On our team, we deliver business systems. The amount of thinking, planning, people, information, systems and communications is mind boggling. There are a number of failure points. There are many other projects which have to be managed at the same time. This all has to be delivered in the midst of uncertainty.

The uncertainty comes from all the other knowledge workers pushing on us for time, energy, solutions and mindshare. It’s part of the new deal in the new economy. We are all in the collaboration game. You have access to others much more easily now. You are most likely dealing with similar demands and expectations.

There are two types of people in this game today:

1. Complainers
2. Competitors

Complainers will always talk about how much work they have. It is their excuse for under-delivering. A year from now, they will still be talking about all the emails they have to answer and the feeling of being overwhelmed. They will always say that they have too much to do. Why not? If they can sell that to their customer and their boss, then there is no motivation to change their bad habits.

Competitors understand that they are in a game. While others are complaining, they are solving problems. They invest in their business in money, time and attention to manage what they know is coming every day - a pipeline of work. These are the fun people to work with and the ones we observe taking business away from the complainers every day.

If you want to find out if someone is a winner, just listen to them talk. They are a winner inasmuch as they don’t complain and instead focus on solving problems. Show me the problems you can solve, and I will show you what you are worth. After all, that’s the whole value today. We are all overwhelmed trying to solve problems.

I love watching the show HowStuffWorks on the Discovery channel. I watch it with my kids to teach them one thing above all - everything we see is a result of a process. There were steps, materials and organization to make it happen. When we watch how candy is made or how mechanical parts are built, we see conveyor belts, timing mechanisms, computerized controls and lots of movement in a cohesive system. This is what allows millions of widgets to be produced from a factory.

As a knowledge worker, you are a factory. There are raw materials (information) coming into your world and finished goods (knowledge) going out. Your ability to turn information into knowledge allows you to produce more and deliver value.

The funny thing is that instead of figuring out how to make a more efficient workflow, people and teams merely keep grinding away with poor tools, processes and talent. Improve any of these three and you get a different result.

Do you want to sell more? Then work on your factory first. Without control you cannot deliver value that your customer is looking for. Your competitor, whether a company or another person who wants your job, who is willing and able to bring a better process will prevail. Customers have enough friction in their life. They want it to be easy to do business with you, and they don’t care about your excuses. You are only one item on their long list of options, just as your vendor list is long as well.

Today, stop the insanity. Get control of your business by focusing on solving the main problem which is the root of lack of sales, weak customer relationships and too many urgencies in your business. Clear the runway before trying to fly or you will never take off. Get the help to implement the systems for your success.

If you are continually overwhelmed, it is likely you have inefficient systems and thus, you are not solving the problem, only tolerating it. Life and business can be much more if you will see the problem. If you don’t solve the problem, then your customer or your employer will do business with those that are easy to do business with not those who keep talking about the problem.

For a limited time click here to receive a complimentary copy of The Art of Productivity. We are confident this can change your life!

We appreciated the opportunity to be with the PMI Fort Worth Chapter last night. Thank you for your comments regarding Don’s speech. It is our desire to help you achieve greater levels of success. If your company is interested in how we can help increase sales demand, shorten sales cycles, strengthen customer relationships,and build higher levels of productivity we invite you to click here.

I appreciated the time to share how to increase productivity and approach the challenges of being a knowledge worker in the new economy.  It is a message which affects all of us who are traveling a journey of rapid change.  I have had requests from many audience members to share some of the highlights that I shared.  Here some of the important thoughts to integrate into your life:

