THE NEXT STEP ON THE ROAD TO ACCOUNTABILITY
written by Terry - September 26th, 2010 at 11:02 am
Imagine that you’re rolling a bowling ball down an alley, in the hope of knocking down all ten pins. Often, the difference between a frustrating gutter ball and a high-scoring strike comes from what you do after you let go of the ball. Envision that graceful gesture where a bowler continues the arc of their throw, swinging their now-empty hand toward the sky. That gesture has a name – the follow-through.
If you interrupt your momentum, an instant after the ball leaves your hand, you aren’t going to bowl a very good game. By the same token, you and your team may put great plans in motion, but even the best ideas will wither and fail if you divert your time and attention as soon as you’ve set the plan in motion. It isn’t enough just to ‘finish the task’ and move on. To achieve the best results, you need to check back at intervals, to make sure that your brilliant plan is still on track and progressing as it should. In short, you need follow-through.
What great ideas and productive plans has your team come up with, in the past year? How many of those ideas and plans have been orphaned, since then, as your team turned their attention to The Next Big Thing? Which ones are worth recovering?
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