the most commonly asked questions whether I am talking or working with some of the leading companies on the planet. So an idea was born…
Steve’s keynote in Bucharest in February 2020
Who are the best and what are their secrets?
I revisited my lists of sources, contacts and influencers, brought them up to date (the last two years or so) and collated the best across the domains I operate in. I included the recent Award winners acknowledged for their contributions to business. The result you can access below which contains the people, their LinkedIn connections, their best videos and in some cases additional resources.
So the next time someone asks me a question about influencers I am going to point them here!
All the Best, Keep safe and well, Steve
Customer Experience, Customer Service, Leadership and Operational Excellence
Click the image to access videos, books and other resources!
Congratulations to a newly qualified ACX Mentor Ridwan Gattoo in South Africa! Having qualified through the ACX Professional, ACX Masters and now the ACX Mentor Ridwan has passed all the tests to be a qualified ACX Mentor.
Congratulations Ridwan!
Find out more about the Certification and Accreditation programs at the https://www.bpgroup.org – Online and Inclass, Customer Experience, Process Management, Outside-In and customised to your needs.
FREE webinar from the BP Group Access this FREE webinar featuring the OUTSIDE-IN STRATEGIC MATRIX (OISM) and the SUCCESSFUL CUSTOMER OUTCOME CANVAS (SCOC)
Access this powerful toolkit with downloadable templates to use immediately.
Keeping it Simple works best
What will they do
for me?
Change your perspective
to looking at your life and work to the Outside-In (the way guys like Jeff
Bezos and Gary Vaynerchuk do). You will probably never think of the world in
the same way again.
Here are some of
the testimonials that talk about the approaches:
You
have impacted the lives of many of us in the Business Process Management
community, in a big way in our career journey. Our success can be attributed to
your insights on Outside-In Thinking and Customer Experience, among others. Mashaba Mulaudzi, Manager Process Innovation, South Africa
What
an amazing journey to Accredited ACX Coach,
this experience has completely transformed how we measure, collaborate,
communicate and innovate with the customer in mind. Keen to guide the next
willing souls on this journey. Durrel Ramrathan, ACX Master Coach
A
year after CPP training in London just wanted to shoot a note of my continued
gratitude. Hope to remain involved in the CX events and work with you
again..that training was beyond invaluable.
Juliana Coates – Member Services, University of Albany, New York
I’m writing to endorse BPGroups Certified Process Professional Masters program.
It completely changed the way I think about a process.
Steve Towers and the BP Group taught us amazing secret techniques of process improvement. The program provided me with the ability to apply all the learnings immediately after the training. Very effective training with a wealth of knowledge to share. This is a must training for everyone who’s interested in making a process better! Maria T FerreiraĀ AVP – Client Experience Process Improvement at Citi
We all know times are difficult so I wanted to use the current challenges of many of us in self-isolation to our collective advantage and launch a spiffy online series of sessions focused on the very latest āNext practicesā to complement your customer experience/process certification.
Steve keynoting in Romania in March 2020
For the first time ever, Iāll be teaching Outside-In 2020 Vision Workshop starting soon with SIX sessions over SIX weeks, and then a Bonus seventh session.
This training will be held online in a live weekly interactive video class. You’ll get your questions answered, see live-action, and practice with others. Each week will be about 3 hours.
If youāve already found value in customer experience and process thinking, and want to go farther, I hope you join these sessions.
DATES for the Six LIVE Sessions
(and timezones)
South Africa ā Register Here Now >> Monday: April 6, 13, 20, 27 May 4, 11 <<
Australasia ā Register Here Now >> Tuesday: April 7, 14, 21, 28 May 5, 12 <<
USA – Register Here Now >> Wednesday April 8, 15, 22, 29 May 6, 13 <<
Europe ā Register Here Now >> Thursday April 9, 16, 23, 30 May 7, 14 <<
PRICES Session One Only (to test if this works for you) USD 97 AUD EURO Session 1-6 (early bird) USD 297 AUD EURO Session 1-6 USD 597 AUD EURO
Explore Deeper Outside-In
This will be an opportunity for people already using the CEMMethod to go farther and to systematically explore significant areas of process and customer experience transformation. Working together as a group we can learn from and be inspired by each other, as well as gain from Steveās experience.
