There comes a time in every manager’s life when they need to tell their staff that the way they are working isn’t, well, working. They may need to explain that they need their staff to be ‘more effective team players’ or ‘more receptive to change’. The challenge is in how to explain to those staff why you need them to change their behaviours and how.

Research shows that that ‘being clear about what’s expected of them’ motivates staff to perform well. I suppose then, theoretically, then that it shouldn’t really matter how you communicate your need for new behaviours.

But of course it does matter. As I’m sure you already know, most people don’t like having new ideas which relate to the way they work, their behaviours, imposed on them. People usually have more commitment to something they co-create.

Here’s a useful framework for communicating new behaviours.

Communicating new behaviours – 3 steps

Explanation

This is all about setting the context for the change – in this case the changes you need in your staff’s behaviours.

When you want to ask your staff to make a change to their behaviours, the way they work, it’s a good idea to associate this with a change facing the business.

If you want your staff to be more effective team players, how will more effective team playing help the business meet the challenge of the change? Is it about needing to improve efficiency? Will more effective team playing improve customer service?

Most people can understand the need to make a change to their behaviours when it’s related to a bigger change – a business change. It just makes more sense to them.

Exploration

The idea here is to involve your staff in defining what the new behaviours should look like – in order to best build their commitment and motivation. Let’s take the example of ‘effective team playing’.

Options for involving your staff in defining new behaviours

1. Give them your description of effective team playing—as a draft—and ask them to make suggestions for improvement. Here’s a tip: be sure to make the description you’ve written look like a draft. Have some typos, crossing out, and so on. It’s hard to amend something that’s so perfect it looks like the finished version.
2. Give them a relevant description of effective team playing that someone else has written. For example, from a colleague, from a definition you’ve found from the internet or from my upcoming  e-book ‘176 Behavioural Performance Descriptions’ and ask them edit, amend, improve, add. (Contact me for more information on the e-book.)
3. Explain how to define behaviours and ask them to write a draft description of effective team playing.

How do you choose which option?

I’d suggest the most effective way is to ask your staff what they would prefer.

Some staff would really dislike option 1 – they want to define the behaviours (option 3).

Some staff won’t want option 3 – they’d rather you show them what you have (option 1).

Some may want you just to tell them what you want. No problem.

Agreement

This is about you and your staff member bringing together your descriptions of what effective team playing looks like and agreeing a final definition. I’d suggest you then define this as a performance objective and incorporate it into your performance review or appraisal system in the usual way.

And, of course, you’ll need to agree any coaching or support your staff need in applying these new behaviours into practice.

In summary, it’s all about clarity and ‘adult to adult’ conversation.