To me, the customer service rep at AT&T is the face of the company and the fact that there are different departments handling different parts of the business does not matter to me. I understand that’s how huge companies work but let’s look at it from the customer’s perspective. Anyway, this is not about AT&T, it’s about customer service and there’s two points I want to make here:

1. Make it easy for your customers to do business with you and hide all your company’s complexity from them. They look to you to solve problems not give them more work.

2. If you ask the question “how could I provide you with excellent customer service” – are you prepared for the answer and will you act upon it?

The bar for customer service seems to be getting lower and lower and today’s customer is amazed when a representative goes out of their way to help but that’s not where we started from. It’s a tired cliche that the customer is always right and while it’s true that some customers are unreasonably demanding, most just wish that someone would take ownership on their behalf and make life a little easier.

How is your company doing with regard to making life easier for your customers? Do you want feedback? Do you care enough to act upon it?

Dirt! The Movie perfectly illustrates the positive as well as the negative and that’s a good thing because we all know the negative, or at least think we do. However, we may not have thought about the positive – the positive effects of building a healthy relationship with the earth and the capital “E” Earth. Our fates are inextricably woven together as part of this truly interdependent relationship. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong and what’s broken, let’s look at what’s working and try to emulate that.

It may be a bit of a cliche these days but thinking locally and acting globally is exactly what will keep us moving in the right direction. If we get to know our neighbors, buy from producers in our own community, grow some of our own food and support each other then the changes we’re confronting will not seem half as daunting. Point one – getting to know your neighbors was exactly why a friend and I started our community gardening organization. We thought, what if people had a shared interest in common about which they could talk to one another. Everyone needs to eat and that’s a subject about which we can all converse. Dirt connects us, it provides us with food and so much more. My other thought was this, what if during these politically charged times we live in, we got to know one another before knowing about each others political viewpoint. Then we could get to know one another without attaching a political label that would shut down the conversation.

Where you get your power from matters and you may be able to chose who supplies your power. In Alameda, CA for example, Alameda Municipal Power’s power portfolio is 80% green with 38% alone generated from geothermal sources and the rest from landfill gas, solar, wind and hydroelectric for example.

What else can we do to make our IT more green? At the desktop level as an end user, we can turn off our computers every night. I worked at an organization where we were told to leave our computers on because software patches would be applied during the night. I suspect that didn’t happen every night and wonder how much energy could have been saved by agreeing on a “patch schedule”. Even putting your computer into sleep mode can reduce its energy usage by up to 90%. Use a power strip with a surge protector and simply turn that off at night.

Everyone from the CIO, network admins, web masters and end users should get involved in finding ways of decreasing energy demands and that starts with having a plan. Since it’s coming up to the end of the year and thoughts are turning to planning for 2011, it’s the perfect time to put an energy reduction program in place. First get agreement on energy reduction goals for the whole organization. Second, make achievement of those goals matter to everyone by including them as department, team and individual goals. Third, secure everyone’s involvement by communicating, communicating and even more communication. Finally, turn energy reduction into a way of life in your organization by encouraging a little healthy competition.

Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Good, so let’s get moving toward sustainability and beyond!

John McKnight of Northwestern and the Asset-Based Community Development Institute and his co-author Peter Block talked about the importance of strengthening communities by asking community members about their gifts and talents rather than viewing them as “problems to be solved” or “needs to be addressed”. Hearing that conversation was the highlight of the day for me.

Think what we could achieve within our communities if we knew one another better. Our neighborhoods would become safer automatically because we would look out for one another. I have been using my bike as much as possible instead of my car especially to ride around my community because I want to cut down on the amount I use my car. Getting out of the car is good for me physically, mentally and it’s good for the environment because pedal power provides zero emissions. Because I am not in my car, there is no physical barrier between me and people on the streets and that feels different. Plus, you are traveling at much reduced speeds so you notice more. It’s great to slow down in general and it might be a great first step in strengthening your own community.

Part of the Environment Now program is to educate the public about the mandatory composting initiatives and each of the team has had what seemed like hundreds of interactions with the public to help them understand what the initiative means and the actions that need to be taken. It’s a real win-win because the public are being educated and the participants of the Environment Now program are learning critical communication and interpersonal skills. That’s the only way we’re going to engage the public at large in the “thorny” issue of the environment – through respectful communication.

