INOCULATE

Not About Bird Flu

Most people are familiar with what it means to inoculate someone. You inject a small dose of virus into the blood stream in order to build immunity. The small dose may cause a minor illness, but the trade-off is worth avoiding a major illness and possibly death.
Leaders can inoculate their workplace to prepare employees for upcoming increases in problem-solving, workload and stress by simulating the event, or inoculation.
This is much like the two-minute drill in American football. The team must perform almost flawlessly in order to score the winning points. Teams practice the two-minute drill every week to prepare for this possibility. In the event of a rout, the team sets aside the two-minute drill for the current contest, but it will be practiced again next week.
Athletes know that if you want to perform at a maximum level under duress, you must condition your mind and body to act reflexively. You must have faced the intensity of the situation as often as possible in order to defeat thoughts of doubt or imperfect physical reactions that lead to a loss. Inoculation.
In addition to physical practice, athletes also condition their minds through the use of mental imagery. Mental imagery allows the athlete to see themselves in a pressure situations and “role play” how they will respond. The mind works like a tape recorder, replaying the images until everything feels right. The more the mind sees the successful outcome, the more it will program the body and other intangibles to be ready. Inoculation.
Businesses fail to inoculate employees and their leadership. Perhaps the thought is that it is a waste of time to prepare for something that may never happen or may happen with less intensity. Here’s the challenge: turn on quality thinking like you would a light. You know, like the image of a person with a light bulb over their head.
Well-prepared people practice thinking and procedures. Professional rescuers continually practice knowledge and skills. They know that if you don’t continuous practice key skills, you fail to respond in a timely and efficient manner. Inoculation.
Thinking is a skill and needs to be practiced. If you want to be surrounded by problem-solvers, you need to offer practice sessions. Just like athletes or rescuers, if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it, so you set up simulations and classes. It is unwise to wait until you need quality thinking to get people together to think. It is not that easy to turn it on. Inoculation.
When businesses practice the “as needed” approach, chances are they will get “shallow thinking.” From an employee’s view, it’s a half-hearted effort to provide feedback. Since no one has invested in them since the last “think tank”, they are not prepared to think. Even with the best intentions, the thinking won’t provide much innovation or research. The skill of thinking has diminished.
Businesses say they look for people with outstanding thinking skills. Unfortunately, if that person ends up staying with a company that doesn’t have time to practice thinking, those skills will be wasted. And, as with the flu season, if there are insufficient doses of vaccine the outcomes could be tragic.

GROWTH <> LEADERSHIP <> EXCELLENCE