By Francis
Wade
Saturday, July 26, 2014.
In my time-management classes, I have
learned to pre-empt a particular line of thinking that's quite popular; that
our productivity has something to do with the limits of our culture.
Here in Jamaica, the line of reasoning is common - we suffer from low productivity
because of cultural reasons. The causes are obvious, we argue, given our
history of slavery and the fact that so few of our ancestors came to these
shores willingly. It's a conversation-stopper, if we believe it, the
implication is 'argument done!' because the facts are so undeniable.
In my class, I offer an alternate explanation for our low productivity.
When we use the word 'culture' in this context, all we are saying, in effect,
is we don't really understand the cause.
Culture is a non-threatening way to explain our lack of understanding.
It holds no one to account, and fails to point a finger anywhere. No-one alive
is presumed to be responsible: nothing can be done.
An amazing thing happens, however, when you place Jamaicans to work in a
foreign country. All of a sudden, our culture becomes something to defend at
all costs, and we instantly stop using it as a crutch. We'd never, ever, tell
our new boss or colleagues in Miami or Toronto that we're late 'because of our
culture'.
MIMICKING OTHERS
Instead, we get busy watching other people, listening to what they say.
Scientists tell us we recruit mirror neurons in our brains, which help the
brain to rewire itself so we can mimic the behaviour of others.
In other words, those who have worked alongside other professionals with
high standards of time-based productivity often learn the necessary habits,
practices, rituals and routines to be effective. They have pushed themselves
outside their comfort zones, helped along by their mirror neurons, to develop
new behaviours.
From my 21 years spent adapting to US culture, I can share, it wasn't
easy.
Therefore, it's not the culture or race, skin colour or nationality
that's keeping us back. It's behaviour.
The answer, however, is not to give everyone a visa. Fortunately,
there's no need to travel abroad. My Internet-based research shows that
detailed examples of high performance are widely available.
Obviously, some of what you'll find needs to be translated into your
local and personal reality. Copying wholesale doesn't work.
Here's the technique I use to design all of my programmes:
Step 1: Research the behaviour. Brainstorm all of the
possible ways it manifests, based on available information, paying attention to
the reasons why it's missing, and when. Then, find the best practitioners in
the world, wherever you can find them.
Step 2: Focus on behaviours you can observe, and turn them
into a ladder, starting from the worst performance, and ending with world
record-beating performance. In between, carve out the small steps needed to go
from low to high achievement.
Step 3: Show people how to do a ruthless evaluation of their
current skills. To do a decent job, you'll have to educate them about the
extremes and explain the results available at both ends. Advise them to be
conservative, and not inflate their self-evaluations, it's better to be
slightly pessimistic and look for early wins.
Step 4: Ask people to set their own goals. Once they have
done so, help them put together a plan for improvement that doesn't rely on
magical, instant results. Show them how long it takes to change habits, learn
new ones, and get rid of those that are obsolete.
Step 5: Provide support. This step is the one that's hardest.
As an employee at AT&T Bell Labs in the early 1990s, I was quite motivated,
in part because I didn't want to be the 'black/Jamaican/new guy' who was always
late to meetings.
POOR SUPPORT
Unfortunately, in many Jamaican workplaces, there are some employees who
are so jaded and cynical that they claw-down other people's efforts to improve
their productivity.
Retaining your motivation to stand out from the crowd is easier if
there's consistent support, but most employees don't know how to set this up
for themselves and need to be taught.
This final step is where most of the failure occurs and where we need to
adopt Clark Kent, rather than Superman, thinking.
These five steps are at the heart of the approach I use on almost all
projects which require a change in behaviour or culture, and they can be
adapted to a variety of circumstances.
It's important to remember that after all is said, nothing happens
unless something new is actually done. Education is the key to sparking new
actions, and it also destroys our false notions and fake causes. When we have
this knowledge, we empower ourselves to make a practical difference.
Francis Wade is a
management consultant and author. To receive a document with a Summary of Links
to past columns, or give feedback, contact him at columns@fwconsulting.com