Kenny Chapman (the "blue collar coach") argues that merely implementing tasks or systems isn’t sufficient; leaders must define the underlying problem, involve and "sell" the team on the why, and actively follow up and monitor progress. Implementation remains critical, but progress requires planning, communication, and ongoing monitoring to ensure changes stick and produce forward progress.
Hey everybody, Kenny Chapman here, the blue collar coach, coming to you live with this week's video version of Freedom Friday Focus. Now, this week I'm talking about implementation. And that shouldn't surprise you because I'm big on implementation. We work with our clients all the time about getting things done, doing what we need to do, when we need to do it in order to drive the business. Therefore, might surprise you to hear my message today when I'm going to say that implementation is not enough. It's just not, simply not. You can implement, implement, implement, and you may not make forward progress. You might progress, but is it forward progress? So today I want you to really consider and think about implementation and implementation as a plan. Too often we just take and look at a task or a process or a system and just go, okay, let's start doing this. But there's no thought behind it. There's no plan behind the implementation. So we really need to break down and go, okay, why do we need to implement this? What's going on? What's the need that the business has in order for this implementation to take place? So once we identify that, then we get to a place and go, okay, here's the situation, we've got this. Now. What's part of our plan? Well, the first thing we got to do is involve our team. We got to get people on board. We've got to get them to understand. And one of the places that most people miss the boat when it comes to selling an implementation process is they don't sell the problem first. The first thing we've got to do is go. Look, team, here's the issue, here's the situation, here's what we need to do, and here's why. Once people understand why, they'll do whatever you want them to do in a productive and a positive manner. Now why am I saying implementation isn't enough? Because too often there's so many things going on. As business leaders in today's world and the technology revolution that we're currently experiencing, our minds are going nonstop, our phones are attached to us nonstop. You probably heard me get a text message because I forgot to mute my phone during this video. It's non stop, right? So when we look at these, we just put it in place and sometimes delegate by abdication and we forget to follow up or we don't make it part of the process to follow up. So I'm encouraging you today to say, wait, implementation isn't enough. I've got to follow up and monitor progress. So I want to put things in place. I want my business to grow. I want my team members to improve. I want them to grow with the business and be the best they can be for our customers, for our community, for everything that we represent and we do. But I've got to monitor if things are working. Every industry, consultant, coach, we have these great big meetings and all the different awesome organizations that exist in our industry and they develop new content. Every single seminar that they have, every single big session that they put together and they roll these things and a lot of people go implement, implement, implement, and then they don't do anything with it and either falls away or it's not working and they don't follow up. Today, my friend, I want you to think about implementation and monitoring progress. Gotta implement. I'm not saying that's not important, it's critical. The most successful companies on the planet are masters of implementation, but they monitor what they implement. I'm Kenny Chapman, the blue collar coach. Until we talk again, have a better than fantastic week and I'll see you next time.
