It’s natural at the end of the year to take a quick spin through the highlights of the year, and look ahead.

Here’s the simple “Three C’s” framework I use for planning, review and decision-making:

1. Clearing
2. Creating
3. Connecting

You can use it for quick daily, weekly or monthly planning and review. It works for annual planning and review as well.

As you look back on 2009, consider:

1. CLEARING

- What did you release or clear during the year?

- What space did you open up, whether in your calendar, office or home?

- What limiting habits, beliefs or other constraints did you let go?

2. CREATING

- What products, services and results did you create or produce this year?

- What did you invent or envision that’s still compelling, whether you got the work done on this creation in 2009 or not?

- Is this idea or creation something you want to continue in 2010 or beyond?

3. CONNECTING

- What new people did connect with this year?

- What relationships did you strengthen?

- What connections did you make for others?

And using the Three C’s to look ahead to create a better 2010, consider:

1. CLEARING

- What time and space do you want to open up in your work or life in the new year?

- What habits or beliefs are still holding you back that you’re ready to let go in 2010?

2. CREATING

- What results do you want to create or produce in the new year?

- What new products and services do you want to provide your customers or clients?

- Are there new markets you want to enter?

- What ongoing creations do you want to continue or complete in 2010?

- What experiences do you want to create in the year ahead?

3. CONNECTING

- What connections do you want to create in 2010?

- What connections do you want to strengthen?

- What connections do you want to, or can you make for others in the new year?

Give the Three C’s a test as you open up a great year in 2010.

And let me know how it works for you as you move ahead.

I think you’ll be pleased with the increased clarity and choice it gives you as you make the most of the time, energy, talents, attention and other resources at your command.

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If you’re like many people right now, your resolutions and plans for change and improvement are quickly taking shape for the new year.

Before you commit to a course of action and improvement, however, consider this question:

Are you – or is your company – really change-friendly?

Or are you really just (and maybe barely) change-tolerant?

Or, perhaps, is your expressed desire for change and improvement, honestly, more of a marketing pitch?

The first step to successful change is preparing for it.

Here are seven tips for getting ready for real change and improvement before the calendar and clock turn over to a new year:

1. Seek progress rather than perfection

Perfection, and the pursuit of it, can be either inspiring or intimidating.

Lower the pressure.

Encourage and reward progress, whatever it is.

Excellence takes time.

It comes as the result of learning, experience, paying attention, and continually making improvement.

2. Set a clear target

Make sure you know what your target is.

Make sure everyone in your company knows what your target is, too:

- Who are your primary customers?
- What do they want?
- And what are their priorities, if they want more than one thing from you?

What if you don’t know who your customers are, or what they want?

That’s clearly the first order of the new year: find out.

3. Listen

Listen to your customers.

Listen to your employees.

And listen to yourself.

Pay attention to the details. They make a big difference.

Ask these questions of your customers, employees, and yourself, too:

- What do you want?
- What are your priorities?
- How are things working now?
- What are the barriers now to achieving success?
- What ideas do you have for improvements?

4. Learn to learn easily and often

Master the process of mastering new information and skills.

Whatever your job, you need to be able to learn, change and improve for there are very few jobs that stay the same, year after year.

5. Be or become idea-friendly

Reward people who are focused on making a better future.

That’s not to say that all their ideas will be great ideas.

But it’s important to tap and grow their initiative to focus attention, energy, experiments and action on problems and opportunities.

Direct their efforts toward your target. Help them to put their great initiative to good use.

6. Be clear about where people can take their great ideas to put them to work

Employees at many companies have great enthusiasm and ideas, but feel they aren’t being heard.

Let people know where to take their ideas, if they want to put them into play.

7. Create rewards that reward initiative and progress toward change

Don’t wait to reward just final results.

Create rewards for target-focused initiative, teamwork and action focused on the process of reaching desired final results.

Be mistake-tolerant, for learning, improvement and change doesn’t often take a simple, straight path.

