High Tech High Touch Solutions eSharings March 1 2007 Issue

Do you have a dream that you would give up anything to achieve? We went to see "Wild Hogs" and it was sold out. "Astronaut Farmer" was the only other option. The film is about having a dream and not ever letting it go. It's about the influence of a superior leader.

Billy Bob Thornton plays Charles Farmer who got his family to not only see his dream and vision but fully embrace and work towards the same goal together.

A friend joined Charles Farmer and his family for dinner one night. He said most people would be happy to simply have their family to sit down to dinner together but he said to Charles, you've got them sitting down to dinner and talking about a common vision.

As a leader, Charles gets his family to follow his lead and to share his vision. When things continue to get in the way, he never gives up. This is a movie about perseverance too. I don't want to ruin the movie for you but the end will inspire you to pursue your own ideals.

What if your help desk / contact center team saw the same mission of becoming the utmost corporate assets? What if they did anything they could to realize this vision together? Why not consider taking your team to see the Astronaut Farmer movie together? Group too large? Consider taking the people who haven't been recognized for their performance in awhile or need a little inspirational kick in the pants.

If you can't get out - bring the movies to them. A projector and a dark room are perfect for a little team building. The Endurance based on Shackleton's Way (see this link for some useful people-centered approaches to leadership) is another excellent movie to watch together.

One of my clients took 300+ employees to see Star Wars (the day it came out) in the middle of the day. They rented out the entire theatre. I went along and it was incredible to experience team building on this scale. I suspect you would see a change in performance after such an adventure with your own team. You will probably feel a change in your own outlook about realizing your ideals too, if you see Astronaut Farmer.

Enjoy the movies, Ivy Meadors High Tech High Touch Solutions www.ivymeadors.com or www.hthts.com Office: 425-398-9292		"Somewhere along the line, we stopped believing that we can do anything." "If we don't have our dreams, we have nothing." (Quotes from Astronaut Farmer spoken by Billy Bob Thornton.)

RESOURCES (top)

High Tech High Touch Solutions website - New additions/updates

Quotes: A full page of motivational quotes and links to websites on quotes. Useful to include in newsletters, email signature lines, and on your reader boards. They're worth the time to read.

Events: Completely updated and lists upcoming events including complementary tele-seminars.

Recommended Reading List: Our booklist has been updated with a number of new options. If you haven't seen the list before, please do drop by. There's something there for everyone.

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Productivity in the Call Center

Interesting article on "Productivity and the Workweek"
Twelve Ways to Boost Productivity
How the Right Headset Affects Call Center Productivity and the Bottom Line

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Comedy video clips:

The IT Crowd Help Desk

Live Help Desk

Burger King Outsources

Outsourced movie trailer (Looks like a movie we will want to see.)

One event speaker shares:

"I would absolutely love to speak at any/all of your events - I'm in awe of the quality and content of each of these great conferences (and I've attended enough "other" conferences to know a real winner/loser when I see one - and yours are REAL WINNERS). "

"Keep up the great work,"

Greg Charles, Computer Associates (CA)

The 6th Annual Government Customer Support Conference and Expo

Come to Alexandria, Virginia early and enjoy tours of the local area and be refreshed, ready to start on Monday morning to begin three full days of learning about the help desk, contact center and service portal revitalization underway. Book your hotel room now to get the super reduced room rate.

Look who's keynoting at GCSC 2007 in May! Prosci Research are the industry experts in Change Management. There are loads of invaluable resources on their website. We are very fortunate to have Phil Eastman, a Senior Instructor from Prosci Research, as our keynote speaker presenting, Managing the People Side of Change: Best Practices for 2007 and Beyond.

Changes to processes, systems and tools ultimately require people to change how they do their jobs. Yet, employee resistance to change remains the number one obstacle to successful transformations. Change management is the key to minimizing resistance, gaining buy-in from executives and reducing any impact on your customers.

This keynote session will provide a change management foundation and share lessons and best practices from Prosci’s new 2007 change management research study with hundreds of companies all over the world.

Benefits of Attending:

Learn how change management can help your organization
Understand why employees resist change
Discover mistakes executive sponsors commonly make when leading change
Learn the critical senders of communication messages
Gain critical success factors for managing major change initiatives

Take Away: All attendees get free copy of "Change Management: The People Side of Change" book.

Phil Eastman is a master instructor with Prosci Research. Phil was previously the CEO and president of Key Bank of Idaho, and Chairman of the Board for the United Way of Idaho’s Treasure Valley region.

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GCSC has an incredible half-day post conference on "Another Kind of “Smart”: Using Leadership Quotients to Get Real Results" Read more.

