Pract.us

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Building an Accountability Program

These instructions will help you set up a full program to help employees learn important business skills, practice them until they become familiar, and turn them into habits. This program, using the Pract.us application helps employees take responsibility for their work and learn to rely on each other. The program puts you, the manager, in a position to coach and support your team while you build trust in each other.

Step 1: Get familiar with the application

If you haven’t already seen the overview video, click here to get a high-level view of the program.

  • If you haven’t logged in and set up your profile, learn how to do so here: Getting Started for New Learners
  • Once you’ve logged in, take a few minutes to get used to the software. You’ll see a menu icon (three horizontal bars) in the upper left of the screen. Click that to see the main menu. Here are a few important options on the menu.
    • “Learn” is where you and your employees go to complete and sign off skills. You’ll also go to “Learn” to assign cards to your employees.
    • “Mentor” is where your mentors will go to see if they have any sign off requests.
    • “Manage” is where you will go to see learner status and any cancel or extend requests.
    • “Profile” is where you will set up your personal information, set your password and PIN, and set up reports.
    • “Cards,” “Skills,” and “References” are for creating or editing cards, skills, or references respectively.
    • “Members and Fields” is for inviting new people to your team.
    • “Support” will take you to help resources and contact information.
    • “Logout” will log you out of the application.
  • Since your system isn’t set up yet, many of your screens will be blank, but you’ll soon fill them up.

Step 2: Choose your priority actions

A good way to build accountability in your organization is to turn priority activities into habits. In this program, you’ll be creating a culture of accountability by ensuring that employees turn the most important activities for your business into repeatable habits.

Read the white paper “3 Essential Keys to Unlocking Workplace Accountability” to learn more. You might want to share this paper with your team, as well, so they understand what you’re planning and why.

So to get started, first decide what actions employees need to complete regularly to make your business thrive. These are your priority actions.

You’ll start with no more than three priority actions. (You can add more later.) To determine those, answer these questions:

(Here’s a worksheet with these questions if you’d like to take this exercise offline.)

1. What’s my business goal?

2. What’s the metric that best measures my goal?

3. What one to three actions must employees take on a regular basis to improve that metric? Write out these actions in as much detail as you can and use “do” instructions instead of “don’t” instructions as much as possible.

4. Describe why these actions are so important. You’ll want to communicate these reasons to your team.

5. Identify any learning resources you have to help people understand how to do the actions. These can include prepared courses, presentations, or videos. It could include experienced people who already do the work regularly and can explain it to others. (That could be you, too.)

Select one of the actions your wrote down to work on first. That’s the one we’ll use to set up your initial program. Once you’ve completed the steps below with that action, you can repeat them with other skills you want employees to work on.

Note: You may have different sets of actions for different groups on your team. For example, the sales team and the accounting team may need to develop different good habits. For now, start with just one group. Then, when you want to set up habits for another group, you can come back to this card and repeat the exercise.

Step 3: Invite people to your team

Now that you know what you want employees to work on, you need to identify the people who will participate in your accountability program. For now, you’ll invite people to your team, and ask them to set up their profiles, but they won’t do anything else until your program is ready.

  1. Determine which people you want to work on the new habit(s).
  2. Determine people who can act as mentors or coaches to help others learn and develop these habit(s).
  3. Watch the video below: Inviting New Members to Pract.us (96 seconds). Assign the role “Mentor” for people who will help others learn.
  4. Make sure you specify yourself as the manager for each person you invite.
  5. For people you choose as mentors, you can share the resource “Mentor’s Guide” below.
  6. Everyone you invite will receive an email with a link to set up their accounts. If they need help, you can point them to the video below: “Setting Up Your Account”

Videos:

Inviting New Members - 96 seconds
Setting Up Your Account - 90 seconds

Document:

Mentor’s Guide

Step 4: Link learning references to the application

In the first step, you listed your priority actions and associated learning resources which could help people understand how to complete these important tasks.

In this step, you’ll link those resources to Pract.us. If you don’t have any learning materials and will rely on experienced employees to help others, you can skip this step.

Video: Creating References - 33 seconds

 

Or you can follow these steps:

  1. Log into Pract.us at app.pract.us.
  2. From the main menu, select “References.”
  3. Click “Create Reference” in the bottom left.
  4. Put a title in the top blank.
  5. Put the URL for the reference in the lower blank and press the “Enter” button on your keyboard.
  6. Select the checkmark in the upper right to save your reference.

NOTE: if you don’t have a URL for the training resources, you can:

  1. Describe where to find hard copies, e.g. “behind the receptionist’s desk.”
  2. Scan hard copies into electronic format and link from there.

NOTE: Since Pract.us doesn’t reside on your network, it cannot access your internal drives (like an F: drive on a Windows network). This is important for security. However, if you have documents you want to make available, load them onto a cloud service like Dropbox or Box (it’s free) and link from there.

