Plan with intent for success
M Anthony Sacco for Stratalyne
I just had a meeting with two of the members of my referral group. We were at the first stage of forming a sub-group in order to take advantage of our overlapping target markets. If we created a strong, synergistic affiliation it meant an increase in business for all three of us. Some people might go into such a meeting with little or no preparation figuring that they would simply do their elevator speech and leave the rest up to the others. I say that lacks the power of intent.
In Great by Choice by Jim Collins and Morten T. Hanson (HarperCollins 2011) one overarching theme is the overcoming of uncertainty through preparation for the eventualities with intent or intentional discipline. For instance, planning an intentional strategy for dealing with luck be it good or bad. Or planning for the long game (they use a 20 mile hike) rather than just the near game (their example is a sprint). The point is that business requires that you address change with positive intent. There will be times that will be disruptive just by the nature of the real world so plan for ways to survive the negative and leverage the positive with intent to succeed.
So what did I do to prepare before my meeting with my referral sources? I framed my participation with the intent of describing a vision for our collaborative relationship and subsequent success. This put our thoughts into the future with a positive perspective. It also started us off with an objective so we could be productive from the get-go. And it began our project focused on a plan with intent for success
STRATALYNE 