Tag Archives: user experience

Don’t spend any money on NHS Jargon Busters – it’s sorted! Download the Apps.

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20130509-224405.jpgI’m not ashamed to admit my naivety and ignorance. In the last post I was astonished to find out there was a book available called ‘NHS Jargon Explained’. I was just scratching the surface…..

On the basis that jargon is “the specialised or technical language of a trade, profession or similar group”, and the NHS is a massive organisation with very many specialist groups, this shouldn’t be surprising. A quick search using twitter turned up some interesting examples of NHS ‘jargon busters’. These are my favourites, apologies to anyone worthy who’s not on the list.

Guardian Newspaper, Glossary of Healthcare Jargons and Acronyms. This is 2011 vintage and has about 70 examples of the most common NHS jargon. I was a bit surprised to see BT (British Telecom) feature. Apparently it’s something to do with them running the N3 Network. Have a look at the Guardian article to find out what N3 means. You also need to know that a ‘spine’ isn’t necessarily that thing in the middle of your back.

NHS Local, West Midlands. This is provided by a group of NHS organisations, Universities and private sector organisations that are “transforming healthcare by changing the conversation between patient and the NHS” (that’s not jargon is it). The jargon buster has about 70 explanations, mainly to do with maternity services. Very useful if you need to use that service. A great explanation of ‘oily fish’ can be found here.

Leicestershire NHS, Health Informatics Service. This is blog by a Communications and Marketing Officer in Leicestershire NHS, that explains about 30 Information Technology terms used in the NHS. Helpful information about the language used by another specialist group that will be of benefit to those who don’t work in IT or understand it. Unfortunately there was no explanation of exactly what ‘informatics’ means (is it just me?).

Health and Social Care Information Centre, National Casemix Office Jargon Buster. I had to use the jargon buster to understand what a ‘Casemix Office’ does: “A system whereby the complexity of the care provided to a patient is reflected in an aggregate secondary healthcare classification.” Phew, thank goodness that’s cleared up. There are about 60 definitions here, some of them pretty baffling, but it is the language of a very specialist group. Well worth a look if you want to understand what ‘complications and comorbidities’ are all about, alongside ‘cliff edges’, ‘unbundling’ and ‘spells’.

NHS Confederation Acronym Buster. This has a bumper 500 acronyms explained. There is even Application Software (an App, see the NHS Leicestershire definition) available to download for free. This is very helpful and something you could keep under the desk for emergency situations when the healthcare experts are running wild. My only gripe would be that defining acronyms is only half of the problem solved. The jargon remains.

My Health London.  This is an award-winning information website for health services in London. The jargon buster is in a section focussed on young people and there is also a free App you can download called ‘Well Happy’. This is worth a look as it has very clear, jargon free explanations under headings such as ‘Sex and Relationships’ and ‘Alcohol and Addiction’.  Very useful for those difficult conversations with the teenage kids.

This has been a bit of an eye opener. Specialist groups certainly do have their own language, unfortunately jargon to outsiders. There were other examples I stumbled across from the third sector, IT, property and law. Nothing I could find specifically from the world of Local Government… yet?

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. In a large and complicated organisation like the NHS the occurrence of many specialist groups with their own technical language (jargon) is inevitable.
  2. The specialist groups need to make sure they don’t exclude outsiders by the use of technical language that isn’t easily understood.
  3. The good news is that may specialist groups are trying their best to share their ‘jargon busters’ which are free for everyone to use. Hopeful those who aren’t as well-developed or inclusive will pick these up and use them.

Picture Source: My Health London, Young Peoples, ‘Well Happy’ App.

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https://www.myhealth.london.nhs.uk/health-communities/young-people/download

“Every CEO should try to access the services their organisation delivers using a mobile phone, at least twice a month”

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20130221-115930.jpgI wish I’d thought of that.