Step 5: Customize the HABIT: Agreement Skill

At this point, you’ve laid the groundwork by choosing your priority actions, identifying the people who will participate in your program, and linking learning resources to Pract.us. Now you’ll use these details to create the skills and cards that define your program. For this program, we’ve created templates to make it easier on you. You’ll simply make your own copy of the template and edit it with your specific details.

You’ll start by creating a set of skills or tasks that lead employees through your program. Then later on, we’ll organize those skills into cards which allow employees to progress through the phases until they’ve developed a reliable habit.

The first task you’ll ask employees to complete is agreeing to work on the priority action you’ve chosen.

  1. Log in to Pract.us at app.pract.us.
  2. Go to “Skills” in the main menu.
  3. Select the HABIT: Agreement skill.
  4. Click the copy icon (double-page) in the upper right to make a copy of it.
  5. Replace any words in ALL CAPS with your custom details. Don’t forget the title.
  6. Click the save icon (check mark) in the upper right to save the skill.
  7. Click the “Closed” toggle switch to open the skill.
  8. If you want to edit it again, click the “Open” toggle switch to “Closed” and then click the edit icon (pencil on paper) in the upper right.
Video: Editing a Skill Template - 51 seconds

 

Here’s an example of what a skill might look like if you want your employees to work on getting more reward program enrollments. The edited sections are shown in bold so you can see what’s changed.

Step 6: Customize the HABIT: Learning Skill

You’ve just created a skill asking employees to agree to work on your action. Now they need some training on how to do it properly. Some people will be able to sign off this step immediately because they already know what to do.

Here’s how to edit this template.

  1. Log in to Pract.us at app.pract.us.
  2. Go to “Skills” in the main menu.
  3. Select the HABIT: Learning skill.
  4. Click the copy icon (double-page) in the upper right to make a copy of it.
  5. Replace any words in ALL CAPS with your custom details. Don’t forget the title.
  6. Add any useful learning references that you’ve created by clicking on the world icon of the reference you want and dragging it to the white box titled “References.”
  7. Add Points (in the upper left of the card) to indicate how long you expect the learning to take. 1 point is typically equal to 15 minutes of work.
  8. Click the check mark in the upper right to save the skill.
  9. Click the “Closed” toggle switch to open the skill.
  10. If you want to edit it again, click the “Open” toggle switch to “Closed” and then click the “Edit” icon in the upper right.
Video: Editing a Skill Template - 51 seconds

 

Here’s an example of this skill for the habit of offering rewards programs to customers:

Step 7: Customize the stages of getting comfortable

Once your employees agree to work on a habit and have learned how to do it, then you want them to get comfortable with the habit. The habit won’t feel natural until they’ve had time to practice. And the more they practice, the more natural it will be. So you want them to start with a little practice and ramp up to more over time.

Why do you ramp up? Whenever you’re asking employees to develop a new habit, you’ll have the greatest success when you make the first few steps very easy.

Imagine that you’re going to start an exercise program. Will be more likely to get started if your first goal is to walk for 15 minutes or to run 10 miles? If you start off easy and work up, you’re much more likely to get to the 10 miles in the end.

It’s the same with your employees. So this phase of your program has 4 stages. In each stage you’ll ask employees to increase the number of times they complete the task. Start with Stage 1.

  1. Log in to Pract.us at app.pract.us.
  2. Select “Skills” from the main menu.
  3. Select the skill “HABIT: Stage 1: X Times per DAY.”
  4. Copy and edit the skill to reflect your habit details by replacing text in ALL CAPS.
  5. Save and open the skill.

You’ll have to decide how many times you want employees to complete the task in this first stage. For something simple, like explaining the rewards program, you might choose 5 times per day. For something more difficult, like making cold calls, you might choose just once per day. Or for something that takes a lot of time, you might choose just 1 time per week.

Here’s what this skill could look like for the sample program of offering rewards benefits. Notice that we’ve added the learning reference for the rewards program in case an employee needs to look it up quickly.:

Now edit the additional stages in the same way, increasing the repetitions each time. You can add or delete stages as well if that works better for your team.

  • HABIT: Stage 2: X times per DAY
  • HABIT: Stage 3: X times per DAY
  • HABIT: Stage 4: X times per DAY

NOTE: There’s no one right answer in how to ramp up a habit. You may need to play around with this stage to find out what works best for your team and for the particular action you’re focused on. If in doubt, ramp up slowly for the best chance of success. If people feel comfortable, they can always move ahead faster.

Step 8: Customize the skill “HABIT: Reinforcement: X times per DAY.”

After employees have ramped up, you are on your way to having a team that accomplishes the most important business tasks every day. But now you want to reinforce this habit by asking people to continue to focus on it. They will continue to sign off on this task so you can see that they’re doing it.

