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Featured Article: Manage Your Developmental Sigma™ to Improve Your Customer Relationships IN-HOUSE DevSigma™ WORKSHOPS starting May 2006 New Courses, Spring/Summer 2006 6-hr Continuing Education Course for Psychologists IDM Certification Courses starting April, May, and June 2006 International Gateway Instruction IDM’s Perspective on Leadership is an Instrumentation of the Integral Approach

Manage Your Developmental Sigma^™ to Improve Your Customer Relationships

By Otto Laske with Antoinette Dawson, M.A., "Black Belt" Facilitator of DevSigma^™

In this issue of the Newsletter, we share with you IDMA’s exploration of issues posed by business process improvement called SixSigma, with a focus on the people factor involved. We call this form of SixSigma Developmental Sigma^™ (DevSigma^™, for short). It's a new form of improving people-processes in support of SixSigma business process improvement. In particular, we look at a novel way of improving the employee-customer encounter using IDM Capacity Profiling as taught in Module C of Program One.

The effort to manage business processes by interventions based on assessments is as old as OD. In the 1980s, OD efforts crystallized into TQM (Total Quality Management), but TQM turned out to be too complicated and lengthy. In 1988, along came Bob Galvin, CEO or Motorola who designed a process improvement process comprising just six steps, and called it SixSigma. Since then, there have been many improvements of Six Sigma, but none included a convincing focus on the workforce that actually carries out process improvements. Only in 2005, an article appeared in Harvard Business Review that introduced "HumanSigma", a quality improvement methodology especially fitted to complement Six Sigma improvement processes. Authors Fleming, Coffman, and Harter pointed out that the employee-customer encounter is really "the factory floor of sales and services", and that improving that encounter through measurement (assessment) was likely to be a crucial step in improving revenue for companies. Download HBR Human Sigma PDF.

The big difference between SixSigma and HumanSigma processes is that the former are data driven, rational, and analytic, while the latter are based on a complex mix of emotions and “reason” (cognition). Depending on how complexly you conceptualize emotions, your Human Sigma improvement processes will look different. Now it so happens that “emotions” and “reason” (cognition) undergo significant changes over the adult lifespan (between 25 and 100 years of age). They are also the most researched of all lines of human development over the lifespan. Therefore, the difference between Human Sigma and Developmental Sigma lies exactly in how precisely emotions and their “mix” with human thinking can be addressed.

If, for instance, you view the employee-customer encounter as partly developmentally based (or as we say, Capability based), the mix of emotions and reason, to use that sloppy term, will turn out to be stratified according to developmental levels. This is exactly what IDM’s DevSigma^™ is about. DevSigma^™ makes Human Sigma more specific (stratified) and evidence based at the same time.

The question DevSigma^™ helps answer is: how can a company establish people improvement processes that support SixSigma, and what measurements and interventions based upon them are needed? The same question can be asked about customers, except that the first step in improving the employee-customer encounter is to understand what corporate-culture transformations are needed to put SixSigma (rather than only Three or Four Sigma) firmly in place.

The question about customers is very similar to that about employees. How do employees view their company, and how does that differ from how customers view the company? Just as employees, customers look for consistency in corporate self conduct, predictability of task approach in delivering goods, and for integrity in company’s affiliation with customers. In IDM assessment terms, we speak of employees' CAPACITY PROFILE, and this term can be carried over to customers without any loss of succinctness. In both cases, the crucial nexus with the company, whether by employees or customers, is ENGAGEMENT, more precisely ENGAGEMENT WITHOUT HIGH EMOTIONAL COST, that is, with low frustration.

