Everything Speaks

Excerpt from the book Culturrific!

One of the exercises we do with companies is to have management complete a quick “Value Survey.” We give each manager a piece of paper with 10-12 blocks on it. Within each block is a statement that relates to their business and its service. We give each of the managers a role of pennies and ask them to stack the pennies on the paper across each statement. They are to read each statement and then stack a pile of pennies on top of it. The number of pennies in the stack represents how important they think that particular statement is to the overall scheme of things. The rules are simple. You must use all of the pennies in your roll and you can distribute them any way you want. You can even leave some blocks blank. When they are done, we have them discuss their reasons behind why they stacked their pennies the way they did. The metaphor is simple. The pennies represent value. The more pennies in a stack, the more value that manager placed on that particular aspect.

The important part of the exercise is not which block wins or looses. It’s that every manager’s paper is different! How can we be a Culturrific! service team if the players on that team have differing values?

This is the basis for Everything Speaks. Everything Speaks is much more than sweating the little stuff or paying attention to detail. Attention to detail is very important and it’s not being brushed aside here. We are trying to help you see service from a different angle. When it comes to service and your culture, everything speaks to the customer.