My recent experience returning a pair of shoes to Nordstrom was a perfect example of a company understanding my blog post, Small Wastes Get BIG Quickly. Nordstrom doesn’t actually have a formal return policy. Here’s what they say on their website about returns and exchanges. "We stand behind our goods and services and want you to be satisfied with them. We’ll always do our best to take care of customers—our philosophy is to deal with you fairly and reasonably; we hope you will be fair and reasonable with us as well." "We hope to build trust with our customers and create a relationship with them for the long term. Standing behind what we sell is a big part of that. We think many customers choose to shop with us because they know if their purchase isn’t right, we’ll work to fix it." Returning my item was a simple, hassle-free, stress-free experience. There was no form to fill out. Nobody asked me to justify my return. The only question I got asked was "Back on the card?".  It took all of 30 seconds. Which freed up the salesperson to deliver the value they were hired to deliver, namely create trusting relationships with customers and help them BUY products. Bureaucracy Means Less Value Imagine if Nordstrom implemented a more bureaucratic return policy with questions and forms that took minutes instead of seconds. Or bought a new, slower return application that had the same effect. What would be the impact? Well, let’s look at my Lean Waste Calculator for Sales. Nordstrom has 72,500 employees total and let’s assume 50,000 of those work in their stores as salespeople. The current 30-second return process extrapolated to all salespeople requires 766,667 hours per year assuming every salesperson processes one return every hour they work. Increasing the return process to one, two and three minutes dramatically increases the hours and equates to hundreds, even thousands, of salespeople NOT selling. Yes, three minutes turns into 4.6 MILLION hours a year and would be like cutting almost 2,400 salespeople from the payroll. Nordstrom estimates that revenue per employee is about $200,000 a year, so that equates to lost sales of almost $500,000,000 a year! Now, these numbers are just estimates, but even if they’re off by a lot, we’re still talking BIG BUCKS! Stepping Over A Dollar to Save a Dime People commonly justify bureaucracy with cost savings. They believe collecting and analyzing more data will result in lower costs. So, they create more complicated processes to approve and account  for activities like travel, purchasing and, yes, returns. What’s missing from their thinking are the opportunity costs of the people they force to collect the data. Instead of delivering products or services that customers will pay for, these people are forced to spend more time on activities customers couldn’t care less about. With the Lean Waste Calculator, you can estimate the time impact and opportunity costs of adding wasteful activities.  Give it a try at your workplace and let me know what you find at todd@maverickinstitute.com. Don’t Mistake Waste For Value Now, some of you are thinking ‘But, wait, people care about returns, so it’s a customer value.’ Not true. Customers don’t buy items to return them; they only return them when something isn’t right. Nobody says ‘Oh, boy! I can’t wait to drive back to the mall to return these shoes.’ It’s an inconvenience and customers want it to take the shortest amount of time possible. What activities in your organization take time away from delivering real customer value? What are the opportunity costs? How much more customer value could you be delivering? House Hunting Update: As of July 1, we are homeowners again! We FINALLY landed a great house. Thanks for all your kind responses to my earlier post. Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick     The post Focus on Value (Sales), Not Bureaucracy (Returns) appeared first on Maverick Institute.

