#TLDR: #Sustainable #change to #behavior is hard work, but there are #tools and #tricks that are embedded in #PBJAM to ease the journey. Let's talk about #cues and #SMARTsteps today.
Successful professional development has three phases, namely, Identification of the right development needs, Effectively working on making the change, and ensuring the sustainability of the progress achieved.
#PBJAM platform and structures are designed to help the participants through all three of these phases. Today, let's review some aspects of how our participants succeed in sustaining the progress.
We look at sustainability like a building. Each layer from the foundation up needs to be laid correctly and set sufficiently before the next layer is added. We start this process early on to identify the layers and visualize what the completed layer looks like for each participant. In our #BetterYou program, participants reflect on questions like "What would your world look like when you have achieved the perfect 10 out of 10 levels in the skill/facet/behavior you are working on". The platform also makes the participants document these reflections in succinct words and then offers opportunities to revisit and discuss these reflections as the journey continues.
These are coupled with questions like what a 2-3 point improvement looks like? What is your target? What would change over the next eight weeks? and so on. All these reflections and discussions are captured as data points on our platform and then used to remind/refocus the participants as they journey towards progress.
Our daily reminders for SMART-steps© are another structure that helps the participants effortlessly act upon their focus areas every day. A simple 2-line question along with a 2-5 line explanation is all that takes our participants to stay connected to what they are working on every day (and yes, we do not send reminders on weekends, only on weekdays!).
The group pages where the group shares their thoughts and suggestions and concerns is another structure that helps participants with mutual accountability and easy reference to sustaining the change they achieve during their programs at #PBJAM.
How are you sustaining the recent changes you have achieved in your soft skills? What are the major hurdles? What works best? We love to hear from you, so post your comments here!