gopher books 1 thru 5

7/28/2019 Gopher Books 1 Thru 5

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Blog Entry 1

The Coaching and Learning Curve of Archie Bunker

I’ve always been somebody who has been fascinated by people who seemed to

have it all. People who had their stuff together. They had complete control of

their surroundings. They had control of people, events, physical and spiritual

wellness and career and finances. They dealt with adversity no matter how

difficult it would have been for everybody else. They made no mistakes. There

were no lessons life could teach them.

These were people I saw from the outside – people in the big homes driving the

nice cars with the perfect kids. I justified my naive hypothesis simply by

watching television but it took me at least 8 years to debunk this illusion of the

perfect person. I have Archie Bunker to thank for that.

I came from a middle class family and was a child of the 70’s decade. The cool thing about being a child

of that generation was that as much as I saw the perfect life of the “Brady Bunch” I saw the imperfect

life of the Bunker’s on “ All in the Family ”. I got to admit I wasn’t a fan of Archie Bunker at first. He was

bitter, mean and of course a bigoted man. He was a wrench thrown into the perfect family machine I

had grown to love in the world according to the Brady Bunch and Partridge Family and the perfect

people who lived in my town.

Now I didn’t dwell on this at the time. It was something that slowly occurred to me probably because I

wasn’t gripped by the thought that not every father was a successful architect. I had a verysupportive

and loving family, great friends and an active school life. But there was one of those “aha” moments

that occurred watching the first episode of “ Archie Bunker’s Place” – the continuation of “All in theFamily”. Something monumental had happened to Archie Bunker.

I had watched Archie grow as a person through all 9 seasons. “ All in the Family ” was a show I didn’t

understand at first because I was probably 7 or 8 years old when I would plant myself in front of the TV

while mom and dad waited for it to come on. But what I discovered was that Archie was surrounded by

people that cared for him no matter how grumpy or nasty or mean he would be. Norman Lear the

writer of the series needed to wrap up his 23 minute sitcom episode every week so there had to always

be some kind of unrealistic resolution. But there was something else happening too.

Every episode was a true learning experience for Archie Bunker – and they were all based on what every

man could understand. There was no pre-teen fluffy moral summarized at the end of the day about

Marsha Brady overcoming her fear of going to the dance with a broken nose. This was real stuff. Things

maybe I had seen my own dad struggle with but never gave it a second thought until then. Archie

Bunker was learning from his mistakes yet was always supported by the people who meant the most to

him despite the way he sometimes mistreated them.

By the end of the season Archie had become a different man. This next statement could be argued by

some but he did become more tolerant of people – his racist comments became less pronounced. He

became a grandfather. He became a business owner. We started to see him in a different way. And



that “aha!” moment came to me when I watched the episode where he’s sitting in his bedroom alone.

His wife Edith had suffered a stroke in her sleep and died. Archie breaks down and weeps. This major

life event cements his spot in life as someone who will always be a good person – he will never turn back

to his old ways no matter how awful his circumstances might become.

I started to open my eyes to my real surroundings. I saw those perfect families going through hard

times. Bankruptcies, abuse, divorce, and those perfect kids strung out on drugs and in trouble with the

law. Some of those families recovered; some did not. They were on the other end of the economic and

social ladder than the Archie Bunker types but the one constant between them was this: Some evolved

and some didn’t.

I would theorize that most of us with constant, consistent reinforcement HAVE to change despite the

few of us who just do not choose to or simply cannot change for whatever reason. And there may not

be a major life event that triggers a permanent positive change. I slowly began figuring out how I could

set up an atmosphere for facilitating these changes starting with myself and then for others. It’s not

rocket science. It just takes commitment and consistency like anything else worth attaining. And

eventually it becomes second nature, like walking, laughing and breathing.

This blog will concentrate on the business aspect of relevant coaching and feedback. I hope that by

adopting these changes in your management style that it will help you in your personal and other

professional relationships too. Unlike the 9 years it took Archie Bunker your results as a manager in

employee satisfaction and improved metrics that will be almost immediate and will last.