Reinforcing the habit means that people will eventually do it without reminders, which is your ultimate goal.

For this reinforcement phase, you’ll ask employees to check off that they’ve completed the task as many times per day as you require. For larger projects, you can change the time frame to a week.

  1. Select, copy, and edit the skill “HABIT: Reinforcement: X times per DAY.”
  2. Edit the skill to reflect how often you want the habit done and for any special instructions.
  3. You can change the time frame from “DAY” to any period that makes sense, such as week or month.
  4. Save and open the skill.

Here’s how it looks for the example of offering rewards program benefits:

Step 9: Set Up Your Cards

Now you’ve created all the skills or tasks you need. It’s time to organize them into cards which represent each phase of your program: agreement, learning, getting comfortable, and reinforcement.

  1. From the main menu, select “Cards.”
  2. Select “HABIT: Agreement Phase.”
  3. Click the copy icon to create your own version.
  4. Edit the description or title with your specific details.
  5. To add skills, click on the points value and drag them to the “Skill” section below the card header.
  6. For this card add your customized version of:
    1. HABIT: Agreement
  7. Click on the Mentors list in the upper left of the screen.
  8. Add these mentors by clicking on the mentor avatar and dragging it to the right side of each skill:
    1. HABIT: Agreement -> Auto Learner, Auto Manager
  9. You’ll notice there’s a skill already included in this template. This skill directs employees to move to the “Learning” phase of the program.
  10. Save and open the card.
Video: Editing a card template - 66 seconds

Here’s how it looks for the example of offering rewards program benefits:

Repeat this process for the following cards with the associated skills and mentors. Remember to use the skills you customized, even though I refer to the generic names below.

NOTE: For the card HABIT: Reinforcement Phase. Add the skill HABIT: Reinforcement: X times per DAY five times. Usually, this will represent five days or one work week. Thus, employees will complete this card each week. If your habit has to be completed once a week or once a month, then this card will take five weeks or five months to complete.

Here’s how it looks for the example of offering rewards program benefits:

Step 10: Keep Your Team in the Loop

Now you’re set to get started with your program.

First, make sure you’ve opened all cards and skills. If you see any black wrenches, people won’t be able to use those cards or skills. To remove a black wrench, select “Cards” or “Skills” from the main menu, click on the card/skill with the wrench, and click on the “Closed” toggle so it reads “Open.”

To get your program up and running:

  1. If you haven’t yet, share the paper “3 Essential Keys to Unlock Workplace Accountability” with your team or have a quick meeting to explain what you’re doing and why.
  2. Ask your team to work with you on adjusting the program to work best for them and welcome feedback. (You can put a senior employee in charge of the program if you like, just give them the “author” role. See the video – “How to assign roles” for more information.)
  3. Let your team know that you’ll be assigning their first cards, then they will be in charge of starting subsequent cards.
  4. Finally, point employees to this page if anyone has questions about how to use Pract.us.
Video: How to Assign Roles - 96 seconds

 

Step 11: Assign Agreement Phase Cards

The first step in the process is agreement from each employee to work on the chosen habit. Get the ball rolling by assigning each person the agreement card. Once a team member starts the agreement card, they will be able to move through all the cards and skills you set up on their own.

  1. Select “Learn” from the main menu.
  2. Select your customized version of the “HABIT: Agreement Phase” card.
  3. Click on “Enroll.”
  4. Scroll to the person you want to develop the habit and click their name.
  5. Assign a due date for when you want the agreement completed.
  6. Click “confirm.”

Your employee will receive an email notification that they’ve been enrolled in a new card.

Repeat this process for all the people you want to work on the habit.

Video: Assigning Cards - 40 seconds

Step 12: View Team Progress

Once people start working on their habits, you can track progress two ways:

  1. View your manager dashboard.
    1. Select “Manage” from the main menu.
    2. You’ll see a list of employees on the left.
    3. If you click on an employee, you’ll see the cards they are enrolled in and the progress they’ve made.
    4. If they fall behind, you’ll see a red flag.
  2. Get an email report.
    1. Select “Profile” from the main menu.
    2. Select “My Reports” on the left.
    3. For the “Manager Status Report,” you can click the paper airplane to get an instant report or you can set the parameters for an automated report.
    4. Play around with other reports for other kinds of information.

When you see people fall behind or struggle to complete tasks, you or an experienced employee can step in and coach your them. This is an effective way for you to help people over challenges and keep them focused on priorities without micromanaging.

Video: Getting Progress Reports - 52 seconds

That’s it!

Now your system is up and running! You can edit any cards or skills to adjust your program as your employees provide feedback.

You can create new habit programs by repeating the steps you’ve just learned.

You can even create new cards and skills from scratch to help employees learn or practice any new skills!

Learn more about what you can do here.

If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us.

 

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