If you wou’d not be forgotten
As soon as you are dead and rotten,
Either write things worth reading,
or do things worth the writing.
Ben Franklin
After a year of adventures – I have some things that I hope you find “worth the writing”
This week my mind is on managing the “DO” and the “NEW”.
In life and in business there are the things we need to DO right now.
AND,
NEW things that we should be investing our time and energy in.
Balancing the DO and the NEW is a challenge.
Most people tell themselves they will work on the NEW when they are done with the DO. However, the DO never ends so they never get to the NEW.
Our Brain Brew Distillery and Eureka! Ranch are examples of companies where DO & NEW are both of high priority. We’ve learned that when you stop one or the other – you are setting yourself up to fail.
Without DOING what needs to be done now – a chain reaction of negatives occur. Small problems grow into big ones.
Without working the NEW you look up and realize that competitors and frankly LIFE has passed you by.
Some ways that we balance DO and NEW include….
- A Written Pipeline for the NEW – This includes: 1) Ideas for Systemic improvement of Fundamentals, 2) Experiments to develop and validate new CORE Innovations and 3) LEAP innovations that can transform the business. Great leaders invest the precious time balancing the three – fundamentals, experiments and ventures.
- CEO active engagement in the NEW – The NEW is the company’s future. And only the CEO has the ability to point the organization to where she or he wants it to go.
- A Culture Committed to SYSTEMS – “Working harder” is not sustainable. Rather, we must develop reliable systems for delivering the DO…. And for enabling the NEW. As Dr. Deming said – 94% of problems are due to the system – 6% due to worker error.”
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, everywhere
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