Transforming General Business Advice into Individual Action: Just K.N.O.C.K. I love Tony Robbins and Peter Voogd as much as the next guy. Their insights into life, mindset, and professional development continually inspire me to mold my perspective and to approach daily activities differently. I always feel empowered while listening to their speeches, but I find myself plateauing once those speeches end.
The disconnect between listening and applying my learnings inhibits actionable execution of business and personal principles. To transform my deaf ears into absorbent sponges, and those sponges into a bucket that collects the sponge water (or, more concretely put, convert listening to applying to realizing the impact of my learnings), I’ve derived a formula for individual implementation that may spike your plateau as well:
1) Keep listening and learning
- As you retain more information and expose yourself to different topics, you’ll cultivate your ability to synthesize the world around you.
2) Notice personal behavioral trends
- As you observe how you respond after listening to business advice, such as deep-diving into a topic of particular interest or maintaining unusually high energy levels after a discussion on a specific subject, you can track what type of information speaks to you and how it directs your thoughts and efforts.
3) Organize information
- As you notice behavioral trends and track what type of information appeals to you, collect your reflections and categorize them based on their utility in calling you to action: High Utility (i.e. a behavioral trend/information that significantly compels you to act), Average Utility, and Low Utility.
4) Clarify your strategic plan
- As you collect data in the High Utility category, create a plan to optimize the value that the respective behavioral trend/information provides. Focus most of your energy in the High Utility category, even if this category only has a couple reflections and is outweighed by the Average and Low Utility categories. Remember the 80/20 rule – most of your output and achievement derives from a minority of your activities. The High Utility category can identify a few, specialized activities that will account for a material amount of your success. Focus on the High Utility category and create strategic plans for High Utility behavioral trends/information (and if you have additional time or interest, apply the same methodology of strategic planning to Average and Low Utility categories).
5) Knuckle up!
- With your strategic plans in place, execute your plans by following them diligently, disciplining yourself daily, and reworking your plans based on feedback you collect from your actions, results, and interpersonal interactions as you work through your plan. Continual feedback solidifies a virtuous learning cycle and allows you to adapt, which ultimately strengthens your ability to execute your plan and realize the impact of your externalized learnings.
In summary, all you must do is K.N.O.C.K. to bridge the gap between general business advice and individual action. The more doors you knock on, the more opportunities you create for success.
