• Drivers. “Children, in this household we have five operating drivers that determine how well you do in school.” • Leveraging our synergies. “Grandma, when you were growing up during the Depression, did you have to leverage your synergies to put food on the table?” • Outside-the-box. “We go to the movies every Saturday night. Come on, kids. Let’s think outside the box and decide to do something different.” • Change is the only constant. “Honey, get used to it. I know I promised to fix the lawn mower this weekend, but things changed. And as you know, change is the only constant.” • Interface. “Let’s go to the community meeting tonight and interface with our neighbors.” • Aligning (or re-aligning) your behavior. Now, Johnny, this is your second detention. Don’t you think it’s time to realign your behavior.” • Benchmark. “Honey, we only have sex once a month. I think we need to do some benchmarking with our friends and see how we compare.” • Implement. “Mom, can we implement a game night for the family once a week?” • Core competencies. “Doris, that was a great meal. Cooking is definitely one of your core competencies.” • Solutions-based. “Tom, we bicker constantly over the smallest things. Isn’t it time we had a solutions-based conversation?” • Empowering and buy-in. “Joey, your father and I want you to do well in school, but we need your buy-in before we can empower you to do homework on your own.
