Go beyond productivity to real effectiveness. Improve strategic plan implementation and bottom-line company success by enlightening your employees with accurate knowledge of your customers' general and precise priorities. This will enable you employees to collectively make millions of "just right" decisions and perform their work as effectively and efficiently as possible.

1. Employee Effectiveness by Design
Edward B. Goodwin - President, Demand Facts Inc
En-light-en: 1. to give the light of knowledge to; free from ignorance, prejudice, or superstition.
2. to inform; give clarification to (a person) as to meanings, intentions, etc. Slang – wise up.
Enlighten Employees to Increase Their Effectiveness
Productivity does not equal effectiveness. The productivity of many of your employees can
be increased though Human Capital initiatives such as employee engagement and performance
management processes, but their impact on the bottom-line may not be substantially improved.
A substantial number of your employees may be productive in the sense that they are
working hard and staying ahead of their schedules, but if their decisions and actions are out of
sync with the priorities of your target customers, they are neither advancing your company’s
success as much as possible nor realizing the true intent and power of your company’s
strategies. In other words, they are spinning their wheels because they are heading in the wrong
direction. Some may actually be productively hurting your company’s success by wasting the
time and resources of other employees, missing improvement opportunities, creating less
appealing products or services, causing or not solving customer support problems, and
ultimately losing more prospective and existing customers due to offering inferior value.
To be productive and effective, your employees need up-to-date and precise knowledge of
your customers’ priorities to enable them to consistently make the decisions and take the
actions which best lead to meaningful contributions toward your company’s goals. Your
employees will be in a much better position with this intimate knowledge to implement and
execute your company’s strategic plan in the most effective and efficient ways possible. We call
this Employee Enlightenment but customer knowledge management would also be appropriate.
Enlighten Employees in All Key Groups
The decision-making roles of executives and other managers are widely recognized. Less
recognized are the many decisions made by
General Executives
individual employees. The millions of work-
Finance &
Strategic
related decisions made collectively by your Accounting
Planning
employees across the numerous organizational
CI & Market Human
groups have a dramatic impact on the ultimate Research Resources
success of your company’s strategic plan and,
as a result, in achieving your short-term and Marketing & IS/IT
Decisions
Product Mgt
long-term goals. Most, if not all, of your
employees have discretion to make work- Operations/
R&D/Product
related decisions every day. Of course some Production
Development
employees make decisions which have greater
Quality
Sales/Account
impact on company success than others, but Management
Management
Customer Support

2. Employee Effectiveness by Design
Edward B. Goodwin - President, Demand Facts Inc
even your employees at the lowest levels have to regularly make the following types of
effectiveness-related decisions:
Which tasks to work on and in what order?
Related information and training to seek for each task?
Specifically how to accomplish each task?
Amount of time and effort to devote to each task?
If and what additional resources or support to request for each task?
When reach adequate quality level for each task (i.e., when done)?
If should obtain and use feedback from others before moving-on to next task?
Who to talk to about what for each task (i.e., managers, peers, experts, etc.)?
What, if anything, do when notice errors or faulty decisions made by others?
Whether or not to help others with their tasks? If so, when and how help?
Enlighten Employees on All Important Customer Needs
Senior executives usually receive solid information on the most meaningful overall customer
needs and perceptions in order to make major decisions such as setting company goals,
strategies, plans, resource allocations and policies. However, up-to-date information on
customer needs is rarely made available to other employees who are responsible for making the
millions of “sub-decisions” which are required to fulfill the strategic plan in the most effective and
efficient ways possible. On the rare occasions when customer need-related information is widely
distributed, it is typically very general and of little use for the day-to-day decisions and tasks of
most employees.
For example: Strategy Maps and Balanced Scorecards are “best practices” that appear to be
gaining in use. When well done, these practices can be helpful for strategic planning and
general management purposes. However, the strategies and related customer needs included
in the “Customer Perspective” sections of these tools are quite general even in the cascaded
versions for distinct business units, divisions and departments.
To consistently make the right decisions and perform the right tasks, your employees need to
be knowledgeable on all the relevant needs of your company’s target customers. Of course this
knowledge should encompass the customer needs
Top Strategic
which are designated as Top Priorities in your Priorities
company’s strategic plan. Your employees also need to
be aware of and, when appropriate, give some priority
to Other Key Drivers of customers’ purchase
decisions. In addition, your employees need to Other Customer
Key Drivers
understand and pay attention to other customer needs Basic & Emerging
such as Basic and Emerging needs. These needs Customer Needs
may not be decisive for as many customers as the
higher priority needs, but weak performance on Basic
needs (i.e., minimum requirements) can cause severe
problems, and ignoring Emerging needs is short-
sighted and very risky.
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3. Employee Effectiveness by Design
Edward B. Goodwin - President, Demand Facts Inc
Enlighten Employees on the Precise Requirements
Because the strategies and plans contained in company strategic plans are predominantly
general in content, they leave plenty of space for different interpretations by the employees who
are involved in their implementation and fulfillment. While the strategic plan establishes each
company’s overall priorities, your company’s processes and employees must somehow
accommodate all the needs of all prospective and existing customers. Furthermore, your
employees must fulfill customer needs at very precise levels (i.e., C and D).
