How To Get People To Care

What would it look like for people you work with to be so all-in during the coming year, that they exceeded your wildest expectations?

I revisited projects from last year and realized successful projects all had one thing in common: 

Behind every successful project was a leader who understood what inspired people around them to take action.

PART ONE: The word for the year is CARE.

We want the people we count on, collaborate with and spend time with to be more than soup-stirrers. They have to find reasons to connect with work. And caring is the key ingredient to take the struggle out of leading.

How can we help people around us—our customers, our teams, our coworkers, our community—to care about our collective action?

Great leaders recognize three laws:

1. Not everyone is wired the way we are
2. We resist taking action for different reasons at every stage
3. We inadvertently sabotage buy-in (but we can fix it)

PART TWO: The Care Cycle and how to use it

Stage One: Someone Else Can Do This

There’s a nodding of heads at the end of so many strategy offsites and team meetings. 

Unfortunately, too often, there’s a one-two punch: we believe that the new initiative we’ve all agreed to is important, but there’s a lurking feeling that it’s not important enough for us to make a top priority.

Healthcare teaches us a lesson here. To move from “someone else can do this” toward “I will do something about it”, patients need personalized care strategies.

It’s the same for people at work; we need individualized care strategies.

Stage Two: This Matters

Is there a science to what makes people care? According to research from Stanford University, there are specific things that move people to get on board with a new project. 

I believe we can also apply these strategies to push business initiatives forward:

—Create a sense of belonging to a group of people who will benefit.

—Communicate in strong wakeup-call images.

—Insert emotion. How can we make sure the meeting never ends with people’s arms folded? 

—Create meaningful + individualized calls to action. 

Stage Three: It Looks Difficult

The mid-project lull is the death of a project. Maybe there’s a partner who goes silent. Maybe one team gets distracted. Those are all signs of roadblocks we can fix:

• Tackle setbacks head-on
• Bring in new technical expertise
• Insert customer insights
• Apply lessons from other industries
• Host fresh perspective sessions 

Here’s a good tool to regain momentum.

Stage Four: Huge Potential Impact

Once a strategy is in full swing, it’s challenging to keep it on the front burner. How do we make sure other priorities don’t sneak in to derail us?

The difference between a project with lukewarm results versus 100% success comes down to the keeping people engaged all the way to the finish line. 

To fan the flames of engagement ask these questions:

What new data can we share to reinforce the potential of the strategy?

How can we use early, tangible results to reinspire teams?

Stage Five: My contribution matters 

Finally, make sure that no one feels like a cog in the machine. Encourage people to meet the challenge in their own ways. Allow people to go outside of their stereotypes.

Actuaries can come up with cool products.

Designers can solve important logistical problems.

When we let people stretch the boundaries and see the impact of their contributions, everyone pushes toward skin-in-the-game project success.