Clearly articulate and support your organization’s absolute commitments—your lines in the sand
The Dale Carnegie Business Group takes a stand that “all people are committed.” As simple as this sounds, it’s a viewpoint more uncommon than you might think.
How often have you heard, “some people just aren’t committed to this initiative, they don’t buy into it”? A person who thinks from this position will spend obscene amounts of time trying to differentiate the “committed” from the “uncommitted.” They will treat most people as if they are not committed, and expect them to prove their commitment. This leads to excessive actions to secure buy-in (compliance).
What a waste of energy!
In contrast, beginning a meeting having already decided everyone is committed (to something) and focusing on connecting to others’ commitments through your ears, not your PowerPoint slides, is like day and night.
This is critical since, on behalf of achieving desired results, we ask people to change how they do things. Without taking a stand that “people are committed,” we'd waste precious time and resources on traditional buy-in techniques that inadvertently communicate a basic disrespect for what most people truly value.
This stand lets us focus on what’s truly important to our clients, what they value, and how a change effort can succeed based on aligning what each person values with what the enterprise aspires to achieve.
Radical Shifts in Thinking
A retail client takes a stand for giving customers the best value for their money. When a manager contended that the company had the “best quality,” one of the owners gently, but firmly, corrected him by saying: “We give our customers the best value for their money. We strive to provide fresh, high-quality produce, but our commitment is the best value for the money.”
It’s an important distinction, and a platform on which buying and selling decisions are made.
Another radical shift in thinking for that retailer was turning a faltering “waste reduction” program into a “wealth creation” initiative.
