“Nothing is particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs”
Henry Ford
I don’t know if you remember an advert that was on the TV years ago for GCSE bitesize revision? It was all about not eating an elephant in one go, but eating it in chunks – bitesize pieces. A little bit of revision at a time and you’ll have learnt everything you need for your exam.
Splitting a big task down into a series of smaller tasks makes that big thing seem much more achievable. The small jobs are all a lot easier individually than the one big thing, you can see how you can do each task and you know what the goal is.
For example, Christmas is coming, so there’s a lot to prepare for isn’t there? There’s presents to buy, wrap and distribute, cards too, elves to move around (unless like me you’ve managed to send yours away… so much easier!) food to buy and a menu to plan, you might have visitors over which means more organisation – does your Cluedo game have all the pieces? Have you got enough napkins? Maybe extreme cleaning and decluttering might be needed – you have to buy the tree and get the decorations down, find a space for the tree, check that the lights work, put it all together, bake your Christmas cake well in advance (I hope you’ve done this – my Mam made mine again this year, she’s brilliant), work out what’s happening with your family so you have a plan for the day and know when to put the turkey in the oven so that it comes out at the right time, you might need to buy batteries and check that you know where the scissors are, make sure you have carrots and whisky, work out where you’re going to put all the cards – there’s a lot involved in making sure that this one day of the year runs smoothly. At first thought it can look a little bit overwhelming, but broken down into chunks it’s a lot more do-able. I know people who have actually finished their Christmas shopping! (well done if this is you)
In your business you might have one task that seems huge. It could be a project that you’re working on for a client or something that you’re doing for business development, perhaps a new product or service that needs to launch.
Breaking down something big into small, actionable steps is a great way to make your goals more realistic and show you how you’re going to make them happen. As Henry Ford says, it isn’t “particularly hard if you divide it into small jobs”. Maybe you have big plans for next year and they feel Far. Too. Big. This is your chance to write those plans down and split them up into smaller pieces of work so you can tackle them a little bit at a time in between present buying and emergency Christmas jumper shopping.
Whatever you want next year, you can do it. You can start now. It might take you weeks to achieve your goal – but if it’s broken down into smaller steps then you can START and it won’t feel particularly hard.
Part of your brand strategy is about figuring out a solution to your key issue and then breaking these down into smaller steps.
The first step is to identify the key issue. This isn’t about looking at what you think you want to do or what you’ve been advised to do – it’s about digging into your brand to find the issue itself. Intentional issue investigation, which leads to a much stronger issue to solve because it’s something that really is there and can be shown with evidence based on your strengths, connection, competitors and the situation you really are in.
Once you know your key issue, you can identify to get to where you want to be and determine a specific result which will show you’ve achieved that. This could be around communication, launching new products or marketing… there are many options, and ultimately leads to working on what you need to do with clear action steps to help you stay on track.
Small jobs to help you reach an overall goal of creating a stronger brand that will take you forward into the future with confidence.