Seven habits of highly effective people - Stephen R. Covey [99]
If you had a positive Emotional Bank Account with me, of course I'd support it. I'd hope you were right and I was wrong. I'd work to make your decision work.
But if the Emotional Bank Account weren't there, and if I were reactive, I wouldn't really support it. I might say I would to your face, but behind your back I wouldn't be very enthusiastic. I wouldn't make the investment necessary to make it succeed. "It didn't work," I'd say. "So what do you want me to do now?"
If I were overreactive, I might even torpedo your decision and do what I could to make sure others did too. Or I might become "maliciously obedient" and do exactly and only what you tell me to do, accepting no responsibility for results.
During the five years I lived in Great Britain, I saw that country brought twice to its knees because the train conductors were maliciously obedient in following all the rules and procedures written on paper.
An agreement means very little in letter without the character and relationship base to sustain it in spirit. So we need to approach win-win from a genuine desire to invest in the relationships that make it possible.
Agreements
From relationships flow the agreements that give definition and direction to win-win. They are sometimes called performance agreements or partnership agreements, or shifting the paradigm of productive interaction from vertical to horizontal, from hovering supervision to self-supervision, from positioning to being partners in success.
Win-Win Agreements cover a wide scope of interdependent interaction. We discussed one important application when we talked about delegation in the "Green and Clean" story in Habit 3. The same five elements we listed there provide the structure for Win-Win Agreements between employers and employees, between independent people working together on projects, between groups of people cooperatively focused on a common objective, between companies and suppliers --between any people who need to interact to accomplish. They create an effective way to clarify and manage expectations between people involved in any .interdependent endeavor.
Desired results (not methods) identify what is to be done and when.
Guidelines specify the parameters (principles, policies, etc.) within which results are to be accomplished
Resources identify the human, financial, technical, or organizational support available to help accomplish the results.
Accountability sets up the standards of performance and the time of evaluation. Consequences specify --good and bad, natural and logical --what does and will happen as a result of the evaluation.
These five elements give Win-Win Agreements a life of their own. A clear mutual understanding and agreement up front in these areas creates a standard against which people can measure their own success.
Traditional authoritarian supervision is a win-lose paradigm. It's also the result of an overdrawn Emotional Bank Account. If you don't have trust or common vision of desired results, you tend to hover over, check up on, and direct. Trust isn't there, so you feel as though you have to control people. But if the trust account is high, what is your method? Get out of their way. As long as you have an up-front Win-Win Agreement and they know exactly what is expected, your role is to be a source of help and to receive their accountability reports.
It is much more ennobling to the human spirit to let people judge themselves than to judge them. And in a high-trust culture, it's much more accurate. In many cases people know in their hearts how things are going much better than the records show. Discernment is often far more accurate than either observation or measurement.
Win-Win Management Training
Several years ago, I was indirectly involved in a consulting project with a very large banking institution that had scores of branches. They wanted us to evaluate and improve their management training program, which was supported by an annual budget of $750,000. The program involved selecting college graduates and putting them through twelve two-week assignments