2014 After Action review

2014 After Action Review

And so it is another year passes and we enjoy the opening of 2015. No doubt crossing that line in the sand, as the clock passed to 0001hrs many set the resolution to change, commit, get focused and achieve their goals. Here’s the thing, what underpins the why, the drive to change, do things differently? What drives the decision in the first place? Is it a level of dissatisfaction, not managing to achieve what you set out 12 months previously? Setting the bar too high and being unable to reach it?

I firmly believe in the formula for success ‘Dream – Goal – Learn – Plan – Act’ and when it is fully applied it will result in success. I’m also a firm advocate of ‘feedback not failure’, failure is a state of mind, whilst feedback can open your eyes to different opportunities. This has shaped my dreams for 2015 and set my personal and business goals, From my military service I have continued to reap the benefits from taking a look at the rear view mirror.  Conducting the After Action Review (AAR).

In the military context the after action review forms the critical part of the planning and execution cycle, to put it into context it is the ability to revisit, review and learn from the actions and experiences of specific activity over periods of time. The AAR is a function which is effectively applied at all levels from the operational end of tour AAR or short training exercise AAR. It isn't the role of the senior officers (CEO),rather a collective review conducted at all levels. It enables a complete detailed review in order to build on lessons learnt, best practice and ensure the entire organisation applies the findings. The key to the success of AAR is the application of the recommendations and conclusions in the following planning cycle. It also majors on the effect of experiences from all levels and takes a 360 view.

And so after a year it is time to conduct my after action review. What does your after action review look like? As I review my business plan and my personal aspirations from 2014 it allows me to make informed decisions for 2015. Looking towards my dreams for 2015 and beyond I can see, with clarity where and what I will aspire to and achieve in the long term; to be precise 4 years from now, and indeed having a vision to 10 years from now.

Looking back over 2014 there are some simple pointers to consider as you look to the future: 

• What are the real big dreams and how much closer has 2014 brought you to them.
• Have you defined the little dream? Remember it’s not all about the big stuff, the little things make a big difference in the long run and lead to achieving the big dreams.
• With clarity in your dreams you can then strive to set the goals to achieve them.
•  Make sure your goals are SMART.
• Specific, when making your goal be as specific as you can in what it is.
• Measurable, how will you measure progress?
• Achievable, you must be able to achieve the goal. No point in setting out to achieve the unachievable!
• Results orientated, having a distinctive outcome.
• Time based, without setting a time to have the goal achieved it will simply be something to do.
• In order to achieve the goals what do you need, what’s the learning required:
• I may need to do more of…….
• Which may mean I need to stop or do less of……
• I may need to associate or meet with…..
• I may need to stop associating or meeting with……
• I may need to learn……
• I may need to read……
• I may need to be focused on…..
• I may need to have greater self-discipline with…..
• I may need to commit to…..

·        With the learning the plan can be shaped to achieve the goals.

·        All that is left is to act.

So how 2014 was and what can you learn to further your journey towards your goals in 2015 and your dreams beyond?

Here's looking to the future.

Happy New Year 

Are You In The Know?

Coming out of the dark ages, we lived in the Agrarian Age where wealth was created from the land and, therefore, a few landholders had the power and wealth of the nation.  Battles were fought over land and the differing resources that the geography possessed, giving title deeds to the victor.

The Industrial Revolution changed this order. The era of capitalism was born with the creation of factories engaging workers through Adam Smith’s division of labour principles and the production of mass market goods, provided ever more cheaply through ever greater size of operations and the economies of scale employed.  This era started in the seventeenth century and culminated with massive industrial complexes such as Henry Ford’s car plants in Detroit.   

In the Industrial Age, the ability to attain capital, own and run factories by organising workers and machinery led to wealth for the individual.  There was a fundamental shift in financial power from the land to capital.   On a global scale this became the age where America industrial might showed itself and then latterly German engineering prowess and Japanese production efficiency rose to the fore.  Within all this there was the creation of industrial magnates, tycoons and a new rich.  It was also the birth of the middle classes.

In the latter half of the twentieth century we witnessed the birth of the Information Age which has allowed rapid global communications and networking to shape modern society.  Communications around the globe are now instantaneous through a multitude of channels with access to information on any subject only one click of a button away.

The providers of these channels and sources have prospered on an unprecedented scale benefitting from a global marketplace with seemingly no financial boundaries or constraints.

The Knowledge Age is now upon us and it has profound effects for business.  Once you have access to all the information you may need on any subject, instantaneously available at no cost, then what next?  Where’s the competitive advantage?