Blog Entry 2

Can Archie Bunker Thrive in Your Environment?

How would Archie Bunker be coached in your environment? The quick answer is just like everybody

else. The right answer is you need to ask Archie Bunker how he wants to be coached. And you need to

listen. When I talk about listening I am referring to not just verbal cues but body language, the tone of

his voice, the responses he gives. Lots of different things one needs to take into account. But a

manager also needs to prepare themselves for the Archie Bunker that just can’t be coached.

Before you can do anything as a manager you need to create an environment for somebody to be

motivated. You can’t directly motivate an individual. If the culture of your call center is flat or even

poisonous it just won’t work. Any quick fixes you do to “motivate” somebody are just that – quick. As

quick as the fix takes it’s gone just as fast.

We’ve all done that. Sometimes we roll out a quick recognition program; build it up; do a half crappy

job at rolling it out; maybe weren’t clear about the process and made people feel left out. Or WERE left

out.

Maybe the problem of the week has been an abnormally high AHT and you have deduced that “non-

work related reading material” is keeping some agents on the call too long. It never had been an issue

until now so you make an immediate decision to ban all of this type of reading material. Again, maybe

your knee-jerk reaction backfired and you have employees complaining to your HR Generalist.

So whether it’s well intentioned like a recognition program or a “shock and awe” reaction to a perceived

threat to your metrics beware. You might be creating that toxic environment. Nothing will grow here.

You’re dividing management and agents. You’re establishing a lack of trust and confidence which will

make it near impossible for you to roll out any action plan for a coaching and feedback process,

recognition program, or policy changes.



Hawaiian shirt day next Friday...

You can’t effectively coach and reward and grow our agents on such a shaky foundation. Your

first plan of action needs to change the culture of your toxic environment. It’s no fluke that mission

statements are a part of a company’s mantra and is included on everything from business cards to

employee handbooks. They establish certain guidelines to the way the company is run. They havebranded themselves in a positive light. It’s a fantastic foundation to build an empire when it’s right and

when it’s followed.

Obviously it’s not going to address specific pathways for a manager to build on. Most mission

statements promote honesty, fairness, strive to improve and great consistent service just to name a

few. Take that same approach with your call center operation. Here are a few things off the top I can

think of that might be a good blueprint for a proper foundation and some examples:

Honesty

Even potential bad news still needs to be communicated. It could be as simple as announcing andapologizing for no overtime hours this week in an email. It could be as complex as announcing an

outsourcing partner to handle additional calls. You don’t need to divulge every intimate detail or give

out any company secrets but you can and should keep your agents in the loop. They deserve that.

Fairness

You would never give your one child birthday presents and your other child none. Yet that’s what may

be perceived when we do things like create recognition programs for a select skill set. Everything is

noticed by your agents. They’re not idiots yet that’s the way they feel you see them when this happens.

And it’s not with just rewards – if you find yourself coaching one agent or group more often than others

that’s just as bad.

Striving to Improve

How do companies improve? They listen to their customers and their employees. As an inbound tech

support center we are always listening to our customer’s feedback and suggestions. That’s a no-

brainer. But are you listening to your employees? Does the suggestion box overflow before you empty



it out every 6 months? On a more micro level are you and your managers listening to your agents when

they are being coached? As a manager are you proactive enough to move on suggestions that will

improve your morale and metrics from the floor down to the specific agent? A body at rest stays at

rest. And goes stagnant. Create a plan to keep the lines of communication open for all and have a

process to ACT on that.

Consistent Service

If you do it for a while then stop people will notice. They will become discouraged and at some point

apathetic. You may listen to calls where a customer clearly has had a good and bad phone experience

with your call center. You may have asked your supervisors to walk the floor every hour to make sure

your “no non-business related reading material” mandate is enforced. Your staff does it for a week and

then really doesn’t enforce it after some point. Worse yet is the inconsistency of coaching and feedback

with your agents. This consistency thing and how I approach that is the topic of the rest of this blog.

