My job (if you can call it that) keeps me on the constant threshold of adventure. I travel all over the place and remain open to the experience. Oh, sure, I occasionally bitch and moan, but at the end of the day it’s still fun. If you follow me on Twitter (creativeventure) 
or on Facebook (Stephen Harvill) you’ll find sometimes you get a more emotionally intense version of my travels, but all in all, still a good time. From Minneapolis to Atlanta, to Houston in a week is a tough haul, but at the end of every flight is either a challenge or home. How can you beat that?
I have three major projects to finish in areas that include:
- Marketing
- Leadership
- Sales
I also get to debut a new presentation that I have been working on for most of the year. When you create a visual journey through a new idea you get to see the design come to life. If done right, the entire way a group of people think can change. That change can become infectious — and real change, I mean the kind that impacts the bottom line, can become a reality.
There is a great line from the movie Renaissance Man, where Danny DeVito while addressing his rag tag group of intellectually challenged soldiers says: “All I know is that your life is dictated by the choices you make”. This sentence became my mantra for teaching my boys about what life throws at you. It is also a foundational statement in the Art of Planning.
You are faced with literally thousands of choices a week. What email should I read and return? What customers should I see? What project should I work on? What receivables or payables get completed? Which staff issue is the most critical? All CHOICES. All demanding your attention and more importantly, your energy. Now add the critical factor of time to this chaotic soup and you get the recipe of our lives. In an immediate society the input dictates the output and I want it now changes the way we think.
The above scenario is a reality for most of us and creates the sense that based on our day we lack the actual ability to take command of this blizzard of responsibility. We simply can not plan for activities. Too much chaos, too much stuff.
Planning is literally a salvation skill set, yet it seldom appears in ANY curriculum. I am often on the design team for creating value driven learning programs for companies and I simply never see planning. Why? Because people consistently fail to recognize its direct link to success.
Planning is a tool of success. I have interviewed 70 MILLION DOLLAR producers in four different industries and planning is a common thread among their behaviors. Let me give you three ideas to help you get a start on the idea of planning:
TIME & STUFF: Planning is all about how you choose to spend your time and defining your stuff. If you know that time is a player you can create an understanding of the activities that fill your time. Planning is NOT about time management, but about EVENT management. Defining your stuff deals with knowing what you do. If you don’t have a firm understanding of what you are doing, you have no hope of planning. Now you have the two starting points: the time I have and the stuff I have to do. Simple, but not easy.- TASK vs. PROJECT: Most stuff comes down to either tasks or projects. A task can be accomplished with a minimum number of steps, mostly by you and does not extend over time. A task might be sales calls, email, or things that can be done with a firm schedule. This is the first step of matching stuff with time. A project extends past the immediate, often requires working with others and has a long term impact. Budgeting, marketing and other strategies are examples of projects. Put your stuff in one of these two categories and now you’re planning.
- SEEING: The brain works best in visual mode. Make sure the planning tool you use is HIGHLY visible at all times. You should always see your planning. It really makes no difference the system you choose, computer based or paper; just make sure you can see it. The visual connection to action is a key part of planning.
Now this is not the whole planning picture, BUT it’s enough to get you started thinking that you are not really a victim of your day, instead you can become its planner. Not its master, because we live in a fluid time where things shift and change. Not a master, simply a good planner!
A Gutsy Move: In today’s market, a company thinking of going public through a traditional Initial Public Offering (IPO) must be a little crazy. The stock market is a volatile as John McEnroe’s temper and very few investors are looking for a new risk. That didn’t stop the innovative language learning company Rosetta Stone (www.rosettastone.com). Based on some strong due diligence and a record of great success with everyone from the State Department to the major international organizations they launched. Offering 6 million shares priced at $18 which was about $3 above the anticipated price. Well, it closed at $25.12, 40% over the offering price. It was the most successful IPO in recent memory. A great product with wide interest created a strong appeal!
Neilson Smeilson : The traditional television networks have always had the “go to” method of judging a shows success – the Neilson Ratings. Stick a box that tracks viewers watching habits into a random number of homes and viola, you have a powerful metric. But enter the world of participation, of social networks, of caring fans and now you have an explosion of opinions. USA Today gets 43,000 opinions in just 10 days as to which “at risk” shows should stay (maybe Chuck will make it?). Couple that with HUGE Twitter campaigns and maybe NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX might begin to add the “participant fan” to their metric base. Do you provide avenues for your customers to become “fans”? Do you have a way they can cheer or jeer? Provide a voice and follow its echo to a new level of service and success.
It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me: I play music at my desk all day long. I think it has a positive impact on my thinking. I read a recent study in Psychology Today that said I was right: “Music has a strong impact on performance.” This was part of a large music/mind study. Music impacts your mood and increases the quality of work. Did you know that a 1/3 of US workers use an iPod while doing tasks (see above for definition) and 80% of those say it improved their work? I’m not recommending you blast music out of your cubicle, but hey, apparently a little music never hurt anything. In fact, it helps!
FOLLOW STEVE ON TWITTER.COM — CREATIVEVENTURE
: Interested in these ideas?
You can contact Steve at steve@creativeventures.com or give him a call at 972-490-7717.
