The old way of viewing standards was to set the bar to “good” or the “check the box”. People are prone to meet (and rarely exceed) the bar that’s set for them. When the standard is set low, people won’t stretch themselves to go above and beyond. Instead of setting your bar to “average” set your bar to “great” and watch everyone, including yourself, strive to meet it.

Here’s an example we implemented when we realized our weekly team meetings were becoming a poor use of our time:

Old standard: Everyone attends the weekly meeting on time.

New standard: Everyone arrives to the weekly meeting on time and prepared to present 3 things:
1. One thing they did last week to move the needle
2. What they’re going to do this week to move the needle
3. Where they need help

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