Chapter 5
MAX It!

The Challenge

Organizational leaders are rightly obsessed with outcomes, the numbers, because ultimately that is how they are measured and paid. And although it is helpful to be a student of numbers, the problem with them is that they are lagging indicators. They show up too late to do anything about them. It's like the scoreboard at a ballgame. When the numbers show up, it is too late to change them. They're history. As important as it is to study the numbers, it is far better to be a teacher and manager of the behaviors that create the outcomes. By doing so you're able to intervene, adjust, change them, redefine them, and hold others accountable for them as a means of still influencing the numbers positively before they're history. By staying in the game and continuing to influence the numbers rather than becoming seduced by the numbers themselves, the outcomes that eventually show up on your scoreboard will be far more robust.

Focus Ferociously on the MAX Acts

In this chapter, I will expand on my introduction of master the art of execution (MAX) acts back in Chapter 2, "Make Each Day a Masterpiece," by providing a more detailed explanation of what MAX acts are and how to use them as the second step in the MAX process.

After getting TUF by deciding which ultimate few objectives you will focus fanatically on, the next logical step is to carefully determine the essential daily activities necessary in each position, starting with your own, to attain them. These key activities are MAX acts. As opposed to your desired outcome goals, which are the results, MAX acts foretell the results. MAX acts are those daily, weekly, or monthly activities that will have the maximum impact on achieving the TUFs.

Frankly, not everything you can do to achieve a TUF is worth doing. Some actions bring you very little value whereas others, such as MAX acts, get you there faster. A common error when strategizing to reach a goal is to list all the things you can do to be successful as you chase that goal. A problem with this approach is that you cannot do everything. You do not have the time, energy, workforce, or resources. Therefore, just as you narrowed your focus on the ultimate few goals, you must likewise more carefully and strategically select the daily actions required to reach them.

To borrow a martial arts philosophy, an effective strategy to determine your MAX acts is to ask, "What are the fewest moves necessary to end the struggle?" Effectively executing MAX acts is all about applying disproportionate energy to high-leverage targets.

As a martial artist, I was taught early on that if attacked, I was to end the struggle quickly. The longer a fight goes on, the more the probability that something bad will happen increases. For instance, you can punch or kick an assailant in a readily available and easy-to-hit target, such as the arm, and do so repeatedly. The struggle could go on for minutes, and you would succeed only in wearing yourself out and making yourself vulnerable to an effective counterattack. If, however, you scoop kick the assailant in the groin, take his or her forward-leaning head, and bring it quickly into your knee a time or two, the attack ends quickly and painfully for the unconscious bad guy. By choosing to apply the right action or two against vital targets, you more quickly and efficiently accomplish your goal. The same end it quickly strategy built on MAX acts applies equally well when executing strategy within organizations.

For example: If one of my corporate TUFs is to increase LearnToLead's virtual-training revenue by 20 percent over a six-month period, my responsibility would be to identify the handful of MAX acts my virtual training director would need to execute to move us toward that outcome most effectively.

Sample daily MAX acts might include:

• Make three contacts daily with current users of our product to build relationships, advise them of what is new, offer to train any new hires on the system, and let them know what additional functions or features are coming in the future.
• Make three contacts daily with prospective users of our product to assess their needs, give an online tour of its features and benefits, and suggest a customized training program to fit their organization's needs.
• Personally view a 20-minute segment of the virtual training daily to keep abreast of its content, improve product knowledge, and see our product through a customer's eyes to notice flaws and potential enhancements.
• The virtual training director would then report his or her results on a MAX board (a device that tracks the MAX acts) at our rhythm of accountability (RAM) meeting the next morning. There's much more to come concerning these additional steps in the upcoming chapters "MAP It!" and "RAM It!"

Sample weekly and monthly MAX acts might include:

• (Remember, the weekly MAX act is an essential activity that does not need to be done daily but that should be executed at some point during the week.) Create and send to all clients a "new content alert" video message, which details the new programs and topics we have added in the month to keep them informed and engaged with our product.
• (Remember, a monthly MAX act is an essential activity that needn't be done daily or weekly but that should be executed at some point during the month.) Conduct a free Web conference with prospective users to show 10 minutes of great content, give an overview of how the system works, and offer attendees a password allowing them to take a complimentary course of their choosing.

What follows are eight thoughts on MAX acts to help you better grasp this second step of the MAX process.

1. You must have TUFs determined before you can intelligently devise MAX acts. If not, then you do not know what you are executing toward. If you still have not completed step one in the MAX process, then get TUF. That's where you will need to start.
2. MAX acts should be limited to a small handful of vital daily actions-three or four at the most. Although your people may have 40 things to do each day, these will be the two or three they must do, do well, and do consistently. In addition, they will be held accountable for their execution the very next day. This, and RAMs, will be discussed in detail in the "RAM It!" chapter.
3. MAX acts must be selected carefully to fit each position and each TUF. There isn't a one-size-fits-all act. Customize them to work best for you.
4. MAX acts may change from time to time. Your job is to evaluate results and determine whether the MAX acts are still the most relevant, most high-impact activities that can be executed to reach the TUF. As seasons, economies, team composition, competitors, or other issues change, you may need to adjust your MAX acts.
5. MAX acts may also include key weekly or monthly activities. These are the things one doesn't need to do daily but must execute at some point during the week, or the things one need not do daily or weekly but that must be executed at some time during the month.
6. MAX acts should be outlined in personalized success profiles (PSPs). A PSP is a condensed job description that compresses the normally verbose laundry list of given job duties into a narrowly focused, easily understood, and prioritized list of MAX acts each team member must accomplish daily, weekly, and monthly. PSPs can be customized to fit any position and can be updated as MAX acts change. In the next chapter, I will present you with the tools to create PSPs and explain their potential to affect individual performance.
7. MAX acts are the ordinary things, done extraordinarily well, every day-and every day means every day (EDMED)! In American football, the plays that make the weekly highlight reel are normally extraordinary. The 80-yard, razzle-dazzle, flea-flicker, long bomb for the score. But in reality that is not how most touchdowns are scored. A play that you never see on the highlight reel is the basic and well-executed 3.5-yard run. Yet, if a team completes these runs on each of its first three downs, it never has to give up the ball. It will eventually score on every possession and will wear the competition out in the process. Your job is to determine the handful of 3.5-yard runs for each position on your team, train each player to execute them, and hold them accountable for doing so every day-and EDMED. This assignment should take some of the pressure off you and your team, because it makes clear that you don't have to do anything extraordinary to reach your TUFs. All you will need is to execute the ordinary things extraordinarily well, and to do so day in and day out!
8. If you are already working hard and falling short on results, working even harder is not your best strategy. Working smarter by executing daily, weekly, and monthly MAX acts is the strategy of choice for hardworking people who wish to move further and faster toward their fullest potential.

What's Next?

• Start by determining the daily, weekly, and monthly MAX acts most essential to TUF attainment for each of your direct reports.
• Then determine what you'd need to include in your own MAX acts to help ensure your people's MAX acts are done well and consistently.
• Continuously practice,...