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“It’s hard to focus on focusing,” our son said when he was about 10.

In the distracted days of December that’s especially true.

The calendar spills over. Activities with family, friends and co-workers tumble over each other.

There are presents to select, buy, wrap and deliver, cards to send, cookies to buy or bake, and too many decisions to make.

And that all piles on top of a full load of work responsibilities, often with year-end goals still to bring in.

Worry not.

It’s hard, but not impossible to stay focused at year’s end.

Here are a ideas for getting more done than you expect during the distracted and high-calorie days of December:

1. Enlist others.

Don’t pretend distraction isn’t there.

Discuss with your manager, team, even your customers in some cases, and certainly your family what the top priorities are for all of you.

Work with others to get good ideas and forge agreements about how to make December work.

2. Be clear, collaborative, consistent.

Be clear about what you can do. Be clear about what you really need help on. And be clear about how you can help others.

Then follow up, follow through.

3. Simplify and delegate.

Set no more than one must-do goal per day. OK, two. Really, no more than three.

You understand the point – there’s just so much time before any holiday, especially December festivities.

If you have more priorities than you can handle, delegate.

And if you delegate, be clear about what you need, by when, as well as any standards or details that are significant to success.

Then let the person get the job done.

Don’t look over their shoulder to see if they’re doing it exactly your way. It WON’T be exactly your way. Give them room to breathe.

4. Make commitments you can keep.

You know yourself pretty well by now.

You know what you can say “yes” to, and what you need to say “no” to.

Do it.

5. Pause.

Take a break. Step away or close your eyes, even for five minutes.

Breathe slowly, deeply.

Pretend you’re somewhere that you find very relaxing (although you may not want to come back).

It can be a brief vacation away, in five minutes.

6. Take something off the list.

The holidays are overwhelming?

Cut them down to size.

Take your least-liked tradition off the list.

No one will die if you do.

They may think they will but you may all find you actually like being free of the burden of having to do everything the same way, year after year.

And if everyone hates the change?

You’ll all value the tradition more when you bring it back next year.

7. Concentrate on communicating well.

These are some of the best gifts you can give anyone, anytime:

- Listen well.
- Be present.
- Arrive early.
- Wear a smile…and smiling eyes (there’s a big difference between a smiling mouth and smiling eyes. Smiling eyes show you’re smiling from the inside out).

8. If you find it relaxing to take a walk, walk.

And if you don’t, walk anyway.

You need the release of exercise – whatever kind you choose – even for a few minutes a day during this stressful if celebratory time.

Seriously.

Ten minutes or twice around the block does wonders for the spirit and the ingenuity, even when all options seem to be gone.

9. Have one less.

Even with the many temptations of December surrounding us, try to have one less cookie than you think you might be able to get by with (I write this as many biscotti bake in the oven. I know the temptation of fresh cookies).

Just one.

It’s hard to do when you’re looking right at that delicious treat.

But if you do, you’ll thank yourself tomorrow…and in January.

What ideas have you tried to stay focused, and keep your team focused during the fun but distracting days of December?

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cour·age, noun
the quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain without, or in spite of fear; bravery.

We admire courage when exhibited by others.

Yet do we really want to be in situations where our own courage is called for?

In a word, no – at least most people don’t.

Such times center around high-risk circumstances that could so easily go wrong. But for so many people and so many reasons, these are situations that really must go right, somehow, in some way.

Not surprisingly, great courage is one of the top characteristics of great leaders.

What does courage really involve?

Courage is the ability to look beyond one’s own fear, to find and draw on one’s strongest reserves to get a critical job done, no matter what stands in the way.

It is the ability to assess risks and reduce them in every possible way, and yet carry on in the face of the risks that still remain.

Courage, as a leader, is also the ability to incite a group to move forward in spite of what may be their natural desire to freeze in place, or to retreat.

When you hear the word, “courage,” what people and situations come to mind?

