Today’s blog is a little self-indulgent because it’s about a topic that I am very passionate about, and one which is at the core of my commercial offering; behavioural change.
Last month I spoke at an oil and gas conference in Al Khobar, Saudi Arabia. One of the other speakers was the CEO of a large Saudi drilling company. As well as being an excellent public speaker, he had a strong HR background having developed a learning capability that upskilled over 100,000 employees in his previous company.
He spoke about a Behavioural Empowerment Centre which had been launched at his company, a first in the sector, which has 14 rigs connected in real time, each with 200 cameras monitoring safety behaviour using artificial intelligence. This allows specific behaviours such as walking under hanging loads and not holding handrails to be monitored, learned and then training to be directed accordingly.
In my discussions with senior executives, I am finding that there is an increased awareness of the importance of driving behavioural change, coupled with a realization that effective behavioural change drives the bottom line – whether that bottom line is workplace safety or profit.
Behavioural change takes time. It takes the average person 100-120 days to become unconsciously competent in a new skill. As I tell my students, being in a classroom with me is only the beginning of the journey; how much value they will take from any training is a function of what they do with that knowledge over the coming 3-4 months. To not acknowledge and act on this reality will result in a far lower return on investment from any training. How we achieve this at a corporate level is not a discussion for this blog (please contact me in person if that’s a discussion you would lie to have), however I would like to discuss how we can drive our own behavioural change at a personal level and improve our own bottom line..
With the new year only a few weeks away, now is a perfect time to consider how you can boost your new year’s resolutions by ‘change-enabling’ personal goals as follows:
1. Identify: Identity a behaviour or habit that you know you have, and that isn’t giving you the results you want. For example, one discussion I had today with a client related to her lack of attention to her online profile, and the commitment to improve this in the new year,
2. Action: Write down in your own handwriting what it is that you need to do to change that behaviour or habit. Be specific and be timed; when do you need to do what, after that what is next. If you don’t take action nothing will change.
3. Visual: Place what you have written somewhere you can see it, maybe next to your computer in the office or at home. By seeing your own handwriting in front of you, you’re 1000% more likely to succeed.
4. Repeat: For behaviours to change, we need to repeat them until they become second nature. Consciously practice the new desired behaviour for 100-120 days.
5. Monitor: Depending on what the behaviour is, define how you will monitor progress. This may require ‘buddying’ with someone else and requesting them to give you feedback as some behaviours are difficult to self-monitor (for example, tone of voice, using fillers etc.)
The process of creating and monitoring behavioural change is becoming mainstream in the corporate world. By tweaking our new years goals as I have suggested above, we can empower ourselves to achieve behavioural change at an individual level. Good luck!
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