You might like Step 7, The Power Of Keeping Score
In Step 7 I describe the power of keeping score and a method you can use to indirectly understand what you want across your whole life. This also gives you a handy way to measure your progress, for those who like that sort of thing.
Here’s some of the thinking behind that method and a few other ideas for using scales and measuring systems:
Other Ways To Use The Power Of Keeping Score
Here are some other ways to use scales or scoring systems – with yourself, with those around you and the people you work with.
Using Scales To Coach Yourself
The imaginative use of scales or scoring systems can make a big difference in helping you to uncover or bring to the surface things you want but are not yet fully aware of. You can combine this with the question What do I want instead? Use it to manage stress…
I’m sitting in traffic, again, and getting frustrated, again. My shoulders are tense. I’m running disaster scenarios in my head about how late I’m going to be. I’m fuming. I’m swearing that from now on I’ll always use trains. My internal dialogue is running at 100mph even if the traffic isn’t.
Next time this happens to you, STOP. Ask yourself OK, out of 10 how tense am I? About 7?
So, what do I want instead?
I want to be calmer and thinking about something useful, as there is nothing I can actually do about this traffic. I need to think about what I CAN do rather than what I can’t do.
Notice something interesting happens. Just by asking the question the tension begins to ease.
The same thing can happen in a boring meeting.
Out of 10 how bored am I right now?
Say 8 out of 10. What would it take to reduce this to 3 or 4? Just asking the question will change how you feel and if you then go on to actually take some action that’s even better.
Using Scales To Coach Others
It can work well with children, partners, your boss, friends as well, although I caution you against over using it.
Dad I’ve got a headache.
Really? If 10/10 was your head exploding all over the room then how bad is your head out of 10?
Depending on your relationship with your kids, this will either get you one of those looks or a sensible answer but I promise you the headache will begin to get better.
When your boss hits on you with an urgent problem. Ask them to rate it out of 10. It may calm them down a bit and it may help both of you to understand how important this problem or task or issue actually is.
If your partner is in a state about something, gently, ask them to rate it out of 10 and then what needs doing to improve the score.
Using Scales Of Time And Money
There are other scales you can use too, like time and money. Here are some examples:
Time
- How important will this seem in five years time?
- If we fast forward five years, where or how would you like this to be?
- If you carry on like this and nothing changes, where will you be next year or in five years?
- Rate yourself now compared to where you were a year ago. Compare yourself to yourself.
Money
- How much is this worth to you?
- Is this important enough to invest everything you own in it? If not, how important is it?
Using Scales With People Who Work For You
Scales can be a helpful coaching or management tool because they are so good at surfacing assumptions. Try asking each member of your team, individually, what 10/10 customer service would look and feel like. It’s eye opening.
Each person is working to a different assumption. You can show them this effect in a meeting with a simple exercise.
Ask everyone to close their eyes. Then with their eyes still closed, ask them to point to where they think North is. Now, ask them to open their eyes and look around without moving their arms. You will have a room full of people pointing in different directions.
Everyone has a different view of where North is and what March North means.
As you know, managing people is not as simple as March North. Why? Because there are so many different interpretations of where North is. If a group has such differing assumptions about a simple idea like this, imagine the complexity caused by an idea like ‘excellent customer service’ or ‘user friendly website’.
You may well have a team merrily working away to deliver excellent customer service each working to a different set of internal assumptions and a different set of standards.
Ask them to describe what 10/10 is. Ask them where they think they are now. Ask them to think of real actions to bridge the gap. Share your idea of 10/10. Ask them to rate the team performance now. Make a list of actions to bridge the gap.
This is a real, practical way of helping teams know what they want. (And, of course, helping you, the boss, get clear on what you want).
