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Learning GR Agile Resources

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http://gettingresults.com/getting-results-the-agile-way/
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The Agile Results Productivity System in a Nutshell

The fastest way to learn the system is to think in Three Wins:
Three Wins for the Day
Three Wins for the Week
Three Wins for the Month
Three Wins for the Year

3 Steps to Build Your Results System the Agile Way

There are lots of ways to get started. I’m going to use the following approach because it seems to work really well:
Start with paper – a “paper-based” approach
Integrate Agile Results with your favorite tools
Walk your workflow

Start with Paper

This is a 10 to 20 minute exercise in total. It consists of three parts:
Monthly Wins (10 minutes)
Weekly Wins (5 minutes)
Daily Wins (5 minutes)

Exercise: 3 Wins for the Month

Here is a sample to inspire how you might structure your page:
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Three Wins, Hot, and the long list under A-Z.
Use three steps to guide you in creating your map of Monthly Wins:
Write down all the things on your mind for this month. What are the things that are really on your mind. In this step, we just list out all the things we want to achieve by the time the month is over. You will likely have a long list of things that were on your mind. Write them all down. At this point, just dump the list. Don’t worry about whether you alphabetize it, but keep in mind that if you do name the things on your list well and alphabetize them, you will have an even more powerful list. So you can do it later, but for now, just get what’s in your head, down on paper.
Identify what’s hot for this month. Create a short list of the key things that would support your Three Wins. It’s your short-list of things that if you nail them, you will be set to achieve your Three Wins for the month.
Identify your 3 Wins for the Month. This is your chance to actually take a pause to get clear on what are the 3 Wins you want out of this month. This is your chance to slow down to speed up. You’ll gain speed because you’ll know where to put your time and energy to create the most value, for yourself and others.

Exercise: 3 Wins for the Week

Here is a sample to inspire how you might structure your page:
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image.png
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Use two steps to guide you in creating your map of Monthly Wins:
Write down all the things on your mind for this week. Don’t over-think it. Just dump it. Write down your big rocks for the week. Write down the little rocks, too. Get it on paper. Thinking on paper is more powerful than letting things swirl around in your mind.
Write down your 3 Wins for the Week. If this were Friday, what are three things you wish you accomplished during the week. What would make it a great week. What would be your 3 victories. Write those down.

Exercise: 3 Wins for Today

Here is a sample of how you might structure your Daily Wins:
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Use these two steps to guide you:
Write down all the things on your mind for today. What’s really on your mind for today. Write it down. Even if it seems silly, put it down on paper. Go ahead, even make yourself laugh, as you wonder why that was on your mind. You can go over your list multiple times, so first just get it on paper, then you can play around with it. Maybe all you need to do is list little two-word phrases that remind you of what you want to accomplish, or things you need to do, or things you need to check on. It’s OK for this to be a mix of activities and outcomes because in the next step, you’ll bubble Three Wins to the top. This instantly makes your list get a whole lot smarter. In fact, no matter how you do your To-Do lists today, you can instantly make it better by bubbling up your Three Wins to the top. It’s how magic happens.
Write down your 3 Wins for the Day. Go ahead and write your Three Wins for the Day down. Connect them to things you enjoy. Maybe you like to learn. Maybe you like to do a good job. Maybe you like to do a GREAT job. Connect your outcome to the values that inspire you. For example, I like making customer impact, so rather than “Call back a customer”, my win is “Win a Raving Fan.” You can imagine I’ll show up a whole lot differently when I have may mind focused on winning a fan. And, I’ll enjoy the process a whole lot more, too. So even mundane activities can be reframed or rephrased into more compelling outcomes. Get creative. Inspire yourself to a whole new level.

Exercise: Integrate Agile Results with Your Favorite Tools

In this exercise, you take the time to figure out where do you actually want to store and manage your simple lists:
Monthly Wins
Weekly Wins
Daily Wins
Rather than say “use this tool” or “use that tool”, I’d rather guide you with a few simple questions:
Where is one place you can look each day?
Where can you keep simple lists?
Where can you easily update your information?
That’s how you know your system will actually work.
That said, the most common tools I’ve seen people use with Agile Results are: EverNote, OneNote, and Outlook. And, of course, pen and paper.
But don’t measure by what other people use. Measure by what makes you more effective. That’s a great rule of thumb. You can always whether something improves your effectiveness, and that’s really the name of the game.

Exercise: Walk Your Workflow

In this exercise, test how well you can use Agile Results. This is where the rubber meets the road.
It’s Monday morning, what do you do?
It’s Tuesday morning, what do you do?
It’s Wednesday morning, what do you do?
It’s Thursday morning, what do you do?
It’s Friday morning, what do you do?

Here are the answers:
On Mondays, identify your Three Wins for the Week and Three Wins for the Day.
On Tuesday, identify your Three Wins for the Day.
On Wednesday, identify your Three Wins for the Day. As a bonus, you might do a quick check against how you are doing against your wins for the week, and adjust accordingly.
On Friday, identify your Three Wins for the Day. As a bonus, and we didn’t cover this, but on Friday’s I like to do what I call Friday Reflection. Simply identify three things going well and three things to improve. It can be the best 20 minutes you spend all week because you can carry forward your lessons learned into the next week. You will rapidly improve your performance. It works for teams, too.

Add Reminders to Your Calendar

This is such a simple step, and yet so powerful.
Add a Monday Vision Reminder (My Three Wins for the Week)
Add a Daily Outcomes Reminder (My Three Wins for the Day)
Add a Friday Reflection Reminder (3 Things Going Well, 3 Things to Improve)

Monday Vision, Daily Outcomes, Friday Reflection
It’s the secret sauce for how everyone can have a better week, a day at a time. And if you can have a great week, you can have a great month, and if you can have a great month, you can have a great year.

Action: Add Monday Vision Reminder

To add Monday Vision to your calendar:
Create a recurring appointment for your Monday Vision reminder on Mondays.
Add the following to your reminder:
“What are your three wins for the week?” (Write them down.)

Action: Add Daily Outcomes Reminder

To add Daily Outcomes to your calendar:
Create a recurring appointment for your Daily Outcomes reminder for each day of the week.
Add the following to your reminder:
“What are your three wins for TODAY?”

Action: Add Friday Reflection Reminder

To add Friday Reflection to your calendar:
Create a recurring appointment for your Friday Reflection reminder for Friday.
Add the following to your reminder:
“What are three things going well?”
“What are three things to improve?”

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