Background

The MSR, or Member Service Relationship and the Benefits of Relationship Building:

In general, there is a lot of literature extolling the benefits of building long, deep and wide relationships with members, prospects and stakeholders, so I won’t go into that.  Let’s assume that it’s a proven idea. Instead, below is a short list of simple ideas from long, deep, and wide relationship building:

    -higher levels of trust
    -increased Economic Value Added
    -higher switching costs
    -lower levels of destructive conflict
    -elimination of problems by upstream intervention due to high trust (important in financial health!)

The idea shared between the Member Service Relationship System, MSRS and COACH2, more specifically Dynamic Inquiry (C2DI), is the capability to build Relationships Long, Wide, and Deep (RLWD) about what really matters.

These relationship building skills emerge through a process of learning, unlearning, relearning, and gaining proficiency through 6 levels using the 7 skills of C2DI.

Seven practical interaction skills:

    -PING
    -PROBE
    -PROMPT
    -PERMIT
    -PERTURB
    -PAUSE
    -PACE

Each skill will be used in different ways through different personalities with increasing density (number of ways they are used, combined or delivered, and experienced); and increasing frequency (the number of times or how often they are used).  Or to say it another way: a generic model of quality and quantity, developed through training and assimilation exercises.

The proficiency developed by the person using the skills can be easily monitored, tracked, scored, remediated and captured for “data warehousing” benefits using a scoring of competence through 6 discrete levels.

6 levels of density and frequency

First, it’s important to note that the level of skill use will be dictated by the relationship interaction as well as the skill density and frequency of the MSR.

In other words, conditions dictate the density and frequency of the skills used.

It’s always a risk to go too deep or too high (complex) and too fast just because you can. So just because skill level gets more sophisticated with increasing density and frequency, common sense must prevail. The “common sense” needs to be outlined by the MSRS Manifesto:

Why we’re here?  What is the overall mission, which are the products that are a good match when…?  Who are the “right people”?   Where does the work lead all of us and how is it deemed, we are efficient?  These are all questions that should have detailed answers with process and procedure.

With those questions addressed, we can apply the mechanics of the 6 Ps to the system and push and pull density and frequency of the 6 Ps through each of 6 Levels.

Remembering Metcalf’s Law: 

Metcalfe’s law states that the value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected users of the system (n²).

This law was used to show how fax machines added to a network increases the value of the network over time. In the same way, we can demonstrate that density and frequency of the 6 Ps can increase the value of the network as users are added and gain experience in the system.

All users in the system begin at level “0” where no familiarity, density, or frequency of the 6 Ps is used consciously or intended.

Level 1:

In training, at L1, our ultimate goal is to give the person being trained a working understanding of the 6 Ps and thus add a L1 NODE to the MSRS Network. This will add value by connecting consciously a MSR into the broader network of the MSRS to serve broader relationship and wellbeing goals of the MSRS, as well as the triple bottom line of the enterprise.

In Level 1 training, unlearning of automated responses is more important than learning to be proficient in the 6 Ps. Learning to show up without an agenda, to really hear, listen, and understand the source of the opportunity that presents itself and to be fully human in the interaction with another person is the penultimate goal of L1 training.

Level 2:

After one week of intensive L1 training, the journey from Level 1 MSR to Level 2 MSR begins. The goal of the MSRS in relation to the development of density and frequency of the 6 Ps, is to consistently and consciously guide talent through increasing assimilation of C2DI density and frequency towards the application of dynamic Inquiry in the MSRS environment.

L2 can be identified through monitoring the MSR under load in the MSRS environment while interacting with prospects, members, peers, vendors, management, and the public while on duty as an MSR in the MSRS.

In order to assign L2 capability to the MSR regarding the use of DI and the 6 Ps, we can observe the conscious use* of the 6 Ps 25% of the time during those interactions. 

The key to success for MSRs lies in their capability to enhance relationships, leverage the opportunities presented, and to contribute to overall financial health and wellbeing where possible, in lieu of a stated manifesto.

The integral focus of MSR success must be related to the quality and quantity of relationships that are facilitated in relationship to satisfaction in the system, as well as the financial well-being index which has to be applied as a result of the integration of relationship with the FHC; again, in support of a values manifesto.

For these goals to be met consistently, the MSRS must consistently pull MSRs through L2 into L3 capability as a group, into a team, as a system. 

Individual capability will vary which means that the design of the MSRS must continuously be adaptive, innovative, and collaborative to reach the L3 system capability required for enterprise goal achievement.

Level 3:

The MSRS should strive for L3 team and system capability which integrates relationships, right action, and Well-Being over time of service. At this level, DI will be used 33% of the time consciously with additional languaging which is unconsciously woven into the interactions which denote the unconscious competence achieved by using DI, product knowledge, and collaborative relationship building.

People have to be met where they are; provided opportunities to go where they need to go, and to have lives in the process. C2DI is precisely designed for those conditions.

Level 4:

Level 4 in the MSRS is required to model the necessary development required for MSRS L3 Team and System Capability. L4 uses DI and the 6 Ps 67% of the time, 33% consciously and 33 unconsciously, demonstrating the ability to move in and out of instruction and interaction by modeling the system while using the system.

L4 monitors the MSRS and the MSRs and designs training, coaching, and mentoring opportunities that enhance the opportunities available for MSRs to improve their proficiency with the 6 Ps, and the integration of sensible products, with a conscience, to produce well-being in the system as well as by the system.

Level 5:

L5 is a meta-systematic and sometimes “theoretical” level of DI. 

No one will or would be expected to use DI all the time. However, it’s important for design purposes that a meta-strategy exist to fuel strategy and innovation with DI.  The same guidance is clearly present in L5 work where the L4 system must fit into the other strategic threads of the business and enterprise.

Therefore, in the design of DI and its application across systems, the use of DI in a training, coaching, mentoring, managing, and leadership context must be integral with the enterprise triple bottom line AS A METASYSYEM itself.

At L5, we can see and experience the benefits of applying DI and the 6 Ps to improve vertical growth, oblique development, lateral Knowledge, Skills, and Experience (KSEs) over time horizons specific to each stratum of work.

The system plugs into the leadership system to produce benefits beyond the MSRS, branching strategy and relationship building towards the emergence of the triple bottom line.

Any investment in DI can be linked to a return in the target system and the metasystem at large.

The value of DI is directly proportional to the number of nodes in the system employing some level of DI, thus demonstrating Metcalf’s law and the value of the growing density and frequency of C2DI.

A goal would be to gain immediate and enduring benefits from the introduction in as wide as possible an approach which can be trained, guided, and monitored across the system.

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*Conscious use is a subjective and discretionary judgment of the way in which an MSR actively attempts to weave the 7 Ps into their interaction. This means to the trained eye and ear, a conscious struggle is occurring to stop the automated/learned responses which are being replaced with a conscious attempt to listen to what is being said. An awkwardness at L2 IS EXPECTED; as the MSR begins to abandon their automated response system with a more conscious, empathetic, and open form of interaction.

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