It was actually said by Jon Beech (@_jonb) on twitter and sparked a conversation about how senior officials could test the ‘lived experience’ of service users by trying to access their organisation’s website using a mobile phone. It’s been rattling around inside my head for a while and found its way out in the surroundings of a WordPress Users Wales meeting this week on responsive design.

I knew this was an important point when I first read it, and this is how it makes sense to me after the meeting. A few factual statements first:

  • People use websites to find out what services are delivered by organisations;
  • For large parts of society the Internet is the primary route they use;
  • Many people are using mobile devices (mobile phones, tablets etc) to access the Internet;
  • The percentage of people using mobile devices to do this is continuing to increase;
  • Many websites have historically been designed to be viewed from a desktop or laptop computer; and
  • Viewing a website designed for a large desktop screen, on a much smaller mobile phone screen can be a real hassle (go and try it out for yourself).

This is was why I was listening to James Cryer talk about responsive design at the WordPress meeting. In essence, responsive web design is about how websites are ‘responsive’ to the device on which they are viewed. The way that content is displayed will change to ensure that the reader has the best possible viewing experience for the size of screen they are using. This isn’t just about getting smaller (desktop to mobile), James pointed out that getting bigger (desktop to large screen TV) also offers challenges.

Using responsive design is helpful if you want your service users to understand what your organisation does. The easier it is to find and read the content on your website, using whatever device people choose (increasingly likely to be a mobile phone), the better it is for everyone.

So, why should this matter to your average CEO?

In the busy life of a CEO it is going to be difficult to ‘go back to the floor”, visit every department or take part in a ‘mystery shopper’ exercise. However, trying to access one of your services using a mobile phone is something you could do in a spare 5 minutes waiting for a train, sitting in a taxi or quietly in a senior management team meeting. This straight forward exercise would put you directly in the shoes of service users, a sort of virtual mystery shopper exercise. If your website isn’t responsive, I wonder how it will feel? It is a relatively low effort and possibly high impact activity, why not have a go?

Back to the WordPress responsive design ‘live demo’ session. Someone suggested it would be interesting to see if there were any good examples of responsive public sector websites in Wales……….. errrr….right.

Anyway, have a look at one we found for the Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust. I’ve included a few screen shots of the site on a tablet and a phone. The point to note here is the location of clinics and other facilities is responsive and works brilliantly on the small screens. Just what you need if you are using a mobile phone and need to find the location of a facility. Interestingly the responsive elements of this site were developed involving someone who that was at the WordPress meeting and works in Wales, Craig Cartwright at precedent.co.uk. Nice one!

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. The move towards greater use of mobile devices means that websites need to be designed with this in mind.
  2. Responsive design is a way of changing web content to fit different devices and make it easier to read the content.
  3. Checking services using only a mobile phone would be a cheap and effective method for CEO’s to do some virtual mystery shopping, and see things from the perspective of a service user.

Thanks very much to James Cryer for an excellent presentation at the WordPress Users Wales meeting. You can pick up James’ presentation here. http://www.slideshare.net/jamescryer/rwd-wordpress

Picture Source: This looks interesting. North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare NHS Trust Mystery Shopper Programme. http://www.combined.nhs.uk/ourservices/Pages/shopper.aspx

Explanatory leaflet available here: http://www.combined.nhs.uk/dc/Documents/Mystery%20Shopper%20faqs.pdf

Central London Community Healthcare ‘locations’ viewed on a tablet, followed by the same information on a mobile phone, try it out yourself.

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Email Read Receipts. Does the misuse of minimum effort technology undermine trust between colleagues?

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20130113-111352.jpgDo email read receipts make your spirits soar…….? Not mine.

Why do people send them? Many people I’ve spoken to have, like me, been on the receiving end of read receipt misuse. Pointless, irritating and questionable behaviour.

I must admit that when I get one, particularly from repeat offenders, I’m sorely tempted to just delete the email without even reading it. Not quite the user experience (UX) emotion or response I’d imagine programmers, developers or the email sender were looking for.

