Let’s get right to your answer:
The secret to your success is to remember what you should be doing, and to actually do it. If this sounds insanely obvious, let me ask you: Day after day, even when it gets hard, are you doing the right things?
Most people don’t. Most people try to be smarter or better or more clever or more independent than everyone else. For many years, I fell victim to these traps, too.
I spent a big chunk of my career trying to be at least one of the smartest people in the room. There was a good reason for this: It was my job.
Long story short, technology companies love “thought leadership” because it helps them sell tech. So for many years, my job was to deliver “thought leadership” speeches and training programs. But eventually, it dawned on me that by trying to invent my own smarter version of the world, I was acting dumber than pretty much everyone else. It was all just words, all just one person trying to invent the Next Big Thing.
One day, I had an epiphany: People don’t need the Next Big Thing; they simply need better ways to remember to do the right things.
In other words, you know what to do, you just don’t do it. This may be because you lack willpower, clarity, or grit.
The challenge, of course, is not simply remembering the solution. The challenge is remembering the solution when you really want to forget it.
Simple example: If you want to lose weight… eat less and exercise more. You know this. But can you remember it when you are at a dinner with friends on your second glass of wine and everyone orders dessert?
To test my ability to solve this problem, I gave up alcohol for a full year (2016). My experience so far is that my willpower stays strong in the absence of alcohol. (If I was still in the “thought leadership” business, I’d market this as the Alcohol-Free Diet, although no one but me would probably try it.)
So remembering to do what’s important often involves understanding your weaknesses, strengths, and environment.
In the context of an organization — be it a small team or a public company — the same problem occurs. Someone has a vision, one that is practical and makes sense. The team adopts it. But two months later, things are getting messy. Four months later, chaos reigns.
You can’t just say the solution. Identifying it is not nearly enough. You have to remember the solution, day after day.
You have to help other people overcome their uniquely human challenges, which largely revolve around the fact that we lack willpower, clarity, or grit. Your organization probably lacks these things too, especially clarity.
Instead of giving all your employees a book and saying, “Do this,” craft a plan to repeat the same message thousands of times. Yes, thousands. Turn it into pictures. Add it into conversations. Put it on forms and weave it into processes. Hell, make it the name of a sandwich in your cafeteria.
Do the same thing at home. Don’t buy books to find the Next Big idea. Buy books to help you focus your energy and attention on what you already know you should be doing. Join groups and make friends for the same purpose. Get radical… if your neighborhood encourages too much eating, drinking and lounging around… move. Yes, move.
You know the right thing to do. Are you going to do it, or just look for an easier idea that you can pretend is right?