When Transition Leads to Trouble

hey there friends and welcome to becoming a boss where we take some time each week to talk with someone who is wrestling with a specific situation at work some want to be helped and some just want to be heard I'm here with Wallace today hello and this week we are listening to a caller who's facing a problem with communication Apparently that is all the rage right now yes we just need better communication so there's that me and you communicate just (00:34) fine just fine and especially because if I don't know my feelings I'm like hey Wallace can you tell me how I feel can you explain it to me all right so we'll dig into the caller and just so everyone knows the callar is anonymous so her voice has been changed so in case you were wondering wow dapy sounds kind of robotic yeah cuz she is but we like her anyway but anyway it's a real caller though and a real story so here we go without further Ado let's listen to what the caller send us hello this is Daphne I'm calling (01:04) because we have a problem at work and I really just mainly want to be heard or maybe I want managers to hear this we're working for a company that was recently taken over by another company and the transition was difficult it was a whole new business structure including lots of changes in the beginning of the transition the quality analyst who monitors calls to see what we are doing was very helpful and informative and I had a positive attitude about it once the transition part was completed however now that we are fully (01:35) transitioned they have simplified the grading scale so that now part of it is just hit or miss whereas before we had a percentage I have a feeling that there are too many calls having to be reviewed on a daily basis for the team to be able to keep up because all of our reviewed calls are coming out with the same score everyone on my team is quite aggravated and frustrated they don't know why they're getting the scores that they are getting so they are confused confused angry and frustrated because the QA team (02:03) is supposed to be helpful to us and improve the quality of customer care and it's actually probably tearing down the company right now it's having a very negative effect so that's my story thanks so wait I'm trying to understand so it used to be a percentage and now it's Hit or Miss past fail I guess the part that confuses me is that they had a transition period where they're learning the new system or whatever so great because that's a great best practice to have a transitioning (02:39) period when you're doing something new but it it sounds like the grading scale then changed after that right so why wouldn't you I don't know it sounds a little sounds a little funky funky fresh what do you think are we missing details well I mean it's a recording so we yeah yeah it's part of our struggle and it sounds urgent I mean it sounds really like the consequences are she said it's tearing down the company well yeah one thing is I think she she sounds like a protector you know some people (03:14) are naturally protective of people in general their family their friends their people their you know and she sounds to me like a protector but definitely the team is being impacted that's terrible yeah and she does sound like a protector and I do wonder how much of the things she said about the team they're angry they're frustrated theyh I don't know how much like I would want to ask her yeah give me examples have they told you I feel like she's feeling I mean it's it's possible that they're all (03:46) feeling like that but mhm I just she's very passionate about this I can tell and I respect it mhm it sounds like they didn't tell them that there would be mhm that's I think a huge problem it sounds like they didn't tell them that there was going to be a change in the grading scale yeah why did she say she feels like maybe there's too many calls oh yeah she said that the scores are all coming back the same so she must be talking with other people otherwise she wouldn't know that so she's probably in (04:20) a powow with some teammates and they're saying I got this score I got this score I got this score I got this comment I got this comment I got this comment and speaking from just I mean I've just worked with QA analysts before in the past when they monitor calls they sometimes copy and paste their comments which is not necessarily the worst thing in the world because a lot of times you can say the same great things oh Wallace sounded great she greeted the customer with a friendly opening she you know so you I (04:53) mean you can copy and paste comments but I think what's really bothering her is that they're all failing allegedly and they're all getting the same comments and they had a transition period so why weren't these things addressed right in the transition period when they were allegedly supposed to be learning the new system I'm stressed out it's not even my problem so maybe there's the volume it's cing the quality the QA people to just copy paste copy paste copy paste because it's so any of them or that's what the I (05:32) mean that's what the caller says but any analyst is having to great a lot of calls and they probably do typically copy and paste at some point so that's like a standard I think so I've managed probably QA I don't know five different times like five different things so I can say yeah they yeah they copy and paste okay but so the the real problem in my opinion is that they weren't clear CU they don't know why they don't