This month for our business book I read Think Again by Adam Grant. It’s not a traditional business education book, but did have some insights that can help business owners overcome some of the issues that they face, just like anyone else faces when they are on a success journey. The premise of this book is that people don’t do enough thinking, or more correctly, they don’t rethink things. When you don’t take time to think or rethink you can easily get in a rut that isn’t the best, can miss out on opportunities to improve or upgrade, and most dangerously you can fall into the trap of brushing off things that are actually a lot more serious than you make them out to be. So let’s take a look at some other insights we can learn from the book.
One of the biggest dangers that many business owners face is how overwhelmed they can get and how long it takes them to deal with all the things that have to be dealt with and how much time and how many resources are wasted because of that delay. There’s no way to add more hours into the day, but I do think we can do a better job evaluating how serious issues are, better prioritizing them to get done, and doing a better job of getting things on our to-do list done.
Something we’ve talked about recently in other posts is the value of continuing to learn throughout our lives. There’s big value in applying this concept to our businesses as well, especially with regard to our culture. Business culture is one of those important (and somewhat trendy) topics that we talk about, but one that we don’t always know how to break it down into concepts or how to make what sounds and is so important a reality in our business. Which brings us to the idea this book shared, and that’s the opportunity in having a “learning culture.” Why does this work so well for at least a starting point for building a healthy culture? Because when everyone is open to learning, it makes it safe to ask questions, to question things, to re-think, to have concerns, to be wrong, and to make suggestions.
Finally, what’s the ultimate goal of re-thinking? It’s to be on a mission to always bring your best. The idea that you’re at your best on ‘day 1’ means that there’s no room for improvement in your life or business. And if we’re honest, none of us are “perfect” on day 1 let alone at any point in time in your life. There’s always room for improvement, especially if you want to bring or be your best. There’s no shame in being wrong, the only issue is if you don’t do anything about what’s wrong. One of the reasons we are in the pickle we’re in as a world is because we didn’t think that we could face a pandemic and nothing could ever happen that would impact our supply chains or production capacity or ability to move as freely around the world as we have for many decades. I think we’ve kicked ourselves enough over the past two plus years, and now it’s a time to think about how we can do better going forward for ourselves and our world.
Do you take time each week to make sure you’re not missing any important details and to rethink the “standards” to make sure you’re putting your best business foot forward? If not, maybe it’s time to learn more about your business and the untapped potential it probably has.