What is a behaviour?

When we are asking people to do things, we often use abbreviated versions of behaviours to describe what we are looking for.

Work safely, take care, inspect the area, clean your room, study hard.

None of these are actual behaviours, they are collections of behaviours that might mean something completely different to me, than to you.

Think of a behaviour as an action.

Then try describing the actions you are expecting the person to do. Or even better, ask them what actions they think you want them to do.

You'll be surprised just how different your action list might be compared to someone else's.

Pinpointing the actual behaviour you expect from someone is more difficult than you initially might think.

We mostly don't do it, we mostly assume they have the same definitions as us.

Rude, safe, unsafe, professional, lead by example... all contextual, all having actions underneath them.

And we wonder why we have communication problems; most of the time we are living in our own pretend world of abbreviated behaviours.