Hope turns into Heroic Hope
We have all seen this image at some point in our lives- it is the power of compound interest.
Notice the hockey stick curve? This is the amazing benefit of a dedicated month after month strategy of saving.
But did you know this principle has impact in other areas of life?
Yes, the law of compounding works in many areas of our lives!
Take my family for instance.I have 4 children and 11 grandchildren. It took just under 20 years to get the 4 children. In another 20 years, 11 grandchildren (and growing) In 20
more years I could have between 20 and 40 great grandchildren; and maybe 100 great-great grandchildren 20 years later.
This is the law of compounding at work! Doing positive things over and over in such a way that the result is saved.
The application to business is the benefit of a Continuous Improvement Process.
Basically, you make continuous deposits of new systems and processes to improve the operations of
your business.
Rather than just reacting to all the crazy stuff that comes in the door day by day, you begin to catalog and manage issues and if they are important enough for you to pay
attention to them, you figure out how to solve the issue forever. This will require a system or process change. Problem solved, value of the business increased. Basically it’s a business value saving program.
Over time through the law of compounding the value of your business grows and grows and multiplies just like the interest table above.
Discover the priceless tools and know how to make great decisions from the new book “Decisive” by Chip and Dan Heath.
I have to admit that I am a fan of Chip and Dan Heath. It started with “Made to Stick” and continued with “Switch”.
I like the combination of clearly defined points to be made, supported with scientific research and helpful stories for better understanding and tools and hints for application.
Decisive is about making better choices; finding tools and methods to get to better decisions. Who doesn’t need that!
This is especially helpful when working on our Catalyst Cohorts Paradigm – Purposeful vs Reactive Behavior.
Decisive starts with defining the 4 villains of good decision making:
- The first villain is called Narrow Framing. Basically it’s a binary bias, an on-off switch, should I or shouldn’t I?
- The next is Confirmation Bias which means we gather supporting information that confirms our opinions.
- The third villain is Short-term Emotion that clouds our view.
- Finally, is our Overconfidence, or pride that we know more than we really do about how the future will unfold.
The remainder of the book lays out tools and processes to help overcome these Villains, cataloged into the acronym, WRAP.
- Widen your Options
- Reality – test your assumptions
- Attain distance before deciding, and
- Prepare to be wrong.
I highly recommend this excellent and useful research.
The encouraging thing for me is how this and other books continue to support our Catalyst Cohorts best practices for scaling as an Enterpriser.
Decisive Book Review By Thomas Noon