30 Seconds That Can Change Your Life: A Decision-Making Guide For Those Who Refuse To Be Mediocre

30 Seconds That Can
Change Your Life

A Decision-Making Guide for
Those Who Refuse to be Mediocre
Roger Kaufman, Ph.D.
HRD Press, Inc. • Amherst • Massachusetts

Copyright © 2006, Roger Kaufman
Published by: HRD Press, Inc.

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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements............................................................ v
Introduction ........................................................................ vii

Can you really choose to change your life? Can this
book really do some good? A map of the templates
and guides in this book.
Chapter 1. Decisions, You, and Success ......................... 1

What’s this all about anyway? The three Cs of life.
The 30 seconds that can change your life. Basic
decision-making steps. Old and non-useful conven-
tional wisdom and old realities.
Chapter 2. The Five Keys for Successful Decisions ....... 13

Be strategic. The first guide for making useful deci-
sions. Key success factor one: A Self-Assessment
exercise. Shifting the bases for decisions: some new
realities for making our decisions deliver success.
Continuing and stable realities that may continue to
guide us.
Chapter 3. Don’t Confuse What with How

(or Ends are Not the Same as Means) .............................. 39
Key success factor two: Everything is measurable. A
guide to aligning ends and means (and what with
how).
Chapter 4. Practical Dreaming: An Imperative Focus

for Everything You Use, Do, Produce, and Deliver ......... 57
Mega thinking and planning—vital. Key success
factor three: Mega and the ideal vision.
iv Table of Contents
Chapter 5. Aligning Results and Consequences:

The Decision Success Model Story.................................. 71
Key success factor four: Linking the now and the
future. Mega, society, community, you, and success.
Organization and family accomplishments—the next
link in the value chain. Individual accomplishments:
the building blocks of success. Putting all the pieces
together. The value chain again: linking planning and
results. Appendix to Chapter 5.
Chapter 6. Needs Versus Wants: Getting

the Data for Justifiable Decisions..................................... 91
Key success factor five: Using needs data to select
means: from gaps in results to useful solutions.
Chapter 7. It Is Decision Time:

That Critical 30 Seconds....................................................111
Template 3: a decison-making process. Getting your
30 seconds to be powerful. Self-assessment
exercise. Before we close. Appendix to Chapter 7.
Appendix: Bibliography.....................................................137
About the Author................................................................143

Acknowledgments
This book is about decisions, you, and how you can change
your life for the better. Change, choices, and consequences:
Here is what decisions are about and how you can take control
of determining your own future.
I wish to thank the publisher of Human Resources
Development Press Robert W. Carkhuff who made some
choices himself…for not only this book, but a series of volumes
defining the field of performance improvement as well as an
“applications” series of which this is a part.
I dedicate this book to Theodore H. Blau and Harold
Greenwald. I had the privilege of working with both. I was much
the better for the experiences. I also dedicate this to my wife
and partner Jan Kaufman and our son Jac Kaufman who
continue to teach me much…when I choose to learn from them.
I also wish to recognize the contributions of Albert Ellis and
Victor Frankl who taught, or at least tried to teach, me a great
deal during the time when Blau, Greenwald, Ellis, and Frankl
were on the faculty with me at the U.S. International University
(now the Alliant International University) in San Diego where
we were professors in the School of Human Behavior.
In addition, I owe much to many others including JC Fikes,
Leon Lessinger, Bob Corrigan, as well as many great students
who have withstood me and made me decide to become better
and better.
Finally, my thanks go to those who reviewed this book in
its various stages. Bits and pieces of this have been under
development for many years and have grown, developed, been
revised, and revised still again. The latest contributions to any
value this book delivers were made by Professor Emeritus Dale
Brethower who provided many (and often painful) suggestions
for making this clearer and more correct. Dr. Richard Gerson
also provided useful guidance. I also thank Chris Dearborn for
sensitive and sensible editing.
The flaws and problems of this book remain my own
personal responsibility.
Roger Kaufman
November 2005
Introduction
Thirty seconds? Give me a break! Sounds like some kind of
scam, or at least a teaser to sell a book based only on a single
simple-minded idea.
No, the 30 second title is real, and so is the fact that you
can change your life in that time. And all of this is based on
cold hard reality.
Thirty seconds is all that is required to get you to move
from mediocrity to success. Sounds incredible at first.1
The promise of this book is based on the insights of two of
the three great psychotherapists of recent years. It is also
supported by a virtual avalanche of change experts. In addition,
it integrates the lessons learned from applications of science
and research-based human performance technology to
business, industry, and the military worldwide. What is here is
useful to you in your work and in your life. And it will work for
you.
You. Change is up to you. The “active ingredient” in your
success is you.
This book provides three guides (or templates) that can, if
you decide to apply them, lead to success for you, your
partners, your organization, and (yes) our shared society.
If you are one of the few people on this planet who refuses
to be mediocre and refuses to live a life of quiet desperation,
this is for you. The difficult part (only at first glance) is getting
yourself ready for those critical 30 seconds. And that is what
this book is about.
Thirty seconds. The choice is yours.
Can You Really Choose to Change Your Life?

Of course. We make decisions all the time. We can choose to
be happy or sad, depressed or hopeful, reactive or proactive,
healthy or ill. We can choose to be mediocre or to have real
success.
This book is a practical-yet-rich guide to making good
choices. It is based in real and practical application and
research.
viii 30 Seconds That Can Change Your Life
It is up to you to decide to change from the payoffs you are

getting now from your decisions to ones that will make you
more successful—and happy.
Can This Book Really Do Some Good?

Talk about choice. I had one to make: write this book to provide
something useful, write one to simply make money, or do
nothing. I made a choice. The choice was not without
disagreement from others.
As I sat in front of one of the most successful editors
in the business, I was taken aback. He was very clear:
“Make up your mind, doc. Either you want to sell
books or you want to try to do some good. You can’t
have it both ways.”
“I can’t attempt both?” I asked naively.
“What makes you think you will be the first? This is a
good book—good stuff—but that is secondary. Want
to sell? Then get practical, get real-world. There is a
simple rule for selling ‘help’ books. Take one simple
idea and twist and turn it a hundred ways, but never
drift far from the one simple idea.”
“But life and work are complex! How can you do any
good by pretending that one idea will make everything
wonderful?”
“Sure, life and work are complex, but those who sell
books—really hit the top 20—don’t confuse solid
guidance with promoting one simple idea. Make up
your mind. One or the other. If we don’t do it the
conventional way, your books will be selling for 99
cents at the leftover book sales. My job is to sell
books, nothing more and nothing less.”
The editor was right. At least for what spells market
success. Up to now. The “wonderful” flavor-of-the-
month books all seemed to be clear, well-written, and
simple. So simple in fact, the leading management
thinker Peter Drucker has been reported as saying
Introduction ix
about this barrage of popular books, “I wish it were

that simple.” I agree.
I wasn’t happy with an artificial choice. Sure I wanted
to really help people make useful decisions that would
lead to happiness and success. And sure, I want to
have a successful book.
So I did what I advise others to do: Think like a
researcher and ask relevant questions about the world
I wanted to help create, and ask these questions
before jumping into a solution. Could I both provide
something useful to the rich tapestry of life and have a
successful book?
But life is not simple, and one simplistic guiding rule won’t do
anything but sell books. Even the Almighty could not boil the
rules down to less than ten!
I decided to go ahead with what you are now holding in
your hands.
Sure, the 30-second promise sounds like a quick-fix of the
“sell-through-oversimplification,” but it is not. The book is about
getting you ready for the 30-second decision, not making the
decision for you or even telling you what decision to make. It is
about getting ready for success—getting ready for those 30
critical seconds. And what you are now holding is an example
of an editor and publisher who understand the importance of
going beyond quick-fix bromides.
It will be work for you (and for me to convince you,
perhaps, of the reality in this approach). What follows provides
the rationales that are sometimes counter-intuitive and fly in the
face of conventional wisdom. But then again, mediocrity is the
product of following conventional wisdom.
Here is the promise: Your intelligence will not be insulted
by this book following the conventional wisdom that states that
you and I cannot keep track of more than one idea at a time.
We can. Our lives seem complex, but this application of
research, psychological theory, and practice to your success
will be straightforward.
x 30 Seconds That Can Change Your Life
This book contains:

• Three templates, or guides, for framing every decision
you make and calibrating the value and worth of your
decisions, before you make them, and to evaluate
them after they are made
These three guides are:
1. Five guiding success factors (if we were
physicists, we might call them “first principles”)
2. Decision-making success elements
3. A six-step problem-solving guide
• The reasons behind each of the guides and tools
along with uncluttered details of why they make
practical sense for you to use
A Map of the Templates and Guides in This Book

Below is a table that summarizes the templates and guides
presented in this book:
Template/Guide Components
Five Key Success 1. Don’t assume that what

Factors for Making worked in the past will work
Successful Decisions now. Get out of your comfort
zone and be open to change.
2. Differentiate between ends
and means.
3. Use a wide-world view—a big
picture.
4. Use and link three levels of
planning and results.
5. Define “need” as a gap in
results.
(continued)
Introduction xi
Template/Guide Components
The Decision Success Decision-making commitments

Model
A Problem-Solving Six steps

Process
This book is not about psychotherapy (although some of

the concepts and tools could be useful for such).
This book is about choices and decision making. You are
what you choose to do and not do, and you harvest the conse-
quences of your choices.
The contents of this book will provide you with practical
guides and tools that will lead to both personal and workplace
success—that will get you ready for those critical 30 seconds.
Everything in life is connected, so I will be working with you,
your personal relations, and your job, and providing exam-
ples—real-life examples—for all these interacting realities.
Decide to put them to work for you as you define and
achieve success. You are only one decision—one good deci-
sion that only takes 30 seconds—away from success…to get
started in deciding to change your life. It works. The decision is
yours.
Endnote
1. Happily I found an editor who was not hung up on selling books
alone, but thought more of you to sign this book. My thanks for
restoring my confidence in publishing.
Chapter 1
Decisions, You, and Success
What’s This All About Anyway?
Decisions.
We all make them. Some are good and some are not. But
all decisions have consequences and payoffs. Most of us make
decisions on the basis of habit, conventionality, lust, or fear.
Decisions are made, usually without thinking about the
consequences, either short or longer term. You may choose to
change that approach to decision making.
We are what we do, and we do what we decide to do.
What we do determines pretty much what happens to us in life
and work.
Don’t like the consequences of your decisions? Change.
Or accept mediocrity and all that it carries with it.
We can make better decisions, and we can improve our
personal and professional lives. Making good decisions is easy,
but the process for getting ourselves ready to make good
decisions is not conventional. Success in life and work is
possible, and it all depends on our willingness to change.
The Three Cs of Life

There are three Cs1 in our life:
• Change
• Choice
• Consequences
We can count on change happening. We can be the
victims of change—wait for things to happen and then react—
or be the masters of change. We can take control, or wait for
things to happen to us.
We can make choices in our life. We can choose to take
control or be victims. We can choose happiness or choose
something else.
2 30 Seconds That Can Save Your Life
And no matter what we do, or don’t do, there are conse-

quences. Results. Impacts. We are responsible for the conse-
quences in our lives. We can improve our own odds by
knowing about and controlling chance through our choices.
Three Cs of life.
Change. Change is scary for most of us. We know how to deal

with whatever comes our way based on our current decisions
and their consequences, or payoffs. Some would rather deal
with what is currently coming our way than get out of their
comfort zone and take a risk—a risk to change what we do and
how we act. We can get beyond our history and our conven-
tional ways of thinking and acting.
But what is really riskier? Continuing on with the predict-
able yet painful (or perhaps just boring and unrewarding) or
deciding to make things better?
Choices. We all make choices. Not making choices is a

choice. We can be the masters of change or the victim of it all
depending on our choices. No matter our choices, the conse-
quences are ours to own.
Consequences. What happens to us in our lives is largely up

to us. If bad things happen, we can be resilient or “give up” and
drift from day-to-day. Means—our choices about change—lead
to consequences that are ends and results. It seems smart to
link our choices to the consequences we want and not leave it
up to what fate and indecision deal us.
The 30 Seconds that Can Change Your Life

Sometimes our continuing poor decisions lead to depression,
serious anger, alienation, and other problems bothersome
enough to seek professional help, including psychotherapy. We
want to get help so that we can become healthier and happier.
However, two of the few outstanding psychotherapists2 of the
past 50 years independently told me that actual psychotherapy
only takes 30 seconds.
Chapter 1. Decisions, You, and Success 3
Thirty seconds! How can that be true? I was puzzled at

first, until they let out “the secret”:
Actually psychotherapy only takes 30 seconds! The
rest of the time is spent getting ready to decide (and
commit) to change.
Simple. Elegant. Revealing. So we can choose to be
better, but it seems difficult to many to decide to change.
But what about the conventional wisdom of psychotherapy
taking a long, long time? Don’t we hear about those agonizing
periods of therapy and analysis, of digging in the past, of
unearthing old ghosts and demons, of blaming mother, father,
friends, or relatives for our current situation? Yet two of the very
best professionals in psychotherapy say that all the time is
simply getting ready to decide to change.
I believed them. I still do, and this belief became a basic
inspiration for this book on change. This book is not about
psychotherapy, but it is about the same kinds of decisions that
psychotherapy attempts to promote. No, this book is just about
practical decision making and change while building on
practical research and insights gained from psychology.
Change is within our control. If we want to alter the payoffs
and consequences based on our decisions, just decide to
change: change from the behaviors that give us the unwanted
payoffs to the ones that will deliver the desired ones.
Simple, isn’t it?
You will likely be uncomfortable at first. But as the late
Harold Greenwald, decision expert, has shown us, we often
make decisions without really identifying the payoffs we really
want, and deserve. We can decide to be successful and happy.
So, it only takes 30 seconds to decide to change your
life—from mediocrity to success. Thirty seconds.
Getting to that point is what is more complex, and getting
there depends on the decisions you make and the context you
use to make those decisions.
When we talk about decisions and changes, please think
of the basic steps outlined in the table on the following page.
This book is about making successful decisions.
Basic Decision-Making Steps

(Based on Harold Greenwald’s work)3
• Identify the payoffs you are getting now that you don’t
want.
• Identify the behaviors you are displaying that deliver the
negative payoffs.4
• Identify the payoffs you do want.
• Identify the behaviors that will deliver the desired payoffs.
• Decide to change your behavior.
• Change.
• Be ready to decide to change in the future if you want
different payoffs.
Some people would like to think they are powerless and

that they have no control over what happens to them. Listen to
their rhetoric:
She made me do it.
Government controls everything.
I really wasn’t loved enough as a child.
Big business controls it all.
There are forces at work that determine what is going to
happen.
I do what I am told by my boss. I would not dare risk my
job by objecting.
No matter how much I try, those with the money and power
will decide.
Nobody can really understand.
A few people here make all the decisions.
The planning never involves me.
Nobody listens to me.

My mother really was mean and I still carry those scars.
My ideas will never be accepted.
I am too fat.
Nothing really changes… and it never will.
I have too much work to try anything new.
My work is never appreciated.
You can’t fight City Hall.
The Far Right calls all the shots.
The Far Left calls all the shots.
The media never tells the truth.
I can’t make a difference.
We have tried that before.
If it isn’t my direct responsibility, I don’t get involved.
What we hear is never what is really happening.
You get the idea. Nothing is ever our fault. We are simply
victims in the theatre of life. Problems always come from other
sources. Others have all the power and we have none. We are
just pawns in a larger game; we are never allowed to control.
When we use these excuses, we decide to be like the pack—to
be mediocre.
Often we accept the plight of others as being our own:
Sara couldn’t get a job, so I will not be able to as well. Or, times
are tough out there. My cousin just got laid off. Often we adopt
problems that are not ours, or we generalize from the
experiences of others to ourselves even though we, and our
circumstances, might actually be very different.
We frequently retreat into a role of helplessness and never
take the risk of taking control of our own lives and our own
futures.
If someone else is going to make decisions that affect your
life, why don’t you be that person? Frankly, nobody cares as
much about you as you (even your sainted mother) and you
should be the first person in line to decide what you do and

what happens to you. In fact, if you accept a “victim role,” you
have made the decision to do so.
The Victim Role. One manifestation of resigning oneself to

mediocrity and accepting whatever comes is taking the role of a
victim. When one acts helpless, they think they can blame
whatever happens on external forces and that they have no
control.
Being a victim, or playing the role of one, is a sure-fire
prescription to become and stay mediocre. Or possibly worse.5
We often blame others for our problems and our current
situation. From a bad mother to terrible siblings, nasty bullies, a
poor family, bad environment, to… well, you get the idea.
Ted Blau offered some good advice:
Everyone has to take two losses in life.
1. You were never really appreciated as being as good
as you really were when you were a child.
2. There is nothing—absolutely nothing—you can do to
change that.
This leads to a basic truth:
• You are what you do.

• You are responsible for what happens because of
what you do.
No one is responsible for your behavior, only you. Make

choices that bring you the results and consequences you want.
You can decide to change, to take control, to become the
master of change and not the victim of change. It only takes a
decision.
Decisions.
We can decide to keep doing what we are doing and get
the payoffs and consequences that come with those. Or we can
decide to get the payoffs and consequences we want and likely
deserve. Not making a decision is a decision. So, decide on the

basis of what will be good for you.
When something bothers us, it can be for several reasons:
1. What is being proposed is not useful. This should
always be the primary filter. But make sure that your
decision about it is not simply because it is new,
“untested,” or never-before considered by you. New is
not necessarily bad.
2. What is being proposed is scary. When we resist
something, it might be just because we feel that doing
something different is scary or will put us out of
control. We know how to deal with the payoffs we now
earn (even if they are undesirable), but we feel under
control. Risk is often required to achieve success—the
real success not being achieved currently.
3. What is being proposed is not understandable.
Many “hot” ideas seem to be fuzzy yet comfortable.
Or, we might “block” a new idea and possibility by
simply saying “I don’t understand” in hopes the
possibility will go away. This is risky.
When we reject something because it bothers us (often
rationalizing one or more of these three possibilities) we use
pushbacks: ways of blocking something, often using logical-
sounding reasons that turn out not to be rational. We will
discuss possible pushbacks as we go.
Or we can decide to get the payoffs and consequences we
want and likely deserve. Not making a decision is a decision.
So decide on the basis of what will be good for you.
The old and non-useful conventional wisdom of the times
has not served us well. Listening to the “experts” (even if they
write big-selling books, appear on talk shows, or have faculty
positions at an Ivy League school) might not be good for your
mental health, or your success. Let’s take a closer look in our
effort to encourage you to make decisions to change your life
for the better.
Old and non-useful conventional wisdom has frequently

failed us. We can benefit from what has worked in the past and
change what has not. We should not automatically do what we
have always done.
When we rely on old and non-useful conventional
wisdom—on old realities—we find trouble facing us square in
the face. When something fails, it does not matter who told us
to do it that way—failure is failure. As one slogan has it,
“Success has a million parents, while failure is an orphan.”
Not all conventional wisdom or “automated responses to
our environment” are wrong. But they are not always right
either. Why not pat ourselves on the back for our past
accomplishments and be alert to how we might respond
differently in the future? The past is just prologue; it isn’t an
iron-clad guide to a successful future. Be ready to change.
When failure rears its ugly head, no matter how earnest
our excuses, you still are held accountable…even if you
followed orders or used the accepted methods, thinking, and
tools. Comfort and continuing past habits for their own sake
have their costs. Even if you “follow the leader(s),” you own the
successes or failures. One saying is worth considering: “Every
pearl starts with an irritant.”
Old and Non-useful Conventional

Wisdom and Old Realities
Let’s review some old realities and see what was accepted in
the past but was wrong—popular, conventional, acceptable,
and flat-out wrong.
As we review these,6 please remember that they were
once the conventional wisdom of the day—the advice of the so-
called experts of the time. Here are some nuggets that should
give us all pause about following the leaders of today:
We deal with problems one at a time.
Convenient, but not sensible. Most of what happens in our
world is going on at the same time as other things; they
interact. If we deal with just one problem at a time, we will miss
the whole. It would be like driving in traffic and only paying

attention to other drivers in our rearview mirror and not realizing
that other “problems” are also all around us—in traffic and in
life. Single issue and linear thinking are not very useful.
This is why this book doesn’t simply deal with one problem
at a time, such as personal ones. Because one’s personal life
interacts with our other lives that are running parallel to each
other—self, family and friends, and work—all of these are
interwoven in this book.
Another problem with this linear thinking is that we don’t
respond to the reality that life is complex and lots of things go
on at the same time. A physician cannot prescribe a drug
without knowing possible interactions with other drugs (and
what your body produces). We know that we can say
something on one topic to a significant other and not realize
that other things might well be operating at the same time
(“that’s not a good color on you” might interact with feelings of
being fat, which was not at all the original intention).
Only paying attention to one thing at a time can create
problems for ourselves as well as problems created by others.
For example, single-issue politics are devastating. Yet
politicians7 pander to single issues all the time. And we pay for
it, all of it. They count votes, and we all should count useful
results. And we should hold them accountable for their choices
as we should hold ourselves accountable for our choices.
For example, if local politicians decide to widen a road, in
so doing they often invite more traffic and more congestion by
making the new pathway more attractive. If we increase
benefits for single mothers, we might be giving negative
incentives for marriage and lasting partnerships. When we
provide food for the poor, we might be ignoring education and
training for them at the same time and, thus, perpetuate
dependence and ill-will.
These quick-fix single-issue intentions to help can all
happen, even with the best of intentions.
Things in our world are complex (like it or not), and our
decisions have to take into account that complexity. We have to
look at and account for all of the subsystems—parts of the
whole—in our world while improving the overall system.8
One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and

over and expecting a different set of results.
Here are more old paradigms and non-useful conventional
wisdom that drove people and decisions who would not think
critically about the person or statement:
Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently
high plateau.
– Irving Fisher, Economics Professor, Yale University, 1929
Many wished that were so.
Everything that can be invented has been invented.

