When the “Shall I do it now or later?” question comes up for a new Centratel staff member, their not-yet-disciplined internal dialogue goes something like this: “What’s the difference if I do this task now or later? I just don’t feel like doing it right now. I’ll do it later because my guess is I will feel more like doing it then.” A variation is, “I function better under pressure. I need an imminent deadline to force me to take action, so I’ll do this task next week when that condition will exist (or, maybe, the task will miraculously disappear by then).” Sound familiar?
During job orientation, we ask the new staff member to change that internal self-talk to “I’ll do it now because that is how things are done at Centratel.”
Our experienced managers embrace the “Do it now” credo because it is so potently effective, not just because it’s our policy, but because it just works! No need for self-explanation; no time for inane back-and-forth internal dialogue. The rule is, “just do it NOW and let’s get on with things!”
Yes, this “because I said so” dictate may grate a bit, especially with the independence and freedom we Westerners take for granted. We don’t like arbitrary rules imposed by others, but in a business an employee has the freedom to quit if the rules don’t seem reasonable. In the free world, anyone can leave a job to go to work for someone else, start a new business, or sit on the couch and do nothing.
But, for the new Centratel employee, once a concept is tested and the workability of it proven, it’s a no-brainer. It’s just logic: Consistently superior end-results are justification for cast-in-concrete methodology.
Author of the book, Work The System: The Simple Mechanics of Making More and Working Less, Sam Carpenter is hosting a January 2009 two-day, life-changing Boot Camp that will change your life (and your business) forever. See www.workthesystem.com/bootcamp for details.