know why they're getting the scores that they're getting right and there used to (06:07) be a percentage and know as pass for pil right which is fine people change or people change people do change but systems change and one of the hardest things is launching whenever you launch a new QA program or you launch a new anything there are a lot of moving parts and it's hard to keep everyone on the same page and make sure all the you know it's difficult so it's sounds like somebody dropped the ball in communication to me which is funny because we've only done this our third go and we're already seeing a trend I (06:38) feel like fuzzy expectations yes and and poor communication mhm you get a fuzzy expectation you get a fuzzy um but the twist for Daphne's story is that it's a new launch so we've not really heard that twist before so that's good and launches are hard and transitions are hard and when a company comes in to acquire another company oh that's always messy it is because you know change is hard and to the people that were there before they want to do it they want to do things the way they were doing them because that's (07:14) what they know and that's what they're comfortable with and the people coming in are like no well we're Top Dog we're the ones acquiring you so we're going to do it our way cuz that's the way we do it one thing that I learned are you familiar with if it's called dis it's a behavioral analysis profile yeah yeah so I read that a lot of people fall into the S category and that the category of s avoid they tend to avoid change which I feel like is you know that sounds right m in my opinion it sounds like (07:48) right so which makes the launch or a change or a company acquisition even or all those things extra hard yeah I think too I'm an early adopter personally I think because I mean in the grand scheme of things if you take a step back and your company is launching a new QA strategy and we need you to hop on board I just think in my mind even if I didn't like it just for example what am I going to do right I'm a manager right and there's 990,000 other managers and there's a bajillion of employees and I (08:22) certainly am not going to be making any decisions so whether I like it or not it's happening might as well accept it yeah that's a good and learn it and learn how to win I also think I can win everything what if it's awful what if it's like a backwards way I mean I've never really to be honest and I've launched more things than the average bear for sure and I have never seen a time when we went from the old thing to the new thing and it was worse I've never seen that I've seen it not rolled (08:52) out well interesting I've not because technology the technological advances should automatically make Mak something better for example we used to have to hand write everything now I can just click a button and record it's funny you should say that cuz I just met someone who told me that handwritten was better than digital so because why I am not sure they said things were being missed that way things were falling through the cracks so collecting handwritten data is better and more efficient well um so that was (09:28) interesting have you ever read my handwriting because I can assure you that's what I'm saying but this person was very adamant and they said we don't do digital that is my choice and that is what works for us I would just have questions yeah you know the Lord's been working on my heart about questions he really has and it is incredible because I find myself where I would have had so many questions I find myself just nodding when I get these answers I'm like okay and I could really seriously (10:08) maybe last year it would have been an agitation for me mhm and now I'm just nodding I'm like okay well okay sure MH if that's what works for you I love it yes seriously I don't have questions now I'm like or like I have some questions but it's a lot easier to let it go I love that but anyway you know that's how you know Steve and I met at work and we were our company was acquired by a bigger company that's really when we started talking was when this happened and let me tell you everybody so it was (10:45) a 4050 employee company we were very small this other company was like 500 employees so they weren't that big but for our scale they were you know huge mhm and as you can imagine a 40 some employee company very small obviously so you you have you know intimacy intimacy and you just do things differently because it's not that many people to consider mhm it was four owners for equal owners of the company so the four of them made the decisions and the 40 of us were fine with that and it was so transparent and so you know I (11:25) did payroll and I had a very good idea on like how much money the company was making how money the company was bringing in when there was a profit they gave everybody a little bonus but it was so it was like nice and then came this other company where we just knew it was just it was just not they they weren't at that stage of having that level of transparency and having that level of intimacy and and familiarity with their employees because they were at a much larger scale and so coming in that was a shell shock for us I mean we had a (11:58) monthly launch where literally all of us sat together and had lunch that's great so that's what we were used to and then everybody knew about everybody's families and all it was cute like that everybody you know if you were sick somebody brought you a cast it was cute it was