– Charles H. Duell, Commission, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899
Glad not many people listened.
Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.

– Pierre Pachet, Professor of Physiology, Toulouse, 1872
Are we not glad that physicians and pharmaceutical companies

did not stop with this “wisdom of the day”?
640K ought to be enough for anybody.

– Bill Gates, 1981
Heavier-than-air flying machines are an impossibility.

– Lord Kelvin, President, Royal Society, 1895
I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.

– Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943
We can surmise that Dell and Gateway did not agree.
There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their

home.
– Ken Olson, Chairman and Founder of Digital
Equipment Corp., 1977
Any in the list you find useful today? Remember, once

these were the paradigms of choice—staying in the comfort
zone stuff.
Get the idea? Even the rich and famous can get it wrong
about both now and in the future. Just because someone is the
boss, an author on the New York Times Best Seller List,
famous, or powerful does not mean blindly following them will
be to our advantage.
There is a lot of old and non-useful conventional wisdom
out there about personal relationships, including that women
should act dependent or they should never let a guy know she
cares about him. Men only want one thing and women only
want protection and security. Other old and non-useful
conventional wisdom is that one has to “buy love” and spend to
get affection in return, or that there are “guy cars” and “chick
cars” and not ones that are functional and acceptable to both
genders. Conventional. Commonly accepted. And wrong.
If you still have the book in your hands, you have gotten
over “I have heard all of this stuff before” enough to investigate
further. You have just made decision number one on the road
to your success!
Endnotes
1. Dr. Richard Gerson suggests a fourth C: Commitment.
2. And I was influenced by the third one but did not have the benefit
of as much direct interaction with him.
3. These are the basic steps of Greenwald’s Direct Decision

Therapy. Powerful and rational: And they are practical for everyday
life.
4. Payoffs are the rewards and consequences of our decisions.
5. Viktor Frankl once mentioned to me that “there are no unwilling

victims.” This likely came from his experiences in Nazi death camps
where he noted that those who survived usually were the ones who
would not allow anyone to take away their own self-worth…he felt it
had to be given away. This is a harsh insight given how terrorists for
centuries have victimized innocents. However, psychologically, I
suggest Frankl is correct: We can choose to accept victimhood and
give away our self-worth.
6. The Internet is a valuable source of information. Unfortunately,

some of what is there is unedited, often not confirmed, and not
attributed to original authors or sources. Some of the items I use here
are from the Internet (and thanks to many graduate students who
have discovered and filtered these), so I cannot always credit the real
contributor. My thanks to them, however. And if they will let me know,
I will be very happy to give credit to them.
7. One definition of politics provided by Peter Senge is “when who is

more important than what.” This is a confusion of means and ends.
Another interesting definition of a politician is “someone who as soon
as they see the light and the end of the tunnel quickly builds more
tunnel.”
8. Much to my dismay, a noted biologist told me several years ago

that less than 5% of the world is psychologically capable of under-
standing the difference between the whole and its parts. I hope he is
wrong, and I sure hope you will help me prove he is.
Chapter 2
The Five Keys for
Successful Decisions
The promise: You are only one good decision away from
changing your life—a decision that only takes 30 seconds.
So let’s get to those tools for making useful decisions and
for changing your life for the better.
That one critical decision—the 30-second one—is based
on three guides, or templates, that provide the tools for
success.
This chapter deals with one of the important ingredients:
decisions and decision making. This chapter gets you ready to
make useful decisions—decisions that will deliver success,
make you strategic, and make you happier.1
Be Strategic
Strategic? Yes.
Being strategic is nothing more than:
• Selecting where you want to head,
• Confirming why you really want to get there, and
• Defining how to know when you have arrived.
Strategy is about defining the most useful destination
before deciding how to get from where you are to that
destination. Tactics deal with the choices for getting you to the
destination you select.
With the precise definition of destination—where you are
headed and how to tell when you have arrived—you may then
make practical choices on how to get from where you are to
where you want to be. Thus you will put means (how-to-do-its)
into proper relation with ends (results and consequences):
DESTINATION MEANS PAYOFFS and
(Ends) (and Resources) CONSEQUENCES
14 30 Seconds That Can Change Your Life
After previewing all five key success factors, we investigate

the whys of making the first single decision that will make you
successful and set the stage for other decisions, also based on
the five keys, to continue on the same path to success.
Let’s preview the five key success factors for making suc-
cessful decisions and then discuss each and show how you
use them all to make successful decisions for thinking, plan-
ning, and being strategic.
Ready? First let’s look at the unvarnished versions and
then explain each one in terms of how each may be important
for you.
The First Guide for Making Useful Decisions

We promised in the Introduction to give you three templates, or
guides, for useful decision making. The first guide is presented
on the next page.
These five key success factors might sound theoretical at
first, but let’s explain each and show how they are very practi-
cal indeed. We will take these five factors and show you how to
apply them to your life and to your world. The five key success
factors are general; they can be applied to business as well as
to our personal life (yes, both organizational and personal).
Let’s start looking into them so that you can see for your-
self how practical they really are.
What??? Up front we told you that this wouldn’t be conven-
tional or usual. This is not a bunch of “standard” business
school slogans or quick fixes2 (they have caused enough prob-
lems), but rather a new and refreshing way of thinking, plan-
ning, doing, evaluating, and harvesting success. These are not
the single-issue, make-over-your personality, overnight guides.
Life is complex, and so will be the pieces and parts of
successful decision making.
Chapter 2. The Five Keys for Successful Decisions 15
Five Key Success Factors for Making Successful

Decisions: Becoming a Strategic Thinker*
1. Don’t assume that what worked in the past will work now.
Get out of your comfort zone and be open to change.
2. Differentiate between ends (what) and means (how) and
prepare all objectives to measure accomplishment.
3. Use a wide-world view—an ideal vision (Mega)3 of what kind of
world, in measurable performance terms, we want for all of us,
including tomorrow’s child, as the underlying basis for planning,
decision making, and continuous improvement.
4. Use all three levels of planning and results (Mega/Outcomes;

Macro/Outputs; Micro/Products)4 for decision making.
5. Define “need” as a gap in results (not as insufficient levels of

resources, means, or methods).
*In each chapter, these five key decision factors are provided with the
major topic of that chapter in bold.
But it will all come together for you.
Let’s Keep Moving On. Chapters 2 through 6 will each deal

with one of the five key success factors. As we look at each
one, please remember that they form a fabric where all are
important and interrelated—all of them.
Key Success Factor One

Here is the first successful decision-making key that, if you
choose to apply, will help you be successful:
Don’t assume that what worked in the past will work
now. Get out of your comfort zone and be open to
change.
This is the one that controls all of the others, and it’s a tough
one because it involves risk. It is the one that keeps us away
from success unless we choose to overcome our natural
inertia. We tend to respond almost automatically and assume

that our responses to each situation that worked in the past will
work for us now. Not true. While this is comfortable, it isn’t
necessarily useful. Times change, situations change, and you
should be ready, able, and willing to change as well.
Most people prefer to stay where they are comfortable.
They tend to repeat past responses even in the context of new
realities, new situations, and new surroundings, even if it
means staying miserable. At least they know things will be
predictable: no surprises, just miserable and predictable.
They have a zone in which they feel comfortable operating,
and when they push themselves out (or someone forces them
out) of that area, they get tense, irritable, and defensive—in
other words, human.5 When we address today only on the
basis of yesterday, we miss the opportunity to find new things
that will work. Sure, just because it is old wisdom doesn’t make
it wrong, but get off “auto-pilot” and consider each new situation
as an opportunity to apply different and more successful
responses.
We have all seen “automated” responses based on old
scripts: “All blonds are…” “All men are…” “You just can’t trust
that kind…” Many of these stereotypes will make us miss new
opportunities.
Sometimes acting on old experiences and understandings
cause us to act powerless: “That kind of decision cannot be
made at my level,” or “Those are the rules. I don’t make them, I
just follow them.” We usually try to find ways to keep on doing
what we already know and do, even though we know doing so
will lead to failure. It is said that 95 percent of all people get up
each day and do exactly what they did the day before: routine,
predictable, and often non-productive, but comfortable. Look for
different and sensible ways to view life and what happens to
you.
We know the pressure to conform: to see what the other
gal or guy is doing and follow that. Recall the often well-
intentioned advice that we have internalized:
To get along, go along.
If you are busy rowing, you don’t have time to rock the
boat.
When you are boss, you can do what you want.
Don’t anger anyone.
Don’t trust others. Ever.
Do it the way we have always done it.
Watch and do what the others in power do.
Benchmark the leaders.
Do what the client wants.
Do what the boss wants.
Don’t make waves.
Do it the way the popular authors say to do it.
Do it the way the consultant says to do it.
…and you can add more from your own experience.
Options Are Available to You: Choices, Choices, Choices.

Which of the above will you follow? Which will you continue to
choose? They are all convenient ways to make poor decisions
and continue on a conventional path. Giving up what will
work—or bring success—for what is acceptable and
comfortable means giving up our unique abilities and goals. It
also keeps us away from making useful decisions. If you don’t
like what is happening to you now, it isn’t much of a risk to
choose to think and respond differently from the way you do
now.
How much is the short-term acceptance of others worth to
you? How much of yourself and your future success are you
willing to trade? Can you take acceptance to the bank? Does it
taste anything like steak, champagne, or caviar?
Here is a list of usual and conventional ways of behaving.
For each one, check those that you now do and those you
might consider not doing (changing):
Conventional Ways I Do I Might

That Now Consider
of Behaving
Changing
To get along, go along. q q

If you are busy rowing, you don’t have time q q
to rock the boat.
When you are boss, you can do what you q q
want.
Don’t anger anyone. q q
Don’t trust others. Ever. q q
Do it the way we have always done it. q q
Watch and do what those in power do. q q
Benchmark the leaders. q q
Do what the client wants. q q
Do what the boss wants. q q
Don’t make waves. q q
Do it the way the popular authors say q q
to do it.
Do it the way the consultant says to do it. q q
Other: _________________________ q q
Do any of your responses to these statements provide

inspiration for deciding to make some changes in the ways you
now do things in your life?
Deciding to Change and Selecting What to Change. Change

is important. Only you can decide to change and what to
change.
Only you can decide to take a risk and change the payoffs
in life you are now getting. You can decide to be successful
and that requires some change. But what to change and what
to keep? How about taking a look into yourself?
Self-Assessment Exercise
Following is a set of statements that provide some options for
you—options for change to look at how you now act and how
you believe it would be useful to act.
For each statement, rate yourself on the two dimensions,
on the left side of the statement for What Is, and on the right
side for What Should Be.6 When you have done this, you may
then see some options for deciding on useful change.
20
Change Self-Assessment
Indicate the relative frequency with which the following statements are true
WHAT IS concerning the "drivers" for the way you make decisions. Please provide WHAT
two ratings for each statement. Use the following scale: SHOULD BE
1 = Rarely, if Ever 4 = Sometimes

Describe how you 2 = Almost Never 5 = Quite Frequently Describe how you
see you currently 3 = Not Usually 6 = Consistently think you should
operating. be operating.
1 2 3 4 5 6 I avoid making decisions. 1 2 3 4 5 6

1 2 3 4 5 6 I make decisions in order to be accepted by others. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I do things the way I have done them in the past. 1 2 3 4 5 6
30 Seconds That Can Change Your Life

1 2 3 4 5 6 I am happy with where I am in my organization. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I am happy with my personal relationships. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I am happy with my life. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I watch others to see what they do before acting. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I am open to new ideas and frames of reference. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I make decisions without objective data, using only my experience or my hunches. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I feel uncomfortable doing things that are out of my friends' norms. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I worry about my decisions once made. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I don't care what others think when I make a decision. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I would rather do what will be accepted rather than that which will be successful. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I make a decision without the approval of my boss. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I make decisions that will lead to my becoming the boss. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I want acceptance of others even at high personal cost. 1 2 3 4 5 6
(continued)
Chapter 2. The Five Keys for Successful Decisions
CHANGE SELF-ASSESSMENT

1 2 3 4 5 6 I take risks to be successful. 1 2 3 4 5 6

1 2 3 4 5 6 I use fads. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I make decisions that will lead to personal success. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I make decisions that will lead to organizational success. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I make decisions that lead to good personal relationships. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I evaluate the consequences of my decisions on the job. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I evaluate the consequences of my decisions for my organization. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I evaluate the consequences of my decisions for my personal relationships. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I use evaluation results for blaming myself or others. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I use evaluation results for fixing and improving. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 The impact of what I do and what my organization delivers for external clients 1 2 3 4 5 6
and our shared society is my primary focus.
1 2 3 4 5 6 I keep acting the same ways even though they lead to my unhappiness. 1 2 3 4 5 6
21
Using This Self-Assessment.

1. Scan the gaps between What Is and What Should Be
for these self-assessment items, and identify any
choices or patterns of choices and decisions you
might want to change.
2. List the top five in priority order—in the order in which
you would like to close the gaps between What Is and
What Should Be.
3. If there are two or more units of distance between
What Is and What Should Be for an item, consider
making a decision to close that gap. After all, you are
considering making decisions that will bring you
personal as well as organizational success. Define
What Is and the results they deliver and then consider
What Should Be and note areas for changing what
you do—your decisions and the consequences of
those decisions.
A warning, however: Not all items in the list are “good”
for success. For example, always wanting more data
might block you from timely and appropriate action. Or
watching and using what others do to copy “best
practices” for your own use assume that their
objectives are the same as yours. That is risky. Other
people’s (or other organizations’) objectives are rarely
the same.
Study the items and decide which ones will lead to
successful choices and which ones might not.
4. List the items you would like to change in priority
order.
Want more reasons to give up old ways of thinking, doing,
and relating?
Continuing to respond to our world the way we have
always done in the past can often fail us and will likely continue
to do so.7 Keep what works now, and give up what doesn’t. But
be ready to change how you respond and act.
When we rely on old realities, we frequently find trouble

facing us square in the face. When something fails, it does not
matter who told us to do it that way. Failure is failure.
When failure rears its ugly head, no matter how earnest
the excuses, you still are held accountable, even if you followed
orders or used the accepted methods, thinking, and tools.
Comfort has its costs. Even if you “follow the leader(s)” you
own the successes or failures.
In Chapter 1, we went over some unfortunate old-paradigm
thinking and advice: what is conventional, popular, and
accepted might not be useful at all. In fact, it might be dead
wrong.
Are there any in that list in Chapter 1 that you find useful
today? Remember, at one time these were the paradigms of
choice: staying in the comfort zone stuff.
Shifting the Bases for Decisions: Some New

Realities for Making Our Decisions Deliver Success
There are new realities to be considered if we are to define and
deliver personal as well as organizational success.8 Based on
research (including my own), there are some new realities to
consider if you are to make useful—successful—decisions. In
getting ready for that fateful 30-second decision, we have to get
ourselves into a context—our world—that makes good sense.
As we saw earlier, there are a lot of stereotypes about our
world that don’t serve us well. They don’t build a reality base for
our thinking, planning, and doing. But if the current (and past)
don’t work so well anymore, what do we replace it with?
Here are some new realities to guide our thinking, plan-
ning, and doing:
• Tomorrow is not a linear projection of yesterday or
today; you can't solve today's or tomorrow’s problems
with the same paradigms and tools that created them.
• After September 11, 2001, we know we can no longer
just focus on individual performance improvement or
single tasks or jobs—systems approaches. Every-
thing we use, do, produce, and deliver must add value

at the societal level: a system approach.9
• Think globally as you act locally.
• Useful change has to add value to all partners and
stakeholders.
• We should offer customers what they could really use,
not just what they want.
• It is easier to kill an organization than it is to change it
(modeled after Peters).
• Reality is not divided into disciplines, courses,
departments, sections, agencies, laws, policies, or
issues.
• If you can't predict the future, create it (modeled after
Drucker).
• We are now getting better and better at doing that
which should not be done at all (modeled after
Drucker).
• Evaluation is about improvement, not blaming; we
should fix the problem, not fix the blame.
• There are two “bottom lines” for every organization:
societal and conventional. Adding more bottom lines
fragments the whole of societal value added.
• Making money and doing societal good must not be
mutually exclusive.
• Don’t be the best of the best, be the only one who
does what you do (Jerry Garcia).
• Ask, “If my organization is the solution, what’s the
problem?” (Or ask, “If I am the solution, what’s the
problem?”)
These new realities can guide us as we make new

decisions—decisions to change the consequences of our
current decisions. These will be useful only if you choose to
shift from immediate comfort and what others are doing to new
decisions to move from the current payoffs to a new paradigm
of defining the kind of person you want to become, and then
choosing what results you commit to deliver to yourself, others,
your organization, and the world.
Which ones will you choose? Why? Which ones will you
decide to use? Why?
Read the description of each new reality below to help you
decide.
Tomorrow is not a linear projection of yesterday. Things

don’t progress smoothly in our world. Things seem to jump and
leap, not making smooth transitions over time. We often go in
step-functions—big, sudden, and steep shifts. The Japanese
economy that was so strongly respected and feared in the
1980s didn’t continue to dominate, but instead it sank quickly.
The bicycle did not slowly evolve into the motorcycle to the
automobile to the airplane. The progression was fast, sudden,
steep, and dramatic. We did not take as long to get from the
abacus to the computer as we did to get from counting on our
fingers to the abacus. Don’t plan for slow and smooth
evolutions, but bet on fast and dramatic ones.
Speaking of things that happen fast, recall how terrorists
on September 11, 2001, changed the lives of all of us around
9:00 a.m. in New York (and then in Washington, D.C., and
thanks to a handful of heroes, a little less tragedy in
Pennsylvania). Regardless of the reasons, a new reality was
thrust on us—tragically, horribly, and quickly.
After September 11, 2001, we know we can no longer just

focus on individual performance improvement, or systems
approaches. Everything we use, do, produce, and deliver
must add value at the societal level: a system approach.
On that fateful morning, security screeners were trained to look
at splinters of a whole; they looked only for people with
individual weapons and not also to a holistic driver of “arrive

alive.” It was not in their paradigm to ask, “Why are five unre-
lated passengers each carrying box cutters?” Instead, they only
looked with a unit of analysis or focus on each passenger
carrying a then-legal box cutter and not the fatal pattern of five
people on the same aircraft carrying one each. Just looking at
the parts of a system and not the whole, they missed the whole
pattern. When they looked at each passenger as “the sys-
tem”—a systems approach—and not the overall safety of all—a
system approach—they had little chance of averting terror,
terror beyond our wildest expectations. And the world of most
civilized people turned upside down in an instant.
No longer can we focus on a part of the whole and not the
whole. No longer can we focus on individual systems, but
rather we have to focus on the whole system. To use a
systems approach and not a system approach is like fixing
sales and marketing without also including manufacturing,
human resources, shipping, and all aspects of an organization
into our decisions. It would be like taking care to focus on our
personal appearance subsystem (confusing that with the whole
story) and forgetting about our personal hygiene as well as our
personal people-skills. When we look at one or more of the
parts, that is a systems approach. When we look at the whole,
including society now and in the future, that is a system
approach. What a difference an “s” makes, even though it
might at first seem like semantic quibbling.
It is the whole that has to define the parts and how they all
must work together. First define the whole—the biggest
picture—and then the parts. Don’t confuse the parts, no matter
how well designed and managed, with the whole. Don’t confuse
a tough jogging routine with overall health and well-being.
Wholes and Parts: A System Approach and a Systems

