Four Secrets for Turning Insight into Execution
A well-designed leadership off-site is a great place to generate
the big ideas that can take your business to the next level. You bring in a
speaker, have an in-depth discussion, walk through an analysis, and suddenly,
light bulbs go off. People see what they’ve been missing or what has been
holding them back.
Unfortunately, as soon as people leave the event the light often
begins to fade, and even those who complete planned tasks can lose sight of the
big idea. Managers may be rigorous about their vision for implementation, but
still find that execution varies widely — putting their business at risk and
damaging trust and confidence on the team. “Are we going to have another one of
those meetings where everyone signs up for stuff, and then no one does
anything?” becomes an all-too-common refrain. As a leader, you might be tempted
to throw up your hands. You would think that mature professionals could be
counted on to follow through on their agreed-upon actions, right? Do you really
have to hold their hands?
Well, yes, in a way, you do
— for two reasons. First, brain science shows that
new insights are fragile. In “The Neuroscience of Leadership,” published by this magazine, David Rock and Jeffrey
Schwartz show that when a new idea emerges, it is amorphous and faint, and
thus more difficult to call to mind than something familiar. They explain that
an engaging experience (like an off-site) is a great way to generate new
insights and new connections in the brain. But to turn these new connections
into repeatable action, they need to be reactivated again and again, until
neural pathways become embedded in everyday thinking and decision making. Rock
and Schwartz refer to this process as increasing the “attention density” given
to a new idea. “Over time, paying enough attention to any specific brain
connection keeps the relevant circuitry open and dynamically alive,” they
write. “These circuits can then eventually become not just chemical links but
stable, physical changes in the brain’s structure.”
The second reason your people need more support for follow-up is
the sheer volume of information they have to mentally sort and file every day —
requests, alerts, introductions, announcements, and the list goes on. The
constant noise can swamp even the most competent employee’s system for managing
commitments.
Given these two factors, you can increase your team’s execution
effectiveness by shifting your view of your role as a leader. Instead of being
a taskmaster or allowing poor follow-up to undermine results, you can think of
yourself as the architect of your team’s focus and attention — using simple
practices to reactivate the insights that really matter over time. Here are
four ways to start:
1. Document insights in
real time, in vivid ways.
Don’t wait until the
meeting or off-site ends. Instead, allocate some time near the end of the
agenda for reflection — to capture key insights, outline project plans, and
schedule next steps. Try sharing a project planning template. Give people time
to check their calendars before asking them to commit to next steps. And, where
possible, chronicle “aha” moments in ways that easily bring them back to life.
I find hiring a person to serve as a graphic recorder, photographing key flip
charts, or having people tell the story of the biggest insight from the meeting
all make it easier to reactivate important insights later.
2. Be rigorous about your
personal system for managing attention and commitments.
If you want to increase
your team’s attention density, you need to proactively manage your own focus.
There are many valuable methods available — for instance, David Allen’s Getting
Things Done is explicitly designed to
help you manage the flood of information inputs. The key is to have a personal
routine for consciously directing your attention to what matters, and to follow
it religiously. Having your own system helps you to choose how to direct your
team’s attention, and sets the expectation that they should have similar
systems. This is also the only way you or your team can make commitments you
know you can keep.
3. Use questions to
reactivate the “aha.”
In your team meetings, in
your one-to-ones, and even when passing someone in the hall, try asking
questions that prompt people to think more deeply about a big idea. “What did
you find when you looked at the external market data?” “What is your goal for
that sales call?” “Who are the new customers and who will be helping to set
them up correctly?” Ask what the idea means to them, and how it can be applied
in practice. As a leader, the questions you ask also let your team know what
you expect and how they should prepare for discussions with you.
4. Notice everyone’s
deadlines.
Too often, deadlines come
and go, and no one mentions the hits or the misses. Unfortunately, this can
signal that the project or the task isn’t important. By contrast, if you notice
when a key date is coming up, you can ask the relevant individuals how the work
is coming along, dig into challenges or delays, or thank your employees for
solid execution. Doing so reinforces the idea that you are paying attention,
and conveys the significance of everyone’s contributions. Simply recognizing
when someone takes a crucial first step or shows signs of real effort to change
can make a huge difference, especially when they are learning new habits. This
need not become micromanaging if your focus is on helping people make progress
toward the goal (rather than on catching their mistakes).
At first blush, you may think that adopting these four habits will
cost you precious (and limited) time. But if you give them a try, I think you
will find they increase the payoff from every insight your team develops. Isn’t
that what we mean when we tell our teams we want them to do less and achieve
more?
Elizabeth Doty
https://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Four-Secrets-for-Turning-Insight-into-Execution?gko=c7e01&utm_source=itw&utm_medium=20180206&utm_campaign=resp
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