We are now a full month into the New Year and I have noticed a significant and measurable decline in the approach and support of Customer Service.

To be more specific, we went back into the last 16 Business Acumen simulation sessions we have delivered for our clients to measure the trends of investments participants have made in the function of Customer Service to see if there was any data to support a thesis of continued diminishing investments leading to poor business performance. What we found was very interesting. During these last 16 Business Acumen workshops which include programs in healthcare, process manufacturing, financial services, and high tech, the average investment in Customer Service decreased by more than 28% across all participants and all workshops.

During the same time, we saw increases in investments for:

• R&D (32%)
• Marketing (22%)
• Sales (14%)
• Operations (2%)

This data got me curious, so we went back 5 years to a pre-pandemic environment to see what the data was. Unfortunately, we didn’t document the more than 400 Business Acumen programs we delivered in 2018, but I was still able to log into about 30 different simulations as a frame of reference and the average Customer Service investments were about +3.4% during a simulation workshop which typically averaged about 3 years of running the simulated company.

While not perfect science, a swing of over 30% is significant.

Part 3 of 3 

Welcome back to the final installment of our blog series on Psychological Safety. You can access the other parts of the series by clicking on the appropriate links below.

• Psychological Safety in the Workplace: Impact Leaders Have on Culture
• Influential Leadership Tips to Enhance Psychological Safety in the Workplace

In part three, will conclude the series with a discussion on practical actions leaders can take to enhance psychological safety in the workplace. Remember to take the self-assessment linked at the end of the blog if you haven’t done so already.

Welcome to part 2 of 3 of our Psychological Safety blog series.  Last week we focus on Psychological Safety in the Workplace: Impact Leaders Have on Culture. Today we will dive back into the discussion on practical actions leaders can take to enhance psychological safety in the workplace. Remember to take the self-assessment linked at the end of the blog if you haven’t done so already.

Part 1 of 3 

As the earth completes another trip around the sun, we find ourselves, at that time of the year when everyone is making their “New Year Resolutions” for doing things better and differently. Blogs, articles, and podcasts about people’s attempts at self-improvement – ranging from eating better to getting more sleep, to being better business leaders – are widely circulated.

his year, I am going to do something slightly different and hopefully more helpful for business leaders. As the topic of Psychological Safety gains more relevance in the workplace and as the number of clients utilizing our new digital business leadership simulation called, “Leading Psychological Safety” increases, I thought it would be great to share some insights into the 9 common (and sometimes unconscious) behaviors leaders exhibit that break psychological safety. I want to follow this with ideas – resolutions – for changing these behaviors in 2023.

In this 3-part series, in addition to the content, we are providing several additional tools such as a self-assessment questionnaire and an action planning checklist. Take the self-assessment linked at the end of the blog to reflect on your current behaviors.

As the year of Training and Development comes to an end, it is time that we reflect on another year of change.  For today's blog post, I wanted to take a moment to be provocative and use some of the business acumen topics that we teach in our programs to share a few insights about Virtual vs. In-Person training.

The Customer Value Equation

One of the core elements that we teach an Advantexe Business Acumen program is to understand the customer value equation. In the content we teach, this is the foundational concept that all other skills are based on and revolve around.

In the Customer Value Equation, perceived value to the customer is equal to the relationship between the perceived benefits received by the customer relative to the perceived costs the customer pays. In the world of Talent Development, the “customer” is the head of talent development with the budget responsible for training employees to do their jobs and execute the strategy of the business. The talent development team is typically a part of the human resources function which reports to executive leadership at either the corporate or business unit level.