Other Key Drivers
For each General
Performance Area (A), there Other Needs
A
are usually several key Top Priorities A
B
general attributes (B) B
A C
For each general attribute (B), B C
there are usually many related D
C
Secondary & Tertiary D
Attributes (C) D
For each specific attribute (C),
A = General Performance Areas C = Secondary & Tertiary Attributes
there are usually multiple B = General Performance Attributes D = Performance Level Options
Performance Options (D)
Example
Post-Sale
A
Customer Support
+ Others
B Easy to Reach Knowledgeable Reps
+ Others + Others
Send Email Request Know Status
C
for Rep to Call Me of Invoices
Call Call in Call in Immediate 24 Hours to 2-3 Days to
D Same Day 24 Hours 48 Hours Answer Get Answer Get Answer
Since your employees can not collectively ignore any relevant customer need completely,
there are an enormous number of specific performance attributes which your employees must
address in some manner. In the absence of precise strategic plan direction and definitive
customer priority knowledge, on what basis have the millions of employee decisions been made
in the past? The most likely possibilities:
Personal, boss’s, associate’s or “expert” consultant’s opinions, gut feelings, or best guesses
Limited past customer exposures, general information provided in the past, feedback from
Internet forums or chats, or feedback from a few current customers
What competitors have done, what past employer would have done, or technical standards
Self-interests such as easiest, cheapest, most interesting, most politically savvy, best for
insuring good relations with others, best for own group, or choices that are most likely to
produce a bonus, promotion, or some other internal recognition (i.e., metrics game).
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4. Employee Effectiveness by Design
Edward B. Goodwin - President, Demand Facts Inc
This customer information void has become even more problematic now that the needs and
preferences for many of your current and prospective customers have changed in some
important ways due to the difficult conditions and challenges in the New World. As a result,
much of the information, knowledge, expertise, standards and benchmarks that were
accumulated in the past on customer needs are now at least partly obsolete and could actually
be counter-productive.
Even absolutely brilliant general strategies and plans will not produce the desired results if
the millions of subsequent decisions made by your employees are not truly in-sync with target
customers’ priorities. In this light, it is easy to understand why the vast majority of companies fail
to execute their strategies effectively each year.
On the other hand, providing your employees with accurate and precise information on the
relevant customer priorities will yield millions of “just right” decisions which can directly lead to
enormous cost savings, significant sustainable customer demand gains, and other major
improvements for company stakeholders.
Fortunately, most groups and individual employees do not need to receive detailed
information on all general and precise customer needs. Instead, a bottom-up approach is
recommended to pinpoint the customer need-related information, and their level of detail, which
would be useful for each involved employee group. The relevant customer information should
be specified within the context of each group’s strategies, plans, roles and activities which
directly or indirectly have an effect on your company’s current and prospective customers.
For example, an Accounting group may just need to receive information on customer needs
and perceptions pertaining to invoices and payments, a Customer Service group should receive
all need-related information on all post-sale support dimensions and options, and a Sales group
should become familiar with the full range of potential needs but perhaps just provided with
detailed info on the top priorities for the types of customers they are selling to. Marketing,
Strategic Planning, division executives and a few other groups may not need the granular
details for all of the specific attributes, but they would benefit from strong insights on the master
list of all relevant general performance dimensions which are linked to the company’s top
priorities plus other decisive customer decision criteria, basic requirements, and emerging
attributes among the customer segments of interest to them.
Achieve Strategic Synchronization
Comprehensive alignment of employees is one of the most beneficial
outcomes from well-designed and executed Employee Enlightenment
initiatives. Enlightened employees become simultaneously aligned with
[1] their company’s strategies and plans, [2] their target customers’
priorities, and [3] each other. Complete strategic synchronization is the
term we use to describe this end-state among enlightened employees. It
goes well beyond basic employee engagement and strategy alignment.
Enlightenment initiatives ensure that each employee clearly understands their own work roles
and contributions. They also become familiar with the essential roles and contributions of other
employees in their group and in other groups. All enlightened employees operate under the
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5. Employee Effectiveness by Design
Edward B. Goodwin - President, Demand Facts Inc
same set (or “tree”) of facts and insights on customers’ general and precise needs, priorities and
preferences. As a result of this widely-shared definitive knowledge base, little room is left for
conflicts and effectiveness barriers which result from differences in …
Customer data or information
Past experience or claimed expertise
Personal opinions or gut feelings
Personal backgrounds or cultures
Personal or group self-interests
A shared understanding develops across employees on customer priorities, critical
performance short-falls that must be improved, and the key strengths that should be maintained
and used for advantages. Once this happens, everyone moves in the same direction. They
know what they personally need to do, know who is doing what, agree on the best priorities for
company resources, and become more willing to team-up and coordinate decisions and tasks
with others.
Upgrade Other Management Processes
Another beneficial application of Employee Enlightenment programs is use of the up-to-date
customer need-related outputs to supplement and upgrade several current management
processes. This allows all of these processes to be closely synchronized.
