3 Ideas

Dan and Chip Heath recently gave four pieces of advice in a TIME magazine column titled, Getting Your Way. 

Need to crack the whip at work?  Persuading people to do things differently is difficult.  How to change the way you approach change.

Three of them sparked ideas for me... please see if my spark starts your fire of creativity.

Their Lesson #1:  Tell people what you want them to do in a way that will make intuitive sense to them. 

COOL EXAMPLE:  Drink 1% milk because a glass of whole milk has as much fat as five strips of bacon.

CHALLENGE:  What message are you trying to get across that could benefit from this type of comparison?  Why not have a contest among your employees?  Give the winners a prize from their

Wish List

 (earlier column - email me if you need details).

Their Lesson #2:  Engage with emotions, not just brains.  (This is one I teach consistently - your people must understand why they are doing Meaningful Work .)

COOL EXAMPLE:  A well-meaning accountant cuts off funds for Massachusetts Dept. of Youth Services partners.  They send him out to visit the nonprofits he is antagonizing and then he works with them instead of making their lives difficult.

CHALLENGE:  Do your people really understand how your solutions change people's lives for the better?  One of the best things you can do is send an unmotivated employee on a field trip to clients that love you.  Make certain to send him/her with someone from your firm who can help them focus on the positive.

Their Lesson #3:  Remember that environment helps lead people to act the way they do.

COOL EXAMPLE:  San Francisco hospital admin wants to reduce the number of mistakes made by nurses administering medicine.  Solution:  Dress nurses in bright orange medication vests when they are administering medicine so others will not disturb them.  True, the vests are ugly, but the nurses interruptions dropped significantly and medication errors dropped 47%.

CHALLENGE:  Think of how interruptions ruin your people's productivity.  Think about how interruptions damage your productivity.  What is a simple, low-cost or no-cost action you could take to remove interruptions when you are doing key tasks?  I teach this as

Sanctuary time.

Be an intentional leader.

MEETING IDEAS

3 IDEAS is a fun way to engage your people in a creative exercise to improve communication of your company or solutions; increase productivity or eliminate mistakes.  Each of these improvements can contribute to substantial profits.

Here are some ideas for discussion during your next staff meeting to consider these three ideas?

1.  What are the most significant positive and negative attributes of buying from our company?

2.  What facts can we provide that would help people better understand the significance of these positive or negative attributes?

3.  What are the three biggest problems we have with customers?

4.  When was the last time any of you spent a few hours, a day or week with our customers to better understand the problems they are having with our solutions - from their perspective?  (If not recently, then immediately schedule it.  If recently, then what was learned?) 

5.  What "pops as awesome" in your mind when you think of the positive impact we are having on our customers' lives?  (If the answer is unenthusiastic, then take action.  If the answers are correct and filled with passion, then how do you take that positive impact to the next level?)

5.  What is one activity where interruptions are negatively affecting your productivity?

6.  What steps could you take to eliminate those interruptions?