Love is not an emotion; love is primarily an action and choice. Love…

1. eliminates harm… and always protects.
2. expresses belief… and always trusts.
3. expects something good… and always hopes.
4. endures difficulties… and always perseveres.
5. effects its purpose… and never fails.

- Perry Duggar, Brookwood Church

In David Allen’s book Getting Things Done, he explains the “Natural Planning Techniques” as having five distinct phases. These phases are both necessary and are part of everyone’s decision making process in some shape or fashion.

These five phases are: purpose, principals, vision/outcome, brainstorming, and organizing. As I have said many times before, I believe one of the keys in the decision process is defining purpose, or asking “why?” David goes on to say:

 

Here are just some of the benefits of asking “why?”:

• It defines success.
• It creates decision-making criteria.
• It aligns resources.
• It motivates.
• It clarifies focus.
• It expands options.

David believes that everyone wants to win. While I believe this to be generally true, I believe there is a much more fundamental reason: I believe everyone wants to know “why?”:

• Why do I need to write this new syllabus?
• Why do I need to spend time doing the dishes?
• Why am I here and why do I exist - what is my purpose?

In other words, we seek validation - validation for many things, be it something simple like, ”Am I doing a good job on a new project I’m working on?”, or something more complex such as, “Am I being the best father I can be?”

While there are many sources we look towards for validation, and each of us focuses in differing levels of consciousness on the “why” question, fundamentally we all want to know why we are doing something or why we should do something - but for some reason it doesn’t always make itself clear to us.

But is “why” good enough?

Sure you are getting data by asking why, but are you gaining actionable intelligence? The information is now in your hands to assimilate and apply. In other words, the application of your gathered information directed towards a desired outcome is required for success - required to win.

That means you not only have to know how to ask “why” questions, but why you need to ask why. You see my friends, “why” questions can help you uncover your purpose, but asking why is academic unless you are willing to trade fanciful philosophy sessions for rubber-meets-the-road execution.

Those who want to know “why” want to win. In defining purpose, we awaken to realize we are standing on a very dangerous precipice - between action and inaction; and there is a choice to be made. Should we falter in not taking action, we will most assuredly fall into the category of the loser. Asking “why” does not dictate successful outcomes but I believe David Allen said it best:

People love to win. If you’re not totally clear about the purpose of what you’re doing, you have no chance of winning.

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.

Do you ever feel a little overwhelmed - or a lot? Do the mountains of to-do’s seem overwhelming or the projects seem daunting?

Sanity comes from being able to maintain productivity in highly demanding environments. If you wonder about the magic of how people take on huge projects and complete them so effortlessly, there is a simple secret:

Take it apart and distill the “goal” or “project” down into easily achievable parts or milestones. This has two overall positive results:

1. Sense of accomplishment: You feel like you are really in a zone of productivity when you can check off item after item you have completed.
2. Ensures project success: By completing each milestone you take one step close to completing your quest and diffuse possible obstacles to success.

However, one key component of the “break-down” is that you maintain your milestones in relation to your overall vision. That is, all of your roads (milestones) must lead you to Rome (your goal).

You’ve got to think about the big things while you’re doing the small things, so that the small things go in the right direction. - Alivin Toffler

All too often, in a project and in life, we allow ourselves to lose focus of our vision and focus on the problems at hand. This causes us to replace our original goal with a smaller much less meaningful goal that was originally a milestone - a  stepping stone in our project.

Only when we practice overcoming our milestone tasks in the context of achieving our grander plan, do we truly progress towards a path of accomplishment.

PS - a friend of mine over at KnowTheNetwork had some tips.

What tips do you have?

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.

Corey Smith got me thinking about process and procedure. I thought about this a while and this is what I came up with in summary. Short, sweet, and to the point.

I suppose procedure was intended to franchise process, but as we all know franchises have never been credited with creativity - just pure productivity.

So which do you prefer, procedure or process? Creativity or productivity?

I was reading through my subscriptions and ran across a wonderful article on the Daily Saint, 6 Ways to Rebound from a Tough Week.

In all of this, it’s worth noting that another 7 days will arrive on your doorstep next week.  If you’re not dealing well with stress, another opportunity will present itself.  Don’t be too hard on yourself and anticipate that you won’t be perfect.  The key is to keep moving forward.

I really suggest reading this if you have a fast-paced and/or hectic life. I am trying very hard to implement this schedule, and it is so tough in a service related industry - and life in general!

I just wrapped up the first read of a book a friend of mine gave me - called Raving Fans. This is book about turning good customer service into Raving Fan service. Here’s a quote that really struck me,

What we have are systems. Not rules. Rules create robots. Not systems. Systems are predetermined ways to achieve results. The emphasis has to be on achieving the result, not the system for the system’s sake. That’s the difference between systems and rules. With a rule the emphasis is on the procedure, not necessarily the result. We have rules about smoking within ten feet of a gasoline pump. We have systems for delivering service.

The purpose of of systems is to ensure consistency, not create robots. Rules do that. Our team members have to create the Raving Fanexperience for our customers every time. Systems give you a floor, not a ceiling…

I know I have been guilty of allowing a system to turn into a procedure, a rule rather than a reason why. You must understand that vision helps you keep perspective. Systems have to be flexible because the world is always changing whether you like it or not. The system helps you keep consistency and deliver a consistent service level - the system itself is NOT the service level; That is an important distinction.

I was reading some of my RSS feeds tonight and happened across a blog post from Dan over at BizTechTalk featuring a link to a nice slide show discussing “online community design patterns”.

Slide 38 really got my attention after some traffic I ran across from Scoble and his followers on where the dialogue needs to happen:

The conversation flows within communities, however the community itself only facilitates the conversation [through] its interfaces it should never try to control the conversation!

Link to presentation in trackback, and here.

My favorite quote today comes from a book I’m reading entitled A Gentle Thunder, by Max Lucado.

Much of life is spent rowing. Getting out of bed. fixing lunches. Turning in assignments. Changing diapers. Paying bills. Routine. Regular. More struggle than strut. More wrestling than resting…

…You thought marriage was going to be a lifelong date? You thought having kids was going to be like baby-sitting? You thought the company who hired you wanted to hear all the ideas you had in college?

Then you learned otherwise. The honeymoon ended. The IRS called, and the boss wanted you to spend the week in Muleshoe, Texas. Much of life is spent rowing.

The trick is to find joy and meaning in those routine things, and choose to relish the pauses between breaths. Have a good day everyone!

This is perhaps the best thing I have heard another company say.

Sam Kress was interviewed for a Buyers Lab (BLI) article regarding the economic outlook. This article was posted on Office Product News.

“It shouldn’t matter whether times are good or bad—it’s all about staying in touch with your customers and helping them solve their business problems,” Kress said. “If we stay in tune with their needs our approach and recommended solutions will vary during a downturn, but as long as our solutions have value our overall revenues should be sustainable.”

I was beginning to wonder if other companies actually valued their customers. From this article, it is apparent there are at least 4 companies that do.

I’ve decided to start a little something to share other writers comments; I’m going to begin posting favorite quotes I find, snip-its of articles I have enjoyed, or just fanciful wordings that cause me to take pause. I’m not going to put time limits on it, because I may find more than 1 in a day - or I may not find any I like for a week… so I will just commit to share the wealth as I find little pearls that strike my fancy.

So here’s a favorite quote for today:

Loyalty can allow you to be forgiven when you make a mistake. It can give you a second chance when you don’t deserve it. - Corey Smith