Jim Dethmer explains how most workplace agreements are kept only 20-30% of the time. Getting that to 70-90% transforms work culture. He shows how checking real commitment before agreeing, and acting from genuine desire rather than obligation, creates better outcomes.
When we go into work with companies and we say, just tell us, just back of the envelope, what percentage of the agreements that get made around here get kept, how many things get delivered, the way to whom and on time. And usually what we hear back is something around 20 to 30%. If you can move that to 70, 80, 90%. Think about the quality of the experience of the work world. Simple. If I'm going to make an agreement to meet you for lunch tomorrow at noon, how simple is that? Who, me? You. Where? The corner bakery. For what? Lunch. Got it. Now, before I do that, I'd like to check, what do I think about meeting you for lunch? I really want to do that. What do I feel about it? Happy. Joy. That feels exciting to me. How about my gut? Ah, interesting. My gut's clenched. My solar plexus are clenched. There's something going on. Something's telling me that it's not something I have a whole body yes to. So I don't think tomorrow's a day. Could we meet in a week? The organizational world is filled with people making agreements because they should, because they have to, because it's the politically correct thing to do, because they're scared to speak up and say to a peer, a colleague, a client or their boss, I don't want to make that agreement. Most people don't change simply because they've got a dream or a vision. They need to be experiencing something in their life that isn't working, some place where they're not getting exactly what they want. I come alongside people and I say, what would it be like if you were fully alive? What would it be like if you were living your most magnificent self? If you were living in your zone of genius? If you were doing every moment, every day what you really love? What would it be like if you were just living one creative expression after another? I'd call some version of that full aliveness.