UCC Exclusive Site Tour: Reserve a spot on the exclusive site tour of the Unified Communications Center on Wednesday, after the closing session. The site is billed as one of the premier facilities of its kind in the nation. There are only 8 spots left on the UCC tour so hurry and sign up now. Email GCS@hthts.com to make your reservation. (The site tour is only available to conference attendees.)

READER ASKING / READER ANSWERING (top)

Lisa Zerda from Molina Healthcare: Does anyone have call protocols vis-à-vis distressed callers (i.e. suicide or bomb threat) they can share?

Susan Gemmel from the Crisis Clinic shares:
"The key is not to try and handle the call alone. We get a supervisor or crisis management leader on the call together with the representative immediately. One person can help with tracing the call or making additional contacts while the other person talks to the caller."

There are numerous very useful resources and statistics (some very shocking ones) posted on the Crisis Clinic website that are useful on crisis management. If you are looking for training for your call center, call the business office of your local Crisis Clinic to ask about the training they offer.

Visit the Seattle Crisis Clinic website for insights on things to do in the case of a suicide or homicide threat.

Additional resources:

Handling a call from a suicidal person
Bomb Threat Checklist includes useful considerations.
Training Materials for Hotlines and Helplines
Training resources for managing crisis calls
This article may include some ideas - Improving Police Response to Mentally Ill People

If you have more information on this topic, please send your answers to solutions4u@hthts.com and we will post them.

BIG NEWS - NEW LEADERSHIP COURSE! (top)

Unleash the Leader Within: A Better Way to Manage Customer-Support Operations

Brand new course for service and support managers loaded with fresh material for the advanced professional being unveiled at the 6th Annual Government Customer Support Conference and Expo.

Eric Rabinowitz of Dema Education and Eric Svendsen of SCInc., two of the most insightful, knowledgeable and fun instructors in the Help Desk industry will be delivering this two-day course at the Government Customer Support Conference and Expo on May 10-11, 2007 in Alexandria, VA.

Details posted here.

Hurry and sign up now - only 10 seats left!

Sharing Solutions and Ideas

If you have solutions or non-traditional ideas you would like to share with our readers, please email me so we can share it with the thousands of readers from all over the world who subscribe to eSharings.

The next issue of eSharings includes some fun and unusual ideas for things to do in your own service and support centers. These have been submitted by people who are successfully using these ideas in their own groups.

Mark your calendars now for the
9th Annual Help Desk Professionals Conference

October 22-24, 2007 in Phoenix Arizona at the incredible Pointe South Mountain Resort

Register now and save $300

COMPLIMENTARY TELE-SEMINARS IN A MASTERMINDING FORMAT (top)

High Tech High Touch Solutions offers complimentary tele-seminars presented by speakers of our conferences. We use a "Mastermind" format keeping the phone lines open for discussions. We limit the number of callers. Be sure and sign up now. Simply email solutions4u@hthts.com to say you will be joining us.

What's a "Mastermind" format? Napoleon Hill, author of the must-read book Think and Grow Rich, said, “A mastermind is the harmonious alliance of two or more minds that creates a friendly environment to gather, classify and organize new information for fast and effective implementation.”

These sessions can fill up since we have a limited number of lines. If you haven't RSVP'd please do so today. Email solutions4u@hthts.com

Putting ITIL, Six-Sigma and CobIT to WORK-shop

Presented by Greg Charles, PH.D, Computer Associates

Date: March 22nd, 2007

Time: 10:00 AM (pacific time) / 1:00 PM (eastern time)

Call in number: (563) 843-5600 access code 724326#

Cost: None

Greg will be covering key components in this ITIL Theory seminar, a compressed version of the mini-workshop he is presenting at GCSC 2007. It is based upon ITIL education and discussions of real-world scenarios. Attendees will learn and discuss the benefits of applying ITIL best practices while at the same time learning the basic principles of ITIL. Attendees will also learn the relationships between ITIL processes, the different ITIL roles and discuss the best way to implement this framework in their organizations. Click to read full session description.

This is not a vendor sponsored session and no sales pitch will be made about CA. Greg is an expert in delivering educational material and is a favored speaker in our program.

yolunda davis and Deborah Eaton from the IRS call Center present how they built a collaborative culture through employee engagement.

Date: April 4th, 2007

Time: 10:00 AM (pacific time) / 1:00 PM (eastern time)

Call in number: (563) 843-5600 access code 724326#

Cost: None

There is one thing that plagues most businesses - CHANGE. The ERC is the single point of contact for all IRS employees to request administrative products and services. We have morphed from a Call Center to a Customer Service site. There has been no significant turn over in employees. How did we do it? Two words, Employee Engagement. Click to read full session description.

It would mean a lot to us if you would please forward this newsletter to two others and encourage them to subscribe to our secure, never sold or shared readership. Thank you so much.

SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION (top)

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HDP 2007 | GCS 2007

Reach us at solutions4U@hthts.com or call 425-398-9292.