Little Things Mean A Lot

I was recently listening to the radio when the old song, "Little Things Mean A Lot" came on. For some reason, the lyrics reached out and grabbed me:

Give me your arm as we cross the street
Call me at six on the dot
A line a day when you're far away
Little things mean a lot

Give me your hand when I've lost my way
Give me your shoulder to cry on
Whether the day is bright or gray
Give me your heart to rely on

A little sappy? Maybe. But I was reminded of how important doing the "little things" can be to building our relationships. Simple things such as speaking kind words, reading to a child, doing something without being asked and a simple phone call, e mail or card to say "Hello." Small things that can make a big difference.

What are some things you could do today to help improve things in your relationship ring?

Dropped Them Yet?

At the beginning of the year, it can be very overwhelming to look at our "circus" and think of all the areas where we want to improve our lineup. It can even get depressing for some. New Year's resolutions and our goals for the upcoming year can seem daunting and with almost one month gone in 2008 we forget about them so that we don’t have to face that we are falling short so quickly.

I take strength from the thought, "How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time." Break down your goals into bite size pieces. Spread your goals throughout the year and also be realistic as you make resolutions. Like we say in the book, "What's the best time to bring this new act into the lineup?" Focus on one per week or one per month. One-Two well executed improvements (see blog from Tuesday) are better than 4-5 sloppily attempted that are ultimate failures.

Lastly, look at what acts can be removed from your circus as you look to add new ones. Nothing weighs more heavily on a performer than a line up that is too crowded... that loud crash is an elephant that just fell on someone-don't let it be you!

The Value of Performing Your Act Well

Fast Company Magazine is a fantastic monthly publication that highlights today's hot business trends and looks at what might be on the horizon tomorrow. Robert Safian is the editor and his letter from the editor this month had a powerful thought. He is speaking about the success of Mike Rowe and his cable show, Dirty Jobs:

But Rowe's story also allows us to examine an underappreciated aspect of economic success: the genius of expertly executed craftmanship. It is the glue that cements ideas, on one end, and hard work, on the other, to fuel productivity. Either type of asset is squandered if inappropriately deployed. Execution is the great differentiator in our global economic competition.

What a great equation! Ideas + Great Execution + Hard Work = Productivity.

Reviewing the equation each day may help determine which one is lacking in my performance and what changes I need to make to get the standing ovations I want from others or myself.

"OOFing" Their Way To Greater Results

The Pfizer corporation conducted internal studies to determine how much time their talent was losing to support tasks instead of focusing on higher level responsibilities. The results, to me, were interesting:

• 20-40% of their work load was "support work" which could be outsourced to other individuals or groups.
• No level of the organization was immune. From VPs to Directors to Managers, the amount of time lost each week was 5-15 hours.
  

Following the study, Pfizer decided to take action. They decided to enlist the services of groups that would complete these responsibilities and tasks at a much lower rate than those who were currently doing them. It's part of a program called "OOF" or Office Of the Future.

What about you? What are some tasks you are currently completing that would best be delegated to others so you could focus on "the bigger acts" that would make a more major impact on the success of your circus.

Read more about the Pfizer program at http://21cvision.blogspot.com/2008/01/pfizer-oof-office-of-future-program.html

A Young Reader Gets It!

Today we received this endorsement of the book from a young reader in Australia:

I would just like to say that I really enjoyed your book! It opened my mind. I also think you might be interested to know that I'm only ten years old so of course my three rings would be school, relationships and self. But thank you very much for writing such a wonderful book!

As we often say, readers may call their rings by different names due to age, responsibilities or other factors. That's okay by us. Our hope is that the metaphor helps them to get more of the important things done now, regardless of their age.