It lies, now, not in the information itself but how you know how to assimilate it, using one’s experiences, intellect and understanding to create added value to customers – and on a constant basis.  The Knowledge Era upon us is where ideas are paramount.  In this era, knowing how to use the relevant information in a digestible, implementable form and take it to market quickly is the key to success.  It has never been truer that it’s not what you know it’s what you do with what you know.   A good depth of knowledge, enables asking the right questions, to get the right decisions, to take the right actions and then – get the desired results.

In summary in the Knowledge Age a business owner needs to apply constant learning to their own development and seek out the best advice and ideas from knowledge rich sources of business.   In a competitive market those that choose to know more about their ever-changing marketplace and take Action will win.  

Compete on Value not Price

Discounts versus Profits

Do you have (or have you ever had) one of those salespeople who thinks that giving a discount is the easiest, quickest way to make a sale?  Of course, they may be right, but what about the profit (your profit) they’re giving away?

If your product has a profit margin of 30% and your salespeople give a 10% discount to make the sale, you’re losing a massive, one-third (33.333%) of the available profit!

During a seminar for the buyers of a large retail group with branches all over the country, an attendee shared the following tactic: “My job is easy.  I just let the salesperson make a full sales presentation.  I ask questions and listen to their explanations.  When they’re finished, I simply say, ‘I’d like to place an order with you, but your prices are too high...’ and I then simply sit there and enjoy myself, because the once-confident salesperson suddenly doesn’t know what to do or say next.  With much less conviction and enthusiasm, they may repeat the benefits and features of their products, but most of them get in to see me by giving me a lower price in the first place.  Whatever new price is offered, I usually respond by saying, ‘You’ll have to do better than that!’  And more often than not, they do…in fact, do better than that!  I get lower prices by just sitting there, enjoying the game!”  The buyer isn’t stupid.  But you don’t have to lose.

If you are selling, or have others selling for you, you must protect your price and your margins.  Teach your people not to hesitate or stutter when a buyer insists on a lower price.  Start negotiating!  Start using tactics to hold firm on your prices.  Sell value…perceived and real

Here’s Why:

Do you think it’s possible to work 50% less and earn the same income from selling?  You bet it is!  Here’s how:

Suppose your company sells pumps, with selling price of £10,000 per unit.  Assume that your net cost per pump is £7,000.  That means that the net profit on each pump would be £3,000.  If ten pumps are sold at the full price, the net profit for your company will be £30,000.  Compare this with again selling ten pumps, but this time at a discount of ten percent.  The total selling price for ten pumps is then £90,000.  The net cost for ten pumps remains at £70,000.  The net profit has decreased to only £20,000 compared to the original transaction £30,000 where no discount was given.

If your company continued to sell at ten percent discount, then you’d have to sell 15 pumps to achieve a net profit of £30,000.  Here’s how it looks:

Sales             Discount          Gross Sales                 Net cost                        Profit

10                    0%                 £100,000                         £70,000                       £30,000

10                  10%                    £90,000                         £70,000                       £20,000

15                  10%                  £135,000                       £105,000                       £30,000

What are the lessons to be learned from this example?

A ten percent discount means your company must sell 50% more units (15 instead of 10) to earn the same profit pounds.

A ten percent discount means someone has to work 50% harder to earn the company the same.

By not giving discounts, in essence the company can “work” 50% less and earn the same income.

In spite of this, you might still think, “But, if I don’t give discounts, I’ll lose sales!  It’s an industry norm to give them...everyone does.  If I don’t give discounts, they’ll go to the competition!”

And you may be right, of course.  You may lose a few deals if you don’t give discounts…but the good news is you can afford to…and still make the same or more profit.

The Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow developed the Hierarchy of Needs model in 1940-50s USA, and the Hierarchy of

