People often wait until the last minute to complete a task, using the rationale that they were too busy to get the job done sooner. I think this is faulty logic.
Waiting until the last minute often requires more time – in part, because it makes it difficult for others to help you.
For example:
>If the content isn’t finalized, no one can help you develop the presentation or make copies.
>If the menu isn’t planned, someone else can’t get the groceries for you.
>If the vacation flight isn’t booked, others can’t reserve the car or line up the dog sitter.
>If your idea is still being changed up until the presentation, you are unable to brainstorm with others or get input.
>If you wait to write your grant right before it is due, you’re on your own to proof it, too.
>If you shop for a gift on the way to the party, you also need to buy a gift bag and tissue instead of having someone else wrap it at home.
And on it could go.
Investing in planning that allows you to delegate, share and receive feedback ultimately will pay you back with not only an improved outcome but one that requires less of you at the last minute. Time spent on the front end is exponentially more valuable than cramming on the back end.
My sister lives in close proximity to a major airport, a fact I often forget until I see a plane fly overhead at such a low altitude that I can read the tail number. When I was inside her house I did not hear the planes at all until I was lying in bed in the silence of the evening, and even then, it sounded more like thunder in the background instead of a jet engine roaring overhead.
Her home is in the Noise Abatement Zone – an area that receives compensation to provide extra insulation and windows so that those who live there can do so without intolerable audio pollution. It certainly has cost the airlines and airport thousands (millions?) of dollars to provide this mitigation but in the end, it has made it workable for everyone.
The aviation leaders knew of the negative consequences of airport noise on adjacent residential homes and schools and took steps to address it, even though the cost was great. Don’t fly over your problems. Instead, think of how your organization can identify rumbles in your environment and proactively abate them.
Another implication of excessive brand extensions (as I wrote about yesterday) is that it makes couponing all but impossible. Twice recently I have been in line at the grocery store with a current coupon that I wanted to use on a product and was declined. “Yes, they are Johnsonville original brats”, the clerk sniped, “but not the Johnsonville flame grilled original brats.” Too bad for me.
The faulty logic comes in for the store when I decided not to purchase the product without the coupon. Due to health laws, they are unable to return the package back to the sales floor and thus literally tossed out $7 worth of meat right in front of me rather than give me one dollar off.
It reminded me of a saying that my colleague Michael Miller often repeated to us: “What does being right get you?” Yes, the coupon technically was not applicable to the product I had chosen, but what did being right do for them? They irritated me, they aggravated the customers in line behind me, and they ruined a much greater value than if they had honored the coupon even though it was incorrect.
Think about Michael’s question when you are training your staff, creating policy or deciding what course of action you should follow. What does being right get you? Most times, you just walk away with righteousness at a ridiculously high cost.
I recently was at a Target Superstore on a summer Sunday and they were totally out of regular Coke cans. This would seem to me to be a staple item that you could count on to be there whenever you shopped, but there were none. Not on the shelves, not on the end caps, not on the display in front of the store.
If you looked at the space allocated for Coca-Cola branded beverages, it was substantial, but the square footage was taken up with Coke Zero, Caffeine Free Diet Coke, Cherry Coke Zero and other variations that did not sell. So many choices and flavors added to the complexity but detracted from the core.
Coke is the #1 selling pop and Diet Coke is #2* yet Target and Coca-Cola diverted their attention and lost (at least some) sales because they focused on niches at the exclusion of the main products.
Think about the offerings your organization provides. Are you making your version of Coke and Diet Coke as robust as they could be or are you pushing Cherry Coke Zero only to find it still sitting on the shelf? You may find that a narrow focus is more refreshing.
*Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/42255151/ns/business-us_business/t/sweet-americas-top-brands-soda/#.WxL2ai-ZOqA
While we were at the beach, we came upon a sand castle that someone had obviously spent considerable time making. There were multiple layers and shapes and it was large enough to be visible from far down the shore.
By the time we left a few hours later, it had been washed into the ocean.
The builder of the sand castle knew that it would have a temporary existence but made the gift anyway. What can you do today to bring joy into the world even if it is only for one cycle of the tides?
P.S. Happy 6thanniversary to leadership dots!!
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Except for in a political context, you don’t hear much about only two percent of the population doing anything. So, when the graduation speaker shared that only two percent of the adult population in the United States has earned a doctorate degree, it struck me as a very small number. I earned my Ed.D. over twenty years ago and did not realize to what a small fraternity I belonged.
Then at a recent meeting with a cohort of innovation leaders, the Rogers Adaptation Curve was shared as a framework for the charge ahead of them. Only 2.5% of the population is considered as an innovator, giving context to the minority in which these leaders found themselves. The cohort was formed to provide support and counsel to similar change-oriented people since they were in such short supply in the general population.
Think about where not only you fall, but where others in your organization land. Whether it is in pursuit of a doctorate or on a mission to reimagine the child welfare system, anyone seeking to be part of a two percent finds themselves in a lonely position. What can you do to provide a safe environment, access to like-minded people and the inspiration to persevere until they reach the end they are seeking?
One may be the loneliest number, but two percent isn’t far behind.
