maximize performance impact: create partnerships with customers

32 Performance Improvement • OCTOBER 2001

Today many organizations arestruggling to find the most effec-tive way to improve and maxi-mize performance. Truly excellent

performance affects an organization bymaking its vision and mission a reality.

At the Community Support Alliance thatis part of the Center for Development andDisability (CDD), a University Center forExcellence in Developmental Disabilities,Education, Research and Service, at theUniversity of New Mexico Health SciencesCenter, the impact we seek is in peopleterms. Our mission is to create and sup-port the quality of life and social equalityas chosen and desired by people withdevelopmental disabilities and their fami-lies. The Community Support Alliancecreates this impact by building communityalliances, identifying natural supports toincrease individual success, providingaccessible training and technical assis-tance to people (including trainers) whohave an impact on the lives of people withdisabilities, conducting quantitative andqualitative research, partnering with peo-ple with disabilities, supporting choiceand self-advocacy, and developing andsharing innovative concepts and products.

Our larger organization, the CDD, hasdrafted a vision statement that indicateswe are “guided by individuals with dis-abilities and their families who helpdesign, provide and evaluate our

efforts….” A related CDD strategic direc-tion focuses on creating successful part-nerships with people with disabilitiesand their families.

The Community Support Alliance (CSA)developed its original concepts describedbelow to create successful partnershipswith these targeted customers: peoplewith disabilities, family members of peo-ple with disabilities, and nondisabledtrainers working in both for-profit andnon-profit organizations providing ser-vices to people with disabilities. We origi-nated the process, described and refined itthrough practical application with manytargeted customers over a nine-yearperiod using both our own as well as cus-tomer observations of what works andwhat does not work. We continue torefine the process as we enter new part-nerships with customers.

Why Include Customers asPartners?

Historically, the Community SupportAlliance used a variety of methods toincrease impact through improving andmaximizing performance. As Figure 1illustrates, the CSA applied these meth-ods to ensure clear training and technicalassistance outcomes, collection of initialfeedback from participants, skill compe-tency practice and measurement, andmentorship support.

Maximize Performance Impact:CreatePartnerships WithCustomers by Judith Stevens and Barbara Ibañez

As part of this continuing thrust to increase impact, theAlliance looked at who could most effectively train othersto achieve excellent performance. Our training staff at thatpoint included people who, in addition to academic degreesin content areas and master trainer skills, had years ofhands-on experience providing innovative supports to peo-ple with disabilities. As we looked at our mission, we real-ized that we needed to include our ultimate customers in allaspects of our efforts: people with disabilities, family mem-bers of people with disabilities, and nondisabled trainersworking in both for-profit and nonprofit organizations pro-viding services to people with disabilities.

If excellent service to a defined group of customers is yourproduct, who can better inform your staff about improvingperformance than those very customers?

How to Create Partnerships With Customers

With nine years of ongoing concept refinement, theCommunity Support Alliance has distilled three key stepsto successful partnerships with customers. These steps areoutlined in Figure 2 and discussed in detail below.

Step 1: Identify Ultimate Customers

Organizations spend a great deal of timeidentifying current and potential customers.Sometimes it can be worthwhile to takeanother look at the organization’s mission tohelp find the ultimate customer. TheCommunity Support Alliance must satisfyintermediate customers, such as the revenuesources who buy our services. Yet theCommunity Support Alliance’s ultimatecustomers are people with developmentaldisabilities, their family members, and thepeople who support them to achieve whatthey want from life.

Step 2: Recruit Customer Partners

Roles. Successful recruitment begins withanalyzing roles customers can play. TheCommunity Support Alliance identifiedboth staff and consultant roles for cus-tomers. Specifically, customers help theCSA create more relevant and effective ser-vices, concepts, processes, and products.

For example, one person with developmen-tal disabilities helped draft a script andstarred in a video filmed at her house. Thevideo was then used to train staff to supportother people with developmental disabili-ties. Other customers have helped with writ-

ing, editing, and critiquing CSA products for appeal,readability, formatting, content, tone, and usefulness.Customers assisted the Community Support Alliance and apartner organization, the Arc of New Mexico, to create aquality-of-life interview instrument. They began by partici-pating in focus groups that defined interview content. Onecustomer who is nonverbal participated in a field-test inter-view, identifying interview questions and processes weneeded to modify to respect individual privacy. As a personwho is constantly assisted by staff, he identified privacy

Performance Improvement • Volume 40 • Number 9 33

Figure 1. Historical Methods Used to Improve and Maximize CSA and CustomerPerformance.

