There’s been a lot written over the last few years about how organizations can close the Knowing-Doing gap. That’s fantastic… However, I want to know how to close that gap for me personally! It amazes me how often I feel like I know what needs to be done and yet fail to get it done.
One arena I’m determined to make progress on during the New Year is my Life Plan. Daniel Harkavy is my coach. He guided me through the process of creating my plan. Now, it’s up to me to “run the play.”
Here are some of the tactics I’m using to attempt to bridge the Knowing-Doing gap in my own life in 2012.
Have a written plan. This is a very powerful idea. If you haven’t invested the time and energy to put your plan on paper, that is step one.
Focus on the critical few. My Life Plan encompasses all aspects of my life. However, my annual plan is not exhaustive. I’ve found over the years that focus on a few critical disciplines in each area is most effective.
Create a one-page summary. My Life Plan is fairly long. In it, I articulate my life purpose, my core values, my primary life accounts, what I want to be true in 30 years, why these things matter to me, and tactics for the upcoming year. This is all helpful information; but think about an NFL coach on the sidelines - he doesn’t carry the entire playbook with him, he only carries the play sheet for the day. That’s the purpose of my one-page summary.
Find accountability partners. Who will you share your plan with? They should be people you trust - people who will ask you hard questions. Give them permission to challenge you. I have about 10 people who play this role well in my life.
Review your plan daily. As crazy as this may sound, this is probably the single greatest factor that influences how well I’ll execute my plan. This is so important to me I’ve created a mind map to put on my computer desktop to make daily review as easy as possible! The more I review my plan, the better I execute.
These are just a few of things I’ll try in 2012 to increase my effectiveness.
What has worked in your life to help close the Knowing-Doing gap?
