Throw Away Your Annual Business Plan with Brian Moran

The annual business plan.

Insightful, productive work for some.

Management mandated waste of time for others.

What if there was a better way?

Brian Moran, President and Founder of The 12 Week Year™, has nearly thirty years of expertise as a corporate executive, speaker, entrepreneur, consultant, coach and is a New York Times best-selling author.

Brian is a recognized expert in the field of leadership and execution. His realization that most people don’t lack ideas, but struggle with effective implementation led him to the development of ‘The 12 Week Year™’.

The 12 Week Year™ helps individuals and organizations perform at their very best by taking the excitement, urgency and focus you experience in October, November and December and packaging that into a proven system EVERY 12 Weeks to experience explosive results.

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Let’s Do It Different In 2018

Maybe you are coming off a terrific year in 2017, or perhaps you had a disappointing year. In either case the challenge is the same: How do you make 2018 a great year!

In an effort to improve, most companies and individuals will search for new ideas and strategies. They will seek out new marketing techniques, sales ideas, cost-cutting measures and customer service enhancements, hoping that these new approaches will deliver better results.

The number one factor holding individuals, and entire companies back from achieving what they are truly capable of is not a lack of knowledge, intellect or information. It’s not some new strategy or idea. It’s not additional training. It’s not a larger network of “connected” people. It’s not hard work, natural talent or luck. Of course all these things help, they all play a factor, but they are not the things that make the difference.

You’ve no doubt heard the saying that knowledge is power. I disagree. Knowledge is only powerful if you use it, if you act on it. People spend lifetimes acquiring knowledge to what purpose? It benefits no one unless the person acquiring the knowledge does something with it. And great ideas; well great ideas are worthless unless they are implemented. The marketplace only rewards those ideas that get implemented. You can be smart, you can have access to lots of information and great ideas, you can be well connected, work hard and have lot’s of natural talent, but in the end, you have to execute.

Execution is the single greatest market-differentiator. Great companies and successful individuals execute better than their competition.

It is not enough to know. There is a big difference between knowing, and doing.

My experience has shown that most people have the capacity to double or triple their results (and income) just by more consistently applying what they already know. And yet people continue to chase new ideas thinking that the next idea is the one that will magically make it all better.

The barrier standing between you and life you are capable of living is a lack of consistent execution. Effective execution will set you free. It is THE path to accomplish the things you desire.

The 12 Week Year™

One of the things that gets in the way of individuals and organization effectively executing and achieving their best is the annual planning process. As strange as this is going to sound, annual goals and plans are often a barrier to high performance.

The trap is what we call “annualized thinking.” At the heart of annualized thinking is an unspoken belief that there is plenty of time in the year to make things happen. In January, December looks a long way off. We mistakenly believe that there is lots of time in the year, and we act accordingly.

Forget about a year, let’s redefine a year: A year is no longer 12 months, it is now only 12 weeks. That’s right, a year is now a 12 week period. There are no longer four periods in a year; that’s old thinking. Now, there is just a 12 Week Year, followed by the next 12 Week Year, ad infinitum. Each 12 week period stands on its own – it is your year.

The 12 Week Year™ creates a new end game date – the point at which you assess your success (or lack thereof). It narrows your focus to the week and more to the point, the day, which is where execution occurs. The 12 Week Year brings that reality front and center. When you set your goals in the context of a 12 Week Year you no longer have the luxury of putting off the critical activities, thinking to yourself that there is “plenty of time” left in the year. Once 12 weeks becomes your year then each week matters; each day matters; each moment matters.

The result is profound. Most people experience about a 30% in their first 12 weeks when operating on the 12 Week Year^TM platform. So let me give you three steps to get you executing more effectively and crushing your goals.

3 Steps

Here are 3 steps to achieving more in the next 12 weeks than most will in 12 months.

Set a 12 Week Goal – Start by establishing a 12 week goal. Annual goals are helpful but they lack immediacy and urgency. 12 week goals create focus and urgency.

Build a 12 Week Plan – 12 Week Planning is so much more effective than traditional planning because it is more predictable and focused. The key here is less is more. A 12 week plan embraces the notion of “lets be great at a few things versus mediocre at many.”

Apply the Weekly Routine – Having a goal and a plan is helpful, but it’s not enough. The key to your success is executing your plan. To ensure you execute at a high level adopt the Weekly Routine. If you do the following three things on a weekly basis you can’t help but get better!

The Weekly Routine:

Plan Your Week – Take a few minutes at the beginning of each week to plan your week. Use your 12 Week Plan to ID the tactics that are due this particular week.

Score Your Week – At the end of each week you will want to score your execution. In the end you have greater control over your actions than you do your outcomes. Calculate a weekly execution score by dividing the number of tactics completed by the number due.

Meet With a Peer Group – Did you know that you are 7 times more likely to be successful if you meet regularly with a group of your peers. Find two to three other people who are committed and willing to meet for 15-20 minutes each week.

That’s it: Three simple steps! Plan your week, score your week, meet with a group of peers, how easy is that. Do them, and you will improve – guaranteed. Here’s the catch; the steps I’ve outlined are easy to do, and even easier not to do. So make a commitment to engage with them for the next 12 weeks, and watch what happens.

Written by Brian Moran