Get What's Important Now done.  Get others to willingly do the rest.
 

Using natural consequences is a very effective tool to reinforce new behaviors in others.  Ever taken a one day course?  How much of it do you absorb and apply?  Experts say a person is fortunate to retain 10% of the course content.  That's a 90% waste factor.  Unacceptably low in any other business, except in training.  Why is it so low?

Traditional training doesn't align with how human beings learn.  We can't absorb that much in one shot.  People learn one step at a time by making repetitive errors.  For example, last fall I installed a new light by the door of our walkout basement.  When I forgot to turn off this light, it shined annoyingly into our bedroom window.   Over the next two months, I failed at this eight times before I consistently acquired the new habit of turning off the switch every time I came in that way.

The key to success is how you reinforce the change you want.  The light shining in our bedroom window consistently reminded me of my failure.  Of course, I can get mad at the light, but what good does that do?  I can get mad at myself, for being such a dummy. But what good does that do? Each time, I had to accept that if I didn't want a light beaming through the blinds onto my bed, I had to get up and turn off the light.  Slowly, I willingly burned the new habit into my brain!

Natural consequences is training on "auto-pilot."  It takes creative thinking and you have to personally be committed to it as a tool.  Think about what you want someone to do:  Meet a deadline.  Do what they say they'd do.  Take more initiative.  Be helpful to co-workers.  A natural consequence will motivate them to change, freely and willingly.  They might get mad but deep down, they know you're not doing it to them.  They're doing it to themselves.  What you are doing, is no longer rescuing them from their own current bad habit.

If a person procrastinates, what is the natural consequence?  First of all, you don't do it for them.  The task must remain waiting for them to complete.  If their task affects the rest of a bigger project, that project either gets delayed in total (with everyone aware of why), or you take that task away from them (if they are capable but obviously unwilling to do the job as required).  If you can't stomach either of these leadership choices, you won't be able to use this leadership tool.  That too is a natural consequence for you - you'll be leading but no one is following!  This is the main reason leaders hire a coach - to help them overcome why they can't make these kind of tough choices.

Many leaders want the "easy way" so they use punitive consequences.  They get upset, give 'em a lecture, write up the misbehavior to put in a "file" (very threatening), and other traditional leadership techniques that are fear-based.  They forget that learning new habits takes self-motivated repetition.  Instead, they create an ego-battle where they might get a person to do what they want, but they have to constantly pressure them and they lose the employee's heart along the way.  Staff become compliant, apathetic, resentful and either quit or find ways to get even, such as undermining the boss.  The key to success is to notice what's important now in the way you respond to behavior you want to influence.

Good luck and have a great weekend,

John Kuypers
 

Her book will be officially launched in Burlington, Ontario tomorrow,  Friday, June 11th, 2004 at noon.   I'll be there. Tickets are just $25 and include a great lunch and about 200 other business leaders like yourself.  Proceeds go to charity (typical Peggy).  Come on out.  Here's how to get a ticket and read more: http://www.justchangeit.com/booklaunch.html

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