like cute and yeah people were freaked out when this bigger company came and had they had their own they even did payroll differently something as simple as you're not going to get paid on the 15th and the 1st anymore we (12:29) pay on the the every other Thursday whatever it was it was just different and people were freaking out yeah freaking out so talk to me about the roll out we heard about it they told us within 30 days of happening that they had sold the company okay and then were those owners still involved after the fact yes but not in owner capacity okay so they were they sold they liter sold they had a voice they had somewhat of a voice a couple of them went to sales one eventually retired and the other person stayed as like a practice leader and (13:11) then he eventually left also so they were still there and that was comforting it was done very well but it was intimidating we each had to be interviewed we were each interviewed all over for our jobs which that was scary that actually happened to somebody I know as well yeah that was kind of scary they had to re interview for their job when they already had it yeah and you know I personally didn't think I'm going to interview for this and I'm not going to get the job like I didn't think it was like that MH but it was still you (13:38) know and we did the dis assessments like they did all these things that you know just hadn't it kind of fell you were tested all over again I had only been there for a couple of years but some people had been there for 10 years when this happened so they were like what the heck like why am I being interviewed now for this job I've had for 10 years right yeah it was well when you have something for 10 years that's a real shocker I don't care what it is for sure if I have a pillow for 10 year I mean I haven't (14:06) had a pillow for but you know what I me yes but there was a lot of good that came with it being a bigger company for somebody like Steve who was in technology the smaller company couldn't really afford to pay for a lot of training send them to a lot of places this company now it's like okay now you can go to Microsoft and attend this conference and that like they had a bigger budget for that kind of stuff so it was good like it was ultimately good mhm just hard to transition yeah even I mean they changed the coffee we drank (14:37) and that was a thing and that was a little things like that people have a huge problem with did you do you remember taking any polls or surveys as an associate at that time no do you guys how do you feel about this absolutely not absolutely not this is what we're doing this is what we're doing this is what we do I think that's a mistake yeah I've taken over a whole bunch of themes in my career and the very first thing that I do what do you love what do you not love what do you want more of because how do (15:10) you care for people if you don't know what they need oh yeah I don't even I don't I can't even understand how you would do that what's going well what's not going well what can we do better what's our biggest opportunity do you think as a team and if I'm in charge of you how do I help you if I don't know how you feel yeah not at all I think it speaks to engagement and our caller is definitely not feeling engaged in fact I think she's feeling disengaged because not only are these changes happening without (15:42) her input or her consent or her opinion but also without having a clear expectation of what the expectation is and the whole team is unclear because she's been chatting with them they're getting all the same scores and they're assuming that they're having too many calls they can't keep up they're they're all and we and we do this we were talking about this earlier if we don't know the reason that a person did something we start making these reasons up in our head just wondering and (16:13) thinking and trying to understand and a lot of times what we make up in our head is worse than the actual truth right so whether what she's saying is true or not she's thinking it because they're not liking the result that they're getting and they're not getting any type of explanation right and like we said they perception is reality so whether that's true or not this is her perception and launching is hard one thing that went really well was that someone decided to have a transition period so that's great (16:41) yes it's just that there was no follow throw after the fact because during the transition period That's the time when you learn or you're supposed to learn one of the trends that I noticed that was a good Trend throughout the different teams that I had was for QA specifically when you first came on to the team you would get a grace period and so for whatever it was 30 60 90 days we will give you scores but they're not going to actually count we're only going to give you scores so that you can learn (17:09) oh that's great how you're being scored oh that's amazing so your manager has opportunity to meet with you several times and your one-on ones and you can ask questions and they can coach you on you know you received a 75% which is okay but the goal is 90% let's talk about what we missed just so we could get better even though this doesn't count this score is not counting no that's perfect perfect you don't feel the pressure of having to get a good score you only feel the pressure of (17:39) having to learn how to get a good score I love that so I think that's great I love that Trend so I'm not sure what happened in this case but