Is it Captain Sullenberger and his co-pilot, who brought US Airways 1549 down safely in the Hudson River, and then the team of many people on land and in rescue boats who rapidly moved into action, ensuring that everyone was saved?

Is it Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, the first men to walk on the moon, and the many astronauts and achievements
that led up to those first lunar steps?

Is it Madame Curie and other scientific explorers who forged on through uncertainty, making discoveries that benefited so many people in countless ways?

Perhaps the courageous people and circumstances you think of involve world leaders – elected or inspired by beliefs – such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and world leaders who successfully guided others through many dark and difficult days. And of course, there are many, many more courageous leaders who may inspire you.

And you, too, have surely exhibited courage in the past, in large and small ways.

Think back to times when you had to press on – and did – even though you might have wished to give up or retreat.

Before the danger or difficulty arose, what were your beliefs about what you were capable of handling?

Despite those initial expectations, what did you find you could handle, when you had to find and tap great inner resources and strength?

Did effectively tapping your courage enable you to find and use courage again, when faced with perhaps even more stressful experiences?

Courage, like a muscle, is strengthened with use and excellent preparation for times when it might be needed.

Here are guidelines to help you increase your comfort and preparation for uncertainty:

1. Anticipate and prevent problems from occurring in the first place.

That’s easy to say, and less easy to do, but it works much of the time. It requires good planning and follow-through.

It also calls for good risk assessment, problem analysis and prevention skills, among other things.

2. When, despite your best efforts, danger arises, do your best to size up the risks, and quickly control the things you can control.

3. Also, set up systems to monitor key aspects of the situation you are facing, to help you decide what actions to take.

Conditions are likely to be changing rapidly, in circumstances requiring courage.

Also, you won’t have perfect information at times such as these. Get the best information you can, as quickly as you can. Just learn and improve as rapidly as you can as your information and experience working with your team, in this situation, grows.

4. Check in with your team in simple but effective ways.

You need to stay in close touch, but keep the exchange rapid, focused, simple.

5. Stay the course, as long as you can tell that it is working.

Don’t be blind to what you find. At the same time, this isn’t a popularity contest. There’s a dangerous circumstance to be fought.

Pay attention to the information you have, as well as your own intuition and good common sense.

Your quiet inner strength and wisdom is, at such times, an incredible asset.

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Think back to a life or work lesson you once learned, and knew you or someone else would need again.

When the lesson was learned, and the project was complete, did you record the learning in some way that made it easy to get and use the information again?

Good documentation is like writing down a recipe for project or process success so it’s easy to create that success again.

I completed two projects recently for different organizations, and the “recipe” for success in each case will be needed again.

In one case, we’ll repeat a six-week mentoring program. It’s one I designed, and then worked with a consulting colleague to co-lead a group through recently to test the concept and content.

It was a definite success.

Now I need to record what we did, and what we learned so we can repeat and go beyond our initial success.

In another case, I led a fund raising effort for a volunteer organization for the past three years.

The process worked well each year, and it worked best of all in the third year, after two rounds of learning and improvement.

Now, as I pass the reins for this work to the next team, I want them to be able to repeat the process easily, pick up where we left off, and improve on the results that we achieved.

And so, I am reminded, once again, of the importance of good, user-focused documentation.

Here are a few guidelines you, too, can use the next time you need to document the “recipe” you used for a successful process or project.

Answer the following questions, and use that information to help you create documentation that works well for the people who will use it:

1. What’s the objective of the project or process?

Define a successful outcome.

How will the people who use your documentation or “recipe” recognize success, when they achieve it?

2. Who are the customers of your documentation?

What do they need for your recipe or documentation to communicate easily and completely to them?

3. What terms, basic concepts and skills do the people who will use the documentation need in order to be successful?

If they don’t already have the foundation knowledge, do you need to include it in your documentation – such as a glossary – or is there another resource you can refer them to, instead?

