“Incentivise awareness . . .

… managers should reward employees who detect flaws in their thinking and correct course. At the NeuroLeadership Institute, we have a ‘mistake of the month’ section in our monthly work-in-progress meetings to help model and celebrate this kind of admission.

To use a sports example, New England Patriots* quarterback Tom Brady reportedly pays his defence if they can intercept his passes in practice . . .

The takeaway:

By making error detection a team sport, you destigmatize the situation, highlight the learning opportunities, and increase the likelihood of making better decisions in the future.”

The above passage is from an excellent article, Why Our Brains Fall for False Expertise, and How to Stop it  by Khalil Smith.

Recently I started incentivising awareness to reduce my use of the filler phrase ‘you know’ in my speaking. Last week when I conducted a Listen and speak under pressure workshop, I told the participants about my ‘reducing you knows’ goal, said I’d give them a Chupa Chups lollipop for every ‘you know’ they heard and alerted me to.

During the workshop I gave out several lollipops and improved my awareness of my ‘you knows’.

(* Brady now plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.)

Own the Conversation

In the next seven days, consider one way you could incentivise awareness of something you want to improve/remove/revise in your communication.

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p.s. This How to give feedback to your boss post might interest