If approached as an exercise in listening and learning, powerful conversations with clients and customers can offer long-term lessons. A challenging client may seem like an obstacle but can also turn out to be someone who will motivate you to do quality work, by giving eye-opening ideas and concepts. A radical new way of engaging with clients and customers, the SPONGE process focuses on listening as a means to gain diverse, insightful perspectives.
Could you tell what the SPONGE Learning Framework is about?
SPONGE is really just a simple acronym for a learning framework I have created in my new book SPONGE – Leadership Lessons I Learnt From My Clients. S stands for Super Active Listening. P stands for Probing and Questioning. O stands for Observing Behavior. N stands for New Behavior to Emulate. G stands for Getting the new Behavior Internalized. And finally E stands for Expanding, Explaining, and Sharing.
When we meet clients or customers, we can all learn a lot if we adopt the SPONGE Learning Framework. The idea is to get out of the ‘sell’ orientation and adopt a ‘SPONGE Learn’ mindset. If we can do that then we can end up getting coached (and mentored) for free by the smart people we deal with. It could be customers, it could be associates, it could be colleagues.
The book contains 25 stories dated between 1980 and 2005, capturing some of the conversations I have had with my clients. And what I learnt from them.
The first chapter, ‘A Shiny New Car’ is about the passion of a leader to visualize and execute a plan. a. Where does a leader/ manager draw the line so that he does not end up micro-managing things? b. Mr Tata found an issue with the car that others could not, which reflects his passion for the product. What is the ‘SPONGE learning’ from this?
There is a fine balance between micromanaging and being passionate about one’s job. In the story A Shiny New Car, I could see how Mr Tata had identified something interesting and wanted his team to figure out how to do it. They had failed in their first attempt and he had asked them to try again, only if they wanted to. But the engineers at Tata Motors ERC in Pune are a committed lot. They finally got what they thought was acceptable and Mr Tata dropped all that was on his plate that afternoon to see their work.
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Denne historien er fra November - December 2018-utgaven av The Smart Manager.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Building A Quality Culture
A strong company culture defined by its values, beliefs, and behaviors, has a profound impact on its products and services. More so in today’s VUCA world, where to stay relevant and maintain a competitive edge, it is critical for organizations to build a culture that focuses on quality. Suresh Lulla, author of Quality Fables, elucidates through significant examples how creating a culture of quality is imperative to driving success and productivity.
Customers For Life
The history of General Motors in India can be traced back to the 1920s, when it became the first automotive company to set up an assembly plant in the country. The relationship since then has not been as fruitful as GM would have hoped. GM’s flagship brand, Chevrolet, was introduced in India to build upon the success of the popular Opel marque. However, success has been fleeting at best—an issue that GM India is determined to rectify. It aims to do so by adopting a two-pronged approach: using customer feedback to influence product development, and delivering a superior sales-to-service experience.
The Digital Shift
… technology will radically disrupt HR in the near future. Indeed, it is already changing the way HR works and the role it plays and opening the door to a new type of “digital HR” function.1 The rise of digital and social media is changing the dynamics of HR and creating new ways of hiring, engaging, and retaining employees.
The Story Of Telling
“The best brands are built on great stories,”* this remark by Ian Rowden best captures the strategy of diligent brand building. Much more than attractive logos or the products themselves, what builds a brand is how successfully a story is woven around it. Brand marketers have to be good storytellers indeed.
Complexity Is Simpler Than You Think
Kay Kendall and Glenn Bodinson, authors of Leading the Malcolm Baldrige Way, shatter myths about excellence models such as Baldrige and EFQM.
Proponents of Isolation Never Become Victors
Multilateralism in the political and economic space has always led to frameworks that favor the mighty. WTO was no exception. With agriculture kept out of its purview, it could never become a truly fair and free trading system. China was the only large emerging economy that exploited relative openness in low-cost manufactured goods to take full advantage of the system. Other emerging economies could at best garner minor gains.
A History Lesson (From Year One) for Trump and the Brexit Crowd: Isolationism Has Never Worked!
Professor Stephane Garelli on growing isolationism.
A Win-Win Game
Business is not a sport where some stakeholder has to lose or fare badly for others to do well. Building an atmosphere of trust and transparency between all stakeholders will help companies retain them even during adverse times.
A Sustainable Model
With a total market value of $4.3 trillion and an employment base of at least 1.3 million direct employees and millions of others indirectly employed, platforms have become an important economic force.*Companies today are constantly looking for ways to build platforms—Infosys Ltd announced its plans of monetizing its platforms to make them a $2 billion business by March 2021. But are all platform businesses successful?
Custom Made
…three in four consumers said they receive too many emails from brands, and one-fifth said they could not handle the current volume…69 per cent have ‘unfollowed’ brands on social media, closed their accounts or cancelled subscriptions.*In these times, when the market is flooded with products and services, the most efficent way to engage customers is to offer them customized content. To achieve this, brands need to focus on observing the nuances of individual preferences.
