THIAGI GAMELETTER: February 2007

Audio Game

Concern

An important skill for customer service representatives is the ability to show concern and empathy during telephone conversations. Instead of giving participants a checklist of suggestions and having them apply these suggestions in roleplay practice, this activity requires participants to analyze best-practice examples of displaying concern during telephone conversations and applying the key features.

Basic Idea

Four teams of participants listen to different audio recordings of telephone conversations with customers. Based on these analyses, participants create sets of guidelines, first within the teams and then across the teams. They apply the items from the checklist during roleplay sessions.

Index Tags

Telephone conversations. Concern and empathy. Customer service conversations. Modeling. Best practices. Analyzing audio recordings.

Purpose

To discover, discuss, and apply best practices for displaying concern and empathy in customer service conversations on the telephone.

Participants

Minimum: 8
Maximum: Any number
Best: 12 to 20
(Participants are organized [and reorganized] into teams.)

Time

30 minutes to 1 hour.

Supplies

• Four audio cassette players or MP3 players
• Blank pieces of paper
• Pens or pencils

Preparation

Make audio recordings. You need four sets of audio recordings of customer service conversations on the telephone in which the Customer Service Representative (CSR) clearly and effectively displays concern for the customer. Each set of recordings should last about 10 minutes and contain several authentic conversations.

Flow

Round 1. Working within Teams

Brief the participants. Explain the importance of displaying empathy and concern during customer service conversations.

Set up four listening stations. Set up an audio player in four different rooms if possible. If not, set them up in four different corners of the room to minimize interference.

Divide participants into four teams of approximately equal size. It is not critical if a team has one more or one fewer participant than the other teams. Assign each team to one of the four listening stations.

Ask teams to listen to the recording. Instruct the team members to take notes on the customer service representative's part of the conversation and identify how she displayed and demonstrated her concern for the customer.

Ask teams to analyze the techniques for displaying concern for the customer. After the audio recordings end, encourage team members to share their notes and come up with a checklist of best practices for demonstrating concern for the customer.

Round 2. Working Across Teams

Re-organize participants into new teams. Explain that you are going to facilitate sharing of best practices among different teams. Create new teams that consist of one member from each audio station. If you have extra participants (because some audio stations had one more participant than the others), add them to one or more of the new teams. You will end up with some teams having two people from the same audio station, but this should not present any problem.

Ask the new teams to share their checklist items. Begin by asking each team member to share the best practice she observed in the audio recording. Encourage participants to continue sharing and consolidating their checklists. Invite participants to discuss apparent contradictions in the behaviors of the Customer Service Representatives.

Round 3. Roleplaying in Triads

Divide participants into groups of three and assign the roles of a customer, customer-service representative, and observer. Within each triad, invite participants to make up typical customer service scenarios and roleplay a conversation in which the CSR incorporates different best practice behaviors to display concern and empathy. At the end of each roleplay segment, invite the observer and the customer to provide useful feedback to the CSR. Rotate the three roles and repeat the roleplay sessions.

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Group Scoop

Concern for Customers

Recently, one of our readers sent an email note about the difficulties in getting call center people to display concern for their customer's issues. After talking to a few customer service representatives, I came up with an application of the Group Scoop for identifying different reasons for the reluctance to display concern and empathy. This activity can be followed by a debriefing discussion about how to make it easier and more rewarding for customer service people to display concern and empathy during telephone conversations.

Purpose

To explore different reasons why customer service representatives are reluctant to display their concern for their customers during telephone conversations.

Index Tags

Call centers. Concern. Empathy. Reasons for reluctance.

Time

About 40 minutes. You can easily expand or contract the game to fit the available time.

Materials

• Twenty or more Here's Why cards with different statements from Customer Service Representatives (CSRs) justifying their reluctance to display concern and empathy to customers. Here are some examples:
  • Customers feel that we are patronizing them when we try to show concern.
  • I am not a psychologist. I am not paid to treat customers' depression.
  • I don't feel any sympathy toward the customer. I don't want to be a fake.
  • I cannot display concern when I am sure that the customer is lying.
• Four blank index cards for each player

Flow

In the following description, the steps of the game are printed in regular type, while sample segments from an imaginary play of the game are printed in italics.

