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The Four Journeys
In my discussions with clients, the themes of integration, change, and initiation of a customer experience/customer relationship management come up again and again to the point that I can’t help but point out that they all fold back on each other. If you take the broad view, the defining image in all cases is that of a journey, and the dominant organizational need is for what I call dynamism. In other words, the organization needs to be fit to go on the journey. Let’s start with defining those two concepts.
Journey. We talk about change but what we’re really talking about is a journey. The concept of the journey is integral to every culture and is the enabling subtext to the concept of the hero, as in the heroic journey. The heroic journey—the change journey—has recognizable and predictable components: separate from the current state; immerse into the journey and all the trials and tribulations; emerge triumphant. In the words of Joseph Campbell,
“A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.” (The Hero With a Thousand Faces, pg. 30)
There is a more detailed discussion of the phases of the journey in the paper I wrote, Try vs. Do.
Dynamic Organization. The optimum blend of vision, commitment, energy, flexibility, creativity, systems, controls, execution, endurance, and culture. Too much flexibility or too much form/rigidity are pointers for organizational problems, pathology, and toxicity. The need is to blend, not necessarily equally balance the components. Stasis isn’t the objective either.
Depending on where your organization sits on its lifecycle curve, one or more of those attributes will need to be dominant. The organization needs the right mix or dynamism in order to deal with the problems of today in order to move on to more complex issues tomorrow (stay doing, stop doing, start doing). Think of this as a fitness to go on the journey. The ultimate set of attributes might look like this:
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There is a single motivating passion and vision driving the organization. That purpose is powerful enough to include what I call the Four Journeys (keep reading; it’s coming).
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The organization can deliver its vision and brand promise through a differentiating, seamless, integrated, branded customer experience.
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There are functional systems and a functional organizational structure.
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Vision and creativity have been institutionalized: it’s not just about the founder or leader.
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The organization is results oriented. The organization satisfies customer needs. The focus is on the Four Journeys, not on internal marketing and politics.
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The organization makes plans and then follows up on those plans. The organization drives opportunity, it is not driven by opportunity.
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The problems the organization is dealing with are appropriate to the organization’s stage of development. The organization is able to deal with the issues and problems. The problems aren’t toxic.
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The organization performs excellently and predictably.
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The organization has clearly defined and aligned go-to-market strategies and enabling operating strategies.
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The organization is a magnet for the right kind of people (disciplined; right for the organization) and is able to move the wrong people out of the boat: recruit, hire, onboard, train, develop, promote.
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The organization can afford growth in both sales and profitability. The need to sell hasn’t overwhelmed the need to run a good business. The desire for control and profit hasn’t overwhelmed the need to stay close to customers and to do.
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The organization regenerates: by spinning off new organizations, by creating new lines of business, by promoting its people, etc.
These concepts give rise to the obvious question, “journey to where?” In my mind, there are actually four journeys and they need to interoperate with each other.
The Four Journeys. The problem with many change initiatives or journeys is that they tend to be all about the organization, and not nearly enough about the folks that experience the change in a real and personal way. Your organization is on a journey, or it should be if you want it to survive.
The journey involves change. If you want the journey to be successful, the broad objectives and themes need to intersect with, and be relevant to, the other three key journeys: your leaders’, your employees’, and your customers. So the four journeys are:
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Organization: needs to stay dynamic, viable, and valuable.
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Leaders: need to be able to guide the organization’s journey and growth while living their own employee journey.
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Employees: want meaningful work, a feeling of belonging and security, integrity, and rewards commensurate with the risk you ask them to take.
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Customers: want great experiences that pay off a relevant promise and deliver value across dimensions that are meaningful to the customer.
There are more than a few paradoxes inherent in all these journeys. The needs of one group can easily overwhelm the needs of another, giving rise to the possibility of all sorts of unhealthy conflict. So the Four Journeys require a balancing act. Two touchstones help you do that. They are both a clarion call that tell people what to expect as well as an embedded compass that should remind you and them what is and isn’t inbounds. They are your purpose and brand promise.
Purpose: The big picture. The vision. The mission. This is the answer to the question, “why are we here?” This is the critical and motivating foundation to the first of the Four Journeys. The vision could be something prosaic like: own a segment of the market, reach a financial objective, be the best at something, etc. It could also be more profound like: improve the quality of life of our customers, establish a new standard of excellence, support our community, and so on. The vision should beget a vision map that could include the following elements:
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Picture the purpose and destination.
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Picture the Four Journeys.
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Why is this important?
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How much, how soon, how sure
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Organizational requirements.
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Principles and Strategies
Brand: A brand is nothing more or less than a “promise of consistent value,” both now and in the future. This isn’t just any random promise, but specific promise the brand owner wants you to associate with the brand’s unique and differentiating attributes. The kind of promise that would cause you to bypass a competitive offer and pay a premium. The ability to attach distinctive attributes and value promises to your firm and/or offers is the essential nature of branding.
Brand introduces the necessary component to translate customer experience into something differentiating and uniquely yours. This something is called the Branded Customer Experience.
Branded Customer Experience: The essence of a branded customer experience is bringing your brand promise to life through every customer interaction. Customers have a branded experience when there is a differentiated and unique promise and payoff associated with their interactions with your people, processes, premises (including physical and virtual), and products (services, offers, etc.). This comes from delivering your brand promise through a lifetime of personalized, valuable, branded interactions when, where, and how the customer wants. There are four components that need to be in place if you hope to deliver a branded customer experience:
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Involve the customer.
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Exchange information for trust.
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Adapt-to-enrich.
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Deliver the essence of the brand.
You can download copy of this paper.
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Kevin Hoffberg
Last modified:
05/03/06