GrowinBytes

How to Convert Your Great Ideas into Customer Value - GrowinBytes Ed. 107

Written by Linda Rolf

What happens when your list of great ideas keeps growing, and they never quite become the successes they could be?

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Tags: idea execution, value-effort matrix, customer value, actionable ideas

Success Secret 1: Getting Things Done

Written by Linda Rolf

"Someday is not a day of the week."

--- Janet Dailey

If you're like time-starved professionals everywhere, at least one of these phrases sounds uncomfortably familiar to you.

Check all that make you nod, cringe or laugh.

____"We want to tackle that big initiative in a few months. We’re busy right now."

____"I'm so busy I don't have time to stop and think."

____"Some days I just want to stay in my pajamas crawl back into bed."

Feel free to add some of your own.

The good news is you can reclaim your time, sharpen your focus, and get more of the things done that really matter.

Ready to learn how?


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Tags: productivity, efficiency, getting things done, mindset

Success Secret 2: What Does Your Best Day Look Like?

Written by Linda Rolf

"If you want something new, you have to stop doing something old."

--- Peter Drucker

If "I'm too busy" is your go-to response, then it's time banish "busy" from your vocaburlary.

Busy is a safe retreat, a default excuse for failing to make the forward progress you seek. From this moment commit to yourself that you will not let "I'm too busy" be your warm security blanket.

Ready to create your new most productive day?


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Tags: productivity, efficiency, getting things done, busy mindset

Success Secret 3: Practice the Thinking Time Rule

Written by Linda Rolf

”If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else.”

--- Yogi Berra

Somewhere in our growing up, we were sold the well-intended but utterly nonsensical notion that idle is bad and busy is good. Staring out the window was the mark of the motivationally deprived.

Productivity and efficiency have become benchmarks for doing more in less time with fewer resources. Measuring the creative output that comes from mind wandering is rarely effective in the moment. But this doesn’t mean that we should sacrifice thinking for results we can see right now.


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Tags: productivity, efficiency, getting things done, creativity, thinking

Success Secret 4: Embrace the Humble Checklist

Written by Linda Rolf

"Systematize the predictable. Humanize the exceptional."

--- Issy Sharp

There is something so satisfying about checking off a to-do list item. It doesn't even have to be a big deal. It's just that sense of "done" that releases dopamine in our brains when we do something rewarding.

How often do you have those nagging mental reminders of the things still undone? We all have them, and they can quickly add to our mental muck. This phenomenon is known as ....do you know what it is?


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Tags: productivity, efficiency, getting things done,checklists

Success Secret 5: What Do You Do With Those Great Ideas?

Written by Linda Rolf

Ideas are the lifeblood of a company committed to continuous growth and value creation. The challenge with a fledgling idea is it requires time, resources and nurturing to become more than another shiny distraction.

We have never suffered from a lack of ideas. What did frustrate us was what to do with all of them.

Does that sound familiar?


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Tags: productivity, efficiency, getting things done, ideas, creativity

Success Secret 6: The Magic of Writing Things Down

Written by Linda Rolf

"I write because I don't know what I think until I read what I say."

-- Flannery O'Connor

Outsourcing all of the stuff rolling around in your head to written words has immediate payback. There are no special skills, talents or tools required. You don’t have to be an award-winning wordsmith. You don’t even have to like to write.

This is an easy get-things-done ritual that anyone can start doing right now.  When you find yourself distracted by all of the disconnected thoughts sucking up your mental bandwidth, hit pause. Start making notes without worrying about format and structure. You have permission to ignore all the things your high school English teacher drilled into you.

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Tags: productivity, efficiency, getting things done, writing, daily habits, note-taking

Success Secret 7: Reward Your Small Successes Every Day

Written by Linda Rolf

"The single greatest motivator is making progress in one's work. The days that people make progress are the days they feel most motivated and engaged."

Start each day with an accomplishment. This doesn’t have to be the big knock it out of the park homerun, just a simple achievement that says "Done. I did that!”.


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Tags: productivity, efficiency, getting things done, success

Success Secret 8: Seth Godin Helps You Get Unstuck

Written by Linda Rolf

"There are a thousand thoughts lying within a man that he does not know till he takes up the pen to write."

---William Makepeace Thackery

It's not that you suddenly wake up one morning without one single thought. Your mind is a vast empty wasteland. Not even close.

It's quite the opposite.

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Tags: productivity, efficiency, getting things done,mental model, get unstuck

10 Ideas to Kickstart a Curious Learner Culture - GrowinBytes Ed. 106

Written by Linda Rolf

When I was kid, my mother told me it was rude to read my book at the breakfast table. Even to a 7-year-old that seemed like some lopsided logic. My father was sitting across from me comfortably buried in his morning newspaper. With my treasured Nancy Drew book unjustly banished from the table, I resigned myself to reading the ingredients on the cereal box. For some reason, that form of table reading was acceptable breakfast-time learning.


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Tags: expert generalist, reading, learning, curiosity culture

Solve Billion Person Problems Like Google - GrowinBytes Ed. 105

Written by Linda Rolf

I was browsing Amazon Prime Reading recently and discovered James Altucher's Reinvent Yourself. This eclectic collection of insights and wisdom from Altucher's podcast interviews become book #33 on my 2018 reading list.


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Tags: innovation, customer engagement, growth strategy

How a Simple Solution Created New Customers - GrowinBytes Ed. 104

Written by Linda Rolf

"What do our customers expect from us?" is a really basic question. During our first it's-time-for-a-change think session at Quest Mobility Solutions, this question was asked early and revisited often.


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Tags: customer experience, marketing strategy

Are You Innovating or Trying to Build a Better Past? - GrowinBytes Ed. 103

Written by Linda Rolf

Two of the biggest challenges mature companies face today are:

1) the acceptance that innovation is essential to remaining relevant and
2) how to become innovative

There's comfort and even a certain smugness that comes with retelling the story of our company's heroic journey. After all, we've earned a moment of self-congratulation for making it this far. Just showing up every day committed to growing, leading and inspiring isn't easy. In fact, some days it feels downright impossible.

But here's the reality ---


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Tags: innovation, growth strategy, Bill Gates, Microsoft, Steve Jobs

The Purpose of Business is to Create a Customer - GrowinBytes Ed. 102

Written by Linda Rolf

One of my favorite phrases is "we've always done it this way." Why? Because it simply begs for "why?" With that single word, the doors to unimagined growth and innovation opportunities fly open.


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Tags: growth strategy, innovation, Peter Drucker, Microsoft, Satya Nadella

Celebrate the Successes of Others - GrowinBytes Ed.101

Written by Linda Rolf

What are GrowinBytes? They are short, readable snacks to feed your creativity, curiosity and spirit of connectivity.

Even if you have never hammered a nail, you no doubt recognize the familiar orange Home Depot beacon in your neighborhood. I have two confessions.


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Tags: leadership, customer experience, employee recognition