Approach. Let’s take a look at some examples of your current
personal situation of wholes and parts:
Whole (or Part (or

Example
System) Systems)
My partner10 X
World well-being11 X
My organization X
My neighborhood X
Global business12 X
My job X
From your personal perspective, what you use, do,

produce, deliver, and the consequences of that are usually
seen as ourselves being the center of the universe.
Understandable, but a bit deceptive.
It is important that we see ourselves in the context of our
shared world. Looking inward for our focus can be deceptive.
While one’s partner is important, it is just a piece of overall
happiness and survival. While we might be interested in our
survival and quality of life, we must consider it in the context of
the world stage (my using up all of a resource that others
cannot get access to might create external conflict). For
example, the United States is a major consumer of energy, and
now, so are other evolving business entities, such as China.
They all are competing (along with others) for limited
resources. Who wins? Who can blackmail either or both of us?
What should we give away in order to buy energy? And if and
when we do, what are the long, as well as the immediate, costs
and consequences?
In business and in life, it seems easier at first to focus on
the parts and try to fix those, and assume if you do a good
enough job, the whole will be better off. As the song goes, “it
ain’t necessarily so.” Realize that whole and parts must be
related and linked; we must act on the basis of “We are vital
parts inside of large wholes.”
Think globally as you act locally. This is a variation of the

September 11 new reality. The advice here is to look at the
whole while focusing attention on parts of the whole. Align what
you use, do, produce, and deliver to adding value to our shared
world.
Responsible environmentalists have suggested this world
view and the associated advice that leads to working on
specific good deeds, such as recycling, in terms of adding
value to the whole: the survival of our shared planet. In your
personal life, change your behaviors, but only in terms of its
adding value to your whole persona and its worth and value. In
your organization, fix parts of the organization while realizing
that each part must add value to the whole.
Useful change has to add value to all partners and

stakeholders. Recent research13 shows us that change
programs have a failure rate of about 60 percent in the first
year and almost all go away by the end of the second year.
Why?
More often than not, change programs are designed
without revealing the fact that the changes will be to the
advantage of a very few and not all stakeholders. Our life
partners and friends often tell us to change, and often the
suggestion is good for the person making the suggestion and
not necessarily for us. For example, someone might suggest to
you to be nice and help around the house while they litter and
sleep late; New Year’s resolutions abound, but usually fall to
dust around January 2nd or 3rd simply because there doesn’t
seem to be a real reason to change; your boss wants to initiate
a quality improvement program and does not provide appropri-
ate incentives for all who will act on the change.
So there seem to be two reasons that change initiatives
don’t work: (1) the payoffs are for a few and not all, and/or (2)
we ask for change but don’t change the rewards for the change
we request. These are a blueprint for assured failure of change
initiatives, both organizational or personal.
We should offer customers what they could really use, not

just what they want. Just because the customer (or someone
we care about) wants something, that doesn’t mean it is the
right thing for them to have or for us to help provide.
Increasingly, organizations are finding that doing what is right
for our shared world might not be prized by their customers.
For example, Honda pushed for great fuel economy, despite
initial customer resistance. Fast foods can be slimmed down,
and whole grains can be offered in grocery stores for the
benefit of their customers’ health.
Old thinking is that we must give others what they want.
New thinking is helping them by offering what they can really
use. Be ahead of the market, not just react to it. Be ahead in a
relationship, not just react to it.
It is easier to kill an organization than it is to change it.14

(Or it is easier for us to get sick and even die than it is to
change). The resistance to change is so strong that many
people, knowingly or not, choose not to change simply to feel
comfortable for the here-and-now, even when they admit the
organization is in deep decline—a high price to pay for comfort.
Have you ever heard someone say, “I don’t know why I
keep overeating. I just can’t stop myself.” Yet they know that
being overweight leads to lousy health and before-one’s-time
death. Is it easier to hurt (or kill) yourself than it is to change?
Have you ever thought, “Why do I keep falling for the same
kind of people… I always end up getting hurt”? Or have you
ever heard a co-worker say, “I am not going to change, I am
only a couple of years from retirement”?
Again, one can choose success or failure. It is a personal
decision. But whatever the decision, one owns the conse-
quences of it.
Reality is not divided into disciplines, courses, depart-

ments, sections, agencies, laws, policies, or issues. Splin-
ters. Pieces. Parts. Stove pipes. The conventional way to look
at problems is to see them as parts of the whole, not the whole.
Thus we might address a symptom or part of the problem
instead of looking at the whole problem including its context.

For example, citizens vote to widen roads only to find that
doing so increases traffic because the new wider lanes are
more attractive when driving. In Florida, a constitutional
amendment was passed limiting school class size only to find
out later that doing so cut the heart out of the total state budget
without any assurance that smaller classes really did lead to
improved measurable learner performance.
Politicians and citizens alike tend to look at “issues” rather
than first looking at the results they want to accomplish (no
traffic jams, acceptable learner performance, etc.) and end up
with solutions-in-search-of-problems; they select means before
defining and justifying the ends.
In organizations, we print organization charts and pretend
that those really represent how the organization really works.
We know it doesn’t. In colleges, we emphasize each individual
course and assume that passing those courses really adds to a
competent and educated person. We know better. We do
“strategic planning” for agencies, departments, sections, and
units only to later realize that no matter how well we perform at
each lower organizational level, if those improvements are not
linked to adding value to the total organization and our shared
society, it might be like rearranging the deck chairs on the
Titanic; without the right direction, no matter how hard or
cleverly we work on the parts, disaster might result anyway.
In our lives, we tend to look at single issues: our weight,
our age, our diet, our exercise. If we look at only the pieces by
themselves without looking at the overall requirements for
health and well-being, we will likely fail in our self-improvement
efforts. We know that weight reduction and diet don’t work as
well unless we combine those with exercise; we know that the
body is more than the sum of its parts.
Focus on the whole before attempting to improve any part.
If you can't predict the future, create it. This powerful new
reality is courtesy of management guru-of-gurus Peter Drucker.
It is great insight: proactive, sensible, and practical.
This flies in the face of the conventional thinking that we

have to predict the future (know of all those infernal futures
studies or the Sunday supplement articles on what changes are
in the air) and gives some simple advice: Create the future you
want; don’t wait to be overtaken by changes, or just react to
change rather than create your own future. For example, during
a recession, many organizations just cut back on everything:
They let people go, they cut back on marketing, and they
“hunker down” until the economic problem passes. Those who
tend to survive see—as do the Chinese who combine the
symbols of “fear” and “opportunity” to spell out “threat”—that
when everyone else is running for cover, it might be the best
time to invest in your future.
But change is up to you—just you and you alone. There is
the old joke that goes: How many California therapists does it
take to change a light bulb? Answer: Only one, but the light
bulb really has to want to change. Funny, but true. For your
future happiness and success, you really have to want to
change.
Want to have a happy life? The late world-class
psychotherapist Harold Greenwald’s advice to be happy is to
simply act happy and happiness will surely follow. You must
create your own happiness by acting happy.
Want a great relationship with someone? Create it. Want a
better business? Create it. We can define success in our
personal and organizational lives; all we have to do is to act in
a way to create it and ignore the pushbacks.
Simple and powerful: Create the kind of life you want
through your decisions to change.
This is vital. Pause for a bit and think about this one and
the power it might give you.
We are now getting better and better at doing that which

should not be done at all. This is another Peter Drucker
insight. We keep trying to improve the efficiency of what we
now do and never ask, “Why should we be doing this in the first
place?” Instead of just repeating today cheaper, faster, and
better, first ask, “What should we be delivering?” Should we
work harder at a personal relationship? Even if it is with the

wrong person?
Again simple and powerful advice for all of us.
Evaluation is about improvement, not blaming. Fix the

problem, don’t fix the blame. Most people dread being evalu-
ated, and often for good reason because most people use the
results of evaluation for blaming. Dumb. Evaluation should only
attend to fixing and never to blame. When things go wrong,
most people (especially politicians) want to assign the blame
for what happened and don’t fix the problem.
On a personal level, stop the blame, guilt, and anxiety.
Stop. Learn from evaluation and decide what to change and
what to keep.
Remember, let’s fix problems and not fix the blame.
There are two “bottom lines” for every organization:

societal and conventional. Adding more bottom lines
fragments the whole of societal value added. I know. All of
the conventional business school dogma is about the basic
driver of making a profit and adding value to shareholders: the
quarterly Profit and Loss sheet. But doing so is not enough.
You must also add value to our shared society as well.
Remember previously profitable tires that ended up killing
unsuspecting consumers? Remember profitable drugs that hurt
people in the short run… but after terrific profits? Doing societal
good and making money must not be mutually exclusive. After
all, if you are not adding value to society, you are likely
subtracting value.15
Pay close attention to the aligning of both the conventional
(quarterly profits) and societal bottom lines.
Making money and doing societal good must not be mutu-

ally exclusive. For years it was assumed that the business of
business was business: that businesses make money and gov-
ernments look after people. No longer. If you—in your personal
life—and your organization are not adding value to our shared
society, then you will not be successful. Look at the wreckage
of people who only looked after themselves and, thus, pun-

ished others. Look at organizations that boosted short-term
profits only to go out (or be put out) of business. No, we want to
be successful, and we must do it by adding value to all others.
Don’t be the best of the best, be the only one who does
what you do (so said Grateful Dead band leader Jerry Garcia).
Why copy anyone else? Why benchmark others? Do you know
anyone or any organization you want to be just like? Doubtful.
Be unique. Be the one and only and let other unthinking people
benchmark you.
Ask, “If my organization is the solution, what’s the

problem?” (Or ask, “If I am the solution, what’s the prob-
lem?”). All organizations are simply means to societal ends.
Make sure you are a solution to an important problem. Ask this
question of your organization in order to focus on aligning what
you use, do, produce, and deliver to adding societal value.
And for interpersonal relations, ask, “If I am the solution to
him/her, what’s the problem?” It will certainly focus you on
adding value to others as well as yourself, and being able to
prove it.
This simple question puts ourselves (as well as our organi-
zations) into a useful context. It allows us to take a hard and
objective look at adding value to ourselves and others.
Continuing and Stable Realities That May

Continue to Guide Us
Following are some realities that still withstand the “test of time”
and can continue to guide our decisions. Which ones might you
use?
We are what we do… and accomplish. This is a basic

principle. What we decide to do delivers what happens to us.
We are what we accomplish, or as the saying goes, “You reap
what you sow.” Talk is cheap, actions bring results.
If we only set achievable objectives, we will forever be

mired in yesterday. Some (including some of the so-called
management experts) would say to never set objectives that
we cannot achieve—don’t risk frustration by asking for more
than we can deliver. This is pretty limiting thinking. If we only
did what we knew we could deliver, there would be little
worthwhile change. Most people thought putting a man on the
moon was folly (and some jerks still think we faked it), that it
was unobtainable and only setting ourselves up for disaster.
They were wrong. Some thought runners would never run a
four-minute mile. And some thought we could never eliminate
polio or walk on the moon.
While we naturally don’t set objectives for things that are
obviously not achievable (such as jumping off of a building
flapping our arms in an attempt to fly), we do routinely achieve
more than is expected of us.16 We are powerful and we are at
our best when we stretch beyond what is normally expected.
Trust yourself, and reach for success. Successful sports
coaches define leadership as getting people to accomplish
what they would not have accomplished on their own. Decide
to push yourself beyond the expected and safe.
There is no fair wind for a rudderless ship. Without

direction, no matter how much assistance, you will not get to
someplace useful.
Purpose and direction are vital. When deciding to change,
have the end point in mind: Where do you want to go, and
why? And while you are at it, make sure the end point adds
value to you and all others.
The resistance to a new idea increases by the square of its

importance. So said noted philosopher and mathematician
Bertrand Russell. Have you ever noticed that people resist
change, even when the idea is good? When people criticize, it
usually means one of three things: they are right and you are
wrong, you are very right and they are very scared, or they
didn’t think of it first.
When you get resistance, be open to criticism, but reject

objections that are not based on data, reality, and promise.
Sometimes the hardest thing you can get someone to do is
change.
Be sure your new idea is useful and important, and later in
the book there will be some advice and tools on how to get that
assurance.
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not to their

own data. Opinions are fine; they can open the door to mutual
exploration. But opinions not based on data and reality are just
about emotions. Be careful of naked opinions, for there is
nothing more frightening than ignorance in action.
Data, research results, and keen objective observations
supply the basic information for making useful decisions.
Opinion alone is likely to be bias and stereotypes in
masquerade. Get the facts, not just opinions.
A problem doesn’t cease to exist simply because one

chooses to ignore it. Have you ever known anyone who will
not admit there is a problem? Many fatal heart attacks come
from people choosing to ignore the deadly warnings. Do you
know any smokers who think that smoking will not harm them?
As the late Australian management consultant Phil Hanford
noted, “What’s real is real.” Good advice.
Incrementalism is like pulling an impacted wisdom tooth

slowly. Many people would warn “we must crawl before we
walk.” We are also told to go slowly so that people can adjust—
can get used to changing realities. When change is required,
slowing down is not always good advice. Of course, we don’t
want to rush into a solution before we know the problem as well
as know that the problem is worth solving. But once we know
change is required—based on data—then going slowly will
likely increase the pain, not reduce it.
We can be the masters of change or the victims of it. A

Florida governor, once having passed some major social
reform legislation, started getting resistance and foot dragging.
He stated, “The train is leaving the station. You can get on the
train, stay on the platform, or throw yourself under the train. But
the train is leaving the station…”
In life, things happen. We can react to change and wait to
see what happens to us, or we can be the masters of change
and create the change we want. Master or victim of change:
You decide.
Good ideas can fail for the wrong reasons. Good ideas don’t
get successfully implemented simply because they are good;
they also have to be supported by leaders and followers alike.
Some people want to sabotage new ideas for change because
they might sense a reduction in their own power and safety.
Resistance can come from unusual places.
Look first and always at who benefits from any changes
before buying in to resistance or the change. Don’t forget,
some change suggestions might really benefit all players.
Resistance is part of the human landscape. One researcher
observed that the change that doesn’t get resistance must
indeed be trivial.17
Look out for people who want to derail a new good idea.
Figure out how to get them to join the adventure or figure out
how to neutralize them. True friends help. Others don’t.
Not everything changes, nor should everything change.
Being a smart decision maker involves knowing what to
change, what to keep, what to modify, and what to discard. All
depends on our taking the risk to change in order to get
different payoffs and different consequences. You decide. And
you harvest the consequences of your decisions. Your
decisions should be based on reality, not on “old news and
ideas,” and on new realities, not old conventional and possibly
just comfortable ones.
Endnotes
1. Past American Psychological Association president and psycho-
therapist, the late Ted Blau, defined “happiness” as freedom from
fear. And good decisions can get you toward happiness.
2. In my book Mega Planning, I documented organization after

organization that have run into hard times—or are heading that way—
by being conventional, by playing “follow the leader,” or by not using
these five key success factors. And more are lined up to blindly follow
old paradigms on their way to conventional and dusty death, even in
the aftermath of September 11, 2001, Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and
Andersen. As of today, the people who said “all of the right things” but
acted on personal greed are finding their ways to jail.
3. Mega is the label of planning and results that add measurable

value to external clients and society. This will be clearly defined and
justified later.
4. These terms, Mega, Macro, Micro, as well as Outcomes, Outputs,

and Products, will be defined and justified later. They are about ends,
and not means.
No, it is not just more jargon. Precision and accuracy are vital
constituents in successful decision making. This is not from Alice in
Wonderland where “words mean anything I want them to mean;
nothing more and nothing less.”
5. Not all “conventional wisdom” is wrong or useless. As professor

Dale Brethower suggests (Personal Communication, July 20, 2005),
we should be proud of the good it has provided us in the past,
recognize the problems it might have also brought us, and be ready
to change that which will bring us better payoffs.
6. This is based on proven performance improvement technology to

identify needs as gaps in results, not as gaps in wants or favored
solutions.
7. A definition of “insanity” is doing the same thing over and over

again and expecting a different result.
8. Sorry to keep using this compound “personal and organizational

success.” I suggest that these same principles can be used at work
as well as in life.
9. No kidding. It might seem to be trivial semantics, but it is not. It

focuses on the important distinction between the parts of a whole
(systems) and the whole itself (a system). Changing paradigms to
move from poor to good payoffs usually involves some discomfort.
Please stay with us.
10. One’s partner may be very important, but your partner and you
are part of a relationship. And the relationship is part of your lives,
and your lives are part of families, and families are part of
neighborhoods or groups, and groups are part of society. Wholes are
made up of parts.
11. This might have been called “world peace,” but that might seem
too esoteric and blue-sky for some. We don’t want anyone killed or
maimed by others doing them ill.
12. This is shorthand for world marketplaces and commerce. As

author Tom Friedman points out (2005), the world is becoming
economically flat, and the value added for all stakeholders is here—
and growing. Your job is a part of what your organization delivers,
and your organization is a part of domestic and likely international
payoffs and consequences.
13. Clark & Estes, 2002.
14. Management expert Tom Peters is among other thoughtful

people who suggest this.
15. My thanks to Dale Brethower, Professor Emeritus of Psychology

at Western Michigan University, for this insight. He has provided
many for this book as well.
16. Again, don’t kid ourselves. We are better than most of us think we
are. We are capable of great and unexpected things. All of us.
17. Beals, R. L. (1968, December). Resistance and adaptation to

technological change: Some anthropological views. Human Factors.
Chapter 3
Don’t Confuse What with How
(or Ends are Not the Same As Means)
Key Success Factor Two
Here is the second successful decision-making key—still
working with the first template—that if you choose to apply will
help you be successful:
Differentiate between ends (what) and means (how).
There is another part to this key success factor: Know
where you are headed and how to tell when you have arrived.
This is basic, as are all of the five. Each of the key success
factors is useful by itself, and each works best when used with
all of the others.
Here they are (recall this is one of the three templates, or
guides, for useful decisions) for review so that we keep them all
in mind:

1. Don’t assume that what worked in the past will work now. Get
out of your comfort zone and be open to change.
3. Use a wide-world view—an ideal vision (Mega) of what kind of

Macro/Outputs; Micro/Products) for decision making.

Let’s explore why sorting out the differences (and

relationships) between ends and means is so important for you.
Means are ways, how-to-do-its, activities, resources,
methods: actions and processes. Ends are the consequences
of the means; they are results and payoffs. Means are only
useful to the extent to which they deliver useful ends. The most
sensible way of choosing a means is on the basis of the ends
you want to accomplish. If you don't choose means on that
basis, what do you have in mind?
In our world, most people first select means—the solution,
the how-to-do-its—and assume that useful ends will follow.
ENDS ≠ MEANS1
and
WHAT ≠ HOW
The table on the next page shows some considerations we
might encounter in everyday life. Select those that are means
and those that are ends by marking an X in the appropriate
column.
What did you observe in this table? If you indicated all are
means (activities or processes), then you are correct. None are
ends. Means speak to “how” something is to be done, while
ends focus on results and consequences.
Notice how often we assume that a means will lead to an
end. We assume that training will result in useful performance
(in spite of the reported data of Clark and Estes that less than
10 percent of what is mastered in training ever finds its way on
to the job!). We assume that managing will yield useful
performance, but only effective results-reference managing will
deliver that. We often confuse ends with means and what with
how. This confusion can be destructive and expensive, both
financially and personally.
Chapter 3. Don’t Confuse What with How 41
END MEANS
(or What) (or How)
Teaching
Learning
Pleasing
Training
Managing
Supervising
Dating
Talking
Helping
Planning
Thinking
Intending
Let’s expand the list. Again, indicate with an X what you

consider ends and means.
END MEANS
(or What) (or How)
Teaching
Learning
Pleasing
Mastery
Training
Managing
Competence
Supervising
Dating
Happiness
Talking
Helping
Survival
Planning
Self-sufficiency
Thinking
Intending
Positive self-esteem
Let’s compare notes:
END MEANS
(or What) (or How)
Teaching X
Learning X
Pleasing X
Mastery X
Training X
Managing X
Competence X
Supervising X
Dating X
Happiness X
Talking X
Helping X
Survival X
Planning X
Self-sufficiency X
Thinking X
Intending X
Positive self-esteem X
See the difference between ends and means? It is vital.