Ensuring a consistent high-quality experience for prospects and customers is an important goal for companies. Ultimately, though, how far the customer’s expectation of a company "easy to do business with" can be realized depends on the company’s internal culture as a whole. One of the crucial ideas of Human Sigma is that both sides of the employee-customer encounter are informed by EMOTIONS. Emotions not only “color", but absolutely determine, the behavior, judgments, and decision making that is central to this encounter. Another idea is that this encounter is a local event, particular to a specific corporate environment (especially sales and customer service), and therefore has to be measured and managed locally, in the context of that environment. Therefore, to improve the quality of the employee-customer encounter, organizations need to conduct interventions, both short- and long-term, that are ultimately transformational. Clearly, this can be done only when employee-customer relationships are monitored within a single organizational structure, and with a perspective on employee capability. This monitoring effort works best if it is led by an in-house executive champion who is responsible for assessing and improving the employee-customer relationship, and is also “coachable” with regard to developmental and behavioral preconditions of optimal employee behavior in encounters with customers.

When you think about the HumanSigma developmentally, it is quite evident that the EMOTIONS that are crucial for the quality of employee-customer relationships are no different from emotions employees manifest throughout their organizational work, on one hand, and emotions customers experience in their life generally. These emotions are really the result of social processes. They flow from the social-emotional resources of employees and customers. Both, in turn, are developmental results having to do with the lifespan development of employees who can engage customers more or less fully, either as adolescents or adults. Clearly, therefore, the core of HumanSigma as a managed process is developmental.

Years ago, we put in place a disciplined human relationship improvement process that we've called Capability Management. This process combines a consistent method for assessing human relationships in organizations with an evidence-based process for managing and improving the process. The method is called "developmental assessment", while the process is called "capability management through the use of capability metrics". DevSigma^™ assesses employees' social-emotional resources in three steps, each of them corresponding to the three-layer pyramid shown below.

Fig. 1 Three layers of Human Resources

Competences are defined according to a company’s in-house culture. We place special emphasis on the middle layer, of Capacities since they are the universal glue that “holds the competences in place” for each individual. Capacities – derived from Henry Murray’s work in personality theory – are grounded, in turn, in individuals’ and teams’ developmental potential (Capability).

We define these three layers of “human resources” of a company as follows:

Fig. 2 Composition of “Human Resources”

IDMA’s DevSigma^™ is a holistic as well as local process. It does not separate assessing and managing “competences” from that of “capacities” and “capabilities,” nor does it cut the link between “emotions” and “cognition” (thinking). It rather assumes that the emotions surfacing in the employee-customer encounter are rooted in the employee’s Capability, or developmental profile; that they are informed by THOUGHT; and that they are managed to the extent that an EQUILIBIRUM exists among the employee’s organizational capacities (see above).

These capacities regard not only the employee’s interpersonal perspective (say, on customers), but also his or her self conduct and approach to tasks generally. Our approach to the employee-customer encounter via DevSigma^™ is local, that is, based on analyzing company culture. It is also evidence-based since it has broad backing in the psychometric and longitudinal research on human development over the lifespan.

Our main working hypothesis regarding a company’s DevSigma^™ is:

that the quality of the employee-customer encounter differs between employees according to their capacity profile which, in turn, is a function of their developmental and cognitive level.

Through our assessments, we arrive at a single measure of effectiveness for the employee-customer encounter in a particular company. The assessment is aggregated from two separate but related assessments: of employees’ capacity and capability. We call the outcome measure the Employee Efficiency Index (EEI).

For example, the EEI for a particular employee may be 4(3) [20; 32], where the first item indicates the employee’s developmental level (and thus emotional maturity), the second his/her level of systemic thinking ability, and the third the degree to which the employee’s organizational capacities are equilibrated to perform optimal work (that is, use their competences in an optimal way). When we aggregate individual employee measures, we arrive at a Corporate EEI, an index of a company’s capability to manage and leverage the employee-customer encounter (C-EEI).

It is evident that C-EEI will have a more or less strong correlation with a company’s financial performance. Therefore, the more a company knows about its employees’ EEI, and the better it manages C-EEI, the better should be its market performance.

Clearly, employee and customer engagement together form a dynamic system that cannot be gauged from the corporate side alone. Now that we have refined the employee engagement metric on psychometric and developmental grounds, we plan to extend it to customers, in order to arrive at a comprehensive measure for both sides of the relationship. (The methods we use on the customer side are essentially identical to those we use for employees.)

