Love your lawyer

The 13-question Stryker EMEA ICE survey is focused on the issues that influence internal customer service and business performance. In 2004, Stryker EMEA's overall ICE score was considered mediocre. This suggested that day-to-day interactions were negatively affecting performance -- and consequently, external customer engagement -- throughout the division.

Some departments, however, received very high ICE scores. Stryker's three-person legal department, for instance, got the highest marks -- which might seem odd, when you stop to think about it. Legal departments, by their very nature, don't have to get along with others. The law is the law; legal doesn't necessarily have to negotiate with internal customers, and there's no way for other departments to get around "the royal no" as Pascal Cabanel, Stryker EMEA's chief legal counsel for Europe, puts it. Yet the department was seen as the best internal service provider in the company. In fact, the legal department is a pretty good model of internal customer service for any company.

"I always thought my work would be more helping people find solutions rather than saying no -- the royal no is why people get upset about lawyers," says Cabanel. "I'm trying always to explain why we cannot do that or this, and then trying to elaborate a solution."

Cabanel and his team have a remarkable ability to understand the law, which is admirable in a division that covers 15 of Stryker EMEA's 21 countries, but also the company's sales growth motives. They serve their function -- keeping the company on the right side of the law -- but they perform it in such a way that it furthers the ends of their internal customers.

"You can say no for the pleasure of saying no or to have less work, because it's easy [to say no]. If I say no two times, my day is done," says Cabanel. "But the point is to treat people with respect. We are part of the organization, and we have a special knowledge, but it's a question of sharing this knowledge to improve the business." By limiting no and maximizing assistance, Stryker EMEA's legal department has become a partner rather than an obstacle. That attitude has won them the affection of every other department -- and serves as an example too.

What the legal department does every day is essentially what Gallup recommended that other departments focus on doing: Ask direct questions, resolve conflicts, find solutions, and show a strong, visible commitment from leadership. But that's what every department should do every day; to move the ICE scores up, more specialized effort was required as well.

When the first ICE scores were released, everyone in every department attended a meeting in which their scores were announced and discussed. It was made clear, repeatedly, that ICE was designed to increase growth by aligning the front-office and back-office employees. In other words, ICE wasn't a chance to complain; it was a method to improve performance.

Subsequently, departments convened their own group discussions of the scores and found ways to improve their behavior. "All Gallup metrics -- like ICE, CE¹¹, and Q¹² [Gallup's employee engagement survey] -- are designed to be a starting point for deep dialogue between managers, teams, and departments to help them identify and resolve key issues," says Green. "In companies like Stryker, this ongoing dialogue is the key to its ongoing evolution and success."

And the process worked. By the next year, the division's overall ICE scores had shown a modest improvement. Legal (whose scores were already high) and the regulatory affairs/quality assurance departments showed the most improvement, but all departments increased or maintained their scores. Although the numerical improvement was incremental, it indicated that employees were beginning to have a deeper appreciation of the value of internal customer service.

Copyright Ó 2008 The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ.  All rights reserved.  Reprinted with permission.  Visit The Gallup Management Journal at http://gmj.gallup.com/

Article from The Gallup Management Journal