Each one teach one.
[Full disclosure: I stole that phrase. From somebody who borrowed the African proverb and tuned it into a philosophy. That somebody is Stephen Leafloor, better known as Buddha, and I stole the phrase from his TEDxOttawa talk… and since those talks are about ideas worth spreading, let’s call this spreading, not stealing.]
At its core, “each one teach one” is about each of us having mentoring responsibility for another. Now, Buddha applies this phrase in an environment where it literally changes peoples’ lives, and I encourage you to learn more about how he is improving the future of our youth through the power of hip hop by clicking on the image to the right. But I want to talk about how this philosophy can help overcome one of the common challenges faced by those who lead customer listening systems: gaining initial buy-in then sustaining momentum for customer-focused action.
If we can embed “each one teach one” into our corporate cultures, we will develop an environment in which each employee feels a sense of responsibility to perform their job functions in a way that sets an example for other employees. This can develop in an organic way, supported of course by communication of the message; but it can also be developed intentionally, by seeding the organization with employee champions who are trained to be advocates for the customer. As their actions and attitude spread through the organization, they will be teaching other employees to think and behave in the same way. And so on, and so on, and so on…
At the recent CXPA Members Insight Exchange, Fidelity was highlighted for their customer ambassador program… proving that it IS possible to launch this type of mentoring initiative and have it be successful. Perhaps each of us can be the ‘each one’ who starts the ball rolling in our organizations.