At the encounter business, everything we do, from a one hour consultation to a six week project, follows these simple steps.

The game we’re playing

The game we want to play

Shifting

THE GAME WE’re playing

Everyone’s in a game. Sometimes this game is lively and inventive. A sense of growth and possibility abounds. Often though, the game is one in which we’re stuck : a series of repetitive patterns where we end up in much the same place as we started.

The question is what do we want to do about it?

We’ll help you see what kind of game you’re in. Lots of stuff will come up. We’ll be encouraging you to face reality, but also to appreciate and affirm your strengths as a business and organisation. What you do well andbelieve in? These strengths may include your processes, how you build relationships, your reputation in a sector, your enthusiasm, particular assets or networks. The likely solution to your ‘problem’ lies in extending what you already do well – and daring to do it even better.

We’ll put together a highly involving programme (that’s why we’re called the Encounter Business.) It results in a crisp appraisal of the rules of your game and the strengths you may choose to develop.
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THE GAME WE WANT TO PLAY

This is where we get very clear on what you’d like your path to be. An encounter with your own future. It’s an exercise in imagination. (In truth, it’s several exercises.) We’re not building Utopias here, but we are daring to describe what a great future looks like: for you and your customers or stakeholders, and how that can come about

There are a barrelful of creative options here, but we use a mix of conversation, analysis, play and improvisation. Most importantly, we bring together the people that need to be there. Result? A stretchy, but realistic picture of the future, and a clear sense of the challenges.

Crucially, we also help you develop a set of simple principles that can guide you as you act into that future.* The new rules of the game, if you like.

* One of our favourite examples is the US Field Corps. Stay in touch, keep moving forward and keep to the high ground. Nothing grand there, but perfect decision making guides under difficult circumstances.

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SHIFTING

Shifting the game is the main point of the exercise. It’s not the usual roadmap of here to there and here’s your marching orders.

Shifting means adopting the simple guiding principles and engaging in deliberate formal and informal experiments as you act into your future. It also means being open to one another through regular reviews and adjustments. We help coach you on those difficult first steps.

Examples of changing the game

A major contact centre evolved a set of simple principles to guide their conversations with customers, allowing them to drop established policies and QA tangles where they felt it was in the best interests of the customer. The critical game changer was the 15 minute daily pull up where agents debriefed and coached one another creating continual new momentum. Customer satisfaction leapt.

A marketing and sales team who changed their game by deciding to move from driving brand preference to creating brand advocacy as their main goal. The former had locked them into trading punches with two established competitors. The latter freed them up to make more effective use of marketing expenditure and launch flanking product extensions.

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