The U.S. is set to celebrate the important day of gratitude. Before identifying the key for a Holiday to remember, here are five ways to doom any family-centered holiday:
Problem Solve: Use root-cause analysis to identify why your family is stranger than most. Be prepared to provide evidence-based data when blaming others.
Collaborate: Execute cross-functional seat assignments at the dinner table, ensuring in-laws who haven’t spoken for years (for reasons of personal safety) get to know each other better.
Communicate: Develop your presentation deck, with ample animation, to make your political beliefs (and other “don’t-go-there” topics) perfectly clear to extended family.
Change behaviors: Provide impassioned, candid feedback to those less-favored relatives who stand in front of the T.V. or talk with their mouth full of food.
Analyze: Conduct a post-assessment survey, measuring for bias and distortion, to ascertain whether the family was telling the truth about the meal you labored over for days.
While at work, we labor to get something done. Without care, though, virtuous behaviors slip to manipulation.
What has to be accomplished when you are with family? Expressing gratitude shifts us from what isn’t right, to what is already brilliant. And in that transition, we communicate to loved ones, “You matter. I’m with you now.”
This is achievement . . . where and when it matters most.