Ends are about results; means are about methods, activities,
and resources. You use means to deliver valuable ends. In
making useful decisions, we should always—always—focus on

the ends to be accomplished before we select the means—the
how-to-do-its and resources.
A tip: Just about every word in English that ends in an “ing”
is a means (training, developing, planning, etc.).
Dealing with Conflict or Misunderstandings: Switching the

Dialog from Means to Ends. Interpersonal conflict—argu-
ments and misunderstandings—are often over means (money,
time, attention, habits) and not ends (staying within budget,
feelings of acceptance, clean sink). The next time you have a
conflict with another person, change the conversation from
means to ends and consequences. Instead of talking about
how another person does something, focus on the results and
consequences.
Below is a typical conversation between two people living
in the same house:
He: You always leave your hair in the sink and your
shoes lying around.
She: That’s just the way I am. So what? What does it
hurt?
He: We both have our habits, but let’s decide on the
results we want and think if we might change our
ways if we agree on those results.
I’ll go first. I don’t want the sink clogging up
every week and I don’t want to hurt my ankle
ever again by tripping over shoes.
She: Oh. So you’re not saying I’m selfish. Do I really
leave that much hair in the sink? And is that why
you had to put ice on your ankle last week?
He: The maintenance crew showed me the long
hairs they had to pull out, and yes, I did trip over
your shoes in the dark. And it hurt. Will you
consider taking a bit more care on these two
things? Please?
She: I think what you want is reasonable and I know I

can change my habits.
He: Whew, thanks.
And below is a typical conversation between a manager and

subordinate in the workplace:
Boss: You are using the telephone too much. Cut back
the time you are on that phone.
Associate: I hear your concern.
Let’s agree on what you want me to accomplish
and then I can see if staying off the phone is what
I should do or if there is something else
operating.
Boss: What are you talking about?
Associate: My job is to schedule home repairs by the
maintenance people working in our service
department. We owe it to our customers to get
the right work done, safely, on time, and within
budget, right?
Boss: Of course.
Associate: If I am spending too much time on the phone, it
should show up in lower customer satisfaction,
wasted time of the maintenance people, and
going over budget. Let’s check the records and
see.
(He gets the records from customer service.)
It seems that I am a bit more efficient and effec-
tive than Shirley or Bob according to these
records. Customers are satisfied, the mainte-
nance people are working their shifts with no
overtime, and no budgets for this have been
busted. Do you agree?
Boss: I see that your results are pretty good. So?

What’s your point?
Associate: Using the phone is my means—how I go about
my job and getting the required results. I suggest
that since my results are okay, that indicates my
time on the telephone is probably okay as well. I
realize that it’s hard to see productivity while I’m
on the phone, but I hope you agree that I am get-
ting the results you want from me. And of course,
I am aware that the phone is to be used only for
business, and I respect that.
Boss: That seems reasonable. Thanks for the expla-
nation.
If you are thinking of a continuing relationship (such as a
potential partner or boss), sit down and write down the
objectives—the results that both agree are desired—and then
have a conversation about the means or how to get those
results.
What happens when we focus on means and processes
rather than ends and results? Trouble, that’s what.
Losing Weight: A Case Study. Suppose we make the com-

mitment to choose a new diet—one that allows us to eat all the
fats and meats our little hearts desire. We launch the diet and
for three days we are happy. The scale budges downward a bit,
and we are delighted.
We then keep going and the weight goes down some
more. Hurray!
After a week or so, we notice the scale moving up. Whoa.
What is happening?
It turns out that we had a few extra nibbles here and there,
just a few things not on the diet.
So what does that have to do with means and ends?
Plenty. We chose the diet—a means—without being very clear
about what results or ends the diet must bring. What ends are
the focus of our diet?
Instead of a focus and decision about being slim and

gorgeous (or handsome) and being in good health, living a long
time, and having a great life—ends—we jumped right into the
solution: an attractive and likely faddish diet process. Wrong
choice. What about exercise? Timing of meals? Portion
control?
We should first focus on the results we want, and then
choose the means. We should not choose the diet before our
commitment about the desired results of a solution called a
diet.
In our day-to-day existence, we are faced with choices
among ends and means. When we choose means on the basis
of the ends we want to accomplish, we have better success.
Elinor Gets a Work Assignment. Elinor’s job seemed pretty

good. Some days were better than others, but with her
university degrees, she was ready to tackle some solid work
and make solid contributions. She wanted to move ahead, but
also wanted to balance work with personal life.
Her supervisor told Elinor that Human Resources wanted a
training program right away. It was to be on core values of
associates working in her bank. Focused work teams derived
these core values over the past seven months, and the bank
wanted everyone—everyone—trained on these core values.
Elinor sat down with the leadership group that developed
the core values and that was put in charge of designing the
training, and talked with them about the content of the course
and why they thought it was important. She read the list that
was developed with serious dedication and it looked familiar.
So familiar in fact that she checked with the core values of the
computer manufacturing company she had worked with
previously and found they were almost identical—a different
word here and there, but it basically was the same list of core
values. Interesting.
Hmmm. The team checked online with a competing bank
for their core values and they too were almost identical. She
was getting the picture. Core values were almost the same for
all organizations:2 All lists called for almost identical behaviors
and commitments, including ethical behavior, respect for

others, diversity, honesty, earnest motivation, considerate
behavior, and quality-focused.
Elinor pondered, “So why a training program?” If training is
the solution, what’s the problem? If training is successful, what
results will that deliver?
The sponsors responded with: because everyone in the
bank must have these core values. Elinor answered, “Why
don’t you simply make sure that Human Resources uses these
core values as hiring criteria and that supervisors use them for
mentoring and rewards, and we can save all the costs of train-
ing?” It took some discussion, but it was agreed that the
“means” of training were not what was wanted but rather the
“ends” of everyone demonstrating the core values on the job.
Means, such as training, are often assumed to deliver
worthy ends. That link is not automatic. First define the ends
desired and required, then select the best means for getting the
ends accomplished, like Elinor did.
Politicians and Confusion of Ends and Means. Watch what

the politicians—public or those in your own life—do and say.
They will tell you about means (such as more funding, better
facilities, increased benefits, changes to social security, no
changes to social security) and try to get you to assume useful
ends (such as longer life, lower accidents and injuries, safe
retirement, etc.) and hope you elect them and support them
with the promise of means.
Get them to define the ends that their suggested means
will deliver and watch them mumble. When you ask them for
their measurable criteria for success they scatter.
Everything Is Measurable
For some people, that statement might be taking things too far.
Everything measurable? Yes indeed.
Even though our common language talks about things
being intangible, or ethereal, or insubstantial, or just plain not
measurable, the truth is that they are, and on a mathematical
scale of measurement.3 In fact, if you can name it, it is

measurable. If you can’t name it, then what is it?
The scale of measurement for naming is termed nominal
scale measurement.4
The next most reliable scale of measurement is called
ordinal scale measurement. This type is used in judging art
(first, second, third prize) and judging livestock. It simply ranks
things in terms of greater-than, less-than, or equal.5
Next in reliability is the interval scale, and it is the one most
of us think of when we hear “measurable.” But it is only one
type of measurement out of four possibilities. When we have
equal scale distances (such as the difference between 4 and 5
degrees) and an arbitrary zero point (temperature reported
from the airport), we have measurement on an interval scale.6
We use this type of measurement in educational results
reporting and social statistics.
The last scale of measurement is the ratio scale and is
defined as when we have equal scale distances (such as the
difference between 4 and 5 degrees) and a known zero point
such as temperature in Kelvin where matter stops moving, or in
distance, or in weight.7, 8
So why all this fuss about measurability?
Because it is vital. We must set objectives in measurable
performance terms (where are we headed and how will we
know when we have arrived?). And everything is measurable,
so don’t let anyone, including yourself, get away with the
excuse that something is just not measurable. It will allow us to
be accountable for the success we choose, and it will allow us
to check our progress realistically.
This also allows us to see that there is taxonomy—
hierarchy—of results and the names for each:
Name of Name
Scale of of Example: Ed
Measurement Purpose
Nominal Goal Be neat.
Ordinal Goal I agree to pick up my things

more than I have previously.
Interval Objective I will leave at least 50 percent

fewer things lying around, and
we will check this every
Saturday.
Ratio Objective I will leave nothing lying around

in the bedroom, and you will let
me know if I have met our
requirements of zero problems.
A goal states where you are headed (improve my love life,

get a better job, etc.).
When Ed says he will improve his neatness, then that is a
goal. It states where he is headed—the results he intends—but
it isn’t precise enough for all to really be able to measure
whether he is actually neater or not. It is intentional and says
generally where his behavior is headed, but is unclear about
criteria for accomplishment.
When Ed says I will leave nothing lying around—no pants,
socks, underwear, shirts, or shoes—and you will confirm that,
then he is saying both where he is headed and how both par-
ties can tell when the objectives have (or have not) been
accomplished—no stuff lying around where they should not be.
Nothing. Zero.
At work, when Ed says I will be more punctual, we know he
intends to be on time, but there are no real criteria to measure
the extent to which he has converted his intentions to
accomplishments. When Ed adds and there will be zero
tardiness on my time cards, then he has made this intention
into an objective: He has stated where he is headed and how to

tell when he has arrived.
An objective states both where you are headed as well as
how to measure when you have arrived (for example, marry my
soul mate within one year, within two years get a new job that
earns at least 23 percent more than my current job). The more
you can state your purpose in interval or ratio scale terms, the
more likely you are to be able to make useful decisions on how
to get from here to there, and check your progress.
Does this rigor really make a difference? Does it make any
sense to go to all of this trouble? You bet, at least if you want to
get beyond mediocrity. If you care enough about the conse-
quences of a decision, then care enough to make sure you set
your objectives in hard, objective, and measurable terms. If you
don’t, guess what risk you are taking.
A Guide to Aligning Ends and Means

(and What with How)
Getting ends and means distinguished and then related is quite
straightforward. Each time anything is presented to you, ask:
“If this were successful, what would the result be?”
And then, with the answer to that, again:
“If this were successful, what would the result be?”
By repeating this question over and over again, you will:
1. Define the ends that any means (or resource) will
deliver, and
2. Define the payoffs and consequences that any means
and resource will deliver, and thus
3. Determine if it is worth doing.
Let's see.
Q: If training on core values is successful, what will the

result of that be?
A: Everyone would work better, both individually and
together.
Q: If everyone worked better individually and together,
what would the result of that be?
A: We would have a happier workforce—less conflict and
more teamwork.
Q: And if we had a happier workforce with less conflict
and better teamwork, what would the result of that
be?
A: Greater productivity.
Q: What would be the result of greater productivity?
A: Higher profits for the bank and greater customer
satisfaction.
Q: And the result of that?
A: Financial safety and growth of assets for our
customers and job security for our staff.
During this dialog, there was a definition and justification
for everyone acting on the basis of the core values. The results
that were defined opened the door for another type of means,
one other than training. It opened the door for seeing if there
were more efficient and effective ways of getting good results
(such as at least 10 percent higher profits each year for at least
ten years; zero clients default on loans; etc.). It turned out that
instead of the expense of training everyone, new hiring,
supervising, and reward structures were cheaper and likely a
lot better.
Another Example from Everyday Life. We could apply the

same “chain of ‘why’ and ‘so what’ questions” to any situation,
including personal ones. If a dieter was asked, “What would be
the effect of choosing the diet you have selected?” he or she
would probably answer, “To lose weight.”
And asked why one wanted to lose weight, then the chain
of considerations would lead to “be healthy and attractive.” That
in turn would open up the consideration of alternative ways and
means to get from the current appearance and health to the
desired ones—alternative ways and means that would likely
find a balance of exercise and sensible diet and changing one's
eating and exercise habits and continuing them over time. Not
just a quick-fix diet scheme.
Sorting out the differences between ends and means and
then relating them is a proven way to make useful decisions.
Mediocrity comes from selecting means without linking them to
worthy ends. Simply make sure that your decisions are based
on ends and further that the ends you decide upon will deliver
the payoffs you desire.
How to Prepare Useful Objectives

As performance improvement pro Bob Mager tells us, “If you
don’t know where you are headed you might end up someplace
else.” It is important for your decision making to precisely state:
• Where you are headed, and
• How to tell when you have arrived.
Sensible, isn’t it? But not many people take the time or
risk9 to state these. There are ends to be accomplished plus
the criteria to measure your accomplishment.
What a Useful Objective States. Any objective that is useful

simply states:
• Where you are headed, and
• How to tell when you have arrived.
If an objective doesn’t have both these elements, you are
on your way to “getting to someplace else.”
Here is some more detail about writing objectives, be they
personal or organizational:
• State in measurable terms where you are headed.
• Identify who or what will demonstrate the accomplish-

ment of that. (Note that any objective NEVER NEVER
states how you will reach the desired end nor NEVER
NEVER states what resources are to be used.)
• State the conditions (time, place, environment, etc.)
under which the accomplishment will be observed.
• Provide the exact criteria—ideally in interval or ratio
scale terms—of how you know when you have arrived.
Objectives are about ends and accomplishments; means
are about how best to get the ends delivered. Again, sort out
the differences between ends and means, and between what
and how.
Objectives provide you the sign posts along the way as
you change from your current behaviors and payoffs to the
desired ones. Precise. Rigorous. Measurable. Practical. Useful.
Care enough about creating your future and decide to write
precise objectives for yourself, and sort out means from ends.
For example:
I will have zero unexcused tardinesses or absences for the
next year.
I will have good or better personal health as documented
by my physician each year.
Simple and powerful.
Endnotes
1. Also, Hope ≠ Reality nor Money Spent ≠ Useful Results. Think
about it—these are notorious cases of confusing ends and means.
2. This seems to be true; it is difficult to differentiate among

organizations in terms of their statements of core values. Check it out
yourself.
3. S. S. Stevens in 1951 wrote that there were four scales of

measurement. His formulation is the basis of this section on
“Everything Is Measurable.”
4. There are statistics for nominal scale results: Chi Square.
5. A static for this is rank order correlation.
6. A statistic for this includes means and standard deviations, and

tools such as analysis of variance.
7. Or our bank account as this is being written. By the way, my wife

tells me she is not overdrawn, but I am simply under-deposited. She
is likely correct.
8. Statistics for this are the same as for interval scale data.
9. Yes, risk. If you state exactly where you are headed, there is
accountability to that, and you might not want to be accountable for
delivering the results and consequences you commit to deliver. Yet,
results are there, whether you define them or someone else does it
for (or to) you. A fact doesn’t cease to exist simply because you
chose to ignore it.
Chapter 4
Practical Dreaming: An Imperative
Focus for Everything You Use, Do,
Produce, and Deliver
All of us live in a shared world. This shared world is a huge
system where all the parts work independently and together.
What a coal plant in Australia discharges into the air has global
effects. What happens to a rain forest in Brazil has implications
for us all. What you do in a personal relationship has conse-
quences beyond yourself.
Now we will deal with a vital consideration in successful
decisions—a major shift in paradigms, a major difference in our
field of vision, or world of concern. We are going to think really
big; we are going to think globally before we act locally.
This new focus for everything we use, do, produce, and
deliver is highlighted in this first guide. Like the others, this is
basic for building our skills, knowledges, and abilities for those
critical and life-changing 30 seconds:

3. Use a wide-world view—an ideal vision (Mega) of what kind
of world, in measurable performance terms, we want for all
of us, including tomorrow’s child, as the underlying basis
for planning, decision making, and continuous
improvement.
Again, you might be testing your real commitment to the

first key factor: don’t rely on what others think, do, or use, and
move out of your comfort zone of conventional wisdom. It will
be worth it. This also builds on the second key factor
concerning ends and means. What we use, do, produce, and
deliver has impacts beyond us—often far beyond ourselves. In
a holistic view (and can we afford anything smaller?), we focus
beyond our day-to-day immediate concerns. We must focus
first on the world in which we live, in which all of us live. Let’s
see.
We often hear about environmentalists, conservationists,
“greenies,” and “tree huggers” who want to save the planet.
They are not all wrong. The planet is a tender sphere. Often, so
are our personal relationships. So it is vital that we plan at each
and every level of what we:
Use
↓
Do
↓
Produce
↓
Deliver
↓
The Resulting
External Impact
This chapter is about this last item in our decision-making
value chain: external impact—impact upon Mega. It is practical
dreaming because it gives us a vital-yet-practical focus that
allows us to align with adding value to ourselves and all others.
We will, in the next chapter, deal with the importance of
aligning everything we use, do, produce, and deliver with
external impact. This alignment with a focus on societal value
added is called Mega. Doing so better ensures that we will add
value to our shared world: to our world, our friends, neighbors,
Chapter 4. Practical Dreaming 59
and others occupying planet Earth. We have to align everything

with our external partners in our shared world.
This focus is invariably missing from almost all of the “big”
strategic thinking and planning models and approaches. It is
also always missing from personal guidance and help books.
But does it not make sense to align everything we use, do, pro-
duce, and deliver on adding value for ourselves and others in
our external world—the world in which we all live? This Mega
focus—adding measurable value to external partners, clients,
and society—is a critical missing link in problem solving and
decision making. Ignoring societal value added is the perfect
prescription for mediocrity.
Complex chain? Sure is. But all the elements are vital. And
they must be linked and aligned if we are to make useful deci-
sions.
Mega Thinking and Planning—Vital

Mega is the level of thinking and planning where the primary
client of everything we use, do, produce, and deliver is
society—society now and in the future.
Mega defines an ideal vision—a “practical dream”—that is
a measurable statement of the kind of world we, together with
others, want to create for tomorrow’s child. Interestingly, Mega
and an Ideal Vision are the same for all organizations in all
societies. Really.1
Mega planning starts and stops with society. There is a
very tangible world outside of ourselves, our organizations, and
our immediate communities. Adding value to all is both chal-
lenging and very, very practical.
This is a short and incomplete definition of Mega. The
complete one is in the Appendix to this chapter.
Key Success Factor Three:

Mega and the Ideal Vision
The third of the five key decision-making guides is to focus
everything you use, do, produce, and deliver on adding
measurable value to external clients and society:
Use a wide-world view—an ideal vision (Mega) of

what kind of world, in measurable performance terms,
we want for all of us, including tomorrow’s child, as the
underlying basis for planning, decision making, and
continuous improvement.
Let's look at Mega: what it is and why it is vital for you to
focus on in your decision making.2
Mega. The Mega level of planning and decision making is

centered on the kind of world we want to help create for
tomorrow’s child: no one will be under the care, custody, or
control of another person, agency, or substance. Each person
will earn at least as much as it takes for them to survive unless
they are moving toward being self-sufficient and self-reliant.
The unfortunate and unlucky among us will be supported only
as long as they are moving toward self-sufficiency.
An indicator of self-sufficiency is that, for each person
minimally, their consumption will be equal to or less than their
production:
C ≤ P
where C = Consumption and P = Production.
A metric for this is money (such as €, £, ¥, $, or other cur-
rencies): C is anything you spend money for and P is anything
you get money for.
A bit crass? Not really. Money or other tokens of exchange
(such as shells, beads, precious metals, or jewels) are used
and understood in every culture. Additionally, people put
money (or their tokens of value exchange) toward what they
find important. And what might be more important than every-
one surviving and being (or becoming) self-sufficient and self-
reliant.
Either we are moving toward Mega or not. What we use,
do, produce, and deliver has measurable impact on that shared
destination.
In reality, the ideal vision and Mega are really practical
dreaming:3 dreaming because we intend to create a better
future for ourselves and others (move from what is to what

could be) and practical because we all really rely on the good
intentions and the worthy actions of each other. Making money
and living our own personal lives must not be mutually exclu-
sive from adding value to our shared world.
How about some examples—just a few—of Mega or
practical dreaming:
• Nothing I use, do, or produce will bring any physical
harm to others. (For example when I operate a car, I
will not do permanent damage to others, and at my
work, I will not produce anything that will physically
harm another person.)
• My relationships with others will make them safe and
happy, and improve their quality of life.
• In my work and in my home, I will not pollute and thus
permanently degrade or make non-renewable our
shared environment.
Some Possible Implications for Personal Decisions. You go

to meet a friend at a corner coffee shop. She tells you that she
is very tight for money—very tight. She doesn't have the money
to pay her rent this month and she is desperate. She asks if
you will loan her some money, and you tell her quite frankly
that you are close to the same situation and don't have any-
thing to provide. She thinks for a moment. “I know you manage
the emergency health support fund at the office. How about
taking out a loan for a month and then we can pay it back as
soon as I get some money that is coming in? Nobody will
require that money. They haven’t dipped into that fund in three
years, so it would be safe.”
She is a very good friend. What to do? You know what
she’s suggesting is illegal and even unethical. It isn’t your
money, but your friend is in trouble. You also know that there is
a very slight probability that the fund would have to be used for
someone’s survival—someone in deep trouble. But that is just
a slight probability.
All you have to do to decide is ask, “Will my temporarily

taking money from the fund take all of us closer or further away
from Mega?”
Easy, isn’t it? No one but your friend would have any
benefit (and that is doubtful since it might be like giving a drug
addict one more “hit” to get them to quit), and it is possible that
the missing funds might have a very negative impact on the
health, survival, and well-being of someone else.
An Example from the World of Work. Suppose the scene

shifts, and you are working for an organization that is develop-
ing training programs for a defense contractor. Your supervisor
tells you that the materials have to be delivered Monday. You
know that the complete data on operational safety is not yet
available. Your supervisor says, “A deadline is a deadline!” You
make your case and it is rejected. What do you do? Send the
materials that might endanger lives or go over the head of your
supervisor as far as you have to in order to make sure safety
will be ensured?
This is a tough decision for many. They don’t want to lose
their jobs and get in trouble with the boss, and after all, you
were told to do it. On the other hand, safety might be sacrificed.
By asking “Will this take us closer or further away from
Mega?” the decision becomes clear: Don't deliver it incomplete.
This is a risky choice, but there is more risk if there were safety
problems—even deaths or disabilities—and it got tracked back
to you, which it probably would for the supervisor would proba-
bly lose all memory.
Several options—means or processes—can be consid-
ered:
1. Tell the supervisor to send it in with his or her signa-
ture.
2. Ask your supervisor to go above both of you and dis-
cuss the problem and implications. If this is refused,
tell the supervisor that you would like her to sign a
release.
3. Send in the materials with a note concerning the
incomplete nature of the materials in terms of safety.
4. Refuse to send in the materials in their current form

and let the supervisor take whatever action he feels is
required.
5. Quit.
These are tough choices. It is easier to go along, but that
takes everyone further away from Mega. While these choices
are initially tougher, in the medium run, everyone will benefit.
One pushback that is often offered is “Why should we
focus on Mega when no one else does?” And as a companion
to such a pushback is “What I do won’t make any difference;
I’m just one voice drowned out in all of the others.” First of all,
more and more organizations are finding that a focus on Mega
is both practical and ethical. It is slow, but it is happening.
Second, if you don’t focus on Mega—even if you feel lonely—
what about the ethics of your decision? Mega is both practical
and ethical.
We often just don’t recognize how much we already work
within the “social contract” where we commit to do no harm to
ourselves and others. Criminals, self-seeking people, thugs,
and terrorists have no use for the social contract or Mega. That
must and will change.
Mega level results—societal added results and
consequences—are outside of you, your family, and social
circle, as well as your organization. Starting with that societal
focus will best ensure that your en-route decisions will add
value up the value chain.
The Ideal Vision: Mega

