What if we captured every new thought we got about the way we work and then tried it out?
It could even be a 4 step process.
For example, you get a thought about what would happen if you put down a price marker early in a negotiation.
You plan to try that out the next time you meet a customer and maybe you discover that it wasn’t a good idea.
Alternatively, you might discover that you get an advantage because you’re setting the pace for the meeting and they’re on the defensive.
Either way, you review what happened. Did you stick to your plan or did you improvise and maybe even improve on it? Were there some missteps which you need to tighten up on?
What about the folks across the table? Did they respond according to your plan or did the unexpected happen?
It isn’t easy but paying attention to how your set piece strategy goes when you try it out in practice, is actively contributing to your new learning because, next time, your plan will be based on experience.
Reviewing how our thoughts turn out in practice gives us a picture of what we learnt.
That’s the point.
During a meeting, when we try out a planned strategy, there is no right or wrong outcome. There’s only learning.
If we do things the way they’ve always been done opportunities may be missed.
Keeping a record of what we are learning at work is a good habit because we begin to see a pattern forming as mistakes get put right and we find our own way forward.
Here’s the process again:
1. getting a thought and noticing it
2. shaping your thought into an action
3. carrying out the action
4. reviewing the action
5. building on the experience
You’ve captured the learning and added a bonus step to your process!
Keep going.
After working in sales and then purchasing roles for almost 18 years with companies in the UK, Japan, Korea and then here in Hong Kong, I became involved in the field of business skills development. 20 years later, my special interests in this area are individual management style building, interpersonal communication and influencing strategies. 