planning Archives - Dennis E. Gilbert

21
May 21
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Task Force Means Urgent, While Committee Lingers

Tags : committee planning problem solving task force

Have you been assigned to a task force? Are you leading one?

The task force is intended to be a short-term venture. Its primary goal is one of urgency with an expectation of being resolved, it is not a lasting ongoing group.

This group or team usually assembles quickly and then just as quickly dissipates. Having a spot in the group means your expertise is required. It is required right now.

The goal is to solve the special problem or need.

A committee on the other hand, may carry a lasting place in your community, a special interest group, or within any organization.

Sometimes there is a marketing committee. There may also be an event planning committee or a committee assigned to provide budgetary oversight. It might be an annual, seasonal, or cyclical activity, however, the essence of urgency usually only occurs when timelines or milestones start to slip away with limited or no action.

Which is it?

Task Force

Things that are urgent tend to change. The contents on a list of urgent items will shift. There may always be an urgent list but it won’t include the same contents.

When the manufacturer notices an emerging high failure rate on a product or system, they may create a task force to get to the root cause and provide a solution.

An unexpected virus, in software or in people, may require the urgency of a task force, not a committee.

It is important to recognize the difference.

A task force that doesn’t resolve the problem doesn’t usually become a committee.

The committee often lacks the urgency of the task force.

Call them by name, because without a label an urgent problem may last too long.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

28
Apr 21
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Sharing Confidence Is a Workplace Dream

Tags : action confidence planning psychology of work strategy

Or is it a reality? Sharing confidence may actually be your competitive advantage. Are you seizing that opportunity?

What you focus on is what you get. If you don’t have focus, you are focusing on nothing. What will you get? Nothing.

Spend your energy on rumors and gossip, and you’ll have more. Spend it on production, efficiency, and providing stellar services, and you’ll be making better strides.

Does confidence play a role on what you get next?

Doubts or Confidence?

When you launch the new marketing campaign, some people will have doubts.

Build something new for the customer and some people may wonder if it will hold up under pressure or last long enough to be a great value.

Someone might suggest that it can’t be done. The change is too big, too wide, and not focused enough. Someone may suggest it is ridiculous.

Savvy organizations pursue it with passion. They set up metrics, measurements, and plot it all on a timeline with specific milestones. Do they get the work done? Have they accomplished the task? Is the strategy appropriate and are the tactics effective?

The hard part really isn’t in the planning. The plan is just that, a plan. A plan brings things to life. Brick by brick or drop by drop. The build occurs or the bucket fills.

What is the hard part?

The hard part is often inspiring the confidence to get started.

Sharing Confidence

Dreaming is pretty easy, at least when compared with fulfilling the dream.

Confidence is a competitive advantage. Less time is wasted on doubts and fears and more time spent on bringing the plan to fruition.

A lack of confidence stalls projects. It may even cause them to stop, or worse, never get started.

Organizations that build confidence within the employee teams have an advantage.

While everyone else is doing the easy part, teams with confidence are focused.

Don’t waste time sharing things that are project stoppers.

Do the hard part.

Illustrate confidence and then share it.

Dreams do become reality.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

24
Jul 20
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Planning Tomorrow, and Every Day After

Tags : career experience jobs planning strategy

Does your day start with a plan? Will what you do today include planning tomorrow?

You can plan for tomorrow or you can make part of your daily routine planning tomorrow.

Perhaps there is a difference.

Jobs and Careers

When someone starts a new job, begins a career, or finishes their primary education, they may need some tools.

One person may need a laptop, another a tool chest with relevant hand tools, and still others will need a uniform, appropriate footwear, and some personal protective equipment.

Having the tools is part of what is needed to operate within that system. It doesn’t mean the system will work or will last. It means at some level you are prepared.

Another level of preparedness is knowing how to actually use all of the tools.

Having a laptop doesn’t mean you can create elaborate formula’s using Microsoft Excel. It doesn’t mean you can update or create a website. Simply, you have one of the tools of the trade.

What is next for your life or career? Do you have a plan?

Tools, Trades, and Professional Careers

Many people move about their career carrying a tool chest.

