There's an old joke about someone asking directions to
Carnegie Hall. The punchline is: Practice, Practice,
Practice! That lesson applies to creating the two-hour
work week
To get your week's work done in two hours, you'll need a
2,000 percent solution approach. The steps for creating a
2,000 percent solution (accomplishing 20 times more with
the same time, effort, and resources) are listed here:
1. Understand the importance of measuring performance.
2. Decide what to measure.
3. Identify the future best practice and measure it.
4. Implement beyond the future best practice.
5. Identify the ideal best practice.
6. Pursue the ideal best practice.
7. Select the right people and provide the right motivation.
8. Repeat the first seven steps.
This article looks at practicing to become more effective
in step five.
You probably have limited experience with identifying ideal
best practices (the best that anyone could possibly
accomplish in the next five years) but appreciate their
value. To improve your capability, we've provided you with
some thinking practice based on the following five
approaches. Be sure to capture this skill as a permanent
part of your personal and organizational perspective.
Combine Perspectives from Similar Individual Ideal Best
Practices in New Ways
In an earlier article, I asked you to identify 50 examples
of how individuals perform near perfection on a regular
basis. If you haven't done that yet, please do it now.
Then take out this list. Examine it to see where two or
more ideal best practices provide examples of a general
approach that could be used to create a breakthrough in
something you do now. List at least five such general
approaches.
Here's an example: School children leave their classrooms
when the dismissal bell rings, and millions know it's New
Year's Eve in the eastern United States when the ball drops
in Times Square. The principle is that people use a signal
to tell them it's time to move on to the next part of their
plans.
Now let's apply that principle. Let's say that you want
dinner guests to leave feeling happy at the time you want
them to go. How might you create such a result? One
possibility is to hold a formal ceremony that brings the
evening to an end. This might be a prayer that thanks the
guests for coming, a moment when you present them with
little gifts to take home, or singing a good-bye song. To
make the ceremony play its role, you'll have to tip your
guests off in advance that you plan to end the evening on
that note. The best time to provide your alert will be when
you invite them. And be sure to mention your plans again
during the evening. Otherwise, you may hold your ceremony
and still have dinner guests hanging around much later than
you wish.
Combine Perspectives from Dissimilar Individual Ideal Best
Practices in New Ways
Examine your list again to see places where two or more
ideal best practices provide different principles that
could be combined to create a breakthrough for you. List at
least five different combination approaches.
Here's one example: You probably consume enough liquids to
keep from becoming dehydrated. Why? Your body gives you a
clue when it's time to drink more by having you feel
thirsty. You probably also remember to get out of bed
except on days when you are very sick. Why? You have plans
that require leaving your bed, and those plans eventually
encourage you to leave your comfortable cocoon.
Let's look for a possible application of those
observations. Perhaps you want to do better at following
through with plans to achieve your goals. How might the
preceding observations help you?
Let's say that your goal is to learn to speak another
language. You could tie your daily learning activities to
when you drink liquids and to when you arise from bed. In
this way, you use a reliable, stronger habit to build a new
habit. For instance, on arising you might repeat all the
words you learned yesterday and read through your list of
new words for today. Then, each time you drink something,
you could practice the new words for that day with flash
cards you've made.
With this practice, you'll soon be working a lot fewer
hours after you begin applying what you've learned!
Copyright 2007 Donald W. Mitchell, All Rights Reserved
----------------------------------------------------
Donald Mitchell is chairman of Mitchell and Company, a
strategy and financial consulting firm in Weston, MA. He is
coauthor of six books including The 2,000 Percent Squared
Solution, The 2,000 Percent Solution, and The 2,000 Percent
Solution Workbook. You can find free tips for accomplishing
20 times more by registering at:
=========> http://www.2000percentsolution.com .
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