Much of current thinking and advice talks about visioning:
defining what you want to create. In short-sighted versions of
visioning, a suggested method is to write a vision for yourself or
just for your organization. Not a good idea. Doing so will likely
isolate you and your decisions from the external reality of
society: It is conventional, comfortable, and counterproductive.
An ideal vision states what tomorrow’s society looks like in
measurable performance terms. Thus, the ideal vision is the
same for all people and for all organizations. All of us are
means to societal ends (ever wonder what your place in the
world is?) by adding value to each other and our shared world.
By adopting the ideal vision, we simply decide what pieces and
parts of it we commit to contributing. If we are not adding value
to our shared world—to the ideal vision—what do we have in
mind? Subtracting value?
Using the ideal vision for our decision making gives us ori-
entation and context for everything we use, do, produce, and
accomplish. It is a commitment to a social contract where we
do no harm to ourselves and others.
Focusing on Mega and using the ideal vision is simple and
practical. It is a vehicle that will move you away from medioc-
rity. It is, however, contrary to accepted current practice (and
old paradigm thinking). It won’t be for long.
Mega Thinking and Planning Applied to Your Personal Life

as well as to Organizations. Adding value to our shared soci-
ety is practical, realistic, and vital. Increasingly, even conven-
tional business is realizing that making money and doing
societal good must not be mutually exclusive. It is not yet the
norm, but it is evolving. Adding value to others is not just for
organization, it is for each and all of us.
In daily life, act to add value to those around you as well as
to yourself. It will not only provide the role model for others
based on your behavior, it will also bring rewards, both per-
sonal and external, back to you. If you are not adding value to
others, you are likely subtracting value from them.
You decide.4
Consider any decision you make in your life. Will it take
you closer or further away from useful outcomes? Simple,
quick, and very helpful: Will this take us closer or further
away from Mega?
If you are objective, this question and the answers will be
invaluable in making useful decisions.
A primary focus on Mega is both practical and ethical. We
all depend on others focusing on Mega when they deal with us;
do we owe others any less?5
Appendix to Chapter 4
Our commitment to you was not to take the dialog to a more
complex level that most would find useful. So this appendix
provides some greater detail to this focus—system focus—
called Mega. It is the basis for an ideal vision that defines the
kind of world we want to help create; create for ourselves and
tomorrow’s child.
You have already reviewed the short version that provides
a quick decision guide: Will what I decide and do take me
closer or further away from Mega?
For those who want more detail, following is a comprehen-
sive definition of Mega: the planning and thinking level where
the primary client and beneficiary is society now and in the
future.
Comprehensive Definition of Mega. On the following page is

a further definition of Mega. As you review the definition, note
that you are already working at the Mega level. It is provided as
a checklist using the elements of Mega—of the ideal vision.
Look this list over and identify if you (and/or your organiza-
tion) are making a direct contribution to each element or mak-
ing a contribution in partnership with others.
Without formally recognizing the fact, all organizations
impact external clients and society. For each of the basic com-
ponents of an ideal vision, check if you and/or your organiza-
tion currently make a contribution to that element and thus to
the ideal vision.6
66
Basic Ideal Vision Elements: There will be no losses of MAKES A CONTRIBUTION
life nor elimination or reduction of levels of well-being,
survival, self-sufficiency, and quality of life from any Indirect or
Direct with Others None
source, including (but not limited to):
War and/or riot and/or terrorism
Unintended human-caused changes to the environment,

including permanent destruction of the environment
and/or rendering it non-renewable

Murder, rape, or crimes of violence, robbery, or
destruction to property
Substance abuse
Disease
(continued)
Chapter 4. Practical Dreaming
MAKES A CONTRIBUTION
Basic Ideal Vision Elements
Indirect or
Direct None
with Others
Starvation and/or malnutrition
Destructive behavior (abuse) of child, partner, spouse,

self, elder, and others
Accidents, including transportation, home, and

business/workplace
Discrimination based on irrelevant variables including

color, race, creed, sex, religion, national origin, age,
location
Poverty will not exist, and every woman and man will earn at least as much as it costs them to live unless
they are progressing toward being self-sufficient and self-reliant.
(continued)
67
68
Basic Ideal Vision Elements
No adult will be under the care, custody, or control of another person, agency, or substance: all adult
citizens will be self-sufficient and self-reliant as minimally indicated by their consumption being equal to or
less than their production.
Consequences of the Basic Ideal Vision: Any and all organizations—public and private—will contribute
to the achievement and maintenance of this basic ideal vision and will be funded and continued to the
extent to which it meets its objectives and the basic ideal vision is accomplished and maintained.
People will be responsible for what they use, do, and contribute and thus will not contribute to the

reduction of any of the results identified in this basic ideal vision.
If you recycle; if you prevent murder, rape, and robbery; if

you are a “good neighbor” personally or organizationally; you
are already working to deliver results and consequences at the
Mega level.
Most people don’t realize the extent to which they can add
or subtract value to our shared world. Think and act Mega in
your personal as well as your work lives.
Endnotes
1. We have taken the initiative to ask people from almost around the
globe to define the kind of world they want for tomorrow’s child.
Except for the extremists (who have a means in central focus and
pretend that is the end), all agree on this definition. It is stable and
universal. This definition of an ideal vision is not imposed, but rather
derived and defined by our neighbors far and wide; it is based on
consensus, not on arbitrary power.
Some people viewing the indicators are initially put off by the
criteria for Mega being negative. I don’t like it either, but my attempts
and challenges to others to come up with some rigorous positive
criteria for Mega all have fallen short. As Professor Dale Brethower
notes, “If you care, get the facts.” And the facts of societal impact and
consequences are all in terms of deviations; we keep score in our
society in terms of breakdowns. Just look at daily crime and
environmental reports.
Keep track for yourself. You can tell when you are adding value
to our shared world.
2. In the Appendix to this chapter (pages 65–68), there is a more

detailed definition of Mega and the ideal vision. Please consider it.
3. This is a term I am re-introducing from earlier writings. It was

seen as useful enough for management expert Wess Roberts to use,
with attribution, in his important work.
4. It is interesting that Mega thinking and doing is ethical. It is not

only practical to add value to others, but it is also the ethical thing to
do. And being ethical—thinking and acting Mega—is also the safest
and most practical way to act.
5. I have been urging Mega for some time. It has been lonely, but
the concept of personal and organizational responsibility for adding
societal value is recently getting increased support. My first published
plea for a primary focus on societal value added was Kaufman, R. A.,
Corrigan, R. E., & Johnson, D. W. (1969). Toward educational
responsiveness to society’s needs: A tentative utility model. Journal
of Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, 3: 151–157. The article by the
world-wide practice director for McKinsey and Company that urges
societal corporate responsibility is Davis, I. (2005, May 26). The
biggest contract. The Economist, London: May 28, 2005. Vol. 375,
Issue 8428, p. 87.
6. Consider these as more than just individual isolated variables.

Rather, see them as forming a fabric where parts interweave. This is
based on Kaufman, 1998 and 2000.
Chapter 5
Aligning Results and Consequences:
The Decision Success Model Story
Every decision we make now has later consequences. And
sometimes the consequences are different from what we
expected or assumed they would be. It is important to align our
planning and actions with desired future payoffs. Our decisions
should deliver the future we want. Let’s see how to relate your
decisions to future consequences.
Key Success Factor Four

This key factor is about aligning your decisions with larger con-
sequences. Planning for future consequences and payoffs is
central to move from mediocrity to success:
Use all three levels of planning and results (Mega/
Outcomes; Macro/Outputs; Micro/Products) for decision
making.
There is a value chain that links everything we use, do,
produce, and deliver to results and consequences outside of
ourselves: our organizations (and families), society, and the
communities in which we all live. This still might seem to be a
stretch, but please stay with it. Let’s start defining and aligning
the piece of this value chain that will provide you the pathway
and tools for successful decisions.
The “big five” key success factors for making successful
decisions from the first template are shown in the table on the
next page.
Linking the Now and the Future

Have you ever made a decision, perhaps an important one,
and later found out that it led to unexpected or bad conse-
quences? For example, making a commitment to buy a car that
turned out to fail inspection or have bad brakes that caused you
to have an accident?

2. Differentiate between ends (what) and means (how) and pre-
pare all objectives to measure accomplishment.
4. Use all three levels of planning and results (Mega/

Outcomes; Macro/Outputs; Micro/Products) for decision
making.

No one can count on luck all the time. And it seems as if

predicting the future is difficult at best. So let's take Peter
Drucker’s advice: If you can’t predict the future, create it.
A few years ago, there was a TV ad with a grubby
mechanic—grease smeared on his face, sporting a five-day
growth of beard, stained hat, cigar nested in the corner of his
mouth—holding an oil filter. He says, “You can pay me now, or
you can pay me later.” Good advice. An oil filter is a lot cheaper
than an engine overhaul. And so it is in life. Paraphrasing an
old axiom: an ounce of sensible planning is worth a pound of
mediocrity.
So here is how to create your future.
Critical Statements That Must Be Formally Presented and

Responded to—Aligning Today and Tomorrow.1 Planning
for the future is indeed inconvenient. It is much easier (and
often more fun) to act on the spur of the moment, to be sponta-
neous, and to “let the chips fall where they may.” Doing that is
Chapter 5. Aligning Results and Consequences 73
fine if you don’t care about the consequences of your deci-

sions. For example, we might (with some trepidation) throw
caution to the wind and ride a roller coaster (which in our gut
we know is safe) or take a first airplane trip (also known to be
much safer than travel by automobile). These are not decisions
that will likely shape our lives, our jobs, or our relationships.
Most other decisions do have future implications. Making
those decisions are best done with a keen and objective eye on
the future we want to create.
Now we’ll discuss the second of the three templates, or
guides, for decision making.
Template Number Two: The DSM

The Decision Success Model (DSM) below has basic state-
ments that must be stated in rigorous, measurable, and per-
formance terms, if we are to continue our trip from mediocrity to
success:
Decision Success Model (DSM)

1. I commit to add value to our shared world and
community.
2. I commit to add value to my organization and/or
family.
3. I commit to add value to my immediate associates
at work (and/or close friends).
4. I commit to select and use efficient tools,
methods, and means to accomplish the above (1,
2, and 3).
5. I commit to select useful resources—including
physical, financial, and human—to get the results
identified above (1, 2, and 3).
6. I commit to evaluate the results I get and use that
data to continuously improve what I use, do, pro-
duce, and deliver, including the impact and
consequences of the results.
All of these statements and levels of thinking, planning,

and decision making are all equally important. Each is critical.
Each must be aligned and linked to all others. Review them
again, and ask which one (or more) you think you can afford
not to address formally, measurably, and rigorously.
If you “fake” one or more, if you omit the formal considera-
tion of any one, the whole chain of results starts fragmenting.
Please notice that DSM statements 1, 2, and 3 relate to
ends. DSM statements 4 and 5 are about means (including
resources). The differences-yet-relations between ends and
means that we first provided in Chapter 3 resurface!
Aligning What We Use, Do, Produce, and Deliver. The first

three DSM statements relate to three levels of planning and
three levels of results. Let’s take a look at these and introduce
some new terms:
community. This commitment focuses on our shared
world—the place we all live. Society. This level of
planning is called Mega.
family. This commitment focuses on your social circle
or large group, such as family or the organization for
which you work. This level of planning is called Macro.
at work (as well as close friends). This commitment
focuses on individuals, such as you, significant others,
and co-workers. This level of planning is called Micro.
Some of the words sound a bit strange? Let’s make sure we
agree on what each means:
Add value: Value is what accomplishes something that is both

useful and what we want. Value, as used here, is not about
price, but about impact that is worthwhile. When we commit to
add value to our shared world and community, that might mean
that we will make a contribution to safety, health, and well-

being and at least not harm others. Adding value is about posi-
tive consequences.
Shared world and community: We all live among others. We
live in an apartment complex, a neighborhood, a community, a
society, a country, a world. We share those. If we don’t add to
the survival and self-sufficiency of ourselves and others, we
might be subtracting value. We all should be—and depend
on—being good neighbors.
Commit: This simply means that we will do and deliver as we
agreed; we do what we say we will do and deliver.
Organization: This is any formal group—such as a company,
government agency, social club, or political party—or a family
or living unit.
Formally: This means doing it precisely, measurably, and
rigorously—none of the not-quite-measurable objectives stuff.
This is for real. Recall in Chapter 3 we reviewed why everything
is measurable and why it is vital to be precise, rigorous, and
measurable.
Getting beyond mediocrity requires us to think and act with
sharp purpose and rigor. Let’s care enough about our future to
be precise about defining and achieving it.
When we plan, we plan for defining and delivering useful
results. We plan so that our decisions can add value to our-
selves and others. Here is a framework for relating planning
and useful results, along with the labels for your decision-
making toolkit: lots of words, lots of labels. Of course, they
wouldn’t be here if they were not important—troublesome at
first perhaps, but important.
Levels of Planning and Related Levels of Results2
DSM Planning
Label Statement Level Examples
Improve 6 Evaluation & Find out what works and what

Continual doesn’t and make appropriate
Improvement changes; learn from experi-
ence, etc.
Use 5 Inputs Friends, associates, staff,

finances, equipment, buildings,
laws, existing ways and means
of doing things, etc.
Do 4 Processes Activities, doing, means,

methods, teaming, meeting,
developing, trying, applying,
etc.
Produce 3 Micro Building-block results: course

completed, meet with some-
one, software that meets
standards, report completed,
fender, handbook, etc.
Deliver 2 Macro What we deliver outside of

ourselves: completed report,
college degree, marriage,
delivered service, delivered
medicine, discharge from
hospital, graduation, etc.
External 1 Mega Continued health and well-

Impact being, safety of people and
things, continued happiness,
continued success, no fatali-
ties, no killings, no species go
unnaturally extinct, etc.
Here are a set of direction-finding questions to help you set

and agree on the directions you and your organization will
move and deliver.
Finding Direction: Decision-Making

Success (DSM) Factors
Questions All Individuals and Organizations Do You Commit:

Must Ask and Answer Yes No
Do you commit to deliver personal and/or organ-
izational contributions that add value for your
family, friends, external associates, citizens, and
clients (including society)? (MEGA)
Do you commit to deliver personal and/or organ-
izational contributions that have the quality required
by your external partners? (MACRO)
Do you commit to produce internal results that
have the quality required by your internal partners?
(MICRO)
Do you commit to have efficient internal products,

programs, projects, and activities? (PROCESSES)
Do you commit to create and ensure the quality

and appropriateness of the human, capital, and
physical resources available? (INPUTS)
And not part of proactive planning but the “engine”

of continuous improvement is this question:
Do you commit to deliver results, activities, meth-
ods, and procedures that have positive value and
worth defined by your objectives? (Evaluation and
Continuous Improvement)
These form the Decision-Making Success (DMS) Factors.

Each of these factors must be precisely dealt with and defined,
as well as aligned.
Which ones of these do you think you and your associates

(personal and/or organizational) can afford not to deal with
formally, rigorously, measurably, and precisely (ideally on an
interval or ratio scale)? Which ones are you not now currently
dealing with formally, rigorously, measurably, and precisely?
The answers to these questions should provide you with a
good blueprint for changing how you make decisions and the
data you collect to do so.3
The Mega focus that we defined in Chapter 4 is a primary
and unique feature of this suggested approach to success—
success in your life and making a contribution to your friends,
associates, organization, and society.
The decision aid is quite basic: Will what I decide and do
bring me closer or further away from Mega.
Mega, Society, Community, You, and Success

Perhaps the most initially uncomfortable consideration we
provide is Mega. Why is that so important? Do we really have
to formally and rigorously include that consideration in our
decision making? Why can’t I look after me and let everyone
else (or the government) look after others?
If we don’t intend to add value personally and organization-
ally to our shared society, our shared world (including our
family and friends), what do we have in mind? Do we intend to
subtract value from our shared world? Do we state indifference
or powerlessness? Victimhood? Do we want others to act with-
out regard to us?
This takes us back to the first key decision-making success
factor for useful decisions: Don’t assume that what worked in
the past will work now. Get out of your comfort zone and be
open to change. Because most current thinking does not for-
mally consider, or even suggest, a focus and formal concern for
societal value added, does this mean we cannot really add
value to society? Does it really mean that because we haven’t
done so in the past we should not do so now? Can I really do
something to add value to society? Little me? The answer is a
very firm “Yes.”
We are all more powerful and more potent than we imag-

ine. We can make a difference, even if the difference is small
and is combined with the contributions of others. We all must
have a firm and continuing focus on Mega, on societal value
added, or we all suffer. The past is prologue, not a firm guide to
how we think and act in the future.
If we don’t recycle, we will likely diminish the quality of life
in our world and run out of resources. If we don’t each make
sure we don’t pollute, everyone suffers. Sure a little litter or
pollution here and there doesn’t seem to matter, but it does.
Each little bit adds up. If we don’t clean up our messes or stop
the messes before they begin, then we discount the health,
safety, and well-being of others.
Each of us must act in a way so as not to bring harm to
ourselves and others. If we fail to do this, then harm will likely
come: driving drunk, operating an unsafe vehicle, not washing
our hands while working in a restaurant, not making certain that
what we produce is safe. Each of us has a continuing role for
adding value to our shared world. Even if doing so at first gets
us out of our old and no longer responsive comfort zones. In
fact, a useful Mega-focused question to keep in mind was pro-
vided by U.S. President John F. Kennedy who asked “If not us,
who? If not now, when?” He also focused on Mega contribu-
tions when he challenged his fellow citizens to “Ask not what
your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your
country.”
We all depend on others to make Mega primary on their list
as we deal with them regularly: airlines, grocery stores, restau-
rants, auto mechanics, physicians, dentists, manufacturers,
and service people. Why should we expect Mega from every-
one else and not provide it ourselves? Ethics.
Deliver Mega to all you work with and to yourself as well.
We depend on each other.
Organization and Family Accomplishments—

Next Link in the Value Chain
The next link in our value chain is what we can and do deliver
outside of ourselves:
I commit to add value to my organization and family.
When working for an organization, these will be your
Macro-level results that might be a completed and quality-
approved motorcar, a professional service, a family gift to char-
ity, or the support of a child for higher education.
All organizations, including the family, operate in a societal
context. What they use, do, produce, and deliver have impact
as well as consequences. So, everything we use, do, and pro-
duce has to be targeted and integrated toward adding value to
the organization’s contribution to our shared world. What we
deliver outside of ourselves has to add value externally.
This puts individual actions and results in perspective.
Everything must add value to what can be delivered. If we are
attending a school, for instance, this level would be graduation
or getting a certificate of competence.
Organization planners have been known to start and stop
here at the point of adding value. They talk about “the business
case”: quarterly profits, doing the business of the corporation,
etc. This limitation is self-defeating. If an organization is not
adding value to society, it will surely have an uncertain future.
How can that be true? Don’t most business schools and man-
agement consultants talk about the organization as the primary
client and beneficiary of “strategic” planning? Yes, and they are
shortsighted when they limit themselves to the quarterly Profit
and Loss sheet.
Organizations (and families) are means to societal ends.
Think for a moment about all of the “smart” fast-track organiza-
tions that faltered or even failed in the early 2000s: Andersen,
WorldCom, Enron, Tyco, HIH, and the high-flying dot.coms.
And there were more who took themselves (and a few insiders)
as the primary client and beneficiary. They denied or ignored
their societal responsibilities, muttering “all the right words”
while doing destructive things.
What about the family next door that builds an addition that
blocks our view or access, and in addition, they dump building
scraps in a vacant lot. Good neighbors? Not quite. What about
families of looters, thieves, terrorists, and scam artists?
Are you planning your future and have your sites set on
graduating college? Great. For you that accomplishment will be
at the Macro level. Don’t forget that with that degree, you have
to find a way to add value to society and community at the
Mega level. As you plan your life, and as you make decisions,
keep in mind the two levels of linked planning: Mega and
Macro.
Macro is an en route value chain stop on the way to Mega.
All organizations are means to societal ends—means to Mega.
All building-block results are way stations en route to adding
societal value.
Individual Accomplishments:
The Building Blocks of Success
Big accomplishments are built from small deeds—from Micro
level results. Little accomplishments build value toward larger
accomplishments:
Micro-Level Macro-Level Mega-Level

Accomplishments Accomplishments Accomplishments
This is the path of a value chain for results. All roads and
results lead to Mega.
Remember this as you make decisions. Ask yourself “Will
this take me closer or further away from Mega.” This will be
quick and effective if, and only if, you are objective. The last
person you should attempt to fool is yourself.
What about these building-block results? The statement
that goes with that is:
I commit to add value to my immediate
associates at work (and/or close friends).
When we operate on a day-to-day basis, we are making

decisions all the time. Drive to work or take a bus? Come to
work on time or sleep a few more minutes? Turn in our first
draft or polish it until we think it is just right. Call him for coffee
or wait for his call. Turn in a slightly inflated expense report or
do it to the letter of the law. Decisions, decisions.
How do you make these daily decisions? We can make
every one on the basis of the commitment to add value to my
immediate associate, including family and friends.
Will that add value to my immediate associates?
And will that add value to my organization?
And will that add value to external clients and society?
These questions about decisions in the value chain form
the Micro-level to Mega-level chain illustrated earlier:
Micro-Level Macro-Level Mega-Level

Accomplishments Accomplishments Accomplishments
When you think about it for a moment, it makes sense.

