doug smith training

  Those things that bother you the most? Process problems. Those things that are most fixable? Process problems. Every single process can be improved. What are you waiting for? Get started. -- doug smith

I've been following Pat Flynn's income stream whenever I can lately and learning much about online businesses. He often says that we need to be comfortable going from "disaster to master" in our efforts to build success. Before you get to mastery, you make a bunch of mistakes along the way. And, he's right. My experience has been that you WILL make lots of mistakes along the way. We learn, we grow, we do better the next time. Overcoming the urge to be perfect before moving has been one of my biggest challenges. Imperfection is part of the experiment. We try, we fall, we get back up. We learn, we grow, we do better the next time. It never stops -- and that's half the fun. -- doug smith

There are no perfect people, products, or processes. Life is more or less a constant improvement project. -- doug smith

This video uses a similar process to one that I share in my workshops. The video is around 12 minutes long but can save you hours of toil and trouble in your future problem solving sessions. I like that they call it a jam. As a musician, I can relate to the collaborative tools used, even though much of it is in silence (which, incidentally, gives your quiet and reflective team members equal footing.) Each of the steps is described in writing, and there's another link to the video here . You'll need lots of sticky notes, whiteboard space, dots (two sizes) and markers. Always have extra markers whenever you use dry-erase markers because you don't want to run dry. I recommend reaching agreements at the beginning on moving forward without taking anything personally, respecting each other, and following directions from the facilitator because this is a rapid process and any hurt feelings or excited debate will just slow you down.  There's a great use of one of m...