Business Goals
Halfway There: The Honest Mid-Year Business Review
You start the year with plans and goals; don’t wait until December to see how it all turned out. Along the way, you need to check in, see what’s working, and decide what needs to change. June is the perfect time to do that. The challenge What you examine can be improved or fixed. What…
Read MoreThe Way Visionary Thinking Forgets About Operational Action
It is easy to think big in business. Setting a big goal is exciting and energising. Until reality sets in. Because the hard part isn’t thinking big: it’s acting small, every single day. The challenge Setting goals is easy. Achieving them is hard. Not because we lack dedication or effort, but because too often we…
Read MoreWhat Are You Doing To Make Business Practical?
Right about now you are probably thinking about what you have achieved in your business this year. And what you can do to grow your business next year. A lot of it comes down to being practical. Practical gets things done Being practical means knowing what to do next. And the single most important question…
Read MoreWhat Are You Doing To Make Business Fun?
Anything you have to do should be at least a little bit fun. That’s especially true when you do it every day for most of the day. In other words: your job. And the same goes for your employees. It’s important for your employees to enjoy their work to have a successful business. Make it…
Read MoreWhat Are You Doing To Make Business Simple?
Nobody starts a business with complexity as their goal. Yet, over time, complexity always seems to creep in. Why? Because running a business means making barrels of decisions every single day—and decisions are complex. Decision making is hard As human beings, we make an estimated 36,000 decisions a day. If that number feels impossible, just…
Read MoreThe Most Important Question Your Business Should Always Ask
The most important question a business can ask itself is: What should we do next? In any workflow, not just end-of-year reviews and lessons learned analyses. From failure to focus There is a challenge to working on lessons learned. That challenge is negativity. When all you talk about is problems and mistakes, you end up…
Read MoreHow to Turn This Year’s Lessons Into Next Year’s Success
Every year a business writes its own story—full of wins, surprises, and lessons. The secret to a stronger sequel? Knowing exactly what worked well and what to improve. Lessons Learned This is the time to capture the lessons that will set you up for a stronger new year. Perform an after action review on the…
Read MoreWhat Happened and Why? A Simple Guide to After Action Reviews
Our focus this month is on lessons learned.The first step in learning a lesson is studying the material. Enter: After Action Reviews. After action reviews An after action review is like a “what just happened?” replay button. It allows you to review a project by reliving the victories and freeze-framing the oops moments. An AAR…
Read MoreWhy Small Businesses Must Embrace The Art Of Lessons Learned Analysis
It’s November! And that means… spending the whole month not believing it’s November. That, and starting to review your business year. It’s time to look at what happened in your business and what it means for next year. This important exercise is a Lessons Learned analysis. What is “Lessons Learned” The lesson learned concept is…
Read MoreGoals Don’t Work—People Do: The Challenge of Gaining Employee Buy-In
You’ve set the goals for the quarter. Now comes the real work. Because let’s be honest: businesses don’t hit targets, people do. Getting your team’s buy-in isn’t optional. It’s the secret to getting things done. Buy-In is more than a memo Getting buy-in isn’t just about announcing a new goal at the Monday meeting or…
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