Step Six: Develop Detailed Operating Plans for Performing the Selected 2,000 Percent Solution Projects

So they said to Him, “Where do You want us to prepare?”
— Luke 22:9 (NKJV)

Because the selected projects will carry the fondest desires
of so many people, enthusiasm for completing the tasks can
easily outrun the ability to organize and to do the work.
Preparation can help, and that’s another place where the
breakthrough servant can contribute. I favor such
preparation being structured as a separate 2,000 percent
solution project to be completed before the final decisions
are made about which 2,000 percent solution projects and
goals are to be pursued. The purpose of this project should
be to accomplish the to-be-selected 2,000 percent solution
projects twenty times faster than would otherwise occur.

That kind of speed-up may sound like a stretch to you, but
I’ve seen more organizations than I care to remember
vainly attempt to make the same breakthroughs for many
decades, as in the KFC example. If normal speed for your
organization is forty years, than twenty times faster is still
two years. Now, that doesn’t seem so fast, does it? In fact,
with proper preparation you should be able to do better
than two years in some of the 2,000 percent solution
projects.

If the normal speed for your organization is forty days, you
could focus instead on having the various 2,000 percent
solution projects accomplish a bigger multiple of benefits
during the same elapsed time. For instance, you could
consider how breakthrough projects might be designed to
create more complementary improvements to multiply
benefits for stakeholders. When your goal is to increase
speed of making the breakthroughs, establishing
complementary, multiplied benefits is also a worthy focus
to address.

Having worked with many well-intentioned, talented, but
inexperienced, 2,000 percent solution problem solvers,
I’ve noticed that progress in creating breakthrough
solutions is almost always stalled by the following
difficulties:

• Freeing up enough time to work effectively on the
projects
• Identifying what the personal and organizational stalls
are
• Designing and putting into place stallbusters to enable
these breakthrough-creating activities
• Locating the future best practices
• Defining the ideal best practices
• Selecting the right people and resources to successfully
implement the solutions

Let me briefly share some ways that these stalls can be
avoided through prior preparation. Let’s start with freeing
up enough time. Most people who are assigned to the project
are already fully loaded (at least in their own minds). They
cannot imagine where anything else can be fit in.

Despite this self-perception, most people can quickly free
up twenty-five hours a week for an important activity while
still meeting all their existing work responsibilities. They
can make this shift by eliminating time-wasting activities,
delegating as much as possible to others, teaching others to
do tasks so they can be delegated as well, combining
activities so that more than one thing can be done at the
same time (such as listening to a recorded book related to
work responsibilities while commuting or traveling), and
reorganizing the day so that important tasks are done
when the person is most productive.

The breakthrough servant can help everyone prepare for
the process by circulating information about how to get
more done while spending less time working while the
2,000 percent solution projects are being identified and
assigned. If everyone has already streamlined their
schedules before starting 2,000 percent solution projects,
those projects will receive a lot more timely and effective
attention. Lesson Four provides helpful directions that
can be adapted for this purpose to free up working hours.

People have a lot more trouble seeing their own stalls
than organizational ones. If they have been in an
organization for a long time, however, even organizational
stalls start to become invisible to them. By involving
colleagues, stakeholders, and family members to share
observations about areas of stalled progress, it will be
easier to trigger recognition of what the sources of such
delays are. As Lesson Seven describes, you can also gain a
lot of valuable insights by answering the questions posed
in The 2,000 Percent Solution and The 2,000 Percent
Solution Workbook.

Some people have trouble developing stallbusters,
especially those who have been keenly aware of long-
standing stalls. The people who are confused about how to
overcome the delays may need assistance from experts in
creating stallbusters for breakthrough projects. A wise
breakthrough servant will assume that he or she may not
know anyone internally or externally who is good in these
stallbusting activities. Acting on that assumption, the
breakthrough servant should look for examples of
individuals who and organizations that have overcome long-
standing and difficult stalls. Having found those examples,
interview people who were involved to see which ones are
most expert at identifying helpful stallbusters and how to
implement them. Find out which ones might be available
to assist those in your organization who will be working on
creating breakthroughs.

Many organizations are unaccustomed to thinking about
best practices and are ignorant of what they are. That’s a
difficult starting point for identifying what the future best
practices will be. The breakthrough servant should draw
on Lesson Six to launch studies that will either identify
relevant future best practices or provide useful
groundwork for others to complete that identification
.
Identifying the ideal best practices that your organization
should be seeking is often the most valuable information
that a breakthrough servant can help with in assisting the
organization to make 2,000 percent solutions. A good
place to begin is by using the Ideal Practice Blueprint and
expanding on those insights by following the other
recommendations in Lesson Six.

Selecting the right people and resources to implement the
solutions is a place where senior organizational leaders
often make serious mistakes. In all but the smallest
organizations, senior leaders rarely know who the most
talented people are in implementing various aspects of
new initiatives. In addition, senior leaders often lack the
educational backgrounds and experience needed to
understand what implementation resources can speed
and improve installing the solutions.

Until there’s some clarity about what the solutions are
going to be, it won’t be totally apparent what capabilities
and resources are needed. In those circumstances (which
are the norm), it’s helpful to develop an inventory of
talents, skills, experience, and resources and to describe
how best to use those capabilities.

With these three blueprints, you can expect to make
great accomplishments if you focus your attention and
apply what you have just read. I pray that you will. The
results will bring many blessings to you and others in
becoming more fruitful for the Lord.

Copyright 2010 Donald W. Mitchell All Rights Reserved.