Who said this was good enough?

There’s something that has bothered me throughout my career.

It's not that people get things wrong; we all get things wrong sometimes.  It’s what happens when something gets created, reviewed, approved, signed off, and nobody along the way seems to ask:  Is this any good?

I’ve seen content created by people with years of experience that would have taught people to do their job worse!

So much so, the person (usually a customer) on the receiving end would have walked away in disbelief.

Yet... somebody wrote it. Then, somebody reviewed it. Then, somebody approved it.  Then it was ready to be trained out before being caught. 

That’s the bit I find fascinating... Once something becomes training, a process, a guide or an instruction, it starts carrying weight.  

People assume somebody knowledgeable spent time reasearching before creating, then more importantly someone carrying more authority checked it.

Prople being trained assume the person who created it understands the subject or audience and assume the person who approved it knows enough to recognise whether it is right or wrong. 

Very quickly, one person’s poor understanding becomes hundreds of people doing the wrong thing.

This is how bad practice spreads.  Hundreds of people do not suddenly decided to do a terrible job.  Someone taught them to.

Over the years I’ve become increasingly interested in what happens before something reaches the person doing the work:

• Who wrote it?
• Who challenged it?
• Who tested whether it made sense in a real conversation, with a real customer, on a real Tuesday afternoon when six other things are happening at the same time?
• Who asked what behaviour this would create?
• Who asked whether that behaviour was the behaviour we wanted?

And who was experienced enough to say:  "No. This isn’t ready."

Experience should give you more than the ability to recognise familiar terminology.  It should give you judgement with the ability to look at something connected to your area of responsibility and know when it doesn’t stack up.  To be curious enough to question something that looks impressive yet doesn’t make sense.  Know your subject well enough to challenge what lands in front of you.  And when you don’t know, be interested enough to find out. This matters even more when you lead other people.

Once your name is attached to an approval, you are no longer only responsible for whether the document looks finished.  You are responsible for what happens when somebody follows it.

That’s the part I think gets missed.  Signing something off is not administration, it's a decision.

You are saying:

"I believe this is good enough for other people to learn from."

"I believe this will produce the behaviour we want."

"I am prepared for people to follow this."

So when something poor gets through five experienced people and reaches the workforce, my question is rarely only about the person who created it. My question is:  Who signed that off?

Leadership comes with a responsibility to know what is happening around you. So, read the work. Ask the awkward questions.  Challenge the explanation that doesn’t make sense.  Learn enough about the subject to know when something is wrong.

In short, take a bloody interest!

Until next time, Aileen.

Something happening in your team that you can’t quite put your finger on?

I work 1:1 with contact centre leaders to spot what’s really affecting performance, decide where to step in, and have coaching conversations that lead to change.

"She taught me that you can be commercially sharp, challenge performance and expect high standards without ever losing sight of the person.”

If something’s happening right now and you’re not quite sure what to do about it, talk to me.

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