There are many reasons why people need to send email read receipts. These range from the well-intentioned and legitimate, right through to something more sinister like, a lack of trust between colleagues. Unfortunately the virtually effortless act of sending a read receipt request can lead to misuse and undermine trust (I’ve explained my logic on this previously). Here are some thoughts on why people send them, particularly in relation to colleague to colleague communication.

Legitimate and Well Intentioned. This does what it says on the tin. This is a really important email you need to read. Possibly something that affects your terms of employment, has legal implications or involves money. It’s a bit like the ‘registered post’ package you have to sign for at the front door. A hassle to carry out, but necessary for your protection, and the person sending you the package. These situations are generally few and far between in colleague to colleague communication.

Unconscious Ignorance. I’m being generous here. Some of the ‘read receipt’ emails I’ve seen relate to very innocuous interactions. Why on earth would someone require a read receipt for an invite to an optional lunchtime presentation? I can only assume that it’s because the sender has some email feature set to automatic and isn’t aware of the impact (or how to turn it off). At least they get to feel the pain of the response emails flooding back in their own, undoubtedly, massively overloaded inbox.

Something More Sinister…… I Don’t Trust You! Unless the document falls into the same category as ‘registered post’ I really don’t see the need for the read receipt. The only other conclusion I can draw is that “you don’t trust me to read and act upon your email, so you want evidence in case you need to use it against me”. It’s a bit like sending a ‘cc’ to the boss of a colleague, a sneaky action that undermines trust between colleagues.

The read receipt is undoubtedly a useful feature that has great value, in the right circumstances. However I’m not sure that the potential for misuse by people was fully appreciated. Unfortunately the misuse that is enabled by virtually zero effort (cognitive and physical) turns something useful into a problem. For those on the receiving end the impact can range from mild irritation to something much less desirable, the undermining of trust between colleagues.

Interestingly the technical community can also feel the pain of their creation. Here’s an interesting story about an email migration project on exchangeserverpro.com. The project encountered 24,368 unread ‘read receipts’ held by a single person (the mind boggles at the state of that inbox!) This is a technical account but worth reading, particularly for the first comment……, “Read receipts have to be the most inane and narcissistic feature of email. They’re the first thing I disable when being setup under a new email system.” Nicely put….! Perhaps we should all get our IT departments to follow this advice, for the sake of trust between colleagues.

I’ve not got much to add to that other than what I’ve said before, ‘emails don’t send emails, people do’. Same for the ‘read receipts’, it’s all about how we choose to behave.

So, what’s the PONT?

  • There are legitimate and well-intentioned reasons for sending ‘read receipts’. Think ‘registered post’, otherwise don’t use it.
  • The impact of a ‘read receipt’ is two-way. Think about what your request means for your recipient? Also, do you really want 24,000 confirmation emails back in your inbox?
  • It’s all about behaviours. We have choices about whether to send ‘read receipt’ or not; ‘read receipts’ don’t send themselves, people do.

Photo source: Check out the Paul Cunningham post on exchangeserverpro.com

http://exchangeserverpro.com/real-world-case-read-receipts

Good News.
There is something practical you can do to switch off the annoying read receipts.
Here is an excellent link from @Darrenruddick, thanks Darren.

http://blah.winsmarts.com/2010-7-Outlook_2010_-and-ndash;_Disable_the_read_receipt_annoyance.aspx

Pulpo á Feira – Party Time! (Unless you’re an Octopus)

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Some things are inevitable, death, taxes and peer pressure from your cycling companions to eat octopus when you get to Santiago de Compostela. I knew it was coming from about 200km outside of Santiago when “Pulpo” started appearing on menus. When my travelling companions shifted their enthusiasm for strange land based animal products to scary looking oddities from the sea, I knew there would be no escape.

