Arts 10 commandments

Art Burshy walked towards the local church this morning. He had some paper under his arm, a hammer and some nails...he had no idea of the intense discussions he would be having just an hour later...

Art was early as he intended to be there before the crowds were visiting the church, although he was not aware how many people were actually still visiting that church. Would he have a larger audience when putting his papers up at the door of a mosque?

Art had taken his decision over the last days, with all discussions again about fanaticism in religion... people wanting to fight for freedom of religion...people wanting to fight for ensuring others respect and adopt their religion...and others fighting with words to say nobody should be fighting. Art Burshy felt that all these acts of religion were very far away from the true origin of most religions... love, respect and living by your values.

The left hand held up the paper against the closed wooden door and a nail between his fingers...his right hand threw the hammer with decisive force against the nail... the sound was impressively loud, as if he was pounding a drum that was as large as the church itself...Art was somewhat overwhelmed by the sound but after a short pause he firmed up and continued. Within a few minutes it was ready... the 10 commandments of Art Burshy were decorating the church door like once Luther had nailed his 95 statements on the Wittenberg church door in 1517.

The largest surprise was to come...when Art wanted to take his stuff and leave, looked around, he saw that there were some people watching him. One man stepped froward and asked Art what he thought he was doing....
"I try to remind people of what religion originally was about...
And I thought chance of reaching religious people was larger at a church than at the supermarket..."

"Well, you ruin the church door...and do you think it really works to put some statements out there?" the guy asked, probably not really to get a full answer.
But Art was triggered...
"You are right, telling people they should not do certain things does generally not work.
It is like when your friend is crossing a narrow dangerous bridge and you yell at him 'DON'T LOOK DOWN'...
His natural reaction will be.... to look down.
That's what our mind does to us.

So, when people show wrong behaviour you can tell them what they should NOT do.
It is better to tell them what they SHOULD do.
Basically we can not unlearn behaviour, we can just replace old behaviour by better new behaviour.
So why do people tend to emphasise what others should not do?
Well, because it is so easy to tell others they are wrong!
It is more difficult to actually come up with what should be a better way of doing things.

Like in companies.
You can repeatedly tell people to be 'customer focused'.
That is an easy message and a nice start.
Yet, it provides the following challenges:
- all people always think they do the best for clients
- it is not clear which undesirable behaviour should be replaced by which good behaviour
So nobody feels urgency to change anything, and if they do they have no clue how.
After all, if it were simple people would already have changed it themselves, wouldn't they...

Instead you could explain people what you expect as behaviour, which can be at very different levels:
- make sure the client likes you by inviting them for drinks or giving them nice gadgets
- be focused and spend time on those customers that could be interested in your product
- help clients and explain them why certain things don't work...
- understand deeper what your clients need before offering anything
- engaging to understand what would help your client save and earn money, and then create the product that fits with it..."

"So, you actually say that your commandments are set up incorrectly, as they say what people should not do..." provoked the guy.

Art Burshy looked up while taking a moment to think.
Then he went back to the door, removed the nails and took back the paper.
And he started walking back.

The man that had raised the questions had a 'victory'-smile on his face.
Art turned around one last time:
"Yes, you are right to criticise, 
I made a mistake to copy old behaviour that has not really been effective...
but don't laugh too quickly...
I will improve my list based on your feedback... 
and I will be back.
Thank you for helping me!"
And there Art Burshy left, heading home with a determined pace....leaving people behind in a state of confusion....