Figure 2. Steps to Successful Partnerships.


issues that had not occurred to us. His input made the inter-view more relevant. We recruited, trained, and used cus-tomers to administer the interview with us as well.

One story illustrates how customer involvement made thecritical difference between effectiveness and failure. We trav-eled many miles to conduct a quality-of-life interview with aperson with disabilities in a remote, tribal area of NewMexico. When we arrived, the person refused to come out ofher room to complete the interview. Then the customer co-interviewer, a person with disabilities whom the intervieweehad met once socially, yelled out, “Hi!” The intervieweeburst out of her room laughing and eager to be interviewed.

Another role the Community Support Alliance identifiedwas including customers as co-trainers. Customer co-train-ers make abstract ideas come alive through links with per-sonal and local experience. Customer service gets real whenan actual customer says how good and bad services have an

impact on his or her life. Trainees tend to listen when a cus-tomer gives tips.

Organizations can also include customers as decisionmak-ers. For example, the Community Support Alliance createdtraining needs assessment processes that invited customersto help identify staff training needs. Customers who partic-ipate in a CDD Consumer Advisory Board have also helpedshape important decisions in strategic planning.

Barriers. In addition to identifying roles, organizations mayalso need to identify and remove any barriers to recruitingcustomers. For example, consider the Community SupportAlliance’s university affiliation. Universities value exten-sive credentials. How can the organization make adapta-tions so that a customer’s life experiences can weigh asheavily as academic and professional experience?

Since your customers may not match the profile your orga-nization ordinarily recruits, typical recruitment methodssuch as newspaper ads may not work. For example, some ofthe people the Community Support Alliance wanted torecruit were people who did not read. We had to figure outhow to reach the people who could best fill the roles weidentified. We recruited through unusual methods, such asspreading the word to self-advocates through an advocacyorganization and word-of-mouth through customers whowere already involved.

Selection. Customers need to go through a recruitment selec-tion process just like any other employee or consultant todetermine if they are the best match for the job. Still, an orga-nization can tailor this process to meet customer needs. Forexample, the Community Support Alliance coached peoplewith developmental disabilities on how to weave throughthe recruitment maze. We gave specific tips on how to pre-pare a resume, as well as assistance filling out needed forms.

Step 3: Support Customers to Success

After recruiting the right customers to match the roles youhave identified, it is critical to support those customers tosuccess. The Community Support Alliance identified anumber of support strategies.

Roles. Customers need clearly defined and explained roles.One major value customers offer is that they are not profes-sionals. This means they have a fresh perspective and amaz-ing insights. However, it sets them up for failure if you useprofessional jargon as shorthand and walk away expectingthem to know what they are supposed to do. For example,as one part of role definition, the Community SupportAlliance developed an explicit code of ethics that all train-ers, including customers who are disabled or family mem-bers of people with disabilities, must review and sign. Thiscode outlines acceptable and unacceptable trainer behaviorrelated to critical issues such as confidentiality.

Case Study: Customers asCourse MentorsThe Community Support Alliance has offered extensive train-the-traineropportunities, which built a skilled cadre of trainers on site at many loca-tions statewide. Most of these trainers were part of one customer groupthat we targeted for partnerships—the people who help people withdevelopmental disabilities achieve what they want from life.

Lois worked at a community provider agency, where she wanted to learnhow to train her staff using the competency-based training developed bythe Community Support Alliance. She completed a trainer interest surveyoutlining her training skills, experience, and interests. She was subse-quently matched with a course mentor certified by the CSA. This coursementor worked at an agency similar to Lois’ in the same region. Thecourse mentor and Lois developed a mentoring plan that matched theirschedules and Lois’ needs. After receiving course-specific and trainereffectiveness training from the course mentor, Lois chose to cofacilitate atraining session at her agency with the course mentor, as well as to videoherself for future reference.