They have some education and they have experience. Those credentials don’t always intersect. A degree in accounting may not matter much if your daily job is creative advertising.

The average job doesn’t have a very long shelf life. The average career is longer, yet still not always permanent.

If you feel uncertain about this, ask a typesetter, switchboard operator, or your local video store owner.

Why do so many people view it as they are all set, they’re completely prepared, now where is the work?

Planning Tomorrow

Planning tomorrow means that you’ll have the tools and the work. You’ll have accountability and reasonable expectations for your future.

It’s hard to know for certain.

Consider what you do know.

Tomorrow will be different from today.

Plan appropriately.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

12
Jun 18
-

Backwards Thinking and Turning Things Around

Tags : backwards planning risk thinking turning things around

Some people believe in doing it backwards. The thought is, “I will do it when…” In business this may be backwards thinking and you may discover things are more effective done a different way.

We will train our workforce when we are not so busy.

We will upgrade our computer system when we get a few more customers.

Our building will get remodeled if we hit our goal this year.

All these things and many more are quite possibly critically important. Important for customers, for scaling, and even for employee morale.

Trouble Spots

One of the trouble spots is that business owners, the CEO, and the board may not always believe in these investments. It often feels a lot safer to do it later. Do it when the time is right.

Unfortunately, some of the greatest opportunities pass by when the organization is not prepared.

Customer service and leadership skills don’t hold an organization back, improvements help build the organization up. Software and hardware upgrades, the same is true. Building size, condition, and ambiance, always make a difference for employee morale and customer comfort. In some cases, it depicts the brand.

Things are easy to suggest waiting for. Will the organization be ready when opportunity knocks?

Backwards Thinking

Being frugal is important and often smart. In business though, you sometimes must leap while you are looking, and you must build the airplane while you are flying it. It is part of the risk assessment and the cost associated with getting the timing just right.

The hospital doesn’t build an addition only when the rooms are full. The restaurant doesn’t get fresh lettuce only when they run out, and the car dealership doesn’t sell their entire inventory before getting more on the lot.

Are you tempted to wait? Backwards thinking may be something worth evaluating. It may be what is missing. Turn things around.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

14
Dec 17
-

Success Planning and Actions That Take You There

Tags : career coasting motivation planning success

Do you know what you are doing three weeks from now? What about two months from now, do you plan your days, or do they just happen? Have you thought about how success planning matters?

Many people get up every day and go to work. They go through the motions. The path that they are on is the same path every day, the path that appears, what pops up and things that must be done. Is that a plan?

Sure, there is the staff meeting next week, and oh, we are closed for about eight holidays per year. That isn’t really planning though.

Same Thing, Different Day

Days turn into weeks, weeks to months, and months to years. Does your path only change by chance, by luck encounters, or by the actions taken by someone else?

While this message may be a little about discipline that sometimes isn’t the biggest obstacle. Sometimes the biggest obstacle is that people let life happen to them, not make it happen for them.

It is easy to sit back after a few years and wonder what you’ve done. Also easy is to blame someone else if you aren’t where you thought you would be.

Coasting

Everyday people go to work. They take the train, ride a bus, or drive their car. They enter their workspace and start their day, just as they did yesterday. For the most part, it is thoughtless. It is a sequence of actions and behaviors that meet the job requirements.

This is not success planning. This is cruising. Cruising is coasting, you only coast one way, downhill.

Success Planning

If you’re going to make a difference you’re going to have to sell, leap, connect, get involved, give, change, let go, risk, challenge, feel uncomfortable, build a plan, and take action.

Success planning is important, but so is action.

– DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer that specializes in helping businesses and individuals accelerate their leadership, their team, and their success. He is a five-time author and some of his work includes, #CustServ The Customer Service Culture, and Forgotten Respect, Navigating A Multigenerational Workforce. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Dennis Gilbert on Google+

Tag Archives: planning

May 21

-

Task Force

Apr 21

-

Doubts or Confidence?

Sharing Confidence

Jul 20

-

Jobs and Careers

Tools, Trades, and Professional Careers

Planning Tomorrow

Jun 18

-

Trouble Spots

Backwards Thinking

Dec 17

-

Same Thing, Different Day

Coasting

Success Planning

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