Speed Limits

Running a session a few months ago, someone said something that resonated deeply. I was training a group of leaders around my Five Keystones Culture Model (I write about this model in the new book, Maverick Leadership), and we were eyeball deep in Keystone Two: Relentlessly Message What Matters. 

Some leaders reject the idea of relentless messaging, telling me that either something has been messaged before and therefore continued messaging is unnecessary, or that their team should just know certain things without them being messaged at all. 

What I’m more interested in is whether or not the things they want to happen are actually happening. Because usually, they aren’t. Which makes this push back obsolete. 

It’s like this fictional dialogue I created below. 

“I’ve told my kids to put their dishes in the sink after they eat.” 

“Okay, do they do that?” 

“No. Never.” 

“Okay, so is this conversation over? Or do you need to re-message it?” 

“I’ve told them, so they should know.” 

“But they don’t.” 

Of course, each of you reading this thinks this is a terrible approach. But we do this at work all the time. No, the people on your team aren’t children, but I’d bet they're ten times as busy (and maybe stressed out) than children, so likely, they need lots of repeated messaging because of how much they have going on. 

Back to that leader from that session. 

He compared this idea of relentless messaging to seeing speed limits posted. He talked about how speed limits are essentially ubiquitous and how they guide our behavior. Sure, sometimes we’ll drive seventy-five in a sixty-five, but rarely do we drive seventy-five in a thirty-five. In school zones, we slow to a crawl. But would we if there wasn’t a sign telling us that we were in a school zone, the speed limit is twenty miles per hour, and that fines are doubled? Maybe, but I doubt it would happen as consistently. Meaning, some people would because they’d see the school building, but other, well-meaning people, might just buzz through, not even noticing. 

And that’s the point: to ensure the things we want to happen are happening consistently, we need to relentlessly message those things. Otherwise, like the car speeding through the school zone, people may do things that are counter-productive and potentially harmful. They might also be surprised and frustrated if they’re held accountable to expectations that are unclear. Like a driver would be if they received a speeding ticket in an area without a posted speed limit sign. 

Behavior is contagious. Relentless messaging allows for the behaviors you want to see to be upheld by everyone.