02 Oct What’s working (at work and at home)?
What proportion of discussions in your team meetings, and within your organisation overall, are about problems that need fixing versus solutions that have been achieved?
(Note: this question could also be applied to the discussions you have at home, with your partner or kids, or even with other family members and friends.)
If you work in a typical organisation, the former is probably receiving significantly more attention and resources than the latter.
Now, before I go on, let me be clear; there will always be problems and challenges and these problems and challenges need attention if they’re to be solved. At the same time, however, there will also always be good people solving and overcoming problems, having wins and “kicking goals”, and neglecting or ignoring this is highly problematic.
Both need some focus, but the research suggests that the best organisations (and, for that matter, the most satisfied couples) focus on “positives” more than “negatives”, at a ratio of about 3 to 1.
That is, for every discussion about problems and issues that need to be fixed, high-performing teams have approximately 3 discussions (or spend about 3 times as long) discussing all that’s going well, wins and successes and initiatives that have had some sort of positive impact.
Again, to be clear, it’s totally appropriate to focus on the very real problems every team and organisation (and family) faces. But to be clear also, it’s negligent and inefficient NOT to focus on the very real positives every team and organisation and couple / family enjoys.