Category Archives: Divergent versus Convergent information practices

We believe that the more spread out the people in a group or organization, the wider the geographical spread of the members, the greater the need for a voice-based communication system. Much of what is communicated during off-sites, retreats (with their golf tournaments), regular weekly or monthly meetings, telephone calls, water cooler discussions, hotel bar discussions out on the road is voice-based and 99.99% lost when the event or exchange ends. There is little organizational benefit unless the information is spoken, recorded, prepared, and entered into databases for subsequent follow-up and use.

CRM Delivers the Best Results When Everybody Plays

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“The Collaboration Curve – ‘World of Warcraft’ players improve their performance by leveraging a broad set of discussion forums, wikis, databases, and instructional videos that exist outside the game….The more players participate and interact with World of Warcraft’s knowledge economy, the more valuable its resources become, and the faster players increase their rate of performance improvement.  Said more generally, the more participants in number – and interactions among those participants – you add to a carefully designed and nurtured environment, the more the rate of performance improvement goes up….In nearly all of these group efforts, rapid leaps in performance improvement arise as participants get better faster by working with others.  This is called ‘the Network effect’ (see right for picture).  These leaps in performance describe the shape and power of the collaboration curve, a new force in our professional and personal lives”  (Hagel, Brown, Davison, “Introducing the Collaborative Curve,” Harvard Business Review, 2009).

CRM databases are of the highest quality when they are fertilized by a rich and continuous inflow of accurate, complete, and current information from everyone who has anything to do with customer relations.  Massive accumulation and aggregation of information from as wide and diverse a population as possible ensures that the CRM database can generate the patterns and trends that give all players solid understanding, strong analytical material, better decision making choices, and more trustworthy and proper action.  The knowledge rich and fertile CRM database available to and used by all is the reason the organization bought and implemented CRM in the first place.

But how do we enable and encourage this “Collaboration Curve,” this “Network Effect,” where we see “leaps of performance as participants get better faster by working with others”? 

The only way to get ideas, thinking, and learning moving within an organization is a voice-based CRM data entry system.  People have to be enabled to speak their minds, share their insights and experience, ask for information, challenge concepts and facts, ask for help in ‘playing the game’, and otherwise talk and ask and communicate with others in the organization.  A voice-based CRM data entry system is simple and direct, using voice and phone, two technologies that are profoundly simple and intuitive and robust today for all kinds of stationery and mobile applications.  Speech recognition software is too “closed” and limited to be the tool for this kind of collaborative/networking high-volume discussion and communicating.  Only a human transcriptionist-based system, one that joins human capabilities with the finest computer technologies of today is capable of enabling such a Collaborative/Networked environment.

Any company considering a CRM implementation and any company considering how to improve the user adoption or the value of an existing CRM system should take a few minutes to put the words “Voice-Based CRM“ into the web browser to access information that teaches the value of such systems.

“Getting it Out There”: When CRM Information Makes the Difference

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“I received a note from a sales rep in an entirely different territory, thanking me for information on a competitor in a sales report I had entered into our CRM system a month or so ago.  The person said he was bidding against this competitor and my information on several key discriminators for our products really helped him write a winning proposal.” (a Voice2insight/CRM system user report, February 2012).

One of the most important values of an active, organization-wide CRM/Voice2insight system is the continuous flow of current, accurate, and complete knowledge in the system and available through search/query to all authorized members.  This organization-wide availability of good knowledge has been the “holy grail” for knowledge management systems for many years.  The collaboration and sharing of lessons learned and key technical information can save many hours of searching (often with no results) and can give employees a critical competitive edge, wherever they are working in the organization.  This open and collegial sharing of knowledge is a key to what is called a “learning organization,” an organization with a vibrant date entry system and with feedback loops and double loops, where good information is “powering vigorously” around in the organization.

