ARC: The Most Powerful People Skill Ever Discovered, Part Five

The Best (or Worst) Part of Your Job

What makes your work good or bad or wonderful? What makes you love your job?

ARC with the people you work with, of course!

If you have high ARC for everyone at your job, and ARC for the work you do, it’s a great job! Even if it does not make you rich, you still love it

If you have little or no ARC for the people at your work, or your tasks, the job stinks.

Ten Signs of High ARC at Work

1. You look forward to seeing your work friends every day.
2. You truly enjoy the day-to-day communication, laughter and routines.
3. You feel like you are part of a team where everyone helps everyone succeed.
4. Everyone is satisfied with their duties and their pay.
5. High ARC businesses are more productive and more profitable than average.
6. High ARC groups attract wonderful new teammates who are excellent performers.
7. When something bad happens to the group, the team handles it without any permanent damage.
8. High ARC groups have goals and make progress toward those goals.
9. Positive stress leads to improved performance of the group.
10. The members of high ARC work places trust and protect each other.

Ten Signs of Low ARC at Work

1. You sometimes hate going to work.
2. Many of the workers are dissatisfied with their pay or working conditions.
3. It’s hard to trust the members or management of a low ARC workplace.
4. Low ARC groups have poor communication leading to arguments, disagreements and backstabbing.
5. When you leave for the day, or permanently, you feel happier.
6. The group is inefficient with some functions being done poorly, being done twice or being skipped.
7. You may feel so much stress that you automatically disagree with certain people, refuse to talk to other people and even feel hatred toward a few.
8. The negative stress in the group leads to reduced production, accidents and illnesses.
9. When something bad happens to a low ARC group, it can be permanently ruined.
10. You rarely feel safe, satisfied and happy in a low ARC group.

How to Boost ARC in Any Group

Fortunately, anyone can increase the ARC in their group.

“If one really communicates and communicates well to these people — listens to what they have to say and acknowledges what they say and says what he has to say to them, gently enough and often enough that it is actually received by them — he will regain, to a very marked degree, his ability to associate and coordinate the actions of those people with whom he is immediately surrounded.

“Here we have ARC immediately adjusted to work.” — L. Ron Hubbard from The Problems of Work

If you show up for work and ignore everyone, you will have problems. You will not understand what your coworkers or bosses are doing. You will not be given new responsibilities nor more pay. You will feel alone and unhappy.

Yet if you listen, acknowledge, talk, be gentle and persist, your ARC will then begin to rise. You will see people agreeing with you and you will find yourself agreeing with them. You will feel good about what you are doing as you have more affinity for the people and the work.

Five Steps to Increase ARC at Work

Based on the above quote, you can create a positive work place or enjoy being in any group with these five easy steps:

1. Listen to the people at your work.
2. Acknowledge what you hear.
3. Say what you have to say.
4. Be gentle about it.
5. Persist.

Stan the Loner

Since starting his new job last month, Stan has been a loner. He eats alone and takes his rest breaks by himself while the other workers talk about the job and share jokes. After a while, no one notices him. He doesn’t like being ignored, but is too shy to break the ice. Like his previous jobs, he hates being here.

After reading this article about ARC, he decides to try the five steps. He simply stands near a group, listens to someone talk about their weekend of camping and says, “That sounds like fun.” Later that day, he hears someone explain how they do a task and he says, “Interesting. I think I’ll try that.”

Each day, he listens and acknowledges more conversations. He starts saying a few things of his own. Because he raises the C corner of the triangle, the other two points rise as well (as covered in “ARC, Part 1″ and “ARC, Part 2″). His ARC with the group rises each day.

Soon, people ask how he’s doing or what he did during the weekend. He says what he has to say and suddenly, he feels wonderful! He feels like he is part of the group and likes his job.

When you have ARC at work, you feel more cheerful, think more clearly and make better decisions. You enjoy your work, have pride in your accomplishments and make a difference in the success of the company.

Recommendations

1. Double your listening time this week. Spend twice as much time listening or listen to twice as many people.

2. Acknowledge what everyone has to say. Ignore no one.

3. Say what you have to say more often to more people.

4. Be gentle in your communications. Avoid being forceful, demanding or angry.

5. Persist with the above steps until you feel you are a greater part of a team, coordinate more smoothly with others and have more enjoyment.

Do not be surprised if you are more successful at work than ever before.

Read “ARC, Part Six: How ARC Can Save or Improve Your Marriage.”