Weekly Nudge – Recognize “Tell me what to do…”; resist and if people are reluctant to tell you what they think; try perspective change. In particular, ask them to sit in your chair, then ask them what they think (What if you were me? What do you think I’d want here?).
Think – Seeing something from a different perspective raises awareness and helps teams make better decisions.
This week, we are going to try perspective change. We are going to try and get Andy to think about the issue from different a perspective.
Andy: Hey boss, we have a problem with this week’s shipment. Because of our unscheduled machine outage we don’t have time to do our inspection.
David: Well, what do you think we should do?
Andy: I don’t know. You’re the boss.
David: OK, what if you were our client here. What do you think they’d want us to do?
Andy: Well, they’d want their parts on time but they wouldn’t want to pay airfreight…and they wouldn’t want bad parts either.
David: Thanks…what if you were me? What do you think I’d want here?
Andy: I’m sure you’d want to minimize costs but also not want to spoil the relationship with this client.
David: OK Andy, you sit here and tell me what I should do.
Weekly Nudge: Recognize “Tell me what to do…”; resist and if people are reluctant to tell you what they think; try perspective change. In particular, ask them to sit in your chair, then ask them what they think (What if you were me? What do you think I’d want here?).
Next week we’ll cover the 3rd and final strategy, which we call “fast forward.”
Review last week’s strategy – Ladder of Leadership Series, Part 2
