OTHER E-BOOKS IN THIS SERIES
‘How to achieve what you want, when you want’
7 powerful principles of successful thinking for work, life and everything
by Andy Gilbert, this FREE 33 page e-book is packed with ideas and tips on the 7 principles of successful thinking. It contains 8 top tips to help you define your goals, 5 steps to help you plan your priorities and yet more tips on strengthening your self-belief, how to involve others more successfully and how to make choices. Put into action immediately these ideas will greatly increase your probability of achieving what you want, when you want.
Each of our powerful principles of successful thinking is also the subject of a separate e-book, giving more detail and more tips to help you.
To obtain your copy of this FREE e-book simply visit www.gomadthinking.com
THINKING PRINCIPLE ONE
‘How to develop a personal passion’
Practical tips to increase your motivation to achieve
by Andy Gilbert & Annagail Davies, explains thinking principle one of our Solution Focused ThinkingTM System in greater depth. As well as discovering how to avoid blaming others, you’ll also get great tips on how to increase your motivation to achieve and save yourself masses of time in the process!
THINKING PRINCIPLE TWO
‘How to determine what you want and when you want it’
Pragmatic steps to leaping into the top 5% of goal definers
by Andy Gilbert & Rob Smith, gives you tips on defining exactly what it is you want to achieve, as well as helping to increase your self-belief you can achieve it. It will make your task of deciding priorities, which we cover in this e-book, really easy!
THINKING PRINCIPLE THREE
‘How to produce plentiful possibilities, pressing priorities and perfect plans’
Quick and easy tips to plan your success and get you started
by Andy Gilbert & Ken Hudson, gives you some quick and easy steps to plan your success and get you started. With tips to eliminate time wasting, generate loads of ideas and produce a plan that will work for you, it will help you make your goal come to life and stay alive!
THINKING PRINCIPLE FOUR
‘How to create a self-belief that you can and will achieve’
Powerful insights into building the confidence to succeed
by Andy Gilbert & Graham Field expands on Henry Ford’s famous quote “Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right.” It gives a powerful insight into just how much we are governed by limiting beliefs, and how we can harness the power of our minds to achieve so much more than we ever dreamed possible.
THINKING PRINCIPLE FIVE
‘How to get others on your side’
Definitive guidelines on involving others to achieve what you want
by Andy Gilbert & Caron Lindley, gives an explanation of the five types of people that you can involve to help you achieve your goal. Research has shown that the bigger your goal, the better your chances of success if you involve others to help. If you only ever involve the people closest to you, then this e-book is for you!
THINKING PRINCIPLE SIX
‘How to make personal choices and take responsibility’
Insightful ideas to help you own your thoughts and actions
by Andy Gilbert & Ken Hudson, takes a hard look at responsibility and its consequences. Personal Responsibility lies at the heart of our Solution Focused ThinkingTM System. Without it the system collapses. Without it, you are missing out on success, respect and leadership. It even promises to be liberating!
THINKING PRINCIPLE SEVEN
‘How to guarantee success’
Clear and simple tips on taking action and measuring results
by Andy Gilbert & Rob Smith, is a hard-hitting finale to the seven key principles of Solution Focused ThinkingTM. As well as challenging your thinking, and challenging you to put it all into practice, there is valuable advice on measuring goals, especially difficult-to-measure things like ‘confidence’. Plus an invitation for you to choose to make a difference.
To order any of the above e-books, simply visit www.gomadthinking.com
CONTENTS
Page
Introduction 5
5 ways that this e-book will help you
1. Build an understanding of Go MAD Solution Focused 6
Thinking
2. Thinking Principle One – Activities for ‘reason why’ 10
3. Thinking Principle Two – Activities for ‘define goal’ 17
4. Thinking Principle Three – Activities for ‘planning 26
priorities’
5. Thinking Principle Four – Activities for ‘self-belief’ 39
6. Thinking Principle Five – Activities for ‘involving others’ 47
Thinking Principle Six – Activities for ‘personal 52
responsibility’
Thinking Principle Seven – Activities for ‘taking action 56
and measuring results’
9. 90-Day challenge plan 58
10. Learning summary 62
11. Where to go from here 62
Liability disclaimer
The material contained in this e-book is general and is not intended as advice on any particular matter. Go MAD Research & Consulting Group and the author expressly disclaim all and any liability to any person whatsoever in respect of anything done by any person in reliance, whether in whole or in part, on this e-book. Please take appropriate legal advice before acting on any information in this e-book.
