Two Critical Steps to Successful Strategy Implementation
With Michael Clark, Principal Consultant at CXTT Consulting
Show Notes
Michael Clark is the Principal Consultant at CXTT Consulting.
He has more than 20 years experience in the contact centre industry across both the private and government sectors. This year, he started his consultancy, focused on helping organisations with their transformations in the customer experience and technology space.
Today, he shares the essential steps to take when implementing your strategy.
Michael’s Top Tips For Successful Strategy Implementation:
Build interdisciplinary teams, so there’s common ground and collaboration between the departments involved (01:49).
Strategy implementation falls apart when it’s top-down only. You get the best results from engaging with the frontline. You’ll have a better chance of getting their buy-in, plus, you’ll uncover roadblocks implementing change (07:45).
You'll Learn:
What Michael did to reset expectations with work-from-home teams due to COVID, which helped lower everyone’s stress (04:03).
The style of leadership Michael finds best to empower employees, give them ownership, help get their buy-in, and help them deliver change (09:02).
What design thinking is, how it’s helped Michael tackle all sorts of business problems, and how it can help you too (12:46).
The key thing to consider in your business, so you remain relevant in a world disrupted by COVID (16:58).
Connect with Michael on LinkedIn.
Check out Michael’s blog for more resources on the topics he covered.
Transcript
Blair Stevenson (00:00)
Welcome to the Secrets to Contact Centre Success podcast, connecting you with the latest and greatest tips from the best and the brightest minds of the industry.
I am Blair Stevenson, founder of BravaTrak. Our Sales Leadership System enables contact centres to increase revenue and achieve their sales growth targets.
Today I'm very fortunate to be joined by Michael Clark, who is the principal consultant at CXTT Consulting in Sydney. So, Michael, welcome along. Good to have you here.
Michael Clark (00:27)
Thank you. Great to be here.
Blair Stevenson (00:29)
Awesome. Just as a starting point, just tell us a bit about yourself and your experience.
Michael Clark (00:33)
So I'm 20 odd years in the customer service environment, across private sector initially. So my first ever contact centre experience was actually building a contact centre from a set of blueprints, on New South Wales Central Coast, for ING. "Here's the blueprints. Go and build it." That was my 101, learn about the contact centre environment.
And I've had a number of roles in the private sector space, and the last sort of 15 years in the government environment, leading contact centres, customer service, some business re-engineering projects, IT leadership.
I finished finished my government roles in February and straight into launching my own business, CXTT Consulting, and I'm seeing how I can help customers with their own transformations in the customer experience and technology space.
Blair Stevenson (01:30)
Cool. Cool. So you mentioned you've led both customer service teams and IT teams. I think there's some level of natural tension between the business and IT, in terms of delivering results. How have you overcome that tension, and what tips do you have to share?
Michael Clark (01:49)
I think there's always a bit of tension, a little bit of suspicion of motivations. What I've always found is finding common purpose is really important. So getting people a shared understanding of the problems we're trying to solve, bringing people together to talk about those problems.
Particularly getting IT teams to buddy in contact centres and vice versa, the contact centre to get an appreciation for what the technology teams might be going through. They've always been helpful for me and leading some agile projects and getting interdisciplinary teams together, and focusing on objectives and user stories, really helps find that common ground.
So a number of those small little tips in there can make a huge difference. It all just comes back really to common objectives, common purpose.
Blair Stevenson (02:48)
Yep. I was talking to a guy by the name of Gerry Brown recently. He's a CX professional in the UK. And he's very focused on getting those interdisciplinary teams working together, and getting communication going across siloes.
Michael Clark (03:01)
Absolutely. Running an IT team, that was part of our Continued Professional Development program. So I implemented a program, and yes, you want to focus on your technical skills and your development skills and those aspects, so that has to be recognised.
But actually spending time with business teams, you recognise that in our CPD program, and there were core units that they had to complete to actually qualify for the year, that involve them sitting side-by-side with frontline business team.
So it was pretty important for us, and I think helped deliver some great outcomes.
Blair Stevenson (03:37)
Yeah. Really important stuff. New Zealand has just recently gone back into lockdown. I know you're in lockdown. COVID-19 has really impacted how we do business. You inherited a customer services team back in 2020. What have you learned about leading people during this time?
Michael Clark (04:03)
It's a really disruptive environment for everybody. Mid 2020, I think it was August 2020, I was asked to step back leading frontline customer service at The Fair Work Ombudsman. And I inherited a team where, particularly for our Melbourne staff, they were all remote.
They were all working from home. They had all been working for home for three months, at least, by the time I stepped in. They were tired, exhausted, struggling with the challenges of home-based work and home-based schooling for those that had kids. Some had set up their office in their bedroom because they were in share houses.
We hadn't employed people to work from home. We employed people to work in an office. And so the way that the business ran was based around that office footprint, and here we were relying on people to be working from home.
What I learned and what I did was very quickly go in and start to reset expectations, talk to people. So I spoke to all of my direct reports, the next layer down, very quickly. What were the challenges they we're facing? What were the things that I could do to make things easier for them? And simply just resetting expectations.
