6 Steps to a Quality REVIEW!
Whether things are going well or not so well, a quality REVIEW process is essential.
A quality review will help you assess your strategy in an objective manner. You will know what is working for you and what’s not. A review should not only look at the actions so far but also assist to create more efficiency this point forward.
Here is a 6 step process for a quality REVIEW:
R: Rate your satisfaction
You follow a plan to achieve a goal, begin your review process by assessing the satisfaction generated with respect to how close you are to your goal (not plan but goal). Your satisfaction level matters the most when you are working on something. Based on your satisfaction level, plans will be altered. Why do I say rate your satisfaction? — Some plans are effective but they do not give satisfaction. These plans need to be made more efficient as they can become a burden. When something becomes a burden it is not sustainable.
E: Elucidate what works & what does not
Check if you are achieving your results because of your plan or in spite of your plan. We need to clean out the excess which is not yielding results. E.g. is social media getting you clients or is it just improving visibility? Is reducing carbs actually leading to weight loss or is it because you are exercising regularly? At this stage simply sit down and think logically what’s truly working for you and what’s not.
V: Vision sharpening
Now that you know what’s working for you and what’s not, let’s start looking ahead strategically. At times the vision is simply too broad for a plan –
E.g. I want more clients, I want to lose weight, I want to change my job, I want to change my career etc.
Sharpen your vision so that you can make clear strategy to execute.
E.g. I want to sign three clients in two months; I want to lose 6 kg in 2 months etc.
I: Identify areas of strength & improvement
Now that your vision has been re-sharpened, identify your areas of strength & improvement. Often one keeps on focusing on areas of improvement and forgets his/her core strength. Start focusing on your strength and balance it out with the areas of improvement instead of vice versa. E.g. If you strength is Instagram focus on that and balance it out with other social media instead of trying to master a new social media platform and using less of your core strength.
E: Engage in writing to eliminate confusion
Your goals are set; you know what your strength is and what your area of improvement is; yet something stops you from achieving your goals — what is that? Many get confused at this stage.
Write — write — write!
Here’s a funny thing — many seek clarity and yet many don’t opt for the elimination method. Seek clarity by eliminating confusion! — Works wonders — try it today. Write down all your confusion. I emphasize on writing because often while writing one gets the solution. Further when you focus on writing a problem, you get more clarity as to what is the root cause. This helps eliminate confusion.
W: What’s next?
The most important step is the next step! Your visions maybe for a year, month, week or day — to reach there you need to know your next step. You have now got all the ingredients of making an awesome strategy — now what? Focus on what’s next. When I say focus, it means having the courage to say no to something that’s not a part of your core strategy till your next review!
If you have carefully read this blog you also can see how the REVIEW process is RE — VIEW — that is how to evaluate the past steps and how to formulate the future ones!
Are you engaging in periodic reviews? How do you go about your reviews? I am listening…
