agile beyond software development

Eduardo NofuentesThe Agile Contact Centre

AGILE BEYOND SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENTT H E A G I L E T RA N S F O R M AT I O N O F A C O N TA C T C E N T R E

Sue VisicThoughtworks

: @edumelbourne www.theagilecontactcentre.com.au

Unlimited IVRoptions

Endless Internaltransfers

Long waiting periods

WE ALL HAVE SUFFERED FROM TRADITIONAL CONTACT CENTRES

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Low CustomerSatisfaction

Isolated fromOrganisation

Low EmployeeEngagement

USUALLY THOSE CONTACT CENTRES SUFFER FROM…

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Team not meetingbasic service levels

Complaining about changeDisengaged Team

WHAT WE FOUND AT REA…

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Agile alone will not solve all the problems

Systems ThinkingApproach

Agile Mindset & Practices Lean Principles

THE FOUR STRATEGIES WE USED

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• Break into groups of 3-5 people

• Discuss with your group the situation and what would you do

• Think about the theories behind your proposed solutions

• What is the fourth “strategy” we applied?

• After that, each group will share one or two ideas with the other groups

NOW IS YOUR TURN…

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WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED…

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Systems ThinkingApproach

STRATEGY ONE – A SYSTEMS THINKING APPROACH

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The Vanguard Guide to Transforming Contact Centres

A VANGUARD VIEW OF CONTACT CENTRES

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Is your customer demand Value Demand – What the call centre exists to do for customers, or Failure Demand – Demand caused by a failure within the organisation?

Are customers contacting us

because we failed to do something

right?

UNDERSTANDING CUSTOMER DEMAND & PREDICTABILITY

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Some failure is created by the contact centre, some by other parts of the organisation, none is created by the customer.

Understanding the system is the prerequisite to improving the

system

UNDERSTANDING WHY IT WENT WRONG

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Embed a culture of continuous improvement based on eliminating failure demand.

Use empirical data

to remove waste and

affect change

ELIMINATING THE WRONGNESS

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The leader nurtures an environment that enables the people in the team make decisions from a customers perspective.

Let the people who do the work

take control of the work

DESIGN A HUMAN SYSTEM THAT WORKS

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Agile Mindset & Practices

STRATEGY TWO – AGILE MINDSET & PRACTICES

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“At the end of the day, stuff gets done when people care to do it. I know of no plan, method, incantation that changes that equation.” H. Owen

A shared purpose drives collaboration

AGILE PRACTICES: START WITH THE PURPOSE

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Taking people off the phones to attend stand ups was a short term risk that we took for the long term success of the team.

Encourage face to face communication

and collaboration

AGILE PRACTICES: DAILY STAND UPS

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The team worked on fortnightly sprint cycles on projects chosen every 90 days.

Promote transparency and accountability by having all projects

on the wall

AGILE PRACTICES: SPRINT WALL

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We used to keep endless spreadsheets and internal documents with information that now is visible and easily accessible to everyone.

Try to find ways to visualise the work

and data that is important to the

team

AGILE PRACTICES: VISUALISATION OF WORK

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Using retrospectives we uncovered the main problems for our customers and staff and it helped us with the prioritisation of work

Listen to the people that do the work. They know your customers’

problems and usually the answers

AGILE PRACTICES: RETROSPRECTIVES

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Lean Principles

STRATEGY THREE – LEAN PRINCIPLES

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We launched a new channel without having to go through

our internal IT department and spending $300 in

licences.

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas Edison

LEAN PRINCIPLES: RAPID EXPERIMENTATION

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Remove IVR’s when they don’t add value to customers

Understanding customer demand and predictability will show that you don’t need specialised teams

LEAN PRINCIPLES: REMOVE BARRIERS FOR CUSTOMERS

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Measure what matters to customers and let the team set their own goals and

targets

“If you give a manager a numerical target, he'll make it even if he has to destroy the company in the process." - Deming

LEAN PRINCIPLES: REMOVE METRICS THAT DON’T MATTER

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Brave Leadership

Brave Leadership

THE FOURTH STRATEGY – BRAVE LEADERSHIP

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Brave Leaders believe everyone is already doing their best and are willing to do things that are

unexpected or against the norm

“It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit” Henry Truman

BRAVE LEADERSHIP: THE SERVANT MINDSET

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Brave Leaders cultivate a culture of

trust and develop other leaders

Adopt and institute leadership aimed at helping people to do a better job

BRAVE LEADERSHIP: THE COACH MINDSET

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Brave leaders take imperfect action and

are not afraid of admitting they don’t

know the answer.

“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren't always comfortable, but they're never weakness.” Brene Brown

BRAVE LEADERSHIP: THE VULNERABILITY MINDSET

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Improved customersatisfaction - 8.9

Customer led - 18% failure

demand

Engagedteam - 88%

THE RESULTS

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▫Does your team or company understand your customers’ demand?

▫What percentage of failure and value demand do you have in your organisation?

▫ Do you know the cost to your organisation of all of the failure demand?

▫Is your system designed from an inside-out view or from a customer view?

▫How can you apply Agile Practices and Lean Principles to your non software development teams?

▫How brave are you as a leader? How brave is the leader in your team / organisation?

ASK YOURSELF…

: @edumelbourne www.theagilecontactcentre.com.au

Eduardo NofuentesThe Agile Contact Centrewww.theagilecontactcentre.com.aueduardo@theagilecontactcentre.com.au+61407 450 640

: @edumelbourne www.theagilecontactcentre.com.au

Sue VisicThoughtworkswww.thoughtworks.comsvisic@thoughtworks.com+61419 194 423

THANK YOU