You Can’t Fix What You Can’t Define

In a political season that’s as divided as it’s ever been, questions swirl, motives are questioned and sides get taken. Crazier still, everyone SOUNDS like they’re arguing for the same thing. It’s not that surprising why everyone’s confused.

So, do words even matter?

Now it’s probably best that we leave the politics to the politicians… but here’s something that’s certain: your perspective on whether words matter has implications for your business. Consulting with growing organizations of all sizes, experience has shown the Rogue team that you can’t fix what you can’t define.

Here’s how it plays out:

1. Important initiative or business problem is needing to be solved/executed
2. Selected group assembles to discuss what they know about the initiative/problem
3. Perspectives are offered
4. One or two voices rise to the top
5. Initiatives built around those louder/more powerful voices
6. Everyone leaves meeting

Sometimes, everything works out for the best. The voices that rise to the top are right and the solutions generated net the results the team and company were looking for. But that seems to be more the exception than the rule. Have you had a similar experience?

Rogue works with organizations looking to achieve significant outcomes. They’re concerned about getting their targeting right… or attracting and converting buyers … or engaging people with different content throughout the customer journey. What we’ve seen is that because business and marketing people speak the same jargon, they think they’re saying the same thing. Often they’re not.

“Here’s what’s even more interesting… Almost always, everyone comes to the table with a perspective that’s right. ”

The world looks very different depending on where you sit. What’s broken and what’s wrong if you work in service, may be very different than what you can identify when you focus on sales. And you’re both probably right. When you have a big initiative, can you afford to be misunderstood? And isn’t it in the organization’s best interest to capture the perspective and insider knowledge that your people have?

Let’s say you’re trying to understand or streamline the customer journey. Have you considered expanding the number of business players that get to weigh in on the conversation? Include someone from sales, someone from product, service, field marketing and even a member of the client advisory board. Get their perspective on the process. How it is… and how they think it should be… It takes a commitment to hearing all the players out and identifying all the stages that make up the journey.

Defining the Issues and Solutions

Try this: Have every participant write each individual stage on its own oversized post-it. Get each member to share their perspective on the customer journey. Where the same stages are identified, great… but where there are nuances, adapt and grow your journey with each new stage introduced. Armed with a more complete and more informed customer journey you can now set out to identify those areas of the funnel that could have the greatest impact on your initiative. It’s a lot easier to align everyone around those areas of impact once everyone’s weighed in and been heard. And you can now build hypotheses that you can begin testing and measuring against… to start seeing results.

You can’t fix what you can’t define.
And when you define, you can align.

One of the greatest values Rogue provides is an ability to facilitate difficult conversations ensuring all voices are heard (remember, so often everyone’s right) and helping teams avoid speaking around, over and through each other. If you could benefit from that type of consulting as you prepare for your next growth initiative, Rogue would love the opportunity to help you define and align.