LeadingLDS

Mastering the Fundamental Attribution Error

Have you ever said things to yourself similar to these?

"They don't home teach because they are lazy."

"They don't visit teach because they don't know how to prioritize."

"Every week they are late. They must not understand the importance of sacrament meeting."

"We've knocked on their door for three months in a row. They must not want home teachers."

"Every time I ask him to do something he drops the ball. He must not care."

All leaders approach responsibilities with optimism. However, when things don't work out because others don't follow through we begin making assumptions about these individuals. We can't understand why someone isn't doing an easy home teaching assignment so we therefore attribute it to laziness, bad attitudes, or lack of faith.

You can thank the Fundamental Attribution Error for this type of thinking.

Fundamental Attribution Error—the automatic assumption we often make that the other person's motives are bad. This can happen when someone says or does something we think is harmful or threatening. We immediately attribute bad motive

I'm a big fan of the people down at VitalSmarts. They know their stuff about creating change and leading change. (More about them to come in future posts) I first learned about the Fundamental Attribution Error while reading their material.

While leading we sometimes become so frustrated by the inefficiency of others that we simply need something to attribute the lack of success.

How do we avoid the Fundamental Attribution Error with those we lead? According to our friends at VitalSmarts we simply need to ask ourselves a question. “Why would a reasonable, rational, and decent person act this way?” Regardless how you ask this question simply take a moment and step back from your judgment and figure out what this person needs. Start with yourself. What can you do to help them build skills necessary to complete the task and how can you help them better understand the task?

As a leader when have you let the Fundamental Attribution Error take over?

How to Improve Home Teaching by 20%

Many may classify 100% home teaching a fairy tale. Even 80% would be a modern day miracle for many. Like I mentioned here, home teaching is a unique challenge. It's hard to compare it to anything else in life. When a new EQP is called everything is new--especially the problems. How do they go from 40% home teaching up to 80%? I don't mean to group every new EQP into the "clueless" category because I am sure many are doing it in a way that produces results (If you are one of those please contact LeadingLDS so we can share your secret). I have been apart of many priesthood quorums and I have watch the leaders try the same techniques over and over again in order to create satisfactory home teaching results.

How does the typical leader try to motivate a group to home/visit teach?

Quorum leaders typically motivate through group pep talks, lessons, or other verbal methods. When the HPGL realizes his numbers need a boost he puts together the lesson of all lessons and then stands before his group on Sunday ready to inspire them to become all-star home teachers. My guess is every priesthood member has sat through THAT lesson. There are good ones when the spirit is present and the leader sincerely asks all to participate in home teaching. And there are bad ones where the guilt trip is laid on thick and everyone stares at the carpet. Whether the spirit is present or not the flaw is in trying to solve the problem on a group level.

"If we are to achieve results never before accomplished, we must expect to employ methods never before attempted."
— Sir Francis Bacon

Quorum lessons focused on improving home teaching rarely work. In fact, I have made it a personal rule that I will never mention home teaching results or efforts in weekly group meetings. I tried the pound-the-pulpit-damnation-home-teaching lesson back when I was a student ward EQP. When I gave the lesson our home teaching was at 40% and a few months later it was 39%. Nothing happened.

So like Brother Bacon said in the quote above "we must expect to employ methods never before attempted." This is a strong quote. The new methods don't have to be completely out-of-the-box but slightly different can truly improve home teaching by 20% or more (I know because I've seen it happen).

There are many things to tweak in order to improve the results of home teaching (which we will discuss in later posts). But my purpose in this post is to give you one thing in order to improve your home teaching by 20% or more. That one thing is MONTHLY INTERVIEWS WITH EACH MEMBER OF THE QUORUM. 

• Make this your number one priority.
• Delegate every other task/responsibility possible so you have the time available to sit down individually with each member of the quorum. DO NOT delegate this to your counselors. It is important that you are the one they see each month. 
• Be consistent. At the beginning of each month give your secretary a list of days you will be available to interview. Don't try and set them up on your own. You already have plenty to do.
• Follow the spirit and create the best format that works for you during these interviews (spiritual thought, report on each family, personal progress)

Is this over-kill on effort? I assure you the most effective thing you can do as a leader is build relationships through monthly interviews. Being on an individual level changes everything. I would do this if I had 10 in my quorum or 96. I have seen the best results by making this one change.

I challenge you to try it for three months.

