Simon used the test tube first and he shared his idea with me.

A simple game.

Put a marble in the test tube each time you win.

What’s the definition of a win?

It doesn’t matter.

Of the accountancy firms I work with here’s three ideas now in full swing with the test tube and the marbles:

- a referral request is made = a marble goes in.

This firm is increasing the number of referrals they get so they grow their firm

- a tax return is done = marble goes in.

This firm is reducing the January glut of tax returns

- a big rock is achieved = marble goes in (I’ll explain big rocks in my next blog next week)

When the test tube reaches quarter full it’s open-the-quality-street-tin time! 

Half full and its pizza time!

Three-quarter full it’s a 4pm finish and straight to the pub. 

Completely full and we’re having the afternoon off!

Make up the rules of your game…

Your rules depend on the one focus you want from your team and how generous the reward/recognition should be (NB avoid cash – if you want to know why read chapter 7 of Sway by Ori and Rom Brafman).

You could avoid the game and simply track performance as a personal or team KPI – hopefully you can already see or sense this (normal approach) is short of energy, passion or fun.

It pays off to play a game!

So what’s going on to make these marbles and test tube games work?

And they do work – I’ll prove it in the next blog…

1. It’s a game and people (your people) like games. They like games because it’s a chance to score goals and win – both as individuals and as a team. And most people prefer winning to losing!

2. Marbles in test tubes are noisy – it’s blatantly obvious to all present when a marble goes into the tube! The game is visual, it’s physical it’s not just mental

3. The tube is huge! The working environment has changed to accommodate the tube and the marbles. And with environment change often comes stronger performance towards the results you want

4. Team scepticism is soon dashed when the game starts

5. A weekly check in on game progress provides a way of performance managing the issue in focus – the problem you want fixing – the opportunity you want to realise

When Michael Gerber (of E-Myth fame) asks his audiences

“How do you get your people to do what you want them to do?”

He answers his own question with

“You can’t! You can only create a game they want to play.”

Get yourself some marbles and a test tube and create a game for your firm! And read the next blog…

Paul Shrimpling

PS If you have examples of other games working in your firm please share them by commenting on this blog

PPS If you want to buy a test tube to kick-start a game in your firm go here

Go to dictionary.com and you’ll find this definition for initiative:

The power or ability to begin or to follow through energetically with a plan or task; enterprise and determination

Good stuff don’t you think?

1. ”Power and ability”
2. ”Follow through energetically”
3. ”Enterprise and determination”

Would your firm be more successful, more profitable and more exciting to work in if these three things showed up with more of your people, more of the time? Of course it would…

My experience suggests that all accountancy firms would benefit from unleashing more initiative in their firm. So…

Here’s 3 tiny tools to build more initiative, and unleash greater success and profits into your firm…

Think of initiative as one side of a gold coin – let’s call it Heads.

Tails – the other side of the coin, is called delegation.

It then follows that the better you are at delegating, the more you’ll see your people demonstrate more initiative more often.

Here’s a bit more detail…

I’ve lived by this little formula in my various roles as a leader and it’s proven it’s worth:

“Delegate the result, not the work”

A great example for this is the reaction we get from our four kids when we delegate a result rather than work. My favourite example is when Kate (wife) says:

“Before you go on the Wii kids, would you please clear the kitchen so that it looks like mum has done it?”

It works pretty much every time.

Contrast this with Grandma’s approach which is to describe the detailed work required:

“Dominic, could you put the cutlery in the draw, Maddy put the plates and bowls away,
boys could you please clear the table and sweep the floor. Oh, and no arguing!”

Both work.

But Kate’s requires almost zero supervision and generally gets a better result (faster and cleaner).

Why?

Tiny tool 1.  Because Kate used the question “would you?” which requires a voluntary commitment. It’s ‘soft’ and does not sound like a dictat. “Could you?” is easy to say yes to, but does not commit them to the job, only an ability to do the job! “Would you?” receives much less resistance to any other form of delegation request.
Tiny tool 2.  Because they know exactly what the kitchen looks like when mum cleans up (clear result). A crystal clear, unambiguous end-game for all four kids.
Tiny tool 3.  Because they can organise themselves and feel ownership of the work – they decide on who does what work, and how it gets done. Yes they argue occasionally but it’s about how the work gets done which sounds like constructive energetic debate to me!

Using these three tiny tools means that the kids demonstrate all three elements of initiative in bucket loads:

Power and ability to follow through energetically and show enterprise and determination

NB Tiny tool 4. Always explain why something needs doing (“before you go on the Wii”) and why they are the best people for the job. Understanding why’s and wherefore’s is a source of power, energy and enterprise too.

Time for action:

• Can you master using ‘would you?’ with you people?
• Can you work on describing crystal clear outcomes/results when delegating tasks?
• Can you give your peope the space to organise themselves more?

Bet you can’t! Hopefully you now respond with “Oh yes I can!’ Please make it so and delegate results like Kate does. And if you want more on delegation click here.

Paul Shrimpling

MD at Remarkable Practice, and author of:

“The 7 big mistakes that accountants make that costs them a fortune in lost sales, lost profits and lost personal cash. And – how YOU can avoid them – now!”