I think I’ve found the perfect kick-in-the-ass motivator for your Wednesday drudgery. One of my new favorite websites, Lifehack.org, has a terrific post on bringing the concept of the Rules of Engagement from the military to the business world. I am really excited about these rules because they are rather easy to follow and promote some basic ingredients for the success of any business: participation, communication and responsibility.

The Real Rules of Engagement

• Engage. Participate. Be fully present. No auto-pilot.
• Meetings and multiple appointments are a fact of work-life; the least we can do is be on time so they can start on time and our peers are not kept waiting.
Respect the attention of your peers. Come prepared means come prepared.
• Always have a pen and paper for note-taking. First, you respect others who are giving you information by acknowledging it, and secondly you’re expected to capture it, and follow-up; forgetting is not an option.
• Whatever your role is, you’re expected to be the expert in that role. Own it, and don’t be shy about it. Stake your claim proudly. (This was part of the no bench-warmers philosophy.)
• When you say you’ll follow-up on something, do. If it’s not going to happen, say so. People trip when you sweep stuff under the rug.
• Own up to your mistakes and be okay with them. Making mistakes is perfectly fine for we all make them. However huffing and puffing about them with excuses and justifications is not fine. Get over it (we already did) and just correct it.
• Communicate. We have found that relying on mind-reading doesn’t work that well for us.
• Trust and be trust-worthy. Much easier when Rules 1 - 8 are honored and we all keep it real.

Processes: 106

Averages: 0.05 0.25 0.36

Uptime: 15 days 15:49

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