Everything we use, do, produce, and deliver should add meas-
urable value to our shared world—to each other. Everyone
should do it.
But does everyone do it now? Sadly, no. Should they?
Yes.
If we just do what others are doing, we harvest the conse-
quences of that decision. If we do “what’s right,” then we can
sleep better at night, set a role model for others, and add some
value to our shared world. But that is your decision.
Putting All the Pieces Together

What does all of this look like? The relationship among the
results of planning and doing are outlined in the following table:

and Its Relationships and Alignments
Decision Primary DSM

Element Target Name
1. I commit to add value to our shared Society and Mega
world and community. community
2. I commit to add value to my organi- The Macro

zation and family. organization
itself
3. I commit to add value to my imme- Individuals Micro

diate associates at work (and/or
close friends).
4. I commit to select and use efficient Activities, Processes

tools, methods, and means to programs,
accomplish the above (1, 2, and 3). projects,
interventions—
means
5. I commit to select useful Resources Inputs

resources—including physical,
financial, and human—to get the
results identified above (1, 2, and
3).
6. I commit to evaluate the results I get All Evaluation and

and use that data to continuously Continual
improve what I use, do, produce, Improvement
and deliver, including the impact
and consequences of the results.
The Value Chain Again:

Linking Planning and Results
Before we leave this part of our “success quest,” let’s make
sure we understand the value chain and its parts and pieces
related to ends and accomplishments:
DSM Name of Primary

Element Client and Beneficiary
Mega Shared society
Macro Our organization/our family or
living group
Micro Our co-workers/friends
And these planning levels and results guide what we do and

use, which is applicable to the rest of the DSM:
Inputs Inputs and ingredients (not

results)
Evaluation and continual Of all DSM elements
improvement
Why is all of this important? Easy: All of these are critical

elements and considerations when you make decisions—
decisions at work and decisions in life. What we decide has
impacts and consequences.
Slow down! Isn’t this getting a bit heavy? Could be. It is

worth your careful consideration in terms of what you will
achieve if you understand and use this as compared to keep on
doing what you always have been doing with the payoffs you
are now getting. Change. Choices. Consequences.
You weren’t promised a quick fix, and this is not one. Quick
fixes in life are often like putting Band-Aids on brain tumors:
symptomatic relief, but it doesn’t do a thing for you over time.
Research shows us that quick fixes often feel good at first, but
usually don’t change much of the resulting consequences. And
sometimes quick fixes can make things worse. So let’s make
sure we deal with the basic problems and opportunities, and
not with just the symptoms.
Making useful decisions requires a lot of precision and
rigor, as well as learning some new things. Aren’t you and your
success worth the effort?
From time to time, what is presented might be out of your
comfort zone. But mastering and internalizing it will lead you to
make decisions for your success. It really prepares you for
those amazing 30 seconds.
So take a breath and maybe take a walk. Come on back
when you are ready and we will continue our journey away
from mediocrity to success. That’s a promise.
When you get back (if you do take a breather), in the next
chapter we will explore the means and resources required in
successful decision making and how to decide what to use and
do.
Complete the Decision-making Agreement Table to help you
and others link everything that is used, done, produced, and
delivered with external consequences. You can use this for
both yourself and others with whom you relate and work,
although the one below is designed primarily for use in organi-
zations. Modify it for your personal life.
When applying this, have each person formally commit to
each with their signature or initials. There is no waffling
allowed: either in or out. If someone, for any reason, dithers or
defers, that is fine. Just have them initial under “No.” Other-
wise, sign under “Yes.”
The responses to these statements should provide you
with a good blueprint for changing how you make decisions and
the data you collect to do so.
Because of the order and nature of the statements in this

agreement table, and because it requires formal commitment to
each statement, it helps you challenge your normal and com-
fortable ways of dealing with change. As you go through the
statements and are responding “No,” you may soon see that
you are operating on the basis of old ways of thinking and act-
ing. Using it can be helpful to you and all others in your per-
sonal and organizational life.
One note on the wording in this agreement table: This
book attempts to relate to both you and your everyday life as
well as to your working and organizational life. We add both
into our suggestions, and this can be seen in the statements
below. When the book talks to you, what it is saying can (and
should) be applied to any organization in which you work.
Commitment
Strategic Thinking and
Me Others
Planning Agreement Table
Y N Y N
1. Myself, my associates, and my total organi-
zation will contribute to the survival, health,
and well-being of others, clients, and
society.
2. Myself, my associates, and my total organi-

zation will contribute to the quality of life of
others, clients, and society.
3. Each personal and organizational operation

function will have objectives that contribute
to #1 and #2.
4. Each job/task will have objectives that

contribute to #1, #2, and #3.
5. A needs assessment will identify and

document any gaps in results at the opera-
tional levels of #1, #2, #3, and #4.
6. Human resources/training and/or opera-

tions requirements will be based on the
needs identified and selected in #5.
7. The results of #5 may recommend non-

HRD training interventions.
8. Evaluation and continual improvement will

compare results with objectives for #1, #2,
#3, and #4.
Endnotes
1. In my other work, I call the questions that every organization must
(1) ask, (2) answer, and (3) align The Organizational Elements Model
(OEM). I have modified these for this book under the title Decision
Success Model (DSM) to emphasize that all decisions ultimately
come down to individual ones.
2. In earlier works, I urged that results at the three levels of planning

have distinct labels. I still suggest it is important for organizational
improvement work and that lumping all results into one label (usually
“outcomes”) blurs the levels and the importance of distinguishing
among them and linking them. If you will apply this in your organiza-
tional world of strategic planning and thinking, I suggested this for-
mulation:
Associated
Decision Primary DSM Name for
Element Target Name Results at
That Level
1. I commit to add value to Society and Mega Outcomes
our shared world and community
community.
2. I commit to add value to The organiza- Macro Outputs
my organization and tion itself
family.
3. I commit to add value to Individuals Micro Products
my immediate associ-
ates at work (and/or
close friends).
4. I commit to select and Activities, Processes Processes
use efficient tools, programs,
methods, and means to projects,
accomplish the above interventions—
(1, 2, and 3). means
5. I commit to select useful Resources Inputs Inputs (or
resources, including ingredients)
physical, financial, and
human to get the results
identified above (1, 2,
and 3).
(continued)
5. Aligning Results and Consequences 89
6. I commit to evaluate the All Evaluation Evaluation

results I get and use that and and
data to continuously continuous continuous
improve what I use, do, improvement improvement
produce, and deliver
including the impact and
consequences of the
results.
3. Research almost world-wide provides some interesting patterns.

Almost all people say they must deal with all of the DMS factors
rigorously, precisely, and measurably. And almost all agree that the
ends—Mega and Macro as well as Micro—are dealt with poorly—very
poorly.
Chapter 6
Needs Versus Wants: Getting the Data
for Justifiable Decisions
Key Success Factor Five
How do we decide what objectives are worthwhile? How do we
choose where we are headed—useful destinations—so that we
will be successful? The “trick” is simple:
Define need as a gap in results (not as
insufficient levels of resources, means, or
methods).
Once again, the words we use, and the mental pictures they
develop are vital. The word need is poorly used and badly over-
used.1 Defining it and using it as a noun—a gap in results—can
really pay big dividends.
Semantic quibbling? No. Different from conventional
usage? Definitely. It is also worth the bother.
As a review, the key success factors for making successful
decisions are presented in the table on the following page.
Again, you might be testing your real commitment to the
first key factor: Be ready to change your usual and “automatic”
responses to your world. We will be convincing you that, again,
the conventional and usual won’t always serve you well. We
present a unique definition of need as a gap in results, not a
gap in means or resources. Simple? Sure it is simple, and
understanding our definition of need will change your confi-
dence in deriving useful objectives, but everyone else wants to
use the word as a verb. Let’s see.


5. Define “need” as a gap in results (not as insufficient levels

of resources, means, or methods).
Here is the definition of need we urge:
Current 0 Desired
Results Results
MEANS
END END
Needs are gaps between current results and desired
results at three levels (Mega, Macro, and Micro). Given this
definition of need, then the way we use the gaps-in-results data
for setting priorities is called needs assessment: the identifica-
tion and prioritization of needs for selection elimination or
reduction.
Chapter 6. Needs Versus Wants 93
Why do we want to identify needs as gaps in results and

then be able to prioritize them? So that we can make useful
decisions based on hard performance data and not on wants,
wishes, conventional wisdom, previous experience, or just plain
hope.
Defining need as a gap in results is critical in spite of the
way just about everyone else uses it. It is true: In everyday
language, need is used as a verb:
I need more money.
You need less money.
I need to go to the mall.
I need a new coat.
I need a new car.
I need more time.
You need less time.
I need help.
I need to be left alone.
I need for you to love me.
I need….
Get the idea? Needs, when used the way we urge, are gaps in
results. Wants are usually about means solutions.
When we use need as a verb (or in a verb sense) we are
jumping right over the requirements of the ends we want to
deliver and getting directly into solutions: confusing means and
ends… and needs and wants.
Remember Chapter 3 where we went into the difference
between ends and means? This definition of need as a gap in
results, as a noun, is another enrichment of that concept: a
need is a gap in ends, not a gap in means or resources.
Another Opportunity for Useful Change. How do we

convince you to use need only as a noun, even in the face of
what everyone else does? (The fact that everyone does it might
be a clue to that being the royal—and comfortable—road to
mediocrity.)2
When we use need as a verb, we are usually focusing on

means3 as well as solutions we want or that are comfortable,
usual, and common. Because we want something—a thing,
solution, method, or person—doesn’t turn it into a need. When
we define need as a gap in results, our chances of basing deci-
sions on really useful data are much improved.4
We are frequently captive of our past and that includes
comfortable language behavior. Most of us are comfortable
with the conventional use of need as a verb. Comfortable yes,
but when we stay comfortable (and conventional) with “need
to,” “need for,” “need to,” or “needing,” we are cheating our-
selves out of a powerful verbal guide. When we confuse means
and wants with ends and consequences, we are defining the
basis for poor decisions; when we use need as a verb, we are
jumping to means and cutting off our options, often without
realizing it.
Notice how often in everyday conversation and in advertis-
ing we use need as a verb, and how each and every time we
do, we jump into a solution; we foreclose our options because
need as we use it is a very demanding word—no options, no
choices. In fact, using it as a verb refers more often to wants
than to needs.
Recalling a Conversation
on Need with a Giant
Several years ago, Dr. Harold Greenwald joined our faculty
at the US International University (now the Alliant Interna-
tional University). We invited him over for dinner, wanting to
explore his brilliance one-on-one. He was a father of short-
term psychotherapy (Direct Decision Therapy) and the only
psychologist I ever heard of who had his doctoral disserta-
tion made into a movie.
We were sitting at the end of a basketball court next to
our apartment in San Diego when I sprung it on him:
(continued)
“Harold, why do I have so much trouble getting people not to

use need as a verb?”
Without missing a beat, he noted, “If we psychotherapists
will be honest with you and each other, we have the same
problem.”
Of course I asked him for more.
Greenwald then went on to explain: “When people use
need as a verb, such as ‘I need him’ or ‘I need her,’ they
have cut their options down to one. They don’t realize they
have options. They don’t realize they have choices.”
Confirmation. I was no longer alone in this semantic dis-
tinction and found support from one of the great therapists.
Need when used as a verb forecloses options and cuts
choices down to one. If you want to disempower anyone,
take away their options and tell them “what they need.”
Wants are almost always about solutions and means, not

about ends. Recall that the only sensible way to choose a
means is on the basis of the results we want to get. When we
use need as a noun, we open up the window for identifying and
selecting means and resources.
We can continue on with the conventional use of need and
continue choosing means and resources before knowing the
ends to be achieved, or we can shift our paradigm—be strate-
gic thinkers—and decide on the basis of reality as well as
future success.
How about an exercise to try this new key decision-making
guide out. Here are some needs that we see or hear every day.
Identify which ones are needs—gaps in results—and which
ones are not.
Which of These Needs Wants (Gaps in

Statements are Needs and (Gaps in Processes or
Which are Wants? Results) Resources)
1. I need to meet more people.
2. We need to earn more money.
3. We need to increase production at

our plant.
4. We have to increase our

workforce by 25 percent.
5. I date once a month and I should

date at least twice a month.
6. I have to increase the number of

people with whom I can network.
7. My partner needs to cut his hair.
8. My car only gets 15 miles per gal-

lon and I have to get at least 22.
9. I want better food at work.
10. I want to live until I am at least 90.
11. I want to be married within three

years.
Let’s see if we agree.

Which of These Needs Wants (Gaps in

Statements are Needs and (Gaps in Processes or
Which are Wants? Results) Resources)
1. I need to meet more people. X
2. We need to earn more money. X
3. We need to increase production at X

our plant.
4. We have to increase our X

workforce by 25 percent.
5. I date once a month and I should X

date at least twice a month.
6. I have to increase the number of X

people with whom I can network.
7. My partner needs to cut his hair. X
8. My car only gets 15 miles per gal- X

lon and I have to get at least 22.
9. I want better food at work. X
10. I want to live until I am at least 90. X
11. I want to be married within three X

years.
None of these statements—regardless of what they got

called—are needs as defined as a gap in results except for #8.
Only three focus on results (but not needs as gaps in results):
8, 10, and 11.
What’s wrong with the others? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9 are

about means. And to check out that if a usage is a means, ask
“What result will come from being successful at what is stated?”
For example, in item #1, what result would come from meeting
more people? And for item #2, what result would come from
earning more money? Continuing the examples above,
increasing production might be good, but at what cost in money
and quality? What will hiring or firing people do to the rate of
quality, production, profits, and clients well served? And if
cutting one’s hair is the solution (the means) what is the
problem; what is the gap in results that will close?
Means-in-search-of-ends are being confused with needs,5
and masking this premature selection of means by calling them
“needs” only masks the confusion. In fact, it aids and abets
people who would pick a wrong solution to a problem.6 Making
useful choices depends on your defining the end, or result, to
be accomplished before picking the means and resources.
From this brief exercise, it should be becoming clear that
most people use need as a logic-shortcut to select a means (or
want) before really knowing and justifying the ends to be
achieved. It is like jumping from unwarranted assumptions to
foregone conclusions.
An Example from Everyday Life:
Silvia is really interested in Oscar, but is afraid to push the

relationship. She wants to know if they have a future
together but doesn’t want to scare him off. Time is flying by,
and Silvia thinks they could have a future, but can’t get
Oscar to commit to taking the discussion about their future
further.
Silvia’s mother tells her, “You ‘need’ to tell him to make a
commitment or you are moving on.” One of Silvia’s friends
tells her, “You ‘need’ to be more subtle with him.” Another
friend tells her, “You ‘need’ to move on. He is just using you
(continued)
to clean and cook, otherwise he would have committed long

ago.” Lots of advice on what Silvia “needs” to do.
In fact, all of the advice Silvia is getting is about means:
asking for commitment, being subtle, moving on. If these
are the means (or the solutions), what are the problems?
What is the gap in results that Silvia wants to close?
Wouldn’t it make sense for her to see what results she is
getting now and which ones she wants to get? Identify
needs and then select the means and resources to meet
those needs.
So Silvia, with some discomfort,7 sits down with a pad of
paper and takes the risk of doing a personal needs assess-
ment:
I am not married. I would like to be happily mar-

ried and stay happily married.
I am frequently lonely. I would like to not feel lonely.
I am in love with Oscar. I would like to be in love with
Oscar.
I don’t know if Oscar loves me. I would like Oscar to declare
his love for me.
I don’t know if Oscar would I would like Oscar to ask me to
like to marry me. marry him.
I am not happy with my I would like to be happy
personal life. I am sad and almost all of the time and
depressed8 at least half of the never be depressed again.
time.
(continued)
I don’t have any children. I would like at least two

children, ideally a boy and then
a girl.
I don’t have a life partner. I would like a committed soul
mate and partner.
Then Silvia selects the gaps in results. And they jumped

out at her. She wants Oscar to return her love and
commitment and move into a happy marriage and life. But
her relationship is not there, and she doesn’t really know
where it is. What to do?
Sylvia scribbles again:
Of these gaps in results, which are the highest priorities?
My unhappiness and depression is the most pressing. It
trumps everything else.
She thinks, “If Oscar is the solution, what’s the
problem?” Almost immediately, Silvia feels as if weight has
been lifted from her back.
Silvia realizes that the means to closing the gap
between her current sadness and depression and her
happiness have been Oscar and his non-commitment.
Oscar is a means to Silvia’s gaps in emotional ends.
This is a revelation to her. She has been confusing
Oscar with happiness. If Oscar is not going to be a part of
her life, then it is time to find that out so that she can move
on.
She feels quite relieved. Silvia realizes that she has
options, only one of which seems to be Oscar, at least for
now. It is time for her to find out if he is in her future or not.
Silvia decided to be happy and took positive steps to
close the gaps in results in her life: find out if Oscar shares
a future with her or find someone else with whom she wants
to build a happy and fulfilling life.
An Example from an Organizational Perspective:
Global Hunger Eliminated Now! is an NGO—a non-

governmental organization—founded in good faith by
concerned U.S. and Canadian citizens who felt very
strongly that hungry people makes for an angry world. They
raised money and bought good food at reduced prices.
Sometimes surplus food was donated to them. They
wanted every man, woman, and child in the world to get
enough nutritious food to consume and become and remain
healthy and be able to be self-sufficient and self-reliant. At
the least, they did not want malnutrition to be a cause of
death and destruction.
They won world-wide notoriety and were lauded by
heads of state as well as common people almost
everywhere. They served country after country, usually
quite successfully.
When they went to provide nutritious food to Ghaxia,
their dictator told Global Hunger Eliminated Now (GHEN)
that he would not allow food in unless they gave him one
half of all shipments and that the only foods allowable
would be candies and cakes “in keeping with the cultural
values of the country.” But kids were starving and so were
adults. Candies and cakes?
Paco was hired (at a lower wage than he could get in
any other job, but he was committed to the GHEN mission)
to extend the nutritional health to Ghaxia. He was dismayed
to hear the dictator’s take-it-or-leave-it demand.
At first he thought that some nutrition was better than
none. Then he did his homework and assessed the
physical health status of the citizens and noted that gaps
between:
Current health and required health
Current death rate and desired rate (which was zero
from non-natural causes
(continued)
Current nutritional substances available