IN-HOUSE DevSigma^™ WORKSHOPS 2006

Starting May 1, 2006, IDM presents DevSigma™ trainings in the form of in-house workshops, at a time and place convenient for the particular client.

Managers are introduced to the conceptual framework of the “Need/Press” Questionnaire, to familiarize them with a tool for future use with their reports and teams. Sales and Customer Service Personnel is briefed on their own capacity profile in preparation of a more successful, frictionless encounter with clients.

Each workshop is followed up by way of several 1-hr coaching sessions with an IDM DevSigma™ expert. The expert gives feedback on participants’ assessment outcomes, thereby enabling them to put what was learned to use in upcoming encounters with customers.

All DevSigma™ workshops require the submission of a filled-out “Need/Press” Questionnaire™ highlighting participants’ personal capacity profile. The NP Questionnaire is a thoroughly researched tool that is based on work by Henry Murray and Morris Aderman of Harvard University, and has been in constant use since the early 1970s. The Questionnaire focuses on individuals’ interpersonal perspective (emotional intelligence), self conduct, and task focus. Outside of feedback sessions, questionnaire findings are kept strictly confidential. They are made use of only anonymously for pedagogical purposes, namely, discussion and guidance during workshops.

Certification as a “black belt” in DevSigma™, with a license to use the Need/Press Questionnaire™, requires participation in IDM’s Program One,Module C Course, as well as in an exit interview. For details, talk to the Director of Education, Dr. Otto Laske, otto@interdevelopmentals.org.

Register for the IDM DevSigma^™ In-House Workshop

New Courses, Spring/Summer 2006

6-hr Continuing Education Program for Psychologists

In May of 2006, IDM officially extends its offerings to psychologists. Dr. Laske presents a 6-CE credit tele-seminar for members of the Massachusetts Psychological Association. Out of state psychologists are likewise invited to attend. The seminar starts Saturday, May 6, 10 am ET, and continues on May 13 & 20, 2006. In this seminar, IDM offers a central piece of the Gateway class.

To learn more details about the May offering, go to www.interdevelopmentals.org/psychconted.html, where you’ll also find student reactions to IDM class instruction.

Register for the tele-seminar ($199).

Schedule of IDM Certificate Courses starting April, May, and June of 2006

Click course links for details and registration

To register, go to interdevelopmentals.org/registrations.html

International Gateway Instruction

Students have taken IDM courses since 2000. During these six years, a sizeable number of consultants, psychologists, and coaches have obtained IDM credentials. Students have come from the U.S., Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Canada, and the U.K. Some of our students are ready and are eager to teach IDM course materials.

The IDM Gateway class, a precondition for entering Program One, has established itself as a superb introduction to developmental process consultation in the most diverse venues. Starting May 1, 2006,the Gateway class will be taught internationally under IDM license by advanced students. In particular, the following members of IDMA will teach Gateway:

• Rainer Freiherr v. Leoprechting, Pro Action Europe, Brussels, Belgium
• Jon Ebersole, Dialogue Services GmbH, Zurich, Switzerland
• Antoinette Dawson, CA, USA (who is also a ‘Black Belt’ Facilitator of DevSigma™)

Certificate Program Course Descriptions

Gateway

Gateway is the time-proven introduction to developmental thinking in coaching and consultation in North America. The class prepares participants for entering IDM Program One. A new 8x2 hr Gateway class starts Tuesday, April 25, 06. Since the time is presently open, please indicate your interest by writing to info@interdevelopmentals.org. The textbook for Gateway is Measuring Hidden Dimensions, volume1, chapters 1 to 5, which you can obtain at www.interdevelopmentals.org/book.html.

Register for Gateway program

Module A

Module A is the first section of Program One, and is focused on hands-on work with interviews designed to deepen the coaching/consulting practitioner’s understanding of developmental level. The textbook for Module A is Measuring Hidden Dimensions, Volume 1, chapters 6 to 9, available at www.interdevelopmentals.org/book.html.

