Have you seen this in you company? I would be surprised if anyone says “No.”

So what can you do about it? LOTS. The most effective way to get RESULTS and not just activity is to ensure that everyone puts together an annual plan. The plan should outline what is expected of them for year. It should also allow everyone to measure what is achieved against what was expected.

Annual planning should not be time consuming, it should take no more than a day to put together. For a straight forward role you should be able to put together a plan in a couple of hours. At end of process everyone should know what is expected of them and what they will be measured on. Hey presto you have a performance management tool as well!

To ensure success of your annual plans and ensure you get RESULTS out of your employees it is important that everyone updates their plan on a monthly basis. We have found time and again that best results are obtained when there is monthly follow up. This also need not be time consuming but it must be done.

Either put together your own annual planning process or use a simple and effective tool such as One Page Business Plan (www.onepagebusinessplan.com – take system tour). We have been involved in business planning and project planning for many years. In every case results are improved when planning is done and followed up with on a regular basis.

Create effective and results driven plans.

How do you get your team to dialogue? There are 3 conditions needed: •everyone must suspend their assumptions. Dialogue comes to a grinding halt when someone digs in their heels and says “this is way”. They need to suspend their assumptions to really see where truth lies. Suspending ones assumptions is not easy, as often they are so deep seated that we don’t even know that they are assumptions! Instead, we take them for being truth. •team members must be thought of as colleagues and equals. If you manage to think of others as colleagues you will interact as colleagues. Team members will feel less vulnerable and less likely to either want to dominate discussion or not say anything at all. Thinking of everyone as colleagues can be difficult in a hierarchical workplace environment. Can an individual in authority come down from their lofty position and talk to everyone else as an equal or do they like their elevated position and pontificate wildly? •there should be a facilitator. A facilitator can help ensure that ALL assumptions are suspended. This means questioning statements and beliefs as they are mentioned. They are also important in keeping dialogue moving. As a team gets better at dialogue needs for a facilitator is reduced.

You are closer to achieving dialogue when your team meetings are filled with questions. Questions indicate an attempt at understanding. Sit back in your next meeting and see how often a question is asked. No questions = no dialogue.

Teams can enter dialogue if everyone knows what is expected of them in advance and if they truly want results created through dialogue. Dialogue is playful conversation and everyone must be willing to play with new ideas. Who says you can’t have fun and grow at same time?

I hope you can achieve dialogue in your teams. Since we became aware of difference and have been trying to practice dialogue we have really had some amazing insights into our business and what we do. We have achieved a whole level of new understandings.

Who knows, maybe there is something amazing that your company could achieve if you all just put your heads together. 1 + 1 = 3 makes a lot of sense!