Posts Tagged ‘innovation strategies’
What 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 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 MoreDream Big, Act Real: How Bold Goals Need Solid Ground
Goals are not a wish list. They must push boundaries. While starting from where you are now. Goals start with reality A goal does not sprout fully formed from a blank page. It develops out of your current situation. Such as your recent: Goals build on foundations To ensure consistency of purpose, you must also…
Read MoreBeyond the Checklist: Productivity Is a System, Not a To-Do List
Now that we understand what productivity is—and what it isn’t—it’s time to explore how it works. Productivity isn’t about checking tasks off a to-do list. It’s about the way you work and how your entire business operates. Productivity comes before work The truly productive business has become so by building systems geared towards productivity. It…
Read MoreMore Than a Transaction: Training New Hires To Truly Know Your Clients.
Onboarding a new employee is not all about you. You think of everything the new hire must know about your business and people, but don’t forget what they must know about other businesses and people too. Don’t forget your clients. More than a transaction Your clients are whole people, or businesses made up of whole…
Read MoreAdapt with Consistency: How To Change Your Business When Things Change. (The Worksheet)
Adapting. It’s a skill we use every day, often without even realizing it. When your GPS suggests a faster route mid-drive. When you’re cooking and discover you’re missing a key ingredient. You pause, you reflect, and you adapt to get where you want to go. In business, we do the same thing. Consistency is key…
Read MorePrecision Troubleshooting: Fixing What’s Broken Without Breaking What Works. (The Worksheet)
When things go wrong in business, there is more than one way to deal with them. And the way you handle mistakes in your business will affect the culture. The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has a naming policy for when somebody calls out a mistake. They don’t call them “near misses”. They call them “good…
Read MoreMistakes Are Not Failures: Why Solving Your Own Errors Matters. (The Worksheet)
Managing people is never more important than when managing mistakes. How do you react when an employee makes an error? Do you want them to feel bad and repent? Or do you want them to learn, grow, and do better next time? Who has responsibility Last week, we talked about taking responsibility for mistakes with…
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