I’m no food critic, so this is a straightforward description of my encounter with ‘Pulpo a Feira’, or ‘octopus at the party’ (literal translation), not much of a party if you happen to be the octopus!

First some things I wasn’t going to do:

  1. Eat it cold in a tapas bar. The prospect of cold octopus sucker on toast freaked me out slightly.
  2. Attempt any of the specimens on offer in restaurant windows. I saw some of these beauties two days running.

Even my basic understanding of seafood tells me the fresher the better. So…… It was off to Santiago’s Open Air Market to eat and party like a local.

Santiago de Compostela Open Air Market Pulpo recipe:

  1. Take one octopus and tenderise. Two options here;
  2. Remove the inedible bits (again check out the recipe)
  3. Throw octopus into a huge vat of salty water and boil until tender.
  4. Remove and cut into small pieces with a scissors and place onto a wooden dish.
  5. Season with paprika, salt and olive oil.
  6. Serve with wine and bread (optional).

The results:

It was quite chewy, but that’s ok. The paprika, oil and salt are necessary; otherwise I don’t think it has much of a taste. It was quite filling, definitely best shared with a few others.

I’m not sure a Pulpo á Feira stall would take off in Pontypridd Market. Geof reckons it’s more the sort of thing they would go for in Swansea.

Check out the pictures of the Santiago de Compostela Open Air Market, Pulpo a Feira experience, Party Time!, (unless you’re the octopus). Vegetarians may not want to proceed NSFV (not safe for vegetarians).

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. Stick with the locals at the Market when it comes to eating unusual things.
  2. Check out the alternatives before giving in to peer pressure – so glad I didn’t try that cold octopus sucker on toast.
  3. Perspective is everything. A party it might have been – for everyone except the octopus.

@ArrivaTW- twitter love is a Long Train Runnin’ (without love) at the minute

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How to read this post: click on this link, let the soundtrack start, come back here and start reading…….

I’m sending some Twitter love to Arriva Trains Wales (@ArrivaTW). They are trying hard to engage with customers through Twitter but aren’t fully feeling the love yet. It’s also an opportunity to link to some music from The Doobie Brothers in the shape of Long Train Runnin (Without Love). I reckon the Arriva Trains Wales Twitter operators should adopt this as their theme tune. Nothing like a bit of 1970′s funk to lift the spirits.

Over the last year I’ve been enthusing about London Midland Trains and how they engage with customers through twitter. If you don’t believe me follow them @LondonMidland, you could even try tweeting them, there is a better than 75% chance of them responding to you very quickly. How do I know this? Well I follow @engagementindex who send me regular tweets on customer service performance of a range of organisations who use twitter. I have posted about the fantastic performance of @LondonMidland previously, and had commented that @ArrivaTW had some way to go…..

Well something has changed. In the July update from @engagement index I spotted that @ArrivaTW had leapt up the rankings. From a position where they weren’t responding to any tweets from customers they were doing much better.

My spirits soared, look how things can change in a year.  Twitter enabled customer service for trains in Wales (and the Marches).  Even better was the new @ArrivaTW Twitter bio. An honest statement, “we try our best to reply”.

I had to take a closer look for myself. Unfortunately this has coincided with an incident at the main Cardiff Train Station. A collapsed wall resulted in major disruption for several days. Hardly the fault of @ArrivaTW, they just run the trains, but they got plenty of criticism on Twitter. If want to see the collapsed wall, check out the @ArrivaTW Twitter pictures, brilliant use of social media.

What I saw on twitter were valiant attempts by the @ArrivaTW tweeters to help out, but unfortunately on occasions they got some pretty offensive comments.  It’s a real shame. Nobody deserves that kind of abuse, particularly when they haven’t caused the problem and are just trying to help. Perhaps @ArrivaTW should add to their twitter bio, “please try to be polite (we are real people with feelings)” just like the one on @LondonMidland.

So, what the PONT?

