N = Notice

Our premise for this series is this:  If plan A fails we still have twenty-five other options.

The ability to notice in every area of life is a critical skill.  It is at play in our personal world and in our business/income world.  We either notice or we often fail. 

This ability to notice is a learned skill.  It is partly an analytical skill and an observation skill.  We become spotters. 

If we fail to be a good noticer, the world could collapse around us while we fiddle away on our little pet projects. 

I want to approach this article on two fronts – the personal level and the business level.

Personal level:

In our relationship we want our spouse to tune into our spoken and unspoken needs and wants. 

~What are you noticing about your wife/husband?

~When is she/he extremely happy?

~What is she/he sad?

~When does she/he want to be left alone?

Your ability to notice can make a huge difference in your relationship and happiness.

My wife had to have a couple of MRI scans recently for a deteriorated disc and torn tissue problem.  We want her medical team to notice every nuance on those scans so that we can get Carolyn’s pain resolved and her health restored.

Just last evening I came home to an amazing spaghetti dinner complete with homemade sauce, fresh salad, and hot garlic bread and ice tea.  My wife put in a lot of extra work and I took notice of her work. 

In every area of life, we maneuver through every experience by noticing what is going on around us. 

Business level:

With our premise of “if plan A fails we still have twenty-five other options” some questions come to mind to help sharpen our focus and answer the “why we failed” question.

The questions are …

~Where is your focus?

~What are the trends you currently see?

~Who appears to be the front runner in your field of expertise?

~What are they doing well that you could incorporate?

~Where is the future of your industry headed?

~What is new that I should be pursuing?

~What is last year’s news and should be set aside?

The bottom line is this … we pay attention to the details. 

The successful salesperson notices body stance, eye contact, the actual words used and they measure the amount of stress heard in a customer’s voice.  They are attempting to tune into the exact state in which their customer is and find a remedy for their problem.

The fashion industry thrives on the idea of being ‘trend setters’.  Last year’s ideas don’t work.  We need the new, the fresh and the never-before seen look.

When Proctor and Gamble was looking for a way to improve mop sales they studied hundreds of hours of women mopping floors.  Finally one astute observer began focusing on the wringing out of the dirty mop and noticed that the user was continually using a now dirty mop-head to clean their floors.  This led to the invention of the Swifter, a revolutionary approach to cleaning floors.

It always comes back down to having a good eye and seeing what has never been seen before. 

  

P Michael Biggs

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