Everybody’s call center is different but they all live and die by the environment we create. You can’t

motivate Archie Bunker but you can create a motivating environment. He will either thrive and moveforward or choose not to participate. And you can’t do anything about the latter except – yes—have a

plan to weed out the ones who want to add their toxicity to your center.



Blog Entry 3

Foundation Builder Needed – No Experience Necessary?

When I entered the call center arena as an Operations Manager I was given the job of improving the

coaching and feedback process to improve metrics that our client had set for us. I had ZERO call center

experience and limited managerial chops under my belt. Archie Bunker would have felt like this if they

had taken him out of his cab and placed him in the cockpit of a 767. I was in over my head.

I had just come from the road as a sales representative for a concrete building materials company. It

was 1998 and our company had just been bought and all of us found ourselves out of work. I don’t

remember how I was even introduced to this OM job. I tell people I “Kramered” into the spot referring

to the Cosmo Kramer character on “Seinfeld ” – he’s one of those guys that find opportunities and you

just scratch your head wondering how he stumbled into that. I was a salesman. I wasn’t planning on

staying a manager there for long. And being charged with something so alien to me as improving

metrics on a large scale was going to speed that process exponentially either by my hand or my call

center director’s hand.

My management process was sporadic (and that's probably being too kind). I had focus groups with

agents but they were not really that focused and I would sometimes lose control of the meeting. The

only thing I learned was that they either didn’t like their supervisor, was friends with their supervisor, or

they didn’t know their supervisor. Three different responses with three different solutions and nothing

productive for me to use.

I tried being one of those walking managers who tried to get along with everybody. This micro

management approach only bit me in the rear end because some people felt there was favoritism

shown by me. Worse is that in a call center that size I did miss talking and bonding with some agents.

Even worse was I had agents who read my intentions another way and felt that they could bypass theirimmediate supervisor and come to me directly. That gave a whole new definition to open door policy.

What a mess.

I soon realized that management was a lot like sales and I knew how to sell. I was making mistakes as a

manager I never would have made in the sales arena. The samesalesman’s mantra kept creeping back

into my brain. It was a definition of a word we are all familiar with:

Insanity – “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”



At least Tommy had a plan!

I’ve watched a lot of sales reps go down in flames doing this and I was heading down the same

path as a manager. Sometimes all they would do is make “comfort calls” – visits to their 2 or 3 core

customers they would take to lunch every week and scratch out the same small orders from them every

visit. Then they would wonder why their sales were stagnant year after year. There was no plan; no

foundation.

I failed miserably at my first stab as a salesman. It was a summer job with a publishing company sellingbible concordances and study guides door to door. This company put my group in the heart of the Bible

belt – Oklahoma. We would start each morning to eat breakfast together and sing uplifting and inspiring

chants before we went to our designated selling areas. I thought this was a load of crap. We had two

weeks of sales training very specific to what we would be doing but I refused to pay attention. How

hard was it to go from house to house and sell these books? I didn’t plan my day or my route.

The realization that I had the same net worth in Oklahoma at the end of the summer than when I left

Ohio was sobering. I was stubborn and thought I knew what was best about an industry I knew nothing

about. What a wake up call!

I had no solid foundation. Oh wait, yes I did; I just chose not to build on that foundation! The publishing

company I sold for had over 40 years of people who grew very prosperous on that foundation. The one I

thought was a load of crap.

After that summer I vowed never to be that arrogant again. I certainly had been doing the same thing

over and over expecting different results. In my future sales positions I was determined to blueprint the

same strategies that were successful to other salesman. Now as an Operations Manager I would adopt

the same philosophy. And it worked.

Now my focus groups had purpose. Now when I walked the floor I had a reason. Now my meetings had

agendas, take aways, and accountability. Most importantly if I did something and it didn’t work I moved

on and didn’t dwell. I didn’t repeat the same thing over and over expecting different results. We create

our solid foundation and we build on that foundation.