  1. Here is some Twitter love from me to @ArrivaTW. What a difference in a year.
  2. Nobody deserves abuse for trying to deliver a service in difficult circumstances (particularly if you didn’t cause the problem), at the end of Twitter account there are real people with feelings.
  3. Keep plugging away @ArrivaTW. Hopefully the love will come, even if it feels like a Long Train Runnin’ (without love).

There is some love out there for @ArrivaTW!

In the face of petty officialdom sometimes you just have to pucker up and take the pain.

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Here is an irritating situation. It’s 11.30pm on a Friday night in Cardiff Bus station. You have a 7am flight from Heathrow and the coach driver is getting all chesty about putting your carefully dismantled and beautifully bagged up bicycle into the luggage compartment. Apparently it’s in the  small print rules of the online booking form. It is at his discretion to decide if he allows the luggage on or not. Just to cap it off he threateningly announces that the bus will get full up at Bristol, and he will probably remove your bike off there. Welsh customer service at its worst!

A very anxious journey to Bristol followed, where the bus did not fill up. My only guess is that the Bristol University Canoe Club failed to turn up with their kayaks. That’s the only way that luggage hold was going to become overcrowded, in my opinion (sorry un-necessary sarcasm here).

If ever there was a clear-cut example of the need to do away with petty rules and useless officials this guy was it.

During the anxious journey (while Geof was willing him a painful death through the power of telepathy) I was pondering, had we done anything wrong to wind him up? What can we do to make things better?

Had we done anything wrong?  All I could think of here was our over enthusiasm to help. Bounding forward with two oversized bags full of bicycles was obviously the wrong thing to do. Helping him to lift them into the luggage compartment must have insulted his manly prowess in some way. Suggesting that they could slide into the special tall compartment, where every other bus driver shoves them, was totally in the territory of “don’t tell me how to do my job sonny”. Finally, never ever lean into the luggage compartment to help pull bike bags forward. This (apparently) breaches so many health and safety rules that it’s lucky the police weren’t called to arrest us.

What we should have done?  I spent the rest of the trip carefully studying the driver as he picked up other passengers. This guy was master of his universe. What he wanted was a dutifully compliant person who bowed down to his superior knowledge and respected his position. The way to get ahead was to shuffle forward with your head bowed and not make eye contact with him. Offer your paperwork and maintain an air of complete helplessness and deference. Bend down to his superior position and bingo you are on the bus in no time. No hassle, not quoting of the (pointless) rules in the small print and no threats of ejection at the next stop.

Sometimes in the face of petty officialdom you just have to pucker up and take your medicine. You aren’t going to win against ‘the rules’ so it’s not worth fighting – well not this battle anyway.

By the way the experience at Heathrow Terminal 5 with the BA baggage people was fantastic; they didn’t bat at eyelid at bikes in large bags. Likewise First Great Western Trains were equally helpful on the way home, the platform staff at Reading in particular. Interestingly the driver on the bus link between Heathrow and Reading was also good. No fuss about loading the bike bags from him, in fact he was quite happy for us to actually put them in the hold. How can there be such a difference in people working for the same organisation?  Yes you’ve guessed who…… National Express.

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. Sometimes, when you have no other choices, you have to endure poor customer service. It’s not right, but it happens unfortunately.
  2. When faced with petty officialdom, if you can’t challenge and win the battle you may have to settle for deference and compliance with the rules…… sacrifice the battle to win the war.
  3. We will definitely be using the train next time even if it costs lots more. And joy of joys, National Express has sent an email asking for some customer feedback. Ha ha ha Geof will be completing that one……. look out!

Picture: “does my bike look big in this?”…… a beautifully packed bike at Cardiff Rail Station. Future transport method of choice.

