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By Chris Chittenden

Talking About has a number of exciting workshops that can help you be more effective at work and life in general. One of our most celebrated programs has been drawn from the work of Fernando Flores and Rafael Echeverria and provides a linguistic map for these "action conversations" that we have to coordinate activity with others. We term this product "THE PROMISE CYCLE". As with all of our workshops, we will tailor "The Promise Cycle" to address your concerns.

Human Beings and Promises

Human beings live in a social world. The most important means we have to cooperate with each other in that world lies in our ability to make commitments or promises to each other for the future. Everything that we undertake with others will invariably lead to the making of promises about some future action we might take or they might take for us. Making and keeping commitments for future action is one of the key aspects to being human.

However, despite its importance, in general human beings know very little about the basics of how to make and manage their commitments. They have learned a way of doing this at a very early age, which is now transparent to them. For many, these behaviours are very ineffective, leading to major breakdowns in personal and business relationships.

Do you ever have these experiences?

• You make requests of others but don't seem to get what you want;
• You never seem to be asked to do anything important when you know that you are more than capable;
• You cannot delegate your work effectively and have to do most of it yourself;
• You feel that you are overworked yet people continue to heap more work on you;
• Your complaints fall on deaf ears.

These may be the result of poor conversations for coordinating action. Not only does ineffectiveness in this domain lead to stress, it is also pivotal in shaping your public and self identity - how you are seen by others and yourself. This in turn effects your effectiveness and so begins a negative spiral. If you would like to be more effective in this area of life, the Promise Cycle is the framework for you.

A Matter of Trust

At the heart of the Promise Cycle is the issue of TRUST. Trust is often seen as the key to effective management and a prize to be won or lost. The way of which it is spoken, implies that trust is actually an object independent of individual human beings. In order to effectively establish the relationship between promises and trust, this interpretation does not make sense. Rather we see trust as four separate sub-assessments made by an individual - sincerity, competence, reliability and involvement. If we make a negative assessment in any of these four areas then trust is an issue.

Even though most people do not recognise it, the issue of trust is at stake throughout the process of making and managing any promise. If you are not effective in managing your commitments, people's assessment of your trustworthiness will suffer. Having said that, we also need to recognise that we cannot keep all the promises we make. After all a promise is a commitment to action in the future based on how we see the future from the present. As we cannot predict the future, quite often circumstances will arise that do not allow us to carry out our promise. In these circumstances, by utilising our understanding of the Promise Cycle, we can minimise the damage to our identity and other's evaluation of our trustworthiness.

The Promise Cycle

The Promise Cycle is a framework for making and managing promises originally developed by Fernando Flores and Rafael Echeverria. It is divided into four distinct phases. The first two phases, setting the context and negotiation, are defined as making the commitment. The last two phases, performance and assessment, are managing the commitment.

Each of these phases contains aspects that will dictate your effectiveness in coordinating action with others and your trustworthiness to others. The more effective you and others in your business are in all four phases of the Promise Cycle the more effective you will be in your private and business life. There will be less stress, greater cooperation, more trust and better team work for all involved. It will also make a great difference to your private life.

Talking About offers a half day workshop covering each aspect of the Promise Cycle. This can be structured as a single session or a couple of two hour sessions depending upon your needs. Starting with trust, we will take you through each phase of the Promise Cycle, ensuring that you are provided with both an understanding of each phase and experiential learning in how to apply the framework in all aspects of your life.

Call our office on (03) 9507 2464 and to find out more or email us at info@talkingabout.com.au.

© Copyright 2002 Chris Chittenden