Hocus Pocus Customer Focus (Part 2)

So your colorful pictures are finally aligned on the office wall, deep breaths have cleansed you, and you’ve had a great heart to heart with your boss. Oh what a feeling! The next step is to schedule one on ones with your key internal customers. In your euphoric state, you envision all the accolades your quality initiatives will bring them. Of course, you’d love praise as well but you’re there to support them. After all, quality is a support function.

Hold it. Therein lies an insidious quirk, a kink in the road to that glorious employee celebration scheduled in your mind. Buckle up for the ride.

Those internal customers you’ll soon be visiting are often the same snarly creatures of habit lurking the corporate halls. Of course, there are many supportive customers willing and able to grasp the new vision; but it only takes one outspoken naysayer to infuse the quality culture with negativity and skepticism. But wait, customer focus is a key cornerstone in all the most highly regarded quality management philosophies and methodologies including Six Sigma, Lean, ISO, and Baldrige. From what we read and hear, customers everywhere love being focused on so why do we sometimes require magic to navigate around, in-between, under and over ours to accomplish the goal of helping them to help themselves? Sometimes it doesn’t feel quite right but we press on. But there can also be moments when the natural balance of the workplace suddenly tilts, rooms spin, voices raise, and political interests loom above the board room table. We begin to feel like a mouse in the corner and wonder why we were invited to the meeting in the first place. The elephant on the table is screaming and it feels quite personal.

If you’re lucky, you’ll never feel the ground shift. All your internal customers will be like angels smiling, handing you the golden keys to their castle, inviting you to swoop in, assess the situation, and perform your miracles of quality, compliance and process improvement. Perhaps choirs will be singing, no one will bat an eyelash at your suggestions, and even when you must re-adjust your strategy, they‘ll praise you for your ability to assess outcomes and foresee next steps. This is my dream. So far it’s only happened at about 2 AM when no one was in the office and I was lying horizontal with my eyes glued shut, allergy ridden and tired due to real world challenges.

So who are these people and why do they find it so difficult to understand that quality is a support function with goals supportive of theirs? There are as many scenarios as there are individuals. However, I’ve come across several commonalities that seem to span companies and cultures.

I’ll call the first Lacking Larry. This guy just doesn’t understand. He either lacks experience, IQ points, or exposure to quality principals.

The second on my list is Politicking Paul. This guy is the most dangerous because he has a hidden agenda that likely involves nearly every player surrounding you. He’s savvy and smart, looks good, talks good, and will or will not be interested in what you have to offer depending on how it supports his short and long term agenda. Watch out for Paul!

The third is Smiling Sally. Although she may have quite the glowing smile (almost like an angel) and says all the right things, she lacks true commitment to her own goals. She would like to please everyone, which causes stress and leadership issues.

The last on my list is Social Sue. This woman simply does not have the social skills required to communicate what she understands. She got where she is because she’s bright and works hard.

So what to do? First, hope that you do not directly report to any of the big four. If you do, more heart to hearts are required. If you’re off the hook in this regard, take another deep breath and say a prayer of thanks. But don’t get too excited. If one or more of these folks is your primary internal customer, you've got work to do. That work includes a highly delicate balance of customer focus and insightful evaluation, keen observation, and excellent communication skills. The key is to accept that these barriers are unavoidable. Part of the job is focusing on each customer as a unique individual. Cookie cutter approaches don’t usually work. Tap into your creativity and theirs to explore middle ground solutions that move the organization forward at the pace it can handle. Each sub-organization led by the big four may require a different pace.

Don't stop drinking coffee, breathing, and dreaming. Brace yourself for an exciting challenge and keep your feet on the high road. Dreams sometimes do come true. Lastly, don’t forget to think outside the customer focus box because nine times out of ten, there is no box. If you try to stay inside, you may find yourself out in the corporate cold.

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This is the second post of a five-part series on aberrations in the workplace (with a quality management spin). To see what it's all about go here.

Also see:

The Old Bait and Switch (Part 1)
Hi My Name is Larry (Part 3)
The Jolly Metrics Hayride (Part 4)
Where is my Dream Team? (Part 5)