Training Trailblazing
March 24, 2008
Trainers as trailblazers? Don't sell yourself short. Your training department may be the path your company has been looking for to drive its strategic objectives.
By Larry Holpp
Turning strategic stretch goals into day-to-day behavior change has never been an easy reach for big companies. Many claim to have done it, and some, like Bank of America with their Byzantine Six Sigma Hoshin planning, seem to have had some luck, but trickling C suite strategy down to the back office remains a challenge. At Fidelity Investments Institutional Services (FIIS) this is as true as anywhere else. That's why a recent breakthrough there in creating a culture of customer focus deserves some mention.
Working with an internal team, a program called Trailblazing was introduced in Spring 2007 to drive high-level business goals and strategic objectives to first level associates. The company wanted to empower them to make more decisions in favor of the customer, act on their own rather than escalating problems to supervisors or more senior associates, and own the whole transaction rather than passing work items to other groups. In addition, it was intended to drive high-level strategy to call center operations alongside Six Sigma and process improvement.
FIIS is Fidelity Investments' profitable division in Smithfield, RI focused on serving the needs of Financial Advisors (FAs). The Client Services group represents the foot soldiers of that effort. They reconcile the money transacted across the company's multiple IT platforms, answer the phones, field questions from FAs, and ensure trades go through. FIIS, unlike some of the larger mutual fund companies that deal directly with advisors, also communicates directly with shareholders.
The Trailblazing program was conceived at FIIS as a continuing strategy to achieve "Best in Class" customer satisfaction performance. FIIS consistently lagged behind key competitor American Funds on satisfaction metrics. Despite its sensitivity to customer issues, survey results failed to improve service.
Customers wanted accurate and speedy answers to complex financial problems, but when that necessitated finding a more senior associate to join in the call, or escalating to a manager, complaints about waiting time arose. While it was clear front line telephone associates held the keys to overall customer satisfaction, when customers had positive "moments of truth" they more often than not involved the action of a dedicated associate breaking or bending rigid policy rules to make things right.
Case in Point: An application for a 529 account came in on the wrong form. The form lacked an identifying logo in the upper left hand corner. Policy dictated the associate return it to the FA, and have it rewritten and reauthorized by the shareholder and resubmitted. The associate, instead of rejecting the form, clipped the correct logo to it, thereby saving time and money, and rescuing FIIS' relationship with the customer. Instead of holding up such examples as ideal customer service, policy and risk avoidance rules and procedures too often are honored to the detriment of customers. Quality control reviews will criticize an associate for solving a client problem while abridging an internal rule.
Since it seemed improbable to craft a strategy that involved breaking the rules, a more detailed and specific solution to the wide variety of customer problems was needed. Targeted, specific, and controlled associate degrees of freedom were needed. Trailblazing is a combination of Work Out (a Six Sigma problem solving process), Six Sigma quality circles, and Six Sigma project management that bridges the gap between a desire to enhance customer satisfaction and the day-to-day challenges of implementation. Like many such initiatives, it felt like a management flavor of the month program at first. Soon, however, it gained respectability and traction as it tested managers' and associates' abilities to meet the challenge of increasing customer satisfaction without overly simplifying the complexity and security of transactions.
The Mechanics of Trailblazing
Trailblazing combines the best of Six Sigma quality circles and Work Out. In its initial rollout, the program focused on three service goals: identify opportunities to gather customer intelligence and incorporate the voice of the customer in decision making; enhance the depth and breadth of customer knowledge training opportunities; and build "know the customer" into technology. Three teams were charged with the goals of taking a single strategy and operationalizing it to the call center floor. Three managers were assigned to lead each team. At first it seemed an unwieldy arrangement, but it lent a unique leadership and learning twist to the effort as it progressed with each manager taking responsibility for one-third of the process. Unlike many other first line quality initiatives, the managers who led the teams were not first line supervisors, but vice presidents and senior directors. That lent a seriousness to the effort that it might not have otherwise had. This was a deliberate move since senior managers did not know the detail of life on the call center floor, and because they brought with them the power to make change. A twelve to sixteen week cycle was proposed with specific tools, milestones, and deliverables. Training was offered, and two senior facilitators partnered with the teams as they met twice weekly.
