You are busy in the kitchen, you need to make sure dinner is ready in 20 minutes and your 6 year old comes running to you.
“Mom! I have an idea. How about putting a clock in the bathroom? That way I can see when 2 minutes are up when I brush my teeth.”
Scenario A:
“No one puts clocks in the bathroom, honey. Daddy or I will help you with the time when you are brushing.”
Scenario B:
“It is a good idea, honey. Mommy is busy with her work over the next few weeks. I will get to it sometime next month.”
Scenario C:
“Wow! That is a fantastic idea, honey. Why don’t you tell me how you came up with it during dinner? We will also see when we can set time aside to do that at the time.”
During dinner, you listen as your child tells you how the clock in his classroom that the teacher uses to indicate transition from one class to the other inspired his idea. You also take out your phone and set 1 reminder to buy a clock during your weekend shopping and 1 more to install it for the same night. You explain to him that this helps you remember to get the task done.
How do you think the child felt in each of these scenarios?
Extending this to a workplace, how would an employee feel in a similar interaction with their employer?
Employees are very familiar with their jobs, they are able to continuously and constantly improve their own processes. All they need is a system of active listening and acting upon. Fostering this atmosephere motivates them to keep improving themselves everyday. In the above example, not only does the mother listen to her child’s idea but also make a genuine effort to understand how the child came up with the idea. Most importantly, the mother sets a reminder, which serves as a trigger to act upon the child’s idea. The scenario C helps establish a system for acting upon the idea whereas scenario B seems like it is just to appease the child at the moment.
How would you like to do the same, contact Leanacle Inc. to help establish sustainable idea systems.