BE CLEAR - A Continuous Improvement Tool
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been talking about defining your purpose, living with intention, and refining the skill of self-reflection in conjunction with the launch of my new Personal Planning Guidebook, which is a free download here on my website. Today, we’re going to continue that conversation and introduce a tool for use in your journey of continuous improvement and lifelong learning.
While the Guidebook is focused on defining a vision for your future and the steps it will take to get there, simultaneously adopting a continuous improvement and lifelong learning mindset is critical to making the small, daily changes that are integral to moving forward with intention each day. In continuous improvement circles, this is called “managing for daily improvement,” or MDI.
While the big vision may seem hairy and audacious, it’s easy to wake up and say “yea, I’ll make progress tomorrow.” Procrastination is the enemy of progress, so training yourself to make small, achievable improvements in your daily workflow and/or lifestyle is, in my opinion, a necessary condition to develop the discipline that’s required to achieve your bigger goals.
That’s right, it takes discipline to get to where you want to go. When you take a look around at the “successful” people in your life, I’d put all the money in my pocket on the bet that they all share the skill of discipline.
Some might call discipline a trait and argue that discipline is something that is difficult (or impossible) to learn. That’s pure BS. Yes, some humans, myself included, have a natural tendency to procrastinate—why do today that which can be done tomorrow? Yes, some humans lack a natural tendency toward being industrious and lack “motivation,” but this natural tendency can be countered with planning and discipline.
I argue that many individuals who deem themselves to be “lazy” haven’t yet connected with their purpose, lack a clear vision for their future, and have not built the mental and physical muscle to engage in continuous improvement and make themselves purposefully uncomfortable by expanding their portfolio of skills through learning. When purpose and vision are not clear, the status quo becomes a warm, comfortable blanket to snuggle up in.
So let’s introduce a tool to help build those mental and physical muscles of continuous improvement. I encourage you to BE CLEAR with yourself. That’s right, I’m introducing a new acronym and it’s time to break it down.
First and foremost, the word “BE” is in the phrase to indicate intention. In this context, BE is used as a verb—an action. I will be intentional. I will be deliberate.
Second, the BE CLEAR tool should be used every day. If using the tool every day seems daunting, plan to use it every other day, or even once per week. The important thing is to BE CLEAR—to make time in your routine—to change your routine to include continuous improvement and learning. Remember, you’re building mental and physical muscle here. To make progress, you must exercise frequently!
Third, let’s define the main acronym. CLEAR = Choose, Learn, Experiment, Apply, Repeat
Based on the schedule or cadence you’ve set for yourself, CHOOSE one thing you’d like to improve. It’s critical to make the thing you want to improve small, incremental, and achievable. Bigger improvements should be built into the goal set that is part of the personal planning process outlined in the Guidebook.
Next, LEARN about the thing you want to improve. Fortunately, we live in a world where free or near free learning resources are all around us—YouTube, Reddit subgroups, product and industry-specific forums, etc. are good places to start. Watch and/or read about how others approach the challenge you’ve identified. Be curious, open minded, and get your information from multiple sources to avoid mis/disinformation.
Once you’ve done a bit of investigation regarding best practices, it’s time to EXPERIMENT. Don’t just blindly put what you learned into practice—test out what you learned and tweak as needed. Remember the fallacy of sunk cost. Sometimes you put in the effort to improve and there is no return on the investment of your time. On any journey of continuous improvement, there are setbacks and unexpected complications. If an improvement isn’t working as expected, try something else. Persistent experimentation will yield unexpected (and sometimes surprising) results.
After you’ve experimented with an improvement, APPLY it to your new standard way of working. However, it’s important to remember that we don’t set anything in stone. The new way of working that’s been adopted will likely need to change again in the future as you learn more about new innovations, products, and tools that can be applied to your current standard work.
Finally, REPEAT the exercise. Choose something else to improve based on the cadence you chose in step 2.
So there you have it. BE CLEAR about engaging in a lifelong journey of continuous improvement and learning. Yes, the longer term exercise of defining purpose, vision, and establishing a plan to achieve your desired future state is important, but building the capability to make small, incremental improvements—day in, day out—will help build the discipline, resilience, courage, and growth mindset that’s an essential foundation for your bigger aspirations.
