I've always believed that there is a parallel between running a world-class organization and good parenting skills.  Whether you're running Microsoft or a small household, you still need to apply good leadership skills in the areas of communication, teaching/mentoring, planning, and motivating the people within your group.  For that reason, this newsletter is about a tool that our family has successfully used at home which, I believe, has uses in the workplace.  The tool is called the "Lifestyles System" and is based upon the rules of "natural consequences" and "rewards."

Back when our children were in elementary and middle school, we found ourselves spending increasing amounts of time helping them with their school work.  At one point, it started to feel like the grades that they were getting in school were more of a reflection on our level of assistance versus their own effort and abilities.  At the same time, we started to have to "police" our children to make sure that they were completing their assignments before they spent time watching television, playing on the computer or hanging out with friends.  Overall the system seemed to work, but it took increasing amounts of effort to maintain and sometimes led to resentment and, yes, yelling.  This all went away once we implemented the "Lifestyles System."

Identify the Results You Want to Improve.  To be effective, you must pick a system where your children (or subordinates) have the ability to affect the results.  Home examples might include school grades or completing family chores.  Business examples might include productivity, timeliness or quality of work.

Define the Lifestyle Levels.  Each level should be clearly defined by measurable results over a specific period of time.  For our children, this involved their interim and letter grades for each quarter of the school year.  For an employee, this could include, for example, specific monthly or quarterly targets for productivity, quality and/or timeliness of work.

Define the Lifestyle at Each Level.  The Lifestyle is a description of the freedoms, limitations and benefits associated with each level.  At home, this might include the right to watch television on a school night or an extended curfew.  In business, this might include the flexibility to work from home, flexible work hours or more autonomy in project work.

Identify "Rules" for Using the System.  The "Rules" are essentially the ground rules and boundaries for the Lifestyle System that you have developed.  The goal of these rules is to clarify how the system will work, general assumptions and exclusions.

Implement.  Once a Lifestyles System has been designed, it's time to communicate it to the troops and put it into practice.  Recognize that there will be an initial period of time for working out kinks and establishing the general routine.