Customer Experience is one of those buzzy terms that is typically associated with technology. Wikipedia has this definition: “customer experience (CX) is the product of an interaction between an organization and a customer over the duration of their relationship.“
This is a conclusion of a previous blog series entitled ‘Seven Days of Disruption‘. These blogs discussed a variety of potential disruptions that could affect the public service. During a Financial Management Institute conference entitled ‘Disruptive Writers‘ on November 22, 2017, 110 presenters, attendees and volunteers were asked to rank one of 18 disruptions as having the greatest impact on the Canadian Public Service over the next 10 years. This blog will describe the game ‘Pin the Tale on the Disruption‘ (in case I want to use it in the future) and describe the results of the game including the response rate.
The number one identified disruptor (+15%) was the emergence of Artificial Intelligence. Four disruptors were given more than half of the scoring, these four were:
Despite the inclusion of sociopolitical disruptors (e.g. Canadian regionalism, Canada in the age of Trump or De-Population Waves), technology disruptors represented more than a third of the scoring and were in first, third and fourth place respectively. While hardly a scientific or statistically sound survey, the game ‘Pin the Tale on the Disruption’ should help public service leaders plan and align operational and tactical plans over the next decade.
Results of ‘Pin the Tale on the Disruption’ – FMI Event 2017-11-22
Disruptive Writers.
This FMI event will focus on real and potential disruptions and how to navigate change. Three local authors have each written about this topic from very different perspectives. These authors will describe their books and their journey to becoming authors.
Canada has the highest rate of multiple sclerosis (MS) in the world, with an estimated 1 in 340 Canadians living with the disease. While it is most often diagnosed in young adults aged 15 to 40, younger children and older adults are also diagnosed with the disease (source, MS Society). Each June the MS Society of Alberta and the NWT runs the Leduc to Camrose ride over two days and about 150km.
In the Spring I run a weekly program called ‘Wheeleasy Wriders‘ which teaches newbie cyclists how to go from a painful 20KM ride to thinking that a 60KM ride is a breeze. Although this is a hobby, the techniques that I use are directly translatable into a work environment and the reverse as well – Wheeleasy Wriders makes me a better manager – last week is a good example.
Many new riders are scared of their gears. Although a marvel of engineering, they do require a small investment of time to learn how to use them properly. But using gears effectively is not what this blog is about (however the blogs listed below DO talk about such things). Last week I took a page out of my work environment and did the following:
The result was that most of the newbies self-assessed their gear knowledge higher after the explanation than before. Why, for the following reasons:
I use similar teaching methods at work when I need to train people. Rather than standing around in a parking lot explaining bike gears, at work this is done through webinars and conference calls. One of my ‘rules’ is that I actively encourage cheating on my exams. Thus, other audience members are encouraged to help the ‘trainer’ out. Because the audience knows they be asked next to provide an explanation, there is better attention and retention for the content. I have learned a few cautions/guidelines though:
Good luck with your efforts to train and explain in your organization. Also, if you want to learn more about riding or how to use your gears, be sure to read:
Notes on the 2017 FMI Conference on Mental Health in the Workplace.
Continue readingOn November 17, 2016, FMI Edmonton hosted: CPAs and the Public Service. Now that CPA Alberta is almost a toddler (16+ months old at time of writing), it is time to ask the question: How Can CPA Alberta help the members who work in the public service?
Continue readingOn September 21, 2016, the Edmonton FMI Chapter hosted the following session (detailed description found below in the ‘blog-annex’: Fostering Innovation in the Public Service When Money is Tight. Part of the conference was a game entitled ‘Innovation Bingo’. The objectives of the game were as follows:
The following conclusions were drawn from the results of the game:
Fostering Innovation in the Public Service When Money is Tight.
Public servants are expected to be innovative while working in a risk averse environment. This inherent conundrum is compounded during times of fiscal restraint when ideas are solicited but resources to execute few. This session will investigate innovation in the public services from a number of facets.
What is innovation, how do you get it, how do you keep it and when should you ignore it? Next, how to propose, implement and sustain an innovative idea or culture in an environment that is less than ideal. Finally, thoughts and strategies of making the case for innovation during times of fiscal restraint; after all, never let a good crisis go to waste.
