I had the pleasure of hearing Ted Schadler speak this spring and this was a quote of his that stuck with me.
“You must empower employees to solve the problems of empowered customers.”
In their book, Empowered, Schadler and co-author Josh Bernoff target information workers, their business managers and employees. Their book provides numerous examples of technology empowerment. I’ve thought about how this quote applies to my company, my team, to me…and how it applies to my customers, their companies, their teams, and so on.
I am tremendously grateful for the gift of working with an innovative team of hardworking drivers. One of the most satisfying aspects of my role here with the policyIQ team is that I know I make a difference. Our model is such that I have the opportunity to explore, learn, and share my ideas and to implement many of them. Some of these ideas relate directly to technology, such as suggestions for features in our product. And some of the ideas have more to do with how and what we will share with you, our customers.
- “I think we should blog about _______.”
- “I want to teach a class on ___________.”
- “I’d like to better understand ______ process and develop a solution demonstrating how we can help.”
- “_____ taught me a better way to do this and I’d like to find a way to spread the wealth.”
Because of this support and encouragement that the policyIQ team receives to explore new ways to solve customer problems, we have grown in recent years from three primary solutions to around fifty! (Several of them are described briefly here.)
What is the need in the marketplace that your organization exists to serve or fill? What are you doing to empower your employees to explore, collaborate and innovate so that they may meet your customers’ needs?
When it comes to policyIQ, many organizations originally purchased the application to help them manage their SOX documentation and compliance. Others selected policyIQ as the application that would aid them in driving department or enterprise-wide consistency in their policies and procedures.
A few of our customers put policyIQ in the hands of innovators and empowered them to think beyond SOX and P&P. Those customers have, in-turn, established dozens of other applications of policyIQ to better secure, manage, access, share, report on, govern, etc.…all sorts of business information and processes. They are meeting their customers’ needs more reliably and efficiently.
Take steps to lead your organization to use technology to solve customer problems. Connect your empowered employees with ours and we’ll continue this stream of solving customer problems together!
