“Celebrate your successes,
no matter how small.”
—Laura Goodrich
Length: 10 Minutes
Price: $595.00
Rental: $295.00
Industry Discounts Apply
I spoke with a client in Florida that said after reading an article regarding the importance of upgrading personal skill sets in a challenging market he decided to pull his team together to reevaluate their priorities.
He chose to guide them through an exercise so that everyone, himself included, could concentrate on the objectives at hand. Too often they were focusing on things that can’t be individually controlled and countless problems none of them wanted to have happen.
He called me prior to the session. In our discussion, I mentioned to him that focusing on what we “don’t want” is unconscious and prevalent in the workplace. This really resonated with him, so he made plans to help his people become more conscious of their focus. He scheduled a half a day to work with the group, and asked them to come to the session ready to work.
Increasing the Impact
He told them about his thoughts after watching Seeing Red Cars. He openly acknowledged his own list of “don’t wants” was getting in the way of being focused and productive.
Then he showed the film and engaged the group in a discussion. All of the team members found it timely, and acknowledged that concentrating on what they don’t want had nearly overtaken their minds and discussions with others. Together they committed to change and to help each other stay on track.
Additionally we discussed the fact that a large percentage of employees do not have a sight line to what is most important in their organizations. Thus he produced a chart for the meeting outlining the organization’s goals for the year along with the company’s values.
He asked each team member to clearly identify how their job contributes to the goals and had them write “I want” (thoughts, actions and behaviors) statements that corresponded with the company goals and values.
From there he shared a paragraph that had caught his attention from the local paper:
“Make yourself as valuable as you can to your employer. Make yourself a superstar overachiever,” said Kim Cornett, spokeswoman for WorkForce Central Florida— the state-sponsored one-stop employment center for Orlando. Now is a great time to continue to upgrade your skills or learn new skills, and to show that you’re investing in yourself.”
Continuing the Impact
After sharing this, he asked for this level of commitment to personal excellence from each staff member. To illustrate this concept, they revisited their “I want” statements and turned them into Superstar “I want” statements. From this exercise, they decided where cross-training made sense.
In the end, the owner felt it was a very important exercise to reestablish the focus of the company. His staff responded very favorably to the day and loved Seeing Red Cars. In fact, they see red cars daily in their new screen savers with on-going reminders. This company has found ways to renew their drive and stay on track.
Download the PDF of this story: Seeing Red Cars™ in Challenging Times