Making Smarter Decisions through RAPID - A Quick Overview

Hi there everyone!

A couple of months ago I borrowed a book from my friend called in English On Making Smarter Decisions. Although it is a very theoretical book I am enjoying the reading as it presents some ideas that are very important to follow and be aware of in the business world.

There are several authors in the writing of this book as it is a collection of articles and thesis of several guys from Harvard. I am reading the Brazilian translation which is presented by Tom Venetianer.

Well, the first topic is about making RAPID decisions.

To start explaining the concept, which is a very interesting one, let me make an analogy with you life. And not only your life but everyone's life. So, in our lives, we make several decisions. Every day. Some more important than others. And each one brings a consequence. Most of the time they involve choices between A or B.

As a coach I help people to have a clearer picture of their own goals in life and when you have that crystal clear, you will take better decisions and most of the time take GOOD decisions. Many cases simply because you have a crystal clear vision of your goals and thus you become someone focused. 

Overall the decisions we take along our lives are simple decisions. Once in a while you will face something more complicated but, well, it is part of life I guess. For those complicated issues remember me. I can help you as a coach. Or even better, I can guide you so you can help yourself!

But when we have to make decisions as a business, there are usually other lives apart of ours involved and many more variables to consider. Most of the times we are dealing with consequences that are impact a lot and may be decisive for the future and continuation of business.

If you are a small business there shouldn't be many problems regarding decision making. Although I highly recommend you to have a plan for when you get big. By the way, I can help you with that. I coach people and also businesses. If you are interested or would like to get a quote contact me via e-mail or via comments or even via facebook: www.facebook.com/antonio.marsari

Anyway, when your business is a big one, there are many times several different departments, sections, hierarchical levels involved.

And that's when the decision making process must be developed thoroughly in order to ensure not only the continuation of the business but also the continuously growth of the business.

And a simple technique on making better decisions is called RAPID. R is for recommend, A is for approval, P is for perform, I is for Input and D is for Decision.

In a big company people usually are organized in smaller groups called departments or sections, and each one can be even divided into smaller groups called teams. And in a team there are the ones responsible to make a proposal, suggest ideas, others will accept or deny, and others will make the final decision.

And this is what RAPID is about. Of course to implement RAPID is essential that your business has clearly defined roles and responsibilities. And once that is clearly defined it is going to be much easier to identify who is the one to make suggestions, who is the one that is going to agree or not, who can perform, who can make inputs and who is going to have the final word and decide.

I believe that by now you are thinking that all this summarizes to simply have a clear picture of the roles and responsibilities in your business. Well, that is part of it.

There are some other factors that are extremely important in achieving success. And I will focus more on them in a later post but here are the factors for you to start thinking about: communication, understanding, respect and ability to work together.

A victorious church

Hello everyone!

Today at church Pastor Joe passed a powerful message. 

Today he talked about the victorious church. As reference he used the scripture at Exodus chapter 35. I have included the chapter at the end of this post. Please read it!

The purpose of the message today was to motivate people to action for the Lord as God needs people, men and women, to carry out His word to the world!

When we talk about priorities of the church, the first one is worship. It opens up our minds and hearts to receive the word and understanding of the Lord. It inspires us to receive the message. By praising we begin to sense the moving of the Holy Spirit in our midst.

When people are moving their mouths and worshiping they are allowing themselves to receive the teachings and blessings of God through the Holy Spirit.

The second priority of the church is to minister the word to the world.

So, the character of a victorious church is when Christ has set up leadership. Men, women, rulers, teachers.

In a victorious church people are hearing not from the pastor or the minister but from God. Just like that moment in chapter 35 of Exodus through Moses.

In a victorious church we, the people, are labors together with Christ. The people built the tabernacle in Moses time, not just Moses or his helpers but the whole congregation.

In a victorious church people have the willing spirit. In other words, they ACT. ACTION is key to make things work everywhere.

Therefore it is vitally important that you are with the Holy Spirit.

Remember that in that time described in chapter 35 of the book of Exodus the people had an attitude of servitude, which is exactly what the people from a victorious church must have.

By doing so you allow yourself to fall in love with the Lord and then get in love to doing the work of the Lord.

