If you are a business leader looking to foster a positive workplace culture, enhance team effectiveness and navigate challenges effectively while focusing on strategic objectives. Or if you just want to make work work better, then join us for a mini workshop where we share three things you can do today. I'm your host, Dr. Marc Reynolds. Today we're going to explore the power of externalizing your thoughts and plans with your team. This is something that Dana Oakes shared on his last interview.
We invite you to check it out. first, one of the benefits of externalizing your ideas is that it enhances team alignment. It aligns team members around common goals and objectives. Second is it increases employee engagement. Engaged teams show higher productivity and profitability. And finally, it promotes innovation, encourages diverse ideas and improves decision making outcomes. What are the things that you can do today to capitalize on this?
First, tie everything back to your mission or values verbally if it doesn't seem annoying and repetitive then it's not enough. It will actually free people to be more innovative and to feel confident that they know how to make decisions on their own, because they understand the values and principles that are guiding everything the company does. Second, point out successes. Point out the good examples the people you want other employees to emulate. Rotate it around.
Make sure that everyone feels like they've been given credit at some place. One of the things that I found as an educator in higher education is traditionally the first things that come out of a teacher's mouth is critical. It's fix this, fix this, fix this, or you don't know this. And giving them information they don't know. That might seem like an obvious way to teach.
But one semester, I purposely just focused on trying to identify the things that they did well, even if it was just a small improvement from the time before. And often they're in areas that I would want much greater improvement that weren't what I wanted yet. And when I pointed out the positives, an interesting thing happened. Not only did they get better at those positive things, but they often naturally fix the negative things that I didn't say a thing about.
They just intuitively started fixing and addressing those other issues that were things that I would have traditionally called out critically. So we might be afraid that if I don't call it out, if I don't address it, it won't get fixed. And there is a time and place for critical feedback and telling people what needs to change, what needs to be improved, and giving the knowledge they don't have.
But that is received a lot better and is much more effective if the majority of things coming out of your mouth are things that they're doing well, that you're trying to celebrate. When people are sharing their ideas with you or trying to spitball different ideas and options and if you open yourself up to feedback and to concerns or questions, that is great. There are common pitfalls that people fall into in those situations. Number one is avoid the “but” statement that is, “oh, you know what?
That's a good idea... But we're not going to do that because bla bla bla bla. ” Just avoid the “but”. Just say that was a good idea. And then either add on to it and develop it or move into something else. This is what is called the yes and statement. This is an improv tool. And basically that is rather than negating what someone saying, say yes and then add something more onto that or take it in a new direction.
The response to that is one of innovation, of creation, of collaboration and synergy, rather than of people feeling shut down and not wanting to share because they're going to feel rejected. Other common statements to avoid are “I should have...” or “I've already thought of that”. You can validate a person for sharing ideas and giving feedback without committing to the action, or committing to doing something about their suggestion. If it's a good one, follow up on it, great.
If not, just validate the sharing and get the ball rolling so that as many people are giving input and suggestions as possible, Something to help you in feeling comfortable to do that is, set a clear time limit and a timer for that feedback and those ideas to be injected. So you'll say we're going to do this for the next five minutes. That way people know that if they really want to share and now is the time.
And you also know that this isn't just going to devolve into some long winded conversation where everyone's going to have to have their say. It's become this unmanageable mess. Don't go there. Set a time limit. Finally, make returning and reporting a part of company culture by doing it yourself with your teams. If people commit to do something, they need to offer the outcome without being asked.
So if I'm asked to go follow up with this other person and do x, y, and z, then what I need to do the next time I see you is say, this is what I did. I was able to follow up with this person and do x and z. I still am waiting to hear back so I can finish y. That should be the company culture where the person returns and reports - not that the leader or the manager goes to the person and has to ask every time.
Each person should be empowered to own the tasks they've been given, and to want to then respond and tell of their successes or the help that they need. We hope that this gives you some really practical tools to be able to explore the power of externalizing your thoughts and plans with your team.
That ability to not just hold everything in your head, but to lay out crucial, relevant pieces so that everyone can see is going to help people line up behind you, get on board and enact your vision with a more empowered and innovative approach than you would be able to do on your own. Good luck on making work work better this week! See you for our next mini workshop where we'll talk about navigating pain points that are beyond your control. See you next time.