The word teachable means “favourable to teaching.” To my mind, the parallel to this would be “favourable learning or open to learning.” To those of us who reside in the human resources, customer experience and people development domains, “teachability” is a coveted attribute within an employee community. When a business is, itself, a teachable entity, it is raised to almost reverential status.
Let’s take a peek at the internal benefits of being a teachable business.
First of all, the culture would not be contentious. Employees would be encouraged to have conversations that aim for breakthroughs as an endgame and to not be trapped in circular conversation games that go nowhere. In such a climate of transparent exchanges, conflicts would be aired, dissected and resolved. The business would demonstrate a high level of social intelligence, with relationships being refreshingly authentic.
Let’s take a peek at the internal benefits of being a teachable business.
There would be the happy collision of curiousity, creativity and structure. Basically, there would be space for varying styles of mental expression. Teachable businesses acknowledge that humans come moulded from different templates and when a workspace climate accommodates diversity and inclusion, a sense of “fitting in” prevails and releases positive energy.
So how would this type of business respond to change? By engineering self-disruption and making change a way of life at work. I believe that the teachable business would ensure that it is untethered to rigidity and allow itself to co-exist peacefully with the unknown. It would be a space where employees would be encouraged to become comfortable swimming in uncertainty, because…well, that’s life. By extension, employee development would be expanded to include exposure to life skills and the tools to navigate life with confidence and courage.
The business would demonstrate a high level of social intelligence, with relationships being refreshingly authentic.
Let me pause here to let everyone know that teachable businesses are essentially “evolved” businesses, and are not new to the landscape. The pandemic, with its seismic shocks to workplace dynamics, has been instrumental in shining a spotlight on the need for greater adoption of this style for future proofing purposes.
So, we’ve taken a look at the internal benefits to be derived from being a teachable and evolved business. What about the benefits to the customer experience and service delivery?
Well, in a teachable business, there would be the perfect intersection between the customer’s expectations and the customer’s experience. The wide chasms that exist at this time, would be eliminated, whilst the hallmarks of the new experience would revolve around vastly different key markers for customer delight.
Employee development would be expanded to include exposure to life skills and the tools to navigate life with confidence and courage.
The current standards of consistency, convenience, ease of doing business and responsiveness will no longer be distinctive points of reference for differentiation, but will be downgraded to minimum standards for conducting business. The problem here, of course, is that there are so many existing businesses that have not mastered these current standards of care, that up-levelling to the future standards, will take massive effort.
Teachable businesses recognize that customers are self-directed individuals, who are responsive to easily accessible educational content. This content must be shareable, relevant and dynamic. By offering these customer community platforms, businesses can glean powerful insights into how customers think, what they expect and how they would like their problems to be solved.
In a teachable business, there would be the perfect intersection between the customer’s expectations and the customer’s experience.
Another point to note, is that teachable businesses are listening businesses. They are far better than regular businesses, at utilizing every opportunity to gain access to the customer’s brain and to manoeuvring the emerging insights into exceptional experiences.
Recently, I had the privilege of working with the executive team of a financial institution, to reset the current belief systems and cultural behaviours driving the business. The intention was to begin the transformation of this business from a rigid, legacy-driven entity, to a transcendent, value-driven entity.
Often, rigid legacy beliefs promulgate behaviours that are highly resistant to change. This is a lethal pairing that can grind a business to a halt. Compare this with the transcendent beliefs and stackable behaviours of the teachable business and you have a front-row seat to understanding how the process of future-proofing business gets started.
They (Teachable Businesses) are far better than regular businesses, at utilizing every opportunity to gain access to the customer’s brain and to manoeuvring the emerging insights into exceptional experiences.
Every business either wins, loses or draws in the game of customer experience and service delivery. To the teachable business, however, of these three options, only one is viable.