You Might Say Experience is Correlated to Outcomes?

At a global leadership conference in the past few months, Marcus Buckingham tried to show that improving customer experiences (X axis) led to better store outcomes (Y axis). He showed a scatterplot for one retail chain that sort of looked like this:

And he drew a rough linear trend line slightly on an upward slant. And then he said he focused on those who had high customer experience levels and what made them different. He concluded that "love" was the key--love being the "deep, unwavering commitment to the flourishing of another human being."

The problem is that his analysis' foundation is flawed. High outcomes were just as likely to be generated in low-medium customer experience stores as high customer experience stores. 

In statistics we look for an r-squared value that shows how much one factor influences the results. Any r-squared less than 60% is suspect--40% of the outcome is influenced by other things. This particular scatterplot might have an r-squared value of 20%, which means most of the stores' results are determined by other factors than customer experience.

So to follow the path that love is key, one is starting in a different place. I don't know where it is, but Buckingham's research here didn't get us on the right path.

 

Dealing with and Preventing Outrage

 Karthik Ramanna’s new book, The Age of Outrage, is going to be a welcome addition to those with corporate conflicts and public relation snafus. Ramanna provides a model for responding to and preventing incidents of outrage. He lays out steps, phases, scripts that can guide a leader or anyone trying to effect civil discourse and change. Providing examples in national governments around the globe, corporations, historical incidents and literature, the author illustrates how his methodology eases the outrage. While his book is hopeful, his Coda does delineate how much work is still needed in the 2020’s. 

As many who have experienced resistance to policies or decisions, mutual trust is key and foundational. His scripts can help move opposing parties closer to understanding each other and agreement if both parties are operating in good faith and without ulterior motives. If leaders of an organization or “rebel group” are operating out of self-interest—narcissists, and other toxic leaders who are motivated by short-term monetary or reputation gain rather than the organization’s/nation’s—this methodology may not work. Scorched earth/salted fields types of outcomes may be the goal of such leaders operating in win-lose attitude: if I can’t win, no one is going to win. 

For those who need a glimpse of a future hope, Ramanna’s book can be a methodology for those who might have to respond to outrage in their position.