Trying is not good enough - what we can learn from Yoda

When leading staff, we sometimes get caught asking them to ‘try’ and then to ‘try harder’.

Asking staff to try gives them an excuse not to accomplish. Avoid asking people to try a new skill.  Teach them and then ask them to ‘do’ the job.  There is a difference.

Trying is judgmental.  How can you know if the staff member tried enough?  How do they know themselves?  When other people learnt the skill, did they try harder?

If I attempt a task for the first time and get it wrong, was it because I didn’t try hard enough or was it something else?  Was it perhaps the teacher, the learning style, or some other factor?

There is not try, there is only do - Yoda

Ask staff simply to ‘do’ the job.  If it needs to be broken down, then do so.  If they fail, then let them learn, and do it again.

Trying is experimental, doing is final.

The first time an airline pilot is asked to fly a commercial airliner, they are not asked to try.  It is expected that they ‘do’.  The learning and failing can happen somewhere else (in a simulator).

A Doctor operating for the first time is not asked to try.

A Plumber cannot try to fix a problem, it must be fixed.

So why is it that in service environments we think it is OK to ‘try’ to serve the customer, or to try to solve their problem.  Is it OK to try to keep the store clean? Is it OK to try to be attentive to the customer’s needs?

Attempting to stack shelves is really just about not stacking shelves.  Once you do the stacking, trying is irrelevant.

Don’t ask staff to try, that way they won’t perceive you as judgmental, and they simultaneously know that you need completion every time.

There are five things we can do to move staff away from ‘try’.

1. Give them instructions
2. Give them the tools
3. Set the expectation
4. Simulate
5. Do

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