I read a lot of business books but one that has really shaped the way I do business is Measure What Matters by John Doerr. He’s a venture capitalist who invested at a very early state in Silicon Valley companies including Google and Amazon. That’s not a bad track record. You can apply his methodology to any area of your life (and I’m trying to). But it really comes into its own when you adapt it for your business in the way I’ve done for mine. Start with a simple statement of intent. But think big. You should be shooting for the stars. Write down the single most important objective you need to meet over the next three months in order to achieve it. Then add a few more – up to a maximum of five in total – so you have one major objective and three or four minor objectives. Every Sunday I look at the week ahead and I set out the tasks I need to tick off in order to achieve my ‘major’ and ‘minors’. Results are measured with a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ against each of those tasks. Setting out a vision, choosing objectives and measuring key results is a simple but effective way to hold yourself to account. But don’t take just take my word for it; the original idea was developed at Intel and used by Google.
How To Get Structured
For the system to work you have to achieve 100 per cent of what you set out to do. It’s hard to keep on top of it and you have to be disciplined. At Google, anyone who scored under 100 per cent would be told they weren’t pushing themselves enough. I would never be that tough on my colleagues, but I have asked everyone in my business to start using the 90 day system. But it only works if staff set their own objectives. All of us are far more motivated to achieve tasks that have been set by us rather than for us. When everyone signs up it creates transparency across the company. I have so much faith in the 90 day system I’m building software so I can implement it at every business I own.
