“Accountability is the responsibility of completing a task or achieving a goal. Ownership is about setting a high bar for oneself.”
– Gustavo Razzetti
As individuals and organizations, we have practices that we apply daily to create momentum to improve something. The Oxford Dictionary defines practice as “carrying out or performing (a particular activity, method, or custom) habitually or regularly.” The problem with practices is when we lose the activity’s purpose and just “do” it. We fall into rote behavior without consciousness of the thought and heart behind it.
Can you identify this in your own life? The tricky thing about practices is that we need them, but they can also become such a habit that we lose awareness of their meaning. So, with cultural practices, we need to add the skill of being intentional about the awareness of effort and consciousness behind them.
Here are some examples of how practices play out in our lives:
Physical
We are encouraged to keep our bodies healthy through exercise. A component of exercise is strength training. So, I started to add weightlifting into my exercise routine as a good practice. However, if you talk to an exercise trainer about strength training, you will learn you can plateau. In other words, you can start to “do” the practice and not improve.
A trainer will tell you the importance of physically doing the exercise and including a mind-body connection. I remember one day being at the gym, and another person at the gym struck up a conversation with me about weightlifting. He talked about how, with each muscle repetition, you should focus your mind on the muscle being worked. As I practiced this, I was surprised to notice more of my muscles responding. Since then, I have become more aware of trainers who emphasize this practice. So now I try to not just “do” my exercises but to be mindful of the muscles during the exercise.
Are there physical actions you do at work that have become a tradition but have lost their purpose? For example, how many meetings do you attend out of habit but are not fully present?
Mental/Emotional
Just as we can develop practices for the physical parts of ourselves, there are also practices for the internal parts of ourselves, which can include our minds and emotions. Over the centuries, people have worked to develop the internal parts of themselves through spiritual practices. However, practices meant to help transform people can also become rote and meaningless.
My dad has shared with me about his cultural heritage. Part of this included going to church weekly, and he also attended a private religious school. The religious practices he learned at church and school were important to his mom. They had a deep meaning for her. However, to my father, they did not have a deeper conscious meaning and instead were just boring behaviors. So, when he became an adult, he met some friends who lived their religious practices from a place that had a deeper meaning and also helped him understand the practice’s connection to its purpose. He was then drawn into a spirituality that was a relationship with God and others.
Are there practices with your work originally designed to encourage a mental or emotional connection but have lost their meaning? For example, do you have a rote compliment that you give to others, such as “good job,” but you say it more out of habit, and people then feel like you don’t mean it? Do you have a social time with food that once caused people to stop and connect together, but now people grab the food and keep walking?
Organizations
Organizations have practices meant to sustain their culture and health. However, if people don’t connect to the practice’s deeper conscious meaning, it can have no impact, be a waste of time, or even backfire and cause harm. Just like rote exercise can actually plateau and not create positive muscle development, or a religious practice without meaning can actually push people away.
Practices are a part of all organizations. One practice I have had the privilege of learning about is Genchi Genbutsu at Toyota. This is the practice of “going and seeing for yourself.” It involves going to the location to observe, understand, and solve problems faster and more effectively.
So, as a practice, team members can “do” the behavior of going and seeing. However, is it enough to just do the behavior? If they do it without the meaning behind it, it can lose its purpose.
For example, a manager can go to where work or a problem is happening, see it (check the box), and return to their office. However, is there a greater purpose behind Genchi Genbutsu missing if all that happens is a behavior? To be effective, it needs to include connecting relationally with all involved, such as listening and understanding others’ perspectives, being open, sharing ideas for problem-solving, and giving encouragement that the team is empowered to own it. It becomes a relational team practice of going beyond a presence of accountability with tasks to inspiring team collaboration, innovation, and ownership.
Application
Practices can be transactional or transformational. When we turn a practice into a transaction, it requires no awareness of effort or consciousness. A transactional practice can maintain a habit or culture for a period of time but can eventually backfire. We can be physically present at our work in practice but not truly engaged with our full presence in the purpose of the practice with others. This will eventually lead to demotivating people.
So, with your personal or collective practices, an action step is to engage beyond the physical and also engage your heart and mind. This will move you from transactional to transformational practices. The key to transformational practices is to keep yourself present.
As you do your practice, be conscious and ask yourself:
- What am I feeling?
- What am I thinking?
- How am I being fully present right now in this practice?
Don’t waste your time just “doing” transactional practices throughout your day. Make the most of your time. Instead, have a transformational day!