Make it REAL

Here are the 4 steps:

Realize

Focus on what it is that you want to get accomplished. What steps that might take, how you would like the outcome to look and why you want this outcome (your motivation-this keeps you going when things get rough).

 

Engage

Find inspiration from others who have similar motives and have taken this journey. Invite your team at work to share in your “Realize” step and engage them with identifying their own “Realize” step about why they share in the motivation to have the same outcome that you identified even if it is motivated by different factors which is common.

 

Action

You have spend enough time in your first two steps now is the time to see if it flies. Beta test your outcomes or parts of your outcome in real time and get real feedback in that moment. Observe what parts and steps worked and why as well as what might need to be addressed and improved and involve the entire team in this step of putting the whole idea to work and watching the outcome.

 

Learn

After noticing the outcomes from your “Action” steps, document and discuss those observations and make applications and advancements from the real time feedback that your team just received. This is a more productive way to make changes as well as a great way to keep motivation going because it breathes life into the idea by seeing it in action rather than just a brainstorm or on paper. Teams come away from the “Action” and “Learn” steps more motivated to return to their “Realize” and “Engage” steps now that they have some firsthand knowledge of the outcomes of their hard work and have seen it function.

 

When teams then return to the “Realize” step after learning what they could from their first round of “REAL” steps, a decision can be made about the changes of the steps, notice if there are any changes in how the team wants the outcome to look, etc. The motivation will often remain the same. Sometimes in the “Engage” step team members will need to engage more assistance from other people or co-workers and this process is natural. By remaining consistent in these steps and motivated by your “Realize” motive as well as the feedback from your “Actions” it prevents individuals and teams from getting stuck spending too much time on thinking through an idea rather than learning in reality from that idea. One can lose motivation from continuously drawing a car on paper, but one minute behind a wheel of a beta car can inspire a team to make it better, faster, and with more motivation and productivity.

Make it “REAL”, Make a difference, Make A Better Place.