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What One Thing?

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A few weeks ago I asked my readers what the most important issue was in their business. Hundreds responded with a variety of answers, but one of the most common was, "How do I get everything that needs doing done?"

Happily, I have an answer for this question, but like many things in life, it carries both good news and bad news. The good news is, if you are one of those fortunate few with access to unlimited resources, you can get everything done.

But that's really the bad news, isn't it.

Because among all the people I know - not a single one of them - not one - has access to unlimited resources. Even executives I work with whose budgets run into the hundreds of millions - even they do not have unlimited resources. Even they have to make choices and trade-offs.

Earl Nightingale once asked the question, "What one thing would you do if you knew you could not fail?" And Jack Palance's Curly in City Slickers, asked a similar question: "What is the one thing?"

Their questions contains seeds of the answer to this quandary.

Because all things on your plate are not created equal. They are not all important. They do not all have the same impact, the same dependencies, the same possibility of reward.

And even if you think they do, upon close examination you'll find they do not.

The trick of course, is to figure out the one thing that matters most...

Right now...

And focus on that.

Of all the ideas I have sifted through in my role as an executive coach and business coach among the most relevant is the concept of sacrifice. My definition is giving up something of value for something of even greater value.

Sacrifice is the key. You have to let go of your attachment to most things on your plate, and figure out what things are of greatest value.

You don't get everything done, and you can't get everything important done. If you select well, and are willing to sacrifice the rest, you can get the most important things done. By letting go of the rest, everything essential, everything vital, everything earth-shattering can be done.

Can you imagine what life would be like if you only worked on things that were earth-shattering?

While this seems simple, obvious even, most of us have struggled with it all our lives.

You probably have trouble figuring out, from day to day, what is going to make the greatest difference. I'd be willing to bet that if you take a look, you probably can't even figure out what the criteria are.

So let's go back to Earl Nightingale's question: What one thing would do if you knew you could not fail?

Look at the things on your to-do list this way:

What will have the biggest impact?

What will yield the greatest revenues and profits?

What will open the doors to the future you desire?

What has the strongest possibility of success?

What has the largest reward to risk ratio?

What will give you the finest return on your investment?

What will free up the most time?

What will free up the most resources?

What will help you realize your success strategy?

And, what will bring you closest to your goals?

If you can first figure out which among these questions are most relevant for you, and answer them for all your projects, you can rank the things on your plate according to what matters most and is absolutely essential.

And once you do that, you can figure out which among all the various tasks you have should - no, must - get your attention.

THOSE ARE THE ONLY ONES YOU WORK ON.

Get those done, and if you have time left over, turn your attention to the next batch.

I call it strategic focus. Figuring out what's really going to rock your world. Figuring out what is really going to deliver the goods. And working on those things.

Only those things.

The rest of it will simply have to wait.

Maybe forever.

If you can wrap your mind around this one simple idea, figuring out what to do next becomes pretty easy. And because you are focusing your energies on few things instead of many, things get done.

To make it easier for you to figure out what matters most in your business and help you build systems to take care of the things that are, I've developed a new, comprehensive and first-of-its-kind program. The Turnkey Your Business Home Study and Mentoring Program is a twelve month hands-on course, containing step-by-step how-to manuals, audio CDs, CD-ROMs, monthly conference calls and personal mentoring. It helps entrepreneurs and executives create detailed systems and processes to "turnkey" their businesses. One of the most important elements of the program is the Critical Factors Process which helps you rank every aspect of your business, along with every task associated with it, in the order of importance for your company. That way you can create duplicable business processes for those things that matter most, and then optimize those same things getting the greatest return on your efforts and your time.

You can find out more about the Turnkey Your Business Home Study Program by linking to http://www.turnkeycoach.com.

Best regards,

Paul Lemberg

The final support date for Windows XP is just 840 days away and while that might seem like a long time, you and I both know that April 8, 2014 will come all too soon for some companies who are still reluctant to make the move.