Prepare a set of cause cards. Before the training activity, prepare a set of Here's Why cards. Each card should contain a probable cause for the Customer Service Representative's reluctance to show their concern during telephone conversations. Prepare at least two Here's Why cards for each anticipated player. If you cannot come up a sufficient number of Here's Why cards, use duplicates.

Get Started. When participants are ready, announce, “I'd like to conduct a group activity that will help us discover why many of us are reluctant to display empathy and concern when we are talking to our customers on the telephone.”

Ask players to write Here's Why cards. Hand out four blank index cards to each player. Ask them to write a statement from a typical customer service representative about why she is reluctant to display concern and empathy toward a customer. Give a couple of sample statements to get the participants started.

Re-distribute the cards. After about 3 minutes, collect the Here's Why cards from all players. Add your prepared cards to this pile. Mix the cards well and give three cards to each player. Ask players to study the causes and arrange the cards from the most probable to the least probable.

Exchange cards. Arrange the remaining Here's Why cards on a large table at one side of the room. Tell the players that they may discard cards from their hands and pick up replacements. Players should not to talk to each other during this phase of the game. At the end of the exchange period, each player should have three Here's Why cards that may or may not include cards from the original set.

Swap cards. Instruct players to exchange Here's Why cards with each other to make their hands better reflect their personal opinions. In this phase, any player may exchange cards with any other player; every player must exchange at least one card.

Form teams. Ask players to compare their Here's Why cards with each other and to form teams with people holding cards that they like. There is no limit to the number of players who may team up together, but a team may keep no more than three cards. It must discard all other cards, and the three cards it retains must meet with everyone's approval.

Preparing a Poster. Ask each team to prepare a graphic poster that reflects the three final Here's Why cards. This poster should not include any text. After 5 minutes, ask each team to read its three cards, display its poster, and explain the symbolism.

Awards. Identify winning teams in each category like these:

• Internal consistency among the three final cards.
• Clarity of the message in the poster.
• Appropriateness of the illustrations.

Game Plan for Concern for Customers

Here's a ready-for-reference summary of the game.

Step	Facilitator	Participants
Preparation (20 minutes)	Prepare a set of Here's Why cards.
Write Here's Why cards (3 minutes)	Distribute four blank index cards to each participant.	Each participant writes four reasons why CSRs are reluctant to display concern and empathy.
Distribute Here's Why cards (3 minutes)	Mix Here's Why cards from participants with your cards. Give three cards to each participant.	Each participant arranges her three Here's Why cards in order of personal preference.
Exchange cards at the table (3 minutes)	Spread the remaining Here's Why cards on a large table.	Each participant silently discards cards from her hand and picks up replacements.
Exchange cards with one another (3 minutes)	Give instructions.	Each participant exchanges at least one card with other participants.
Form teams (5 minutes)	Give instructions.	Participants form teams of any size. Each team reduces its cards to three.
Create posters (6 minutes)	Distribute flip chart sheets and felt-tipped markers.	Each team prepares a graphic poster that reflects its three selected cards.
Present posters (5 minutes)	Select teams in a random order.	Each team reads its three cards, displays its poster, and explains the symbolism.
Distribute awards (3 minutes)	Distribute different categories of awards.

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Co-creation

New Supervisors
by Catherine Tencza

In last month's TGL, we introduced a card game called Dozens and showed how it can be used with different content areas (such as outsourcing and critical thinking), and invited readers to contribute their own content for the cards.

Within 24 hours, we received an email note from Cathy, one of our active readers:

Your newsletter came at just the right time. I'm putting together a one-week training program for new supervisors, and I think I'll use Dozens as an introductory activity, as an advance organizer for course content, and to break the ice.

Here are 24 content categories for the cards in Cathy's New Supervisors game:

• Advice to a new supervisor
• Benefits of being a supervisor
• Challenges faced by supervisors
• Characteristics of an effective supervisor
• Coaching tips for supervisors
• Common misconceptions about supervision
• Communications methods supervisors should use
• Data supervisors use to inform their decisions
• Desirable attitudes for a supervisor
• How supervisors can give effective feedback
• How supervisors can reward the employees
• How to be the world's worst supervisor
• How to set goals with an employee
• Important words in a supervisor's vocabulary
• Main functions of the supervisor
• Mistakes that new supervisors make
• New roles and responsibilities a supervisor must assume
• Old roles and responsibilities a supervisor must give up
• People with whom a supervisor must build and maintain relationships
• Reports supervisors are accountable for completing (or delegating)
• Skills supervisors need to be successful
• Sources of information for new supervisors in your unit
• Steps supervisors can take for team building
• Strategies for empowering employees

Send us your content for your own Dozens games. We will share it with other readers of our newsletter.