And the expectations I set were some really core boundaries around working hours. When you're at home and you're working from home, it's really easy to respond to the beep from an email, or go, "Oh, I have a thought bubble at 10 o'clock at night" and start working away.
And I just had to be really clear that I only wanted them to work their core hours. I didn't want them working after hours. That if I sent emails and things to them after hours it was convenient for me and I didn't want a response. But because they had been working so much, they were exhausted.
And I think that clarity on expectation, as well as making it clear that I didn't expect that performance was going to be at the level that occurred in an office setting when they had all of that side-by-side buddying and coaching and everything happening. That just helped bring the stress levels down. It's just a bit of a reset, lower the stress levels, and just let people catch their breath.
And I think that's really important during a pandemic. Really important that people know they're supported. But also that there's an empathy and understanding for the situation that they're working with.
Blair Stevenson (06:47)
Totally, totally. In the last 18 months, I've heard more senior leaders talk about their concerns about people's wellbeing than I have in the previous 20 years.
Michael Clark (07:00)
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.
Blair Stevenson (07:03)
And I think one of the issues is around the idea, from a senior leadership perspective, about this difference between strategy and tactics.
I want to quote a bit of work from McKinsey & Company. They've found that only 26% of strategic planning actually ends up both improving performance and equipping an organisation to sustain performance change.
Based on your senior leadership experience, what do you think is the key to improving that success rate?
Michael Clark (07:45)
I think there are a number of factors around successful strategic transformation. And from my experience, when it is top-down only is when things fall apart.
So where there is a bright idea at a senior level, "This is where we're going" and it's a top-down led initiative, unless you take the time to engage, generate buy-in and ownership at the frontline, so that you do get top-down, bottom-up opportunities, you're never going to fully succeed.
And so from my experience, it has been around engagement at the frontline, talking and clarifying expectations and drawing out the challenges that the frontline see in delivering some of that transformational change.
So, hey yeah, great idea. We're going to go in this direction, we're going to deliver these products and services. Fantastic. But the frontline are still measured around something different. So there's a disconnect. And unless you actually take the time to engage and go, "Oh, okay, this is what some of those unintended consequences might be", you don't know.
And for me, I've always been attracted to the concept of servant leadership and understanding and supporting the frontline. So what do you see at the frontline? How can I engage you? What challenges do you see? Where do you see the opportunities in this strategic direction? How do we build that along the way? How do I make it easier for you?
There's no point me coming in as leader and telling you what to do. Unless I'm making it easier for you, you're not going to back me. And so for me, that servant leadership is really about empowering employees. It's about giving them ownership and buy-in, clearing roadblocks, and helping them deliver the change.
If we do that, then I think that success percentage that McKinsey is talking about increases quite significantly.
Blair Stevenson (09:59)
Yeah. So it's interesting, you talked earlier about IT and the business, and the importance of interdisciplinary teams, which is going across. And now you're talking about top-down, which is going down through the organisation. What methodologies or what structures have you seen work in terms of ensuring this top and bottom interaction?
Michael Clark (10:29)
I think part of it, that top-down bottom-up, is to have clear communication. Getting your senior leadership engaging and talking with your frontline teams and listening is really powerful and important.
I talked about interdisciplinary teams getting people sitting side-by-side and listening. It's the same concept with senior leadership. Get into your frontline teams, sit side-by-side with your frontline staff, see, hear, experience what's going on, because you walk away with just these nuggets of gold that you go, "Wow, okay. I'm trying to drive us in this direction, and this is a real roadblock." Or, "Hey, we hadn't thought about this opportunity, and this is an even bigger opportunity than the one we're already tackling."
There are all these things that pop out when you start that engagement. So methodologies? It's more around making sure that there is connection, engagement and active buy-in and listening.
Blair Stevenson (11:42)
Yeah. So it's almost as simple as blocking time out in your diary, in your calendar, to go and actually have those conversations. To go and observe people at work.
Michael Clark (11:53)
Definitely. Because we're making decisions on what we think is happening within the organisation. And it's really easy at a senior leadership level to think you know what's happening. You see the reporting, you see the data, you've got a feel for what's happening in the organisation.
But there is always something you learn when you engage at the frontline. When you get there, see what's happening, you're always going to learn something. And and I think it's an underutilised approach by many organisations.
Blair Stevenson (12:27)
Yeah, I agree. I agree. You've done a master's degree in Public Administration.
Michael Clark (12:31)
I have, yes.
Blair Stevenson (12:34)
I think the last time we were talking, you were talking about you did an elective in Design Thinking. And I was just curious about how that has influenced your approach to the work you do.
Michael Clark (12:46)
It was one of those programs where I was looking at what electives would add value and interest me. And there was an elective available, which was Design Thinking for Social Impact. And it wasn't directly relatable to what I was doing in a day job, but I was really interested in Design Thinking as a concept, and it was a great way to learn.
And so I was involved in this elective, in this group, undertaking a Design Thinking project. Our concept was around aged care, and how do we make some change in aged care? And what attracted me to Design Thinking is it's a really human centered approach. So it's really about driving innovation by understanding customer needs, prototyping and rapid prototyping, generating ideas.
