So many people look for that big idea on which they can build a successful business, but there is something equally important to focus on for real success over time …

Intelligent action!

We’ve all heard the term “action taker”, but I’d rather use the term “intelligent action taker”.

Intelligent action taking is best summed up in the model shown.

Business success is really driven by a continuous series of “micro-projects” – small chunks of work undertaken to continuously improve the business.  It is never enough to launch a product and start making sales and expect that this will last forever.  The market always changes and we need to change with it.  We need to continuously improve.

In today’s world, the key to winning in business is to be able to undertake these micro-projects with great success. 

A successful micro-project is driven by accurate thinking and disciplined action.

When the thinking is vague and the action is unfocussed, there is too much variation of result and variation equals error, waste and maybe even failure.

When the thinking is accurate and the action disciplined, we can expect a pathway to consistent success over time.

Project management has been turned into an industry with methodologies like Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Lean, Prince2 and so on.  But for a fast moving, time-poor entrepreneur what really matters when it comes to project success?

Well, you might have guessed it – accurate thinking and disciplined action …two things that contain words that most people don’t like hearing – accuracy and discipline.

We use models to drive our micro-projects.  Models are highly visual and they bring immediate transparency to the thinking process.  That transparency is also key in driving discipline through a project.  We can drive a wildly successful micro-project, on any topic (sales, service, performance improvement …), with just four simple models.

Models are our preferred system for thinking and influence in all our business projects, what’s your favourite project delivery system?