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 Below are the results of the Case Study.

CASE STUDY: CAPITAL ONE’S EMAIL EFFICIENCY SOLUTION

This case study underscores the value of implementing Hamster
Revolution insights across a large organization.

I. SUMMARY

Challenge: Capital One is an organization that constantly strives to maximize productivity. When internal surveys revealed that email overload was a growing productivity challenge, Capital One’s Productivity Team took action.

Solution: The Capital One Productivity Team partnered with Mike Song and Tim Burress from Cohesive Knowledge Solutions, Inc. (CKS) to develop a groundbreaking email efficiency workshop. The Capital One Productivity Team played a major role in shaping the program. The workshop contained insights and exercises found in The Hamster Revolution and other CKS seminars. Over 2,000 Capital One associates participated in this extremely successful learning and development experience.

II. SITUATION

Capital One (COF) has earned a sterling reputation for innovation, customer service, and leadership in the diversified financial services sector. Capital One manages $103 billion in assets for over 50 million customers worldwide.

In response to internal surveys, Capital One’s Productivity Team isolated email as a major opportunity to increase productivity. Associates reported that email was consuming more than 30% of their work day. Internal surveys reflected growing concerns relating to the quality and quantity of email.

III. APPROACH

Capital One’s Productivity Team, led by Matt Koch, Director of Productivity and Knowledge Management, made the bold decision to design an email productivity training solution with the following principles in mind:

• Grounded by data: Partnering with CKS, Capital One gathered as much information as possible via focus groups, surveys, external research, etc.

• Customize and target solution: The workshop objectives were carefully tailored to reflect the exact needs of Capital One associates. Capital One survey data was incorporated into the workshop to gain added buy-in from participants.

• Fit the solution to the culture: Capital One has a corporate culture that expects excellence while always doing the right thing by the customer, the associate, and the company. The workshop was designed to resonate with these core values.

• Apply intellectual rigor: Actual results were measured carefully against workshop goals and a pre-intervention baseline survey to validate participants’ 75-minute time investment in the email productivity workshop. 2000 surveys containing over 100,000 individual question responses were collected and analyzed.

IV. WORKSHOP CONTENT

The powerful email efficiency workshop developed by Capital One and CKS contained a series of engaging exercises, best practices, and tools that helped participants improve the overall value of email. Some of the elements of the program included:

• Discussion of email challenges
• Review of survey data
• The 1-2-3 and A-B-C Email Productivity Tools
• Exercises that contrasted good and poor emails
• Calculation exercises
• Role plays that helped participants gain Info-Coaching experience
• Written commitments to change behavior

In most cases, participants attended with their teams. This created a lively environment in which team members could discuss ongoing email concerns while creating powerful new team email strategies. Many coaching conversations took place during the seminars.  Associates learned:

• How to send fewer email messages
• How to create clear, concise, and actionable email
• How to coach others to become more proficient at email

V. RESULTS

Two months after training, a follow-up survey revealed that:

• Email decreased by 21%. Associates reported a 21% reduction in total email sent. There was also a 10% reduction in email received, which demonstrates that the Send Less — Get Less concept works in the real world. Participants also reported a 23% drop in the time they spent processing email.
• Email quality improved by 51%. Associates reported an impressive 51% increase in email quality over baseline. Clear, concise, and actionable email naturally helps associates accomplish more in less time.
• 11.3 days saved. Associates reported that they were on track to save 11.3 days per year on average. This figure did not take into account dramatic improvements in email quality, which are likely to have further decreased email processing time.
• Leadership gains. The workshop helped to empower associates to take control of the email environment via Info-Coaching. 60 days after training, the percentage of associates comfortable with email coaching rose from 47% to 75%.
• One year post-training survey metrics. Capital One and CKS conducted a One-Year Post Training Survey to determine if results could be sustained over time. The findings were extremely positive:
• 88% continued to leverage workshop best practices.
• 83% would recommend the workshop to all associates.
• 80% believed that the workshop made them more productive.
• 77% indicated that they continued to apply coaching. Principles gained in the workshop.

VI. CONCLUSION

The Capital One Productivity Team did an excellent job of diagnosing and addressing a growing productivity challenge: email overload. They partnered with Cohesive Knowledge Solutions www.cohesiveknowledge.com to develop a highly effective, breakthrough learning experience that resulted in major time savings, improved productivity, and a better work/life balance for associates. Results were sustained over one full year.

Appendix 2: Case Study