Case Study: Everything DiSC for Change Management and Customer Service

Improving communication and customer service was successfully  accomplished using a blend of Everything DiSC for Workplace, Management, group reports and the Personal Listening Profile.

Company

• A medical diagnostic center and research organization with companies spanning across the U.S.
• The finance and accounting department, that works with all areas of all companies.
• Approximately 30 employees in the finance and accounting department.

Challenge

When the new CFO arrived, he sensed people were disconnected from one another. After being in the organization for a few months, he found that basic communication and customer service skills were lacking, interdepartmental relationships were in jeopardy, outside customers complained regularly, business-close was taking too long, and there was no synergy between team members.

The CFO wanted to do customer-service and change-management programs for the finance and accounting group.

Solution

We created five lunch-and-learns around the Personal Listening Profile. Most employees and managers were engaged and began to buy in to their self-development.

After the lunch-and-learn sessions were over, we were asked to coach a few of the new managers. We used theEverything DiSC Management Profile, a workbook we created, and the Everything DiSC Management video to individually coach each manager. As part of the management-coaching process, we used the Everything DiSC Comparison Reports. We ran comparison reports between the CFO and the managers, and by request, any two managers who wanted one.

We had facilitated coaching sessions with the controller and two managers who were his direct reports. The controller’s managers gave him feedback about his management style. At one point, the controller was resistant to the feedback he was given. The high-C manager who gave him the feedback was able to provide the controller with an example of when his management style doesn’t work well for their relationship. She told him that when she works very hard to gather and bring him correct data, he often makes her feel like he doesn’t trust her numbers or ideas for solving problems with the data.

The individual coaching sessions were so successful, that the CFO wanted more training. Together, we designed a program that included two sessions for managers, two sessions for employees, and a final session on conflict management for the entire group.

We started with the managers and opened with reviewing the Everything DiSC Management Profile. Next, we went over the Everything DiSC Group Culture Report and had a great discussion about what their culture looked like and how it might impact the organization. At the end of the session, we gave the managers random Everything DiSC Comparison Reports and gave them the assignment of pairing up with their Comparison Report partner. They reviewed their Comparison Reports together and talked about the information and how it could help their working relationship.

After the management session, we began two employee sessions, following the same format we used with the managers. For the employee group, we used the Everything DiSC Workplace Profile along with the Group Culture Report and random Comparison Reports.

Finally, we ran Comparison Reports between each manager and each of their team members to use to improve their working relationship.

Coaching Results

• One manager, who has a high D/I style, was rubbing everyone the wrong way. As we discussed this in our coaching session, she began to cry and said, “I’m a D, I tell them they can come in and tell me what’s on their mind.” She thought that people would then come to her directly if they felt something was wrong. We gave her some candid feedback about how her words sent a message, but her behavior told a different story. The next day, she had an epiphany and realized how much her behavior was impacting not just her team, but others too. Since then she has made a great effort to accommodate people based on their styles. One of her team members, who was close to being put on a performance plan, is now her “superstar.” By communicating differently, she is getting much more out of people.
• During another session, a manager who many employees were having problems with, openly stated he realized he was causing conflict by not being aware of how his high-D behavior was affecting others. One of his direct reports was ready to quit; this manager told her that he now realized he needed to communicate differently with her and would make an effort to do so.

Other Results

• When the CFO came on board, business-close took approximately 21 days. It is currently about 5 days.
• The finance and accounting department have had happy hours and events outside of work.

For more information about the Center for Internal Change and the Everything DiSC and DiSC Classic products we provide, please call us at (847) 259-0005.

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