What changes have you made that have given you a bump in home teaching numbers?

Can Home Teaching Be Compared to a Skill Set?

People often feel confused when they receive a new calling in the church. They don't know how to proceed because it's nothing they have done before. This is a benefit of all callings because they allow the person to learn as they serve. In the new-calling-confusion one might look towards similar real-world responsibilities and mimic similar skills sets. For example, those involved in missionary work might look at a sales organization to see how they approach a perspective customer. A new bishop may look at how a manager in a company holds effective interviews. Though the goal is very different the way to get there can be compared.

But what about home teaching? Is it comparable to a secular occupation? Plumbers don't stop by to see "how things are going" and your mechanic isn't looking for a monthly visit in your home. If there was a clear parallel to home teaching it would have to include the following:

• A consistent renewing assignment with a solid deadline
• A required report on specific performance
• Requires working with a partner

Is Home Teaching a world of its own or can it be compared to a specific skill set?

A Perspective On Why People Don't Home Teach?

A few months back I was teaching in a Stake Priesthood Leadership Training. I purposed the question, "Why don't people do their home teaching?" Someone in the back of the room exclaimed without hesitation "LAZINESS!" Since then I have asked many Elders Quorum Presidents and other leaders this same question. 8 times out of 10 they give me the same answer.....laziness.

Leaders are asked to accomplish tasks that require others to follow through with action (i.e. home teaching, visiting teaching, helping people move, canning random fruit for hours, etc). When the desired result is not manifesting itself some leaders move towards motivational tactics that have been used since before Joseph Smith turned to James 1:5. When those tactics don't work they simply conclude, "They're lazy. And lazy can't be fixed."

If you think people in your quorum are lazy you might want to look at your leadership and figure out what you are doing wrong.

Take a look at this research study:

So are people truly lazy or are they exhausted? When approaching someone that isn't doing their home teaching, approach with the thought that this person is just exhausted. And exhausted people don't need home teaching guilt trips.

How do YOU think this study can be applied to church leadership?

How to Engage People to Home Teach

We have all experienced it. We show up Sunday and enter Elders Quorum thinking it's going to be just another happy lesson. Little did we know we showed up to experience a guilt trip. President Guilttrippy stands up there with his game face on ready to let the ranks HAVE IT. Home teaching has been under 50% and he isn't going to let that happen on his watch. In his mind he is obviously dealing with a bunch of lazies that have no eternal perspective and need to be given the hard truth. The lesson proceeds with different guilt trip examples of why your priesthood responsibilities require you to home teach and if you don't you aren't worthy to hold the priesthood. Or, every time we have a basketball night the whole quorum shows up but when it comes to home teaching nobody shows up. YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED!!!!

Now I am obviously exaggerating a bit but the point is we have all probably received the "home teaching lesson" at some point. Most Elders Quorum President do it. I did it when I was Elder Quorum President because I thought it was my only options to motivate others to home teach. I now see the errors of my ways. 

Let's take a moment to discuss motivation. If you have not watched the video in my last post you should do so now.  I just finished reading Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us The basic principles discussed in this book are covered in the video in my last post. Since the beginning of home teaching time leaders in the church have been trying to motivate people to home teach. Few attempts change anything, most don't.

 Carrot and Stick or If/Then Approaches

The extreme example I gave above is an example of a Carrot and Stick approach to motivation. Leaders focus on rewards the group will receive by accomplishing the home teaching task (i.e. Blessings, guilt free mentality, donuts). As the author states in Drive a carrot and stick approach isn't always bad as long as the task at hand is very routine (i.e. stuffing envelopes, canning peaches). The problem is, not very many tasks in the church are routine. WAIT JUST ONE SECOND....what do you mean home teaching isn't routine?!?!? Just set the appointment and show up once a month! It's that easy! Well...yes that would be the case if the task was to just show up. In reality we are trying to build the Kingdom of God on earth not just show up. The task for home teaching is to bear one anothers burdens, mourn with those that mourn, comfort those that need comfort, stand as a witness of God at all times (Mosiah 18: 8-9), watch over the church, and build trust with the family so they feel comfortable seeking help when needed.

Two types of motivating behaviors

Extrinsic Behaviors - I home teach because I can say I got it done when the Elder Quorum President calls.

Intrinsic Behaviors - I home teach because I feel like I am making a difference. Sister Anderson has become a close friend and is attending church more often.

