Friday, January 16, 2015

BOSS SPECIAL ............... Use 'Planning Prompts' to Get Results Without micromanaging

Use 'Planning Prompts' to Get Results Without micromanaging


In addition to thinking about how your company can work toward its loftier goals this year, on a smaller scale, you might also be wondering how to help your employees set and achieve their own objectives. 
Katherine Milkman, an assistant professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania has two words: planning prompts
"Whenever you want to help somebody follow through on a goal, one thing you should do is actually prompt them to think about exactly when and where and how they will accomplish that goal," Milkman told Knowledge@Wharton
She recently looked at the the effectiveness of planning prompts in the context of health and wellness and found that when people are asked to write down the date and time of a health appointment to get a flu shot or a colonoscopy, they are significantly more likely to follow through. 
The most novel part of Milkman's findings? Because her research involved simply prompting participants to form a concrete goal -- and not confirming whether or not they actually did -- she concluded that social pressure isn't a critical part of the process.
"A lot of past studies involving planning prompts actually involved face to face contact or contact over the phone with someone who asked you to walk through a plan," Milkman explained. "What we actually did is sent a simple mailing. You never interact with another person."
In other words, after an initial nudge, your employees are likely to execute their plans without any micromanagement.
"It's just the act of forming a plan privately that can really increase follow through," Milkman said.


http://www.inc.com/laura-montini/the-case-against-micromanaging-your-employees-this-year.hmtl.html?cid=em01014week03d

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