Capturing the Success that is Right Within Your Reach

In most businesses the daily pace can be best described as ‘fast and furious.’ Problems, meetings, opportunities, and interruptions all pile up like boxcars in a train wreck. Even if we had the time to WORK ON THE BUSINESS, the details that surrounded past activities are quite blurred.

Driving Toward Success

Much like Brett Favre playing through pain in the AFC Playoffs to lead the Minnesota Vikings to a Super Bowl birth, you, too, play through the pain of daily events, relying on experience, intuition, and those around you to resolve the business chaos that could potentially block your dreams of success. Like the Minnesota Vikings who took years to make an AFC play-off birth, you have been on this journey toward success for an extended period of time. To some, success may appear as an over-night occurrence, but to anyone who has fought the battles and dreamed the dreams,  the pathway to success is usually a demanding up-hill climb with victory achieved one step at a time.

Confronting Status-Quo

I have a saying about businesses: “Relying on what got you here, will keep you here.” Would you agree that, by nature, we are all creatures of habit? We use our past successes and failures to impact how we respond to the decisions of the moment. Coupled with our context surrounding a specific event we solve problems and make decisions that will hopefully drive us one step closer to success. Unfortunately in business, fairy tale endings are rare! Brett’s quest for a Super Bowl birth at the age of forty evaporated on a single intercepted pass, and likewise, in most cases you are still fighting a new set of problems that are keeping you from getting one step closer to your dream.

Finding Success

A common quote I have taped to my computer monitor says: “It is insane to continue to do the same thing and expect different results.” Like you, in the heat of battle, I find it hard to remember and bring to bear the power of this simple statement.

The odd thing is that the information necessary to achieve the next step toward success, and fulfilling that elusive dream, has been right in front of us all the time!

How can that be?

Let’s all agree that by their nature businesses are like complex organisms. Our daily activities require that we deal with a host of complex issues, usually based on what gets our attention. In many organizations our actions deal only with the current problem-at-hand and rarely is the problem’s cause addressed.

Taking the Next Step Forward

Now, I know what some of you are thinking! “We do root-cause analysis.” “I’m GOOD at firefighting to solve problems.” “That’s not how my organization works!” That may be true but few of us have the ability to recall the extended details of the past, leading up to the current event. In many cases the manager making these decisions has little in-depth, firsthand knowledge. Our inability to have complete vision into the circumstances, over time and space, that contributed to the current problem will result in a root-cause analysis as effective as a fly swatter is to bring down a bull.

In summary, a guiding business principle is that “Cause” and “Effect” are separated over time and space. We see “effect” but “cause” is invisible. Roadblocks to success are hiding right in front of us. We have to broaden our vision to view the true context of our “playing field” and see the complete cause over space and time. To impact an organization and take them beyond their “Status-Quo Loop,” a business intelligence tool may be required to provide this vision across the organization in a format that is easily understood by each department.

The Results

Bryan Glutting, the CEO of ACS, said it quite well at a recent presentation of CEOs. “Things, especially problems, are not as they first appear. Traditional root-cause analysis rarely gets to the root cause. Everything is wrapped in context across time, space and cause perspective. When we see an anomaly, we investigate, make corrections and then scorekeep to ensure we get better at what we do. We use the RightFoot Technology Dashboards to help keep us on track. It’s not that we always remove all problems and upset conditions the first time. However, we have better vision of our problems, in a much larger context, and deal with them better than in the past. It is that constantly improving cycle that will allow us to achieve the success that is right within our reach!”

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How Do You Define Success?

“Success is having a Good Day”

“Success is getting up in the morning, so excited about what you have to do, that you literally fly out the door. It’s getting to work with the people you love.”

“Success is connecting with the world and making people feel, it’s finding a way to bind together people who have nothing in common but a dream. It’s falling asleep at night knowing you did all that you could.”

“Success is joy, and freedom, and friendship, and  love.”

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RightFoot Technology helps small and medium size organizations improve their execution excellence. Our unique web-based dashboard application allows organizations to accelerate the delivery of their strategic objectives by implementing a goal-centric vision of success. Click here for more information.