This year’s graduates of the Marketing Academy were invited to a two-day Achieve Breakthrough course in August, as part of the Academy’s commitment to ongoing learning and development. Four top takeaways are detailed below.
Committed to complaining
Notice the difference between recreational off-loading (complaining without hope of resolution) and commitment-based complaining (where the person speaking wants action taken to resolve the issue. If the person just wants to offload, allow the speaker three minutes to rant and get it off their chest, and cap it at that.
Steps to Solutions
When a person genuinely wants to find a solution, instead of talking about ‘what’s wrong’, ask ‘what’s missing’. This simple language change shifts thinking from blaming and moaning to action-orientated solution-finding.
Fact or Fiction
People believe a story or make an assumption and act as if it’s fact. Critically listen and question, “Am I listening to a fact or an interpretation?” The reason that internal conflicts get trapped in vicious circles is because both parties have interpreted a fact or action differently. To each, their interpretation is their reality. Separate out the facts, identify the common commitment (e.g. the desire for a good team relationship) and ask what’s missing to achieve it.
Terminal Trivia
People get consumed by trivia, stuck in their day-to-day problems and believing barriers are insurmountable. Approach the issue from the other side by identifying the end goal, and visualising that it has already happened. Stand in the result and describe what it feels like, what is different. Then, staying in the future, describe how you got to the new reality. You are now starting from the point of view of what is possible, rather than what feels impossible.
