Strategic Discipline Blog

I confess.  I cannot walk by a dandelion without have the obsessive compulsion to grab my gardening tool and dig it out.

Have you ever had a hard time establishing a new habit or routine?  As noted in my last blog, Discipline Rituals – What We Resist Persists, we derive a certain amount of comfort or safety doing what we’ve always done. That’s why it’s so difficult to change.  Even the most powerful commitment to change is often counter balanced by an unconscious or subliminal commitment not to change.  Exposing our fears to not changing is key number four in building effective rituals.

How well do you get things done?  Do you get your daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly priorities completed on time?  How well do your people do at this? 

One of my clients got me involved in Sports World, a non-profit organization that speaks to students about making positive choices.  In preparing for our second effort in my area I’ve recognized how powerful their message is even to business.

A singular focus [One Thing] can have a profound effect on your business.  In April of last year one of my clients [name withheld to protect business secrets] had Positioning Systems come to his office in California to conduct our Two Day Rockefeller Habits Workshop.  At the time their business was lagging 7% behind the previous year and struggling to get traction.   Among the many ideas and actions that had an immediate impact was to go through the Strength Based Leadership Test and identify where his executive talents were.  At the time the business was struggling to execute in the field and we identified several of the executive that had execution themes, reassigned them to positions were they could have the greatest affect and influence on the business.  We reassigned others based on their top themes and the results were almost immediate and dramatic.  By year end they turned their 7% decline into a 15% gain for the year.

The NFL football playoffs started this weekend, and fortunately my team won [Green Bay].  In reading an article before the game I was drawn to a set of beliefs legendary San Francisco 49ers coach Bill Walsh had which he used to prepare for big games.  Several of the rules apply to business. They reminded me that too many business people approach their operations with no set of guidelines, nor any discipline to prepare themselves or their team for success.

What’s the easiest way to initiate strategic discipline?  Start with a daily huddle.  Perhaps your people are accountable already.  Perhaps they have metrics that they measure each day so they know how productive they are.  Perhaps they never get stuck.  And finally quite possibly you never have miscommunication.  Even if you can answer yes to each of these you’ll find the daily huddle brings a marked improvement in communication, accountability, and performance. 

In my monthly newsletter this week, Without A Plan: Expect 40% Less I offered insight into how one of my client’s developed his business.  Through the practice of Strategic Discipline he put himself in position to sell his company at the end of November. 

A group of 12 young men, high school age have just completed a strenuous basketball practice.  The coach has asked them to join him in his class room to discuss the upcoming season.  He’s a new coach this year, although he has many years of experience.  He asks the team what place they expect to finish in the conference noting that this is a team sport and it’s important the team has a goal to shoot for.  He asks everyone to write down their expected finish, and then collects the results.  The votes are counted.  Ten voted for first place, 2 for second.  

What place do you think the team finished?

If you said second you’re right.  The account is from my senior season of high school basketball.  What does that tell you about the importance of having the right people on the bus?  Our team had steadily improved the previous two seasons.  When I was a sophomore the varsity basketball team hadn’t won in 36 games.  Our team largely composed of sophomores won two games that season and finished 2 – 17.  The next season we improved to 12-7.  We were a confident team going into our senior year.  As a junior I recall playing in the final game of the regular season against a team who was battling us for 3^rd place in our conference. In addition to this battle, I was in a close contest with one of their players for the scoring title in the conference.  I recall two of our players telling me before that game not to worry, they would make sure this player didn’t score so not only would we win the game they’d make sure I’d win the conference scoring title.  That’s the kind of players you want on your team, people willing to sacrifice for the good of others and the team.