Following the cofacilitation, Lois critiqued herself using the training per-formance job tool. The course mentor added constructive comments,again using the job tool. Then they reviewed the participant evaluations tosee what the participants thought of the course. They also graded thecompetency achievement forms, with the course mentor coaching Lois tobe sure she scored the answers appropriately. They looked closely to besure the participants had understood what Lois taught them. Usinganother job tool, the course mentor scored Lois’ overall performance and,from that, determined that Lois was ready to teach the course on herown—as long as she sent a copy of participant evaluations to the coursementor quarterly. Throughout this process, the course mentor could call amaster mentor, another customer in that region, whom the CommunitySupport Alliance also trained to an even higher skill level.

Coaches. Customers need coaches. For example, theCommunity Support Alliance matched customer consultantswho were preparing to be cotrainers with course mentors. Ina given event, a course mentor can forecast what that cus-tomer can expect to happen. The course mentor can modeldelivering the training and help the customer pinpointwhen to share a personal story in the training for the mostimpact. If needed, the course mentor can support the cus-tomer to practice their part of the training. The customerand course mentor predict problems that may come up andthen set up strategies for solving them, proactively. Throughdetailed trainer effectiveness and course-specific training,these course mentors teach customers how to self-critiquetraining and how to give and to accept constructive feed-back. Course mentors and customers review their co-trainingefforts and help each other improve performance from expe-rience. Course mentors and customers also review partici-pant evaluations of their performance to get specific ideas forimprovement. The Community Support Alliance hasapplied this same coaching process to support customers tosuccess in other roles, too, such as facilitating and recordingpersonal life-planning meetings. As another example, cus-tomers with disabilities used “job coaches” to support theirparticipation in statewide training work groups.

Job Tools. Coaches and customers need access to specificjob tools. For example, the Community Support Alliancefound a way to take the code of ethics from awareness toapplication. Each part of the code of ethics is operationalizedin a simple job tool. Customers use a job tool to review theirtraining performance. Course mentors use a job tool to giveconstructive feedback to customer trainers. Training partic-ipants use a tool to evaluate customer trainers.

As another example, training outlines can be adapted to suitcustomer trainer needs. Specific customers might needvisual icons, differing font size, highlighting, simple word-ing, translations, or other adaptations to participate moreeffectively as trainers.

The Community Support Alliance found that a good matchbetween the course mentor and potential trainer was criti-cal to success. Customers need to be compatible with theircoaches and roles and vice versa. They also need a goodmatch with training content. This ensures customer moti-vation to train about a specific topic, useful customerinformation about that topic, and coaching support thatsuits the customer.

Pitfalls in Creating Partnerships WithCustomers

As the Community Support Alliance refined these originalconcepts, pitfalls emerged. Figure 3 lists the strategies thatwill help avoid those pitfalls.

Pitfall 1: Poor Recruitment and Selection

The flipside to the support-to-success strategies describedabove is a poor recruitment selection process, which canresult in mismatches and alienated customers. It is impor-tant to recruit customers with capabilities and interests thatmatch your identified needs—not just because they are yourcustomers. For example, not every customer is interested intraining. Even if the match is excellent, failure to support acustomer can leave that customer floundering and ineffec-tual in your organization.

Pitfall 2: Tokenism

Be sure to recruit customers only if your organization is seri-ous about creating partnerships. Trivializing customers cre-ates bad feelings. It may look good on the organization’sannual report to tout customer inclusion, but if the commit-ment is not real, do not start the process. Your organizationwill lose more than it will gain.

Determine customer status up front to ensure that cus-tomers get fair pay for service. Even though the customer isnot a professional in the organization’s field, your organi-zation needs to honor, treat, and reimburse that person asan expert.

Pitfall 3: Professionalizing Customers

Do not try to professionalize your customer partner, as heror his unique value to your organization is the connectionand different perspective.

Pitfall 4: Inconvenience

Bend over backward to make the partnership convenientand beneficial to the customer. The customer may be a non-traditional employee or consultant and may need specialaccommodations to make it work. But remember: Even inpartnership, this person remains your customer.