INTRODUCTION
1. This e-book is designed to support the other e-books in this series which explore the Go MAD Thinking Principles. You may have looked at some or all of the other e-books and this workbook will help to embed the new ideas and extend your thinking. It contains 30 activities based around the key thinking principles of the Go MAD Solution Focused Thinking System.
As a reminder an overview of the Go MAD Solution Focused Thinking System and the thinking principles is given at the start of this workbook. For more details, if you have not done so already, you may wish to request the free e-book, ‘How to achieve what you want, when you want it’.
2. This e-book is for all of you who:
Like a challenge
Like to put into practice what you learn
Like practical applications
Would like extra help with achieving your goals
Really want to make a difference.
3. It has been divided into sections according to the thinking principle that it relates to.
You can dip into and out of it at will. You can choose the thinking principles where you feel you would like special help. Or you can start at the beginning and work your way through.
4. Undertaking these activities will help you to understand more about solution focused thinking. Additionally the activities will allow you to practically build on the thinking you have done about the differences you wish to make and the things you want to achieve.
You may choose to undertake some of the activities more than once to help you move forward with a number of the things you want to achieve.
5. To really get the most from this workbook it is essential that you take the time to think and note down you responses to the activities. So take this opportunity to go one step further to achieving what you want.
Build an understanding of Go MAD Solution Focused Thinking (adapted from Go MAD About Coaching 2005 edition)
Go MAD – the background research
Whenever the phrase ‘Make A Difference’ is used in this e-book it includes all differences, large and small, personal and work related.
You have made thousands of differences in your life and continue to make differences each and every day. However, most people are unaware of what they naturally do whenever they achieve success in life. So in January 1998 we started what researchers call, a phenomenological research project (i.e. studying the phenomenon of making a difference). Our original research question was, “What is the simplest way of explaining the success process people naturally use then making a difference?” (However what we discovered was not a process, but a thinking system.) Ian, one of the Go MAD Team, armed with a tape recorder and notepad, set off around the UK to interview people who had made a difference. Ian was initially introduced to three people, whom it was considered had made a difference, whom in turn gave similar introductions. Other people were interviewed as a result of reading or hearing about the differences they had made.
There were no criteria for specifying what the difference should be. So, these differences included a wide range of successful activities: commercial, career, balanced lifestyle, political, family, community, educational, personal relationships and many more. Some differences were on a large-scale, others much smaller. All were significant to the individuals making the difference.
Meanwhile, Andy Gilbert, Managing Director of Go MAD headed up a team of eight consultants researching the difference made by individuals in the workplace. A variety of organisations from the public, private and voluntary sectors were invited to nominate individuals who had made a difference. The range of occupations was diverse and included people of all ages and levels within the organisations. The differences they had made included: doubling the sales turnover of a company; providing exceptional customer care; increasing production by 100%; managing organisational change; enhancing their career; developing others; and implementing a variety of cost saving initiatives. For two months we filmed each research interview we conducted. We wanted to understand the key success principles which were commonly being applied in order to achieve results.
By the end of the year we had gathered collectively an incredible amount of information from a diverse range of sources, all of which related to how individuals successfully made a difference. We continually re-listened to each recorded interview, analysed the film footage and studied relevant background reading material. From all of this, emerged ‘Go MAD – The Art of Making A Difference’; a practical and easily understandable framework for success comprising seven key thinking principles, which are shown below.
Take
Action
Self
Belief Plan Priorities Define
Goal
Personal Responsibility Involve
Others
Reason
Why
Go MAD Framework
As the use of the Go MAD Framework has grown over the years, there have been several major realisations. Firstly, that Go MAD is not a process but a system comprised of interdependent components and understanding the relationship between them is as important as applying each of the key thinking principles. Secondly, that whilst the Framework can be understood and applied very easily by almost everyone at a personal level, there is more in-depth applications for large-scale change and business improvement programmes. ‘Structured common sense’ and, ‘Simple, yet sophisticated’ are two phrases that many people use to describe Go MAD. The third, and most important, realisation provided a major breakthrough in the way that the Go MAD Framework is applied – using it as a ‘Thinking System’, for individuals to help themselves and others develop their thinking in a solution focused way.
