Last year, we went to Disneyworld in Florida. We had a great time, the main reason being how brilliant their staff were with our Daughter. We must have heard the phrase ‘Hello Princess’ at least a hundred times while we were there.

And we didn’t just hear it from the official welcoming staff. It was everyone – cleaners, janitors, workmen, bellboys, receptionists… everyone.

And this got me thinking. Disney has thousands of employees, but they can get every one of them to embrace their ways of working. Yet, there are companies and managers who can’t achieve this with just a handful of people.

So, with your team, what’s your equivalent of ‘Hello Princess’? What do you want every one of them to think and say when they speak with others? How do you want others to describe your team’s attitude and focus?

And, when you know this, it’s worth asking… ‘Do they know? Do I re-inforce this often enough? Do I pick them up on it if they deviate from it?’

I have a strong feeling all the Disney staff will be saying ‘Hello Princess’ to little girls every day this year, and the next, and the next. What will your team be saying?

Action point

There are two steps here…

(1) Identify your core guiding principle, and

(2) Consistently, rigorously and unrelentingly communicate it to your team.

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If you want to improve your team’s communication skills, there are many options – reading books, training, coaching, mentoring, role modelling, subscribing to Tuesday Tips, publicly praising good communications, privately criticising bad ones, and so on.

These, and other methods, all have merits. But here is another way – a fun, collaborative one – to achieve great results. Get your team together, and…

Step 1: ensure their buy-in to the exercise

• Ask if they think the team’s communication is as good as it can be (they will say “No”)
• Ask what benefits the team will get if it was better (they will list many things)
• Say: “so, would you agree it’s worth exploring ways that we can improve our communication?” [“Yes”]

Step 2: do the exercise

• Give everyone a piece of paper with a horizontal line drawn across the middle
• Ask them to write (in big letters) two communication techniques they feel they are good at above the line, and …
• … two they struggle with below
• Ask them to turn their pages round, so everyone can see everyone else’s
• Tell them to find “pairs” i.e. where something you’re good at corresponds to something that somebody else struggles with
• The team splits into these pairs, and the “good” person advises the “struggling” person how to improve
• After a few minutes, they swap partners and the new pairs help each other
• Re-split if it feels appropriate
• Ask everyone what 1-2 actions they’re goint to take, to improve

Step 3: follow-up

• Ensure they act on their actions as you usually would. This is important. Without follow-up, it won’t stick

Action Point

If you think it will help your team, run the above session, and see what happens…

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“If I’d asked my customers what they wanted, they’d have said a faster horse” Henry Ford

I love this quote. It makes me smile. And it also makes a great point…

As long as an expert (Ford) knows the beneficiary’s (customer) desired future (to go faster), then the expert can apply their skills to help achieve it.

In fact, when you think of it, the expert is bound to know how they can help more than the beneficiary could.

When communicating, there are many implications of this…

When you’re the beneficiary…

…when delegating to an expert, don’t specify how the job is to be done – this stifles their expertise, and can lead to you getting suboptimal results. Instead, explain your desired future, and ask the expert how they can best help

…when buying from suppliers, don’t specify the deliverables. Again, explain your desired future, and ask how they can best help

And, when you are on the other side, as the expert…

…when being delegated to/selling etc, ensure the conversation focuses on the beneficiary’s desired future, so you can think how best to use your expertise to help.

Action point

What are you asking others to do today? Are you being crystal clear on your desired future, so they can fully use their expertise?

If you think you have been clear but aren’t sure, why not ask them to clarify what they think you are looking to achieve, to ensure alignment?

Similarly, think of all the jobs you are working on now. Are you 100% sure what the desired future is? If not, it’s worth stopping, thinking and identifying what the desired future is (you’ll often be able to tell which projects are like this … they’re the ones taking ages and going nowhere!)

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Have you ever…

… heard some great advice during a conference/workshop/meeting

… thought ‘I am definitely doing that’

… got back to your desk and forgotten to change

Or, you did change for a while, then drifted back to your old ways.

I guess you have. Everyone has. But imagine the benefits to you and others if you could master making permanent change.

Unfortunately, we aren’t helped by The Dreaded Forcefield – an invisible Forcefield lurking within the doorway of every room where you hear life-changing advice.

This Forcefield only kills one thing – your good intentions. Even worse, it strikes in seconds – literally as you leave the room, pick up your Blackberry and see an urgent issue to deal with right now. You resolve the issue, then another… and, now it’s time to apply the advice… well, it doesn’t quite seem so urgent now, does it?

Here are ways to overcome that Dreaded Forcefield…

1.Give yourself detailed actions…

• not ‘I must get referrals’ but
• ‘I must look down my list of customers, identify the three who like me best, call them, use today’s advice re Script X, update my records’

2. Set deadlines

3. Diarise your actions before you get to The Dreaded Forcefield (or you’ll have to subsequently fit it round your current diary – never easy)

4. Identify how you’ll ensure you remember long after the event – weekly diary reminders, ask a colleague for support etc

5. Identify problems you’ll have in embedding the advice, and work out how to overcome them

These take a few minutes, but need to be done before you get to the door, since that’s where The Dreaded Forcefield is.

