LEARN
Something Worth SharingPositive-Based Instructions I was sat in the dentist’s waiting room earlier this week ready for my check-up. The room was quiet, that is until a mother with two young children arrived. The older child - aged about 6 - sat beautifully, however his younger brother had other ideas. The 3 year old ran around, shouting, jumping, hopping on to a chair and jumping off it… you get the idea! His mum shouted at him every so often, clearly annoyed and a little embarrassed. I noticed that she kept telling him what NOT to do while making various threats - you know the type, “there’s no sweets for you later” and so on. This reminded me of when I took our puppy to training classes. When Oti was a few months old we went to training classes ran by a lovely lady called Di. She taught us to stop focusing on what you DON’T WANT the dog to do, and instead tell them what you DO WANT them to do. This is a subtle but incredibly important shift in communication with a dog. Back in the waiting room, it made me think that the poor harassed mother would have perhaps got further with her younger son if she’d have explained what she wanted from him, rather than continually shouting ‘don’t do that!’. When we communicate within businesses, we are far better at explaining what we want from our teams, rather than what we don’t want. It is often two parts of the same thing - but with a different approach and perspective. Imagine a sports team running onto a pitch and the coach shouting “let’s not lose!” rather than “let’s go out there and win!”. Think about the times that you’ve used a negative-based instruction and perhaps could have got further with a positive version. This includes talking to ourselves and the little inner voice that is so often critical and negative.
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