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Online Activity

Single-Item Surveys

During the past six months, I have responded to several online surveys, each with hundreds of items. These surveys usually measure general employee satisfaction or the specific impact of a training program. Sometimes, the lengthy surveys are used to collect needs analysis information.

In contrast to these complex surveys, I have used a single-question approach that can be completed in a few seconds. This rapid survey presents a single open-ended question. (You can see examples of these questions below.)

The key to the success of the single-question approach is the Law of Large Numbers. This involves getting as many people to take the survey as possible.

Designing a lengthy survey is a time-consuming affair. However, the closed questions in most surveys make it possible to analyze the responses quickly, objectively, and easily. In contrast, you can create a single-item survey in a matter of minutes. You will require a lot of time, however, to analyze the content of the open responses and to organize them into useful clusters.

Questions

The open-ended question for the single-item survey requires the identification of “the one most …” You can generate three types of questions.

1. Questions related to problems

• What is the one most critical performance problem that is affecting the productivity in our organization?
• What is the one most critical motivational problem that is affecting your performance?

2. Questions related to solutions

• What is the one most critical skill that is needed in our company?
• What is the one most critical piece of knowledge that is needed in our company?
• What is the one most critical piece of equipment that you need?
• What is the one most critical tool that you need?
• What is the one most critical job function that is needed in our company?
• What is the one most critical incentive that is needed in our company?
• What is the one most critical reward that will improve the productivity in our company?
• What is the one most critical career development opportunity that is needed in our company?
• What is the one most critical piece of training that is needed in our company?
• What is the one most critical piece of feedback that will improve your performance?
• What is the one most critical management strategy that is needed in our company?
• What is the one most critical customer-relationship strategy that is needed in our company?
• What is the one most critical production technique that is needed in our company?
• What is the one most critical research and development strategy that is needed in our company?
• What is the one most critical process remapping activity that is needed in our company?
• What is the one most critical piece of information that you need to improve your performance?

3. Questions related to opportunities

• What is the one most powerful opportunity that we should exploit right now?
• What is the one most powerful technical opportunity that we should exploit right now?
• What is the one most powerful people-related opportunity that we should exploit right now?

Administering the Question

The key to the effectiveness of a single-item questionnaire is to ensure a large number of respondents. Here are three approaches that we have used to achieve this goal:

1. Launch an email campaign and send out the question (and instructions) to all possible respondents.
2. Use the OQ (Open Questions) format so people can respond quickly and easily at a web page.
3. Use a chain-mail approach to motivate each person to respond to the single item—and forward the questionnaire to other potential respondents.

Here are three factors that encourage enthusiastic participation in a single-item questionnaire:

• Clear indication that participants' responses will result in some benefit for them.
• A question that can be answered very easily in a word, phrase, or short sentence.
• Confidentiality of respondents

An Application—and a Request

I'd like to apply the single-item technique for collecting feedback about the usefulness of my online newsletter.

Please take 5 seconds to answer this question:

What one change in our newsletter would dramatically improve its usefulness?

Here are a few responses that we have already received:

• Increase the number of ready-to-use training games in every issue.
• Make the 99 Seconds and 99 Words sections more practical and less philosophical.
• Publish a PDF version of the newsletter.

To respond to the question, visit this OQ page (opens in a new window) and type your short answer. You may include your name or keep your response anonymous.

I will combine all responses and analyze them statistically. I will implement your ideas as quickly as possible.

Please participate in this rapid survey right now.

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Reading More with Les

Productive Conversations and Facilitative Knowledge
by Les Lauber

Stanfield, R. Brian (ed.) (2001). The Art of Focused Conversation. Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers.

I like books that are practical and have real-world application. This book does that. You get 48 pages of explanation of how to use the Focused Conversation model. In addition, you get the skeletons of 100 conversations that you can adapt and use.