Strategic Planning
The processes, programs and
Executive Reporting Performance Mgt
functions shown here would most & Monitoring (Job Descriptions, Goals,
Appraisals, etc.)
obviously benefit from facts and
Market & Customer Compensation
insights on the full range of general
Communications & Incentives
and precise customer needs,
Enlightenment
Market &
priorities and related perceptions. Training &
Knowledge Base
Customer Development
Plus the outputs from Enlightenment on Customers’
Title
Research Needs
initiatives would save substantial
Employee
Product
funds over what would be required if Communications
Development
this up-to-date information was
Customer
Direct &
gathered separately for each Support
Channel Sales
process. Quality Management
Improve Employee Motivation
Employee Enlightenment initiatives will also naturally provide incremental improvement in the
inspiration, engagement and enrichment of the involved employees. Imagine the possibilities.
Your employees will have complete visibility on their roles, duties and importance to your
company and your customers, and they will receive strong, fresh and precise information on
customers’ needs and perceptions which are tailored to their specific responsibilities. They
immediately realize that your company values them and their abilities. They no longer have to
take big risks by guessing or relying on bad data or others to figure out what they should do to
perform their job well. They won’t have to repeatedly redo their work based on unfounded
personal opinions and preferences of others. The wisdom of their decisions and actions
becomes more and more evident, so they see a very positive future at your company.
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6. Employee Effectiveness by Design
Edward B. Goodwin - President, Demand Facts Inc
The most likely possibilities:
Greater confidence and optimism in the success of your company
More clearly understand their role and potential contributions
More deeply understand your company’s and group’s strategies and plans
Greater freedom to make more decisions, with greater confidence
Directly involved with solving the needs of real customers (vs internal players)
Reduced micro-management by their supervisor
Make fewer errors (incorrect decisions or ineffective actions)
Less negative feedback and push-back from others
Increased ability to see the impact they are having on company success
Better ability to prove their value for promotions, bonuses or other rewards
Greater understanding and empathy with managers and other employees
Greater recognition by their peers, managers and high level executives
Fewer conflicts and barriers created by others
Feel more secure and comfortable
Have more fun and excitement
Empower and Enable Employees to Contribute 100%
To achieve substantial business results from Employee Enlightenment initiatives, employees
must be sufficiently empowered and enabled. Management command & control processes must
allow employees the freedom to follow the wisdom inherent in the provided customer need
information. With greater freedom and empowerment for employees to make decisions and take
actions comes greater engagement and enrichment, key ingredients for stronger motivation.
Greater freedom does require greater accountability by employees for their effectiveness in
generating positive results. To enjoy all the potential pay-offs from Enlightenment investments,
this type of accountability should become the primary basis for employee management including
job roles and goals, supervision, appraisals, compensation, promotions, and other recognitions.
Enlightened employees also require some vital “whole-life” support to allow each to
contribute as much as possible. Benefit programs such as EAP, Work/Life, Wellness, and
Training must be closely attuned to the employees’ personal needs and issues to enable them
to be physically and mentally healthy, present, focused and skilled enough to effectively
accomplish their individual goals. While some of these programs do help companies save
money on health insurance and claims, the gains which result from these programs in employee
productivity and effectiveness are much more significant. This is particularly true among
employees who are eager and sufficiently informed to be effective as a result of Enlightenment
initiatives.
Start with the On-target Customer Value Strategies
It is important to mention that the benefits produced by Employee Enlightenment initiatives
will not be fully realized if a company’s strategic plan does not include on-target customer value
strategies and related plans. If a company is pointing their employees in the wrong directions,
and set strict boundaries around those directions, then employees will have limited opportunity
to generate significant improvements for the company even if they become extremely
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7. Employee Effectiveness by Design
Edward B. Goodwin - President, Demand Facts Inc
knowledgeable on the priorities of target customers. The enlightened employees will be very
productive in implementing the strategic plan, but the results will be proportionate to the ability
and power of the designated strategies and plans to create and maintain the type and level of
value sought by target customers.
Enlightening Your Employees for Greater Company Success
The direct and indirect outcomes from Employee Enlightenment initiatives can add up to
many significant gains for all stakeholder groups. Your employees benefit from greatly
enhanced job satisfaction as well as improved confidence, recognition, self-esteem and security,
while your entire company and shareholders benefit from the much improved bottom-line results
generated by increased employee effectiveness along with other meaningful efficiencies and
synergies.
Best Decisions
Innovation & Creativity
Inspiration
Valued Offerings & Qualities
Engagement
Efficiencies & Savings
Alignment
Employee Sustainable Financial Success
Enablement
Productivity Effectiveness
Enlightenment
Empowerment Customer & Sales Growth
Enrichment Competitive Advantages
Attraction Plan Fulfillment
Retention Execution Speed
Cooperation
To achieve these results, your company must begin with on-target customer value strategies,
fully inform your employees on the precise priorities of your target customers, and provide your
enlightened employees with sufficient “whole-life” support to enable each to contribute as much
as possible. Only the second vital step needs implementation in most companies.
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