In the second section of your paper write Initiatives. Write the numbers one through nine.
The first section you just completed—Results—is the WHAT. This second section you are about to pen—Initiatives—is the HOW. Here we will differentiate between outcomes (results) and the actions we need to take to produce them (process).
Basically, what you are doing in this section is making choices regarding which of the key outcomes you listed in the Results sections need to be handled as a project, and which do not. Some things you defined in Results may not require defining and doing a sequence of tasks that are out of the ordinary from your normal business or personal processes. Other key outcomes may. It is important that you decide which is which.
For example, you may have set a revenue target as a key outcome, and your marketing and sales machine is so well-honed that achieving the key outcome of revenue does not require anything out of the ordinary other than your focus on inspecting what you expect. Therefore, that key outcome does not require an initiative.
However, you may have set a revenue target your current marketing and sales machine cannot support. That key outcome is a candidate for a supporting initiative designed to create a change in your marketing and sales capacity that is sufficient to support the achievement of the key outcome.
See the difference? It
is important that you do. Some key
outcomes only need focus. Others need a project—what we call here an
initiative—to support the achievement of the key outcome.
Let’s get started.
Next to number one, write “Achieve The One Big Thing.” Look at you. You are on a roll. Basically, I am relieving you of deciding whether The One Big Thing needs to be handled as a project or not. Let’s assume it should be, which is almost always the case.
Now, look at the key results listed in Results: Part A—Key Outcomes. Here’s the process.
1. Look at the first key result.
2. Ask yourself, is some type of project required to achieve that key result? A project is a series of defined steps that get you from point A to point B within a certain timeframe in order to produce a defined result. A project has a defined beginning and end, and the outcome is measurable and observable.
Remember, some key results (like expanding into a new market) may require an initiative—writing out and doing a series of steps. If so, that is a project, an initiative. Other key results (like getting to the gym 24 times in six months) may not because you already know the steps and you just need to focus on it.
3. Decide. If the key result does not need a supporting initiative, go to the next key result and work from 2 down until you are done. If the key result does need an initiative to support it, write the name of the key result next to the next available number in section two.
Continue until you have addressed all key results.
Take stock of where you now are. In section 2, Initiatives, you may have up to 8 of them defined. The first one is to accomplish the One Big Project. Initiatives 2 through 8 are directly related to producing the key results. And you may have less than 8 at this point. That’s fine. What’s with the open slot, number nine? I never thought you’d never ask.
