In this Issue

📝    Plan, Do, Check, Act
🏊    Turn Big Rocks into Swimlanes
🤚    Ask for Help

📝  Plan, Do, Check, Act

The most critical growth challenges are about systems. W. Edwards Deming, the godfather of continuous improvement believed, 94% of issues in the workplace are systemic and only 6% are special.

Working in the 1950s in Post-War Japan, Deming adapted the Plan, Do, Check, Act theory (or PDCA) to improve quality and efficiency in manufacturing. This later became a foundational component of Lean and the Toyota Way.

PDCA is a circular process of execution:

• Plan: Define objectives and document processes to achieve a desired outcome.
• Do: Implement the work by working your plan.
• Check: Review data and results gathered during the Do phase, and compare to expected outcomes.
• Act: Adjust the Plan with the information collected to repeat the cycle.

Almost every modern management system — from Lean to Six Sigma to EOS to The 4 Disciplines of Execution to Scaling Up and many more — can tie its roots to Deming’s approach to policy deployment. (And yes, I actually used em dashes, and did not copy this from ChatGPT. They’re grammatically correct! 🤦)

When approaching systems in your business, apply a continuous improvement mindset. They are living, evolving practices that can be refined and improved.

The challenges you face today are the same, but different, from those businesses faced in 1950. The discipline of PDCA provides a powerful process for rapidly refining and fixing systems, especially when the rules keep changing.

Have you taken the Business Challenge Diagnostic? It’s a free survey to evaluate how to grow your business in 2026. Please let me know what you think of your survey results.

🏊  Turn Big Rocks into Swimlanes

A swimlane is a visual flow chart for documenting a plan to a timeline, whether weekly, monthly, bi-monthly, or quarterly. For each square in your swimlane, document the milestones, deliverables, and steps to achieve an objective.

Swimlane reporting is a powerful complement to “Big Rocks.”

Stephen Covey popularized the concept of big rocks in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People. He presented an exercise with a jar, rocks, pebbles, and sand, and asked, “How do you fit all of this in the jar?”

The answer is to put the rocks in first, then the pebbles, and finally the sand. He said, “If the big rocks don’t go in first, they aren’t going to fit in later.”

Big rocks have become a common metaphor for defining business priorities. What are the objectives or projects you have to focus on in the next 30, 90, or 365 days?

The problem is 48% of big rocks don’t get done. They were defined priorities, but for a variety of reasons they were changed, missed, delayed, canceled, or abandoned.

To bring certainty and accountability to your big rocks, take the added step of mapping them into detailed swimlanes.

Follow PDCA, and plan. What are the milestones, deliverables, actions, and steps you and your team will take to complete the big rock in a defined timeframe?

If you can’t document how you will achieve a big rock, it’s likely you can’t complete it either.

One Stat to Watch

22%

of CEOs expect a recession in the next six months, according to the Chief Executive, CEO Confidence Survey. This is a marked improvement from April 2025, when fears of recession peaked at 62%.

🤚  Ask for Help

Create a culture of “asking for help.” When a team hits an obstacle, doesn’t have an answer, or is going to miss a target, train them to ask for help early and often.

Silos, turfs, and fiefdoms are more common than not in organizations. Silos prize their independence, but easily get stuck. Their internal focus prevents them from looking horizontally and vertically across the organization to rely on other people and departments for assistance.

Inside every organization is immense, untapped talent:

• Leaders can pull strings that managers or employees don’t know about.
• There may be external resources and partners that can help approach the problem from an entirely different perspective.
• There may be people who have faced similar challenges and can offer assistance so you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

The simple act of asking for help unlocks potential. It helps to name the issue and open people up to new possibilities and solutions.

It may feel uncomfortable for some, but encourage them to ask nonetheless. Chances are they’ll get to better outcomes faster.

🤔  Thoughts on Today’s Issue?

We’d love to hear your feedback. Message with any thoughts, comments, or ideas for future issues.