Many years ago, there was an American movie called, ‘Honey, I shrunk the kids’. That’s what I feel like when I first read the book, The Twelve Week Year, by Brian P Moran and Michael Lennington. They challenged the Annual 12 months planning, to shrink it to 12 weeks.
The starting point is the vision, the emotional connection, the purpose of it. So why 12 weeks? It is more predictable, more focused, and has a better structure and more importantly, better execution.
The important lessons I have learnt from the book are:
– It is not a knowledge problem, it’s an execution problem
– The emotional connection with my vision, my compelling reason
– Doing things consistently – on a daily and weekly basis
– Measuring effectively – measuring both the execution and the results. We tend to measure just the results and get discouraged. By measuring execution, we can determine if our execution is providing the results we want. This was what really struck me – measuring execution.
– Accountability is not consequences, but taking ownership of our choices
After using this 12 Week Year for 12 weeks, I found that the idea is good, but my implementation was flawed. Without an accountability partner for the Weekly Accountability Meeting, I was not measuring effectively. Measurement drives the process and without it, I was not achieving my results.
I also realize that I needed to take control of my time – to spend time intentionally, to be mindful of how I spend my time. My biggest time-waster is social media, where I can scroll through them for hours. It is also my biggest distraction to be checking my WhatsApp – even while typing this sentence!!!
Bottomline: this is a very good book and awesome concept. I need to implement it in a way that works for me, and I need an accountability partner.