Action

‘The secret of getting things done is to act’…Hill and Stone(1961)

Action

Effective individuals have a ‘bias for action’. Extraordianarily successful people differ from the average person in ‘their ability to get themselves to take action’(Robbins, 1988)

You cannot get someone to do something they don’t want to do.  Mostly you cannot get people to do what they do want to do. Often you cant get them to take the action that might produce the results they want.

Action occurs after the cognitive processes of  thinking and planning. These must occur first to ensure that action, when it comes, is the ‘right’ action. Action therefore precedes change and Success.

Internal action prepares the way for external action.

Action must be aligned to purpose to be productive.

The first step in the rational development model is deciding where you want to get to (goal setting) and why (clarifying values and mission). This is best followed by a self audit to determine the present situation. Going through this sequence ought in theory to ensure that action is not misdirected.

What if it doesn’t work.

The rational approach doesn’t always work! We don’t take the pre-action stages seriously enough and we don’t follow through to the implementation stage, ie we won’t act.

To overcome this:

1) Use a different model.

An alternative is the “Do Something” or the ” Ready, Fire, Aim” model. The purpose of these models is to overcome our inertia in order to be able to take the first step. Thus doing something, almost anything, is better than doing nothing. If the action is not the ‘right’ action then note this and change your behaviour accordingly.

For example to overcome writers block, writers are instructed to write anything even if its nonsense. It can be edited or made sense of later.

2) Prepare more thoroughly for action.

Emphasize enhancing your capacity or readiness for action. Topics important for this are motivation, leverage, achieving ‘definiteness of purpose‘ and commitment. We must also build up our internal resources by developing higher self confidence and self-esteem. We must shift from ‘I’ll Try” to a ‘do or do not’ commitment to action.

Action stoppers.

Factors which prevent or hinder action.

‘Excusitis’

Procrastination

Fear ( of change,of not being able to control the consequences of action)

Preoccupation with long-term gain

Belief systems not conducive to action.

Perception management.

When the magnitude of the task is so overwhelming or frightens us we don’t act.

Use a think big, start small approach. Start with a vision but break the process of getting there into small, specific steps. This is essentially proximal goal setting.

Quality Action.

Competence is a matter of accomplishment.

Quality or excellent action yields results with efficiency. But what makes an ‘excellent’ action different from a ‘competent’ action? How is ’smart’ effort different from ‘hard effort’. Generally, quality action is about identifying excellent models then ensuring the action is appropriate. Often a small number of actions are the most productive. This is the Pareto principle in action. (80 percent of the results come from 20% of the causes).

Benefits of action.

Action may be a cause or a consequence. We may fail to act because of fear. Action may in fact cures fear. Action also distracts us from unhealthy self concern.