We will learnā¦
New Outside-In principles.
New methods and formats.
Learn more about advanced Outside-In practices.
How to deal with challenges weāve encountered ā in our own work and with the people in our organisations.
Learn and begin to deploy the Outside-In Customer Performance Landscape. This is a powerful tool that literally connects the dots of everyone and everything an enterprise does.
How to integrate the different approaches and formats into a single approach.
Woven into the teaching, weāll have the opportunity to explore unexpected aspects of Outside-In and the CEMMethod as they emerge.
Because this work is operating on a different level than most of us are accustomed to, frequently small (or big) āmisunderstandingsā on the part of the unconscious mind can hold us back ā until our system āgets it.ā We will explore how to identify these āmisunderstandingsā and how to create new insights and āahaā moments. DATES for the Six LIVE Sessions (and timezones)
South Africa ā Register Here Now >> Monday: April 6, 13, 20, 27 May 4, 11 <<
Australasia ā Register Here Now >> Tuesday: April 7, 14, 21, 28 May 5, 12 <<
USA – Register Here Now >> Wednesday April 8, 15, 22, 29 May 6, 13 <<
Europe ā Register Here Now >> Thursday April 9, 16, 23, 30 May 7, 14 <<
My personal interest in teaching this
From my experience so far, I believe thinking and practising Outside-In has the potential to guide each of us individually on a path that is transformative. And because it brings more wisdom, clarity, compassion, and humour, it can bring needed healing and transformation to our world.
I would like to support those wanting this deep transformation, and those wanting to coach others, to have the skills and experience that will make this possible. Thatās the purpose of this Advanced Outside-In Training for 2020.
Iāll be including as much as I can fit in of what Iāve learned over the past two decades exploring this work in my own life.
Seeing Outside-In online soon
Live Online Video Training
This will be an online course, so you can participate from any location. Weāll have interactive video, so it will be much like in-person training ā except you wonāt have any travel costs.
A big benefit from this course will be participating in the paired exercises with coaching available. Each exercise will take us into different Outside-In territory.
Training Dates & Times
Weāll meet approximately 3 hours, once a week, for 6 sessions. After the training, there will be a bonus coaching session to help integrate the learning. DATES for the Six LIVE Sessions (and timezones)
South Africa ā Register Here Now >> Monday: April 6, 13, 20, 27 May 4, 11 <<
Australasia ā Register Here Now >> Tuesday: April 7, 14, 21, 28 May 5, 12 <<
USA – Register Here Now >> Wednesday April 8, 15, 22, 29 May 6, 13 <<
Europe ā Register Here Now >> Thursday April 9, 16, 23, 30 May 7, 14 <<
PRICES Session One Only (to test if this works for you) USD 97 AUD EURO Session 1-6 (early bird) USD 297 AUD EURO Session 1-6 USD 597 AUD EURO
How this Online Training Works
The training will happen online through Zoom.
This will be an extended training, meeting approximately 3 hours, once a week, for 6 sessions. Each session weāll learn at least one new format. As with the live training, Iāll demonstrate each new method, youāll be able to practice each method, and weāll have time for discussion afterwards.
Weāll be able to include everyoneās video feed so that we can see and hear each other. When Iām talking youāll see and hear me. Then when I do a demonstration, youāll be able to see me and the work I am doing. When thereās a discussion, weāll be able to see who is sharing.
Weāll be able to do exercises in pairs, by using Zoomās āroomā feature. Each pair will have their own āvideo roomā to do the exercise, and youāll be able to raise your hand and call me into your room if you want coaching assistance. Once the exercise is done weāll return to the meeting as a group.
Access the recordings of the sessions, anywhere anytime to suit your Needs.
Recordings You Can Review Each training session will be recorded, and youāll have the opportunity to view the recording as many times as you like in between sessions. If you have to miss a session, you can catch up by viewing the video. The recordings will remain available (to training participants only), until 2 weeks after the last training session.