4. Where will the documentation be stored? How will people access and use it, when needed?

For example, will they get use your documentation on a computer, iPhone, Blackberry or other mobile technology?

Or will they use hard copy that they can make their own notes on as they work?

How might the technology they’re likely to be using affect the type of information you include, and how you serve it up to them?

5. What preparation do they need to do before they start work?

For example, do they need to gather and organize a team of people, or certain supplies and information for the work ahead?

Or can they just jump right in and get to work?

6. What expectations should they have about how much time the project or process will take?

What key milestones should they be prepared to meet? This information may help them to pace their work and manage their progress appropriately.

How will they monitor and assess their effectiveness along the way, and at the end of the work?

7. What are the actual steps in the recipe for success for this project or process?

What, specifically, do they need to do, and in what order, in order to be successful?

What decisions, action or results do they need to be prepared to hand off to the next person or process in line?

To whom do they give the results of their work, specifically?

By when?

How will they know when they’re at the project or process end? It may not always be easy to tell, believe it or not.

However you do it, if you or someone else needs to repeat a process or project you’ve completed, capture your recipe for success and the lessons you learned.

Don’t put yourself or someone else through the painful and unnecessary process of learning those lessons again.

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One of the projects on my to-do list now is documenting a few projects recently completed so that the good work can be repeated.

Am I jumping into that task full-tilt? I am not.

But I know I need to get the documentation job done. A team of people with whom I worked and I will need the information again, and sooner than we expect.

The sooner I capture the essential information we will need again, the better.

Why document the way you’ve done good work in the past?

The first quote pretty much says it all. It’s followed by others’ thoughts on why, and how, to document well:

The palest ink is better than the best memory.
Chinese proverb

Like with any writing, you should consider your audience, and adjust your work accordingly. Write for them.
Unknown

It keeps amazing me that intelligent, cooperating people can’t see the value of documenting what needs to be documented. Without it we would still be carving kernel code in cave walls.
Unknown

Software is usually accompanied by documentation in the form of big, fat scary manuals that nobody ever reads. In fact, for the past five years most of the manuals shipped with software products have actually been copies of Stephen King’s “The Stand” with new covers pasted on.
Dave Barry

I often write into recipes techniques that I learned in the restaurant kitchen. There are ways of organizing your prep and so on that are immensely useful. Those are woven into all the recipes I do.
Sally Schneider

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Sometimes you just need to know that someone is there…that someone can help, that someone cares when you’re stymied or stumped, all roads to a solution seemingly blocked.

Sometimes that lesson is driven home again in an explicit and personal way.

Our mid-20′s daughter has needed help on a few things recently – or more accurately, has needed to know that our help was there – in the moment, if needed.

The latest, “Can you help?” call that she made was last weekend. She has moved beyond the stage of trying to prove, mostly to herself, that she can do everything on her own.

She doesn’t have to prove it anymore.

And now she’s learning the life lesson that none of us is really alone. We are, as my dad often says, “interdependent,” and there’s someone who can help when needed.

When our daughter called this last time, someone was locked out about a half hour away. There was no extra key. Drills were being considered as a solution to the problem.

Schedules for the day were tight and people and things were due in other parts of the Bay Area. It looked like the day was going to fall, like so many dominoes toppling irretrievably, one after another, in a steady stream of nothing working out as planned.

Could we help, she asked. We could.

Ultimately, she didn’t need to call on us as reinforcements, rescuers. But knowing that she could was the thing.

Sometimes that’s the key to finding a solution:

- Knowing there’s a backup team

- Knowing that someone is there

- Knowing that someone cares

And at that point, magically, somehow, solutions become apparent as you can finally relax, focus, and solve the problem at hand with the resources you have, right then, right there.

The same thing can happen when calling a mentor or coach.

I had a 30 minute call this morning with someone who’s teaching series of classes I’m taking. That one half-hour call was jam-packed with great advice, and the benefit of her personal experience with new products and services I’m thinking about adding to my business in the years ahead.

