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Last time, the Trainer had put Wes in contact with the Consultant. Wes is attending a seminar with the Consultant as the main speaker.
Consultant to the audience which has just taken their seats for the seminar: "How many of you have people reporting to you, either at work or at home? I bet a lot of you don't think of yourselves as being managers at home. So you're all managing people in several parts of your life. Today I want to talk with you about motivating others. That's your job as leaders, you know."
The Consultant tells the crowd that there is a simple and profound truth right under their noses that will absolutely change their approach to dealing with people and the results of those interactions.
Consultant: "It's all about what you focus on. What we need as managers and team leaders and parents is a way to focus on what is bright and noble and wonderful in the people we work with .. I'm convinced that to motivate people and create a world-class organization or department, you have to know how to manage people's energy..."
The Consultant explains to the eagerly-listening crowd about her experiences at SeaWorld and, in particular, with the killer whales and their trainers.
Consultant: "Now, you might be wondering, 'What in the world does the training of killer whales have to do with motivating my people at work or my kids at home?' The answer is - everything. The very methods they use to train these marvelous animals work just as well, if not better, with people. Why? Because we can talk to people ..."
A slide appears on a large screen behind the Consultant.
Consultant: "Let's start with the A, the Activator. What we mean by an Activator is something that stimulates the behavior or performance that you want ... With people, an Activator can be a set of instructions, a training experience - or even a boss yelling at them. The most common Activators are goals ... All good performance starts with clear goals. If managers don't sit down with their people and develop smart, workable goals that are clear on both sides, their people are left without any idea of what they're expected to do or what good performance looks like. If your people don't know what they're being asked to do, what you do as a manager doesn't matter .. So the A in the ABC - whatever triggers the performance - is important..."
A is the trigger, the starter, the Activator. Got it!
Consultant: "After you motivate the performance you want by setting clean goals, you have to observe the behavior that follows. That's what B stands for ... Observing the behavior that occurs after initial activation is a step that if often missed by managers - even when they get the performance they want. Once goals are set and the necessary training is over, they disappear. When that happens, they don't have a prayer of taking advantage of the third and most important step in managing performance: the C for Consequence - what happens after you get the behavior you were looking for."
B is what we get, the performance based on the trigger, the Behavior. Got it!
The Consultant asks the audience what usually happens when we do something right? The audience quickly shouts bank: "Nothing happens. Nobody says anything." Nobody notices or comments until - when? The audience answers in unison: "When things go wrong."
A new slide appears on the screen.
Consultant: "Does everybody notice where the spotlight is? That's to indicate that of the three steps, A, B, or C, C has by far the greatest impact on overall performance. Yet, as we all just recognized, the usual response we get to performing well is that we're left alone. Actually, there are three other kids of response you can make."
C is what happens when we get what we want, our response to the performance, the Consequence. Got it!
Next time, we, along with Wes, will learn the other three responses and, hopefully, how to deal with the negatives associated with each type of response.
Senior Vice President
Delta Companies Inc
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