The power of incremental change
Many (many) moons ago, I managed a team of 12 direct reports at a Fortune 500 company.
In that position, I was charged with making sure this team delivered in a way that delighted our customers, both internal and external.
This meant developing processes and systems to minimize errors, ensure products were delivered on time, create programs that helped our partners sell, etc.
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There were mistakes.
With a team that size, there were mistakes on pretty much a weekly basis. Sometimes made by the same person.
A nowhere near recovered perfectionist back then, there were times I wanted to lose it. But losing it was not an option.
So I created a process. One that empowered team members and changed behavior and results over time.
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The process.
When a mistake occurred, typically there was something broken in terms of how the person structured their work or there was an issue with attention to detail.
I’d set a one-to-one meeting time. The approach to that meeting was to focus on the issue, not the person.
By that I mean, the individual was not bad or wrong, but there was an event that happened (the issue) that we needed to address to create a new way of doing things.
The first step was to get to the root cause. I’d ask a lot of questions — peel back the onion so to speak — until we got there.
THEN we had something to work with.
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Give the power away.
Once we’d identified the cause, I’d ask the individual how they thought they could correct it going forward, what they could do differently.
I gave them the power to come up with a solution.
They were the one who had to implement it after all. So who better to propose a new way forward?
We’d discuss and fine-tune their idea until we had an updated system or approach to work with.
And then we did this…
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One out of ten.
No ingrained habit, thought process, or way of doing something changes overnight. And any attempt to act in a way that assumes it does is doomed to fail.
So bake this knowledge into the feedback process. Assume that they’re not going to get it right every time, from the get-go.
Assume, they’ll get it right one time out of ten. Then two times, then three…until it becomes your default way of doing something (anything).
That’s what we did — and it worked.
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Why this, why now?
I was reminded of this last week when I had a conversation with a fellow founder.
She was trying to shift a pattern of habitual thinking that was keeping her stuck in a place she no longer wanted to be.
And I suggested she give the above process a try with her thoughts.
To not let herself indulge in the thought that came up. Knowing full well, she’d catch herself only one time out of ten. Then two, then three…
Of course, it was something I needed to be reminded of as well. 🙄
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Think about the above process for your own business and life.
How can you adopt this approach with your team members and outsourced talent?
How can you use it to change a belief, habit, or behavior you’ve identified as ripe for transformation?
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