Figure 3. Strategies for Avoiding Pitfalls.

1. Tailor recruitment to the customers you want to attract.2. Match your needs to the customer’s interests and

capabilities.3. Support customers to success.4. Be serious about creating partnerships; stamp out

tokenism.5. Give fair pay and recognition for effort.6. Do not professionalize a customer partner.7. Make the partnership convenient and beneficial to the

customer.8. Start small and move slowly.9. Keep refining the process—you can always make it

better!


Pitfall 5: Moving Too Fast

In the excitement of starting customer partnerships, it isimportant to remember to start slowly. View your initialinclusion of customers as a pilot process that allows you tocompare costs versus benefits.

Start Small. Perfect your process with a few customers whocan give your organization specific feedback on how toimprove. Add more customers only when you have identi-fied costs, benefits, the appropriate amount of time todevote to this process, and how much time your staff cancontribute. The Community Support Alliance developedcost, benefit, and time estimates informally and experien-tially. Our costs included personnel needed for the cus-tomer coaching and other support-to-success activities.Benefits included increased relevancy and effectiveness. Welearned that time estimates varied both with the type of cus-tomer and with each customer’s individual learning styleand needs. As a result, we have drafted a customer partner-ship planning tool for CDD supervisors and their teams thatincludes budgeting resources to support this process.

Realize That You Will Never Be “There.” Our partnershipswith customers have pushed us to learn that we can alwaysimprove. Just when we begin to feel complacent about ourprocess, a customer makes a casual observation that lets usknow how much more we can improve. This is the beautyand the challenge of including customers.

Benefit of Creating Partnerships With Customers

In the Community Support Alliance’s experience, weincrease our overall effectiveness in realizing our mission

when targeted customers play roles that are a good matchand when the customers are supported to success.Customers help staff cross the line from theory to applica-tion. Customers have been there and can give staff the infor-mation and tools necessary to help them go into the realworld successfully. Customers increase relevancy by inject-ing real-life experiences into training and products.Customers speak and teach the language of the people thestaff serve. Customers demand a clear bottom line ofaccountability to the people you serve. They can help anorganization get out of the clouds and become grounded inwhat matters to the people the organization is serving. Inshort, creating partnerships with customers is one way tocreate excellent performance that makes your organization’smission a reality.

Note: The Community Support Alliance originated andfield-tested the concepts and processes described in thisarticle. The Community Support Alliance developed thequality-of-life interviewer process, related to the Quality-of-Life Enhancement Interview referenced below, in part-nership with the Arc of New Mexico as part of theAdvocates Alliance Project funded by the New MexicoDevelopmental Disabilities Planning Council. Relatedreadings are compiled below.

Related Readings

Abery, B., & McBride, M. (1998). Look—and understand—beforeyou leap. Impact, 11 (2), 2–3, 26.

Bishop, K.K., Woll, J., & Arango, P. (1993). Family/Professional col-laboration for children with special health needs and their families.Burlington, Vermont: Family/Professional Collaboration Project.

Dean, J.E.A., & Mank, D.M. (1997). Continuous improvementand quality of life: Lessons from organizational management.In Schalock, R.L., Quality of life volume II: Application topersons with disabilities (pp. 165–177). Washington, DC:American Association on Mental Retardation.

Falvey, M.A., Forest, M., Pearpoint, J., & Rosenberg, R.L.(1994). All my life’s a circle: Using the tools: Circles, MAPSand PATH. Toronto, Ontario: Inclusion Press.

Gilley, J., & Boughton, N. (1996). Stop managing, start coaching:How performance coaching can enhance commitment andimprove productivity. Chicago: Irwin Professional Publishing.

Hardy, L.C. (1998). Mentoring: A long-term approach to diver-sity. HR Focus, 75 (7), S11.

Hewitt, A., & O’Nell, S. (1998). Speaking up—speaking out. InBestgen, Y. (Ed.), With a little help from my friends…A series oncontemporary supports to people with mental retardation.Washington, DC: President’s Committee on Mental Retardation.

