Ready-2-Go Meeting – On Customer Service
Title: Doing Business with Heart
If you are trying to establish, build or nurture a customer service culture, here’s a Ready-2-Go Meeting segment using the concept of “Doing Business with Heart”. While it’s seasonally appropriate to introduce during Valentine season, it’s also appropriate to introduce and pursue all year long. By sharing heart stories in meetings, you:
- set a positive mood for the meeting and beyond.
- encourage participants to watch others who do business with heart.
- encourage participants to do business with heart – with internal and external customers.
- nurture a caring customer culture.
All of that by just sharing stories!
Here is a suggested plan for making heart stories a 5-minute agenda item for your regular staff meeting.
Needed:
- stories about “doing business with heart” – some of your own or from this site: www.doingbusinesswithheart.com
- optional( if you like to give rewards or treats to contributors): little boxes of conversation hearts, a few heart shaped chocolates or if these aren’t “in season”, something like small packages of Sweet Tarts.
In advance of your meeting:
- Read the stories at: www.doingbusinesswithheart.com.
- Choose two of your favorites to share with the group(three if they’re real short).
At the meeting:
- Start by saying something like: “I ran across these stories about doing business with heart and wanted to share them with you.”
- Read the stories you selected in #2 above.
- After reading the stories, pause, allow for comments but don’t worry if there aren’t any.
- Then ask this question of the group: ” Do you know anyone who does business with heart?”
- If they offer examples immediately – great! Give heart candy to those who contribute if you chose that option.
- If no one shares, don’t worry about it.
- Close the discussion with this request: “If you find any stories about people doing business with heart, please bring them to the next staff meeting.”
Important Note: Some managers are tempted to mention to the group that this is now a regular agenda item. I do NOT recommend that because at this time, you can’t be sure of how long you will include it. I’ve seen some groups keep it on their agenda for years. I’ve seen others gain from its effectiveness after about 4 meetings and then instead of making it an agenda item, they just allow for stories to be told as they bubble up from the world. And I’ve seen others stop after the first meeting. The biggest factor seems to be the meeting leader’s enthusiasm for the concept of “doing business with heart” – even when others aren’t so enthusiastic about it. And I have to be honest – most people aren’t enthusiastic about it at first. Some will never become enthusiastic about it. The people I know who are enthusiastic about it became that way gradually – after hearing about it, seeing it in action, feeling how it felt to be on the receiving end, feeling how it felt on the giving end and telling stories about it.
For the next few meetings:
Always bring at least one heart story to share (just in case no one else brings one).
- Start the meeting by asking if anyone brought a heart story. Stay silent. Wait. People might be hesitant to share – especially at first.
- If no one offers, share one of the stories you brought.
- Someone else may now be willing to share. So ask if anyone else would like to share.
- Close the discussion with this request: “If you find any stories about people doing business with heart, please bring them to the next staff meeting.”
You might be the only story teller for a few meetings. But soon, others will begin sharing – a sign that hearts are warming. And then, if it hasn’t happened already, soon the stories they tell will be about their colleagues and then….
Congratulations! You’ve done it! They’ve got it! Keep it going!
To help you get it and keep it going – consider using Heart Cards for reinforcement.
Also – we’d love it if you would share your heart stories with us. You can do that by scrolling down to the comments section at: www.doingbusinesswithheart.com
copyright 2010 – Business Class Inc
Ready-2-Go Meeting – Document & Celebrate 2009
This is an excellent exercise for capturing valuable information that will help you be a better manager. See Institutional Memory Alert!
And it’s one of many great ways to put holiday adrenalin to work.
You can include this exercise as a 20-30 minute segment of your next staff meeting. Or you could expand it into a 1/2 daymeeting of it’s own.
Needed:
- a white board or flip chart
- markers
- bottle(s) of bubbly (with alcohol or not, whatever is appropriate and allowed in your organization)
- cups
In advance: For best results, send an e-mail asking each person come prepared to share the 5 things listed below.
1. What was the best of 2009?
2. What was the worst of 2009?
3. What’s the best lemons to lemonade story?
4. What would you do differently?
5. What would you do the same?
Step by step plan:
If you’ve chosen to make this a 20-30 minute meeting segment, you will need to move quickly even if you have a small group. If you move faster when someone else records the notes on the board, ask someone else to do this for you.
1. Ask each person to share “the best”. Go round the room. Real quick. No long stories. Just make a fun celebration list on the board.
2. Ask each person to share “the worst”. Go round the room. Real quick. No long stories. Record responses on the board.
3. Ask who was able to come up with a lemons to lemonade story. Ask that person to share a brief version of the story. Continue to record notes.
a. Ask the group: “What can we learn from this?”
b. “Does anyone else have a lemonade story?” If so, ask him/her to tell a brief version of it.
4. “What do you wish you or we had done differently?” Change things up a bit here and instead of going round the room for responses, ask people to call things out. Go quickly. This is not intended to be a gripe, a finger pointing or problem solving session. You may need to do some of the latter later, but not today. Today the goal is simply to capture the “wish done differently” list.
5. Now to end on a positive note, ask: “What would you do the same?” Let people call things out. Go quickly. But let there be lots of cheers and laughter. The goal is to have fun making a VERY LONG list of all the things that went well.
6. Congratulate and thank everyone for a good (or great) year. Tell them you think it deserves a celebration and carefully open the bottle. Pour with fun and flair.
7. Get the notes typed up. Add some artwork if you can. Post results for #1, 3 and #5 on your internal website or on bulletin board. Review #2 and #4 and decide next steps needed for each item.
If you’ve chosen to make this a longer meeting:
- do the same steps at a more leisurely pace.
- if your group is larger than 5 people, consider dividing them into small groups for #3 to allow for and encourage more individual participation. Bring everyone back together to discuss results for #3.
- go back to small groups to discuss #4. Being in small groups makes it safer to discuss. Bring everyone back together to discuss results for #4.
- finish the discussion by doing #5 as a big group.
- do #6 and #7
It was a difficult year for most, be sure to celebrate ALL the good!
copyright 2009 – Business Class Inc
Ready-2-Go Meeting – Thanksgiving Inventory
Here is a seasonally appropriate agenda item for the beginning or end of any team meeting you are leading this week.
It’s not a new idea. But it’s good. And yes – people will roll their eyes. That’s okay. The results are good. Good boosts to morale and productivity.
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Recommended as the first agenda item or the last.
Say something like this to the group: Read more
Ready-2-Go Meeting – On Hell & Happiness
This is Pursuit of Happiness Week.
Happiness is a good thing to pursue at any time, especially if you feel like you are going through hell and trying to figure out to get through it.
Here is a great morale and productivity boosting meeting idea to use at any time…especially appropriate during Pursuit of Happiness Week. And especially helpful when you are going through hell. Read more
Ready-2-Go Meeting Plan – on communication
You have to be a bit brave to use this one.
Read In the Dark for yourself first.
Brave enough to share it and discuss it with others?
If so:
In advance of the meeting, send an email to all participants that includes a link to In the Dark.
If there isn’t time for this, just read the In the Dark out loud to the group.
Then ask the question:
1. In what ways do we keep our customers in the dark?
2. What is the danger?
3. What could we do instead?
4. In what ways do we keep each other in the dark?
5. What is the danger?
6. What could we do instead?
****
Feel free to embellish the theme by:
- playing spooky music in the room while people are entering
- darkening the room
- decorating the room
- putting out bowls of Halloween candy
- serving refreshments such as bat juice and bat cookies
- or I Scream Sandwiches
copyright 2009 – Business Class Inc
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