So the answer to the question, “What is Go MAD?” can be summarised as follows: Go MAD is a series of key thinking principles; a framework; a thinking system and a robust set of skills – all of which can be learned and applied by any person to make a difference. In essence, Go MAD has evolved into a development tool applicable to any situation where there is something to be achieved.
The Go MAD Key Thinking Principles
The following seven key thinking principles are the basic components of your natural framework for being successful:
1. Having a strong reason why – it takes a strong reason why to maintain motivation and commitment.
2. Defining your goal – be clear on what you want to achieve, so you can measure your success.
3. Planning your priorities – having completed the ‘why’ and the ‘what’ this principle moves you onto the ‘how’. Generate ideas, consider possibilities, prioritise and plan in the time to achieve your goal.
4. Having self-belief – have you got what it takes? The knowledge, skills, resources and confidence. Develop the self-belief that you can make a difference.
5. Involving others – you will achieve the greatest results by working with others and obtaining their buy-in.
6. Taking personal responsibility – be accountable, a role model to others and make your own choices.
7. Taking action and measuring the results.
Thinking Principle One considers WHY you want to make a difference.
Thinking Principle Two focuses on WHAT difference you want to make.
Thinking Principles Three - Seven concentrate on HOW to make the difference.
Many people have commented ‘this is common sense’. And, of course, it is! It is also day-to-day common practice for the hundreds of small differences we make. Let me give you an example of how you have applied these principles to make a difference in the past 24 hours.
“I’m getting hungry.” = Strong reason to make a difference.
“I’m going to get something to eat within the next 30 minutes.” = Defined goal.
“Should I buy some food or prepare a meal?” = Planning priorities.
“I’ve got sufficient time and money.” = Self-belief.
“Who will prepare or buy my food?” = Involve others.
“It’s down to me to decide and make time to eat.”
= Personal responsibility.
“Meal over and I am no longer hungry.” = Action taken and results measured.
If everyone uses these key thinking principles naturally, what is the point of Go MAD and this e-book? Well, hopefully the answer is obvious. If not, here are several thoughts to consider:
People do not apply this thinking consistently – especially at work.
People are largely unaware of this natural thinking for the small differences they repetitiously make.
People can be helped to become consciously aware of what is helping/hindering their success.
The intention of the activities in the workbook is to help you to be more aware of your own thinking, allowing you to apply solution focused thinking more consistently and to help you work towards achieving what you want.
‘Reason why’ is all about your motivation to achieve a goal or make a difference. There are two types of motivation that may be driving you: one pushes you away from something where you fear the consequences if you do nothing, the other pulls you towards a dream or something you really want to do.
We need a strong ‘reason why’ for us to be able to achieve what we want. However high our ability to achieve, however many ideas we can generate, however strong our self-belief that we could do it, we will not be bothered to do it unless we have a strong enough reason why.
The following activities will help you look at your Reason Why, and your motivation to achieve:-
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Reason Why – Activity One |
Focus on one of the things you want to achieve. Make a list of the reasons why you want to achieve this.
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I want to achieve…
My reasons why are:
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Now, make a list of your reasons for not yet having made the difference. Include excuses you have previously made and any possible obstacles you identified.
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My excuses and reasons for not achieving what I want:
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Refer back to the previous activity where you listed the reasons why you wanted to make a specific difference. For each of those reasons answer the following question:
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What makes this reason important to me?
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This list will highlight some of the values you hold, the things that are important to you. Now ask yourself, “What makes these values important to me?” The answer to this question is likely to reveal a core value. Something that is the basis of what is most important to you. If not, review the activity and consider if your reasons why are strong enough.
What is the thing (or combination of things) that would act as the trigger to prompt me to take further action?
How might I make the most of this?
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Reason Why – Activity Two |
In the e-book, ‘How to develop a personal passion’, we covered a short activity involving giving a score to your ‘reason why’, to assess the strength of it. So this builds on that exercise. For each of your goals or things you want to achieve, ask yourself, “On a scale of 1 to 10, where 1 is low and 10 is high, how strong is my ‘reason why’ for doing this.” For each of the goals, consider also, is the main reason a push away from something you don’t want, or a pull towards something you do want?
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For those goals where your score is 5 or less, consider carefully whether or not you should drop those goals. At the moment your motivation is very low and it’s unlikely they will be achieved. Alternatively, you might like to consider what would motivate you more to achieve that difference.
