How to Have a Good Day: Harness the Power of Behavioral Science to Transform Your Working Life pdfdrive com

STARTING ON A STRONG FOOTING

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Encourage some collaborative goal setting by asking, “Where do we want to
be by the end of this meeting?” And then “What’s the best way for us to
achieve that?” (These are questions you can ask even if you’re not formally
chairing the meeting.) 
If you can, suggest a no-devices rule. Otherwise,
people will use up some of their brain’s precious working memory on
monitoring their phones and tablets, making everyone just a little dumber
than they would be if they were concentrating on the conversation. In long
meetings, I’ve been known to set up a “smartphone daycare” box where
people can voluntarily deposit their phones, with visiting rights during
breaks. (If you can’t do any of this, at least put your own devices away.) 
Start with something positive to put people into discovery mode. It doesn’t
have to be hokey—you can just ask people to share recent successes. Ask
“What’s going well so far?” or “What’s the best thing that’s happening on
your part of the project?”
MAKING YOUR MARK
To make your contributions memorable, illustrate your points with an
anecdote or real-life example that shows the effect on colleagues or
customers.
With longer comments, break your point into clear chunks to make it easier
for people to process what you’re saying. “There are three things that strike
me about this. One…Two…Three…”
If you need to disagree or raise a concern, help others stay in open-minded
discovery mode as you share your views by using one of the brain-friendly
feedback techniques. (a) Say what you like about the idea on the table. Be
very specific. Then say, “What would make me like it more is…” (b) Say
“yes, and…” rather than “yes, but…” (c) Ask “what would have to be true to
make that work?”
Provide cues that nudge people toward whatever you need from them. If you
want three suggestions, write an indicative “1, 2, 3” on a flip chart. Ask “If
you had three suggestions, what would they be?”

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