At that time people brought offerings, every morning to the tabernacle. People would give more than what was necessary. That's because God's people are givers as God is a giver.

You just can't beat God giving no matter how hard you try.

What do you understand by giving? What are you giving your family, your community, lately? Are you giving love? Kindness? Peace? Are you giving money? Remember to do your part in making this world a better place. Jesus has taught us and teaches us everyday. Just listen to Him. What is Jesus telling you right now?

In a victorious church you find wise hearted men and women. By wise hearted we can understand skills, abilities, gifts, talents. Each one has something that he or she is good at. What are you good at? What are your talents? How are you applying them to spread God's word of love, kindness, the kingdom of Heaven?

The people as described in Exodus put their skills into building the tabernacle, through hard work and teaching as well. Again the word ACTION appears. God is ACTION. Remember that.

Did you know that the Holy Spirit can increase our wisdom and also our natural talents? That's what happens in a victorious church.

In a victorious church people are interested in ALL that God wants, ALL His word, ALL His work.

The church is victorious because of rulers and leadership provided by God; because the people see only one tabernacle, they are consistent. The only tabernacle they see is one that is Holy, Sanctified, Godly, Unreprovable because God wants to present us to the world as Holy as an example to be followed, as a walk not just the talk.

To do so one must get fully committed and fully constructed. Decide that in your heart today.

Below I leave you with the passage of today from www.biblegateway.com:

Exodus 35 New International Version (NIV)

Sabbath Regulations

35 Moses assembled the whole Israelite community and said to them, “These are the things the Lord has commanded you to do: 2 For six days, work is to be done, but the seventh day shall be your holy day, a day of sabbath rest to theLord. Whoever does any work on it is to be put to death. 3 Do not light a fire in any of your dwellings on the Sabbath day.”

Materials for the Tabernacle

4 Moses said to the whole Israelite community, “This is what the Lord has commanded: 5 From what you have, take an offering for the Lord. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord an offering of gold, silver and bronze;6 blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen; goat hair; 7 ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather[a]; acacia wood; 8 olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; 9 and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.

10 “All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything the Lordhas commanded: 11 the tabernacle with its tent and its covering, clasps, frames, crossbars, posts and bases; 12 the ark with its poles and the atonement cover and the curtain that shields it; 13 the table with its poles and all its articles and the bread of the Presence; 14 the lampstand that is for light with its accessories, lamps and oil for the light; 15 the altar of incense with its poles, the anointing oil and the fragrant incense; the curtain for the doorway at the entrance to the tabernacle; 16 the altar of burnt offering with its bronze grating, its poles and all its utensils; the bronze basin with its stand; 17 the curtains of the courtyard with its posts and bases, and the curtain for the entrance to the courtyard; 18 the tent pegs for the tabernacle and for the courtyard, and their ropes; 19 the woven garments worn for ministering in the sanctuary—both the sacred garments for Aaron the priest and the garments for his sons when they serve as priests.”

20 Then the whole Israelite community withdrew from Moses’ presence, 21 and everyone who was willing and whose heart moved them came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the tent of meeting, for all its service, and for the sacred garments. 22 All who were willing, men and women alike, came and brought gold jewelry of all kinds: brooches, earrings, rings and ornaments. They all presented their gold as a wave offering to the Lord. 23 Everyone who had blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen, or goat hair, ram skins dyed red or the other durable leather brought them. 24 Those presenting an offering of silver or bronze brought it as an offering to the Lord, and everyone who had acacia wood for any part of the work brought it. 25 Every skilled woman spun with her hands and brought what she had spun—blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen. 26 And all the women who were willing and had the skill spun the goat hair. 27 The leaders brought onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece. 28 They also brought spices and olive oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense. 29 All the Israelite men and women who were willing brought to the Lord freewill offerings for all the work the Lord through Moses had commanded them to do.

Bezalel and Oholiab

30 Then Moses said to the Israelites, “See, the Lord has chosen Bezalel son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, 31 and he has filled him with the Spirit of God, with wisdom, with understanding, with knowledge and with all kinds of skills— 32 to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, 33 to cut and set stones, to work in wood and to engage in all kinds of artistic crafts.34 And he has given both him and Oholiab son of Ahisamak, of the tribe of Dan, the ability to teach others. 35 He has filled them with skill to do all kinds of workas engravers, designers, embroiderers in blue, purple and scarlet yarn and fine linen, and weavers—all of them skilled workers and designers.

