I have recently been conducting a series of 360 coaching sessions at Vancity, Canada’s largest credit union, on behalf of Kwela, a talent management company based in Vancouver. The last time I was at Vancity was three months ago in Oct 2009.

As I approached the front security desk to sign in, the security person asked me to produce ID. And before I could show him my driver’s licence, he said, “Your name is Dene and I think your 2nd name starts with an R.”

I was blown away with his ability to recall names, given the fact that 100’s of people come and go past his desk every day.

It just so happened that later I was talking to a director at Vancity who hires Fusion security and I told him about this person and his excellent way of engaging Vancity staff, members and contractors. The director knew all about this person and his natural ability to provide excellent and engaging customer service.

So, meet Shane Martin, a master of customer intimacy. People like Shane are extremely valuable to organizations because they are the front-line assets who interface regularly with actual customers, not numbers on a spreadsheet.

Shane naturally models and practices customer intimacy and service excellence. Research has shown that as a result of an engaging and meaningful interaction with a real person, customers become loyal advocates for the organization. And they keep coming back.

A February 2010 HBR article underscores the fact that a priority focus on shareholder wealth is deeply flawed. The priority is and always will be, the customer.

People like Shane are critical to the success of every organization that wants to shift to a customer-driven model, where customer value is the top priority.

~Dene

A Parody
When the leaders [the tops] of an organization sense a problem looming on their organizational radar, they often respond by triggering a vortex of knee-jerk corrective actions.
These leadership actions have names [change, transformation, employee engagement etc.] and have an impact on the employees [the bottoms].

Call me if you would like to:
– Surface undiscussables that are blocking progress
– Break the ice and encourage open and transparent dialogue
– Handle an emotionally-charged situation with professionalism
– Explain business decisions from an interest-based perspective
– Transition to a way forward using an appreciative approach

Dene | 1.778.386.5167

William Issaac, in his book, Dialogue and the art of thinking together, said that “Dialogue….is a conversation with a centre, not sides. It is a way of taking the energy of our differences and channeling it toward something that has never been created before.”

One of the most powerful tools of inquiry and being curious is called committed listening, which involves a set of interrelated skills: open-ended questioning, paraphrasing, acknowledging feelings, providing non-verbal encouragement and summarizing. Committed listening is the ability to listen to the unique experiences of another person by hearing not only the words but sensing and responding to the underlying feelings, and unexpressed meanings behind the words.

We each perceive our world through filters of our experiences to give it meaning. Because our perceptions become our reality, someone else will perceive the same event differently. A conversation with a centre, not sides, taps into the underlying drivers and interests that help design a new and often unexpected solution.

One of the ideas I have been wrestling with for about a year now is how to combine my love of photography with my speaking and facilitation at AuthenticDialogue.com. It’s slowly dawning on me that I have many photographs that I can use as metaphors to illustrate concepts and evoke learning.

The photograph below is called “An emerging idea.” It illustrates the point that my sense of internal clarity, my way of showing up in the world is an emerging one, more like a journey than a sudden flash of providential insight.

The photograph below illustrates where I’m moving to. I’m standing up among the mists of tempting and evocative alternatives. My identity of who I am is more evident, my sense of internal clarity is manifesting and my message is become more distinct.

I’m learning that less is more and when I am passionate and clear about a single idea, my audiences get it. When I am not clear, the results show. As one speaker, Ian Percy put it, relevancy = revenue. Are you clear about your idea? Does it bring you revenue? Let me know.

[Also posted at my fotomoods blog]