b'DEVELOPINGACULTUREOFCHOICESubtle Changes, Significant RewardsBy Pete SmithS or the result of a pre-arranged team meeting where Some of the most productive, engaged and profitable companies today dont focus solely on employeeeveryone agreed to collective martyrdom. Instead, its happiness. Rather, they tap into a desire that every greatpossible when a significance-based team understands that employee possesses: ownership. And the way to elevateyou can still be responsible for something without being at personal ownership is to develop a culture of choice. fault about it.Our choices are the only things we control. NothingYou can be 100 per cent responsible in a situation even more. Nothing less. A significance-based mindsetwhen the situation youre in is 100 per cent not your fault.recognizes that in every moment, of every day, in everyOne way to begin creating a culture of choice is to situation, we always have a choice. What we donteliminate the phrase I didnt have a choice from your always like are the options we get to choose from or theconversations. That phrase creates a mindset that life is outcomes of our decisions. being done to us, or that were innocent bystanders on the All too often, individuals, teams and organizationshighway of life, or worse, that were victimsspend their time lamenting on the difficulty of the situationof circumstance.they face. When none of their options are convenient, easyInstead, start talking about what you chose to do. or even desirable, it becomes easy to say they have noTalk about what you choose to do. Talk about what you choice. When the outcome of their decision is not exactlywill do. Certainly the past provides us the opportunity what they had hoped or planned, it becomes easy to sayto learn from our mistakes, to assess the actions that led they had no choice. to the present conditions and adjust present and future When one or both of these situations presentbehaviour accordingly. But lamenting the difficulty of the themselves, the temptation exists to begin making excusespresent situation and our possible disdain of the options about their actions, or to place blame on someone ordoesnt move a person, or a team, or a company forward. something else as to why they had to make the decisionIt keeps them stuck and struggling, and they become they made. At times, people may even rationalize theirmore inclined to talk about how bad things are instead decision in order to make their decision make sense to theof focusing on what needs to happen next in order to person they are speaking to. achieve the goals they set out to attain. This keeps them Of course, no excuse, or blame, or rationalizationfocused on the past, not the present.actually matters. It rarely changes the current position thatIndividuals and teams produce at higher levels when someone is in. What matters is the simple acceptance thattheyre focused on their next steps in achieving the goals a choice was made in light of the options, an outcome wastheyve established, and not by spending their time trying produced and the next steps can now be considered. to blame or justify to anyone who will listen how theyre We can want or prefer that things were different. We can be subjective in our thoughts and feelings about ourgoing to fall short.options and the outcomes of our choices. However, weNo company desires unhappy employees, but must also remain objective regarding the reality that wea significance-based company understands that always have a choice. unhappiness is a by-product of a defeatist, unaccountable When a culture of choice is developed, employeesand lack of ownership mentality.at every level understand that responsibility and fault,Empower people by helping them recognize they though often merged as one, can be mutually exclusive.always have a choice. Your bottom line will thank you for it.All too often when a mistake is made, managers gather their teams and ask the question, Whos responsible forPete Smith is an international speaker and trainer in the this mess? Not surprising, rarely does a hand go up, andfields of leadership, management, personal growth and more rarely do multiple hands rise.development. He is the author of Dare to Matter, the Imagine that same scenario with a different outcome.#1 bestseller in the Human Resources and Personnel What if every team members hand raised in response toManagement category, and #2 bestseller in the that managers question? This isnt glorified peer pressureBusiness Motivation and Self-Improvement category.8 HRmatters www.cphrmb.ca'