It is my contention that most organizations and domains view themselves, and act as, geo-centric systems. They think of themselves as "center of the universe". This obviously influences their view of the "outside world" and especially their views on customers. Usually, they think of them as independent celestial bodies that may be attracted to various systems.
Individual departments within organizations may also adopt a geo-centric view. If so, they perceive themselves as "independent" from the rest of the organization. Geo-centricity is often "supported" by the organizational framework of organizational plans and structural conditions such as budgets, which – in a geo-centric view – easily translates to departmentalized or individualized "power".
In such systems, the approach to the customer is limited to the individual transaction. The customer only gets our attention when he or she appears in "our system". That the customer may also interact with other parts of the organization is not important. To us at least. Thus, individual customers may interact with different parts of our organization (x, y, z) but they only get attention from the individual parts of the system - they are not treated as customers to the entire system.
The geo-centric approach is problematic as it creates a customer experience that falls short of – or is in direct contradiction to – customer expectations. Internally, the geo-centric approach causes an atomized approach to problem solving, rivalry, sub-optimization, resistance to change, limited sharing of knowledge and data, lack of communication and unnecessarily complex workflows.
In contrast, a helio-centric approach usually strive to create a unified customer experience and conduct backstage coordination. Internally, helio-centric systems are more collaborative, share knowledge and data and promote an orchestrated approach to problem solving. Furthermore, budgets are usually perceived as means to be used to the good of the organization.
Working as a change manager in geo-centric systems is almost impossible. If you promote anything resembling a more helio-centric approach to enable process efficiency or customer centricity you face fierce opposition. Suggest anything that requires co-operation, collaboration or the sharing of resources and you are in for a hard day at work. Even in the face of openly expressed motivations regarding the potential benefits of change, all organizational convictions work against your. There ARE ways to succeed, but it takes time and (ninja)skills.
HELIO-CENTRICITY = $$$
You might have head the phrase "customer centricity". Easy – just think of the customer as the sun in your solar systems "et voila"!
The customer does not perceive your company as different entities. They perceive you as ONE. Thus, if you work with any kind of "customer experience" or service improvement projects, there is no way around adopting a more helio-centric approach: Back-stage coordination; maybe a single point of contact but at least a similar experience and awareness of all interactions with the organization over time.
REAL-LIFE EXAMPLE
In Denmark, reports show that a young person with a criminal record sees help from as much as 20 different municipal officials on his/her way back to "normal" life. Other groups of people in need of help from the social system are treated likewise.
Even if each person in the system is eager to help, the many and indeed well intentioned initiatives often causes chaos as coordination between, and across, municipal and state bodies is limited. Consequently, the person in need of "help" is administered "chaos". As a result, some retreat into mental resignation - others put up active resistance.
Link to report (report is in Danish)
The same reports show that if you have just ONE person handling all direct contact with the person in need of help (a helio-centric approach) and carry out internal coordination backstage - you can produce 40% MORE results with 60% LESS input of resources. And while this may not be true everywhere, it is food for thought.
I have witnesses the success of three different initiatives aimed at bringing people from the most troubled end of the social system back to work. One had cognitive psychology as its basis, one used art projects and the third was more "mainstream" in its use of tools. However, what they shared was a common of just ONE contact point and widespread back-stage coordination – a working (best) principle that can be applied in any service organization and a great example of the power of the helio-centric (customer centric) approach.
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