Achieving Perfection Two...

In a previous post we recommended the book Outliers: The Story of Success, by Malcolm Gladwell. The book provides some truly fascinating insight into the unique behavior of high-achievers.

In the book, Gladwell shares research data that indicates it takes 10,000 hours of practice to achieve perfect execution. The people he describes -- people such as Bill Gates, the Beatles, etc. -- make me think of the Olympic champions we are watching in the evenings, who have found their passion and have proceeded with enough focus and discipline to achieve excellence.

Of course this statement also holds true for successful business leaders. Gladwell's data about "10,000 hours" is really all about the two most important things in business: identifying the right thing to work on and then working on it with a great deal of focus.

While watching the Olympics recently, I found myself wondering about the number of hours each of the competing athletes must have put in to achieve their skill level... What do you think?

How Are You Tracking?

Most people will readily agree that tracking is a necessary component of managing and improving any process.

But what should you track? How should you use the data?

Here's a list of data elements you might consider tracking at the start of the project, during the project and at the project's conclusion:

At the start:
- Names of leader & participants
- Department, function, area or scope
- Problem statement
- Objective
- Start date
- Type of benefit(s) expected
- Dollar value of benefit(s)
- Time-frame for results

During the project:
- Project status
- Revised benefit(s)
- Revised time-tables
- Comments from the leader

At the project's end:
- Completion date
- Final estimates of benefit(s) achieved
- Learings
- Most significant obstacles or problems encountered
- Additional opportunities for improvement

You don't necessarily need to use all of these. Choose from this list and keep it short and simple so that the project leaders are not overwhelmed with requests. It is not the quantity of data elements you gather that matters, but rather how effectively you study and act on the data.

For more details and suggestions on how to best make use of these elements, please visit us online at: www.conwaymgmt.com