Unclear agreements create workplace drama and kill productivity. A clean agreement specifies who does what by when, with measurable results, plus a commitment to renegotiate before the deadline if you can't deliver. Jim agrees to email a list of advisors by 5pm tomorrow and texts Diana if that changes.
You one of the common causes of drama in the workplace is unclear and unkept agreements. It's also one of the major things that saps productivity out of individuals and teams.
Yeah, there's nothing more frustrating, I imagine, for most of you than being part of a team where someone or some people are not keeping their agreements and it's slowing the whole project down and they're not communicating clearly about the changes that they're making making in their agreements.
It's deeply frustrating to be counting on somebody to get something to you and you don't know exactly when it's coming. You're not even sure they're going to deliver. That agitation is what we call drama in the workplace. And one of the keys is make and keep clean agreements. So what is a clean agreement? What's involved in a clear agreement?
Yeah. So clear agreement is who is going to do what by when. And let's make sure that that what is very measurable. So we're all in agreement about that. It got completed.
Great. So let's do an example.
Great.
This morning Diana and I had a meeting about our business, the Conscious Leadership Group. And we decided that we wanted to enroll a board of advisors. So Diana, I want to make an agreement that by tomorrow at 5pm I'll send an email to the list of people that we generated and I'll ask them if they feel a calling to support the Conscious Leadership Group. So I'm going to send an email by 5 tomorrow to those potential advisors to see if they want to support what we're up to.
Yeah. As I check in, five o' clock makes sense to me and I'm willing to make that agreement with you.
Great. So there we go. That's a clean agreement. Now we need to add one more piece to it. Otherwise we're going to leave a loophole for drama.
Right. Because Jim, if you don't keep that agreement, how are you going to let me know that you want to change the agreement?
There you go. So what I commit to do is I commit to renegotiate. If it becomes obvious to me I'm not going to get that email to you by five o'.
Clock.
Then I'm going to renegotiate before five and let you know that I'm not going to keep the agreement. That way you're not going to be surprised.
Great. And how do you want to let me know in what way?
Good. So what I'll do is I'll text you because I know you look at your text. So I'll text you and I'll renegotiate the agreement. From 5 o' clock to tomorrow to whenever we mutually agree. I'll get it to you.
That works for me.
Great. So there you go. That's clear. Agreements, who's going to do what by when, and an agreement to renegotiate before the deadline so people aren't surprised when you don't keep your agreements.