Sales reps will use a voice-based data entry system.  A key to “getting it out there” is a voice-based CRM data entry tool that sales reps find natural, intuitive, easy, and fast.  If they know they can get their sales reporting task done immediately following a sales meeting, in just a few minutes, without all of the hassle associated with keyboarding and writing, they take to it willingly and with positive business intent and purpose.  They know that the organization needs the knowledge, so they give it clearly and completely, with thoughtful explanation and sufficient detail.  With voice and the phone, the words, sentences, and paragraphs come out naturally and fluently because these are tools the sales reps use continuously and with excellence.  They are very good at speaking their minds and explaining their experiences.

The need is for explanatory knowledge not jots and tweets.  Organizational use of its expensive CRM system cannot be limited to just activity reporting, a number or statistic to be entered via a smart phone or tablet computer.  These notes, jots, and tweets are not sufficient to sharing the explanatory and experiential knowledge of background and context that makes information useful for understanding, decision making, and proper action.  We need full and open voice-based CRM data entry to capture the full experiences the sales reps are having out with the customers on the ground.  Words, sentences, and paragraphs of explanation are the life blood of a “learning organization” environment.

The power of knowledge is in data aggregation.  We need all to aggregate all of the information possible, amass it in one place, so the great power of computer searching can be brought to bear for an understanding of trends, patterns, and behaviors that are operating with customers and competitors and in the industry marketplace.  That is why organizations buy CRM solutions.  What is going on our there?  How do these purchasing decisions compare or contrast with those of last quarter or last year?  Why are they asking these kinds of questions now?  Are we seeing a new product development life cycle because of the availability of these new materials?  Can we raise our prices now or should we wait for the next quarter – what have our customers done in the past when we have raised prices – what have our competitors done in response?  Who is this new company – why are they growing so rapidly – are they taking our customers?  The greater the flow of information coming into the CRM system from the sales team, the greater the aggregation of good data and the greater the potential for good analysis, decision making, and proper action.

CRM has to connect top management and the sales team.  The more vibrant, the more energetic the data input from the sales team that is flowing consistently into the CRM databases, the more good information is aggregating and accumulating, and the better the searches and queries and yield of strategically useful information.  When the top managers of the organization know what they want as information from the field, from the sales organization, when they communicate this openly and positively to the sales team, then the sales people can gather this information and return with it for management use.  The connection between the management team needs and the sales team capabilities for gathering information is a connection made in heaven when organization leaders see it and foster it.

A voice-based CRM data entry system, willingly and thoughtfully used, brings an incredibly powerful force of knowledge for good that is available no other way and is the heart of a successful “learning” organization.

Knowledge Management: How To Put Information to Work for You!

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Much talk has been made over the past 10 years about “knowledge workers” and our “knowledge society” and “knowledge is power,” but often the efforts to implement knowledge management in organizations fails.  With a simple voice-based tool and a proven data gathering methodology, you can implement a successful KM system in your organization.

First you need a voice-based tool that will enable all involved in the organization in which KM is being applied to speak their minds openly, regularly, and candidly.  Knowledge from all over the organization has to be turned loose and enabled to flow into the central system by voice. And this gathering tool or system has to be voice-based (not keyboard based or group meeting based), to be simple and intuitive and to gather accurate, complete, and current knowledge.  People love to talk and they all have cell phones, so the voice-based tool is natural and will, therefore, be used by everyone (no user adoption problems here).  You can have 100% participation.

Second, for every project to which KM is being applied, you need a two-step sequencing methodology for information gathering: 

1.  At the beginning of a project, the methodology should privilege DIVERGENCE, or the gathering of information from everyone, everywhere.  Each person should respond from his/her own office, with no meetings or general and previous discussions.  Start with an email with a general description of what knowledge is wanted, and then open the phone channels up for massive input from everywhere.  “Fair Process” should pertain, which is that everyone’s thinking is respected and expected during this divergent time.  From the President/CEO to the maintenance people, everyone involved in the project and decision should be given a voice, and each voice should have equal value.  At this time, no decisions have been made, everything is open and up for discussion.  No power plays or ego trips are operating to co-opt or derail the KM process in these early stages of project thinking.  No powerful big talker is allowed to take over a meeting and dominate the thinking and intimidate others.  No timid but thoughtful person is cowed and pushed into silence.  DIVERGENCE is the wonderful energy of intellectual thinking every company is capable of, but the tool to gather it must be voice-based not keyboard based or meeting discussion based.