Well, July almost killed my wife and me. Packing, moving, traveling and coaching certification candidates while we were both fighting off one of the worst summer colds ever. It was not pretty let me tell you. But, we’re moved into our new house and clearly have lots of work to do. You don’t want to see the garage. 5S to the Rescue! It seems only fitting to talk about a Lean organizing and cleaning technique called ‘5S,’ which is very much on our minds these days and one that you can use in your business and personal life. That time you spend looking for a tool, form, kitchen implement or on-line course? WASTE. Those hundreds of feet you cover running around from room to room or lab to lab gathering materials or trying to locate something? WASTE. This technique is called 5S because there are five steps and each step, coincidentally, starts with the letter ’S.’ They are: Sort Set Shine Standardize Sustain 5S - SORT This is getting rid of stuff you don’t need and is, frankly, the most important step. You have to be brutally honest and it’s best to do this step with people who can interrogate your true need for an item. If you’re feeling weak, give them the power to say ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’ And once you’ve made a decision, get rid of the item immediately! It’s too easy for stuff that’s hanging around to creep back into a drawer or closet. While we usually only think about physical spaces, the clutter in the cloud is really getting out of hand! Software for backing up and sharing files saves copies of everything in multiple places, which is a nightmare for locating and version control. If you’re in L&D, how many courses do you have in your LMS that are TRULY useful? Be honest. How much time to employees spend trying to find what they need? And how often do they abandon their search because they can’t find it quickly enough? 5S - SET This means putting what you do need in its proper place, i.e., at the point of use and immediately visible. A healthcare system in New Jersey was designing a new hospital and estimated that the average nurse was walking OVER THREE MILES A DAY trying to find medicines, charts, equipment, etc.! That’s time away from delivering patient care and hard on the feet. The new hospital was designed to minimize this wasted time and energy. How many miles do you and your colleagues waste walking every year looking for things? It’s a lot more than you think. 5S - SHINE Just like it sounds, this means cleaning, polishing, oiling and otherwise maintaining the tools and equipment that you’ve decided to keep. And don’t forget the area where they’re kept and used! 5S - STANDARDIZE This means creating systems that perpetuate the order you’ve created and keeps everyone doing them the same way. A great example is the shadow board, which clearly shows where something belongs and when something is missing. This is an excellent example because the tools are color coded for their specific application, which makes it even easier to grab the right one. 5S - SUSTAIN The hardest part of any organizing effort is keeping it going. It’s easy to not put that tool back in it’s proper place at the end of the day. Just do it first thing tomorrow, right? And then it doesn’t happen. Part of sustainment is prioritizing cleanliness and organization and, then, allocating time to do them everyday. My wife and I are now on a ‘5S Mission.’ We want to spend less time searching for stuff and more time enjoying our life and work. Let’s Ride! Todd Hudson, Head Maverick   The post 5S This Mess!!! appeared first on Maverick Institute.

Gut feel, intuition and bias all have implications in the decision making process of your next hire. Learn how to overcome these common hiring mistakes.

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​Here's our model of ©Talent GPS.  Depending on your perspective (employee, employer), you may start at different places in this process.   Each of the blue events (rounded rectangles) are described below in more detail.  Engagement is part of every single part of the process.  Notice the dotted arrows for Stay which are there for individuals to figure out how far they want to climb up the career ladder and when they want to stay put or retire.    ​Being a process, not an event, there is no end.  The wheels just keep on spinning.  Promote is simply a variation of Hire, requiring many of the same (and often ignored) events including onboarding and career mapping. As you'll read later, Gap Reports inform the Career Plan which can mature into a Personal Leadership Plan. The big question - who is in charge of this process?  In the next section, you'll learn about the importance of ownership.   

Lately, I’ve noticed a lot of people engaging in what I call "ain’t it awful" conversations. Believe me, I understand that with things going on like the terror attacks around the world, the controversial Presidential campaigns in the United States, and even the weather, it is easy to slip into a negative mindset. But hand-wringing and downbeat discussions aren’t going to change anything. In fact, it can make things worse by taking all your thoughts into a downward spiral. Now is the time for positive thinking. I always loved working with Norman Vincent Peale because he used to say "Positive thinkers get positive results." That is such a powerful message, and we need to keep it in mind to be able to rise above the negative and focus on the positive. We are free to choose our thoughts—and thoughts guide our behavior. It is essential to keep uplifting messages in our head so that we are able to think more clearly, make better decisions, and approach life with a better attitude. I don’t want to minimize the difficulties we all face in life such as illnesses, money problems, stress at work, and a hundred other things that can drag you down. But I know that a peaceful mind will give you more energy—and that will help you get through tough times.  My wife, Margie, uses a gratitude exercise to help her focus on the positive. Each evening she writes down the top three positive things that happened in her day. Sometimes it is as simple as getting a much-needed rainstorm in our time of drought, or reconnecting with an old friend. The point is that she ends her day with positive thoughts and a peaceful mind. Try it for yourself. I encourage you to think about it from two perspectives—your personal life and your work environment. I think you’ll be surprised how this simple shift in thinking will change your outlook on life for the better.

