PVIQ training executive summary
The what, the why, and the how
Our job as service providers here at this company means that we interact with guests. As we all know, guests are humans. And we are humans. Sometimes humans (those guests and employees) get under someone else's skin, so to speak. Since we are service providers, it is important to recognize when that is happening in us or someone else. When we identify an instance, we can employ strategies to help us crawl out from someone's skin. When we are out from a guest's skin (or when they are out of ours) we can serve the guest with full passion and empathy.
This training module we will study will give us a clear concept and practical model of how we handle ourselves when we or the guest "climbs the ladder" of inference (to use another metaphor). By working through this together as a team with our company vision in mind, we can internalize these ideas and use them each day. We are humans, after all, so we need some way to handle other humans.
As we study, we will internalize the AIR principles. By developing a skill for Advocacy, the insight of Inquiry, and the internal process of Reflection, we are able to handle ourselves when our guests come at us with all their angst. We'll focus on three parts of our ladder-interaction: what to do as we're climbing, how to hold it together still, how to deescalate, and how to avoid the ladder all together.
Our study time involves a lot of reflection and practice. We will work on it in the classroom setting together, we'll take part async through communication channels, and we will practice it real-time when a guest interaction starts us up our ladder.
This study will end at some point, and we as a team will have identified and internalized the skills necessary to handle guests so that our service comes through no matter what. However, we will revisit these ideas daily as we prepare to service our guests.
All in all, we will have become more versatile in our intelligent quotient, and we'll be able to deal with situations faster and more effectively.
Jeremy's work-in-progress areas
My reflection begins with the obvious fact that I go up my own ladder frequently with people. I don't do it with guests, but my legs get a workout when I interact with other team members, people in authority, or, heck, even when I interact with myself. I'm an impatient driver, I dislike seeing people slack off at work or in school, and so I go up the ladder with those. I like to think that I keep it inside of me, but if I'm smart I realize that is probably not the case.
My ladder-climbing comes from a strong black-and-white set of morals. If there are rules, we should follow them. If there are tasks, we should do them. If we got a job doing a specific role, we should complete that role with all possible energy and excitement. I have a hard time not climbing when I see those people who barely put in effort to the job we are all doing.
According to the Jung personality test, I am an INFP, an introvert, intuitive, feeler, and perceiver. The introversion really doesn't do much to cause me to climb the ladder or to come down off it, but the others sure do. I Feel strongly, and that causes me to feel frustration towards people who slack off and don't put their own best into the work. Not sure the Perceiver aspect of me is valid. I'll have to think about that.
The DISC test showed me I have low Influence (another source of my ladder-climbing) and middling Dominance, Steadiness, and Compliance.
I know that I reflect a ton (almost too much), and I think I'm not too good at practicing advocacy for myself and what I see as right. I try to let things be smooth, and I know that if my advocacy comes out, it might burst out inappropriately. That's what I need to work on: I need to better state my case calmly and clearly with little-to-no eyeballing and sighing. :)
I do really try to inquire about where people are at and why they are doing what they're doing. I usually do this in some sort of calm moment. When I'm not in the heat of seeing someone sitting backstage, phone out and not doing their job, I'll bring up the edges of this issue and see what they were thinking.
With guests I have almost no problem. I realize I'm there to serve them and find their frustrations and complaints just a puzzle to solve to help them get back to having a magical time. When I taught middle school, I dealt with that every day, and I dealt with parents. They complained at some of the class and school policies, and I would sit with them and hear them out. It's my job to serve the guests, so I have yet to experience that.
That said, as I move, in the next few months, into more guest-interacting roles, I'll keep all this in mind. I'll continue to reflect and practice my advocacy skills and make my case known as calmly as possible. I have plenty of opportunities to do that. In my full time job at home I advocate for certain coding techniques, and I'm getting good at giving people good reasons to adopt what I am teaching. So I'll keep practicing advocacy with co-workers, co-students, authority figures, etc.
Jeremy's recovery techniques
My recovery techniques are to simply step away, to push into myself until things calm down. I don't come off the ladder easily (something else I should work on) but I do eventually come down. I will dwell on it quite a bit until I'm tired or have developed a canker sore. So I need some new techniques. I need to let things go sooner. Maybe what I'll do is write down the problem in a notebook and then leave that note for several days. When my mind starts to return to the subject of the note, I'll remind myself where it is. After several days I'll return to the notebook and I'm sure I'll find that the issue I wrote down was small and petty (it usually is).
In the moment, I'm simply going to get away if I can. If I can't, I'll focus my mind on something else and banish the thought if it returns while I'm working another task.
I do meditation through the Headspace app. That's my go-to when things start to go sour :). I'll pop my AirPods in during the break and shut the world out.