Inflection Points

10EXECUTING THE GAME PLAN: CELEBRATING WINS, HANDLING SETBACKS, ACHIEVING GOALS, AND CREATING NEW ONES

Until now, we've mostly been talking about the prep work involved in developing the Game Plan—everything that leads up to the moment when the printed sheet takes a victory lap through the lamination machine. That we've talked so much about planning and not so much about execution is a reflection of the “go slow to go fast” mantra—the more you invest up front, the smoother the process will be once you launch. As Abraham Lincoln is reputed to have said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I'll spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Einstein had a similar mantra: “If I had an hour to solve a problem, I'd spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes thinking about solutions.”

Now we're at the point where coach and client put the plan into action. Execution, of course, brings its own set of challenges. Consequently, we set a regular cadence of meeting times to assess progress and figure out what changes can be made to bolster your efforts at reaching your Game Plan goals. The discussion is usually centered around three questions: What's going well? What's getting in the way (the friction points)? What will we have accomplished by next week?

These questions allow the necessary self-scrutiny to address shortcomings while maintaining the positive psychological framework of emphasizing strengths and celebrating accomplishments.

CHANGE IS SCARY

The task of ...