Needs theory remains valid today for understanding human motivation, management training, and personal development. Indeed, Maslow's ideas surrounding the Hierarchy of Needs concerning the responsibility of employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages and enables employees to fulfil their own unique potential (self-actualization) are today more relevant than ever. Abraham Maslow's book Motivation and Personality, published in 1954 (second edition 1970) introduced the Hierarchy of Needs, and Maslow extended his ideas in other work, notably his later book Toward A Psychology Of Being, a significant and relevant commentary, which has been revised in recent times by Richard Lowry, who is in his own right a leading academic in the field of motivational psychology.
Abraham Maslow was born in New York in 1908 and died in 1970, although various publications appear in Maslow's name in later years. Maslow's PhD in psychology in 1934 at the University of Wisconsin formed the basis of his motivational research, initially studying rhesus monkeys. Maslow later moved to New York's Brooklyn College.
The Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs five-stage model below (structure and terminology - not the precise pyramid diagram itself) is clearly and directly attributable to Maslow; later versions of the theory with added motivational stages are not so clearly attributable to Maslow. These extended models have instead been inferred by others from Maslow's work. Specifically Maslow refers to the needs Cognitive, Aesthetic and Transcendence (subsequently shown as distinct needs levels in some interpretations of his theory) as additional aspects of motivation, but not as distinct levels in the Hierarchy of Needs.
Where Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is shown with more than five levels these models have been extended through interpretation of Maslow's work by other people. These augmented models and diagrams are shown as the adapted seven and eight-stage Hierarchy of Needs pyramid diagrams and models below.
There have been very many interpretations of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs in the form of pyramid diagrams. The diagrams on this page are my own interpretations and are not offered as Maslow's original work. Interestingly in Maslow's book Motivation and Personality, which first introduced the Hierarchy of Needs, there is not a pyramid to be seen.
Free Hierarchy of Needs diagrams in pdf and doc formats similar to the image below are available from this page.

click to enlarge

(N.B. The word Actualization/Actualisation can be spelt either way. Z is preferred in American English. S is preferred in UK English. Both forms are used in this page to enable keyword searching for either spelling via search engines.)

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Each of us is motivated by needs. Our most basic needs are inborn, having evolved over tens of thousands of years. Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs helps to explain how these needs motivate us all.
Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs states that we must satisfy each need in turn, starting with the first, which deals with the most obvious needs for survival itself.
Only when the lower order needs of physical and emotional well-being are satisfied are we concerned with the higher order needs of influence and personal development.
Conversely, if the things that satisfy our lower order needs are swept away, we are no longer concerned about the maintenance of our higher order needs.
Maslow's original Hierarchy of Needs model was developed between 1943-1954, and first widely published in Motivation and Personality in 1954. At this time the Hierarchy of Needs model comprised five needs. This original version remains for most people the definitive Hierarchy of Needs.

http://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm

What do you want to achieve? Goal Setting.

Why Set Goals?

Goal setting is used by top-level athletes, successful business-people and achievers in all fields. Setting goals gives you long-term vision and short-term motivation. It focuses your acquisition of knowledge, and helps you to organize your time and your resources so that you can make the very most of your life.

By setting sharp, clearly defined goals, you can measure and take pride in the achievement of those goals, and you'll see forward progress in what might previously have seemed a long pointless grind. You will also raise your self confidence, as you recognize your own ability and competence in achieving the goals that you've set.

Many people feel as if they're adrift in the world. They work hard, but they don't seem to get anywhere worthwhile. A key reason that they feel this way is that they haven't spent enough time thinking about what they want from life, and haven't set themselves formal goals. After all, would you set out on a major journey with no real idea of your destination? Probably not!

Goal setting is a powerful process for thinking about your ideal future, and for motivating yourself to turn your vision of this future into reality. The process of setting goals helps you choose where you want to go in life. By knowing precisely what you want to achieve, you know where you have to concentrate your efforts. You'll also quickly spot the distractions that can, so easily, lead you astray.

Starting to Set Personal Goals

You set your goals on a number of levels:

• First you create your "big picture" of what you want to do with your life (or over, say, the next 10 years), and identify the large-scale goals that you want to achieve.
• Then, you break these down into the smaller and smaller targets that you must hit to reach your lifetime goals.
• Finally, once you have your plan, you start working on it to achieve these goals.

This is why we start the process of goal setting by looking at your lifetime goals. Then, we work down to the things that you can do in, say, the next five years, then next year, next month, next week, and today, to start moving towards them.

Setting Lifetime Goals

The first step in setting personal goals is to consider what you want to achieve in your lifetime (or at least, by a significant and distant age in the future). Setting lifetime goals gives you the overall perspective that shapes all other aspects of your decision making.

To give a broad, balanced coverage of all important areas in your life, try to set goals in some of the following categories (or in other categories of your own, where these are important to you):

• Career - What level do you want to reach in your career, or what do you want to achieve?
• Financial - How much do you want to earn, by what stage? How is this related to your career goals?
• Education - Is there any knowledge you want to acquire in particular? What information and skills will you need to have in order to achieve other goals?
• Family - Do you want to be a parent? If so, how are you going to be a good parent? How do you want to be seen by a partner or by members of your extended family?
• Artistic - Do you want to achieve any artistic goals?
• Attitude - Is any part of your mindset holding you back? Is there any part of the way that you behave that upsets you? (If so, set a goal to improve your behavior or find a solution to the problem.)
• Physical - Are there any athletic goals that you want to achieve, or do you want good health deep into old age? What steps are you going to take to achieve this?
• Pleasure - How do you want to enjoy yourself? (You should ensure that some of your life is for you!)
• Public Service - Do you want to make the world a better place? If so, how?