If you’re still on Windows XP and are planning to rollout Windows 7, here are 10 questions you’ll want to ask yourself while planning out your deployment:

1. Do we need to invest in test hardware, personnel and infrastructure? Notice it doesn’t say IF testing should be done. That’s a given. But can you set up a lab – either physical or virtual – where the deployment process and end configuration can be tried out? Who will do the testing? How will it be done?
2. What hardware do we need to replace? Make sure you know the minimum requirements are for Windows 7 and which of your computers will need to be upgraded or replaced. The Microsoft Assessment and Planning (MAP) Toolkit is a free tool that can help you collect detailed information on your current infrastructure for an analysis of your hardware and device compatibility and give recommendations.
3. Do we need to build and maintain a desktop image? If your organization tends to get a lot of new machines coming in or computers that get handed from one person to another and this is taking up a lot of IT cycles, you probably want to look at building a desktop image if you don’t already. A well built image can reduce your deployment time substantially and advancements in imaging technology mean that it’s no longer necessary to spend hours saving user data off an old computer, cloning the hard drive of a reference computer and then restoring the data you saved. Having only one image to maintain even if your organization uses diverse hardware is more of a reality than ever.
4. Are our corporate applications going to work? The Microsoft Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) is a free download that can help you evaluate and mitigate application compatibility issues. Applications that can’t be upgraded may be able to be shimmed or run in Windows XP mode.
5. How will employees’ files be moved? Knowing where employees are storing their files is critically important. How many times have you heard: “I didn’t put that file in the System32 directory – the computer did it!”. Once you know where files actually are, a plan is needed to ensure that user files and user settings are migrated. Bob won’t care if the rollout is a complete resounding success if his desktop wallpaper isn’t as he left it!
6. Will Office 2010 or IE 9 be rolled out at the same time? Often this is the perfect time to make other adjustments and upgrades to the desktop infrastructure along with Windows 7. There is all sorts of information on deploying Microsoft Office 2010 and Internet Explorer 9 that can be used in the planning. If the Microsoft Desktop Toolkit (MDT) is being used for the deployment, Office 2010 can be added to the MDT environment.
7. Is this a good time to assess and update policies and security? As in #6, deployment projects present good opportunities to revisit and revise other areas of the desktop infrastructure. What policies are in place and what can be improved? Are there group policies that we could benefit from to better manage and streamline our desktop environment? Are there security enhancements that we can take advantage of?
8. How will remote users get updated? Instead of remote employees like the sales teams shipping their notebooks in to get upgraded and incurring downtime, consider swapping out old hardware for newly configured machines or sending them a bootable USB with the Windows 7 image on it to do the upgrade themselves.
9. What’s the impact going to be to users and the helpdesk? Will there be any planned downtime and how will this be communicated to users? As with any change, there will likely be a short term increase in calls to the helpdesk. Is the helpdesk appropriately staffed and equipped to handle questions? Using tools such as the Windows Troubleshooting Platform and the Problem Steps Recorder can help resolve issues quickly and diminish ongoing helpdesk calls.
10. What’s the ongoing maintenance of the desktop infrastructure going to look like? Taking control of the desktop environment is a huge step in streamlining staff productivity, improving processes and freeing up IT time to devote to developing new ways to use technology and IT know-how to business needs. Tools like those found in the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP) and practical guidance found in the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) can help.

I’ve included a lot of information in the above 10 questions and each one could be a separate article on it’s own. That’s why the conversation doesn’t end here.

On the next AlignIT Manager Tech Talk, Jonathan and I will be discussing how to de-risk your Windows 7 deployment with Dave Kawula, a Senior Consultant with 1E and a guy who has more knowledge of desktop deployments in his pinkie finger than most people have in their whole heads. Join us LIVE on Thursday, January 12 from 12-12:30pm ET for De-Risking Your Windows 7 Deployment.
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