To get people to RSVP, you need to inform them of the date; however,
simply informing the employees in no way motivates them to act.
An action objective focuses on the response you hope to elicit; a passive
objective focuses on you or your goals. An action objective, for example,
states, “to confirm via E-mail,” whereas a passive objective states,
“to understand my points.”
Every time you identify a passive objective (such as, “to inform”), convert
it into an action objective (“to RSVP,” for instance). The easiest way
to do this is to ask yourself the question, “Why do I care?”
In this example, posing the question to yourself would elicit an answer
that leads directly to the desired action:
I want to inform employees about the date of the summer picnic.
Why do I care if they’re informed? Because . . .
I want employees to RSVP regarding the summer picnic by the fifteenth
of the month.
If you send your boss an E-mail updating him (or her) that you’ve
scheduled a meeting for next Tuesday, you may think your objective is to
update him on the progress you’ve made.
But “to update” is a passive objective. Convert it into an action objective
by asking yourself, “Why do I care if he is updated?” Your answer
may be:
I want my boss to tell me I’m doing a good job.
I want my boss to ask me to let him know how the meeting went.