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"Re-Asking" or a Secondary Group Asking Process "When you ask the question, you then own the answer!" This is a truism in human nature and an important element in leadership as well. Asking is more actions than words, inquiry more than questions, reflection more than talk, and assessment more than measurement. The reason it is so important in leadership is that "asking" is fundamental to the learning process. In fact, learning is initiated from asking and then re-enforced with feedback. So, in other words, while feedback supports learning, it is really the asking process which not only initiates learning but also creates continuous learning. While it is common for organizations to share feedback with those on the frontlines and even the questions, the missing link is the actual participation in the process, or activities, of asking. As Dr Csikszentmihalyi, who writes about the psychology of "flow" (involvement), points out the most critical feedback is from the activity itself. We like to say "When you give a team member customer feedback you focus them for a day; but when you teach a team member how-to ask for customer feedback you focus them for a lifetime!"
ASKING is a significant part of Emotion, Thought, Learning, and Communication! By ASKING we demonstrate our Intentions, Attention, Involvement, and Interests. Through ASKING we develop the conditions of Awareness, Understanding, and Ownership. It is for these reasons that is reasonable to conclude that much of asking is non-verbal or a process (sets of actions). ASKING contributes to maintaining Focus, Learning, and Commitments. It is basic to our imagination and intuition and helps build intuitive skills for the "people" part of the enterprise. ASKING also is an integral part of reflection. events, or "happenings," become experience only after they have been reflected upon thoughtfully Especially in daily operations, asking questions and receiving answers creates experiences which foster the most valuable learning - wisdom. In a group setting, asking also stimulates attention, interest, involvement, participation, and cooperation -- all important soft skills for leaders. When a group or team participates in the "asking" process (set of actions) they view and treat customers as partners as well as fellow associates and collaborative groups. "Asking", for the process, is ninety-five percent not verbal. At Thankingcustomers.com we are committed to helping managers and supervisors at the operational level foster a process by which their teams learn to ask their customers "How are we doing?" This is done consistently as a practice, usually in writing, so the results can be shared and measured by everyone! Parts of the process, over the long-term, would include who to ask, what to ask, when to ask, where to ask and how to ask. A secondary asking process for the frontlines is needed for the simple reason that senior management "asks" to determine "what" needs to be done operationally for the long-term while frontline leaders have a need to "ask" to determine "how" to get it done. We have found this a great leadership tool for aligning the "what" to ask from management with the "how" to get it done through daily operations. Not simply for the short-term but continually, in a way the involves, focuses and teaches everyone in the group or team!
New approach? Not really, this is an entrepreneurial activity brought back new again. When enterprises grew vertical, one of the things that senior management took with them were the processes for asking customers the all important "How are we doing?" -- even if they still shared the answers. We believe this, unwittingly, was slaying the goose that laid the golden egg of "focus" for daily operations.
These processes were not missed until enterprises grew horizontal again and needed to empower their provider teams with ownership and an entrepreneurial spirit. For a number of years the process of asking has been revived in the management of production with the providers of products by teaching them the hard skills needed to ask "How are we doing?" Examples of these skills would be inventory, forecasting, ordering, cost controls, scheduling, among others. Little or nothing has been done, in most enterprises, to restore a process for the providers of services sector to teach soft skills whereby they may ask "How are we doing?" -- most often of customers (where the focus needs to be directed).
Our emphasis is to make "focus" a leadership activity and a means rather than an end. Keep focus the proverbial "horse" before and directing the "cart" of daily operations! Once you build focus, especially for services, it is relatively easy to direct it toward customers for the long-term. Using "focus" as a means for those providing the products and services daily to customers to learn the soft skills needed through experiences. Create a defined practice and tool for the manager/supervisor of "asking", on the part of , whereby they can share "How are we doing?" and continually link the "what" needs to be done from management while making daily operational decisions as to the "how" of getting it done -- a two-way dialog. Important point: The practice is not about moving the “asking” from senior management to front-line teams. It is about taking the feedback from senior management’s asking and creating questions for provider teams to “ask”. A tool for internal collaboration or support. Translating the “what” needs to be done from senior management to the “how” to get it done for front-line teams. In other words re-asking the questions senior management is asking for "How are we doing?" but simply and from a frontline perspective. Not to determine the future but to execute daily operations. What are those questions? We like Peter Drucker's response:
Read - 'Asking' To Lead Frontline Operations by George Reavis or ‘Asking’
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