I’m excited to announce a new program from Creative Ventures – REFRESHER. During the past couple years I have had clients complete our educational programs and remain interested in continuing their skill development, but didn’t really needing to go through an entire curriculum again. This was the genesis for REFRESHER. We now have educational programs that are specifically designed to review key information offered in our skill enhancement platforms with a few new ideas to keep you progressing.

Unlike our traditional learning programs, REFRESHER is not limited to a small group size. If you have sent various teams through our communication or thinking programs, we can group them into one REFRESHER per learning topic.

Like all our ideas, REFRESHER is an interactive, dynamic, multimedia program, constantly changing to stay on the cutting edge.

If you have taken any of our communication, thinking, or customer service programs, you are eligible to schedule REFRESHER. We have a couple on the calendar already!

A number of our major clients are using our goal setting strategic platform to help them plan their future. Since just about all organizations utilize goal setting in some fashion, I thought I would visit with you about some of our core concepts in planning.

Goal setting is really a process about transformation. A company wants to change, improve, move forward, they want to go from Point A to Point B so they need a system or a process for the journey. Organizations inherently know that this is best done in steps and thus develops the need for goals.

There is an entire school of thought that centralizes around the classic SMART model that defines the core elements of a goal:

Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Realistic (I always thought realistic was part of achievable, but who am I to mess with a classic)
Timely (have due dates)

This is the test of a goal, but not how to develop and select goals. SMART is a filter to use once you have decided on your goals. Here are a few steps in helping develop goals:

• MAXIMUM PARTICIPATION: I don’t care how big the group is, you need a strategy to maximize the opportunity for participation. When you get to be part of the process, you are engaged at a completely different level than when goals are jammed down your throat from “on high”. We have designed simple processes that have involved hundreds of people.
  
• FILTER TO THE RULE OF THREE: If you involve as many people as possible you will get a ton of submitted ideas. The process needs a filter that combines similar ideas, simplifies complex concepts so that the end result has a clarity of purpose. The idea is to reduce to NO MORE THAN 3 significant goals at any given time and to have no more than 3 action items per goal.
• ACCOUNTABLE / CONSENSUS: Organizations don’t make goals reality, PEOPLE do. A goal system needs the ability for people to agree and disagree about the pool of goal ideas until a level of consensus can be reached. Only then do goals happen when there is ultimately ONE person responsible for its completion. Now, that doesn’t mean only one person is doing all the work. You should build goal teams that work towards the accomplishment of an agreed upon goal; but there can effectively be only one accountable person per goal.

Get everyone involved, commit to no more than 3 goals, and make someone responsible are the foundation points to our goal platform. I hope they can help you.

If we continue a journey, a quest for getting better, here are a few steps to keep you thinking and moving forward:

• Simplify: Perhaps no skill set is more important than the ability to simplify complex issues in a world that is swimming towards the idea that “more is better.” Dossia is a non-profit organization charged with creating a portable electronic medical record that everyone can carry with them where ever they go. Instead of your medical history being tied to a doctor or a hospital, it would be tied to YOU. Imagine the elimination of the voluminous stacks of files and the associated busy work to find someplace to keep them. Look at your process and apply the same thinking model; “What can we thoughtfully reduce to make us more efficient”.
• A Little Help From Your Friends: Do you occasionally have a few problems that despite your high level of expertise, you can’t seem to get a handle on? Your team struggles around an issue and the answer eludes you. Well, it might be time to think about asking someone outside the company for a little help. Netflix, the home movie delivery giant is giving a $1 million prize for a better recommendation engine (algorithm) and it’s attracting some of the best minds in the world. Netflix isn’t the only company thinking open source to help solve its problems, 3M, DuPont, and Proctor & Gamble often ask for help. Maybe being this open is not your cup of tea, but think about the simple idea of hosting a round table of your top customers to help think of solutions to issues stopping you from taking your service model to the next level. It’s a form of open sourcing that you can get your hands around.
  
• THE TEN: Just after the first of the year a friend asked me to write down the “ten” things I do that make me “a good citizen of the earth”. This is not a “green” question, but instead a question of what you do that makes you unique. These were action items he wanted. This was a great idea and I prepared a little power point deck with my ideas which he forwarded to some friends. The next thing you know, “THE TEN” had developed a life of its own. People were submitting their lists and the idea started growing. I am developing a web site to handle all the ideas. If you want my list and would be interested in participating, send me a note.