If you haven't discovered Phil Gerbyshak's blog yet, you need to take a minute right now and pay him a visit! His posts are high quality and his resources are fabulous!
One of his posts recently focused on how to achieve breakthrough goals. If you have a list of really great ideas and/or a stack of incomplete projects, you can relate. Phil refers to this as the "failure to finish syndrome"...and boy can I relate to that!
He calls his new idea the "Accountability Circle". This is what he means in his own words.
"I mean I tell a few people that I trust that will hold me accountable one of my goals, give them my time frame, and ask them to help me be accountable to achieving this goal. And they share one with me, in fact they share 1 each. This gives us 3 people in our accountability circle, and it works because of it's simplicity. By telling 2 people my goal, I am asking both of them to help me be accountable and achieve my goal, and if I'm not on track, I ask them to challenge me and ask me why I'm not on track. I'm hoping that 1 of them will have the courage to step out and tell me, and would LOVE IT if both of them would. And I hope that at least 50% of the time, I am willing and able to challenge them if they are not achieving their goals. It's almost like a primary, and secondary, though if all parties are in 100% of the time, it does work best. "
Another idea that really works well is a "Fast Focus Day". Here's how it works...
You need at least one other person, but it can work just as well with 10 people. Everyone selects a project and agrees on one day to focus on it. Pick a start and end time for the day. The secret is to pre-schedule periodic progress reports through the day. Here's an example:
Let's say you've got 5 other people who want to be part of your Fast Focus Day. Before you begin do these things:
- Agree on a date
- Agree on start and finish times
- Agree on progress report times (every hour or two works best)
- Schedule a conference line (use a free one like freeconference.com)
- Go to it!
Keep the progress report calls as brief as possible so that everybody can get back at their project just as quickly as possible.
You'll be amazed at what you can accomplish!
Would you like to give it a try? Let me know and I'll organize one!
Great takeoff on the accountability circle. Fast Focus Day - coming to a city near you! Thanks for sharing the Accountability Circle too. I'm glad you liked it.
Posted by: Phil Gerbyshak | March 28, 2006 at 10:42 PM