Africa-Press – Mauritius. Over the years, I have learnt that they are three types of people. Those who watch things happen, those who wish for things to happen and those who actually make things happen.
The reason our world is in a quandary is because people lack big picture thinking. They are living for today and not worrying for tomorrow. They do not process the why part of things, instead they focus on the how part of things. This is why I think we need to deal with matters in a holistic way. How do we get the job done?
Planning is a Must
Most people who have failed to get the job done do not understand the power of planning. They just go about doing stuff without factoring the planning component.
I love the secret of planning. Planning helps you see what can become. It offers you a plethora of options. It helps you get the job done. Planning is a systematic
way of doing things. It puts order in all what we do. It gets you in the grove for execution. Planning has to be a key priority for that we do. The thing is
failure to plan leads to poor performance. Every time you produce a shoddy performance is because of failure to plan. Planning is not an alternative. It is the only thing.
Preparation Time is crucial
There is nothing as terrible as being unprepared. In boxing Mike Tyson was taken out by James Buster Douglas in Tokyo in 1990. Nobody saw it coming including the winner.
In those days it was unthinkable for any mortal man to defeat Tyson in his heyday. Many boxers were in awe of his punching power, but in Tokyo, lack of preparation exposed Tyson as a mere mortal whose
accomplishments were more amplified than they were. Preparation time is never wasted time. Steve Covey talks about preparation time as sharpening the ax.
He says that if he has eight hours to do an assignment of cutting a tree he would use seven hours to sharpen the ax and one hour to cut the actual tree.
The level of proficiency demonstrated by any person should be a reflection of how they prepared. We know it that if you invest ten thousand hours in doing
something you can actually be considered to be the equivalent of the holder of a master’s degree holder in that subject matter. So never underestimate the power of preparation.
Prioritization is
vital Success in life is a delicate collection of intertwined skills. We have looked at the importance of planning and preparation time. Both aspects are components of a successful execution strategy.
Planning for an hour will give you eight to nine hours of execution. Preparation speaks of organizational fitness or readiness. Prioritization is crucial to execution in
that it gives shape to what has to be done at what juncture. Prioritization simply speaks of the order of importance in executing the plan. This is based,
as you rightly assumed on the priorities we have as a people or an organization. Successful workmanship includes having the logic to know what is the priority at any given time. We should never make low table issues into high table issues.
Prevention limits
your losses Those in the medical fraternity love to say that prevention is better than cure. Simply put we ought to have in place a risk management plan.
We ought to be able to mitigate against certain things going wrong. The common man in the street calls it damage control but the sophisticated intellectual in the boardroom calls it
mitigation. How do you minimize the impact of things going wrong? Others who are naïve will boldly say that nothing will go wrong. They say so because they
are not familiar with Murphy’s law of Project Management, which says everything that can go wrong will go wrong but what is important is that you have a responsive strategy to deal with it.
Practise Makes
Perfect It has been established that the human mind usually masters something after being exposed to it for seven times. This exposure is very useful for going to the next level.
Practise is what makes stuff perfect. Michael Jackson did not become the Prince of pop by coincidence. He put in an unbelievably high number of hours as does Cristiano Ronaldo.
Experience has taught me that the more you do something the more you become the master of same. Practise the way things should be done, measure if things
are responsive to your methods, change your ways and keep practicing. May victory become your portion this season. May planning take you away from the valley of
obscurity and seat you on the mountain top of authority. May preparation time restore healing to your family and everything that belongs to you as you
rebuild the team. May the men and women of honour arise and preserve the gift of a solid work ethic in our generation. May the leader in you rise to conquer.
Ted Msipa is a Pastor, Leadership Expert, Business Strategist, Author,
Motivational Speaker, Celebrity and Public Teacher.
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