In many of my recent speaking engagements, rather than diving in on heady topics like strategy formulation and methods for improving execution, I begin my discussions by focusing on what every organization has: “Susan”.  My story about Susan supports our mission at Six Disciplines:  To revolutionize strategy execution. Every person. Every day.

Susan is really a metaphor for that special kind of person in your organization: hard working, valuable to the team, loyal, enthusiastic, driven, and so forth. Going way beyond her salary, your company invests a lot in keeping Susan “happy”, such as medical, dental, vision, computer, desk, lighting, heating, air conditioning, vacation time, holidays, bonuses, supervision, etc.

For every day, hour and minute that Susan is working for your company, what are you doing, specifically, to help her improve “her batting average”? In other words, what are you doing to help her make better decisions, to work on the right things, to make fewer mistakes, or at least not to make the same mistakes as before?

With every activity Susan works on for your organization, in support of your strategy and goals, it all comes down to four choices:

1. This is something I did and I should have (good!)
2. This is something I did, but shouldn’t have (not so good)
3. This is something I didn’t do, but should have (not so good)
4. This is something I didn’t do, but shouldn’t have anyway (good)

Over the next several posts, I’ll be sharing with you a repeatable method for helping every “Susan” in your organization to make better decisions.