Suppose you want to change your behavior. Perhaps you want to work more effectively, listen more attentively to others re attentively, or plan your work better. In that case, a little nudge can help bring about that change. How do you do that? We incorporate accountability into many of our programmes. A method where you work in pairs to assess and help each other get started on behavioural change. We explain how.

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What is your learning goal?

Step one is to set learning objectives. We then focus on specific individual behaviour. What do you want to stop doing, and what can replace it? What behaviour makes you more effective?

Paul van Bekkum: “To change behaviour, you can ask those around you for help. We call this gathering 'feedforward' on your learning goal: this is not about what you've seen someone do, but about suggestions regarding the learning goal. It's different from feedback, because with feedback you focus on what has happened in the past. This method is used by Marshall Goldsmith, an authority on helping successful leaders achieve positive, lasting behavioural change for themselves and their teams.”

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Accountability

Are the learning goals concrete and are the behaviours you are going to practice small enough (preferably smaller than larger)? If so, we can start with accountability. In fact, this simply involves pairing employees up and asking them to call each other a few times a week. They check in with and ask each other about their progress towards the learning objectives. Has your colleague done their very best to work on the learning goal by demonstrating the behaviours (or perhaps not)? At first, this feels a bit awkward and people are sometimes sceptical about it. But it's a very effective incentive, because a colleague holds you accountable for your intention to learn and thereby helps you move forward.

Dolf L'Ortye explains: “In this context, by behaviour, we mean behaviour that is tangible, visible and audible to another person. An example is resolving to listen better. A concrete example of behaviour under that learning goal could then be: my colleagues hear me start each meeting with an open question.”

In the hustle and bustle of our daily work, 99 out of 100 people find it difficult to consciously focus on their professional skills. Content often takes precedence, and the hectic pace doesn't help. That is why this method of brief (daily) confrontation is so powerful. At Summiteers, we also make use of accountability. A funny example: on our laptops, you sometimes see post-it notes listing our desired behaviour. Every six months, we rotate our pairs.

Small goals, big impact

Dolf: “The interventions are very effective. Your behaviour really does change, and quickly. The effect is amplified when team members share their learning goals within the team. We therefore ask you to speak to your colleague about their learning goal. Give them a compliment when you see someone making progress. Because it's so small and woven into what you do every day, the behavioral change gets the attention it deserves. If a team of professionals all become a little more effective, that has a very positive impact on the entire organisation.”

Curious about examples of learning goals that professionals are working on? We've compiled them for you:

• I want to listen genuinely, focusing on understanding the other person (rather than just making my point)
• I want to dare to take up more space in a meeting (or, conversely, take up less space)
• I want to bring more structure to themeetings I chair
• I want to be fully present during a meeting (rathe rthan having my mind on other things)
• I want to explicitly test the assumptions I make

We will soon be publishing a handy booklet that supports the process descibred above. We will, of course, tell you more about this when the time comes, so stay tuned!

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Can we help you?

We create momentum, make the complex understandable, the vast manageable, and turn a (vague) idea into something concrete, ensuring that the difficult succeeds. Could you use some help with this? Contact us.

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