Ibañez, B., & Stevens, J. (1999). Self-advocate interviewer training.Advocates Alliance. Albuquerque, New Mexico: AdvocatesAlliance Project (funded by the New Mexico DevelopmentalDisabilities Planning Council) at the Arc of New Mexico and theCommunity Support Alliance at the Center for Development andDisability at the Center for Development and Disability, aUniversity Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities,Education, Research and Service at the University of New Mexico.

Ibañez, B., & Stevens, J. (2000). Quality of life enhancement process.Advocates Alliance. Albuquerque, New Mexico: AdvocatesAlliance Project (funded by the New Mexico DevelopmentalDisabilities Planning Council) at the Arc of New Mexico and theCommunity Support Alliance at the Center for Development andDisability at the Center for Development and Disability, aUniversity Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities,Education, Research and Service at the University of New Mexico.

Kretzmann, J.P., & McKnight, J.L. (1993). Building communi-ties from the inside out. Chicago: ACTA Publications.

Leyden. G., Newton, C., & Wilson, D. (1998). Circles of friendsin planning with students. Impact, 11 (2), 14–15.

Murray, M., & Owen, M. (1991). Beyond the myths andmagic of mentoring: How to facilitate an effective mentor-ing program. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Nelson, B. (1994). 1001 ways to reward employees. New York:Workman Publishing Company, Inc.

Nisbet, J. (1992). Natural supports in school, at work, and inthe community for people with severe disabilities. Baltimore:Paul Brookes Publishing Co.

Pearpoint, J., O’Brien, J., & Forest, M. (1995). PATH: A workbookfor planning positive possible futures—planning alternative

tomorrows with hope for schools, organizations, businesses,families. Toronto, Ontario: Inclusion Press.

Salomone, P.R. (1996). Career counseling and job placement:Theory and practice. In E.M. Szymanski & R.M. Parker (Eds.),Work and disability: Issues and strategies in career develop-ment and job placement (pp. 365–420). Austin, Texas: Pro-Ed.

Stevens, J. (1996). Setting up internal staff mentoring programs.Albuquerque, New Mexico: Community Support Alliance (for-merly NET New Mexico funded by the Long Term ServicesDivision) at the Center for Development and Disability, aUniversity Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities,Education, Research and Service at the University of New Mexico.

Stevens, J., Cahill, A.G., Ibañez, B., Allen, M., Costales, R., Ford,G., Martinez, M., & Wolf, J. (2001). Quality of life enhancementinterview. Albuquerque, New Mexico: Advocates Alliance Project(funded by the New Mexico Developmental Disabilities PlanningCouncil) at the Arc of New Mexico and the Community SupportAlliance at the Center for Development and Disability at theCenter for Development and Disability, a University Center forExcellence in Developmental Disabilities, Education, Researchand Service at the University of New Mexico.

In the past 31 years, Judith Stevens, MEd, has held leadership positions inthe developmental disabilities field in private, non-profit; self-owned business;state government; and most recently, University settings. She is currentlyDirector of the Community Support Alliance at the University of New Mexico’sCenter for Development and Disabilities—a University Center for Excellence inDevelopmental Disabilities, Education, Research and Service that is part of theHealth Sciences Center. The Community Support Alliance’s mission is to cre-ate and support the quality of life and social equality as chosen and desired bypeople with developmental disabilities and their families. Her work supportsthat focus through multifaceted efforts to create partnerships with her primarycustomers: people with disabilities and their families. One aspect of this focusis supporting customer partnerships to maximize organizational performance.Judith may be reached at [email protected].

Barbara R. Ibañez, is currently the Training and Development Consultant ofthe Community Support Alliance at the University of New Mexico’s Center forDevelopment and Disabilities—a University Center for Excellence inDevelopmental Disabilities, Education, Research and Service that is part of theHealth Sciences Center. She has worked in private, non-profit; self-ownedbusiness; and university settings. Barbara has over 19 years experience in thefield of developmental disabilities and traumatic brain injuries. This experienceranges from working directly with customers to supervising and developingperformance-based training for those who directly support the customers:people with disabilities and their families. A specialized skill in her work isdesigning, implementing, and evaluating supports tailored to individual cus-tomers. In addition, Barbara has provided comprehensive training of cus-tomers who become trainers. She may be reached at [email protected].


maximize performance impact: create partnerships with customers

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