How do you team up and stay focused? See which Ritual suits your team and commit to work smarter and better together so everyone can make impact on what matters most and have more life in a day.

1. Rituals

2. We always
make
conscious
choices.
• We create clarity with our customers by always starting with a
clear definition of what success looks like for our customer
• We then consciously translate that into concrete actions
• We choose what needs to be done together with whom from our
network
• We choose the right location to work with best fit for attention and
confidentiality
• We choose which technology and rituals support us and our team
members in the best way
• We regularly reflect on progress and finetune our actions towards
customer success

3. We always make conscious choices.
1. Define the top 3 prio’s as a team and your own top 3 prio’s (and share those with your
team)
- Stick your top prio’s on your virtual post-it, so you see it everyday
- Use Cortana to help you remind your top prio’s of the week
2. Friday is “plan-day” (for next week):
- Accept/ decline: decide which meetings to attend (no tentatives)
- Set location in Outlook/Skype by day (if relevant)
- Reflect on progress on your 3 prios
3. Use Teams as preferred collaboration tool (instead of Email and Skype)
- As a team
- And customers and partners
4. Define a physical minimum with your team
5. Decide when to “on” and “turned off” (turn of sync, alerts etc.) especially during
evening, weekend, holidays etc.
It is our choices…. that show what we truly
are,
far more than our abilities
J.K. Rowling

4. We contribute
in
engagements
with others.
• We brief before engagements (agenda & desired impact)
• We consciously choose if we participate
• We are on time to meetings
• We pay attention, listen actively, contribute and park email, phone
and Skype for later – or don’t participate
• We ensure all voices are heard and listen carefully
• We are conscious of our energy and energy in the room, creating a
positive and rewarding environment
• We debrief after and everyone states their own follow up action

5. We contribute in engagements with others.
1. Accept or decline meetings at least 2 working days prior
2. A meeting request should include
- Purpose/Name (brainstorm, workshop etc), Agenda (to inform, to decide, to discuss), Role attendees specified
3. 24/48 hours prior to the meeting all support material (PPT’s etc) are uploaded in Teams. If not, topic not discussed
4. Pro-actively choose the location and room for your engagement
5. During the meeting:
- No other tasks (email, phone, IM etc), all alerts/sounds off, laptop/phone in bag (if not needed)
6. Use Challenger 3:3:3 method:
- Prepare powerful questions (see Challenger Sales for guidance) for any engagements
- Create an insight using the 3-step challenger conversation framework
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
Dalai Lama
With customers/partners and colleagues

6. We respect
focus time.
• Customer Success requires that we have focus time (alone or with
others) to plan and execute on customer strategy
• We choose when to focus individually and when to engage with
others
• We have open agenda’s to share our blocks for focus and for
availability for others
• We use and respect presence info (digitally and/or physically)
• We respect silent areas
• We respect each other's working hours and styles to allow for
more life in a day

7. We respect focus time.
1. Create focus hours in your agenda (use morning hours is proven to be more effective )
2. Define 2 moments per day to do your e-mail and close Outlook the rest of the day
- Postpone opening your emails in the morning (“eat the frog first”)
- Put a message in your automatic reply
3. During Focus time:
- No other tasks (email, phone, IM etc), all alerts/sounds off, laptop/phone in bag (if not
needed)
- Put “Not Disturb” on Skype/ Teams or headset on red
- In case of being disturbed: inform your colleagues you will respond later
4. Use MyAnalytics to reflect on your behavior: focus hours, email behavior, meeting hours etc.
The time that leads to mastery is
dependent on the intensity of our focus.
Robert Greene

8. We team up.
• We collaborate with intention for customer success, with a clear
common understanding of our customers’ strategic priorities in
mind
• We make a conscious choice to use the collaborative knowledge
across teams to jointly plan upfront and align in one engagement
with our customers & partners
• We share accountability and hold each other accountable
• We offer perspectives with attention and empathy to achieve the
highest impact together
• We free up time to support colleagues when needed

9. We team up.
1. Include our customer and partner(s) in our account/terrritory planning
2. Communicate, collaborate and share through Teams
3. Team up with at least 1 partner on every engagement
4. Team up with all relevant segments (including Services, WE and beyond) to
enhance customer success
5. Team up (ie by use of LinkedIn) to reach to the BDM at our customers
6. Team up with our customer/partner to grow their azure skills, allowing us to
learn jointly
7. Build deeper insights in our team’s collaboration style (e.g. MBTI)
8. Every team asks for and gives feedback through Perspectives
If you want to go fast, go alone.
If you want to go far, go together.
African proverb

10. We are OPEN
to everyone.
• We collaborate and co create beyond our organizational
boundaries for customer success
• We shift our social center of gravity into the ecosystem to learn
more about our customers, partners and everyone else
• We are open to form new relationships, internally & externally
• We learn our own biases and include and seek input from people
with a wide variety of perspectives and backgrounds
• We ensure an open, work environment to ignite ideas and
initiatives that empower everyone to achieve more together

11. We are open to everyone.
1. Work (with colleagues) @ Customers/Partner at least once a week
- Invite a customer/partner to your team meeting
2. Enhance your network and new insights:
- Meet new (people @) Customer/Partner at least 1 time a week (and connect through LinkedIn)
3. Strengthen your network:
- Bring new contacts (insights) to your customer/partner (ie cross industry, cross technology)
- Organize a Customer “shadowing” at your customer/partner
4. Leverage Social Selling (via Digital ambassador) in your account/ territory planning to find new contact at
your customers/partners (connect with MSX)
5. Select the BDMs for the MTC inspiration session and built the right level of connection
6. Invite you customer to bring his strategic partners for an experience
7. Pro-actively meet colleagues from other organizations and/or new hire outside your segment
8. Invite a colleague outside your account/territory (or segment) into your customer and/or team meeting
9. Complete the D&I training curriculum to challenge our own biases and build on our inclusive mindset (i.e.
Dialogue Across Difference, Inclusive Hiring, Unconcious Bias, Preventing Harassment in the Workplace. etc
I think, when you invite people to your home,
you invite them to yourself.
Oprah Winfrey

12. We allow
ourselves
time to Refresh.
• We meet max 45 min and break for 15 min
• We take breaks also during the day
• We appreciate the value of refreshing mind & body
• We allow ourselves and others vacation time
• We share refresh time with our colleagues and customers

13. We allow ourselves time to Refresh.
1. Plan only meetings of 45 min. Allow 15 min breaks (screen free) in longer meetings
2. Actively plan/block at least 1 longer (>30 mins) refresh moment during the workday (besides lunch):
walk, relax, play
3. Create “refresh” blocks in your agenda. Respect “refresh” blocks in each others agenda.
4. Discuss within your team your preferred working pattern
- Use MyAnalytics to gain insights on your working pattern
- To respect every ones preferences (not to expect reply on email after hours/weekend)
- Do the High Performance Mindset MOOC as a team
- Use “Headspace”-app for your daily mindfulness practice
5. Refrain from using electronic devices in your bedroom or 2 hours before going to sleep
- Invest in an alarm clock (no phone)
6. Consider new/ other means of mobility (electrical bike, carpooling etc.)
Our minds benefit more from change then from rest.
Ernst von Feuchtersleben, Austrian philosopher