The Sanford Berenberg Experience: Message of the Day

Good Morning,

I walked into the book storage room and saw piles upon piles of books in boxes, tossed on shelves, and on the floor and all over. There must have been thousands of books all around and it was nearly impossible to walk from one end of the room to another. I was asked to organize it, and I as I made my way through the storage room, I could see the end state in my mind. I could see the neat piles of boxes, and loose books neatly stacked on shelves with all books organized alphabetically by subject. It would make the room functional again give the organization a real feel for where its assets in this room truly were.

Then I got started and within a few hours I had moved a bunch of boxes around and basically changed the mess from where I found it to a new mess that was probably more organized, but not nearly where I pictured myself to be when I visualized the end state of an organized room.

It was at that point that I started to feel defeated and considered giving up. That the task was too much.

The steps I needed to take from the beginning to the end were simply much more than I had anticipated.

This happens a lot to many of us. We come into an average situation, or a mediocre operation and visual plans to take it to best ever production. We can plan the steps and we can find out what we are missing and ultimately set the strategy, tactics and teams to accomplish the goals. When those plans and actions, though, take more than three or four steps, we lose momentum and often quit.

Moving from average to outstanding is not something we can do like the owl and the tootsie roll pop, and get to the center in three licks. We have to do it the human way and work it through each and every step to get to the goal.

Here are some tips to keep in mind when facing the task of moving a group, team, project, etc., from average to outstanding:

1. The task is usually larger than first anticipated.

2. There is usually opposition waiting to ambush you and the process.

3. Lack of planning is almost a guarantee of failure. Winging it is NOT an option.

4. Just because you did it before does NOT mean that you can do it again. If you blindly use what you know to embrace a new situation without finding out if it even applies, you are in for an arduous journey.

5. The task is usually more complex than first anticipated.

Going from Average to Outstanding is a worthy goal, but seldom does it happen in three or less steps. Even the most skilled people have to take the same number of steps as you, they just have more skill and can do them faster and more efficiently. This gives the illusion they are doing in less steps than the rest of us. For example, the person who solves the Rubic’s Cube in 30 seconds or less is going to make just as many moves as the person who opens up an instruction book and makes each move one at a time. It may take 10 minutes, but it is the same number of steps as the expert who solves it in under 30 seconds.

So it makes sense to give ourselves a little leeway when we take on new projects and tasks knowing what we know from above.

We can go from Average to Outstanding, and we can enjoy the scenic route getting there.

Enjoy!

Sanford Berenberg
Sanford@berenberg.net
http://www.berenberg.net

http://sanfordberenberg.blogspot.com/
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