Your own User Manual

What would you write in your own User Manual??

And would you be happy to share it with your colleagues?

An absolutely fascinating and insightful conversation in a recent video interviewing Dan Coyle, talking about this and much more from his latest book, The Culture Playbook: 60 Highly Effective Actions to Help Your Group Succeed.

A good friend introduced me to Dan’ first book, The Culture Code, a number of years ago; a must for anyone interested in organisational culture, and I have been a fan ever since.

There’s so much great content in this video, but what prompted me to write this article was Dan's idea of having your own User Manual – “a guide to the best of me – this is what you need to know”.

It was exactly what I asked someone earlier this week in a coaching conversation.

They are moving to a new role as they have recognised that the culture isn’t for them, they don’t feel that they fit there, they don’t feel able to be their authentic self and want to take steps to ensure that this doesn’t happen again.

We spent some time discovering their values, the importance of them and why they are important to them. What behaviours, actions, feelings, language that will show up when these values are present and how that will look within a new prospective organisation.

I then asked them ‘what do you need in order to work at your best?’?And suggested that this could be an early conversation with their new manager and team.

Makes sense, eh?

We have User Manuals for other non-human stuff.?So that we know how to get them to work well, get the best out of them, and also how not to break them.

Some of the many personality profiles, such as Insights and the like, go some way to start describing this and I’ve worked in organisations that use and share profiles, but we need to go deeper and more detailed than that.

It’s like values, it’s knowing yourself, and then sharing with others what these things look like in practice.

As a business owner, CEO, leader, or manager and this feels like something new to you and your organisation, start small.?Start with a trusted colleague first, one of your peers and then with your team.?Build further into the organisation by then working out how teams work best together.?If you don’t do anything else just get to know your people, find out what makes them tick, how they do their best work, everything else will follow if the intention is good.?

And let them know why you’re asking the question, let them know how you work your best first, help them to feel able to share.

And when they do, remember to go deeper, be curious.?If they say they work best with a mix of home and office work because that gives them the flexibility they need, ask them to describe that flexibility to you.?What that looks like to them, what it enables them to do.?One it will help you know how they work at their best, but it will also help them, by clarifying themselves, getting it really clear in their heads when they work at their best.?When we, as individuals, know how and when we are working at our best, we are more likely to bring that to other parts of our work.

And on the flipside, when you know what someone needs to work at their best, you are more likely to know when they are going to need help, and they’re more likely to feel able to ask for it.?But that’s a whole other post!

So, what would you include in your own User Manual?

Here’s one from me that would be in my User Manual to help you get started:

I work at my best when I feel connected.?This is about sharing; sharing stories, laughter, tears; sharing resources; sharing learning, successes and failures, the ups and the downs; exchanging feedback; giving and receiving recognition; having those little messages pop up – a text, an email, regular communication; checking in with each other for no other that you want to know that the person is okay.

If you found the Dan’s video interesting, why not check out his recent conversation with the wonderful Bruce Daisley’s podcast Eat Sleep Work Repeat, called ‘Dan Coyle can fix your culture’.

Here’s the link to the video, https://www.mckinsey.com/Videos/video?vid=6307779264112&plyrid=HkOJqCPWdb&aid=FDFC8913-36CA-4E0F-BC11-5741BE3A837A

Here’s the link to Bruce’s podcast, https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/dan-coyle-can-fix-your-culture/id1190000968?i=1000559428760