Are you Ready to be Ready?

This week Pittsburgh is hosting the G-20 Conference. The city has been getting ready for this event for months.  It is a big deal for us! This gives us a great opportunity to showcase our city!

In my opinion, the city has done a great job preparing for and communicating with the business community and its citizens.  This event led me to think about the importance of getting ready for things that may or may not come our way.

There are two types of things that come to mind when I think about it:  The things I am aware of and things I am not.  Getting ready for things you are aware of is a lot easier and straightforward than getting ready for those you are not.  Thus, the focus of this post is the latter.

Someone once said, “Luck is the intersection of opportunity and preparation”. That means that if you want to be “lucky” if and when something good (or bad) comes about — you should get ready by preparing for it.

The following are a few suggestions for some things you could do.

Getting Ready to Become Ready

First, spend some time thinking about areas that you should get ready for.  Start the process by making a list of your “BIG High Potential Problems™” (BHPPs) and “BIG High Potential Opportunities™” (BHPOs).

BHPPs are the issues that are most likely to come about given your key roles.  These should be worst-case scenarios that would bring about the biggest pain and sorrow if they happened and you were not ready.

BHPOs are the opportunities that are most likely to come about given your roles.  These should be the best-case scenarios that would provide you with the biggest potential for financial or any other type of gain.

Becoming Ready

Once you have your top three or so for each category, you can move on to think and “plan” what you should do if such scenarios were to manifest.

The idea is not to have a perfect plan for each of them.  Rather, the idea is to go through the process of thinking enough about them and to set a course of action to get you ready in the event of their manifestation.

Here are some examples of possible scenarios, some of which can turn from big problems to bigger opportunities.  Looking at them that way can help you device better plans for them.

BHPPs

• Job Loss
• Illness
• Key Resource Loss
• Key System Loss
• Customer Loss
• Cost Increase

BHPOs

• Job Offers or Promotions
• New Business Deals
• Cost Reductions
• Investments
• Fixing a BIG Problem
• Implementing New Technology

No matter what your list turns out to be, the key is to get ready to be ready! Take the time to go through the process.  It will be well worth it!!!

The BEST is Yet to Come!

Epi Torres, CEO