In the e-book, ‘How to develop a personal passion’, we talked about a ‘pull’ motivation being stronger than a ‘push’ motivation. Where you have identified that you are being pushed rather than pulled, what ‘reason why’ can you think of that would create a strong ‘pull’ to help you along?
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‘Push’ Goals |
New ‘Pull’ Reason |
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Ask yourself: How might I remind myself of this new ‘pull’ reason?
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Reason Why – Activity Three |
Consider your answers to the following questions. These will help you think about your core values, the things that drive you to behave the way you do and believe in the things you believe in.
What am I passionate about?
What is really, really important to me?
What makes me want to take action?
What makes my life worthwhile?
What would I absolutely not want to give up?
Ask yourself: How do the things you have identified relate to the goals you want to achieve?
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Reason Why – Activity Four |
Think back over the last ten years. What significant things have you achieved in your life? What was your strongest ‘reason why’ for doing them? And was the reason a ‘push’ or a ‘pull’ reason?
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Achievement |
Reason why |
Push/pull |
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Reason Why – Activity Five |
Having reached the end of this section, which explored how the strength of your reason why impacts on what you want to achieve, work through and note down your answers to the following questions. This will help you to draw together your key thoughts and insights from the activities you have just done. You might find it useful to discuss your answers with someone you trust to help you explore this thinking principle further.
What has prevented me in the past from making the differences I have wanted to achieve?
What have been some of my most powerful reasons why that have resulted in action?
What do I believe to be my core values?
What ruts am I in that I like to escape from?
What have I learned about Thinking Principle One ‘Reason Why’?
What practical steps might I take to develop a stronger reason why to achieve some of my dreams and goals?
What other insights have I had about thinking principle one and how this impacts on things I want to achieve?
In the e-book on defining goals, ‘How to determine what you want and when you want it’ one of the areas we concentrate on is making goals SMART, that is:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-scale
Spending a bit of extra time on defining a goal properly can save masses of time that could be wasted later on because of:
not knowing what you are really working towards
not being able to get the buy-in of others because you are not clear on what you want
not being able to prioritise easily because you only have a vague aim.
The following activities will help you to identify, clarify and define your own goals, if you have not done so already.
In working through this section you can choose to work on a specific thing you want to achieve or to just generally think about a number of things you want to make a difference about.
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Define Goal – Activity Six |
Consider the areas you want to make a difference about or the things you want to achieve.
What do I want to have or acquire? (material goals)
What do I want to do? (activity goals)
What do I want to become? (developmental goals)
Whilst the first two types of goal (material and activity) are relatively straightforward to understand, the third (developmental) requires further explanation. It includes goals relating to developing skills and knowledge, gaining experience, improving personal behaviour or relationships, and increasing effectiveness. In order to achieve your material and activity goals it might be necessary first to develop yourself in one or some of these areas.
To think a bit further about your own development and possible development goals, focus on your material and activity goals then ask yourself the following questions:
What are the personal characteristics possessed by others, who have successfully achieved these goals?
To what extent can I identify with these people?
In order to achieve these goals, how might I need to develop?
- What extra skills might I need?
- What extra knowledge might I need?
- What extra learning might I need to do?
In the e-book on defining your goal ‘How to determine what you want and when you want it’, we suggested you write a SMART goal. Writing SMART goals is a great skill to develop. Having really well defined goals ensures you are really clear on what it is you want to achieve. For the next part of this activity look at the knowledge, skills and learning you have identified that will help you to achieve your material and activity goals. Of these things listed identify which you have the strongest reason why to develop (to ensure you have the motivation to take it forward). Take this development goal and turn it into a SMART goal.
Remember it should be relevant to your values; that you believe it is achievable within a certain time-scale, and state specifically the measurable difference you want to make.
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My SMART developmental goal (first draft)
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You might choose to look back to the e-book ‘How to determine what you want and when you want it’ to refresh yourself on writing SMART goals.
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Define Goals – Activity Seven |
This activity will help you to clarify and really build a future picture of achieving your goals. Focus on a specific date in the future within the next five years. Imagine that you have travelled forward in time to meet yourself as you will be in the future having achieved the goals you want to achieve, the things listed in Activity Six. Imagine seeing yourself, perhaps even shaking hands with this future person.
What do I see?
What am I doing?
What am I like?
What do I look like?
What are the differences I notice?
What have I done with my life during the past few months or years?
To be this person, what will I need to achieve
- in the next 6 months?
- in the next year?
- in the next 3 years?