Extra Support Included in this training, Iām offering a follow-up group coaching session, (meeting online and recorded), just for participants in this training. The intention of this coaching session is to support you in integrating your new learnings about Outside-In, in your life and your ongoing practice. Youāll be able to share how things are going and ask questions about challenges, or anything else.
Who is Eligible If youāve already found value in customer experience, process thinking or Outside-In, and want to go farther, I do hope you will join us on this exciting journey. Of course, if you have gone on further to become a Master or Champion this training will help you be even more effective. Check with us if you have any questions.
DATES for the Six LIVE Sessions (and timezones)
South Africa ā Register Here Now >> Monday: April 6, 13, 20, 27 May 4, 11 <<
Australasia ā Register Here Now >> Tuesday: April 7, 14, 21, 28 May 5, 12 <<
USA – Register Here Now >> Wednesday April 8, 15, 22, 29 May 6, 13 <<
Europe ā Register Here Now >> Thursday April 9, 16, 23, 30 May 7, 14 <<
PRICES Session One Only (to test if this works for you) USD 97 AUD EURO Session 1-6 (early bird) USD 297 AUD EURO Session 1-6 USD 597 AUD EURO
Technical Requirements To participate youāll need access to the internet, and have a computer or laptop with a webcam. Weāll ask you to participate in a very brief set up a meeting ahead of time, to make sure you can log into the meeting successfully.
Investment: $297 EARLY BIRD – $597 FULL PRICE ā Register Here Now This includes…
the online course of 6 sessions,
the 1 follow-up coaching session, and
access to video recordings during the training period
an advanced copy of my new book āOutside-In 2020 visionā
access to a dedicated and exclusive WhatsApp Outside-In group
certification and accreditation
lifetime access to The Experience Manager
Because this is an extended training, after each session if you have suggestions or questions you’d like me to address at the next meeting, you can email or WhatsApp them to me.
DATES for the Six LIVE Sessions (and timezones)
South Africa ā Register Here Now >> Monday: April 6, 13, 20, 27 May 4, 11 <<
Australasia ā Register Here Now >> Tuesday: April 7, 14, 21, 28 May 5, 12 <<
USA – Register Here Now >> Wednesday April 8, 15, 22, 29 May 6, 13 <<
Europe ā Register Here Now >> Thursday April 9, 16, 23, 30 May 7, 14 <<
PRICES Session One Only (to test if this works for you) USD 97 AUD EURO Session 1-6 (early bird) USD 297 AUD EURO Session 1-6 USD 597 AUD EURO
Group Size: Weāll be limiting the group size, so register soon if you want to be sure to have a seat at the ONLINE table.
If youāve already found value in Customer Experience, Process Management or Outside-In, and want to go farther, I hope you join this training.
I am very much looking forward to it and meeting with you soon,
I’m a real sucker for great new tips, techniques, tools, shortcuts, “hacks” and other quick ways of getting better results from our processes and customer experiences.
But
the truth is that the big wins don’t come from tips or tricks.
They
come from getting the
fundamentals right. Again and again.
Fundamentals
like really understanding your customers (internal and external) so your
products and services are what they need (not just what you think they want).
Fundamentals like having understanding the successful customer outcomes before you ever meet or work with them, so your processes and experiences build credibility and trust quickly.
Fundamentals like follow-up and nurturing your relationships so they are top of the priorities when your customers need to change things.
Fundamentals like being able to “meet” face to face, on the phone, or via a webinar or web page (and by “meet”, I mean help a customer get the best from their experiences and processes, understand their problems, the potential solutions, and decide how to change things to meet ever-changing needs).
Master the fundamentals and the little tips and tricks will improve your results even further.
Get
the fundamentals wrong and all the tips, tricks or clever techniques in the
world won’t hurt.
–
Steve
PS
If you’d like to get my very best training, insights and personal support to
help you align your processes and experiences for all your customers (internal
and external), why not join me for my new ONLINE training program? Click here for more details.
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 CEMMethodā¢ 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.
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.
