In our last conversation about The Platinum Rule®, Anne explained why she adopted this model, and she promised to tell us what difference this made within her business.
"I remember you introduced The Platinum Rule® at a team retreat where you had everyone complete the self-assessment, and you used simulations and role play to demonstrate how to adapt to the different profiles. I've heard that team-building and staff development programs are often enthusiastically received while folks are together but once they are back at their desks, embroiled in their day-to-day work, the effects wear off quickly. I gather your experience was different this time. What happened?"
Anne leaned forward and reached for a pad of paper. "Let me show you what happened, in the short, the medium, and the longer term," she said. Anne drew a series of boxes on the page and labeled them "Short", "Medium," and "Longer."
"First of all, said Anne, "you are quite right about the short life of many efforts to build teams and build capacity within organizations. I expected we would need to have several sessions to embed The Platinum Rule® in our culture, so I was very surprised when our Operations Manager, CW, came to see me about somethings she observed.
"About a month after the retreat, CW noticed that there had been an uptick in productivity on all projects. She knew that there was some variability in performance so she waited to see if the results stabilized before bringing the numbers to me.
When we met, she laid out several graphs showing the key performance indicators we use in the marketing research industry:
completed interviews per interviewer
completed interviews per hour
number of interviews completed on second call/third call etc.
"Every one of these productivity measures had improved — between 2% and 10% — on every single project!
"This was astonishing! What could have caused this?
"CW told me she had investigated; she asked her crew what they were doing differently. And here's what she learned: the interviewing team had started to apply The Platinum Rule® with our clients' customers. The first time they call, it is to set up an appointment to complete their annual customer experience evaluation. During this call, the interviewer would take note of the cues and identify the profile of the customer. They would adapt their own behaviour to align with the customer's which led to more scheduled appointments, with fewer calls. They would also indicate the customer's profile in the notes they recorded so that when they called back to complete the interview, they or their teammate could adapt their approach, and build rapport with the customer more quickly and more effectively, which led to more completed interviews.
"And, that's how it happened!
"I was surprised, pleased, grateful all at the same time. Although it was not a controlled experiment, there did not appear to be any other explanation. We put together a team to formalize this approach and design the system for embedding the process so we could optimize the outcome.
"That is the short-term impact of The Platinum Rule® in my business!"
Anne wrote those statistics in the box labeled "Short" on her sheet of paper.
We will continue the conversation as she explains the impacts that will fill the other two boxes. In the meantime, I hope you are applying what we are learning and observing the impact of The Platinum Rule® in your business!
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