With Cloud computing gaining a major foothold in the enterprise, millions of corporate employees are seeing the legacy intranet apps they’ve used for decades getting replaced with shiny new SaaS applications. We thought we’d help you clarify things through our little script about two office workers trying to make sense of it all. INTERIOR, BIG CITY BAR — NIGHT The camera slowly approaches a table where two thirty-something men are enjoying their beers while having an animated discussion. John: So, our company just got this new XYZ application deployed across all departments. Our new CTO guy pushed hard for it, said it’s the best of its kind. It wasn’t so hot. Nick: Why’s that? John: Well, it’s one of those Cloud apps — and they didn’t want to go with a Cloud product. Nick: Why not? John: They claimed it wouldn’t be as secure. Kept at it too, until the CTO guy, who is a real propeller-head, told them that those are old wives tales, and reminded them how the desktop applications our company used to run has lost us plenty of data due to viruses, crashes and user errors. Nick: Yep… security is often perceived rather than enforced. So he says those Cloud apps are as secure as regular apps? John: Perhaps more. Those Cloud companies have far better experts at securing servers and stuff than your average business. It’s what they do. Plus everything gets backed up 24/7. Nick: Yeah, I bet that’s important. I’ve never backed up my stuff. What else is good about those Cloud apps? John: Well, the people from the IT department seem to have loads more free time now.  Used to take them hours to backup and update the old desktop software — now the Cloud guys do it for them, while they play Pokemon Go or flirt on Facebook. Nick: Ha ha. I bet they won’t be against Cloud apps in the future. John: Guess not. Though I really don’t understand what the big difference is between the Cloud and those other apps we run on our intranet. All seem to run from the internet, through a web-browser. Nick: Nothing that immediately strikes you as different then? John: Not really. Well, except once that we had a sudden surge on system usage because of Black Friday and all of our self-hosted apps went down, along with our main server. The Cloud one seems to behave better, I guess, even on the most demanding days. Nick:  Here it is then… Cloud apps are more robust. I mean, they have to be, since they need to be able to handle millions of users at the same time. Or even billions — Facebook has a billion users, no? John: Yeah, or close. Plus, they’re more flexible. We can upgrade or downgrade our usage plan whenever we want, whereas the self-hosted applications come with this multi-year license. Oh, and we had to wait for the IT guys to set it up, which took 3 days — this one was ready in 5’. Nick: No setup time? John: No, basically it was already setup and expecting any potential business to start using it. You know, like Gmail is already there and waits for new users to just create an account. John: Still, lots of people in the company are still afraid of the Cloud. You know, the whole Big Brother thing and all. Nick: Aren’t they already on Facebook, Twitter and who knows what else? And, Cloud aside, doesn’t the company already exchange data with tons of customers and partners? John: Yeah, go figure. But there’s something else that troubles me. On top of the Cloud, they have started talking SaaS. Nick: What’s that? John: I’ve googled it, and it’s short for Software-as-a-Service. Some new way to deploy software. Seems to be Cloud-based too. Actually, this new Cloud app that we’ve been talking about is also considered to be a SaaS thing by many. Others consider it a Cloud app. And others still a hosted app. Nick: What is it then? It surely can’t be all three! John: Well, I’ve spoken to Jane from IT — you know, the pretty one with the red hair — and she kind of explained it to me. SaaS is mostly the application itself, while the Cloud is more about the servers, networks and IT stuff. But not all agree. Many consider Cloud and SaaS to be the same thing. Nick: Well, as long as it works, and it runs nicely it might as well be little elves doing all the work. Another beer? John: Sure — but you are buying this round… DISSOLVE TO a modern, open-plan style office space. Dozens of satisfied employees are using some kind of enterprise application through their computer browsers. The post A summer chat about the Cloud appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Who doesn’t love going behind the scenes, meeting the movers and shakers? We know you loved our "talent behind TalentLMS" series, so here’s the second part - with a lot more to come. Let us present TalentLMS’ Account Manager, Lisa Vayvalako. Please introduce yourself to our readers. What’s your name and general background? I am Lisa Vayvalako. I was born in Istanbul, Turkey, to amazing parents of Armenian descent who had a strong case of wanderlust. After living in Germany for 15 years, they decided to move to the USA, but not before giving birth to me in one of the oldest cities in the world. I obtained all of my education in America until the tender age of 20, when I slowly felt the urge to travel and explore creep up on me. And you can’t fight genes, can you? So travel I did, and I was lucky enough to live in multiple countries. You are an Account Manager with TalentLMS. What does your role entail? I help distribute TalentLMS globally and strive to meet and exceed corporate goals, by providing solutions with exceptional customer service. What TalentLMS features do you think are most important in attracting new customers? I think the platform as a whole is what makes the product sell. I just add my giddy American twist when explaining what the product entails, through my demonstrations and overview of the product.  Having a young and dynamic marketing team also helps us present the product in the most up-to-date and efficient way. Likewise, which TalentLMS qualities do you think play an important role in customer retention? I am always pleased with our need to evolve. I must say that we have quite an impressive team working towards multiple goals at any given moment. The fact that we try to outdo ourselves by constantly improving the product with updates based on customer inquiries and suggestions helps a great deal, not only to obtain new customers but to keep the relationships with existing clients strong. What do you love the most about TalentLMS? Our Customer Service. I personally think we are very dedicated to helping our clients by not treating them as a ticket inquiry, but as actual people. Also, it’s great to attend yearly exhibitions and put a face to the people we work with through phone and email. How important is customer feedback in what you do? Do you have some specific unexpected/funny/insightful story to share about this? Customer feedback is a crucial element in what we do. As mentioned, it’s great to hear insights on what we can improve. I’ve had all sort of suggestions, ranging from humble feature requests to the idea of implementing CGI holograms that can be projected from our portal. How do you like working in the online learning industry in general and what do you love about working for Epignosis in particular? Speaking four languages fluently helps me communicate on a global range. Its always satisfying to be able to speak the native language of a client, especially of those who are not fluent in English. The online learning industry definitely has its merits. I believe that eLearning is a great tool to ease basic tasks. Working for Epignosis, in particular, is a pretty rewarding experience. We have an open door policy and work with strong leaders who are here to help us excel in what we do. There is no intimidation or hierarchy. Everyone helps each other and there is no such thing as a wrong question. Working in an environment where there is constant support  to grow and achieve more eliminates competition in the workplace. If you could work in any other position in TalentLMS, which one would it be and why? The Receptionist. She gets free pizza. The post The talent behind TalentLMS - A chat with TalentLMS’ Account Manager appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