How many times have you encountered the glazed look of someone who just doesn’t want to hear your “speech” about the environment? Part of the problem is that it’s become a speech and I would suggest that’s because we have been so disconnected from those we are trying to reach that we have not earned the right to start the dialogue. Sure, it’s a two way street but as I’m always reminded, we have to meet people where they are.

I’m concerned that where we are right now is in the midst of mixed messages and sound bytes especially concerning the impending threat to AB32, California’s ground breaking Climate Change initiative. There’s no doubt that things have to change and jobs will change, that’s always been the case as we’ve made this journey to industrialization with all the technological changes that have taken place. Instead of clinging on to something that is changing, why don’t we embrace the change and help those who will be affected gain the skills and knowledge they will need to deal with it. All of us are going to be affected in one way or another but we don’t have to be dragged through change, we can take control and deal with it in our own way. That feels much better than the alternative.

There’s a reason behind this. I’m trying to assemble a collection that will make environmentalism and sustainability accessible to everyone. We need to take this topic from being off limits to very much part of every day conversation. To start with, I thought it would be helpful to ask this question: “what does being green mean to you?”

For me, it means taking responsibility for the products I buy, especially food. Being green means considering my impact on the planet and taking steps to minimize that. I seek to find out what I can do differently because I know that despite being only one person – one person does make a difference.

Right now sustainability is a very nebulous concept and that’s part of the problem. How could a business comply with something that has not been defined? Certainly there will be those companies that take the wait and see approach. At the other end of the spectrum are companies such as Patagonia, Seventh Generation, Clif and REI, to name but a few who embrace sustainability because they understand at their core how important it is that businesses get started.

We see plenty of advice aimed at individuals to save water, save energy, drive less, take public transport, buy socially responsible products and investments – the list is endless. Sure there are many of us, so if we each made changes, we could make a big difference. However, Corporations could make huge differences by adopting sustainability as a business strategy. Sustainability is more than giving everyone in the office a blue recycling bin. It’s more than removing paper cups, but we haven’t seen much more than that so far.

How about creating positions such as Chief Sustainability Officer with strategic objectives directly tied to business results? How about creating a sustainability report just like Clif & Company? How about leading instead of following?

The British press is reporting that the level of disruption to air travel has been greater than after 9/11. Some sources state that normally a plane takes off from or lands at Heathrow airport every 46 seconds and right now the skies are free, clear and quiet. It seems as if we are back in the era before flight.

My mind wanders to all the consequences of such an unusual event. I wonder how many tonnes of carbon dioxide is not being emitted due to this unusual event. Next weekend the London Marathon is due to start and officials are worried about elite runners not being able to get here. The news covers stories of people stranded missing weddings and other once in a lifetime occasions.

Such a feeling of powerlessness. Our predictable routine of getting on a flight in one country or city and popping up in another halfway around the world a few hours later has been temporarily suspended. Guess I’ll need to savor the good weather and stop and smell the roses. Happy trails.

What do I mean by good questions? To me, a good question garners as much information as possible from the person being questioned. In order to do that, you have to ask open-ended questions. The best piece of advice I learned on this is to put “what” or “how” in front of most of your questions. Certainly, it depends on the situation, but that is a really helpful habit to adopt.

Regarding writing things down, I mean just that. Ask great questions and then write down your agreements. This doesn’t mean that agreements are written in stone and unchangeable, rather it gives you a place from which to start an on-going conversation. When you see your agreements in print, you can expand upon them and provide further clarification. The most important part is taking the first step.

Questioning and documenting is just as important for a newly forming team or department as it is for one that has been previously formed. For new teams in particular, one of the most fundamental places to start is in clarifying roles and responsibilities and putting your agreements in writing. Without this conversation, you’ll get people doing what they think is the right thing. Remember everyone’s perception is different.

Without the roles and responsibilities conversation, boundaries are unclear as well and people remain unclear about where their responsibilities end and another’s begin. You may think it seems obvious, but if you want to test out this theory ask someone on your team what they think their responsibilities are and where the line is between what they do and the next person in the chain.

When I talk about a chain, I don’t mean a chain of command; I am referring to a linked chain where everyone is connected and what each person does has an effect on another. Think about it – everyone in your organization has an effect on everyone else and if one person fails to do their part, others will feel the effect. That is why clarifying roles and responsibilities is so important. Remember also that what matters is the individual’s understanding and the best way of finding that out is to ask good questions and put your agreements in writing.