9
O P I N I O N
Response-ability
Our success, as people and as businesses, depends on the quality and speed of our response to problems and opportunities.
T his play on the word responsibility is not new, but it has never been more appropriate or relevant than it is to today’s AEC firms.
the importance of speed, courteousness, a construc- tive attitude, openness, and the integrity of our responses is widely accepted – but only sporadically do we find it institutionalized in AEC firms. Our experience shows that companies that fail to satisfy – and lose – their clients are more likely to fail for these rudimentary service issues than for their pro- fessional capabilities. Great leaders obsess over cli- ent centeredness and demand client responsiveness; they hire and fire and train over it. There are often policies that no client call, text, or email goes 24 hours without a response; and the company folklore “Our survival and, ultimately, our success as people and businesses depend on the quality and speed of our response to problems and opportunities.”
We live and work in a world where our ability to respond effectively – to our clients, to our colleagues, to our family and friends, and even to our own deeper needs and aspirations – is being tested, threatened, and blocked at every turn. Our survival and, ultimately, our success as people and businesses depend on the quality and speed of our response to problems and opportunities. Yet, there is surprisingly little guidance on how to cultivate the right habits and improve our firms in this critical skill set. We thought it might be useful to consider this important issue in context with what we’ve learned from the nation’s most successful AEC firms. ❚ ❚ At the most basic level, the best performing firms are known for their responsiveness. It seems almost too obvious to mention but “profes- sional services” is a phrase assigning equal weight to both words. We exist to satisfy client needs, and
Melissa Swann CONTINUING ED
See MELISSA SWANN, page 10
THE ZWEIG LETTER February 4, 2019, ISSUE 1282
Made with FlippingBook Annual report