Required nutritional health substances required
Current available nutritious substances available
Required “payoffs” to the dictator
Projected health of citizens after meeting the
dictator’s demands
Not a pretty picture. Paco was dismayed. How to close
the gaps in results between current citizen health and well-
being and required levels.
He computed that meeting the dictator’s requirements
not only would be unethical, but would likely make citizen
health worse; carbohydrates were not what would meet
their health requirements and nutritional demands.
The data were clear. No needs—gaps in results—would
be met. None.
Paco tried to convince the dictator, but he wouldn’t
budge. Paco asked for and got help from the United
Nations and that didn’t work, although they did pass a
resolution demanding that the dictator relent. As of this
writing, nothing has changed.
Sadly, Paco reported back to the GHEN Board his
recommendation to not serve Ghaxia nor meet the dictator’s
demands. Sad indeed.
But Paco collected the needs assessment data and
came up with the most humane solution possible. Don’t
make things worse, both from a health standpoint as well
as an ethical one.
Could Silvia and Paco afford to leap into means before

selecting them on the basis of priority gaps in results—on
needs?
Can you afford to select means and resources that lead to
lousy ends?
We hope your answer is no and that you have decided to
no longer confuse needs and wants. Your success in making
good decisions depends on it.
Using Needs Data to Select Appropriate Means:

From Gaps in Results to Useful Solutions
Now we know: A need is a gap in results. A problem is a need
selected for closure or at least reduction. No needs, no gaps in
results. No gaps in results, no problems.
If there are needs, how do we prioritize them?
Prioritizing Needs. It is really straightforward. We prioritize

needs—at the Mega, Macro, and Micro levels—on the basis of
the cost to meet the need as compared to the cost to ignore it.
Rank the needs on the basis of the cost to meet as compared
to the cost to ignore.
We often ask (or get asked) what it costs to meet a need—
close a gap in results—and this is where we often get switched
off. We often hear (or tell ourselves) that “this costs too much”
and/or “we don’t have the time/resources/support.” We can
defuse this.
If we also price the cost to ignore the need, if our data that
identified the needs are really solid, if we get turned down, we
don’t own the consequences; the decision maker does.
Accountability for results and consequences.
An Example from Life:
George comes home and tells his wife, “We are really short
on money this month. I am canceling my health insurance.
We can use the money for food and rent.” Martha answers,
“Suppose we get sick?” George says, “We just cannot
afford to get sick, and besides we are young and healthy.”
(continued)
Martha asks, “What does it cost us if we do get sick with a

heart problem or some digestive problems and how does
that compare to the money we save?” George is not
moved, and cancels their health coverage.
Two months later, Martha announces she is pregnant—
they both wanted to start a family—and she must start
seeing an obstetrician. George looks panicked. “We both
wanted a family, but not now!” Martha asks, “What do we
do?” She schedules a physician’s appointment and found
that the projected costs for care, delivery, and hospital are
over $16,000.
Did George and Martha’s needs assessment help? No,
they did not do one. And they certainly did not project the
comparison of the costs to meet the need (health
maintenance and care for a pregnant wife) and the costs to
ignore it (saving $1,200 in the short run.)
So don’t pick a solution before knowing the problem. And

the problem is always based on needs; a problem is a need
selected for reduction or elimination: no need, no problem.
Selecting Means. We now have the basis for picking means—

for picking solutions. It has a fancy term: costs-results analysis.
Really, it is nothing more than asking what it costs to meet the
need as compared to the costs to ignore it.
When you have prioritized the needs, then identify
alternative ways and means that will close the gaps in results.
You could even make yourself a simple table to help compare
costs and consequences. Here is a sample—a very simple
one—for the couple above:
Chapter 6. Needs Versus Wants
Cost to Cost to Possible
Current Desired Advantages Disadvantages
Meet the Ignore the Methods
Results Results
Need Need Means
Paying $500 Have health -0- Possible Cancel insur- Immediate Possible high
per month insurance uncovered ance and money for emergency
for health with less illness payments other things costs
insurance money Get a job Might be good Likes current
where all to change jobs job
costs are
Probation and
covered
waiting period
for insurance
to start
Rely on Only a small Don’t qualify
public co-payment because of
assistance current assets
Not making No penalties $30 per $30 per Refinance Costs more None of the
house for house month month in late money for the $30 per month
payments on payments fees that add loan period is left for other
time— up Moving costs expenses
penalties of Move
likely to be
$30 per higher than
month staying put
(continued)
105
106
Cost to Cost to Possible
Current Desired Advantages Disadvantages
Meet the Ignore the Methods
Results Results
Need Need Means
Not getting Have $24 per Nothing Only buy Happier Just not happy
food we like enough month nutritious disposition for with diet
because we money to eat foods, not my wife and
are $24 per what we just favorite myself
week short want foods
for desired
purchases

Etc.
For each intervention, simply ask yourself these questions:

1. Will it close the gaps in results—meet the needs?
2. Will it close the gaps in results at all three levels of
results?
3. Which alternative will get the required results at the
lowest cost?
When you ask and answer these questions, you have used
needs assessment data to identify alternative ways and means
to meet needs. You have the ability to select means on the
basis of hard data: What does it cost to meet the need as
compared to the costs to ignore it?
In our simple case study, if George and Martha were good
decision makers, they would have identified the needs first,
identified alternative ways and means to close the gaps, and
selected the best ones for them. Instead, they jumped into a
solution—canceled health insurance—before computing the
actual costs. Expensive and worrisome.
A Business Example:
Abel’s Plumbing had been in business for 21 years. They

had a good following and had made good, but not great,
money for the past 20 years. Customers always knew they
would get good repairs and at a reasonable price, and they
would not be sold anything they did not really require. Abel
and his associates were always good to their word.
Abel’s son Marc had just gotten his business degree
and thought his father was light years behind the times.
“Quarterly profits,” he told his father, “Let’s increase our
profits.” Dad’s objections were overruled by lots of business
school examples and advice. The changes started. Marc
called in the five plumbers who had worked at Abel’s for an
average of seven years and told them, “There will be no
(continued)
jobs for less than $221. None.” There were overt objections,
but the plumbers knew they were operating on the owner’s
license and it would be difficult to find another employer.
Besides, they knew the old man and trusted him.
For the first 14 months, the profits did go up—plenty.
Marc was all smiles and Dad seemed to see that the
solution his son had come up with was profitable.
After 18 months, the repeat customers started to
decline. Not much at first, but at the end of 24 months,
business was down 23 percent. Another 14 percent the
next year. Things were going downhill and the profits
evaporated. And three of the best workers went to work
elsewhere.
Mr. Abel called some of his old and formerly loyal clients
and asked them what happened: why did they leave? He
got back the answer he didn’t want. He was no longer
trusted. He called in everyone and reversed Marc’s policy.
But this, unfortunately, was not enough to save the
business. His reputation was gone, and he finally sold what
little equity he had left to his bitter competitor who took the
resources but would not use the Abel Plumbing name.
Marc did not do a needs assessment, identify the gaps
in results including profits and return on investment, not
project the costs to increase profits as compared to the
costs for keeping the business philosophy the way it was.
The costs-consequences of Marc’s decision were not
computed at first, but surely were computed at the end:
poor planning, poor needs assessment, poor decisions on
the means selected simply to make short-term profits.
If you identify needs (not just wants, such as “higher

profits” or “reducing our late fees”) as gaps in results, you are
well on your way to make data-based decisions. And you are in
possession of the facts you have to have to figure what you
give and what you get—costs-consequences—for each of your
decisions.
It will work for you.
Endnotes
1. Because dictionaries speak to common usage and not
necessarily to useful usage, it shows need can be used as both a
noun and a verb. We want you to join us in bucking the conventional
in favor of the functional. Using need only as a noun will pay huge
dividends—huge.
2. This is a really tough shift for most people. The rationalizations—

or pushbacks—abound and flow in order to keep from changing, even
in the face of cold reality. Arguments such as “Well, we need air” is
not literally true: We require air on a periodic basis (when there is an
oxygen deficit in our tissues, which is a cycle—not steady), but if we
ingested air constantly, we would die because we would be forcing air
at the time when wastes should be expelled. Or we say, “Well, I know
what I mean and so does everyone else.” Sure you do, and sure
others do. All continue to confuse needs and wants and means and
ends. Don’t become part of this confusion and resulting problems.
3. What about Abe Maslow’s famous (or infamous) “Hierarchy of

Needs”? Sorry, but I am going to be an iconoclast. Again, it is
important so we don’t confuse means and ends, and needs and
wants (or motivators).
Maslow’s hierarchy is important, but in spite of the conventional
language, it’s not a “hierarchy of needs,” but rather a hierarchy of
motivators. We read his important contribution in psychology books
under “motivation,” which is just where it belongs.
Given a gap in any of Maslow’s levels—from survival through
self-actualization—he provides the rough priorities that most people
will use. First survive and then move to close the gaps in the other
levels.
While Maslow’s work helps us with motivation, it can get in our
way if we continue his confusion of means—motivation—with ends—
closing gaps in results and consequences.
4. For anyone with a legalistic bent, there is a Florida Supreme

Court decision that ruled that need is a noun, and not a verb:
Supreme Court of Florida, No. 53, 384, Florida Home Builders
Association, et. al., Appellants vs. Division of Labor, Bureau of
Apprenticeship, Appelles, January 25, 1979.
5. …or solutions in search of problems.

6. To be sure, the ends for one person might provide the entry point
(or means) for others. Just consider any end as a result, product, or
consequence. Any means is some process, activity, or initiative that
can consume existing ends or produce new ones.
7. Often, just confronting an uncomfortable situation may be initially

worrisome. Some decisions are painful, but the payoff in the future is
usually very worthwhile.
8. Depression isn’t fun. Extending the great psychiatrist Viktor

Frankl’s concept of “existential vacuum” to our suggestion that “need
is a noun,” it is worth thinking about depression as the instance when
one only sees “what is” and doesn’t realize that a “what should be” (or
could be) exists. Hopelessness results. And without knowing that
there is a gap between current results and possible different results
leaves one hopeless.
Chapter 7
It Is Decision Time:
That Critical 30 Seconds
We have arrived at that critical 30 seconds: that time when you
decide to change your life. You may choose to never be
mediocre and to become successful—your future, your change,
your choice, your consequences.
You have mastered (and internalized) two templates (the
third is coming) and the reasons and some tools for making
each come real in your life—your personal and your organiza-
tional life:

Decisions: Becoming a Strategic Thinker


And:

community.
family.
2, and 3).
data to continuously improve what I use, do,
produce, and deliver, including the impact and
Now for the third template or guide.
Template 3: A Decision-Making Process

This template can serve as a guide to your palette of decision
guides for successful decision making: problem solving. Here is
a six-step process for identifying and resolving problems—for
getting from the results you are getting now to the ones you
choose to obtain:
6. Revise as Required
1. Assess 2. Analyze 3. Select

4. Implement 5. Evaluate
Needs Needs Means
Chapter 7. It is Decision Time: That Critical 30 Seconds 113
Using the Third Guide—Problem Solving—To Get from

“What Is” to “What Should Be.” This six-step guide is a
process for identifying and resolving problems (and identifying
opportunities). It starts with 1. Assessment of needs, problems,
and opportunities, then 2. Analysis to determine detailed per-
formance requirements for meeting needs, 3. Selection of solu-
tions and means to meet the needs (close the gaps in results
and consequences), 4. Design, development, and implementa-
tion, 5. Evaluation using the criteria from 2 and 6. Continuous
revision at any step.
Why is this useful for you? Because you have the tools to
identify choices based on changing from current consequences
to desired ones. You have learned that needs are different from
wants, and the more precise and rigorous you are about your
objectives, the better you can match ways to close the gaps in
results with the best ways to get the desired success.
You are what you do and deliver—you are what you
accomplish. You can be in control of your three Cs:
• Change
• Choice
• Consequences
As you make your choices, note that when dealing with
others, you can control the results of your behavior through the
choices you make and the behavior you choose to continue
and the behavior you choose to stop. You can be successful,
and you can be the person that others choose to associate with
and work with. You are what you do.
By your choices, you may be successful in the world of
change by selecting appropriate changes for yourself. You can
define the consequences you want and the ones you don’t
want.
With the tools and guides from the earlier chapters, you
have defined your needs and identified the performances you
want to accomplish (and did so with precision), and you know
what you want to accomplish. You are ready to get from “what
is” to “what should be.” This guide shows you the steps.
Let’s take a close look at each of the six functions for

problem solving and see how they can make your 30 seconds
really successful.
Tracking the flowchart1 on page 112:
1. Assess needs.
We covered needs assessment—identifying gaps in results and
prioritizing them—in Chapter 6. And by the way, a problem is a
need selected for reduction or elimination.2
Simply list the gaps between the results and
consequences you are getting now, and the results and
consequences you would like to accomplish. This step provides
the objective data for your decisions: What do you want to
change and what do you want to keep?
This is your life and your happiness. You can choose to
change that which will bring you desired results and
consequences. Want to have a better job? Better relationships?
Live a long and healthy life? Better feelings about yourself?
What gaps in results and consequences do you want to close
and which ones will you choose to leave as they are?
This first problem-solving step (step 1 in the flowchart on
page 112) gets you to be objective about what to keep and
what to change. Be frank with yourself. Nobody cares as much
about you as you. What life do you want?3
2. Analyze needs.
Not only are you finding the detailed specifications to guide you
as you move from “what is” to “what should be,” you are also
developing the measurable objectives for guiding your behavior
choices, which was covered in Chapter 3. Also in Chapter 3,
we emphasized that we don’t select the alternative methods
and means—solution alternatives—before knowing the ends
we are to deliver. We don’t want to get the solutions cart before
the problems horse, so to speak.
Additionally, in Chapter 6 you learned that the way to
identify which alternative that will best get you from here to
there is on the basis of (1) the needs (gaps in results) selected
and (2) the costs and consequences—alternative payoffs—for

alternative ways and means to close the gaps in results. We
don’t select the means (the how-to-behave actions) at this
problem-solving step; we just identify them and note the
advantages and disadvantages of each.
This step (step 2 in the flowchart) lets us plan our future—
to create the future we want. We look at the details of what we
have to accomplish, such as this example:
• Make and keep a positive connection with a loved one
for at least two years.
• Get a new and better job that pays at least 10 percent
more than my current one.
• Make sure our place is clean and sanitary so that our
friends don’t make negative comments about dirt and
smell and we don’t get sick.
• Get the bills paid on time so that there are no
penalties and unpaid balances for at least a year (if
ever).
• Live a long and healthy life, at least 10 years longer
than the insurance actuarial tables with no major
illnesses requiring a hospital stay of over three days.
For each accomplishment—objective—we list the alterna-
tive ways and means to reach them (and close the gaps in
results) and note the advantages and disadvantages of each:
Advantages and
Example Possible Ways Disadvantages of
Objective and Means Each Possible
Ways and Means
Make and keep a Make a personal • Risks being rejected

positive connection contract with my • Might get the partner
with a loved one for current partner for angry
at least two years. mutually acceptable • Clears the air
treatment. • Clarifies mutual
expectations
• Easier than finding
someone new
Get a new partner • Exciting to find someone

through friends. new
• Friends don’t have good
taste
• Embarrassing to admit
weakness in relationship
building
• Takes a lot of time and
energy to date and relate
Get a new partner • Expensive

through dating • Demeaning to admit I can’t
service. find someone on my own
• Takes time and effort
• Access people I might not
otherwise meet
Get counseling. • Hard to find someone I

trust
• Expensive
• I would have to admit
problems and say them
out loud
• I will stop kidding myself
about my problems
• Get some continuing self-
direction for improving my
life and well-being
(continued)
Advantages and
Ways and Means
Get a new and Ask for a promotion • Alerts my current bosses

better job that pays with my current that I am looking
at least 10 percent employer. • Could come up with an
more than my improvement without
current one. having to change locations
or associates
Network with friends • Looks like I cannot be

and associates for competitive in the market
possible openings. • Find something that I don’t
now know exists
• I will “owe” them if they
hook me up
Go online for jobs. • These services are getting

more popular
• Access to large database
• Might cost more than I can
now afford
• Time consuming
Hire a recruiter. • Expensive

• Might not link me with
things that will interest me
• Time consuming
Make sure our place Get my partner to do • If I won’t do it, why should
is clean and sanitary the cleaning. they?
so that our friends • They will make me “pay”
don’t make negative for it
comments about dirt • Likely to offend them
and smell and we
don’t get sick.
(continued)
Advantages and
Ways and Means
Dedicate myself to • I will have to renounce my

regular cleaning and laziness
maintenance. • Time consuming
• Not much fun
• Makes me take pride in
myself and my
surroundings
• Less expensive in terms of
money and obligations
than other possibilities
Hire a cleaner. • Expensive

• Convenient
• Lets me keep my current
bad habits
• Requires less personal
change than other options
Call my mom. • Lets her feel required

• When will I grow up?
Get the bills paid on Find the reasons • Requires challenging my

time so that there that I charge too current habits
are no penalties and much for things I • Requires personal change
unpaid balances for won’t have when the • Makes me deal with real
at least a year (if bill comes. problems instead of my
ever). rationalizations
• Gets me to deal with
reality and choose to
change
(continued)
Advantages and
Ways and Means
Make a budget. • Time consuming

• I don’t know how
• Risk being objective about
my current behavior and
income
• Gets me on a responsible
path
• Gets me to deal with
reality
Stick to my budget. • Not fun—takes away

spontaneity
• Gets me out of debt
• Keeps my head above
water
• Reduces my constant
anxiety about money
problems
• Stop paying penalties and
frees the money for better
things
Identify rewards for • Gets my head straight

being current on my about reality
bills. • Makes me deal with what
really motivates me
• Can I be objective?
Identify punishers • Gets my head straight

for not being current about reality
on my bills. • Makes me deal with what
really motivates me
• Can I be objective?
(continued)
Advantages and
Ways and Means
Get a money • Gets my finances under

manager. control
• Artificial way to make me
be responsible
• Expensive
• Deals more with my
weaknesses than building
up strength and
responsibility
Live a long and Exercise (such as • Formalizes my commit-

healthy life, at least get a trainer, join a ment
10 years longer than health club, work out • Ties me and my time down
the insurance with friends). • Makes it a social activity
actuarial tables with and less of a drudge
no major illnesses • Some expenses for
requiring a hospital memberships, equipment,
stay of over three etc.
days.
Have a healthful diet • Makes sense
(get a nutritionist, • Health foods are not
plan daily menus usually tasty
and intakes, etc.). • Nutritionist and guides can
be nothing more than fads
• I will look and feel better
Reduce stress • Easier said than done

through diet and • I worry a lot—every major
mind-set. thing I have worried about
has not come to be, so I
have rewarded myself by
worrying
• The medical and psy-
chological data are clear:
reduce stress or die
• It will be good for me
physically and mentally
• No real financial costs
This second problem-solving step requires objectivity, hon-

esty, and commitment. (Why kid yourself? It is your life and you
live with the consequences of what you do and don’t do.)
Realize that not making a decision is a decision and a problem
doesn’t cease to exist simply because you choose to ignore it.
This step in your success is where you deal with reality and
keep yourself open to possible ways and means to make
choices that will measurably improve your life, happiness, and
consequences.
It will be tempting at this stage to be less-than-formal—to
“wing it.” Don’t lose commitment and courage. When you
address this with objectivity and rigor, you are taking control of
your life, and you will feel good about yourself for taking control
and determining your own future.
Be good to yourself. Take control. Be the captain of your
own fate. Decide and determine your own success.
Now we go from the planning parts of problem solving to
the solutions and implementation parts.
3. Select means (the best ways and processes from

among alternatives).
Chapter 5 spoke to methods-means selection. At this step, you
simply build on what you did in the last step: identify the alter-
native ways and means to meet the needs—close the gaps in
results. Now is the time to select the ones that are the most
effective and efficient.4
Given your commitment and objectivity, simply ask of each
objective, “What does each give me and what does each get
me?” What are the advantages and disadvantages of each way
and means for reaching your objective? Be clear, open, and
rigorous. The last person you want to delude is yourself.
Choose the best methods and means to get you from
“what is” to “what should (and could) be” to meet the needs and
close the gaps in results. We have cared enough about our-
selves and our successful future by being thorough and precise
about our criteria, our needs, our results, and our alternatives.
4. Implement.
HERE WE ARE!!!! YOUR 30 SECONDS!!!!!
You have all the tools, templates, guides, concepts, and
knowledge now to decide to change—to move to the personal
and organizational payoffs you are getting now to the ones that
will be successful.
Now it is your turn.
DECIDE TO BE SUCCESSFUL!
You now commit to and actually implement what you
have decided to change and decided to continue. This is
your 30 seconds to change your life and avoid being
mediocre, or worse.
SUCCESS IS YOURS FOR THE CHOOSING.
A bit scary? Sure it is. Worthwhile? You can bet your future
success and happiness on yourself and your new competence
in decision making.
This choice is made within 30 seconds! All your thinking,
planning, and doing up to now was simply getting you ready to
make the choices to be successful.
DO IT!
And put into practice what you have decided to accomplish
and the ways and means you have selected to get you to
success.
5. Evaluate.
Here is where you determine your effectiveness and effi-
ciency. This step allows you to compare your accomplish-
ments, the consequences of your changed choices and
behaviors, with the objectives you set in Step 2.
This is your “reality check.” What’s working and what isn’t?
You must ask yourself about your results and your success and
determine what has worked, what has not, what to change, and
what to continue. Support yourself as you do what you have
decided to do, based on the needs (gaps in results) and objec-
tives you have selected, and move forward with a new you.
Be very clear about the results you get from your new deci-
sions and choices. Use the objectives you derived (from the
needs—gaps in results—on which your objectives are based)
to discover your successes and your shortfalls: what objectives
were met and which ones were not met.
Identify what to change and what to continue. Decide.
Choose. The nice thing about choice and taking control is that
you can decide to change anytime you have the data and the
desire to change.
6. Continuously improve.
This sixth step is your renewal step. Use it to track your pro-
gress against your defined needs and the resulting objectives.
If a gap in results appears, consider what to change and what
to keep. You can modify and change at any point in this prob-
lem-solving process. Be clear, be objective, and be honest with
yourself.
If something is not working, change then and there. If you
are not making the progress required to meet the needs—to
close the gaps in results—change then and there.
This time you are the master of change, not the victim of it.
You are in charge of your success, happiness, and conse-
quences.
It will work for you. Simply decide to change what should
be changed.
Taking Stock
It is time to take a breath and see where you have gotten.
Let’s compare Greenwald’s decision-making process with
this six-step process, and see how well they match—how they
will help you be successful. See the table on the next page for
a comparison.
Basic Decision-Making Steps The 30 Seconds