I promise to start sharing some of the coaching and feedback principles in this blog. Nobody really

wants to hear endless stories about my sales career or even Archie Bunker. What’s important to me is

that people see and understand the path that led me to these principles that work. As managers you

are going to have to draw on your own experiences (wherever you got them) to be effective leaders and

it’s critical that you infuse your own passion and understanding.



Once you have that solid foundation your passion is what will help you create that great environment I

spoke about in my last blog. And I guarantee there will be nothing toxic about it.



Blog Entry 4

The Circles That Make the Foundation for My Management Platform

So I’ve spent the last few of my blogs talking

about learning, environments and my epiphanies

about the correlation between sales and

management. Kind of a hodgepodge of thoughts

but when I eventually put them together it

formed the solid foundation upon which I would

build my coaching and feedback philosophies.

To recap the path I took to this realization is actually pretty simple as it’s read but it was a long time

formulating and putting this into something that was coherent. Then it had to be dynamic; modifiable.

Then it had to be teachable.

If you’ve ever looked at a book on drawing you probably remember drawing a series of circles andshapes to give you a rough outline and proportion of your subject. An oval for the head; circles where

the ears should go, etc. That was your foundation. Even if it didn’t come close to looking like the

finished example you saw in that instruction book it sure looked better than before you drew your little

series of shapes. Here were my little circles. I just had to find a way to put them together to form the

picture I wanted:

Most people want to learn and are teachable

So often people are not given encouragement or feedback of any kind. People get bored, feel

unchallenged and are not supported in any way. It could be an 11 year old boy not getting this

support from his little league coach. That 11 year old boy might eventually turn out to be an all

star hitter someday but it’s usually because of external forces like private hitting coaches,practicing on his own, or simply playing for a more effective coach. Often times they just get

discouraged and give up.

You can’t motivate anybody but you can create a motivating environment

You try the quick fixes to improve your environment but it doesn’t work. Or you “shock and

awe” by bringing in a specialist or radically changing processes and procedures. You give out

rewards and kudos for a while and motivation and morale goes up but then it falls back after a

short time. You’re pushing water uphill and all that’s left is the puddle at the bottom. You need

to change the culture of your environment and it’s always a lot of work. That’s why some

managers won’t or don’t do this.

Don’t reinvent the wheel – do what other successful managers do

Even if you don’t have a mentor or are unfamiliar with your situation you can always get off your

butt and do some research. There are tons of forums, support groups, books, periodicals and

seminars you can access. Anything from how to effectively coach an agent to setting up your

business in the most efficient manner. You have more of a support group than you think too.

Your IT department, HR Generalist, and your peers can guide you. Shut up and listen.

Put your own spin and flair on your job; personalize it

You will not stick to a diet if you don’t like the food. Just because you’re copying a successful

business plan doesn’t mean it has to be done just like your mentor or boss. If you don’t make it



personal to you then you definitely will resent it and at the worse stop doing it. Your co workers

will see your passion and be much more receptive if they see your buy in.

If it doesn’t work modify it or stop doing it

You’re making this mistake if it’s the path of least resistance. Maybe it’s working just enough to

keep your boss off your tail but it will eventually lead to failure. These are dynamic times; we

wear many hats and have to adjust accordingly. If it’s not working stop and think about your

options. Stop and ask for directions like your wife (or hubby) told you to do 5 miles back. It’s

okay to ask for help and different opinions.

You need to be consistent

This starts with a plan. Consistency is much more easily maintained if there’s a focus that

everybody involved is aware of. Coaching and feedback, rewards and recognition and other

daily events should always be on schedule. Also be prepared for changes in these routines.

Hardly anything is written in stone but you certainly should keep everybody in the loop when

things take a different turn. Are you changing key metrics at your client’s last minute request?