Now the trick is how do you change ones home teaching motivation from extrinsic to intrinsic? That has been the priesthood question for decades. Let's take a look at the three elements that Daniel Pink discusses in his book. Those three elements are Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose.

Autonomy - Daniel Pink says in his book, "People need autonomy over task (what they do), time (when they do it), team (who they do it with), and technique (how they do it)."

Mastery - Becoming better at something that matters

Purpose - The goal is to maximize purpose not monthly numbers

So now what? How can we take these principles and engage people to home teach? Before we jump into some ideas I first want to reference back to Elder Ballards Leadership Enrichment interview that can be seen here. He says something that might help us think outside the box.

Six, seven years ago when we had the Missionary Executive Council and Elder Cook was the managing director, I was then appointed to be the chairman, along with Richard Scott and President Uchtdorf. We were the members of the Twelve. And it had been concluded earlier by Elder Oaks and Elder Holland, who had those responsibilities, that we needed to do something to adjust how to train missionaries. So we picked up where they had left off, and we were talking in council in the Missionary Department's conference room. And after about three of those sessions, I gathered them together, and I said, “What would happen if we were starting a church today and we had nothing? We’re not trying to fix anything, we’ve got zero, and we’re going to put together a program to try to resolve the issue of missionary work. What would we do? What would your suggestions be? And I have to tell you, it was electric. Once they relaxed and realized that we could talk about anything, out of that came Preach My Gospel.

It's difficult to get to a spot where it feels okay to think outside the box. But in the above example when such permission was granted suddenly solutions surfaced. So I ask you a similar question that Elder Ballard asked the Missionary Executive Council. What would happen if we were starting a church today and we had nothing? We're not trying to fix anything, we've got zero, and we're going to put together a program to try to resolve the issue of HOME TEACHING. What would we do?

Here is what I came up with:

1. Choice of Companion: Have you ever bluntly asked a quorum member who he WANTS to be companions with? Now this could get sticky if more than one person wants to be companions with someone. But why not let the companionship turn into a home teaching team? The fact is, is if they have chosen their companion they are more likely to get in contact and less likely to let the other person down.

2. Quorum Input On Who to Home Teach: What if every six months you reevaluated all home teaching assignments with each companionship? Once each companionship has had an opportunity to choose their companion, your presidency meets with each companionship with a list of families. Discuss with them certain families you are concerned about and ask them which ones they would more likely be able to help. "Sister Nevacomes hasn't been to church in a few years. We anticipate she may have been offended at one time. Is this someone you feel like you could visit at least once a month to help her feel comfortable around the church?" A member of the companionship might respond, "My wife talks to her at times when she walks her dog, I think that would be a good fit because she has been able to relate to my wife."

Now this might not work as smooth for every family on the list. You might have to assign families to the companionship just because they need someone as their home teacher. At the end of this evaluation let the companionship know that nothing is final but you are going to discuss this as a presidency and pray about it. Then, as a presidency, you will make any final adjustments as you feel inspired.

3. Result Focused Rather then Visit Focused: It has become tradition in the church that all a "good" home teacher needs to do is visit their families once a month. In general, this is very successful for many families. But there are many families that need more or need to be approached from a different angle. Rather than just inquiring if the monthly visit was made it could be more effective to analyze what progress is really happening. Each month during your home teaching interview with each companionship you address each family and decide how this home teaching relationship can best benefit the family. Sister Losterspouse is lonely and just needs good company. It might be decided that a monthly visit will be made and also a 15 minute phone call from each companion during the month. Or the Supractive Family just needs a strong gospel message from someone other than the parents. It is decided that each month the home teachers will talk with Brother and Sister Supractive to see what message they would like you to teach the children on their next visit.

The point of all this is you are helping the companionship move forward with a purpose rather than just completing a task. With purpose the companionship is more engaged in helping contribute to a family's life.

These are just ideas that came to mind. They are not the end all. The point is to allow yourself to think outside the box and create change rather then working towards reporting numbers at the end of the month.

So, if you were putting together a program to resolve the issue of home teaching what would you do differently? Remember there are no rules and you are starting from scratch.

How Can This Be Applied to Home Teaching?

Take the next ten minutes and watch the video below with one question in mind. How can this be applied to motivating others to Home Teach/Visiting Teach? Comment as you feel inspired and then I will further comment on the principles taught in this video.