Why us Welsh make the best guides at German Museums

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Recently I visited 3 Berlin museums in a single day, impressive I know, 6 hours of intensive learning and culture. These were all good learning experiences; however the best one was delivered by someone Welsh, Shaun from Aberystwyth!  I’m not being biased here, there are good reasons I’ll explain. I’m not going to give you a ‘Trip Advisor’ review, these are my personal criteria for deciding what makes a good experience at a museum, here goes:

1. Attendant Interaction. Did the museum attendants engage with me? Did they make me think or did they intimidate and make me want to leave?

2. Go backwards factor. Did I find myself going back to things I‘d already seen, for a second look? Zig-zagging my way around museums is an annoying personality trait, but the more I retrace my steps the better my experience.

3. Boring my family later. The more facts I can remember, to regurgitate to the family after the visit, the better the museum. Poor Geof, my cycling companion suffered this time.

Here are the scores for each of the establishments I visited:

Deutsches Historisches Museum The DHM is a traditional state run museum with free entry. It felt like most of the museums I’ve ever visited; lots of interesting things in glass cases with explanation cards for you to read. I visited the section covering 1918 to the present day and to be honest, by the time I’d made it to the Berlin Wall display I’d had enough.

Attendants: Impeccably dressed in smart uniforms. However there was no interaction. They just stood by with that intimidating “touch anything and you get thrown out” expression.

The tour: Very linear. Start at the beginning and dutifully “read” your way to the end, wasn’t tempted to retrace my steps once.

Remembering facts: One key fact about the Trümmerfrau, the ‘rubble women’ who helped reconstruct German cities after the war.

Overall score, a solid 6 out of 10. Most memorable thing, the intimidating attendants.

DDR Museum This was about the years of Soviet occupation in East Germany from 1945 until 1989. It is privately funded and claims to be one of the most interactive museums in the world. I won’t argue with that, it was fantastic, well worth the 6€ entry fee.

Attendants: If there were any I didn’t notice them. I was too busy opening doors, listening to covert recordings and sitting in the Trabant honking the horn. The place was packed, and everyone was so involved, I’d argue that you didn’t need Attendants.

The tour: This was ‘zig-zag’ heaven for me. There was no obvious linear path and I retraced my steps on several occasions. At the final door I headed back in for another view of a typical East German sitting room. I must admit it looked pretty similar a South Wales Valleys sitting room circa 1970’s……..

Remembering Facts:  Plenty to ponder on here. Strange things keep coming back to me like how long it took for your Trabant to arrive (16 years) and the impact of lignite (brown coal) opencast mining.

Overall score, an 8.5 out of 10. The museum shop at the end was a bit too earnest.

Flak Tower Walking Tour  This was a tour of one of the partly demolished Flak Towers built to deter bombers in 1941. You know it’s going to be serious stuff when they insist upon checking you have sensible shoes before they will sell you a ticket and recommend a warm coat because it will be cold. This cost 10€, was run by a ‘not for profit’ organisation and couldn’t have been more professional.

Remembering facts:  Unfortunately poor Geof now knows more about the Flak Towers than he ever wanted to. I soaked it up like a sponge (3m thick walls, 100,000 cubic meters of concrete etc etc) and regurgitated it all to him, and my wife, kids, colleagues and complete strangers since I’ve got back home.

The tour: I did stay in line for this one. The environment was quite scary and it was very reassuring to have a Health and Safety Attendant at the back making sure nobody got lost.

Attendants: Absolutely brilliant and I’m not just saying that because he was Welsh. This was someone who loved the job. He was passionate about the subject, knew it in incredible detail and was happy telling you all about it. This was knowledge exchange and learning at its best.

Overall score, 11 out of 10. It was that good. All German museums should have a Welsh attendant.

So what’s the PONT?

1. The contrast between what I learnt from listening to and interacting with Shaun at the Flak Tower and reading cards in glass cases at the DHM was huge.

2. The acts of looking and reading feels much harder to do than listening to someone explaining and asking questions. 90 minutes at the Flak Tower flew past, even in the cold and dark.

3. People make a massive difference. An engaged and passionate guide at the Flak Tower turned a good experience into a fantastic one I’ll not forget for a long time, thanks Shaun.