Spend some time brainstorming these things, and then select one or more goals in each category that best reflect what you want to do. Then consider trimming again so that you have a small number of really significant goals that you can focus on.

As you do this, make sure that the goals that you have set are ones that you genuinely want to achieve, not ones that your parents, family, or employers might want. (If you have a partner, you probably want to consider what he or she wants - however, make sure that you also remain true to yourself!)

Setting Smaller Goals

Once you have set your lifetime goals, set a five-year plan of smaller goals that you need to complete if you are to reach your lifetime plan.

Then create a one-year plan, six-month plan, and a one-month plan of progressively smaller goals that you should reach to achieve your lifetime goals. Each of these should be based on the previous plan.

Then create a daily To Do List of things that you should do today to work towards your lifetime goals. 

At an early stage, your smaller goals might be to read books and gather information on the achievement of your higher level goals. This will help you to improve the quality and realism of your goal setting.

Finally review your plans, and make sure that they fit the way in which you want to live your life.

Staying on Course

Once you've decided on your first set of goals, keep the process going by reviewing and updating your To-Do List on a daily basis.

Periodically review the longer term plans, and modify them to reflect your changing priorities and experience. (A good way of doing this is to schedule regular, repeating reviews using a computer-based diary.)

SMART Goals

A useful way of making goals more powerful is to use the SMART mnemonic. While there are plenty of variants (some of which we've included in parenthesis), SMART usually stands for:

• S - Specific (or Significant).
• M - Measurable (or Meaningful).
• A - Attainable (or Action-Oriented).
• R - Relevant (or Rewarding).
• T - Time-bound (or Trackable).

http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html

GrowthCLUB - Does Your Business Have a Plan?

DOES YOUR BUSINESS HAVE A PLAN?

Only 2% of business owners have a 

written plan ... and even fewer stick to it ...

Imagine where your business could be in 90 days’ time if you ...

• Had strategies to build your profits immediately Could get more done in less time.
• Had renewed energy, vision and focus.
• Increased your confidence, leadership & decision making skills.
• Had a step by step plan for all areas of your business.

How much could you grow your business? How much more profit could you be making? How much more free time could you have? How much better would your team perform?

After attending GrowthCLUB, you’ll have complete focus on your goals and how to achieve them.  You’ll get back in touch with why you are in business and be able to review your progress to date.  It’s the ideal chance to get re-motivated, share fresh ideas with a group of business owners who are determined to move their businesses forward too. You’ll have a step by step plan for the next 90 days and an outline plan for the rest of the year. You’ll know exactly where your business will be and the strategies to get there.

What can you expect from a high action day working ON your business.....Heres what the vibe was at the previous first and second quarter planning days for 2014...

2014 First Quarter:

2014 Second Quarter:



So if your seriously want to get some focus in your Business then you really need to make the investment and come along for this dynamic Business Building day. Click on the eventbrite for more details on costings for the day and register.

Joining ActionCOACH for this practical and dynamic business-building day is the fast track to your next quarter to success ….

Plan your next quarter at the level of detail you need.

Work with a highly professional and focused coach and map out a winning plan for the next year.  Plus, with practical and expert training, you and your team will get back to your    business with clear direction and new tools to achieve your goals faster.

Get more done in less time  ….

By the end of this high energy day, you’ll have a clear picture of where your business will be at the end of the third quarter of 2014, and a step-by-step GrowthCLUB plan to get you there.  Your plan will encompass sales, marketing, finance, time efficiencies, customer service, systemisation and team building.  You’ll be able to focus on your goals and share your  challenges with other like-minded business owners.

Work ON your business, not IN it …

You will systematically work through business basics,   using your own business as a model, guided every step of the way.  This is a very interactive workshop; you will learn by ‘doing’ ensuring you come away with a model specific to your business to take you where you want to be. 

Head into the next 90 days with momentum …

We guarantee you will leave the day with renewed energy, a sharper focus and bubbling   enthusiasm.  It won’t be long before you see the direct benefits that this will have on your business.  You’ll walk away with:

· Energy, vision and clarity about the direction you’re driving your business in

· Strategies to build your profits right away

· A detailed plan for the third quarter of 2014 you can implement as soon as you get back to your business

· An outline plan to enter into the remaining of FY 2014/15.

· Ideas from growth-minded business owners

· The skills and tools to get more done in less time so you stay ahead of the competition

· Proven tactics to recession proof your business