From Pew…
Teens write a lot, but they do not think of their emails, instant and text messages as writing. This disconnect matters because teens believe good writing is an essential skill for success and that more writing instruction at school would help them.
You can read the entire article here.
Tami Albin
At the IS Development Council Kickoff, I mentioned I’d like to see regular organizational rewarding of service excellence behavior. As a reference point, I mentioned our annual IS Employee Recognition in the Union Ballroom event, but we can only afford that type of recognition once a year.
I have in mind continuous, systematic, repeated acknowledgement that an individual is providing value-added service. Not just widespread (across IS) recognition, but at the worker-bee, small-group level and everything in between. At every level, individuals should be able to identify and point-to how they are personally contributing daily to the service quality objectives of the organization.
After all, we’re each acutely aware where we regularly fail / can’t do everything / disappoint our boss. So conversely, where do I (each of us) have the potential to be recognized as a Superstar?
But first, we need to define: “What is a home run?”
This week, Volvo announced their new goal: produce cars that yield no deaths or serious injury by 2020. An achievable goal? Hmmm… Will they move the numbers toward that goal? I’m certain they will.
A co-worker reminded me, “What gets measured, gets done.” A variation is, “What gets measured, improves.” This measurement process will be essential to the definition of “What is Service Excellence?” Start by defining a measurable goal at every level of the organization. Each level must define their goals so as to directly support the goals of the level above. Start at the top and define downward from there.
Secondly, we want to not only be able to identify what is a home run, but “How do I run up the score?”
Let’s use our “home field” advantage: this is not a Japanese culture where collective efforts create collective results and rewards; this is an American culture where individual efforts create new high points of achievement, raising the bar for the benefit of all. Let’s identify some pacesetters, and get behind them.
Lots to think about. So, let’s start here: What is a “home run”?
Ryan Papesh
IT Customer Service Center
The University of Kansas
itcsc@ku.edu
