Greg's Right Fit Newsletter - #69

Techniques for FIT

• How will things be different when you're done? What is the impact?
• What if this fails? 
• In the past, what has happened to derail initiatives like this?
• What will you personally gain if this works?

Being Human - Conversations

Communication: simple, but not easy

Last week I listened to a presentation from Steven Gaffney, a communications expert with an energetic communication style. He made a point of differentiating between what we notice, which we can call facts, and what we imagine, which we call assumptions. We did a group exercise and a week later I can remember his message: we operate on assumptions. 

This is an assumption that I hear on a regular basis: "They should know that because I told them. . ."

I had lunch with Dan Rehal, an expert in medical education who consults with large pharmaceutical companies. He made a point of telling me that we remember 10% of what we hear, 40% of what we hear and see, but up to 70% of our interactions. 

Next week, if you want behavior change with your people, how you communicate your desired state will determine success. Don't assume that just because you've told them what you want, they'll get to where they need to go. Look at the pretty picture.



Verbal instruction < Words & Pictures < Demonstration and Interaction

Instead, assume that if all you can do is verbalize what you want, you'll have a 10% chance of it sticking. That's better than nothing. However, if you can create an opportunity to incorporate words, visuals, and engage in some give an take, your odds of it sticking go way, way up.

As we used to say in the training business, Tell – Show – Do – Review.  

If we were all in a room, I'd have you do an interactive exercise now. Just sayin'.

Random Stuff

The Mad Gringo lives on

Traveling through Chicago, I spotted something I haven't seen in a while. 

The Mad Gringo tropical shirt you see in the picture. 

In case you don't know, I used to be the Mad Gringo. The company still exists, but I gave it up many moons ago. This particular shirt was from the high point of my time at the helm. We had a consultant, we had funding, we had product, and we had momentum. The calm before the storm. 

When I first saw the shirt, I noted it but walked on. My flight was delayed, so I decided to circle back. A decade ago I would have run up, had my picture taken with him and put it on the blog or something. 

Instead, I snuck this picture, sent it to some friends, and to the new Mad Gringo, then walked off. 

Feeling guilty, I circled back and started a conversation. He was just returning from two weeks in Florida and this was his favorite shirt. He reached down to the bottom hem and pulled up the care instructions for me to see. And though I've seen it 10,000 times before, I let him read it to me.

"It says 'Wash when dirty, dry when wet,' I just love that," he laughed. He was beaming. 

By then, I was too.