It's a kind of approach that in any business environment is really useful and practical, because when I talk about rapid prototyping, some of the things we were doing was just mocking a website up on a piece of paper, drawing it up. "Do you think this would actually be a better user experience?" And "Yeah, actually I can see how to navigate."
So it doesn't have to be expensive. It doesn't have to be time intensive. But it allowed us to use different approaches and get familiar with different approaches. Concepts like the Five Whys, and I've used that a lot in engaging with teams.
And when I'm talking about top-down and bottom-up, I often use the Five Whys approach, because someone will tell you why something happens. Okay. And then you start, like an onion, picking away the layers. "Okay, why did that happen? Why do you think that's the case? But why did they then tackle...?" You know?
And as you work your way through, you get to that lightbulb moment, and you go, "Oh, there's the root cause. There's the problem that we're actually trying to solve." Or "There's the opportunity that we have yet to harvest."
And so Design Thinking for me has been a really great methodology to tackle all sorts of problems. And one that still influences me today.
Blair Stevenson (15:06)
Awesome. So talking about today, you now trade as CXTT Consulting, you said you launched earlier this year. What does that stand for and what sort of transformation are you wanting to help your clients with?
Michael Clark (15:21)
Sure. So as with many people starting a business, I struggled with what do I call myself? And so I did toy with using my name and with a name like Michael Clark, I could've leveraged off that. Anyone that knows Australian cricket, I would have I'm sure got some mileage. I certainly get it every time I check into hotels.
But I thought, well actually my headline on LinkedIn for a long time had been 'Customer Experience Technology Transformation'. Because they were the areas that in my career I was spending a lot of my time.
And so I had one of those lightbulb moments thinking about a business name and toying with different options. And I went 'Customer experience technology transformation'. That works. It's already been on my LinkedIn profile, did the Google search and domain searches and it exists.
And CXTT Consulting was born from that perspective. And it's one which I think encapsulates the kind of activities that I want to be helping businesses with, and the challenges I'm trying to help organisations solve. Which is that strategic, technology, customer experience transformation and change.
So the tech, the digital, the process, the culture change, all of those things really need focus and attention. And that's the nub of how I came up with the name and what I'm trying to focus on.
Blair Stevenson (16:50)
Very cool. So it sounds almost a simplistic question, but what do you consider to be the key elements of making those sorts of transformations?
Michael Clark (16:58)
The key elements are some of the things that we've already touched on, which is being really clear on purpose, firstly. "Why do we exist and why are we changing?" Because there's always got to be a why. Your people are going to look at - in any organisation - they're going to look for the why. They're going to look for how we're changing, what's changing. They want to know why you're changing, what is it that's driving that change?
I'm working with an organisation now, a small membership organisation, they're probably a good example. At the moment their business model has been disrupted by COVID-19, like so many others. They were very much around face-to-face engagement, activities and events, and that's been disrupted. You can't do that now.
And there's a rise in competition through so many organisations now delivering free webinars and online activities. So why do they exist? What value do they give? And so they're driving this change around rethinking the value proposition, rethinking the membership options.
And so I'm working with the team on the process changes, the technology changes, the cultural changes that are needed. But part of that early engagement has been about why are we changing? We need to understand that because we need to explain it ourselves. As consultants and as members of an organisation, we need to explain it and understand it.
Particularly in a membership based organisation, because you're going to have to explain why to your members. Why are we changing? And if we're not clear ourselves, then how can we actually deliver on that? So I think for me, that concept of why is again a pretty important threshold point in driving change.
Blair Stevenson (18:51)
Yeah. Agreed, agreed. And I think a purpose is a big driver for people in terms of their work. Absolutely.
Last question. Do you have any resources that you could point people to that might help them in terms of some of the things we discussed during this talk?
Michael Clark (19:11)
I'm always popping up ideas and thoughts on my website. So certainly a number of blog posts, but one that sort of touches on some of the concepts we've been talking today. So people will be able to find that on my website, cxtt.com.au (https://cxtt.com.au/blog-posts).
And I think there's plenty there to think about some of the challenges of engagement, of understanding why, the purpose, Design Thinking. I think there's plenty in there for people to start to wrap their heads around and tackle some of these things themselves, and reach out to organisations like my own for help when and as they need it.
Blair Stevenson (19:52)
Yeah. Awesome. What we'll do is we'll put a link to your blog posts in the description. Michael, thank you very much, really appreciate your time today.
Michael Clark (20:04)
Thank you, Blair. It's been a pleasure.
Blair Stevenson (20:06)
For listeners, you'll find the link to the show notes in the episode description below.
And if you'd like to connect with Michael on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mclarktechcx/), you'll also find the link to his LinkedIn profile in the description too.
And as I mentioned we'll make sure a link to his blog posts (https://cxtt.com.au/blog-posts) are there too.
Lastly, if you'd like to follow me on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevensonblair/), you'll find a link to my profile there as well. Well, that's it from us today. Have a productive week.