Also, of course, when you run workshops, help your delegates create their own plans to overcome the Forcefield, by asking them to do the activities bulleted above.

This Tip is one of those which seem obvious. You know it will help you to improve at this. You might even want to do something, to help you do so.

The problem will be when you go through the next doorway…

Action point

If the advice in this Tip is useful to you, beat that Forcefield and take an action now.

A simple first step is to identify the next time you think you might learn something useful, and add a short diary entry soon after it called ‘Follow up’. Save the content of this Tip in that diary entry and use your time to help yourself embed your learnings.

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Do your people embody your company’s values?

Are their behaviours consistent with what you want them to be?

If not, it often seems there’s little you can do about this. After all, it’s hard to change the way people behave.

But many companies don’t help themselves. They give their people too little direction, often doing little more than listing the values and saying “be more like this”.

But, even the most dedicated employee would have problems implementing the guidance “be more helpful”, “display more mutuality”, “increase your customer focus”… It’s just too vague. Where to start? How?

There’s no one right answer, of course. But, here’s one way to communicate your values such that it triggers behavioural change….

• List and explain your values – so your people understand them
• Ask your people….

1. Why each value is important to the company – so they start discussing the importance of each
2. Why each value is important to them personally - so they see it’s in their interest to adopt them
3. To grade how good they think the company currently is at displaying each value – this encourages them not to take the adoption of your values for granted
4. Whether it is only other people’s - and not their – responsibility to embed the values – asking this can only lead to one response: that it is their responsibility to live and breathe them. It’s not enough to wait for everyone else to
5. To identify the actions they will take, to embody each value (a) themselves (b) in others – identifying clear actions increases their likelihood of changing behaviours

Finish by agreeing what actions each person will take, deadlines, follow-up mechanisms and accountability measures, to maximise the chance of them changing.

Action point

Ask yourself whether your team sufficiently embodies the values that you want them to.

If they don’t, run the above – or a similar – session to increase their engagement with, and adoption of, the values.

Then, critically, relentlessly follow-up until behaviours have changed.

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Many companies use Observation Sheets to help improve performance. Unfortunately, these are often…

…much too long; and

…too process-focussed (“Did you follow step 1, then 2?”), not output-focussed (“Did it work?”)

In other words, they don’t improve performance as much as everyone would like. Instead, Observation Sheets should be as short as possible, so they are easier to action afterwards, and focus on priority areas only. For example …

Let’s say your colleague’s presentations are too long, too boring and never achieve the desired result. Your observations might only need cover…

• What did you want the audience to do afterwards, and did they?
• Did the audience enjoy it, and what would have helped them enjoy it more?
• Did you enjoy it, and what would have helped you enjoy it more?
• How could it have been shorter?
• What one improvement will you make next time?

Or, imagine your salespeople have a four-step sales process and you currently observe whether they have followed each step, not whether they’ve brought value to the customer. A better format might be…

• What did you think the customer’s greatest benefit from seeing you would be? And was it?
• What did you want the customer to do after the meeting? Did they?
• What one improvement will you make next time for the customer and/or you?

Note how both examples end with “What one improvement will you make next time?” After all, if you give somebody many things to work on, they won’t know where to start. And, if they don’t know where to start … they won’t start.

Action point

Think about how you observe your direct reports’ performance, and ask yourself whether your observations are too:

• long
• process-focussed
• unclear re next steps

If so, re-focus them, using the above guidelines to help

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A weird title, but it’s so true. Do I stop where my fringe should be? Do I keep going? Problems, problems…

This uncertainty over when to stop reminds me of my favourite quote about communication, by the writer George Bernard Shaw…

‘The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it’s finished’

Communication never ends. But one of the biggest problems I see within my clients is the culture of too few communications. You know the sort of thing… ‘Well, I sent them an email about this last month. They should have changed by now’.

But changing habits is hard. People need constant reminders. And, if they don’t get it right first time, encourage them; ask how you can help them embed new habits. After all, I’ve yet to see a parent say to their toddler after they fell when taking their first step ‘Listen son, you’re clearly not a walker’.

How many times should you tell them? Well, like the bald man wondering when to stop washing his face, there’s no right answer. But you can pretty much guarantee it will be more than once.

Action point

Think which people aren’t doing what you’ve asked them to do. Revisit the topic with them – ask them how you can help them change.

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To ensure messages stick, you have to communicate them the right number of times…

… not too often, or it becomes boring, repetitive and loses its impact; and

… not too little. How often do you see someone press “send” on an email and think “Excellent. My communication is now complete”

So, what’s the right amount?

Well, the unsatisfactory answer is ‘it depends’ – on your audience, subject, other priorities, their personality, your personality etc

But here are two useful guidelines…

1. communicate important messages more than once…

… for example, I’m working with many of my customers now to formally re-visit the ’2011 vision’ communications they delivered in January, to help them give further encouragement and direction as to the changes their people should make

2. people need an external force, to help them remember…

… there seems to be a mystical invisible forcefield that destroys people’s best intentions when they leave the room following your communications. Help them remember – regular reminders, change standard meeting agendas to re-enforce key messages, empower their managers to guide them, posters on the wall, and so on.

