For years I have attended meeting after meeting collecting notes and data from the gurus making all of the presentations. In some cases they were the leaders sharing their insight and vast experience. At other times it was a paid speaker focusing on leadership or soft skills. There were times these meetings would last for days with general sessions and break-outs with rooms full of our peers sharing techniques and stories of their success or at time failures.

While preparing for one of the break-outs I was making small talk with the presenter. This was a guy I have know for years. He has close to forty years experience. I reminded him of a conversation we had several years ago. Our conversation focused on the fact he was talking about the exact same topics and processes we had used in stores over the past 10 years we have known each other. I ask what was different this time and his reply was, “why would I change the topic, we still have not figured it out”.

He would go on to have the same conversations with the groups as they moved through his presentation. Some seemed to think it was all new information, this always surprised me. While others knew the topic well.

When you would hear the top performers out visiting in the halls and corridors, they were all talking about the how simple running the business was and how it was all about the basics.

A common statement was that the problem was not a “Knowing Problem”, but a “Doing Problem”.

Everyone seems to know the problem, and in many cases they know how to fix the issue.

You have to ask yourself why? Is it time or organization?

Take a few minutes and think about one thing you could change to improve your performance in one of your basic areas of business. Are you making progress?

Thanks for spending a few minutes with me today,