Describing cycling ride difficulty poses challenges due to the need to assess individual abilities and bike conditions. Current grading rubrics cater primarily to experienced cyclists. To address this, a Cycling Grading chart inspired by skiing is proposed, categorizing rides by distance, speed, duration, and elevation, enhancing clarity for new cyclists.
Continue readingCycling & Leadership; ‘Beat Phrank’: how to keep a cycling group together when it has disparate fitness and speed levels. Or, when leading a team with different abilities how to maintain group cohesion and supporting individual goals.
Continue readingLook for this in my Books Read section as well although I thought this book deserved a bit more of posting.
Title: The Social Animal, by David Brooks
A Recommended Read (out of 5, 5 being highest): 4
My thoughts: This book touches on my interest of the self-reinforcing roles of biological evolution versus social structures and how the two reinforce each other. Brooks accomplishes this through a fable of two individuals (Harold and Erica) who come from different worlds (within the American context). He proceeds to discuss all aspects of life including such things as why we marry (and should we), how we become happy (or not) the role of the rationale and unconscious mind.
A couple of great examples of how this fable story telling works includes the relationship of the newly arrived Harold and his mother and then the role of play and imagination in the development of children. To the first, some great quotes:
“Harold spent his nine months in the womb, growing and developing, and then one fine day, he was born. This wasn’t a particularly important event as far as his cognitive development was concerned, though he had a much better view.”
“Though he still had no awareness of himself as a separate person, little Harold had a repertoire of skills to get Julia (his mother) to fall in love with him.”
“Julia’s old personality battled back. You have to give her credit for that. She didn’t just surrender to this new creature without a struggle. … One night, about seven months into Harold’s life, Julia was in the chair with Harold at her breast…. if you could have read Julia’s mind at that moment, here’s what you would have found her saying: ‘F*ck!, F*ck!, F*ck!, Help me! … At this moment – tired, oppressed, violated – she hated the little bastard. He’d entered her mind with tricks of sweet seduction, and once inside, he’d stomped over everything with the infant equivalent of jack boots. … He was half Cupid, half storm trooper. The greedy *sshole wanted everything.”
About six years later, Harold’s father, Rob, tried to insert himself into a room full of boys as they were playing a fireman’s game:
“He (Rob) got the urge to join in (with the boys). He sat down with the boys, grabbed some figures, and joined Harold’s team. This was a big mistake. It was roughly equivalent of a normal human being grabbing a basketball and inviting himself to play a pickup game with the Los Angeles Lakers. Over the course of his adult life, Rob had trained his mind to excel at … ‘paradimgatic thinking.’ This mode of thought is structured by logic and analysis. … But the game Harold and his buddies were playing relied on … ‘narrative mode.’ … As their stories grew and evolved, it became clear what made sense and what didn’t make sense within the line of the story. … Rob was like a warthog in a frolic of gazelles. Their imagination danced while his plodded. They saw good and evil while he saw plastic and metal. After five minutes, their emotional intensity produced a dull ache in the back of his head. He was exhausted trying to keep up.”
A well recommended read to all who are interested in how the heck you got here, human/social interactions and generally a darn good story about two people (Harold and Erica) who you will end up rooting for. Generally I give away books after a read but this Brooks’ book will be a keeper.
From Chapters: With unequaled insight and brio, New York Times columnist David Brooks has long explored and explained the way we live. Now Brooks turns to the building blocks of human flourishing in a multilayered, profoundly illuminating work grounded in everyday life. This is the story of how success happens, told through the lives of one composite American couple, Harold and Erica. Drawing on a wealth of current research from numerous disciplines, Brooks takes Harold and Erica from infancy to old age, illustrating a fundamental new understanding of human nature along the way: The unconscious mind, it turns out, is not a dark, vestigial place, but a creative one, where most of the brain’s work gets done. This is the realm where character is formed and where our most important life decisions are made-the natural habitat of The Social Animal. Brooks reveals the deeply social aspect of our minds and exposes the bias in modern culture that overemphasizes rationalism, individualism, and IQ. He demolishes conventional definitions of success and looks toward a culture based on trust and humility. The Social Animal is a moving intellectual adventure, a story of achievement and a defense of progress. It is an essential book for our time-one that will have broad social impact and will change the way we see ourselves and the world.
Organizational Biology 