Do you ever get the feeling that you aren’t winning any battles with your current team? That your employees reject responsibility and lack operational capability? You’re not the only one. IG&H encounters this problem often during client inquiries. With these three simple steps, you will get more out of your employees.
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Step 1 starting: ‘purpose’ as the basis of performance
People have a natural need for development and progress (A. Maslow, 1967). Despite this, only one third of employees in the Netherlands goes with a sense of enjoyment and involvement. That has consequences on the work floor; those who do not feel involved are less likely to work hard in order to perform well. As a manager, you can use this natural need for development by giving the employee’s purpose a place within the team’s objectives.
A large retailer asked IG&H to assist them with this. One team member only showed enthusiasm for a certain type of project. By having a discussion about her personal purpose as well as the manager’s, both parties became more understanding of each other’s ambitions. By doing this, the manager was able to more effectively utilize the employee on projects in line with her goals. In this manner, the company was able to profit more from her qualities and the employee was more motivated and strongly involved with the achievement of the team goals.
Step 2 keep going: ratifying
Influencing and sustaining positive and proactive work behaviour can be done following a simple ABC: A stands for Antecedents, B for Behaviour, and C for Consequences.
In order to ensure that the team members of the aforementioned retailer were able to more effectively attain team goals, a daily stand-up was introduced in collaboration with IG&H; in other words, a precondition (A) in order to help the team to work together optimally and in order to stimulate (C) desired behaviour (B).
During the stand-up, team members were motivated to share help requests (B) via a ‘team standard’ (A). This dictated that colleagues, in these cases, must always offer help. By then ratifying the helpful behaviour (C), the chance that this behaviour is repeated becomes higher.
Around 80% of our behaviour is dictated by a punishment or reward that stems from our approach (Thorndike, 1874-1949). Coaching the application of ‘C’ is therefore crucially important.
Step 3 securing: culture in which making mistakes is allowed
Thereafter, it is important to create a culture in which mistakes are seen as possibilities for learning and growth (C. Dweck, 2012). Through this, employees will try more things out, experiment, and show courage, allowing them to be the best that they can be.
As a manager, you can make time during the stand-up for fuck-ups. Focus on the question of what the individual employees and the team have learned from the mistake. Ensure that an employee is appreciated rather than punished for sharing. It helps if the manager also shares his or her own fuck-ups. Look into the process with the team or the individual; what could have been done better here? Research shows that receiving feedback on the applied strategy works better than feedback on end results. Team members learn more effectively from mistakes, take on more challenges, and enjoy their tasks more (Dweck, 2012).
A successful organization
After following the steps mentioned above, the team of the big retailer worked together with more involvement and motivation, with a growth-centric mindset. The team members turned out to be able to realize team goals in a self-motivated, proactive way using the correct preconditions.
The aforementioned steps to optimization will also make your company’s teams stronger and more effective. Do you want more information? Feel free to contact the Organization Transformation Team at IG&H.
Written by: Eline Reurik (Consultant Organization Transformation) and Myrthe van Stralen (Consultant Organization Transformation).