Hope you enjoyed the last post about Customer Experience (CX), Everyone Has Customers (Including You!)  Since then, I've been able to contribute to Bloomfire's "The CX Trends to Watch in 2020, According to the Experts." Check it out!

Now on to this edition--I thought I would end this decade where I started...with Human Resources. ​ Whether or not you work in HR (or some iterative version of the name), this one’s for you. Because warts and all, it’s an essential function of the business to maximize the talent in the organization. 
 
That should be everyone’s job. What goes for HR, goes for company leaders especially. Take for instance, employee experience. In my HR Professional magazine article, “What HR (and Everyone Else) Should Know About Employee Experience,” I wrote about 3 important characteristics: relevance, differentiation, and co-creation. 
 
These are things companies try to do with their products and services already, and certainly with multiple functions working together to do it. If only more businesses turned these efforts toward their employees, we would see fewer toxic, burned out workplaces that underperform to their potential and create business risk. 
 
Employee Experience in turn influences and reflects the company’s culture. I talk about the relationship between employee experience and culture in my book, Culture Your Culture: Innovating Experiences @Work. You can read a book excerpt via TLNT.com.

​Regardless of our roles, we all have customers. Those customers have experiences with each of us and, more broadly, our organizations. What does that have to do with culture and employee experience? More than you think. 
 
When Culture Your Culture: Innovating Experiences @ Work was first published, the target audience was primarily company decision makers and culture practitioners, regardless of industry. To my surprise and delight, the CX community enthusiastically embraced the book and its framework, Design of Work Experience. The connection between employee experience and customer experience makes total sense when you think about it. Here are some reasons why:
 
1. Your employees are also your first customers. As a company’s external interface, they are the ones who communicate and reflect the quality of an organization through their words and actions (for better or worse). Few leaders fully understand this or behave as if they do. Those that "get it" have great proof of their success. Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Group, said: 
 
“Clients do not come first. Employees come first. If you take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.” 
 
I quoted Angela Ahrendts (former CEO of Burberry and SVP Retail at Apple) on page 19 in Culture Your Culture: 
 
“Everyone talks about building a relationship with your customer. I think you build one with your employees first.”
 
So if your company has customers and employees, you should be treating them as if they are important to the success of your business—because they are. 
 
2. CX & EX are inextricably linked and co-dependent. Employees are also consumers themselves. They have purchasing power and thanks to social media the ability to promote or disparage brands. According to Accenture: 
 
“…as the lines between professional and personal life blur, employees increasingly want the relevant, convenient and engaging experiences they have outside of work to be replicated on the job.”
 
Tools for EX and CX can be used to help each other. Consider one step farther: intentionally designing and implementing CX & EX together—for continuity, consistency, alignment, and IMPACT. 
 
3. Progress is limited or enhanced by company culture. Here’s what Forrester predicts for 2020 when it comes to CX: 
 
“We expect innovative, customer-delighting experiences to come to market that combine technology, creativity, and deep customer understanding.”

If you are in the business of serving internal or external customers (and I know you are), what happens when these new offerings are introduced to your company? Will your culture embrace, resist, or even ignore them? What happens after that? Chances are you have the foresight to answer these questions. 
 
Whether good, bad, or just ok, get a handle on your culture. Understand its complexities and how you should manage its strengths and shortcomings to ensure it becomes a business asset, not a liability. Your CX, EX, and the success of your company depends on it. 
 
If framing CX and EX together is new to you or just something you haven’t thought about recently, whet your appetite on my conversations with these Customer Experience gurus: 
 
Amazing Business Radio with Shep Hyken  
Crack the Customer Code with Adam Toporek and Jeannie Walters
CX Conversations with Vivek Jaiswal
RARE Business with Adrian Swinscoe
 

Last week an exclusive group of executives and consultants gathered at EXcelerating HR to discuss next level topics, such as Big Ideas, Coaching and Leadership Development, Staying Relevant During Economic Downturns, The Future of Work and HR, Innovation and Digital Disruption, Design Thinking, Growth, and Innovation, and Women Leaders in the Workplace. Recommendations for books inevitably emerged through our discussion. Some were ahead of their times and more revealing than ever today. Others are newer entrants shaping our path forward. Everyone inside and outside that large hall could benefit from all this thought leadership--leaders most of all. Here is the running list (so far) below, in alphabetical order:

