Let the outcomes fall where they may

As I was hiking with a friend today, she was telling me how a prisoner was changing the behaviour of other convicts for the good. In one story, he was trying to get prisoners to take out their anger or rage on furniture instead of on people. The prisoners wanted to kill a cruel guard. This wise prisoner suggested they destroy furniture instead. He had the prisoners understand the impact of this different outcome. By damaging property in the prison, they were going to make this cruel guard stay overtime. The prisoners were satisfied with this different plan. The man's life was spared, but his cruel actions were not ignored.

It reminded me of how important it is to have a definite outcome in mind for any organization. With a set outcome, everyone can then go the next step and begin to assess the impact of their actions. With no definite end outcome, the process becomes more important. People will only focus on their own daily activities or programs without analyzing the long term impact of their actions. You don't ask yourself whether there is a better way of getting the same or better results? How do you know if you don't know where you are trying to go.

The insightful prisoner could have agreed with his peers and organized a way to kill the cruel guard, but the impact of their actions would have meant more prison time for everyone and a lost life. Instead he figured out a way to get the same satisfaction without causing more harm to everyone involved. As a team, spending the time to create a similar outcome or end goal and then going the step further to imagine what the impact will mean will reduce inefficient activities and energy within your organization and could end up saving or rebuilding more lives.

Something to think about!

Labels: behaviour changes, outcomes, results

posted by Brenda Northey @ 11:37 AM 0 Comments