#WordNerdWednesday
An executive I work with told his colleague about the program we’re building to create a more customer-centric culture.
That person responded skeptically, “That would be amazing…if you can pull it off.”
Such skepticism isn’t without merit. Many companies have tried to shift from being product- or sales-centric to being customer-centric and either a) failed outright or b) stalled after making progress in one or two areas.
This track record makes some people think enterprise customer-centricity programs are “moonshots” – highly ambitious projects or missions undertaken to achieve a monumental goal.
Some executives fear championing the effort even though they think “customer-first” is the best strategy. “What if it doesn’t work?” they wonder. Will their reputation take a hit? Their career stall?
That might happen, but it also might not.
Some moonshot projects DO beat the odds.
Just last week, the first private lunar lander touched down on the moon despite having severe technical issues with just hours to go. Software teams threw a “Hail Mary” pass of sorts, writing and deploying a new program to trigger an untested backup system to help land.
It worked. Not perfectly; the craft is on its side and won’t be able to do everything it was supposed to do. But it’s still delivering value. That’s what matters.
Another moonshot success story is the James Webb Space Telescope project, which had 344 single points of failure. If any one of those things went wrong, it would tank the entire mission. 30 years. $10 billion. Down the drain.
But that’s not what happened. And now we have mind-blowing images of stars, galaxies, and black holes that are hundreds of millions of miles away.
I keep a photo from JWST over my desk to remind me that we humans can do hard things.
Transforming culture and #CX are never smooth sailing. Skeptics push back. Supporters leave. Budgets get cut. Teams get re-orged.
But, having contributed to dozens of transformations over the past 20 years, I know the effort is worth it and that even if we fall short of our ideal goal, we’ve still made an enormous positive impact on many people.