An Everyone Culture: Becoming a Deliberately Developmental Organization
Black Holes and White Spaces: Reimagining the Future of Work & HR
​Bullseye! Hitting Your Strategic Targets Through High-Impact Measurement
Culture  Your Culture:  Innovating Experiences @ Work (my book!)
Evolve Yourself: Conscious Personal Evolution
​Focus: Creating Career + Brand Clarity
​Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change
​Principles: Life and Work
Safe Enough to Soar: Accelerating Trust, Inclusion, and Collaboration in the Workplace
​Self as Coach, Self as Leader
​The Art of the Long View: Planning for the Future in an Uncertain World
​The Character of a Corporation: How Your Company's Culture Can Make or Break
The Dip: A Little Book that Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace
The Lessons of Experience: How Successful Executives Develop on the Job
​The Whole Brain Business Book : Unlocking the Power of Whole Brain Thinking
​Three: The Human Resources Emerging Executive
​Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (And How to Fix It)

Since it's likely I inadvertently left some out, I will continue to add to this list as I hear from colleagues. 

*Please note the links above are affiliate links*

As I said, it's been busy. Check out the just released newsletter below as a summary of the last few months. If you like what you see, subscribe!

As you can see, it's been busy! I'm pleased to share 3 podcasts that launched over the spring and summer season, all in the Customer Experience (CX) space. It's been a joy to be embraced by this community, starting with Adrian Swinscoe and Ricardo Saltz Gulko of eglobalis. You'll find that each of these, like my other podcast interviews, are all very different from one another. Enjoy by clicking each of the images above and let me know what you think! 

It was a privilege to be a guest on Carolyn Kiel's Beyond 6 Seconds podcast recently, and not just because it was a personal milestone (my 20th podcast!).  Experience showed me how truly different every conversation can be, even if the premise is to talk about about my favorite topic of company culture. Between her wonderful radio voice, curious mind, engaging questions and our easy rapport with one another, we talked well beyond our scheduled time. We covered so much territory that it necessitated a second bonus episode about Culture Your Culture's journey to publication. My hope is that our fun translates to your enjoyment as listeners. Give it a listen and let me know what you think!

I've always had a variety of people in my professional and social circles--it reflects my own diverse interests and experiences. Everyone is spread out geographically, but it would be one heck of a party if I had them all in one place to watch all the worlds colliding.  

That being said, every once in a while I am reminded of the limitations within my network, which in turn speaks to the challenges of  business norms in general.  When I asked on occasion whether I know someone that fits x, y, z, conditions, I usually have at least some tangential connection. Recently however, I could not find enough executive women of color in my circles for a special invitation-only gathering. I lamented this to a colleague and friend (also an executive woman of color now consultant), who said, "there aren't any." She really meant "there's not enough." So true, so true. There's much work to be done, but thankfully some organizations are trying. People need to know, and be motivated to do the same. 

This is why it was so wonderful to add my $.02 on this article in Fast Company, "These Companies are Making Sure More Women Get Promoted to Management," which showcases what's being done and provides for some starting points. I highly recommend you read the whole article and share it broadly. Here's a preview:

If you aren't familiar with MindTools, it is "one of the world’s most popular digital, on-demand career and management learning solutions, helping more than 24 million people each year." I have been a distant admirer for years (they've been online since 1996!) and recently had the opportunity to talk with them about Culture Your Culture and Design of Work Experience, which resulted in a great article and podcast. The latter resides in their members-only area, but thanks to their generosity you can listen right here.  

As you know, I joined the Consortium 4 Change (C4C) of the Business InSITE Group (BiG), an invitation-only network of thought leaders partnering together. That gives me access (and therefore you) to even more leadership development opportunities. Earlier this month I told you about inFRONT Leaders taking place April 16-18, 2019 in Manhattan Beach, California. The program is designed for any operating leader who can benefit from better understanding the future of work, unleashing their leadership potential and developing their own and their team’s innovative spirit. 
​
I'm pleased to also share with you the BiG Coaching Differentiator, a whole network of expert coaches for your organizational needs. I shared my perspective on coaching programs previously in my post, "First Things First: Fundamentals for an Executive Coaching Program." Find out  10 compelling ways BiG brings significant value to coaching relationships and let me know if you are interested in either of these programs.