If At First You Don't Succeed; Try, try a Micro Structure

We are two weeks into 2020. How’s your business plan going? It can be a very disheartening experience in life to set out with the best of intentions only to feel immediately like you are off-track in some fashion. If you are looking for overarching philosophies on creating the right business plan; I stand by the advice I gave in my previous posts – Make Your 2018 Business Plan Stick, 2019 Business Planning: Five for Five, and Q1 Reflections for Q2 Corrections. This post has a singular focus on making that plan a reality.

In my life and business practice, I call it Micro Structure. It’s not complicated, but it’s also not synonymous with simply attacking a smaller piece of a larger goal. Micro Structures are supportive to the larger goal, but the magic lies in three key areas – scope, duration, and commitment. The easiest way to illustrate is with an example. You’re gonna love it. It’s not obvious at all (wink wink).

Broker Tim has determined through careful business planning that in order to achieve his 2020 income goal, he needs to make 5,000 outbound calls, or approximately 100 dials per week. He’s a few weeks into the year now, and he isn’t even coming close to achieving that number. In fact, he is hardly on the phones at all. Let’s create some Micro Structure for Tim around calls.

·      Scope – Tim should be making 100 dials per week, but he isn’t. Can we agree that some calls would be better than no calls at all? So Tim, what is a number of calls you can commit to that, no matter what, you are going to make? Initially, he may come back and say, “I need to make 20 dials per day.” I say, “yes, but you aren’t. So what is a number you know you can hit with everything else you have going on. No excuses. Make it any number higher than 0.” He agrees to 5. Sure, it isn’t what needs to be done long-term, but 5 calls are better than no calls. We’ve temporarily lowered the bar, so he can make sure he gets over it. The point of scope is to back it down to a place that is almost a lay-down achievement.

·      Duration – Do it for a week. If it works out, you can always do more next week. When using this with my clients, duration is flexible based on the difficulty of what we are trying to do. No joke, I’ve sent clients away with a one-hour plan. Most Micro Structures work very well in durations of one day to one month. Some will stretch to quarterly.

·      Commitment – Broker Tim isn’t sold on this idea. He’s not sure if it will work. Good news Broker Tim, if it doesn’t work for you, next Monday there is nothing to prevent you from going back to your old ways or trying something new. You aren’t married to a Micro Structure.

This simple technique is so effective for people. It gives them time to build new muscle around their goals. It eliminates the odd human tendency to recoil from long-term commitment. It also interrupts the negative pattern of what I refer to as Sunday Night Repentance. You know that moment when we get so frustrated with all the things that aren’t right in our world and vow to change them all this week. You will eat nothing but organic kale, drink distilled water, make 100 calls per day, help your kids with their homework, start CrossFit, and get involved in your community. And by Monday afternoon, at the buffet, it’s all over.

Achievement has a psychology. Unfortunately, so does failure. Both can feed on themselves, and it is imperative that we interrupt the latter. Micro Structure can begin to reinforce a psychology of achievement. Micro Structure isn’t about giving up on your ideal goals and aspirations; it’s about the transition from where we are starting.