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Why don't people do what you want them to? We can't always get what we want, but there are times when it is legitimate for you to expect others to behave in specific ways. Parents, managers, co-workers are sometimes put in positions to determine what other people need to do to be effective. If you are faced with this situation, look to the following four possible reasons why people don't do what you want:

• The person does not know what's expected of them. This is a communication or goals clarification problem.
• The person doesn't know how to do it. Look for a skills or knowledge problem.
• The person doesn't want to do it. Here we have a problem with motivation or re-ward systems.
• There is something in the way. This is an organizational problem.

Communications problems can be addressed by active questioning and listening techniques. If the person can repeat in their own words what you want them to do in a form that you understand, they have heard you.

A quick diagnostic to determine whether it is a knowledge or motivation problem is to ask the question, "Could this person do the job if his /her life depended on it?" Knowledge problems point to training (or selection) issues, motivation problems point to how you or the system rewards behaviors you are trying to elicit.

Organizational problems can usually be classified either as "barriers" or "cultural".

A barrier is something (process or person) who competes with the behavior you are trying to elicit. For example, good housekeeping and safety regulations require that an operator clean up the workstation at the end of a shift to make it ready for the next operator. The shift supervisor shouts at the person for wasting production time. After enough of this, the person ignores the regulations.

Cultural issues usually result when people use the problems in the environment to control their behavior. For example, consider a manager who has a hair-trigger temper. As a result, no one confronts his or her more outrageous behaviors. In essence, the problem becomes "institutionalized;" it becomes normal, something to be worked around. Things are rationalized instead of dealt with in a straightforward fashion.

Copyright (c) 1999 William Croom, Ph.D.

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