In my continuing series of book reviews, I profile a great book by John H. Fleming, Ph.D. and Jim Asplund called Human Sigma. This book describes an innovative management approach that improves the financial performance of sales and service companies by managing employees and their interaction with customers.
The Human Sigma approach is based on the following five rules:
Rule 1: E Pluribus Unum. Employee and customer experiences cannot be managed separately; they must be managed together.
Rule 2: Feelings are facts: Emotions are the driving force between the employee/customer experience.
Rule 3: Think globally, measure and act locally. The employee/customer experience should be managed and measured at the local level.
Rule 4: There is one number you need to know. The purpose of the employee/customer experience is to positively affect financial performance. This experience can be measured with a single performance metric.
Rule 5: If you pray for potatoes, you better grab the right hoe. Long term improvement in the employee/customer experience requires not only the involvement of the local level, but must also involve the modification of the entire organization’s approach to hiring employees, placing employees in the proper position in the organization, and how they are managed and rewarded for their performance.
Gallup, through their research, has found that measuring the strength of a workplace can be simplified to twelve questions which measure the core elements needed to attract, focus, and keep the most talented employees. Questions like, do I know what is expected of me at work?
The Human Sigma approach accepts and uses the unpredictability of human nature to successfully interact with a company’s customers. Gallup also has developed eleven questions/statements for companies to ask their customers. Questions like, how satisfied are you with our service or product?
They provide the means for measuring and monitoring the strength of the relationship that exists between a company (brand) and its customers.
By regularly asking employees the twelve core questions, asking customers the eleven questions, and by following the five rules, Human Sigma describes how sales and service companies can become highly successful in the new global economy. Companies can improve their financial position by allowing their employees to focus on their natural talents and mentoring and motivating these talents. This will cause the employees to become emotionally invested in their work, which will then lead toward the company’s ultimate goal of a fully engaged customer.
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