And now I know that if I need more help, she’s excellent, and she’s there. As close as a phone call away. And that it is time and money very well spent.

Sometimes you find you can handle learning or challenge-meeting on your own.

And sometimes it’s best to make the call, to ask for help that can help you well.

The right resources or reinforcements, on the phone, by computer, or in person, can provide support that’s far more valuable than you expect.

Need ideas, learning support, direction, assistance, or moral support as you take big steps ahead?

Great resources are available. They’re here. They’re there. They’re everywhere.

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Sometimes creativity just happens. And sometimes it’s coaxed.

Here are a few ideas about how creativity is activated, encouraged, or grown:

Learning is movement from moment to moment.
J. Krishnamurti

Nothing encourages creativity like the chance to fall flat on one’s face.
James D. Finley

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
Marcel Proust

People only see what they are prepared to see.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Here are a few recent good reads focusing on leadership growth, and customer involvement in brand management and R&D

Business Week:
Google’s Management Style Grows Up

Forbes
Why Introverts Can Make the Best Leaders

Fortune:
How to build great leaders

Harvard Business Review Blogs:
The Illusion of Brand Control

Inc.:
The Start of a Beautiful Friendship: Partnering with Your Customers on R&D

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For you, as for many people, life may have felt out of control during much of the last year (or the decade that’s now coming to a close, as Time magazine notes).

In the face of great uncertainty and change, many people find that their greatest desire is to regain command, a sense of control.

Feeling, however, as if they’re caught in a bus that’s careening down a steep mountain, they want more than anything to put on the brakes, to get back on a safe and known road.

They want to work and manage in ways that have worked for them before.

But navigating as they are in uncertain circumstances, they know that more of the same old ways of working that they’ve been trying won’t, in fact, change the result.

The stark lesson of these times is:

Sometimes if you want greater control in uncertain circumstances you just have to let go.

You have to be more open to the new, to the unfamiliar.

You have to quit wishing you could go “home” to the old ways of getting things done.

You have to drive differently in different conditions.

If you’re driving on ice, you drive differently than if you’re on a clear road, in light traffic.

Or if you’re caught in a skid, you take your foot off the gas and brakes, and gently steer in the direction you want the car to go.

In uncertain times, you can’t plan as far ahead as you normally would – that much you know.

Your resources may not go as far as they normally would. Demand change and grows in ways that are different from what you’re used to.

Lots of things are unknown.

Yet, what is a mystery now will not always be so.

Given that:

1. Plan what you can

Set a direction. Carve out a clear path that’s responsive to the goal, the people, the resources, and the challenges and limitations you face.

2. Plan good ways to monitor closely what you don’t, and can’t yet know

3. Create good feedback loops

Set up clear, easy-to-use ways of getting information back from where it is first discovered into other parts of the organization so that everyone who needs the information has it to use as it becomes known.

4. Have good ways of learning – explicitly – as you go

Pay attention to what you’re discovering and how you’re doing so.

You’re learning how to manage – to drive –  in that particular environment or on that particular road.

Others will also need to know.

Create ways to share your learning as – or soon after – it occurs.

5. Document (teach) well

Write instructions, or in other ways pass your learning on to shorten the learning process for others who follow you.

Make it easy for them to pick up where you left off.

Share what you’ve learned in a way that makes it easy for people to apply that knowledge in the conditions in which they may have to use it.

In one extreme example, Capt. “Sully” Sullenberger said that after a flock of geese collided with the plane he was flying, his co-pilot tried to use the emergency manual.

This was all happening rapidly on the plane Sully soon had to land in the Hudson River in New York City, with many people’s lives at risk.

But the emergency manual was very difficult to use, he said.

“The airline, in an effort to save money, took the binder tabs out of the emergency manual.”

“You need those tabs” to get to the information quickly, he explained.

It seems like a simple change, but it was a potentially disastrous one.

Make sure the information you’re providing is easy to use in the conditions in which it’s needed.

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