(Based on Greenwald) Steps
Identify the payoffs you are getting Assess needs (identify problem
now that you don’t want. based on need).
Identify the behaviors you are Analyze needs (determine detailed

displaying that deliver the negative objectives and identify but don’t
payoffs. select possible ways and means to
get you from “what is” to “what
should be”).
Identify the payoffs you do want. Select solutions and means from
among alternatives.
Identify the behaviors that will deliver (Same)

the desired payoffs.
Decide to change our behavior. Decide and commit to change—

implement.
Change. (Same)
Be ready to decide to change in the Determine effectiveness and

future if you want different payoffs. efficiency and revise as required.
Compatible aren’t they? Problem solving and decision

making are related—deeply related.
You may decide to identify and resolve problems—and you
will do it well if you use the templates and tools provided
earlier—and make decisions on what problems to solve and
how. But it takes your decision.
A Decision-Making and Problem-Solving Example.
Sean has been down for quite a while. Sure, he graduated

college and is well on his way for his master’s degree, but
things aren’t together for him.
(continued)
All the good jobs and assignments at work seem to go

to other, often less qualified people than him. In addition,
the organization has been making some—it seems to
Sean—quick-fix decisions. One such quick-fix decision is to
lower the shock-resistant features of a switch box—that is
made by one of their divisions in China—for which he is the
home office manager. This mandate came from his division
boss in order to get the bottom line looking better for next
year’s shareholders’ meeting. His comments to his
supervisor about this not being safe and therefore risky are
ignored, and he is criticized for “not being a team player.”
The rest of his life is not going well either. His credit
card debt seems out of control (each time he meets
someone new, the debt seems to mysteriously rise to
alarming levels) and estimates are that at the rate he is
paying it off, he will come out even in about 27 years.
Sean’s health is good. He works out three times a week
and gets a full physical exam every two years. His health is
reported as excellent: one good thing in his life.
And the most recent love interest seems to be “on
again, off again” recently. He told her he loved her and
wants to pursue a possible long-term relationship, but she
says she loves him as well but there is another guy she just
can’t seem to get out of her mind. Patient understanding is
one thing, loneliness and rejection another.
Sean has read all of the management books on
excellence and change (many assigned in his graduate
classes), and he has also been through a fair share of the
“Dr. Feelgood” books on the Net (always purchased at a
discount to help his swollen credit card debt). Everyone
else seems to know what to do, but everything he tries
seems to make things worse, or raise expectations with no
good results.
He is down and not seeing any light at the end of the
tunnel (other than a freight train coming toward him).
(continued)
That is “what is” for Sean. He wants happiness and a

future. But he sure doesn’t like the payoffs—results—he is
getting now.
He commits to try positive decision-making tools and
concepts. It couldn’t hurt, he thinks. He realizes that
commitment is important, since shooting-from-the-hip with
loosely formed destinations and fuzzy tools wouldn’t work…
they haven’t in the past.
One Sunday (the sun wasn’t out anyway and his lady
was off someplace not specified by her in order for her to
“find herself”), Sean decides to look at his current behaviors
that were bringing the results he wanted to change. He
knew he had to do this, objectively, in order to find what was
leading to negative results and consequences.
He brings out the writing pad and props it up in front of
him along with the three templates. Let’s go, he said to
himself. He begins by reviewing the three templates and
commits to follow them, comfortable or not. Now to paper
and pencil:
Future promotions at work Advancement to above 30% of

unlikely others in my job area
Feeling lonely and sad almost Be happy at least 95% of the
all of the time time with no major long-
lasting depression
Credit card debt at $13,567 Credit card debt at zero within
two years
(continued)
My income is average and I I will earn at least 30% more

don’t have enough for some of than I spend (Note: keep it
the “fun” things in life, such as sensible, Sean) and have
vacations longer than a enough for comfortable
weekend and a car that is a joy retirement (at least 70% above
to own and drive my working income) when
I am 65.
My organization and thus me No unsafe products sold by my
as a participant face lawsuits organization
for safety violations and for No deaths or disabilities from
possible deaths and permanent our products
disabilities No successful lawsuits against
the organization or me
I don’t have a mutual love or I want a committed
partnership relationship with shared love
and a shared future
I don’t trust my significant Full mutual trust
other
My health is good (actually My health remains good and
very good) better
My life expectancy is 81 Live at least ten years beyond
the predictions for me
Now that Sean has identified needs as gaps in results

(he thinks that he might have to make the criteria more
rigorous so that all will be on an interval or ratio scale), he
then prioritizes on the basis of “the cost to meet the needs
as compared to the costs for ignoring the needs.”
Not easy. He first thinks that his love life is number one,
but then realizes that health and happiness are primary. So
(continued)
he ranks those as tied for first. He realizes that for health,

he simply has to continue his diet and exercise lifestyle. For
happiness, well that takes some doing. And his job? And the
legal liability that is hanging over his head? And that
damned credit card debt!
Could he deal with all of this? Why not chuck it all and
move to one of the islands of Hawaii and live on breadfruit?
No, that won’t do.
Back to his commitment to change his life. He was most
of the way there, for he had committed to do what was
required to be successful and be happy.
Sean clustered the needs—gaps in results—and noticed
that health and happiness shared ranking #1 and that his
job was not as important as his personal relations. And
finally, that credit card debt.
Now to those personal relations. He saw quite clearly
that trust was basic to love and mutual future, so he decided
to give his lady one week to make up her mind. No, that was
not a good means—or solution—he would end it with her
now. No sense in pulling an impacted wisdom tooth slowly.
It was unlikely that she would miraculously become loving,
committed, and trustworthy in a week.
Whew. That felt good.
Could he actually pull it off? It began to become clear
that his current set of behaviors—how he interacted with his
world—would have to change. He now knew his current
results and his desired results. Next, he had to make target
changes in his behavior (the means he used to create his
results). And this meant changing some old habits—some
old, almost automatic responses in his day-to-day activities.
Now to the job. Should he take his case to the CEO and
see if the risky and quick-fix decision could be reversed?
Quit? Hold tight and hope for the best? And what about
promotion and future earnings? What alternatives existed
(continued)
including the trip to see the CEO? Sean pondered

alternative ways and means to close the work place
gaps in results.
Based on the costs and consequences (psychological
as well as financial), he opted to see the CEO. Perhaps his
poor assignments and income were due to his not being
professional and proactive in his on-the-job behavior. That
seemed to be the best of the possible ways of going: Decide
to change his behavior and act on those changes.
Next, he had to consider the credit card debt and the
feelings of guilt and anxiety that followed him around con-
stantly because of it. Was he spending as a quick fix to his
unhappiness?
Sean got out his old bills and noticed that almost every-
thing he charged he did not have now or even have at the
end of the billing period. What to do? Credit card counseling
in the past only unearthed companies that wanted to shift
his debt burden from the credit card to them. Spending on
friends? Did that buy love and acceptance? No. He had to
cut down on spending on anything he would not have at the
end of the month (and end of the year) and increase his
payments at least 20 percent above the amount billed for
the month—at least. And he could not put anything
transitory on his credit card. He would have to cut back on
spending, but that would dig him out of his financial hole.
Decisions, decisions.
Sean listed what he had to achieve and what he had to
do. Could he? Would he?
Sean faced his 30-second decision: to shift from current
mediocrity (and pain) to success: to change his behavior to
get the new consequences he now defined.
It all seemed clear now to Sean. THE DECISION WAS
MADE. It only took a few seconds—30 seconds—and Sean
was on his way. Sensible, practical, and useful.
(continued)
A year later, Sean’s visit to the CEO failed and he

left the organization and works now at another one
where he is listened to, respected, and already moving
up both in responsibilities and income. The friend is gone;
last he heard she was living with a guy who lives off of her
income and occasionally abuses her. Whew.
The credit card debt is coming down (they keep calling
him and asking him if he wants his credit limited increased
and he answers by asking for a lower interest rate), and he
finds that he misses little of what he used to buy. He is also
saving a bit and looking forward to that trip to Hawaii, but as
a tourist and not as a beachcomber.
Sean continues to eat right and exercise. And he notices
that he is upbeat and happier than ever before. Oh, he is
also meeting more centered people, including women.
As Sean continuously improves, he reviews his
decisions and is all ready to change if the gaps in results re-
appear or new ones emerge.
It worked!
Getting Your 30 Seconds to be Powerful

Congratulations. This has been quite a journey for you: three
templates (Five Key Decision Factors, the DMS process, and
the six-step problem-solving process) in addition to
Greenwald’s Direct Decision model, and tools and concepts for
your “tool kit” for success.
Did it “take”? Was it useful for you?
Take the opportunity to see for yourself by doing the same
assessment again as you did in Chapter 2.
Self-Assessment Exercise
Based on what you have learned and mastered in this book,
identify what gaps you want to close and which ones you are
willing to leave as they are.
Chapter 7. It is Decision Time: That Critical 30 Seconds
Change Self-Assessment

1 2 3 4 5 6 I avoid making decisions. 1 2 3 4 5 6

1 2 3 4 5 6 I make decisions in order to be accepted by others. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I do things the way I have done them in the past. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I am happy with where I am in my organization. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I am happy with my personal relationships. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I am happy with my life. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I watch others to see what they do before acting. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I am open to new ideas and frames of reference. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I make decisions without objective data, using only my experience or my hunches. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I feel uncomfortable doing things that are out of my friends' norms. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I worry about my decisions once made. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I don't care what others think when I make a decision. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I would rather do what will be accepted rather than that which will be successful. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I make a decision without the approval of my boss. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I make decisions that will lead to my becoming the boss. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I want acceptance of others even at high personal cost. 1 2 3 4 5 6
(continued)
131
132
CHANGE SELF-ASSESSMENT (continued)

1 2 3 4 5 6 I take risks to be successful. 1 2 3 4 5 6

1 2 3 4 5 6 I use fads. 1 2 3 4 5 6

1 2 3 4 5 6 I make decisions that will lead to personal success. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I make decisions that will lead to organizational success. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I make decisions that lead to good personal relationships. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I evaluate the consequences of my decisions on the job. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I evaluate the consequences of my decisions for my organization. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I evaluate the consequences of my decisions for my personal relationships. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I use evaluation results for blaming myself or others. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 I use evaluation results for fixing and improving. 1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6 The impact of what I do and what my organization delivers for external clients 1 2 3 4 5 6
and our shared society is my primary focus.
1 2 3 4 5 6 I keep acting the same ways even though they lead to my unhappiness. 1 2 3 4 5 6
Compare the changes you might have made with how you
responded in Chapter 2. Were there any changes here from the
assessment you completed in Chapter 2? We hope so.
List those gaps in results that you want to change and
those you want to maintain. Prioritize them (and it is OK to
attend to more than one at the same time).
For each, identify the psychological, personal, and occupa-
tional cost for meeting each need—closing the gap in results—
and the cost for not reducing or eliminating each. Doing this will
assist you in your decisions to change; making your 30
seconds really count.
Reality is your best friend, and now you know how to
choose to change from your current reality to the one you want
to create.
Before We Close
Now, as you decide what changes to make in your critical 30
seconds, review the guides provided in this book:
The Five Key Success Factors for Useful Decisions.

Decisions: Becoming a Strategic Thinker


The Decision Success Model (DSM).

community.
family.
2, and 3).
data to continuously improve what I use, do,
produce, and deliver, including the impact and
The Six-Step Problem-Solving Process. This is a dynamic
process to get from “what is” to “what should (or could) be.” As
you go through each step, you can revise (change your
choices) at any time in order to get from the results and payoffs
you are getting now to the ones you have chosen.
6. Revise as Required
1. Assess 2. Analyze 3. Select

4. Implement 5. Evaluate
Needs Needs Means
It is all very doable if you care enough to choose to help

yourself be successful.
Take control of your life and your future. It belongs to you.
And you now have the concepts and tools to never be
mediocre.
Be precise, and be rigorous. Remember that there are no
shortcuts to any place worth going to, so keep the discipline
and understand that others have not made the same life-
invigorating and life-changing decisions you have. They think
differently, they act differently, and most will remain stuck in
mediocrity, or worse.
The decision is, and always will be, yours. You are what
you do and decide based on change, choices, and conse-
quences.
Again, enjoy the fruits of your 30-second decision to
change your life.
Based on the framework in this book, here are a few more
related pieces of potentially useful advice:
Blushing. Want to stop blushing? Next time you are concerned
that you will blush (and you don’t want to) try to blush. Yes, try
to blush; try to bring it on yourself. You will likely control it.
Greenwald called that “paradoxical intention.”
Happiness. Not many people want to be with a grump, a
“downer,” or someone who is always seeing the negative parts
of life. Want to be a leader? Have friends? Be happy? Be
upbeat? If you are not happy, act happy and soon you will likely
break the blues. Be the kind of person you would like to be
with.
Blues, downers, and depression. Once in a while, we all feel
down—sometimes worse. Greenwald used to advise people
that if you are feeling depressed (frequently anger turned
inward), just go ahead and act happy and up. That works for
most people. Of course, clinical depression requires some
really good professional help. Ted Blau suggested that happi-
ness is freedom from fear. Counselor JC Fikes suggests that

when you are really worried and very anxious that you ask
yourself based on the physical impact of extreme stress, “Is this
worth dying for?”
Procrastination. No problem ceases to exist simply because
we choose to ignore it.
In love? Ask yourself, “Is this the way love should feel?”5 If not,
think about choosing a different partner or a different way of
behaving.
Wondering how to behave to be successful? Treat others
as you want to be treated. Don’t lie or cover up if you don’t
want others to lie or cover up.6 You can’t hurt anyone’s
feelings. They choose the way they will respond to you. Don’t
own other people’s problems; only act the way you would have
others act.
Endnotes
1. Flowcharts are convenient. They can show us the order of
completing each function (just follow the forward arrows and read the
numbers for the order and sequence). This also shows, using the
broken line labeled 6, that revision can take place any time and at any
place in the process.
2. Thus, no need (gap in results), no problem.
3. Worth noting is Viktor Frankl’s observation that it is not as much

about what you expect from life as what life expects from you.
4. As noted earlier in Chapter 6, costs-consequences analysis—

what do you give and what do you get—is useful here.
5. Gleaned from several on-air observations provided by biologist

and therapist Laura Schlessinger.
6. These and perhaps other tidbits here might not be new. They are
seen in the Rotary 4-Way Test and most mainstream bibles. Good
advice then, good advice now.
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About the Author
Roger Kaufman is professor emeritus, Florida State Univer-
sity, and Director of Roger Kaufman & Associates as well as
Distinguished Research Professor at the Sonora Institute of
Technology. His Ph.D. is in communications from New York
University. Kaufman has previously served as a professor at
Chapman University and the US International University (now
Alliant International University) where he began his continuing
education on the relationships among psychology, sociology,
performance improvement, strategic thinking, and psycho-
therapy.
Kaufman consults with public and private organizations in
the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Latin and
Central America, and Europe. He is a Certified Performance
Technologist, a Diplomat in School Psychology, and a Fellow in
Educational Psychology of the American Psychological
Association. He has been awarded the International Society for
Performance Improvement’s (ISPI’s) top two honors: Member
for Life and the Thomas F. Gilbert Award. He is a past ISPI
president and a founding member and is the recipient of the
American Society for Training and Development’s (ASTD’s)
Distinguished Contribution to Workplace Learning and
Performance recognition.
Kaufman has published 36 books and over 235 articles on
strategic planning, performance improvement, quality man-
agement and continuous improvement, needs assessment,
management, and evaluation.

30 Seconds That Can Change Your Life: A Decision-Making Guide For Those Who Refuse To Be Mediocre

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30 Seconds That Can Change Your Life: A Decision-Making Guide For Those Who Refuse To Be Mediocre

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30 Seconds That Can

Change Your Life

Roger Kaufman, Ph.D.

HRD Press, Inc. • Amherst • Massachusetts

Published by: HRD Press, Inc.

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No

Production services by Jean Miller

Introduction ........................................................................ vii

Chapter 1. Decisions, You, and Success ......................... 1

Chapter 2. The Five Keys for Successful Decisions ....... 13

Chapter 3. Don’t Confuse What with How

Chapter 4. Practical Dreaming: An Imperative Focus

Chapter 5. Aligning Results and Consequences:

Chapter 6. Needs Versus Wants: Getting

Chapter 7. It Is Decision Time:

About the Author................................................................143

Can You Really Choose to Change Your Life?

It is up to you to decide to change from the payoffs you are

Can This Book Really Do Some Good?

about this barrage of popular books, “I wish it were

This book contains:

A Map of the Templates and Guides in This Book

Five Key Success 1. Don’t assume that what

The Decision Success Decision-making commitments

A Problem-Solving Six steps

This book is not about psychotherapy (although some of

The Three Cs of Life

And no matter what we do, or don’t do, there are conse-

Change. Change is scary for most of us. We know how to deal

Choices. We all make choices. Not making choices is a

Consequences. What happens to us in our lives is largely up

The 30 Seconds that Can Change Your Life

Thirty seconds! How can that be true? I was puzzled at

Basic Decision-Making Steps

Some people would like to think they are powerless and

Nobody listens to me.

should be the first person in line to decide what you do and

The Victim Role. One manifestation of resigning oneself to

• You are what you do.

No one is responsible for your behavior, only you. Make

deserve. Not making a decision is a decision. So, decide on the

Old and non-useful conventional wisdom has frequently

Old and Non-useful Conventional

the whole. It would be like driving in traffic and only paying

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and

Everything that can be invented has been invented.

Glad not many people listened.

Louis Pasteur’s theory of germs is ridiculous fiction.

Are we not glad that physicians and pharmaceutical companies

640K ought to be enough for anybody.

Heavier-than-air flying machines are an impossibility.

I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.

We can surmise that Dell and Gateway did not agree.

There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their

Any in the list you find useful today? Remember, once

3. These are the basic steps of Greenwald’s Direct Decision

4. Payoffs are the rewards and consequences of our decisions.

5. Viktor Frankl once mentioned to me that “there are no unwilling

6. The Internet is a valuable source of information. Unfortunately,

7. One definition of politics provided by Peter Senge is “when who is

8. Much to my dismay, a noted biologist told me several years ago

After previewing all five key success factors, we investigate