Have a plan before this happens on how you disseminate the information to your employees

and how you will handle any changes in their coaching and feedback for example. Including

frequency.

You need to be fair

There’s always some group within the organization that appears to be the golden children.

There’s also somebody that seems to get more attention and kudos than others. Be aware of

this. It’s a tough situation to be in but you can definitely take the focus off of these people by

implementing a solid recognition and rewards program and by having specific focus groups,

responding personally to suggestions, and performing other actions that include ALL employees.

Just remember what you do for one person or group you should do something similar for

others.

You need to understand sometimes people choose not to learn

Some people cannot or chose not to play ball. They are most of the times the core of your toxic

environment and it doesn’t take many of them to foul up the carburetor. Even the best

coaching and support system makes no difference in their performance and attitude. You gottahave a system in place to weed these people from your organization.

I’ve not gotten into any specifics here because everybody’s environment is different. But everybody can

build off the same solid foundation of circles whether you’re an outbound sales-focused call center or an

inbound technical support center.

Take some time to draw on your own experiences from each of the above bullet points until you can

come up with one or two examples. It will only stick in your brain if you personalize it. Take a chance

and start changing some things that aren’t working for you now. In my next blog I’ll start laying out the

path I took after I turned all those circles into a final picture.



Blog Entry 5

The GOPHER Coaching System Project Takes Off

I have not been very clear about the direction of this blog and wasn’t sure on how to proceed. Guess

that’s why it’s been a while since the last entry. But I figure since the actual coaching system I have put

in place is now finally working at full capacity it’s time to explain GOPHER.

The previous blog entries were to give you an idea of where I came from and how certain experiences of

my life helped me develop the system. I’m going to try to describe this at the 10,000 foot view and then

in subsequent entries will drill down and discuss certain areas.

The precursor to this is that every person that is coached, trained or mentored is treated with kind,

meaningful and relevant praise and appreciation. I’m pretty big on solid foundations as you may have

read in an earlier blog entry. Appreciation and recognition are the caissons of the system. Sometimes

the bedrock of an agent’s foundation is just beneath the earth but other times you may need to dig

much deeper before you hit bedrock to build on.

I follow Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group and numerous other successful ventures on

earth (and in space) on LinkedIn. This quote from him struck me as very relevant:

“If it doesn’t fit on the back of an envelope it’s rubbish”

I realized this applied to anything whether it was a household budget or a plan for world domination. I

decided to see if my GOPHER coaching idea fit on an envelope.

It fits. It’s wordy and I would definitely have an elevator pitch that would be just as compelling at a high

level (I think…).



The GOPHER system has a very dynamic structure. It’s easily modified. It’s not rocket science to

understand but it does require consistent involvement and buy in and understanding from everybody

involved. This doesn’t just include the managers and agents but your systems analysts, web developers,

I.T. department, quality and training department, HR department and above all upper management.

Absolutely none of this will work if you don’t have the technical support (to adopt GOPHER into your

system) or the buy in of upper management. There are work force management platforms that have

coaching systems in place similar to GOPHER but they are not as modifiable. If you do have a system

you can still incorporate many of the benefits of GOPHER as needed.

GOPHER starts with an introduction to your agent. If it’s a new hire at some point after the quality

expectations are given to them they will be informed of the coaching content and frequency from their

assigned Supervisor. Making your agents feel comfortable at the onset is paramount to your success

and their tenure with your organization. However you decide to roll out the welcome wagon is up to

you and your call center culture but roll it out. At the very least there should be a welcome packet with

more than direct deposit forms and insurance information. If your agents don’t know who their

Supervisor will be after they have hit the floor that’s not a good start.

There’s a learning curve associated with all jobs. I know that in my case it takes anywhere between 6-9

weeks before a new hire is working at 100% of expectations therefore I do not hold them accountable

on my “scorecard” for a 3 month period. It does NOT mean they don’t receive any GOPHER coaching.

This time frame is the formative time to help them develop good habits and generally correct and guide

them down the right path.