I usually know what direction north, south, east and west are but I still depend on my GPS (thank you Google Maps).  As I travel, I usually have an address for where I want to end up, but no clue how to navigate there.  GPS not only shows me the way, it also adjusts for problems with traffic and construction that I would never have been aware of.  I still get a little lost occasionally, but  I have to admit that usually happens when I go rogue and ignore the GPS.  Like most of you, I panic when it seems I may run out of charge on my phone before I get to my location.  I've become very dependent on my GPS.  Organizations are struggling with a similar problem.  It's difficult to map a route from hiring to retiring for all employees, a map that meets the needs of both the employee and the employer. There are two current popular challenges:    ENGAGEMENT - employees are not feeling good about their employment TALENT - it's increasingly difficult to find new employees who fit the job required  In many cases, we talk about these as two different issues, but in fact, these issues illustrate events that occur in the process of aligning people (talent) and work, or put another way, both are part of the map from hire to retire.  Instead of pretending that hiring, promoting, career planning and succession planning are all disconnected events, we must map a simple, clear way to glue the events together into a cohesive process.  This is the only hope to strategically align the people who work for us.  Building talent is a PROCESS not a series of EVENTS.    To speak holistically about growing employees into proud, aligned people who make an impact requires dispelling the current misconceptions:  Talent is a word that tricks us into forgetting that we are talking about individual lives.  Talent sounds anonymous;  our people are not.   Growing employees requires more than a training class, an LMS, a well-crafted survey, or any single event. Performance is built through ongoing trial and error, coaching and practice.  A great talent process means that your organization helps people get from where they are to where they want to go.  Not everyone wants to end up in the same place. Some may not want to go very far and may feel very secure staying put.  Some may want to reach for the stars.  All choices are good and a personalized approach to each person is critical to a great talent process. Talent development, talent management and talent all by itself are confusing terms and not used consistently across organizations.  Define these terms for your organization.  There is no magic software to build this process, but once built, many different types of software may help. Legality for the whole talent process is changing a lot, so be sure your process is compliant.   Do not wing talent.   RMA is currently researching and designing a realistic process to meet the growth needs of organizations and people.  Consulting on this process will be available from us beginning September 1st  and a book will (hopefully) be in your hands by the end of the year.  In the meantime, we'd like to share our initial research results and hope you'll send us your thoughts to add to our research on these critical issues.  

Questions speak louder than words—and great facilitators are well-prepared to answer them.