Pulsing in Business

We often hear the concept about "momentum" when it comes to many things, sports teams are where we see it used often.  It's this concept of hitting a stride where the effort required to maintain it is less than it took to get there, often allowing for a longer "run" of what you are doing. Proceeding efficiently.  It also means there is equilibrium within the environment, the right people, parts, and placement is in place at the right time to allow for more to be achieved. 

This doesn't happen by accident, it is built with intent, and when you manage to catch the wave, you can start to feel it.  In business operations we often put systems in place to work towards these goals.  My purpose of this article is discuss how you construct this sense of momentum, or "pulsing" because it's more like a heartbeat for your business.  When a rhythm is established, it creates an environment for success. 

Pulsing

First, what is "pulsing" really?  Simply, it is creating a series of defined, recurring activities inside a framework for running your business.  Your leadership team and staff can plan and begin to anticipate actions and reactions because you are constructing a predictable approach to operating a successful business. 

You have to create well defined goals that meet your overall objectives and complete them within an agreed timeframe.  You do this by meeting yearly for the real big items, quarterly for the 90 day strategic and tactical goals, monthly for business financial reviews, and weekly for well-defined issues, scorecard, and goal tracking. 

I won't go into too much detail on the specifics of each meeting, reach out to me if you want to discuss the contents, but the point is that the agenda components match the appropriate cadence.   You don't rehash yearly goals at the weekly meeting - these meetings have specific, well-defined agendas in advance, start and end on time, and cover the intended topics with clear action items, ownership, and accountability coming out of them.

Why is Pulsing Important

As I mentioned abstractly at the beginning, when you put together a deliberate set of recurring activities, a few things start to happen.

Predictability begins to occur.  Your team starts to get a feel for the topics, understands what's important for each meeting, and becomes more prepared and comfortable with what they need to be ready for both in advance, and during the meeting.

Measurements are understood.  The elements used to understand the health of your business are visited, revisited, and become engrained in the thought process of what makes your organization hum.  You become trained to focus those key indicators because they are revisited consistently during these meetings. They continue to drive home the importance of measurables.

Agreements are made.  Your team begins to work together to iron out the "how" of achieving the measurable goals.  They collaborate at the right time to ensure the measurements are accurate, taken, delivered, and ready to be discussed at these important meetings.

Improvement. Mistakes are made and corrected.  These checkpoints provide the opportunity to identify errors, discuss them with the team, and agree to the necessary adjustments required to solve the problem, then action is assigned, clear objectives understood, and the time between meetings is taken to solve the problem.

Trust builds.  When people work together to overcome obstacles, agree on measurable goals, and take ownership of mistakes, they build the all-important holy grail of team building - trust.  Without trust there is nothing.  With trust they can disagree, be completely open about their opinions, and believe their colleagues have their back because they are all in it for the success of the organization.

Accountability takes over.  Besides trust, I can't think of a more important concept in an organization besides accountability.  It requires clear understanding of ownership, successful communication of measurable objectives, and the freedom to meet those without interference.  This happens as team members discuss, understand, and accept their role within the organization and come prepared to report and collaborate on those goals at each meeting level. 

When pulsing momentum occurs in your organization you can feel it.  It will put a big smile on your face because you have achieved something that requires more than hard work - it requires that you believe and trust in your team to build your company. 

Ryan