After this period we start the accountability portion of the GOPHER. What follows is basically what was

on the back of that envelope. Again, everything starts with praise and ends with buy in and praise:

The GOPHER System

AGENT

METRIC EXAMPLE (ATT, AHT, Quality, Adherence, Girl Scout cookie sales, etc)

TRENDING INFORMATION

CURRENT COACHING SESSION NEXT COACHING SESSION (NEXT SESSIONS)

Before the initial coaching session

begins:1. Listen and observe.

2. Document everything positive.

3. Formulate and document root

causes and valid specific actions for

areas of improvement.



+ IMPROVEMENT NO IMPROVEMENT

During the coaching session:

1. Talk about something other than

work. Relax.

2. Praise and thank them for what

they have accomplished.3. Listen and observe.

4. Refine your root cause and specific

actions if needed based on what you

hear and see.

5. Ask them for their suggestions.

Add or amend.

6. Get their buy in.

7. Set their goal.

8. Praise their efforts.

Before the next coaching session

begins:

1. Listen and observe (now you might

have Quality department grades and

observations as well as your ownmonitoring).

2. Determine if there was

improvement in the metric(s)

3. If so document and refine areas of

improvement. If there are new

metrics that need addressed…



areas of improvement for the new

metrics.

Before the next coaching session

begins:

1. Listen and observe (now you might

have Quality department grades and

observations as well as your ownmonitoring).

2. Document any and all

improvements from previous session.

3. Refine your root causes and

specific actions based on what you

hear and see.



areas of improvement for any new

metrics not met.

5. Ask your supervisor for suggestionson your root cause analysis and

specific action tasks.



It may be easy to look at this and say it’s a lot of basic knowledge and common sense. But look at the

GOPHER system like you would look at a patent for an invention. The outline is there but it’s a lot of the

little parts of the invention that you can’t see that make it work as a unit.

This is a rinse and repeat plan. You will obviously need to set your own parameters for developmental

action plans, how often a coaching session is given, how it will incorporate with your WFM platform or

quality software, how it will apply to different skillsets with different metrics, etc.

In future blog postings I will share with you all of the little parts that I use to make it all come together

with real life examples. Some of the things I’ll discuss will be:

The real way to find true root cause for any issue

How to listen to anybody

How I prepared and trained the supervisors to utilize GOPHER

How we rolled out and instructed the agents about every aspect of GOPHER and how to hold

their Supervisor’s accountable for consistent coaching

Limiting specific action items

During the next coaching session:


work. Relax.


they have accomplished. Show them

the positive trending.

3. Address new metrics that need

improvement.

4. Listen and observe.

5. Refine your root cause and specific

actions if needed based on what you

hear and see.

5. Ask them for their suggestions. Add

or amend.


7. Set their goal.


During the next coaching session:


work. Relax.


they have accomplished.

3. Address the metrics that have not

trended positive.

4. If they followed your specific

actions without success, apologize

and go over new specific actions

based on your revamped root cause

analysis.

5. If they did not follow your specific

actions ask them why and either

amend them if they are unreasonable

or let them know if they continue to

not follow your specific actions theymay step to a disciplinary action plan.

6. Ask them for their suggestions.

Add or amend.

7. If so document and refine areas of

improvement. If there are new

metrics that need addressed.


9. Set their goal.




A disciplinary action plan that is no surprise to anybody if it happens

How the technical aspects of the GOPHER coaching system was implemented

How often coaching occurs and the cycle used to determine developmental action plans and

disciplinary actions

How GOPHER evolved to coach the coach – the evolution of SMAILS where senior managers

audit the Supervisor’s GOPHER coaching

I’m excited about sharing my success with this plan but it certainly wouldn’t have been possible without

a multitude of IT/systems analyst support and the buy in of the manager’s who use this system. It’s a lot

of work but now it’s old hat. Everybody is used to it and every week there seems to be fantastic

recommendations to improve and fine-tune the system.

gopher books 1 thru 5

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