• • We have outgrown the old models.  Organization is ineffective. It is about being fast and agile in a world of information onslaught.
  • “Every 1100 days your ability to transform information into work becomes twice as important.” - Bill Jensen Think about what this means.  You could be half as slow three years ago.  You must be twice as fast three years from now.
  • You are a knowledge worker.  You make intangible things and get paid thousands.  “In knowledge work the task is not given, it has to be determined.” - Peter Drucker
  • You must think like a free agent.  Your boss, your customer and your colleagues see you this way.
  • It’s not about you anymore.  It’s about your customer. Everyone is a customer.  How you respond and how fast you respond brands you.
  • Achieving greater things requires clarity so you can execute.  Clarity is a competitive edge with your competition - every other person competing for your job and your customer.
  • Change Is Exponential - 31 Billion Google searches per month in 2009 vs. 2.7 Billion in 2006
  • The future is full of tools we have not seen yet.  “If you don’t like change, you are going to dislike irrelevance even less.” General Eric Shinseki
  • Embrace cloud computing - the web is the computer.  Devices are commodities.  It’s a knowledge game now.
  • It’s a Google world; search don’t organize.
  • The 4-Hour Workweek shows us about leverage and work without boundaries.  Anyone can take your job from anywhere.  Adopt the mindset and get in the game.
  • To win, you must do three things excellently:
    1. Make Decisions:  How fast are you at making a decision?   Indecision causes a lack of clarity and affects results.
    2. Move to Action: This is the culmination of work.
    3. Increase Speed:  It is the variable which separates you from average workers.
  • To win, you must think like a FedEx engineer.  Analyze your movements.  Make it important to you.
  • In a world competing on talent, productivity is a key differentiator.

For those of you who have sought some of the book titles I had referred to, here is a list:

May your journey and growth in advancing productivity in your work and life do the inevitable - open opportunities and vision for you.  Feel free to share your comments below:

At that time, Iverson was the MVP of the National Basketball Association. He erred with his comments. He did not see the connection between excellence developed through repetition and showtime.

Showtime in your business is face-time with the customer. The preparation or lack of preparation you have done will bear itself out on your professionalism, readiness and scorecard. If you do not value practice more than the showtime, there are three reasons why:

1. You Lack Passion. What you do is not what you truly love. Otherwise, you would commit to refining your method and being the very best. Your heart is disconnected from your profession. It is an empty place to be. You will always bring your C game not your A game. The best thing to do is truly understand your strengths and weaknesses lest you keep running on empty.
2. You Lack Belief. Do you want to be the very best salesperson, marketing maven or business executive? If it is not your aspiration, then you are aiming for mediocrity. Showtime will always be a less than stellar show.
3. You Are Not Productive. If there is so much clutter in your world, then you will miss opportunities left and right. You can’t see them. Clarity energizes and is powerful for moving towards excellence, results and revenue. You must create a productive world and a productive mind. Otherwise, practice will always be a hard thing to do. Clear your runway and get productive.

Practice is the mark of true excellence and professionalism. I laugh when I go to car dealerships. They damage their brand greatly. They have a half dozen sales people sitting outside projecting a cavalier and lazy image to their customers. They don’t know what to do with their time.

They are not alone. They are just more visible. Their loitering could be replaced by preparation for showtime. In a typical week, your preparation should outnumber your showtime hours. If you truly spend ten hours of face-time with the customer, then what are the other hours being applied to? These are the things that will help you if you are committed to practice:

1. Refining Process: Understand the game plan from the customer’s perspective. What is every step and every experience that they will repeatedly encounter?
2. Practicing Your Scripts: Have you outlined every conceivable objection or concern a customer raises? Learn to think and deliver your answers with conviction.
3. Excellent Communications: Based on your process, develop the written communications for each step that will guide the customer through the buying process.
4. Sharing Knowledge: Are you just trying to sell someone who does not want to be sold? How about bringing value through sharing knowledge? Write and distribute this every day to the people that crave it – your prospective customer.
5. Building Alliances: Your customers shop at other businesses similar to yours. Connect with them and make them partners. Ask, “How can I bring immense value to them as a partner?”
6. Grow: Read voraciously. The person who reads more than you has much more to offer. Nothing is stopping you from gaining new insight and knowledge. Pay for books, seminars, coaching and anything that will grow your most important asset – YOU. The more valuable you are the more revenue and opportunity comes into your life.
7. Build Systems: Every day I run into extinct people. They do not want to accept that people are doing business differently. Their customer is likely sitting in front of a computer right now somewhere. Is that where you connect with them? Develop technology systems so they can say “Yes” to what you have to offer or get help to build them.

It’s funny when people see our talent in action. Whether it is outputting a packaged piece of knowledge through writing or building a system to grow a business, we invariably get an amazed reaction from our customers. Our speed and ability are transparent.

The illusion is that we have natural talent and we just show up. The truth is that we have spent thousands of hours in practice so that we are always ready. That is why winning becomes easier for us. That is why people hire us.