In the 21st century, those workplaces that share information to create value for themselves and their customers have a competitive advantage. On page 14 of the book, Stanfield writes “These days most people are tired of blaming and demanding; they want to solve problems. They want to go beyond input to push an innovation through and take responsibility for making the desired change.” The focused conversation model is a technique for capturing the wisdom of a group and helping participants become accountable for doing more than complaining or “giving input.”

The model's four parts consist of asking and answering questions. The questions at the objective level begin to uncover facts about the topic being discussed. The reflective questions uncover how the group is relating to the facts discussed in the objective level. The interpretive level allows the groups to discuss implications and options. The decisional level then creates action based on the discussion. This book also contains hints and guidelines for leading focused conversations: what to do when someone gives a long answer or when people start arguing or when someone dominates the conversation, and much more.

I've used several dozen of the 100 conversations in various work settings. I have gotten especially good value from the conversations on evaluating a seminar, planning a study group, coaching a colleague, mediating a difficult situation, and reflecting on a chaotic meeting.

Stanfield, R. Brian. (2002). Workshop Book: From Individual Creativity to Group Action. Gabriola Island, BC, Canada: New Society Publishers.

I grabbed this book immediately when I saw it. I have been using the facilitation models from its companion piece, The Art of Focused Conversation, for nearly six years with outstanding results. I knew this book would provide me with similar benefits.

Focused on moving from discussion to action, this book describes the Consensus Workshop, which is a method for capturing the perceptions of employees, allows them to process their multiple perceptions, moves them to decisions, and awakens the passion to achieve goals.

The book is organized into four parts:

• The Method
• The Finer Points
• Leading Workshops
• Workshop Applications

The method itself is straightforward, and the book provides enough details to get you off and running in the first 49 pages. The richness of the explanations found in the next part helps you understand why the method is so powerful. The third part is invaluable because its suggestions (on such challenges as dealing with difficult behaviors in a group or developing your personal style) apply to many contexts outside this specific technique. This part alone is worth the price of the book for anyone who facilitates groups. The fourth part lists applications, both for working meetings through a series and adapting the method for groups of various sizes from 1 to more than 100.

I like this book a great deal. As a stand-alone book, it provides the reader with several tools and techniques to successfully facilitate groups to consensus and action. As a companion piece to The Art of Focused Conversation, its power increases exponentially.

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Brian's Words

Empowerment Dance
by Brian Remer

Empowerment Dance

Linda was a great boss. More like a coach than a supervisor, she helped me strive for my potential and offered me opportunities to learn and grow professionally and personally. Acutely aware of power differences, she didn't discriminate between me and her office assistant, Isabel.

One day, Isabel confided, “Linda's always trying to get me to go to these fancy retreats but I just want to stay here and type.”

Wow! You can offer to empower but people have to be ready and want to make changes for themselves. It's a complex dance. Who leads, who follows?

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99 Seconds

Formula for Happiness

A 99 Seconds presentation lasts for less than 99 seconds. For more details about this format, check out the April 2002 issue of our newsletter.

One effective type of 99 seconds presentation introduces a formula or mnemonic. Listen to an audio version of a 99-seconds session that uses both a formula and a mnemonic.

For non-auditory learners, here's a printed version:

Transcript of the Audio Recording

How happy are you?

Here's a simplified formula for your happiness based on Martin Seligman's brilliant work.

Happiness = F + O + G

In this formula, F stands for flow. Flow happens when you are working on a challenging task for which you have the right level of skill.

O stands for optimism and hope about your future.

G stands for gratitude and contentment for your past.

So here's the prescription for your happiness:

F: Be in a flow state.

O: Be optimistic about your future.

G: Be grateful for your past.

Notice that the three letters in the formula spell the word fog.

May the fog of happiness surround your future.

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99 Words

Lead the Group, Manage the Room
by NancyAnn Jambor

Lead the Group; Manage the Room

“Leaders do the right thing; managers do it the right way.”

Peter Drucker's comment offers a challenge. Do trainers' roles and responsibilities make them leaders or managers?

I have discovered the trainer/facilitator role is as much about leading as about managing. Leading the group means providing content and process integrity, from start to finish. Managing the room ensures an acknowledging and welcoming learning environment. Stellar trainers commit to servant leadership, and have the skills to effectively manage dynamics that encourage learning. Cultivate the yin-yang of both/and and reap the benefits.

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From Thiagi

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