2.  Then, as the project progresses and decisions need to be made, the KM leaders should shift the sequencing methodology for information gathering to CONVERGENCE, or the narrowing and forming of the information into a solution or decision. The literature on strategic thinking makes clear that convergence is the major enemy of thought at the beginning of a project – the KM leaders cannot allow the thinking to converge too early or too quickly.  Stay out, stay wide, stay open just as long as possible.  When everyone has spoken, when those thoughts have been transcribed and given back to everyone to read, and when they have all spoken a second time and those data are transcribed and given out for everyone to read, then, more than likely, the natural tendency of the human mind will take over and the entire organization will being the process of CONVERGENCE – narrowing down, honing in on a resolution.

“Ah Ha! I see! That is it! That is exactly right!”

If the process of DIVERGENCE has used first and has been allowed to play out with exuberance and energy across all players in the project, then, as the CONVERGENCE goes forward, everyone increasingly will “see” or “feel” the rightness of the solution that is forming.

It is left to the ultimate decision makers finally to form and state the decision or give the solution, but by then everyone will know what the driving issues have been and why the decision was made.  Everyone has spoken his/her mind and that is of paramount significance to the success of the process and of the buy-in when the decision is made.  This is not to say everyone will agree, nor should the decision makers wait until everyone does (how long is forever?).

The process has been performed correctly and Fair Process has been followed. Those responsible make the decision with confidence and courage and march on!

Always Include a “Wild Card Meeting” as Part of Strategic Thinking

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Oftentimes in a sales organization, when there is a problem or issue to be resolved, it is helpful to bring a “wild card” person into the discussions. The principle here for strategic thinking is “the power of divergent thinking” – getting honest and spontaneous input from as many people, as far and wide as possible, as early as possible.

This can be a company insider or outsider, an executive or the maintenance supervisor. Invite someone who isn’t involved in the work or with the issue or problem and let them sit in one of the early discussions. Nissan Automotive’s Creative Director reports that administrative assistants from other divisions of the automotive company were often brought into early design meetings to force designers to explain things more clearly and to be exposed to different points of view regarding their work. With one car design, the Creative Director reports, the spontaneous comments of several administrative assistants regarding a new design was “YUCK! UGLY!” – two minutes into the meeting. Needless to say, the designers who were “blindly in love” with their “baby,” the design, were taken aback and a new (and far more productive) direction of creative thought began.

Divergent thinking prevents “group think,” where people who work among others like them begin to think alike and lose perspective. A multitude of well-documented biases enter into thinking when too many people who think alike spend too much time together. “Group think” also makes the thinking susceptible to strong egos, messy politics, and crises caused by poor planning. As early as possible, bring people together from different departments, different levels in the organization, and outsiders with entirely unrelated areas of expertise and talents. Have a formal time set in the design schedule for the “Wild Card Team” meeting, so leaders can be assured such divergent thinking is happening.

Convergent thinking, where the opinions start merging and harmonizing, comes naturally to the human mind (we like it when things all come together), and we have to fight to keep thinking divergent long enough for everyone to express their ideas BEFORE any decisions or commitments are made. The greatest enemy to clear thinking is convergence that happens too soon with too few people involved. Then, in time, after the divergent thinking, easily and quickly in most cases, the thinking converges on one solution and everyone says, “just right,” or “yes, that feels really good,” or “I really like that solution.” Then, fire the team up to go full bore forward to implement the solution.

Sales Reps are the eyes and ears of the company

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When in a sales meeting, look around and listen for information valuable to managers in your organization. Plan to report what you see that might help Marketing, Product Development, Customer Service, Finance, Executive Management, Human Resources, or others. What are people reading? What do they say about competitive products? Are they pleased with Customer Service? What about pricing and competitive bidding? Are they hiring or laying off people? A sales rep is the eyes and ears of the organization out on the front line with access to the most current, accurate, and complete information available. Look and listen and report. From all such diverse reports from as many people as possible comes a composite and true picture of what is going on out there, what our decisions should be, and how to take proper action.