Are you working to maximize your returns?

Colleagues, 

​My wife, Pam, is an amazing teacher (and professor) at Western Carolina University. She has high expectations, is conscientious, and cares deeply about her students. She is also struggling with something that many of us are struggling with right now.
 
How do we change how we do something and still get the same results?

The law of diminishing returns (read more at Wikipedia) says that our initial effort is also the most productive. Our secondary effort yields improvement, but not to the degree that the initial effort did. If we give still more (tertiary) effort, we gain even less.
 
The alignment in an organization actually takes the place of that initial effort, so we can focus our work at the secondary or even tertiary level where we create better outcomes.

Now, our organizations aren’t aligned. Whether you are in education, sales, healthcare, manufacturing or non-profit work, the way in which you accomplish your goals and fulfill your purpose has changed. Organizations aren’t aligned anymore, so we are having to do the initial work of recreating alignment.

That means that we aren’t able to invest in the secondary or tertiary efforts right now because we are focused on the initial effort. The result is that our outcomes won’t be as good as they were before. To expect different is to be unrealistic.

Reflect on these things today:

• Are your expectations for yourself realistic?
• How much energy are you investing in realignment?
• What about those around you?

 
If you’ve accomplished the realignment part, congratulations!
 
If you haven’t, focus on doing so, and let your high expectations relax – for now.

Do good and be well, 

​Frederick