how to fallow commitments
Answers
1.Ask for their word of honor. The simplest of these is to ask your Yes person to back the commitment with his or her word of honor. You look them in the eye and say, “Now do I have your word that you’ll do that, no matter what?” When people give their word of honor, that’s a deeper level of commitment than a simple “Mmhm, or yes.”
2.Ask them to summarize the commitment. Have the problem person summarize back to you what will be done, backtracking, and clarifying while letting them give you the details. You say something like, “I wan to make sure you and I both understand how this will be done. Could you describe to me what you will do and when?”
3.Get them to write it down. To help Yes People to remember the commitment, get them to commit in writing, before walking away. Ask them to write down what they plan to do, post a note by the phone, or on the dashboard, give you a copy or put it on the front page of their daily calendar as an affirmation, “I will,” and then fill in the commitment they are making. Most
organized people agree that there is something about the physical act of writing down a commitment that makes it easier to remember and more likely to be acted on.
4.Weird deadlines. “So you will have it on my desk by 10:23 a.m. on Wednesday?” Most people round off time. Weird deadlines are unusual, because they stand out in the mind.
5.Describe negative consequences. The fifth way is to point out the possible negative consequence of not keeping the commitment. Your description of these consequences will be most effective if you put them in terms of people and relationship. “Now let’s imagine it is Wednesday at 10:23 and this project you’ve agreed to do doesn’t get done. How is everyone going to feel around here who was depending on you?”