Since the pandemic hit, most people have embraced remote working and retreated into their improvised home offices. During this time, I’ve learned many lessons. But I have to say my five-year-old has taught me one of the most important ones. Let me share it with you, as it will come in handy on every work floor! Do not disturb, please Who doesn’t remember when Professor…
Some find dating exciting. Others believe it’s nerve-racking. But at some point, virtually all people put themselves out there. Most are hoping for a long-term relationship. After all, a genuine connection that culminates in marriage is worth a lot. The initial thrill might fade over time, but think about the energy you put into a first date — it takes a lot of time and…
You’ve got a ton of tasks to complete, but there are only twenty-four hours in a day. And you also need to eat, sleep, and spend quality time with your loved ones. So, how are you going to make the most of those eight-or-so hours you’re in the (home) office? A typical day at work Suppose you arrive at the office on a regular Monday,…
Imagine you want to bake a pie. You go to the store and buy butter, eggs, and a bunch of other ingredients. Back home, you put on your apron and get to work. You toil away in the kitchen. A few hours later, you proudly top off the pie with a red cherry, take a step backwards, and have a good look at the result.…
Visual Management requires a well thought-out strategy. The purpose is to inform the human brain in a calm, consistent, organized way. But just when you think you have everything in place, technology requires action. You need to update, fix, or replace a system. And because all your systems are threaded together in an intricate web, one change affects the whole chain. It’s far from ideal.…
Here’s a little experiment: look at a photo of an elephant, put it away, and try not to picture the elephant within the next few seconds. Go. Now. Done? The picture of the elephant was on your mind the whole time, wasn’t it? That’s your brain at work. It has a will of its own. See, all sensory information enters our brain. There’s no stopping…
Before the pandemic hit, the office was the contact center manager’s floor. Now, this floor has expanded significantly: people across the globe work from home, and there’s no way to check their every move. This new way of working doesn’t seem to be a temporary thing. More and more organizations agree people will continue to work remotely after the pandemic, be it in whole or…
If reports come in too late, you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to solve today’s problems. It’s a predicament many contact centers struggle with. But what if actionable, real-time data can help you improve today so you’ll perform better tomorrow? It’s exactly what performance boards and a well thought-out information sharing strategy have done for APG, the largest pension provider in the Netherlands. Here, the…
As we live in unprecedented times, we need to make decisions we’ve never had to make before. This means we’re forced to make 100% of decisions using 50% of information, as the Dutch prime minister put it. We’re navigating unexplored territory, so it’s the only possible approach. Here’s what we have observed, though: many organizations have adopted this motto when it comes to business, too.…
In our last blog post, we discussed why it’s important to ban fake news if you want to foster organizational growth. The thing is, a hard-working manager may choose to disregard hard-and-fast data so they won’t have to admit to not meeting their targets — pride tends to get in the way of success, and that’s understandable. But from an organizational perspective, it’s paramount that…
