A Much Happier New Year - Part 2: Turning Uncertainty to Certainty in 2023...

For 2023, since this will be one of my last written blog articles (outside of requests on a specific subject), I figured I would leave you with something more than a little hope for the road ahead…As everyone wants to create the conditions in their lives and in their businesses that bring them the most joy and satisfaction, out of what they’re doing. It doesn’t matter if you have a very small business, or if you happen to run one of the world’s largest companies. The number of people and the goods and services might change a bit, but the mechanics underlying all of your combined movements are either going to ensure that you’re on the path to increased growth and fulfillment, or you’re headed in the opposite direction. Two choices. So, how do we put the odds in our favor, so that we move from uncertainty to certainty, about what we’re doing?

For clarification purposes, this has nothing to do with tightening up your mission statement, your specific goals, or even your roll-out plan. These are blueprints designed to help you gain focus on what you wanted to do…Just like choosing a specific direction, or a coordinate on a map. A plan (if it’s a very good one) can be effective. But, especially in a very large business, how that plan is implemented and carried out, or – how it moves through your employees and customers, will actually determine if the goal is reached or surpassed.

Like putting a ball into play in a sports game, you can develop all the moves and plans you want, but it’s what’s happening on the ground in real-time, that determines if you’re getting close to where you want to be. So, any plan is both in and out of our control. Besides our own physical and mental movements, there are many other moving parts that will determine our final outcome. And, how would one “control” those moves? Would it be by force? By advanced metrics, motivational skills, or monitoring? Not really. As good as those ideas “sound” for trying to micro-manage and influence what’s there – there is a much simpler way that produces better results, requires less hand-holding, and even makes you use less energy or capitol to get there…

In science and philosophy, there is a principle that we’ve known about for quite some time: Occam’s Razor. Briefly stated, “When one wants to understand cause and effect, the simplest explanation is almost always the first one to examine.” So, let’s make it simple…

When you have what you need in place to produce the best outcome (for your employees and customers to have a great experience together), you’re maximizing the odds of what’s coming back to you. Money is definitely “produced” in the simple back and forth process. But it’s how good the process itself is – that determines how good your returns are. When you measure results even using advanced methods, it’s what’s immeasurable (or what’s happening between the numbers) that’s adding up to what you can see.

In the hundreds of thousands of transactions that are happening on a given day in your business – this is all adding up to the finally tally in profits. No sane person can deny that those two ends are directly connected.

So, the easiest way to guarantee your results on a micro-level is to put exactly what’s needed into the two biggest (macro) areas of your business. If you have what you need to make one interaction turn out well, that’s exactly what’s needed to keep on doing that. (Think of a manufacturing process that successfully fills-up a soft-drink can. If one came out right – as long as the same process is followed, the same reaction will keep on occurring, over and over again.) So, see what’s happening on both sides of the counter – for each individual.

If it’s easy for the employees to meet or exceed the customer’s needs in one transaction, simply repeat that. The only catch is that there are thousands of transactions in a day. So, you have to see what could get complicated, stressed or strained with many transactions, over time. If it’s easy to duplicate the same process for both sides, over and over again – you’ve got it. What’s needed is in the right place. This “macro” adjustment is shaping what’s happening in the very small point, where the sale is made. Like water taking the shape of the container it’s in – what’s in place, sets those boundaries, so that what’s moving – moves in the right direction. This turn of positive events is giving those two people and the company as a whole the energy and confidence it needs – to keep on going!

As we see success happening right in front of us, this naturally motivates us to continue – from the inside, out. No advanced monitoring or baby-sitting is necessary here. (A little guidance, encouragement and appreciation: Sure. It can only help.) However, people are simply outlining or tracing the “shape” of what’s already there. And, that’s it. But – the process is also enjoyable for them; just as the combined results are – for you. So, now do you see how both ends are connected and coming together, emotionally and financially…From what’s happening between two people or hundreds of thousands of them?

People will continually walk joyfully down the road you’ve paved for them to travel on, like water – as long as they have what they need to keep on enjoying it. They’ll always come back to those positive feelings – just like you do, when you reach for an increase in seeing the bottom line grow. We’re all after – the same positive feeling. That’s what allows us to continue moving forward. And, if we can keep on producing that together, our numbers will just be following – us.

At the end of almost 60 articles, simply put what’s needed and desired right there in those two leading categories. And, that’s exactly what will be coming back to you – and more of it. A wise CEO always asks, “What am I going to gain – from doing this?” And, so – they create more of the same, because that’s where they’re coming from. Where you are coming from internally, sets the “shape” of what’s playing out in your business, and what’s coming back to you. Just like Occam’s Razor...

So, to reach your “Happy New Year” watermarks and surpass them…It can’t get any simpler, than this. When you’re giving what you need to succeed, what you need – is also, right there. So, I’ll leave this idea – where it is. Now, it’s up to you – to do something positive with it!