Ho‘omau with the Rule of 3

“The rule of three or power of three is a writing principle that suggests that things that come in threes are funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things. The reader or audience of this form of text is also thereby more likely to remember the information.”
—Wikipedia

Once you start using The Rule of 3, you fall into using it quite often. I just did so last week, with “The 3 C’s of 2017: Change, Congruency, Critical Thinking,” a triplet I hope you’ll remember as one of our Managing with Aloha skill-building objectives.

Image Credit.

The Rule of 3 doesn’t just apply to writing however, It’s a powerful concept we can we can apply to our systems, processes, and habits.

For instance, let’s return to our current HO‘OMAU value study, “Love the one you’re with,” and those 6 principles of continuous improvement it had listed:

• Iteration—improvements can be based on small changes, not major paradigm shifts or new inventions;
• Cost Effectiveness—Incremental improvements are typically inexpensive to implement;
• Inclusion—internally improving means rallying the talent and input of all staff; which leads to
• Engagement—people take ownership and are accountable for improvements they co-author and steer;
• Communication—continuous improvement calls for reflection, asking, “Is this working?” and demands feedback loops;
• Tracking—we target improvement which is measurable and potentially repeatable. Small wins add up.

They naturally fall into two neat triplets, one which coaches the Continuity of Improvement, and another in regard to Kākou Communications:

• On the Continuity of Improvement: ITERATE, AFFORD (i.e. Cost Effectiveness), TRACK
• With Kākou Communications: INCLUDE, ENGAGE, REFLECT

Own your vocabulary as best for the work at hand — would you choose other words for each of these principles? For instance, your may prefer FINANCE instead of AFFORD. Align them with your other best practices. Think of them as the disciplines of better working habits.

When you apply the principles of continuous improvement to a project, consider if using these triplets can help you assign teamwork, with a ‘divide and conquer’ strategy in the beginning stages of your work — “we’ll work on the continuity logistics, and you can work on mapping our Kākou communications.” Thereafter, have the team come back together, to integrate the two.

As a result, you won’t just have theoretical principles to refer to, you’ll have a meaningful Ho‘omau-aligned work ethic in the making.

Review Kākou Communications here: Kākou Communications and Our Tribe. Excerpt:

There are 2 other factors connected to the value of inclusiveness that every manager and leader can love:

1. When you embrace inclusiveness and diversity, you get complete input and thorough feedback. Kākou promotes synergy as a habit of creation which seeks additional solutions and alternatives.
2. Cohesively shared information-giving will increase the amount of responsibility and buy-in others accept as their own because you included them. The person possessing Kuleana, the value of responsibility, will be quick to say, “I accept my responsibilities, and I will be held accountable.”

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Our value immersion study for the months of January and February 2017:
HO‘OMAU; Love the one you’re with.