Linda posted on August 19, 2009 10:17
Late last week, I made one of my quarterly visits to Nashville to meet with the Robin Robins' Producers' Club group. I refer to this as my master mind group. It is made up of men and women from around the country that own companies that are very similar to KI Technology Group. Quarterly, we spend a couple of days together talking about our businesses and figuring out ways to do things better.
The highlight of this particular meeting was undoubtedly the 4 hour session that was presented by Brett Harward, author of "The 5 Laws that Determine All of Life's Outcomes". The session was billed as a business planning workshop - and that it was. But it was so much more.
The session began with each table receiving a page of resources. Our table had scissors, tape, paper clips and two decks of playing cards. Our assignment was to build a tower. We immediately got to work and built, not just one, but two towers. You see different people at the table had different ideas! Each of our towers was about 17" tall.
Our next assignment was to tear town the first towers and build one that was at least 36" tall and to spend 2 minutes planning before we began building. This time we decided on the type of tower to build as a group and different people focused on specific tasks. We also took a peek at Brett's tower and tried to build one like he had built.
I would love to tell you that we achieved great success, but our execution was not as good as it should have been and the tower toppled short of the goal. We were able to build a tower that was much higher than the first ones had been, and it was obvious that our team was much better at working together toward our common goal.
The rest of the morning was spent talking about planning and the 5 laws. We can do all of the planning we want to do, but if we don't take these 5 laws into account, we are not likely to be successful. At the end of the morning, I had learned a lot and was eager to read Brett's book to learn more about the changes I can make in my business, and my life, to get better results.
I haven't yet finished the book, but I want to share the 5 laws and one illustration of each one. These are taken directly from the book.
- The Law of Vision - Average people focus on how (mechanics); successful people focus on what (vision or results)
- The Law of Frequency - Average people make changes tomorrow; successful people make changes today.
- The Law of Perception - Average people deflect and refract information and feedback to feel better about themselves; successful people take feedback head on and ask probing questions.
- The Law of Accountability - Average people focus on how others need to change; successful people focus on what they need to change.
- The Law of Leadership - Average people surround themselves with like-minded and like-skilled individuals; successful people surround themselves with diversity and opposing views.
Even though KI has been in business for over 25 years, I am very excited about finishing the book and going throught the business planning process with my team. I know there are changes we can make that will make this company even more successful.
And if you read the book, I would enjoy talking to you about the 5 laws. You can leave a comment here, or send me an email message directly.