What I Learned In Class So Far
January 26th, 2010. Published under Goals. No Comments.
Looking back at my years and years (and years) of schooling I really can’t say I have much to show for my time. I still don’t understand why I have to take 4 years of University; I could do it in 2 for sure. Cut all the unrelated useless courses out of my program and the unrelated useless topics from the good courses.
The biggest, most pervasive topic that I have encountered time and time again is the method for getting things done. It goes like this:
1. Identify
You have to identify the problem that needs to be addressed. Asking why five times will help you fully identify the problem.
Example: Car sales have fallen.
WHY? Because fewer people are buying our cars.
WHY? Because they are buying other company’s cars.
WHY? Because the other company’s cars look sportier then ours.
WHY? Because we have been designing sedans and family cars.
WHY? Because we fired our old designer who was good at designing sportier cars.
You could even go farther. The goal is to address the base problem and not the symptoms of the problem.
2. Plan
Next you have to build a plan that addresses the problem you have found. Depending on what problem you are addressing, you will have a variety of tools and skills at your disposal to aid in the formulation of a plan.
BS! Be Specific.
Example: If your problem is that you have too much risk in a given situation, you should look to minimize, avoid, transfer to another, or even absorb the risk. Try to come up with a “Plan B”, you never know just how things will go.
3. Implement
INTO ACTION! Get your plan to deal with your problem into the real world. This stage is the easiest, as long as you have done your job well in the previous two steps. The problem here is that many people procrastinate through this step.
Example: If your room is dirty because you have no place to put your clothes, and your plan is to go to Home Depot and get some hangers, then go get hangers!
4. Evaluate
Now that your plan is carrying along, time to check to see if it’s working. This can be an ongoing process forever, or it can be a single inquiry into the state of things. Is the solution slowly correcting things/has it fixed everything?
If there are any issues still, now is when you change your plan slightly and set out again in the direction you want to be headed in.
“Some quote about plans from Napoleon Hill would go nice here.” -Napoleon Hill (read Think and Grow Rich)
