Case studies

Well, it has been a long time since I have posted here. I just posted on from over a year ago, May 2011. It was interesting reading it and my perspective now. I was trying very hard to look good and be acknowledged. I needed validation desperately.

I am grateful for that experience as I am for these last 2 as well. I am not going to write about them here and now, but soon I will have write ups about Transocean and Chase.

Love,
Jeff

Products and Services

Love Your Technology is a consulting firm but operates with alternate intention. We are focused on the people issues within an organization and department, not the technical ones. We believe that all technical "problems" are simply an extension of the workforce managing them. We work with the business and c-level IT staff to develop a plan that works with their interests in uncovering what is going on with their technology staff. Specifically, we believe that every engineer, with few exceptions, knows how to do their job. And, that with some adjustments, could be performing optimally. It is with this belief that we would work with the management team to discover, document, and facilitate resolution for within their IT group. This has several stages to it and may or may not progress through from one to another. They are:

Contained consultancy - in this stage, we are engaged directly with a either a business manager or a IT manager (either C-level or lower) that is clear that he has enough "bodies" and "hands" to do the job, knows that at some inherent level, all of his employees are good enough or better for the job they are in, and yet is clear that something is suffering or is below an acceptable level. This can be customer experience, network performance, time to resolution or all/other. We work with him/her to better understand the landscape of their environment, never reaching further then their experience of the environment. This provides them with validation of their experience, confidence to deal with the problem themselves, as they may already know most, if not all of their own team issues.

Team Injection - in this stage, the management team is clear that either they need more information about their team's inner workings, that they now realize that they need an extra hand in the workload, or they are looking for a more intimate way to engage with the exact issues they are aware of. We deploy one or more engineers into the IT team(s) in question as an "employee" and get them all the access and real task list to help the team. As they get integrated, they gain first hand knowledge of the issues that plague the group and the exact nature of the inefficiencies and breakdowns in policies and procedures. This can be based on several methods:

Project based - consultants are deployed to the project team

Contract based - consultants are deployed to the employee team as contractors

Review/Respond/Revisit - the management team and our consultants review the details of the engagement that they have been working in and define a list of issues. Working together, a plan is created as to how to deal with the items in the review and facilitate improvement. As part of that process, action items as responses are developed and enacted at a pace defined along with. As they are enacted, details of the effect are collected and reviewed periodically to monitor progress.

We work in this fashion for however long is necessary or requested so as to improve the overall effectiveness of the team and each of its members individually.

What is Love Your Technology really about?

It is about caring for people (customers, clients, technicians) in technology by truly being with them in their troubles and also loving them with truly empowering objective information. Most customers, clients and even IT professionals are left being treated very poorly most of the time by other IT professionals. The warmth and presence of the connection is typically very low, leaving people feeling unconsidered, shameful and even unhelped. To add to that, the information that they get from their provider is typically very skewed and subjective, whether intentional or not, causing the customer to have very little real information with which to make a powerful choice about. The information is sometimes so slighted that it is fact detrimental to the customer. Unless, on those few occasions, where an angel within the system is reached by some miracle and they are not only extremely gracious, even loving, but provide all of the necessary information in a detached manner that gifts the customer with not only a pleasant, if not wonderful taste in the mouth, but also a heaping mountain of information, which usually in turn, not only solves their problem or answers their question(s), but may also proactively cover any future need they might have in calling again. These are truly rare and transformational experiences within the technical support context. This is what Love Your Technology strives to propogate through all avenues of technology.

How do we prepare for the next phase of technology?

As some of us may know, technology is merely an interface. It is meant as a means to an end, for the sake of connecting people together, and in new and powerful ways. For, at least, the last 10 years, most of us have certainly been witness to this simple fact, but not many have come to realize that our current approach to technology is incomplete and fragmented. This lack of integrity in the whole of the approach has left many people more disconnected and confused then before we had the Internet or worse are now so grossly invested in the new indulgent ways that we can connect frivolously, that they are in a worse shape than those less experienced. The Internet, and all technologies associated with, surrounding, and even outside and on the peripheri of, are all intended to serve us in some way. To make things easier, faster, more powerful, or to take pressure off of us, to do things for us or provide more information or access more quickly than we can alone. This is for the sole purpose of enabling people to connect more often and more powerfully. Now that I have that out of the way, that tells us where we are and are not. But what about where we are going or where it is possible for us to go. Since the original idea of a way to connect to share information by way of digitized text through a means now called the World Wide Web, there has always been an additional view that this WWW would simply be a foundation for a more powerful level or phase of technology where less was being done by humans and more was being done by machines. This has always been part of the original concept and idea. So, where does this leave us? What do we do now? How can we best prepare for this next phase of technology? One that has always been intended from the start, but is not quite here in full swing yet. Now, knowing that the next phases of technology will be doing more for us and allowing us to do other things, but without knowing exactly what it will look like, I believe there are some key mo vements that we should be focusing on in the present moment. We should be simplifying our overall approach to technology, we should be staying focused on our business practices and how closely they resemble our actual business and how often they are reviewed and updated, we should be attending to our relationships and beginning to build powerful teams of people and supplementing them with the tools they need to thrive. Without knowing all of the ways that technology will expand from where it is now, we need to clear the way, by eliminating all of the fires and critical items that stand in our way. This is important because as technology is grown exponentially, not only will the current fires and issues be such small dealings, but we will be left with any and all breakdowns in our teams of people. The future will hold that all humans can finally get to what we were meant to do, connect deeply, serve and heal to the next level.

