Lesson 2 – Topic 3: Mindful Interactions
Strategy 2 – If you change yourself the world changes around you.
“Be the Change You Want To See in the World” is a well known phrase that encourages people to take personal responsibility for situations they are facing. It stops people from judging others, causes one to reflect on self rather than complaining and stirs us into taking control over ourselves rather than waiting for others to take action that we like to see happen.
Mahatma Ghandi implied it in 1913 when he wrote:
| “We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him”. |
However, in 1970 it was American high school educator Arleen Lorrance who came up with the phrase “be the change you wish to see happen”. Arleen was a school teacher at Thomas Jefferson High in Brooklyn, which was going through difficult times in the 1960s and early 1970s. Local poverty and violence were having very negative effects on the school and the students there.
Ms Lorrance implemented in the school what she called “The Love Project” using her, amongst others, the “be the change you wish to see happen” concept.
According to school reports and newspaper articles from the time, The Love Project was a great success at Thomas Jefferson High and the school was transformed within 7 months in a very positive way for the rest of the 1970s.
In her book, Ms Lorrance described the origins of her approach as follows:
| “For seven years I served my sentence and marked off institutional time; I complained, cried, accepted hopelessness, put down the rest of the faculty for all the things they didn’t do, and devoted all my energies to trying to change others and the system. It came in on me loud and clear that I was the only one who could imprison (or release) me, that I was the only one I could do anything about changing. So I let go of my anger and negativism and made a decision to simply be totally loving, open and vulnerable all the time.” |
In organizations we spend a lot of time trying to change other people. This approach will not be very successful unless you are willing to walk your talk. Start by changing yourself.
Strategy 3 – Dream Teams
Put good teams together. Ask yourself who in an ideal world would you like to work with? This applies to others as well.
Instead of bluntly forcing people to work together, try to put people together who you believe can work together well. Of course it depends how many staff members you have, and this may be an ongoing project but it is definitively worth the effort.
Let your staff consider the same, give them an anonymous questionnaire with preferences 1 to 3.
For example:
| Dream Team Questionnaire
Dear…, in our ongoing quest to create kinder and safer workplaces could you please fill out this questionnaire to help us put the most suitable people into teams. |
| a) Who would you love to work with the most? | 1. |
| 2. | |
| 3. | |
| No preferences | |
| b) Who is the one person you would really not like to work with? | 1. |
| No preferences |
| Thank you for your help, we cannot make guarantees but we endeavour to put amazing teams together. signed: John Amazing – CEO |
When you receive the questionnaire back from your staff, sit down again with paper and match your team the best you can.
As I said before in an ideal world you would only pair dream teams together but even if you create a few teams with less friction it is a win win situation. When we reduce friction we increase efficiency. When we work efficiently we use less time, resources and human effort to do the work. Efficiency in the workplace is a very important KPI in your business, dream teams help you achieve that KPI with ease.
And of course treat everyone with dignity, just because they work for you doesn’t mean you own them. Again this doesn’t cost you anything but the benefits are huge.
Strategy 4 – Find Out Why Staff Is Leaving
As a general rule of thumb you want to retain good staff members as anytime a staff member leaves you may loose all that expertise and you have to find a replacement. This process can be quite expensive and disruptive for the company. If you experience high levels of staff turnover I would suggest you give them a questionnaire or “exit interview”, even if they left the company earlier.
This can’t be done anonymously but you will most likely get honest answers.
| Questionnaire: Staff Leaving Dear…, I am sorry to hear you are leaving this company. In order to improve our services would you be so kind to take this short survey |
| a. Why did you leave ( are you leaving)? | * no career prospects |
| * monetary aspects: not earning enough | |
| * not being treated well by colleagues | |
| * not being treated well by management | |
| * other |
|
| b. Could you please outline in a few sentences what we could have done to improve the workplace situation. |
| Thank you . signed: John Amazing – CEO |
Once you receive the answers write them a Thank You note:
| Hi …. I really appreciate you filling out this survey. Thank you for having worked in our business. Wishing you all the best for your personal and professional future.
Kind regards, |
It is always good to end on a good note, you never know when you might meet again. Now look at the results. What is going on in your company? You might find out facts you had no idea of.
Again this doesn’t cost you anything.
Strategy 5 – Staff Promotion
Before you consider promoting someone inside the business do an anonymous survey among your staff members who they think is the most suitable person for the role. This doesn’t mean you give your power away you are just collecting more information so you can make the right decision.
A survey could look like this;
| Staff Promotion questionnaire
Survey before promotion. Thank you for your participation. |
Compare your notes with the surveys of your staff members. Great, if the same name appears as number 1 or even 2. But be careful if you wanted to appoint a person who appears in the survey as the least suitable. Rethink your decision, get more information.
Strategy 6 – Communication Box
Put an old fashioned beautiful box somewhere visible in a public space but make sure only you can take papers out. Encourage staff to give you information in an anonymous way which you might otherwise not get. Often staff is being bullied but doesn’t have the courage to tell you. This is a great way to stay informed what’s really going on in your department. Investigate and then act on what you see written.
Strategy 7 – Celebrations In The Workplace
By now you might already have an annual Christmas Party but consider to add many little celebrations throughout the year. Ask yourself honestly: would I rather have many gifts and celebrations throughout the year or just 1 big party at Christmas.
If your answer is : “Just one party is enough”, you might want to do some work around your Inner Child. And no, I am not kidding; we all carry in us that innocent childlike aspect which we call in Psychology “The Inner Child”.
And that part in us just wants to celebrate. Let’s be clear, at the root of our Being we are all Tribal Beings. In our inner core we all want to be part of a tribe. Now the Tribe can be your immediate family, your friends, your spiritual groupings or in ever increasing your colleagues at your workplace. And you as a Manager or CEO are literally speaking their Tribal Leader.
Do you know that most people spend more time at their workplaces than with their loved ones? Let’s make this time together a good time. For example you could celebrate birthdays together. We all want to be appreciated not just with money but with nice gestures such as a birthday card. Make it a habit to celebrate an employee’s birthday with a nice card, handwritten and signed by other members. Buy a small present like a plant, bunch of flowers, bottle of champagne or ticket to the movies.
Be creative, it doesn’t have to be expensive. Order a (healthy) cake or other nice, healthy food for afternoon tea and take 15 minutes out of the day to sit together and celebrate. And no, it’s not you who has to do the work, delegate it to an event planner, there are so many people who would love to organize little parties.
That reminds me of a patient I had in Germany. He was a Judge at a local court and though he was quite strict and authoritarian his whole department loved him. He would celebrate every birthday of his staff members, would take time to talk to his staff whenever they had a personal problem. This resulted in great staff morale and all the work got done with the highest efficiency.
And again, this cost hardly anything but it did bring great appreciation and joy into people’s life.
