This document discusses implementing an omnichannel culture through the Cultural Middleware approach. It involves identifying internal employees from across the organization who understand company processes and culture to act as connectors between people, systems, and the new omnichannel operations. These employees address human challenges to change, ensure smooth transitions, and prevent issues by listening to concerns and connecting teams. The approach provides tools for these employees to facilitate change while maintaining cohesion across the company's transition to an omnichannel model.

2. My Goal Today
Provide both:
– companies seeking to become omnichannel
– software vendors providing the enterprise tools to
facilitate omnichannel culture
With:
– Perspectives
– Understanding
– Tools to ensure successful implementation of an
Omnichannel Culture.

3. Quick About Me
• CEO of Collin Group, Inc.
• Specialize in Building Customer Commitment
• Approach and systems originally designed for:
• life-affecting ultra-mission-critical situations
• making one of the largest technological transitions
and changing processes across diverse and
complex organizations globally.

4. Quick About Me
• Based on my years of research on the Stanford
University campus
• Chronicled/cited in over 200 books in multiple
languages; taught in university courses
• Implemented at myriad companies, SMB
through global enterprises.

5. Customer Commitment?
So why Omnichannel?
• Omnichannel is not so much a “surprise” or
“delight”
• It’s simply expected by customers
• An omnichannel culture helps build strong
customer commitment
• Don’t have it? Appear to customers as a
gaping whole in your customer experience.

6. Why This is Critical for You
• This is a social world
• Customer success is your successes
• For omnichannel software sales:
Installs that don’t go well are broadcast to
the world... even by one employee.

7. Challenges to Omnichannel
Part I

8. Is Tech the Core Challenge?
• Omnichannel requires new software and
hardware technologies
• Tech facilitates omnichannel, but also
introduces a new challenges
• But the tech challenges are not what put
companies into disarray
• It’s the human challenges that will be the
most significant.

9. The “Human” Challenge
Omnichannel
=
Omni-Change
Almost everyone is impacted.

10. The “Human” Challenge
Hardest thing for:
• Markets
• Industries
• Companies
• Divisions
• Groups, teams and people
to do is CHANGE.

11. Omnichannel requires just about
every employee to think, interact
and execute differently.

12. Some Omnichannel Required Changes
• Company Culture (!)
• Team communication, interaction, sharing and
learning
• How employees view customers
• Tools like software solutions
• Processes, from department to individual.

13. Why Change is Hard
• People spend about as much awake time at
work than in their personal lives
• Changing work means changing your life – and
how easy is that?
• Often very intimidating
• Harder the longer you’ve done something a
certain way.

14. Simply mandating it won’t make it successful.

15. “We’re going to use software
from a bunch of teenagers?”

16. “Yes Captain. And Wesley Crusher
is their CEO.”

17. “But his omnichannel software is ready
to launch and we can be first...”

18. “...for beta
testing.”

19. Building Success
Part II

20. Omnichannel requires more
than project managers to ensure
success, because omnichannel is
more than just procedural
implementation.
It’s Not Just Process

21. Ways to Create
Omnichannel Culture
The Power of the
Cultural Middleware™ Approach

22. What is the
Cultural Middleware™ Approach?
• Internal people throughout your organization
that understand your company’s many
internal subtleties
• They understand:
– Processes
– Concerns
– Communications issues and the connections
required to achieve omnichannel culture.

23. What is the
Cultural Middleware™ Approach?
• They build the necessary connections
between:
– People
– Current systems and processes
– Omnichannel thinking and operations
• They’re connectors, counselors and enablers
• They ensure the project becomes a
sustainable, profitable reality.

24. Basic Qualifications for the
Cultural Middleware Approach
To be a member, they must:
• be from your company
• be culturally- and process-savvy to the
“coverage areas” they’re responsible for
• not be recent transferees, interns and the like
• Accept being culture and process facilitators,
counselors, problem solvers, friction reducers.

25. Basic Qualifications for the
Cultural Middleware Approach
• Knowledgeable: about what needs to be done
• Understanding: of their coverage areas’
people, processes and concerns
• Compassion: for the challenges of a “rethink”
• Sharp Eyes and Ears: for spotting active,
passive, or unintentional push-back
• Engagement, Connection, Problem Solving,
Enthusiasm and Energy.

26. The Roles of the
Cultural Middleware Approach
• Make the change to omnichannel culture smooth
• Address the human stresses involved with change
• Work with key, or if small enough, all members of
their coverage area making the change
• Decide on best approach to work with project
manager and coverage area members
• Empathetically listen, understand, appreciate and
address all concerns of the coverage group.

27. The Roles of the
Cultural Middleware Approach
• Ensure training is appropriate for specific
coverage area
• Create bridges and connections – “smart
seams” to other groups via other Cultural
Middleware Approach members
• Request guidance and other resources as
needed
• Prevent “drop and plop”.

28. Give Them the Tools They Need
• Understanding of the overall changes to take
place, top-down:
– Concept
– Company
– Coverage Area
– Individual
• Must be presented:
– Strategically
– Operationally
– Processes

29. Give Them the Tools They Need
From software providers:
• Their best effort at determining in general,
how and which processes, specialties, and
teams will be impacted
• Software companies can’t know all the
cultural and process changes that will be
required
• Every company is different.

30. Keep them connected to:
• Company experts on the changes
• Their fellow Cultural Middleware Approach
members in other coverage areas across the
company
• Software vendor contacts (internal/external)
• The highest-level executive involved in the
omnichannel conversion process.

31. Tools for Connection:
TEDxNASA video for connecting specialists:
bcln.us/tedxnasa

32. Wrap-Up
• Customers connect with omnichannel
companies both via technology and people
• Everyone and everything must be:
– connected, cooperative, cohesive, contiguous
– congenial, confident, convenient and committed
• It’s what customers demand, and what you
must deliver
• With the Cultural Middleware Approach, you can.

34. barry@collingroup.com