Jump Starting Internal Customer Relationships (Part 1 of 2)

This was a great 'cast guys. I just

This was a great 'cast guys. I just want to emphasize one thing you have said because I think it's very important.

This isn't just for people new to management. It's just as useful for people in new management roles in an organization and vital for people new to an organization. These are techniques that any manager who hasn't implemented them can benefit from. Don't gloss over this 'cast just because you have been a manager for a few years.

Oh yeah, and for my fellow project managers out there, this can be useful for new projects as well, even if you have a relationship with all the players already. It's a great way to get to the project Statement Of Work.

Hey, sorry if we weren't more clear.

Hey, sorry if we weren't more clear. This was our first cast in a series for new managers, but sometimes the definition of "new" is fungible. We meant it to be valuable in the broadest possible sense.

Mark

Hey Guys, I've got to tell you I was

Hey Guys,

I've got to tell you I was so upset over these 2 podcasts I actually lost some sleep over them.

I am based out of Canada and responsible for IT infrastructure support about 15 small sites throughout North America and South America. My staff travel to these offices throughout the year performing IT installations and upgrades but once every 2 years, I travel to each office specifically to get face to face feedback from the general manager of the office and make sure that I we are doing the work that my customer is expecting. Appreciate that these offices are all through North and South America - from the US and Canada, Columbia, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and more - so it isn't a trivial (or cheap) process to visit these offices.

So, back to the 2 podcasts on "Jump Starting Internal Customer Relationships". My problem is that I just started my visits to these offices and I didn't listen to them until AFTER I had visited 2 of these office this year The reason I lost sleep over these podcasts is because I realized you are right - I was so upset with myself after realizing what I had done

It was classic - I did exactly what you said NOT to do. I had an hour presentation where I listed all the activities we completed last year, ongoing activities, and some future plans. I was basically bragging about all the work we had done for them- and I wanted to make sure they knew we weren't just sitting up in Canada twiddling our thumbs.

Now that I've listened to these 2 podcats, I'm taking the opportunity to re-focus on the real reason of my visit. I will be gathering the customer's feedback - not brag about what work we did for them.

I will be taking your ideas about a one page presentation and prepare interview questions and ask them for their ideas and feedback - and listening to them talk instead of talking AT them about my work.

Great show - keep up the great work.

Whew! I saw the beginning of your

Whew! I saw the beginning of your post, and I thought, uh-oh! We've upset someone.

Glad it's going to help... keep us posted. Might not hurt, when you go back, to say, "I apologize for the first meeting... I was off base. Rather than telling you all the stuff we did for you, I know now I need to ask you what you need from us. I'm here to correct that."

Best post of the day!

Mark

[...] The folks over at

[...] The folks over at Manager-tools.com have published an excellent podcast on “Jump Starting Internal Customer Relationships.” This week, we lay out a simple, systemic plan for reaching out to internal customers to find out what they want from you and your team. It builds relationships, and gets you valuable data your team won’t have. [...]

I am managing an R&D department that

I am managing an R&D department that recently got refocused. I will be using the refocus as an alibi to use these tools. I am sure that this is a perfect way to maintain relationships even for managers running the same shop already for years. Even without the refocus of my department, I would probably have gone around and use it!

Thanks!

Hi M&M, I recently started listening

Hi M&M,

I recently started listening to your podcasts. My brother suggested me this. Thanks Prakash. It was a such a great timing. I grew up in an IT company from a senior developer to senior manager over 10 years and most of the management (read whatever I did) skills were either inherited or further perfected by me. And recently I left that company and joined another for a different kind of exposure. Well, I realized the pain of getting in a manager's role in a new setup. Although I am confident that I will get through this but then of course there are no short cuts. If I get the handholding of Manager tools, I am sure I will not only do it but do it in the best possible way.

In my frantic search for the podcasts, I picked a few and now this. It's so apt. I am yet to apply but then I am still <90 days old. I am sure there is no point in hurrying. We need to understand system good enough to ask the right questions or to understand the answers in the right perspective.

I have a question. How do we communicate the problems that my team has against our internal customers. I already have several of them accumulated. I know few of them are perpetual and few I can resolve on my own. But if we assume that certain things we want to communicate to them, what's the way to do it without being thrown out of the window J

Thanks for doing a commendable job for the manager fraternity.

Ravindra

RNKondek- Many thanks for your kind

RNKondek-

Many thanks for your kind words. You're why we're doing this.

Mark

Hi M&M, Your suggestion was to not

Hi M&M,

Your suggestion was to not to tell customer about our expectations, or at least that is what I understood like. There is one issue with the customers behavior, that I am getting lot of pressure from our teams, to handle. The issue is about accepting the software tools that we produce. The customer(internal) never let us know the schedule of such acceptance testing. They drag the testing for two or three months. Or They point out some bugs and state that they have stopped the acceptance testing, till . I amnot sure about the root cause, but I suspect, there is shortage of resources with them. Or simply negligence as in any case they can blame it on us for any delays on availability of the tools. Thinking further to check if our expectation is legitimate, i draw an anology with external customer. With external customer we wouldn't let them go without taking money for the project, here since money is not involved directly, asking for acceptance report in reasonable timeframe is legitimate. Please help.

Thanks,
Ravindra

Part of my first 90 days

After reviewing the MT recommendations for new managers, I decided on three things for my first 90 days. Firstly, no big splashes. Fit in. Next, begin 1:1's immediately. Lastly, to do this exercise with our internal customers and provide the feedback to my work group.

The greatest early outcome was developing relationships with our customers over the time it took to conduct the interviews. There were forty people I connected with and found out there was a great deal I did not know. It was a challenge to just listen and gain understanding and not try to defend our positions and shortcomings.

On January 3rd, to kick off the new year, I shared the feedback with our group and we had a very robust conversation around what was collected. I would have scheduled more time if I would have done this again. After 90 minutes it seemed like we were only getting into the thick of it. Also, the breadth of the feedback left me feeling like we were about to go out and try to "boil the ocean". There was a lot of team feedback I collected when I asked "What are we going to do about this?" Currently we are sorting through everything, but we are certainly on our way.

Now comes the challenge of distilling it to one or two items to execute on and then re-asses. Thanks for this cast. We have a compass reading and a great challenge ahead of us. I'm excited as we take the beginning steps forward.

All best wishes,

mb