Freaking out won’t get you your phone…….. How to be a bad customer

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So, I’m standing in the queue waiting to pick up a package for my son’s birthday that has been lost by the delivery company for 7 days. Its 4 days before Christmas and his birthday is tomorrow. The guy at the head of the queue is absolutely freaking out.

He’s got it all going on; raised voice, popping eyes, red face, puffed out chest, pointing finger and loads of insults about the delivery company, all of their employees, their close relations and probably family pets. The one thing he didn’t have going on was any sort of listening.

Fair play to the clerk behind the counter he explained the difficulties which involved finding a single anonymous package amongst the 15,000 in the warehouse behind the desk.  A bit of an Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark warehouse scene situation if you ask me. What Mr Freakout really missed was the offer from the clerk to find the package by 2pm that afternoon and personally deliver it to his home. It was too late by this stage; he was completely deaf to any solutions and stormed out almost taking the doors off their hinges. End result for him, a complete failure; no package, no prospect of the package in the near future and blood pressure at the point of exploding.

Next up was a very calm lady clutching an iPad and a few bits of paper. “This is my parcel tracking number (handed over the slip of paper), and your online tracking facility tells me (iPad screen shot presented) that the package has been returned to this depot as your driver was intimidated by my dog, a Chihuahua”.  The clerk types in the number to a computer, leaves the desk and returns 30 seconds later with the package. The lady signs for the package and rapidly leaves with a smile.

At this point the queue goes absolutely wild. People were on smart phones trying to call up the delivery company website or speaking to anyone who had access to a computer. Everyone wanted their parcel tracking number and a screen shot of the online tracking facility. The result was that the queue started to move rapidly. The tension went out of the room and people started to smile, even the overworked desk clerk. By the time it was my turn I had my tacking number written on a scrap of paper and the screen shot ready (my dog also prevented a driver delivering for 7 days – but that’s another story). The end result, I get my package, no fuss, no raised voices, everyone happy.

So what’s the PONT?

  1. Aggression and threats get you nowhere, particularly if you stop listening.
  2. Knowledge is power.
  3. The customer really does know best, especially when it’s a backed up with a bit of mobile web.

There is a sub plot to all this. Two days before I visited the parcel depot I left some terrible feedback on the customer comments section of their website (I’m ashamed to say I was ranting). This generated an auto response in ‘blah blah’ style promising to respond fully within 10 days. They did respond, it was equally ‘blah blah’ and meaningless.  A few days after collecting my parcel I contacted them again, this time in a far more positive mood, suggesting how they might improve the collection service at the depot by providing instruction notices and possibly even a computer terminal for people to locate their parcel tracking numbers. Literally within an hour I had a response thanking me for my helpful suggestions which would be considered as part of their review of the process in the New Year.  Funny that.

This would never happen with Pat

X Factor (not quite) Public Review as an Improvement Technique

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Well, last week I got a taste of what I think it might be like to be an X-Factor contestant:

Stand up in front of some highly experienced people;

Deliver your best amateur effort;

Listen carefully to what they have got to say about it;

Then: laugh/cry/high-five/run away/smile graciously (delete as appropriate).

No, it wasn’t the X Factor auditions. I was just getting this blog publically reviewed at the first meeting of WordPress Users Wales.

I’ve had a fair bit of experience of reviewing products and services and giving feedback over the years but this was slightly different. There was no hiding place. Even with a blog you can choose to not accept comments, but in this situation it was totally live, unedited and you are completely exposed – along with the precious blog you’ve created.

Fair play to the reviewers, all of the commentary was very constructive and delivered positively. I’m very grateful for the feedback and I’m doing my best to use it.

