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Practice tricks deeper communication
Do you want ongoing success? Then stop
your so-called best practices. Why
‘so-called’? Well, how do you know that
it is the best practice?
Let me explain the obvious. What happens
when a certain way of working is
enforced? That’s right, learning
congeals. The message is clear. Work
according to the ‘best practice’ and you
will earn a kind word; don’t and you
will get the boot.
And therein lies the catch: You will
never know whether it is the best
practice if experimentation is frowned
upon and the search for improvement is
viewed as ‘disobedience’. After all,
‘best practice’ demands compliance, not
creativity.
For ongoing success, do the opposite,
like they do at Tata Group, a 67 billion
dollar company. The chairman has created
an annual internal competition with a
prize for the best failed idea.
Why? Because, he says, failure is a
"gold mine" for his company.
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Leadership tricks for a summer holiday
Talking about gold. . . are you one of
those executive types who simply cannot
shrug off the leadership mantle on your
day off? Then try these tricks.
First, aim lower. On a day of rest,
don’t set your sights too high. There is
no need. I have learned at great
personal cost that the world will not
end if I lower my standards.
Living up to lower standards makes the
next trick a piece of cake. Slow down;
find time to procrastinate. If you
dilly-dally, someone will run out of
patience and do whatever needs doing.
You have no idea how much stress I’ve
saved myself this way.
After you’ve lowered your standards and
taken your time, try this one for fun.
Don’t put off until tomorrow what your
spouse can do today.
Once you’ve mastered
these tricks at home, try them at the
office. You’ll find you have much more
energy for golf or fishing. Everyday.
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Dig deeper than good results
Now that
your golf and fishing are improving,
I have a question for you. Why don’t
we dig deeper than good results?
When results
are good, do you check whether
things could have been even better?
Do you look for ways of improving
even more? Probably not, and here’s
why.
The obvious
reason is that when money flows,
worries wane because cash cures all
ills.
Another
reason is a focus on efficiency.
Because efficiency is measurable, we
stop once we hit our stated targets.
Why? Because we are mentally lazy,
we stop thinking once the pressure
is off. And because organizations
demand compliance, workers know they
are not suppose to over-think and
go-beyond.
And then there is the most
important rule of organizational
life: Keep the boss happy with good
news, so don’t go digging for bad
news.
My personal favorite reason is
so-called best practices. Do you
want ongoing success? Then stop your
so-called best practices. Why
‘so-called’? Wait! I’ve already
covered this, haven’t I? I’m
repeating myself. Or maybe I’m being
a deliberate redundant communicator
. . . .
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Redundant communication gets results
Research has finally shown that your
mother was right all along. According to
professors Neeley, Leonardi and Gerber,
redundant communication gets results.
Redundant communication gets results.
Redundant communication gets results. Do
you hear me now?
That’s right. Redundant communication
happens at work when you bombard your
team with the same message over and
over. Yes, if you try that at home it’s
called nagging.
By the way, how clearly you express
yourself matters less than how often you
repeat yourself. In other words, it’s
not the message, stupid. It’s the
frequency of bombardment.
Now repeat after me: Nagging does work,
but only when it’s called redundant
communication. And it does not matter
what you say again and again; it matters
that you say it again and again. Got it?
∞
If you would like to hear this message
again and again,
then click here again and again.
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