Action point

What’s the most important communication you’ve delivered this year?

Did it work?

If it did, reward and recognise improved performance.

If not, it’s time to give them a reminder…

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As the year draws to a close, you will be thinking about how you want 2011 to start.  One technique you might use is a 30/60/90-day plan.

These plans are useful, but can lead to your colleagues thinking too short-term, because the first thing they hear about is only 30 days from now.

A better way to communicate this is to flip it i.e. deliver a 90/60/30-day plan…

Start by telling them where you want to be 90 days into 2011, and then…

…Work backwards: where must they be after 60 days, to ensure they hit their 90 day target?   And then…

…Work backwards again: where must they be after 30 days, to ensure they are where they need to be after 60?

Flipping communication in this way helps your people achieve more.  And, by starting further into the future, it removes their blinkers caused by using today as their starting point.

After all, the easiest way to dramatically improve on this year, is not to start by talking about this year.

Action point

When planning for next year, focus long-term and then calculate the short-term milestones to get there.

Communicate in this order too – this ensures your people understand the context of what you’re looking to achieve first, and then they work backwards from there, to see where they must start.

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Every year, my children bring their school reports home to their proud Father.  Like most reports, they focus almost entirely on how Megan and Jack have performed during the year with 1-2 thoughts as to how they can improve going forward.

When you think about it, a lot of staff appraisals are like that – lots of discussion about 2010 and not as much about 2011.  Appraisals like this are useful, but can lead to them becoming too retrospective and reactive, rather than future-focussed and proactive.

There are lots of reasons for this past-focus, but one is the title.  Calling your year-end meetings “reviews” leads people to review past performance. Simply adding a “P” to the title – so you preview future performance – changes the focus entirely.

Our company – and many of our customers – never have performance reviews.  They feel too much like an adult version of a school report.  Instead, we have Previews – maybe with a future-focussed, benefits-rich subtitle to re-inforce – “ensuring you have a successful 2011” etc.

This future-focus ensures both the appraiser and appraisee are 100% focussed on improving things going forward.

There are some past-based questions in there – we can’t ignore 2010, after all – but the thrust is “how can we improve things next year?”, rather than “what happened?”

Action point

Ask yourself, during staff reviews, what’s the split of discussing the past compared to the future?  50:50? 90:10? 10:90?

And then consider if this split feels appropriate, or whether you would both benefit from switching to a more future-focussed meeting.

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As this year draws to a close, companies the world over are thinking how to make 2011 better than 2010. This week’s tip is the first in a series to help you do just that.

This week’s focus: how to roll-out your vision and plans for 2011.

When preparing these communications, there are lots of things to consider. Here are a few to help you…

… As with all communication, start with the end in mind: What do you want your audience to do differently next year?

… Your colleagues are busy, so saying “next year, you will also be doing X” could easily lead to feelings of “I’d love to, but when exactly?” A better option is to save them time first, before giving them new tasks…”Next year, please stop doing X and, with the time freed up, do Y instead. Keep doing Z, as you are doing now”.

… Make your title compelling. “Strategy – 2011” isn’t. Add a benefit-rich sub-title – “Ensuring we have a successful, exciting 2011”, “Helping you achieve more in less time” etc.

… When describing 2011’s actions, your colleagues are used to “the 2010 way”, so start there and explain the differences…”So, where as this year you did X, next year – given exactly the same situation – you will be doing Y instead”. The alternative – explaining “the 2011 way” only – can leave people confused as to how it maps with their current role.

Action point

When communicating your plans for 2011, begin with the end in mind. Think what your people should stop – and start – doing. Base the rest of your communication around ensuring they do so.

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Last year, the UK was bracing itself for a swine flu pandemic. To reduce the chances of an outbreak, the NHS put notices saying ‘wash your hands’ everywhere… every station, airport, toilet… everywhere.

Similarly, a couple of years before that, it became illegal in the UK to smoke in public places. Again, notices everywhere – pubs, clubs, hotels, public buildings.

The logic was clear. If you want people to change behaviours in the long term – and both campaigns did – you must repeatedly remind them of the key messages, until it sticks.

It’s the same in business. If you want your team/department/boss/stakeholder to change behaviours, you have to repeatedly remind them, too.

But many organisations don’t do this, or – at least – not enough…

• One-off roadshows to explain your new vision don’t make your messages stick
• Information cascades with minimal follow-up result in messages becoming diluted/lost
• Single presentations don’t transform people’s ability, desire and confidence to change
• Sending one email called “for your information” doesn’t mean the recipient is informed or motivated enough to adapt behaviour

Are you reminding your stakeholders often enough?

Action point

For future key communications, prepare both the communication and the follow-up, not just the communication.

For communications you’ve delivered previously but not followed-up… follow them up! Ask how the recipients are progressing. Offer help. Share successes. Build momentum.

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