A Willingness to Honestly Look at Results

If you’ve been along for any length of time, you know that there is no problem-free solution, system, or strategy.  Every solution, system or strategy comes with a set of problems.  Wise leaders simply choose the set of problems they’d rather have.

Equally, if you’ve been along for any length of time, you know that I’m a fan of new solutions, believing that the well-worn path never arrives at a new destination and that it will take different, not better, to connect the widening 60% who are unreachable with the attractional model.  This interest in new solutions has drawn me to the Small Group Connection strategy and the HOST strategy…because they do things that other strategies don’t.

What you may not know, regardless of the length of time that you’ve been along here, is that I’m also very much a fan of honest evaluation of results.  In fact, I want to always be sure we’re evaluating the outcomes of every strategy we run.  It’s the only way to learn.  It’s the only way to steward the opportunity we’ve been given.  It’s the only way to discover a better way to operate.

One of the quotes that I’ve got taped to a cabinet door at about eye-level is this one from Sir Winston Churchill:

“However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.”

Whichever strategy or system you’re using…you need to be willing to honestly look at the results.

By the way, one of the keys to Jim Collins’ Great by Choice is a commitment to empirical creativity.