Business Contains Only 3 Things: People, Process, & Situations
… and …
People Do Only 3 Things: Good Habits, Bad Habits, & New Things
Meetings should be treated as opportunities to grow good habits: good habits about people, good habits about processes, & good habits about situations.
Culture Statements should contain many general statements about good habits. That will help people understand how Culture Statements can be applied during their workdays…i.e., specific real-work applications.
An excellent way to start is to:
- Talk about one or two Culture Statements at every regularly scheduled meeting and
- Do New Things that show people how they should act
When you hold meetings, talk about the Culture you desire. This could be as simple as having the chair of the meeting start the meeting with a 30-second personal story that fits the culture. Or, start each meeting with a round-the-table ‘getting present’ question like…”How are you feeling right now and why?” [People would need to learn how to be very concise with their answers]
Or, ask questions like, “How have you used your talents & strengths since our last meeting?”
These sorts of questions help people get engaged. If a person struggles to get engaged then that person’s boss can coach and train between meetings.
People do their best when they are engaged…not just engaged doing tasks but engaged feeling like they are part of a winning team that is determined to build terrific things and do terrific business. [I know that can sound hokey…and it is hokey when it is done via lip service only…however, it is energizing when it is done in synch with Culture Statements.]
Show people how you want them to act:
- Company leaders need to buy into the Culture Statements and ‘best practices for meetings’ and, where required, make changes to how they act in meetings [replacing bad habits with good habits]
- Company leaders need to do new things to expand their ability to Influence other’s behaviour. Leaders need to illustrate their accountability – leading by example.
Linked to this, ensure ongoing communication that promotes good meeting practices [good habits]:
- People should feel comfortable talking about errors/problems [this means everyone; nobody should leave a meeting angry/annoyed]
- Learning from our errors [like that excellent Battler follow-up session]
- Celebrating our education [not silly or excessive…but little things that breed comfort in communicating about errors so we maximize our ability to minimize them not repeat the same ones, etc.
Change is Constructive Only When People are Comfortable.
Communication, when pre-planned to fit situations and delivered with confidence, helps people be more comfortable and more productive.