How to save time and be more productive

Hi there!

Recently I have read a book called Save an hour everyday. I read the Portuguese version and I found it a fantastic piece of ideas, very well put. 

It is written by Michael Heppell and you can find more about him at www.saveanhour.co.uk. 

I want to share with you readers today about some of the ideas Michael shares with us.

I highly recommend you to read his book as the ideas presented there can help you in so many ways. They can help you achieve more in life and in business, be more in life and business and experience a high standard quality of life.

Today I am going to write about a very interesting topic that Michael mentions in his book. It is called DELGATION. And delegation is very much necessary for you to save an hour everyday.

First of all there is the delegation you make for an inferior level, which is great specially when you have people under you who you can delegate assignments. Of course you can't delegate all your tasks but when used wisely this technique can help you a lot in achieving more specially in your business life.

Before I go into details on how to deal with delegation for a lower level, let me introduce the second type of delegation, which is to the same level you are. And for both these levels you can use the same ideas.

Focus on three things when delegating an assignment: TASK, REQUEST, MOMENT. 

Select a task for a certain person that you are sure he or she can perform well and most importantly, that he or she LIKES doing. Of course there might be tasks that no one likes doing but if you can understand the people you work with, and you can do this by simply asking them. Yes, that's right you actually have to approach those people at work and ask them about their work activities that they prefer doing. Very simple.

And by doing so you create at the same time a personal connection with the people you work with. That works for people that are at a lower level in your organization and also for those that are at the same level. And why not with those that are at a higher level? I will write more about that last one more ahead.

First thing is LIKE. Understand your people and delegate tasks accordingly.

Next comes the REQUEST. They way you ask is important but you must ask the people to perform the task like you do it. Or like you would do it. So, again, find the right person that would do it the SAME WAY you would or BETTER.

After this comes the MOMENT. Yes, that's right you have to understand about the right timming to do things, specially delegating. Find the right MOMENT to make the REQUEST so the person can perform the TASK the SAME WAY you would do it or BETTER.

As every technique it does require practice. But you won't find it difficult to do so as you already spend a great part of your time in your work environment.

Very important is when you make the REQUEST, remember to use the word BECAUSE. There was a study performed by Ellen Langer in 1978 where she proved that by stating the word BECAUSE and given a reason, even a stupid obvious reason, the compliance rate was 94%! Isn't that amazing?

There is only one way of course to find out: PRACTICE!

There are many other very interesting ideas that Michael shares with us. Another one is for you to have West Wing Meetings.

Have you ever watched that TV Show called West Wing? Well, it is a very interesting show just because of how they deal with the discussion and decisions everyday.

In a West Wing Meeting, every participant remains standing, give a short summary of their opinion, which lasts for about 15 seconds each, they then make a decision and act upon such decision immediately while they are walking back towards their own desks.

The whole process should take about 5 minutes.

In some situations I am sure that there are matters that require more attention and care, but using the same principle you will see in time – in the short term of course – that your 3 hour meeting could be reduced to a 45 minute one with even more results and more action. This is something to think about and consider starting immediately.

Like every other technique, it requires PRACTICE. The only way for you to record a new habit is to PRACTICE it for a period of at least 21 days STARIGHT! With discipline! Remember that discipline will take you to success but most importantly, the constant practice of DISCIPLINE will KEEP you in SUCCESS.

Other important matters are described in the book such as by learning how to search on search engines such as Google can save you a lot of important time. 

Another thing is that when you have a strong idea you can achieve great things by applying the principle. Now you dear reader, take some time and think about this last phrase. Get a paper right now and write your answers to the following questions:

1) What is my strong idea? (Can be your idea of success)
2) What do I want to achieve? (Think about 5 years from now)
3) What are my principles? (Think about your values)

Answer these questions in a clear way and you will accomplish great things in life.

This book is a MUST read and more importantly MUST AAPLY. I highly recommend this book for you that want to accomplish more in life and business, be more in life and business and have a higher standard quality of life.

See you next time! Enjoy your day!

Tony