A SAMPLE MICRO ACTION

Ready to help, but think you lack the time and resources to accomplish anything meaningful? No worries! You don’t need to donate a kidney or run a grueling marathon for charity to make a real difference. In fact, some of the most powerful ways to help someone are so simple, they can easily fit into the spare moments of your day.

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Okay, we’ve all been in that meeting or group thread. A normally quiet and reserved participant suddenly makes a brilliant point, but the conversation speeds right on past them like it never happened. Or worse, someone else repeats their idea five minutes later, getting all the kudos and credit.

Don’t let that happen. Be that person’s champion instead with three simple actions:

• Politely stop the momentum by hitting the pause button.
  “Hold on a minute; could we just go back to what Sue said a minute ago? I think that was a really insightful point and I don’t want to lose it.”
• Give credit where credit is due when someone else starts repeating the same idea.
  “That’s a great point, Bob, and it builds perfectly on what Sue was saying earlier about our member feedback.”
• Follow up. By giving the floor back to the original speaker, you’re not only empowering by recognizing them, you’re encouraging more thoughtful and insightful input from everyone.
  “Sue, I’m really interested in your idea about the new onboarding process. Could you walk us through how you see that working?”

Because lasting change is often the cumulative result of many people doing the little they can right in front of them, you can make a difference by starting with small, consistent actions like this in your daily life.