it wasn't that no no and it almost sounds like cuz she said the person the QA person that was helping it was great and everything was great at first and then after the transition was completed it sounds like things changed the scoring CH scoring changed and that's what I really have an issue with mhm well I think that's what they really have an issue with yes if (18:05) the scoring was going to changed it should have been you know I wonder how that would have been different if they would have been surveyed on changing and maybe that wasn't a possibility but at least you know maybe it wasn't possible to maybe this wasn't a thing about getting an opinion but at least communicated before it actually happed before it actually happened I've noticed this with my daughter I have to explain to her what's going to happen next because she gets really upset if she (18:33) feels jolted and of course it's Amplified because she's a little kid but I think that happens for us too if we're not sure what to expect it's scary the unknown is scary scary for sure and if we have at least some maybe we don't know every single detail but if we just know kind of what's about to happen then we feel a little more comfortable and relaxed and at ease with the situation so telling them here's how the score is going to be here's how it's going to go and giving them an opportunity to ask (19:06) questions okay so we're talking about asking questions the manager wasn't mentioned in the caller's recording so we don't know if they had already asked the manager because I think this is something if you're meeting with your team all the time then you should one of them probably would have told you right right one would think one would think one would hope yeah I mean there's no way but they wouldn't right so either I mean there's there's some options I guess the manager is not meeting with (19:33) them I'm going to tell you a fun fact is DNE the manager no okay no I read that 60% of new managers fail within the first two years guess why they fail why communication communication mhm which we can see is a trend 60% and I would go so far as to say you should be having meetings with your team all the time one-on-one meetings team meetings these should be a regular occurrence yes I agree and I've also heard that people don't quit their jobs they quit their managers yeah well also if I'm meeting (20:08) with my manager all the time I feel like she's listening to me I feel like she cares about me I feel like she knows me as a person and it makes it harder for me to leave her right doesn't it provider it's a good meeting provider is a good intentional meeting if I feel all those things if you feel those things but there could I'm saying there could be a meeting happening and you not feel those things well let me just tell people that I have a one-on-one meeting guide that I was going to say if anyone (20:37) wants to do a good 10one and make you feel those feelings that you're saying because that it's 100% the truth the same way that is so easy to quit a job because of a manager that you don't feel any kind of connection or any like they appreciate your care in any way it is hard to leave a job where you do feel like your manager cares and and they're invested MH in you and the work you're doing I think yes your oneon-one guide is the best way to go because and that's what I was trying to say before not not (21:09) all meanies are created equal let's just say that not not all one-on ones are created equal let's just say that and I just don't want people to think they can call a meeting and and get in a room with you for 30 minutes and check a box cuz that's not what's going to do it there has to be intentionality behind and I think your cheat sheet that you put together is perfect to guide that conversation and make people feel cared for not just their output but you know them as individuals and their career (21:41) goals and and just all of that which yeah does make a huge difference I appreciate that I have been holding one-on ones for a really long time so I'm happy to to give it to people for free so that they can use with their own teams and it just serves as a guide if you you don't know how to hold a one-on-one meeting and the the feedback that I received was I'm a new manager I don't know I don't know how to hold a one-onone right you don't know what you don't know and so I'm not doing it (22:09) because I don't want to go in there and mess it up right so this and it has questions and everything you could literally read the questions and your team will I I honestly I don't know how you could follow the steps and have them not know you care about them correct I just don't know how you could so anyway that's there for you all right well that's it for today but remember that you can find my one-on-one meeting guide in the show notes Linked In the description and as always I want to say (22:37) thank you to all of our boss listeners thank you to our caller for sharing her story and a special thanks to my dear friend Wallace for hosting with me today and hey if you want to help us change lives give us a five-star rating or if you think your story can help others give us a call at 864 6191 1683 to help us Inspire and equip others on their journey of becoming a boss and listen friend we know it's not easy but remember that whatever it is you're walking through You are not alone and together we can make the world a better (23:05) place to work thanks for listening team take care and see you next week why s in a books