Who are the primary beneficiaries of services or products produced by your organization? How much contact do your employees have directly with these beneficiaries? Or how much contact do they have with internal customers impacted by their work? Research suggest that when employees “see the tangible, meaningful consequences of their actions for a living, breathing person” (Grant, 2012, p. 459), they see their jobs as more meaningful and performance increases. Adam Grant discussed this in a recent Academy of Management Journal article. In studies in private industry and government he found that transformational leaders need to do more than provide a compelling vision through inspirational words. Leaders need to provide opportunities for employees to experience the impact of that vision by employees interacting with beneficiaries. In the private sector study Grant found that a leadership initiative “enhanced sales and revenue, but only when employees had contact with a beneficiary” (p. 470).
Imagine working on a product but never seeing people experiencing the benefits of that product. Imagine being so removed from a service, in the service chain, that you never see the impact of your work on the next person in the chain, much less the end user. An e-mail from a former student telling me about a course or idea that helped professionally can be the highlight of my week.
I am reminded of Know Your Customer by Woodruff and Gardial, in my opinion the most important book I have read on producing customer value. At the core is really knowing your customer. Not thinking you know your customer but really knowing your customer. That means interacting with your customers on their turf, seeing your products and services through their eyes. Woodruff and Gardial talk about a boat manufacturer who gained a competitive advantage after he went boating with a customer and got a new insight into how the boat was piloted.
Incorporating beneficiary contact into jobs and activities may be a key to enhanced productivity in your organization, or your part of an organization. Use the Crawford Slip Method (I have permission to share) and ask employees how contact with beneficiaries could be increased. Then use the results.
Grant, A. M. (2012). Leading with meaning: beneficiary contact, prosocial impact, and the performance effect of transformational leadership. Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 55, No. 2, 458-476.
Image:"Busy people maintaining boat" by Steve Hillebrand, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Obtained from Google Advanced Image Search. Public domain.
Imagine working on a product but never seeing people experiencing the benefits of that product. Imagine being so removed from a service, in the service chain, that you never see the impact of your work on the next person in the chain, much less the end user. An e-mail from a former student telling me about a course or idea that helped professionally can be the highlight of my week.
I am reminded of Know Your Customer by Woodruff and Gardial, in my opinion the most important book I have read on producing customer value. At the core is really knowing your customer. Not thinking you know your customer but really knowing your customer. That means interacting with your customers on their turf, seeing your products and services through their eyes. Woodruff and Gardial talk about a boat manufacturer who gained a competitive advantage after he went boating with a customer and got a new insight into how the boat was piloted.
Incorporating beneficiary contact into jobs and activities may be a key to enhanced productivity in your organization, or your part of an organization. Use the Crawford Slip Method (I have permission to share) and ask employees how contact with beneficiaries could be increased. Then use the results.
Grant, A. M. (2012). Leading with meaning: beneficiary contact, prosocial impact, and the performance effect of transformational leadership. Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 55, No. 2, 458-476.
Image:"Busy people maintaining boat" by Steve Hillebrand, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Obtained from Google Advanced Image Search. Public domain.
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