The Trailblazing timeline was detailed and studded with checkpoints to ensure teams remained on track. It was periodically reviewed with the Senior Team to keep them in the loop, and assure critical milestones were achieved. Senior management, senior vice presidents who championed the effort, mandated team leadership be shared among the three senior managers, and rotated every four to six weeks so each of the three managers could build their leadership and facilitation skills. Once the teams got rolling, and focused on their tasks, they recruited up to ten associates who became equal members of the team.
How the Process Works
The Trailblazing process is not only structured with respect to external controls and tollgates, it's internally structured as well. It was designed to mimic the Six Sigma process, but with some notable differences. Six Sigma projects are entered into without knowledge of the root cause. In Trailblazing, the root cause is often obvious while the solution and implementation are not. A series of sequential steps began with identifying the need, building a business case, brainstorming new ideas, action planning, and implementation. This process is intended to be more nimble than a Six Sigma project, require much less training, and generate solutions quicker. Each program champion had his or her respective duties to execute. While there were some changes, and teams moved at their own pace, the overall flow was uniform, ending with a town hall meeting in which ideas were announced and approved much as in the storied General Electric Six Sigma Work Out.
Common Themes and Critical Milestones
The Trailblazing process did not proceed unhindered by the many issues that plague new initiatives. In the initial meetings, facilitators needed to explain and re-explain the process. Part of their job was to support the champions at the start, and maintain momentum even when the next steps were non-intuitive. The potential power of the process only became apparent when the first "listening" sessions, or focus groups, were held by all three teams. These focus groups consisted of phone associates along with first and second level associates from other areas of the business. Focus group sessions began with a motivational video on customer service. Next, dozens of flip charts were filled up with ideas and concerns. The teams then digested the feedback in meetings, and using a theme selection matrix, honed down focus areas into one or two high potential projects.
As the teams crystallized action out of strategy, they grew more confident. In subsequent focus groups, they began to focus on action, drawing out specific tasks and projects to change the call center culture to achieve greater customer focus. While these actions were incremental, they had the benefit of being practical and relatively short-term.
The Know and Listen team developed a plan to have customers visit quarterly in auditorium sessions to discuss their concerns and needs in an open forum; the Best in Class team developed a process to reduce the escalations to supervisors that created long hold times and diminished confidence in front line associates; and the Engagement and Alignment team challenged policies that too often got in the way of serving the customer, and developed a method to communicate policy issues through training and discussion so associates did not feel they were defending rules that had little meaning to them.
Next Steps
Finally, it was agreed the Trailblazing process should continue, and overlap one implementation "wave" after another to maintain momentum. More than 30 managers had signed up to be program champions so there was more than enough manpower for multiple engagements. The first town hall meeting took place, and all action plans approved with sponsorship from the Senior Team. Implementation is sometimes the responsibility of the Trailblazing team while in other cases, it’s handed off to the function unit. In all cases, stakeholders were involved early on, and made collaborators in the effort.
As a second implementation wave approaches, some lessons emerged from the process that will be applied:
• Too much team time was spent puzzling out the definitions of high-sounding strategies such as "Best in Class." Instead, it's better to go right to potential projects that support any reasonable definition of "Best in Class," and focus on action.
• An organizational memory has to be put in place so good ideas and projects don't get lost. The role of facilitator is permanent and long term, and provides the glue to knit teams and ideas together over time.
• Program champions' skills at leading teams varied widely. Some were much more proficient than others. The facilitators tended to provide too much support to weaker champions rather than letting them learn on their own. In subsequent waves, the better, more skilled champions should take a lead role, providing a model to the others.
• The value of training was underrated. It was treated like a briefing, so while team members finally got it, more could have been accomplished quicker had time been spent on training in the process at the very beginning.
• The value of participating in the process, particularly for the associates, was of equal importance to the outcome of the teams' work. Participation was as much a culture change as the subsequent actions. As action planning became more demanding, we had to keep in mind this dual purpose.
• The Senior Team needs to stay involved. Throughout the process, the lead facilitator came up with many reasons to brief the Senior Team on the progress of the Trailblazing program. Some of these briefings conveyed little new information, but served to remind them that a major effort was underway.
• Finally, it's important to remember that friendly competition and rivalry was a major driver to keep teams sharp. Forums were held for teams to update each other, with the use of Powerpoint and management level presentations included as illustration.
Larry Holpp is a consultant with Archstone Consulting. For more information, contact him at lholpp@archstoneconsulting.com, teamdoctor@aol.com, or visit www.archstoneconsulting.com.
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