Register for Module A program

Module B

Module B introduces to a cognitive, dialectical approach to process consultation (including coaching). Participants learn to carry out and evaluate semi-structured interviews that elicit the thought forms presently used by clients, and to assist clients in boosting their way of approach life and work based on systemic thinking. Participants also learn to relate cognitive to social-emotional scores, to determine gaps between the two lines of adult development. The tools taught in B are central for all of coaching, including social-emotional and behavioral coaching.

A textbook for B is in the works. For now, participants will receive slide material and handouts.

Register for Module B program

Module C

Module C is a must-know for Managers who want to coach. It introduces participants to a ‘deep-digging’ personality questionnaire originating from Henry Murray’s work. Participants learn to master confidential data about three aspects of their collaborators’ work: self conduct, task approach, and interpersonal perspective (= emotional intelligence). The work profile derived from answers to the questionnaire indicates what enables superb performance, as well as what presently hinders a person’s optimal use of competences. Mastering the interpretation of questionnaire data will make you a much better coach, whether you are working with individuals or teams.

Register for Module C program

Module D, in Combination with Program Two

Module D is the concluding section of Program One, and is focused on preparing and submitting a written case study on a single client. Since this agenda is shared with Program Two, we will henceforth conduct these two courses together. This has the advantage for Program One students that they can benefit from the expertise of their more advanced colleagues who are writing their second, third, and fourth case study. For Program Two students it has the advantage that they are enabled to begin teaching what they know to less experienced students.

Program One completes with a Certificate of Developmental Assessment and Coaching. Program Two completes with Certification as a Developmental Coach/Consultant, depending on the candidate’s choice.

As before, Module D/Program Two will comprise 8x2 hour sessions. For students who entered the IDM program before September of 2005, the cost of the combined course will be $700 ($1,750 henceforth).

For further questions regarding these courses, write to info@interdevelopmentals.org.

Register for Module D/Program Two

On IDM’s Leadership Teachings Seen from an Integral Point of View

Ken Wilber’s Integral Approach has achieved increasing currency among a broad constituency of people in the helping professions. IDM instruction has always relied on Wilber’s precision and wisdom, and in Gateway and Module A has been based on his work, particularly Integral Psychology (2000, Shambhala). We have increasingly come to the conclusion that IDM offerings provide a timely and precise instrumentation, in terms of assessment, of the Integral Approach.

In a recent paper to be published by R. Volckman’s Integral Leadership Review, Otto Laske focused on the meaning of leadership and on ways to assess leadership potential objectively. Otto introduces a developmental concept of leadership, seeing it as something people ARE rather than HAVE, by distinguishing Capability from Competence. Otto uses the topic of leadership to show that IDM assessments provide instrumentation of Ken Wilber’s Integral Approach. These assessments, taught in IDM classes, and practiced in assessment, mentoring, and consulting, are “all quadrants – all levels.” This means they cover all of Wilber’s quadrants, and thus present a SYSTEMIC point of view of a person, event, or situation.

In the here mentioned paper, Otto works himself up from the level of the individual to the team and entire companies. He shows how the assessments work that are taught at IDM, and how they make it possible to give companies insight into what part of their workforce is positioned at a level commensurate with the complexity of tasks members of the workforce tackle. This is done by way of CAPABILITY METRICS, a visual depiction of gaps between what a person is expected to deliver and s(he) actually delivers. Clearly, such knowledge is of strategic value for any company.

Otto’s paper also delves into issues of leader development. He points out that such development rests on perception and learning, which are “horizontal” faculties compared to adult development, which lies in the vertical dimension. The off-shot of this distinction is that leadership development programs are more effective if one ascertains at the beginning and end of the program what is the developmental level and cognitive grasp of the leaders one is trying to “develop.” Without such knowledge, developmental programs are simply not specific enough to the capabilities they are meant to foster.

Read this paper at http://www.leadcoach.com/archives/e-journal/2006_03.html.

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