A few weeks back I was working with a newly formed Leadership team.
Like most new teams, they wanted to explore their vision and values.
Important topics that can create a shared identity for the team.
But there is a problem I've seen play out many times.
A failure to translate the vision and values into behaviours.
It's pretty easy to write a list of values such as Trust, Collaboration, Empowerment. So easy, most teams stop here and declare success.
Fast forward 3 months, It's no surprise that teams complain no action has been taken on the values.
But what did those values even mean?
The gap is created by a failure to translate values into specific, observable and actionable behaviours.
Let's take Empowerment, what does that mean?
Everyone will have a different definition. Two problems occur because of this.
Firstly, when we are uncertain, humans adopt their default behaviour.
Secondly, when the behaviour is unclear, we don't give or receive the feedback needed to reinforce it. This further maintains the status quo.
The Tiny Habits Behaviour Design Steps help you avoid this. They take your from the aspiration through to the tiny habits.
This miro board is a great way to facilitate the discussion virtually.
These steps encourage teams to translate their big aspiration into small specific habits.
Whilst the team made progress, I left the workshop with a bigger question
Why do so many leaders struggle to clearly define desired behaviours?
I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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