Have you ever noticed how assumptions and expectations suck the life out of relationships? It doesn’t matter whether it’s at home or at work, while vacationing with family or working side by side with business colleagues, my assumptions and expectations reliably reduce heartfelt connection, and almost always lead to disappointment for everyone involved. So why is it that we expect so much from others, and have such difficulty simply allowing people to be who they are and to make their own choices without holding them accountable for our assumptions and expectations?
What if people made a point of clearly expressing what they wanted, and then without judgment let others decide what to do? What would that world look like? For me, it’s almost unimaginably peaceful.
Lately, I’ve been fond of noticing my assumptions and expectations. The problem is that I’m not always conscious about them. I assume that people are just like me. For example, I have a value for letting people finish their sentences, but other people sometimes don’t have that value at all. In fact, for some people, they might interpret my behavior as disinterest. In their “culture”, interrupting is a sign of interest. In my “culture”, it’s a sign of disinterest if someone does interrupt me mid sentence.
What if I were to share openly my personal culture with others? I experimented with this approach the other day at my dinner table. I explained to my two daughters about my preference to complete my sentences without being interrupted. We then had a conversation about our differing perspectives. I found it interesting that, during that conversation, they both allowed me to finish my sentences. Simply by making explicit what I prefer, they were apparently happy to comply. It was a little thing, but also a meaningful one. Rather than judging my daughters as rude, I simply expressed my desires and the outcome was wonderful.
We all come from different families, often hail from different lands and cultures. This often leads to substantially different work styles, methods of communication, willingness to offer feedback, among other things. My recent experience leads me to wonder, what if we all simply got curious about how others operate, and strived to be more transparent about our own operating principles. How might that affect life at home, relationships at work and peace in the Middle East? Hmmm…
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Catching Employees In The Act...
The other day I found myself wondering about companies and their core values. It occurred to me that many organizations espouse values for Teamwork and Collaboration, but few in my experience actually measure the extent to which their people incorporate those values into their day-to-day interactions with colleagues.
This led me to ask, What if companies provided a means by which to “catch their employees in the act” of exemplifying the company’s core values? How would that work? I immediately began to design such a system. I imagined a simple online tool for providing feedback.
Imagine your company allocating a fixed number of “core value bucks” (CVB’s) to each employee every month. What would happen if employees were encouraged to catch each other in the act of effective collaboration, for example? If Susan volunteered to take notes at a meeting and distribute them afterward, any meeting participant could go online after the meeting to send Susan some CVB’s, along with a brief description of why she deserved to be recognized in this way.
Imagine further that this system was configurable such that:
Imagine a company president or CEO recognizing employees on a monthly or quarterly basis for their specific contributions solely based upon reports generated by this online system. What if Susan was named the Collaborative Employee of the Month? How might that make her feel? What if John was named the Best Employee of the Month In Recognizing Teamwork? What message might that send to the company? Imagine how the company culture might change as a result of measuring teamwork in this way. What if this simple approach to “catching people in the act” of demonstrating company values is all that it took? Hmmm… I wonder.
This led me to ask, What if companies provided a means by which to “catch their employees in the act” of exemplifying the company’s core values? How would that work? I immediately began to design such a system. I imagined a simple online tool for providing feedback.
Imagine your company allocating a fixed number of “core value bucks” (CVB’s) to each employee every month. What would happen if employees were encouraged to catch each other in the act of effective collaboration, for example? If Susan volunteered to take notes at a meeting and distribute them afterward, any meeting participant could go online after the meeting to send Susan some CVB’s, along with a brief description of why she deserved to be recognized in this way.
Imagine further that this system was configurable such that:
- There was a maximum number of CVB’s that any individual could be awarded as a result of any given event. (This would avoid situations where an employee’s entire monthly allotment of CVB’s could be awarded in a single offering.)
- Recognition would have to be distributed among a minimum number of recipients. (This would help to ensure that employees are looking for exemplary behavior outside of their closest circle of friends.)
- Each month, each employee’s account would be replenished, but would never exceed a fixed maximum, e.g., 250 CVB’s. (This would essentially set up a “use ‘em or lose ‘em” account structure.)
- The system would allow anyone to generate recognition reports, listing for any given employee how many CVB’s had been offered and received by that employee… and why.
Imagine a company president or CEO recognizing employees on a monthly or quarterly basis for their specific contributions solely based upon reports generated by this online system. What if Susan was named the Collaborative Employee of the Month? How might that make her feel? What if John was named the Best Employee of the Month In Recognizing Teamwork? What message might that send to the company? Imagine how the company culture might change as a result of measuring teamwork in this way. What if this simple approach to “catching people in the act” of demonstrating company values is all that it took? Hmmm… I wonder.
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