Ever developed a great action plan and didn't follow through after a training session? If you are like me, a motivational speaker can pump my juices. Our intentions to implement the plan soar to a peak. But what does it take to follow through?
1. New concepts lost if not acted upon When a coach leaves after a concentrated training session, people's urgent tasks cry for attention. Tasks usurp focus so that newly learned information can easily spill out of the brain's working memory. Three or four fresh details fill the working memory's temporary storage capacity. When learning is fresh it works well to take immediate action to begin using it.
2. Should do When a person says she should do the first step in an action plan, the words do not reflect immediacy so it can be set aside for long periods of time and perhaps abandoned. Margaret Meloni lists three levels of intention revealed through words used.
• Level One: I should or I need – This indicates recognition of or a desire to make a change or take an action, but is not an action plan.3. Fear stands in the way If fear creates a barrier between where you are now and where you want to be Carolyn Rubenstein suggests you ask WHY. When you get to the bottom of your fear, you can face it and take the bold action needed to start the first step of your plan.
• Level Two: I want or I am going to – Now the talk about a change or action is being transformed into a plan, it may make the top of the to-do list.
• Level Three: I am – A clear statement of intention reflecting action and ownership for the results. This is the execution and this is where an intention becomes a reality.
4. Boss shuts down ideas "Stubborn bosses treat change as if they have 'cooties,'" Lyn Taylor contends. "They don't want to touch it, get near it, or handle it themselves unless they initiate the change. Why? Many people want to initiate change themselves so they make the work environment uncomfortable for those wanting to follow through with a new action plan.
Tyrant bosses, want to be right, get the recognition and avoid risks just to maintain the status quo.
Taylor offers these solutions:
Choose your words carefully To get better footing, Taylor suggests you use positive language to relax your boss when he's stuck in a rut. Words of affirmation will calm him," and thus release serotonin, a brain chemical of well being.5. Procrastination Everyone has things they want to do, but can't seem to start the first step. So what's the answer to this foot dragging? Jane B. Burka and Lenora M. Yuen suggest that you put together an "unschedule", a chart of your time that is already taken, as a way to see how much time you really have left for your goals.
Offer choices and compromises that empower your "Terrible Old Tyrant." Rather than asking questions that lead to yes/no answers, offer your boss choices. Change "Can we end the meeting early today?" to "Should we end at 4:00 or 4:30?" That gives your boss decision making power.
Align your needs with boss's - "Remind your boss how your ideas reinforce her larger objectives," Taylor suggests. Keep showing that you are on the same page.
Since you did not start this habit yesterday, it is deeply embedded in your brain's basal ganglia. The more you do an action, the more your brain has rewired dendrite brain cells for repeating the same action. Good news is that human brain has great plasticity and can rewire for a new approach. So each time you start early and accomplish a task the more this new pattern will be rewired in your brain's memory bank - the basal ganglia.
Burka and Yeun suggest how to develop better work habits methodically, one step at a time. They recommend starting a 2-week program right away using varied strategies. Here are some they list:
- Avoid perfectionism
- Be specific
- Make goals that are observable
- Take small steps
- Reward yourself!
6. Lack of Focus Stifles Follow-through "Those leaders who lack the focus and attention to detail needed to apply leverage and resources in an aggressive and committed fashion will perish," Mike Myatt observes. "Leaders who do not possess a bias toward action, or who cannot deliver on their obligations will not be successful. Leadership is about performance…Intentions must be aligned with results for leaders to be effective."
If a leader is easily distracted during a coaching session, she misses some of the detail. Since the human brain is easily bored, Ellen Weber explains why "you might think other people or work bore you and that is why you are not getting ahead." It is a myth. "Reality," according to Weber, "is that boredom is more a habit formed in brains, and shaped by your choices."
7. Innovation is rhetoric rather than reality When people inside large organizations were asked to describe their corporate innovation system, almost none could do it, Gary Hamel discovered. " When asked if innovation is rhetoric rather than reality, they said, overwhelmingly, 'It's rhetoric. We don't see the reality.'"
One explanation for this is that top management is paying lip service to innovation, according to Gary Hamel. "But another -- and far more likely -- explanation is that senior leaders do not have a clear, well-developed model of what innovation looks like as an organizational capability. And since they don't know what it looks like, they don't know how to build it." One reason is that they focus just on products and services. And, second, many organizations "devote much more energy to optimizing what is there than to imagining what could be. Hamel's answer is that "we need to create constituencies for "What Could Be."
A way past the rhetoric, is to unleash the passion for innovation company-wide. That is taking the first step!
What would you suggest to insure intentions are acted upon quickly to create fresh realities?
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