A couple of observations though for anyone else thinking of doing it:

  1. Don’t be precious about your ‘baby’. You’ve asked for feedback, accept it;
  2. Don’t try to defend anything. It just doesn’t work. You stop listening to the really useful stuff and people stop providing it.
  3. Write it all down, or better still get someone else to write it down for you;
  4. Act on the advice. If people have bothered to think about what you’ve done, and let you know, show that you have listened.
  5. Oh, and have I mentioned, listen really hard.

As an improvement technique I’m not sure that public review has the potential for widespread application. Maybe it is best left to the likes of the X Factor and blogs.

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. Only do it if you really want to learn and improve.
  2. Listen really hard, don’t explain, defend or justify.
  3. Act on the advice.

PS.  Hopefully anyone who’s reading who offered me feedback has seen some improvement on the page layout. Thank you!  Still plenty of distance to go though…..

Court Room Drama – how environment influences behavior, so use it.

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Last week I was in Court, don’t get excited, it was as a witness for the prosecution. A couple of things made an impression upon me:

Fantastic support from the Witness Support Team (I’ll say more about this again) and; the really high ceiling in the Court Room (it must have been 25ft / 8m tall).

This got me wondering. The Court was built during the 1980′s so it wasn’t some historic accident, the design must have been deliberate. Why?

The room was certainly impressive. Thankfully the Witness Support Team gave me a guided tour before I was called to give evidence so I knew what to expect. However, if I had just walked in I think I would have been pretty intimidated by the surroundings. Perhaps that’s the point?

The built environment does influence the way you behave. If you watch Kevin McCloud on Grand Designs it’s certainly the case. In the courtroom this was reflected in what I did:

  • standing up straight;
  • wishing I’d worn a tie;
  • being very serious and measured with my answers; and
  • speaking in a deeper voice (all a bit Richard Burton I’d like to think).

Conveniently, this has given me an opportunity to talk about how I think the environment is an important consideration for planning meetings and facilitation. It’s probably easiest to explain this in the context of a few environments I’ve encountered while facilitating.

Comfy Sofas – The Best.  My finest ever facilitating hour happened by accident when a room was unavailable and we had to use a space where some sofas were being stored. The impact was incredible. Everyone was very relaxed, ideas were free-flowing, nobody misbehaved and we got the job finished before time. Unfortunately I don’t find sofas too often in the world I work in.

Horseshoe of Chairs – Bog Standard.  The sort of thing you’ll get from anyone who’s been on a facilitation training course (or group therapy / rehab meeting).  This layout usually encourages everyone to participate as there is nowhere to hide and you are all equal. Nice.

Sat Behind Tables / Desks – Not So Good. Frequently unavoidable. I’m not averse to moving furniture to achieve the ‘perfect facilitation environment’, but dragging a 12ft x 4ft oak board table around an 18ft x 12ft room defeats me.  I try to avoid these situations as being ‘protected’ by a table allows some people to ‘hide’ and not participate. I addition some people can behave badly, again using the table as ‘protection’.

The Council Chamber – Nightmare. Just say no. Council Chambers have been the scene of my most epic failures. It’s like some individuals become a completely different person when you sit them in an Elected Members chair. It’s even worse somehow if the room has dark wood paneling. Previously mild-mannered individuals start referring to people they know as ‘Madame Chairwoman’ in a rather pompous tone. They also tend to behave in a much more serious and often confrontational manner.  Avoid at all costs if you are trying to facilitate a workshop.

High ceilings, a witness-box  and formal seating certainly altered my behavior in Court. It’s great if you want serious and very well-behaved, but not so good when you are trying to brainstorm or develop a creative solution.

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. Environment does affect people’s behavior.
  2. Don’t be afraid to change the environment to encourage or prevent certain behaviors.
  3. If you can’t change the environment and it’s not looking good, just say no.

Just say no!

Picture Source:

http://www.magistrates-association.org.uk/pix/magistrate_court_diagram.gif

http://www.grantfrancis.com/courtroomtv/Court_Room_Television/Court_Room_Television_files/shapeimage_1.png