What will it take for you?

Finding out what others need can be tricky. Especially when you have some skills in some of the areas. I have found it difficult to separate myself from a possible solution when dealing with consulting firms. My initial objective is to define all of the things that they believe that they need order to love what they do. Believing that I know that they need some help connecting fully with their staff and also are in need of additional technical support from a senior I continue to confuse the matter. I am also finding myself confusing the heck out of them too. Now it is not to say that I might actually be a part of the solution, but at least initially, it is simply a conversation around what they need. What I do is connect with people, have powerful conversations about right where they are at, determine if there is a way that I can help them directly, and connect in others from the community for the areas where I cannot be of value. Its that simple. Now that doesn't mean it can't get confusing. And it has been. Companies get themselves, people get themselves, into some big complicated messes. I help sort through it all. What is it going to take for you to love your technology?

Customer Care: How are you handling it?

It is so easy to start a company based on what you know how to do. I can fix cars, so voila, I start a garage. Well, what happens when the most important people involved in your business don't have a channel to fully communicate their entire experience to you? Believe, I know how hard feedback is, but let me tell you, it is the most important piece of information you could ever hear. Especially from those around you that are seemingly eager to tell you about how poorly you've handled something. And they are usually right on. Sure there is some emotional charge there that is theirs to own and be with, the actual cold hard data, that stff is priceless for those business owners who really do want to serve their customers. So how are you handling it? This seems like a big question, but the truth is yo probably already know a portion of what is going on in your business. Things like, who is the least happy, who will never return as a customer, maybe even who were your best successes, but if you are really lucky, you know about the really bad deals you've made. The customers that you have really done wrong. But it doesn't stop there. It is easy to believe that our customers are the only beneficiary of customer care, but there is another group in there that is equally as important; our employees. They are the ones, if you have been successful enough to have them, who are actually selling you to your customers. They control your namesake and what your customers believe and tell others about you. It is critical that they have a place to speak too. So where do you start? The first thing is go ahead and review your brain for all of those comments you've been hearing for months, but have made up that there is nothing you can do, or they will just get over it, or who do they think they are. You may have your own version, but you know what they are. These are the low hanging fruit. You already know about these. Let's address them immediately. They have been going on for a while now and some of them are likely starting to fester, if they have not already been the cause of the some customers leaving and employees quitting. Next, let's be really intentional and let everyone know that you are now taking feedback and to please let you know if there is anything that they need to tell you. Assure them that they will not be fired for simply telling you. Second, you should start interviewing your employees again, be clear about stuff that you do know, but in a way that owns it (like you know Bob told you that Sarah thinks you hate her, but tell Sarah that you know that you haven't been the nicest boss and you want to work through it and be better). This will make it safe for those who do have something to say. Again, you should be tapping your own memory on this as you likely know what certain employees or customers will say about you. We want to believe that we don't know, but we have an idea. If they tell you things are great, consider that you haven't owned enough of it yet and made it safe for them. Attempt to go deeper if possible. Otherwise, have them review and sign a survey/review of the details of your discussion to promote honesty and accountability in future interactions. This may take a while depending on how many clients (who are actually willing to participate) and employees, but once you have at least gotten through this process once, then you will have a better idea for next time. Rinse and repeat.

LYT Deliverables: this is what we offer

Love Your Technology is focused on fully connecting with you, understanding all of what you are about, and partnering with you to support you in getting where you want to go. The 3 ways that we do that are;

1. Conversations - our varied experience as technologists, humans, and members of families and society create a unique and powerful resource to have in all of your conversations. This is the core deliverable of LYT. Within this piece alone, exists meaningful information, insights, and scenarios that give you the edge in really understanding what it is you want to be doing with your technology. Simply put, business is done in conversations.
2. Training/OJT Support - an opportunity to have an experienced engineer be with your employees and actually train them at their job. This is a great way to understand the exact workflow of your staff and all of the obstacles that keep them from being great...in real time!
3. Resource Referrals - you need community, now more than ever. To fully empower you to move forward and magnify your efforts, allow LYT to create opportunities for other companies, executives, and specialists to contribute to you and expand your current viewpoint. This will lead to not only some powerful conversations, but some real impact on the direction of your efforts.

Please call today to start your conversation!
Jeff Gaff
Founder
Lone Your Technology
281.222.1930
Jeff@Loveyourtechnology.com