Tag: problems

Hitting a wall

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When a plan hits a wall, two questions can help.

What do I know today that I did not know when I came up with the plan? This will tell you if the conditions have changed, if the stop came because of that, if there are shifting forces that you underestimated. It tells you whether the general direction is still valid.

To what degree do I still believe in the original plan? This will tell you if you are still committed or if it’s time for a change instead. It help you stay clear from easy, short-term fixes, and it tells you whether it’s worth it to try once more.

Rest assured, most plans hit a wall at some point.

Alert

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You always have something to learn.

Even when you are on top of your game, even when you have been around for decades, even when you are the number 1. There is always something more, or something else.

Keep your senses alert. Not because you should not rest or because you should always stress, but because there are still opportunities to learn something new.

And that’s the essence of life.

Breath life into values

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If you have company values and you don’t talk about them often, have them in company presentations, discuss them at company events, represent them with stories and examples, wrap them around basically everything your company does, then it’s better not to have company values at all.

A small example. We started our company event yesterday with a question about who would remember our company values. Not many hands went up. In the afternoon, we planned a game where the assigned scores were based on actions that reflected our values. In the evening, everybody was pointing at things and discussing events, stressing how this or that was indicative of a given value. Some for fun, some for real.

If you have company values, breath life into them.

Energising

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Meeting others is energising.

It’s when you get to share ideas, when you get to improve your thinking, when you get to tell your stories, when you get to learn something more about you, when you get to solve difficult and interesting problems.

The last two years (and some) have been tough on this aspect.

Now is the time to recharge the social batteries and look farther.

The importance of systems

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If you are late and cannot find your trousers in the mess you have made of your wardrobe, most likely you will be even more late.

If your pipeline dried up and you need a few more deals to close the year, most likely you will close the year short.

If you have many employees leaving because your culture is toxic, most likely a couple of new benefits will not reverse the trend.

The point is, when shit hits the fan, it’s late to make changes. Not “too late”, because you can still organize your wardrobe before the next appointment, or start building pipeline for the next year. But still late for whatever it is you want to achieve now.

That’s why systems are so important. They support you (and others around you) when things don’t go according to plans.

And things rarely go according to plans.