Commitment and compliance get used as if they mean the same thing. Commitment persists when nobody is paying for it. Compliance persists exactly as long as the reward does. This Sidebar takes one idea from Tuesday's conversation with Jeff Burstein (he/him), that when a team that was improving slows down, something in its environment changed, and follows it all the way in.

Why "we didn't get real buy-in" is the wrong argument. Why commitment and compliance look identical on a dashboard right up until the reward moves. Why the team is where a problem shows up and almost never why it happened. And why done is not holding: the declaration is the moment the tending ends.

And three things to do Monday, none of which cost money or need permission: build a two-column timeline, read one person's objectives against what you're asking them to do, and name one thing you declared done, then find out who is still holding it.

The full conversation with Jeff Burstein, "It Never Sticks": https://thelaggingteam.com/podcast/0013-it-never-sticks

Jeff Burstein (he/him): Founder, Advanced Enterprise Agility and L-EAF.org · Co-founder, L-EAF Lab. https://www.L-EAF.org

Talk about your team: https://thelaggingteam.com/start?episode=0014-nothing-changed-but-the-reward&utm_source=podcast&utm_medium=shownotes&utm_campaign=nothing-changed-but-the-reward