Let the games begin!

The 2 Weeks 2 a Breakthrough Pilot Program is officially underway. The first two teams will begin their program 6/1 although several have already been thinking about their goals for several days. And because we have participants from around the world, I will generally post a day in advance.

Each of the participants beginning 6/1 has received a 12 page quick start document.

We will start things off by clarifying and refining goals and sharing the overall structures of the program. I am having 45 minute one-on-one conversations with each participant about what they want to accomplish and begin the brainstorming process. My first appointment is in one hour!

The Daily Practice:

The Daily Practice is likely to be the most dreaded part of this program - and the most important. It may seem intimidating, but once you get into it, it will be rather easy. Here’s a portion of what the participants received about the Daily Practice:

Each day of the program, I will offer ideas and suggestions designed to increase focus or action. In addition, you are to complete your daily practice EVERY DAY of the program. The daily practice is easy but can yield big results.

The Daily Practice – Each day of the program,
- Tell two people about your goal.
- Take two actions that support your goal.
- Make two requests that support your goal.

The Daily Practice can be done live, via email, phone, blog, or other communication means. But each day should involve different people. For example, if you tell readers about your goal on your blog one day, it would not qualify if you communicate it again 3 days later. Same thing with requests: posting two requests on your blog will not fulfill the intention of the daily practice.

You can, however, combine things. For example, you can tell someone about your goal and then make a request of him or her too.

One more clarification, although telling someone about your goal and making a request are technically actions, my intent is that you engage in two OTHER actions each day. These can be very small, like signing up for a relevant newsletter, registering a business license, or asking 3 people for ideas at lunch. Or they can be major actions like creating a business plan.

A little bit about requests:

The type of requests that I find make the biggest difference are not necessarily the “give me” kind, although if you read my blog post about requests a few days ago, it seemed to work for the nun. For most of us, what we are looking for with our requests is someone’s time, ideas, connections, counsel, projects, accommodations, mentoring, etc.. I will share an example of these requests:

Someone’s time: I am working on a project and would like to bounce a few ideas off you. Could I buy you coffee one day this week to chat (or could I ask for 30 minutes of your time over the phone)?

Ideas or information: I would like to help improve the workplace and would like your ideas. I’m inviting a few people for a brown bag lunch brainstorming session. Can you attend?

Connections: I am trying to build my business/get a publisher, can you tell me the people I should get to know in this field?

Counsel/mentoring: You are one of the best in your field. Would you be willing to mentor me if it did not take much of your valuable time? Perhaps we could start with a 30-minute phone conversation/coffee chat?

Projects: I want to develop my skills in this area and would like to participate on the ____ project because I think it would help me and I could contribute to the group’s success. I would be willing to lead the group if that’s preferable. Can you help me get on this project?

Accommodations: I am working on a goal that is very important to me and that will make a big difference. Over the next month, I would like to change my schedule slightly to accommodate the project. I have worked it out so that my other projects are not affected. Can I get your approval to: _____________?

Participation: I am working on a book called ________. I have attached the book proposal for your review. I have great respect for your work and would love to have you write the foreword.

The best requests are win-win. For example, I have created new jobs for myself several times and my employers accepted the ideas because I was able to demonstrate how the change was good for the company too.

Your response to acceptances and rejections is important. If your request is accepted, show genuine appreciation and excitement. This will make people feel great about helping you out. If the person does not accept your request, DO NOT demonstrate disappointment and do not make the other person feel guilty. This is what keeps us from making future requests. Instead, thank the person for his or her consideration and, if appropriate, ask if he or she has an alternative suggestion. Your demeanor should be matter of fact and open.

The point of the daily practice is to help you create a presence, platform, and place for your goal and to make new things happen.

I’d love to hear how Team J and Team K participants feel about starting the program and what they have explored so far!

Comments

[Dwayne]

As a member of the J Team, I'm just getting started. I have chosen my goal, and reviewed the initial materials, and I'm looking forward to my breakthrough.

An interesting a-ha came from looking at the Focus/Action matrix: I noticed that I tend to have "Stargazer" tendencies. I think the approach of picking specific, deliberate actions each day will make a big difference in the progress toward my goal.

[Kathleen]

What Dwayne said. :-) I'm excited about getting this thing rolling. My goal needs some finessing - I want to make it less abstract (read: warm and fuzzy) and more measurable. I'm also looking forward to plotting constructive ways to deal with some of the issues that are working against my organization.

[Kurnia]

The focus/action matrix also really helps me. I really liked what Lisa said, "When you are not moving towards your goal, you have to either increase your focus and/or actions." That way, I immediately know what the problems are whenever I'm not moving.

The Daily Practice is my saviour. :) I have a tendency to overanalyze things. I always procastinate by reading more and more information and end up in a paralysis analysis. By making sure I'm doing the Daily Practice, I'm forcing myself to move forward. The fact that I "only" need to do two things helps a lot, since in the past, I always got overwhelmed by the complexity of reaching my goals, since I see too far ahead.

[Renee]

I found the definition of "What is a Breakthrough" to be very helpful, especially the line "After doing some research, you might find that you don't have the same commitment for your goals and adopt a different goal." I found this useful because I have several competing goals so it was good to understand that the breakthrough might be letting go of one and focusing on another.

Also, I second Kurina's thoughts on analysis paralysis, procrastinating and looking forward to the Daily Practice helping me toward action.

[Lisa Haneberg]

Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts. It is helpful for me to hear what is making a difference and which parts resonate the most!

[Kathleen]

It was a terrific Day 1 for me; despite being in meetings all day (and I *do* mean all day), I managed to get two of our directors on board with my goal, and have my boss's buy-in for holding a monthly "Best of the Biz" meeting to have postmortems of what we did *right* that month, with representatives from each department. My plan is to use that meeting as a tool to foster more positive communication across departments.

So far, I give the program a big thumbs-up.

[Lisa Haneberg]

Kathleen - that's awesome!

[Nathan]

I was struck by the similarity between Lisa's definition for breakthrough and the definition of creativity/innovation in a course I did in my MBA. Essentially, you can see them as once-in-a-lifetime genius-type events or daily opportunities to "Think different" Both breakthroughs and innovations require action as well as thought.

As an "ideas guy" I can empathise with Dwayne on the stargazer quadrant, and I think the daily practise is the key to achieving that increased action/momentum (success breeds success).

I like the belief/action cycle model too -- I think a large part of my goal is in helping people to move from the passive to the active cycle.

[Thomas]

Haven't commented yet, so I'm gonna catch up ;)

Day 1 was about writing on my goal to have it clear (and in english), lots of discussion starting around on the mailing list (love that), preparing myself for the skype call from Lisa (polishing my english). Seems like I'm ready for the program, took some time to read the materials from Lisa, seems like the most important thing is the daily practice, could be a bit hard for me some days, but not others, so I guess I'm gonna make a mean for that ;)