- in the next 5 years?
To become the person you would like to become, you have just outlined a series of things that you need to achieve. These are sub-goals. Write them out here as an action plan with SPECIFIC dates by when you will have achieved them. (Specific date = dd/mm/yy). Each sub-goal should also be SMART.
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What will be achieved? |
By what date? |
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Ask yourself: How could you possibly remind yourself daily of this plan?
As an option you might like to print out this page and pin it somewhere visible so that you can see it on a regular basis.
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Define Goal – Activity Eight |
If some of the previous activities haven’t appealed to you, you might choose to start with shorter-term goals. So let’s spend a little time on small goals that will make you feel good, help you to feel successful and set you off on a winning streak.
Let’s start with short-term goals:
What do I believe I will achieve that is worthwhile by the end of today?
What do I believe I will achieve that is worthwhile by the end of the week?
What do I believe I will achieve that is worthwhile by the end of the month?
What do I believe I will achieve that is worthwhile by this time next year?
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Five goals I want to achieve during the next year
5.
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Define Goal – Activity Nine |
Ask yourself the following questions to check out any final thinking about your personal goal defining.
What do I most want to make a difference about? (What are my goals?)
How will I know when I’ve achieved my goals?
How will I know that I’m making progress?
What effect will achieving my goals have on others and myself?
How much do I believe that the effort involved in achieving these goals is worth it?
What is important about achieving these goals?
How far have I got in writing myself SMART goals?
Planning Priorities has three stages: possibilities, prioritising and planning in time. The more possibilities you can generate, the better your chances of a successful outcome to your goal.
The following activities will take you through these stages to help you determine the actions you will take to achieve your goals.
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Planning Priorities – Activity Ten |
This activity will help you think about all the things you might possibly do to achieve your goal, what resources you might need and people you might possibly involve.
Firstly identify which of your goals you would like to work on. Note this down where indicated.
Then allow yourself 3 minutes per column (setting a time limit will help to focus your mind) to write down:
Column 1
All the possible actions you might need to take to achieve your goal.
Column 2
All the possible resources you might need to achieve your goal.
Column 3
All the possible people you might involve in achieving your goal.
Note – the columns do not have to be a logical progression across the page and the first resource listed does not have to relate in any way to the task.
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GOAL:
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Possible resources |
Possible people |
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After 3 minutes on each column stop and count up how many possibilities you have generated. You can start to think about which of these possibilities you might take forward as priorities to help you achieve your goal.
Note: This activity also works well with a group. If you have a common goal you can involve everyone in undertaking this activity individually. Then you can look at all the ideas generated – it’s much quicker and more focused than a group ‘brainstorming’ session.
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Planning Priorities – Activity Eleven |
If you are working on possibilities without the help of others, then we would suggest that unless you have generated at least 30 different ideas around achieving your goal then you might be doing yourself a disservice. If you are now saying to yourself with incredulity 30? Surely I don’t need so many!’ then think again. Outstandingly successful people think much more creatively about what a possibility is in terms of achieving their goals.
Here are 13 questions. By stretching your mind to think of just 3 answers to each question, you will have generated nearly 40 ideas. If you want to expand your thinking even more, write yourself a higher target number for each question before you start.
Make a note of the goal you would like to work on in the space below.
Goal:
What might I possibly do to make this happen?
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What resources might I possibly use?
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What possible ways might I acquire these resources?
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What reasons might there be to involve other people?
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Whom might I possibly involve?
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How might I possibly communicate my goal to them?
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How might I possibly obtain their ‘buy-in’ to my goal?
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What obstacles or barriers might possibly get in my way?
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How might I possibly overcome these obstacles or barriers?
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What risks and implications might there be in achieving (or not achieving) my goal?
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What assumptions might I have made with regard to achieving my goal?
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By challenging these assumptions, what other possible actions could I add?
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If the world’s greatest expert were standing next to me right now, what advice might he or she give to me about achieving my goal?
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Extra space for even more possibilities that you might think of:
………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
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Planning Priorities – Activity Twelve |
In determining your priorities, what are the most important criteria in relation to your goal? By determining the criteria you will use, it will make it easier to single out the best possibilities from your lists.
Return to the goals you were working on in Activity Ten and Eleven. In relation to these goals, what do you believe will be the most appropriate criteria for determining priorities?
Activity Ten Goal:
What
will my criteria be for determining priorities? 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.