Crucial Confrontations

The way Myra responds to your description of the gap will determine what you do next . She determines your path , not you. You ll learn where you re going by diagnosing the underlying cause of the problem. Is it a matter of motivation, ability, or both? If Myra says, I couldn t do the procedure you asked for, you ll need to figure out why. Which of the three ability forces is coming into play? If Myra replies, Come on. What s the big deal? It s a stupid little quality check. I don t really have to do it, do I? you re staring at a motivation problem. Which of the motivational forces is at work here?

Knowing how to bring to the surface and resolve all the underlying causes requires a great deal of skill. If you miss a single ability barrier , the other person won t be able to cooperate. If you misinterpret the underlying motivational block, you ll be pushing the wrong buttons . You ll also have to choke back the desire to pull out the big guns to motivate (it s so fast and easy) or pull out your big ideas to enable (it s so fast and easy). Both methods are tempting, and both will be wrong.