Punished for Good

There's an odd concept that I haven't even really gotten my head around why it's so common nor have I really any great solution for how one might solve it. Perhaps open awareness is a good place to start.

It's the concept that somehow we get punished when we do good. Perhaps this is a concept where my parents would tell me that life isn't fair!

Here is an example...

How many of us have a budget to maintain. Say we're given $100K for a project and we manage it well and end up landing the project at $80K. Well done right? What happens more often that not is that our budget is cut next year down to $80K and while we were good stewards it seems as though we've been punished.

I could list several other examples but this one makes the point that we're trying to address just fine. But what can we do with this? How can we reward stewardship the right way? How can we encourage people to be good stewards?

The greater concern here is that by mishandling stewardship rewards then we almost bread poor stewardship. It's human nature to know that people are going to just try and spend the full $100 if it's going to be decreased if they don't... even if they don't need to spend it all.

I'll end on stewardship and it's role throughout our lives. We must seek to be good stewards and part of that principle comes from supervisors rewarding stewardship well.

Maybe there's opportunity for us to use that other $20K toward another project and now we see stewardship birthing fresh ideas and impact.

Food for thought...

Impact vs. Benefit

When chartering a project it's good to discuss both the impact and the benefit. But these are two separate activities and perspective.

Impact are the results that manifest themselves from your effort. These impacts should be measurable and easy to understand. You should be able to measure some impact points immediately after your activity and then others manifest themselves through time. Both are important to measure.

Benefits are the aide and boost that's given to each area. Many times a benefits analysis is broken into all parties involved. Benefits project who is impacted and how. They are your goals for who takes gain and growth from the effort.

Impact and Benefits should not be mistaken as the same point. The key difference is that Impact points are the results outside that are measurable and benefits are the less tangible results with teams involved.

Challenge: Think through both impact and benefits as you charter any new project. It will help you map a much better strategy and potential for results management.

Plan-Pilot-Invest

Capital is certain an item of great need for people these days and for the expressed intention for business development. All of us have heard pitches for various new concepts and opportunities and most of us will quickly gravitate toward the financial impact of any such idea or proposal. That's a good thing and I consider it usually a perspective of stewardship. But there are ideas worth investing in and worth making the capital initiative to see them work. But how do you get from step A to step X in the process without making the huge investment?

This is where a simple model of "Plan-Pilot-Invest" will come into play for us quite well. The concept is simple.

First, take the time to sit and map out your expectations and goals for your project then develop your strategy plan. Strategic planning takes on many forms, for which I have no intention to invest in here. But there is a process to your planning and a means of engaging others. Proper planning is critical.

Second, take the general framework of your plan and do a pilot on a shoe-string budget to test its validity, engagement, need, etc. Here's a hint... as you are building your strategy take into considering a phase roll-out of your plan. This way you can map out the basic needs up to the luxurious needs. This way you don't have to sacrifice the greater/bigger pieces, they are just in que for future delivery.

Third, once it's been piloted and you've seen the success points you were looking for, then make the pitch for the capital investment and now you'll have some foundation to "sell" your idea or product.

It's simple, but so is the principle. Prove it small then the investment for larger will come. Or better yet... he who is trustworthy with little will be trusted with much.

Challenge: build your strategy in steps and allow a season of piloting before making the big plunge.

Impact Reporting

I've started working with organizations on the idea of Impact Reporting. It's really quite simple but its another means to measure success. The more I see the more I realize that we are terrible at measuring success or at least measuring the movement toward a goal. Truth is... it's difficult. Plus, it isn't required of many people.

The goal in all our efforts has to be to build a baseline and measure off that baseline. An Impact Report is simply a tool to accumulate those measures and progress toward them. Declination North has created a generalized tool with various options for what could populate an Impact Report and we're using that to help organizations reach their goals.

The reports are simple and often called dashboards for organizations. It might look like a health report or a stock review but however the report is compiled and designed it must function to track plan to actual.

If you take the time to do this your efforts will be more fruitful, your leadership will be more impressed, you'll have the tools to move forward with accuracy of impact, and you'll find your role more fulfilling.

Challenge: Take the time before a project to note what you intend on reporting and then consider how to measure that project's goal.

Chaos & Order

A good friend of mine, Dr. Chris Leland, spoke to our group this morning on the ideas of chaos and order. His lesson was full of wisdom and insight that had multiple practicality and application.

I've been pondering the thoughts and couldn't help but think how these two terms that seem a dichotomy are often good harmony items for us to keep in mind and quite honestly, for us to pursue.

The idea of chaos. It leaves many people concerned and freaked out. Many times that's well founded. But there are also others of us that greatly enjoy chaos and the challenge that allows us to tackle. Chaos is brought about by intention at times but more than likely, by incident. But one thing is true, all of us will handle chaos in life.

Order seems like the safe place for many. It's the calm after the storm or maybe its the result of good planning. Often order is seen as the goal for us to achieve if we are in some form of chaos.

What needs to be appreciated is that both are good and both have benefit for us personally and the growth of our organization. Chaos produces perseverance, patience, and provides opportunity for us to learn. Order allows time for rest, reflection, and planning.

So, is there a perfect world? I believe we should strive to have a good balance of both. It's important to stay sharp but also important to have rest.

Challenge: Embrace the chaos, work toward order, keep learning through it all.

Personal Base-Lining

As a new year begins many people will sit and write their New Year resolutions and try their best to keep them. Sadly I’ve heard that most New Year’s resolutions are broken within the first week. I was having a discussion with a colleague where we were discussion how we might approach resolutions better.

This was when we discussed the idea of base-lining our goals. Now, I based mine more off “blue sky” life goals rather than specific resolutions as I try and keep my goals life-long and consistent in nature. But this tool could work for either.

The simple approach is to (1) make a list of personal goals, however many and however defined. Then (2) take those goals and give them a simple value between 1-5 as to where you hope to be in “x” weeks/months. Also note (3) where you feel like you are currently. Sure, this is completely subjective, but it’s just you and your reasoning should remain mostly consistent.

Here is what you can achieve. You have (1) written your goals, (2) noted where you currently feel you are on those goals, and (3) set a means to measure where you will be several weeks/months down the road.

Allow me to share an example. One goal for me is to help guide organizations to effective change and success. I have a good idea what that looks like for me and I know where I am currently. I gave myself a “2” for current as I’ve been doing more maintenance items recently and not able to work on bigger picture goals and vision enhancement. I also gave myself a “4” for a goal in that area with hopes the next three months will allow me to engage more in that area of ability and desire. That’s it; I just assign those two values and sit the paper aside.

Now, I’ll come back in three months and give myself a value for where I am then. At that point I’ll be able to see growth or areas in need of improvement. I know that I just can’t sit down a few months from now and say, “how do I feel about things?”; now I can gauge that against something more measurable.

Big picture is to discipline yourself to be objective in your assessment and quantifiable in measurement.

Challenge: Take a moment to map out your goals and blue sky ideas