Your ability to compete, get ahead and grow your business is directly proportional to how hard you practice. If you are not motivated to practice, question the game you are in or your own work ethic. Choose to change them.

If you don’t know how to allocate the most precious resource you have – time – then start putting the advice here into action. It will mean the difference between winning big or living small.

It is really difficult to meet someone who has had a linear, planned out, perfect life, much less a predictable planned week. The number of variables to manage are too vast. The accident you did not plan for happened. The new competitor who got to market faster was not on the roadmap. Reality did not play out according to the financial plan or family budget that was meticulously engineered.

Plans are great, and often necessary, as long as we see them as a guide rather than the measure of failure or success. No plan is perfect. They are simply a tool to get to the goal. As a business coach, I have too often seen conflicting behaviors in people who would aspire towards their passion, yet they are stopped because they cannot see the perfect plan. Because the first ten steps are not clear, they do not even take the first step.

Far be it that you should miss the opportunities your heart desires to pursue because of the lack of security in perfect steps. The reality is that we do not start with answers in ventures that are new and worthwhile for us. We start with conviction. When a person presses me for certainty of process, the questions are typically based in their unspoken fear of failure. The debate moves to the “How” instead of the “What”. The latter is much more important. What is it you want? If you are clear on this, then the “How” becomes clear because you pursue your “Want” with passion. Think about it. There are things in your life that you wanted. You started with your desire and your commitment to your goal whether selfish or noble. When I was a teen, I can remember wanting a new mountain bike. It did not matter that I did not have a job or any savings. I was determined to have a new bike. That desire focused me. I found a job quickly and made the money I needed to buy the bike and all the accessories I thought were cool at the time. That process can be found as a common thread in my life for the things I have achieved, bought, and attained. How I got what I wanted was due to the following valuable pieces which work in all our lives:

1. Desire Stronger Than Obstacles: When we are clear on what we want, then we are committed. Committment helps us face the obstacles. Everything you want has obstacles. If you see problems, then you are not able to overcome. If you see possibilities and answers because your desire is pulling so strongly, then nothing can stop you permitting your desire is in the realm of possibility. Don’t have half-goals. Have strong desire and make it clear to yourself why you want more success or more resources or more friends. If the answer is real and resonates with your core values, then you will find a clarity in your pursuit.
2. Agility Beats A Straight Line: Your ability to change when new information or challenges come your way is pivotal. Most people in life face adversity with a faintness of heart. Rather than seeing adversity as part of the process of cordoning off the path to the goal, they see it as failure. This is dangerous thinking. Adversity, which is plentiful and waiting, will govern the boundaries of your desires rather than what you want. Know that the plan is shifting because you cannot plan all the information into your rudimentary assumptions. Think about rock climbers. From the ground, their vantage point is far different than halfway up the cliff. They make preliminary plans on what route to take to the top, but when they are in the moment and close, there is new perspective. The holds may be different, so they have to adjust. They have a guide, but not a rule. So must your life be in order to get in the game of pursuing your desire.
3. Momentum and Effort Are the Fuel: Newton established that inertia is real in our physical world. A body in motion and a body at rest have tendency to remain in their state. It is hard to change states. You are either in the talking or the action state. When you only talk about your desires or goals, you are a body at rest. When you are moving through action, then this feeds your focus and navigation. Never underestimate momentum. Keep it going until you get to your desired outcome. Restarting is hard.

Plans are not meant to be perfect. They are our framework for taking the first steps. Don’t worship the plan. If you are not getting started on things you talk about rather than act on, then examine your paralysis. Inertia may be taking hold. Get clear on the end goal. Get a first set of plans. Do them until they do not work and make them align constantly to your conviction of the end goal. That is how winning is done.

Because a person does not work on their mental mechanics - reading, typing, comprehension, decision making - they will limit their value. How does it play out? Here are a few symptoms:

1. Your customers are disappointed in you because you are slow
2. You lose opportunities
3. You do not see opportunities because of your backlog
4. You react rather than create
5. You drift rather than live

If there were a video camera on you today and how you worked, what grade would you get compared to a high performer? Keep focused on getting better. There is a consequence to neglecting this.