A Roadmap for Committed Action

Committed Action is obviously desirable – but it won’t just spring up by itself. So, how do you get active commitment in your desired direction??

To take someone from a state of Indifference to one of Committed Action in a single step is too much of a jump. We need some stepping stones.?

I capture these with the acronym, C.E.O.

• Invite CURIOSITY?
• Encourage EXPLORATION
• Transfer OWNERSHIP

In my new book, Amazon #1 Bestseller Committed Action: the three-step method to inspire your people to take action and get results I unpack these three steps and provide tools for each. Here's a quick overview:

LEVEL 1. Invite CURIOSITY?

Curiosity is a state of wanting to know more, and of wanting to give attention and energy to finding out. If you can engage people’s curiosity (about the business, your customers and their problems, how the business works, how it creates value, how it makes money, and what their part in the business’s value creation could be) then you are halfway there.?

Think about these questions:

• Whose Committed Action, specifically, do you need??
• Are there key people who influence others (so if you get them on board, they will bring a constituency with them)??
• Given the key stakeholders and stakeholder groups, what kind of appeal will each respond to? What are their "drivers of interest"?
• How do you start to link the dots between their world view, and their interests, and the action you need??

LEVEL 2. Encourage EXPLORATION?

Once people are curious about how they can contribute, the next thing is to deepen their appreciation of how your business really works, how it creates value for customers and how it makes money. If they are actively exploring, you can take that as evidence that their motivation has shifted from extrinsic to intrinsic. Questions to consider include:?

• What makes our company and its people, expertise, and resources of actual and potential value to customers so that it can contribute to the world outside??
• Do we understand enough about our customers to meet their new and emerging needs??
• How do we expose our people to customer perspectives??

LEVEL 3. Transfer OWNERSHIP?

Once you’ve tapped into intrinsic motivation, the question now is how to channel it. Now you need answers to these questions:

• How do I get people to take responsibility for results, not just following some steps??
• How can I create a situation where people are coming to me with intentions and ideas that make sense??
• How do I stretch our performance and build capacity, but without doing harm to people??

One of my best-ever clients, David Pritchett, the former President of Rieke Packaging Systems said this about gaining Committed Action: “Anyone can open a factory, but it takes people to build a business. A lot of leaders don't realise the work needed to make that happen. Andy's emphasis on 'joining the dots up' for people is the difference that makes the difference.”

The C.E.O. roadmap is a reliable guide to 'joining the dots up' for your people. Think about the questions above, and if you want to know more about what it takes, check out Committed Action, available now on Amazon.