“Geeesh! That’s like ______________ 101!”
– Repeated often, by people suggesting that the basics of the work are being missed…
There are basics, of course. The stuff that simply has to be done, and done correctly. It’s the stuff we’re supposed to learn or know first, and thus, in college, “101” tends to be the introductory-level course.
Yet, there is stuff that comes before the 101 course work. High school. Middle school. The culture in which we were raised. Exposure to the subject matter or concepts outside the classroom. The kid that grew up in a home where reading was a part of the daily routine will have a different perspective on “Writing 101.” That becomes the “why.”
In business, it is almost always the “Why.”
We can set targets for growth, a market-based plan and a cadence for communication. We can have an org chart and a recruitment plan to get to the headcount or expense level we believe we can support. Why is our growth target our growth target? Why do we believe that the market calls for this plan? Why are we meeting, or not meeting, on this schedule? Why are we organized the way we are? Unless we understand fully our “why,” our what is pretty easy to get out of whack.
Instead of just presuming that someone is missing the basics, we can pull a page from Covey — seeking first to understand — and use that perspective to better assess what, if anything, is wrong or missing.
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