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Checklists and Coherence

Thank you to those who joined me on yesterdays webinar. The link to the recording will be posted on the events calendar at www.pulseinstitute.com or you can email me and I will send it to you.  I also added it to the bottom of this post for your convenience.

I spent a great deal of time thinking about how to address checklists on the broadcast. I wanted to touch on the history of checklists as a tool for people who do their work in conversation. Any agenda at any meeting is a checklist. The PULSE checklists where created to help people in difficult situations remember what needs to be addressed at any meeting or in any form of social exchange to ensure a sustainable outcome. AND it works. It is a proven and fast way to move through a conversation or an email or a novel.

I also wanted to talk about the reason that many people do not use checklists and why I have faced resistance from many of my participants on sticking to the script and the checklist especially when you are first learning how to do this work. Most people think that as a professional you SHOULD know how to do this. Their fear is that the clients will think they don’t know what they are doing. In fact the checklist will give the clients MORE confidence in you rather than LESS. That seems counterintuitive and yet it is true. Ask your clients. Would they rather have someone with the right tools do the job or someone who appears to be wining it?

The other thought that occurred to me as I prepared for the webinar was the result of a book I am reading. The Happiness Hypothesis, by Haidt, is a great book. So far I have learned that happiness = work + love. Of course Haidt’s theories are much more robust than one simple equation. The notion of coherence is explored with respect to cultures and religions and although I am clear that PULSE is neither of those it did occur to me that the PULSE Frame and the PULSE movement to create people with the courage to make a change and the confidence to make a difference, to create peaceful productive workplaces is coherent. What I mean by that is that you can start anywhere with PULSE and learn about it from that starting point. It is true to the values and skills and philosophy at every level. Based on Appreciative Inquiry it is curious rather than accusatory. Based on a Sociological Perspective it studies behaviour not psychology. Based on the conflict theory it uses the skills and the language of mediation to prevent and avoid the need for it.

If you begin with the checklist for example you will find the process, the protocol and the purpose for each of the many and varied situations where a PULSE Frame can be successfully applied to improve the likelihood of a sustainable outcome. Whether you are working with teams or one on one doesn’t really matter. The principals are the same. Using it as an operating system inside any organization leads to significant change on the people side, the so called soft skills side. That is why we promote it as a tool for anyone who does their work in conversation or through social exchange. If you are vicariously responsible for the work of others then this PULSE Frame can help you do your work faster and easier.

If you begin with a study of how people do their work in conversation you can get to PULSE. If you begin with how organizations and teams are structured you can also get to PULSE. Teams form. While forming they experience the Prepare stage. Knowing what questions need answering at the Prepare stage makes that forming easier and faster. Then teams become fractious. This is them Uncovering the title of their story, shedding the emotional attachments to a past that a skillful PULSE professional can negotiate with them. Then teams becoming working teams. Here they work with each other to develop a sense of shared values in the present. They Learn what their criteria for the future are. Then they perform. They are good at what they do. They understand their circumstances and their significance and now they Search for what’s also possible. Then teams reform with a new purpose or they wrap up and move on, Explaining what the next steps will be. The cycle of teams=Prepare, Uncover, Learn, Search, Explain. The cycle of organizations, the cycle of relationships, the cycle of social exchanges can all be represented by PULSE. Understanding the theory behind the checklist is crucial but, believe it or not, not necessary for you to use it successfully. That’s because it is coherent and elegant and effective. Try it. You can download a 30 page document with five kinds of PULSE scripts and checklists from our website or using the links below.

I could go on and on … and I tend to. Sorry. Suffice to say I am excited by what I know about how PULSE has worked in the past, the significance of it in the present and the endless field of possibilities for it in the future.

 

http://pulseinstitute.adobeconnect.com/p2jutzkylyg/ 40 minute braodcast – Checklists for Every Occassion

For 30 pages of PULSE checklists cut and paste the URL into your browser.

https://db.tt/5g65JCBv

 

 

 

 

Dr. Nancy Love Visit Website
As an Executive Coach, a Professional Speaker and an author, Dr. Love gives the gift of courage and confidence to her clients... courage to make a change and confidence to make a difference. Learn more »
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