Learning and Not Changing is NOT Learning

Though I'm finding myself with some new behavior traits, I'm still battling hard agaist habits/tendencies that have brought about bad results in the past. Here four bad behaviors I have to continue to fight:

• I want to trust people without accountability


• I tend to "hope" too much


• I don't follow through on requests I make; I don't inspect what I expect


• I don't have enough meetings and/or I don't lead and manage by walking around enough

While I've written previous about meetings and why they HAVE TO HAPPEN, it recently "HIT" me why people don't like meetings; they don't like the accountability. And GOOD meetings have a basis of accountability; during and/or after the meetings.

Ok, their are plenty of meetings that are "bad" meetings (bad bad meeting - shame on you), but right now I'm referring to those people in management and teamwork positions that come to good results-driven meetings. Yet, when someone leaves a meeting with an attitude of "well, that's an hour of my life that I'll never get back," that is an indication of a passive-aggressive behavior that is doing nothing but tearing at the heart of the entire organization.

What does this have to do with "Succeeding Inside the Box?" We have to know who is in the box with us. We have to know what is driving behaviors? What is each teammembers' agenda, their motive for being at work? Is it just to earn a paycheck? A bigger paycheck?

Or are they trying to make a real difference? Do they want to be part of something bigger than themselves? Are they trying to make a difference of make a bigger money? Do they just have a more, more, more attitude and agenda? Or does he throw out the "What's best for their family" bomb?

If your meetings are good meetings, something is really happening. Agendas are being sat, accountability is enforced, and planning is talked about. There's probably some drama, and that's good (see Death by Meeting...Lencioni). That person that constantly struggles to come to the meeting undoubtedly knows that he is going to come to the meeting, participate, even have good dialog, but will go back to his desk or out into the field and do what he wants, is killing your mission and purpose. Values are being trampled on. This person, regardless of what was previously agreed upon, will do only what he wants in the long run.

This is someone that doesn't belong in the box with you. Forget about the bus. Forget about a seat on the bus. Just get him out of the box. And quick.

Me....I want people that are part of a Team. I want a Together-Everyone-Achieves-More mind-set. Teamwork is a reality of Success, inside or outside the box, but we'll never succeed for the long-term without good Teamwork and people that talk about together-everyone-achieves-more and yet runs his own agenda is conning himself and others that depend upon him.

Look at the past, learn from it, and change. Know who's in the box with you.

Get out of your rut, learn from the past, and quit trying to change everyone. They're not going to change and you'd better.

Learn!