Stepping Forward Together:
Creating Trust and
Commitment in the Workplace
by
Mac McIntire
Copyright 2011 Mac McIntire,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-0216-1
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
Preface
I know why I “exist.” All my life I have tried to help people understand the reason for their own existence – whether it be as an employee, committee member, spouse, child, student or any other role in which people find themselves. I strive to help people succeed both professionally and personally. This is my purpose. It is why I do what I do. It is also why I have finally written this book.
This book is about moving people. It’s about getting people to understand their roles and to make the commitment needed to fulfill those roles as expected. In this book you will learn about the process people go through before they will commit to a specific course of action. You will learn how to get people to willingly climb the Ladder of Commitment to the point where they always do the right things for the right reasons.
My wife, friends, colleagues and clients have been pestering me for years to put my ideas about how to gain the enthusiasm and commitment of employees into a book. Participants in my management seminars have begged me for additional reference materials to remind them of the key points I make in my presentations about the Ladder of Commitment.
Unfortunately, even though this book is about commitment, I’ve had a hard time making the commitment to write down my thoughts because I couldn’t figure out how to write something I normally tell. I didn’t know how to translate what I say into the written word so it would have the same powerful, life-changing impact it has when people see and hear my presentation in person. I tried to write about the principles of the Ladder of Commitment as a management book, a text book, and a scholarly piece. But none of those approaches seemed to work.
Then a friend said to me: “Mac, you’re a consultant, so consult. Just explain it like you would in person. Make it easy. Make it real. Just tell people how to do it.”
That sounded like a great idea, but I was then afraid, if I wrote it like I tell it, that people who had been through my seminars would be disappointed because the book would duplicate what they had already heard. Then I remembered something another client once told me: “Mac, you are like a good movie. I never tire of watching or listening to you. Every time I hear you talk about the Ladder of Commitment, I get more out of it and enjoy it more.”
A short time later, another client echoed the same sentiment. He was attending one of my workshops for the seventh time as the leader of another cross-functional problem solving team at his company. I was embarrassed to have him in the session because I always tell the exact same stories and deliver the seminar the same way each time. What could he possibly be hearing or learning that would be new? That’s when he said: “Every time I’ve attended this workshop I’ve learned something new because each team had a different problem, so I’ve heard things from a different perspective. Finally, after seven times, I think I’ve got it! I have become what you teach. I am this stuff.”
With that encouragement, I embarked on this writing journey. I put behind my fear of not being able to write what I tell, as well as my fear of being repetitive. I communicated my story as though I was speaking one-on-one with you. I’ve carefully included every point, and a lot of new ones, so you can use this book as a reference any time problems arise as you strive to develop a strong team. It is my hope, when you have worked your way through this book and climbed the Ladder of Commitment, that you, too, will become “this stuff.”
Introduction
Now more than ever, organizations require collaboration in order to succeed. The complexities of technology, increased competition, and global interdependence have created a work environment that requires people to work well together to achieve common goals.
Unfortunately, the conditions that characterize today’s work environment – faster, cheaper, geographic dispersion, competition for scarce resources, downsizing, mergers and acquisitions – also create conditions that contribute to mistrust and a feeling of betrayal. All of the downsizing and decreases in employee benefits have led people to feel they can no longer rely upon their organizations for support. Consequently, employees today are much more hesitant to make a commitment to work hard or to go the extra mile when there is no perceived reciprocal loyalty from their employers.
The consequences of current business decisions (no matter how necessary), make the reestablishment of trust and commitment in the workplace an imperative. Trust is an essential ingredient for improving productivity and maintaining stability during turbulent times. In high trust environments, people are more willing to keep agreements, share information, admit mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and take on greater responsibility. They are more committed to and aligned with the organization’s business objectives and vision. By creating work environments where trust flourishes, leaders can dramatically improve morale, productivity and profitability.
This book tells how to establish that trust, plus commitment, in the workplace. It offers a step-by step guide for how to get people to “step forward together” as a team by using a powerful tool, called the Ladder of Commitment®. The Ladder of Commitment explains the internal process people go through in order to commit to a specific course of action. It shows how to effectively move people out of their comfort zones (what I called a “closed” response), and get them to be “open” and receptive to new ideas or changes. It describes the “seven things that matter most” in a relationship – both professionally and personally – that must be addressed in order to develop mutual and reciprocal trust, respect, confidence and support. It describes how to create a work environment where management and employees believe one another to the point where they will fully commit to work together to achieve common goals. It describes how to get a group of people to go in the same direction at the same time and do the right things right for the right reasons.
Although this book is primarily geared toward work teams, the commitment model also can be used to get couples, families, church groups, clubs, organizations, neighborhoods and communities to also step forward together as a team. The principles learned can be applied in any situation where two or more people need to work together to achieve the same goals.
The precepts outlined in this book are not based on scholarly research or analytical data. I’ve conducted no in-depth surveys or held numberless interviews with effective managers or productive work teams to discern why they are successful. Instead, the ideas in this book are based on years of personal observations, testing of my own theories, trial and error, and practical application in my own company and personal life. I’ve proven that these ideas work!
You may be surprised, or pleased, to discover you already know the basic truths I’m about to share with you. Consciously or subconsciously, you, too, have been collecting data on what you can do, or should not do, in order to build relationships of trust and commitment. This book provides you with a conscious means to apply your data. Step by step, it will show you how to accelerate the process of building committed partnerships early in any relationship. As a result of what you learn, you can become a much better manager, employee, husband, wife, partner, father, mother or whatever role you find yourself in.
This is not a book to be read quickly and then put on the shelf. To build trusting relationships, you may need to change some of your behaviors. Therefore, I encourage you to stop frequently as you read to ponder the points