I'm reading another great book (Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg) that has given me a new mental model to improve both my professional and personal life. Fogg's entire framework was conceived for organizational / enterprise behavior, however, it has transitioned to be equally effective (if not more so) in the personal growth arena.
Goals: What Behaviors Do You Need To Adopt?
Early in the process you identify your goal or aspiration and, then, brainstorm a list of all the ideas you could engage in to help you achieve your goals.
Let's say you want to start running before work every day. To help yourself adopt your new behavior (aspiration) you might come up with a list of ideas that includes:
Sleeping in your workout clothes
Buy a new Fitbit, Whoop, etc
Enlist an accountability partner to run with you
Move your alarm clock across the room so it's not easy to hit "snooze"
Have a glass of water ready on kitchen counter before going to bed to hydrate with before your run in the morning
Laying out your workout clothes and running shoes next to the bed
etc.
etc.
Maybe you've brainstormed 25 ideas to help you adopt your new behavior. Some of those ideas will have varying levels of ease. And, some will have varying levels of effectiveness.
Take, as an example, finding an accountability partner who will run with you early every morning. That is probably an extremely effective idea. The last thing in the world you want is to be responsible for a friend getting up extra early waiting for you while you're in bed "hitting snooze."
The problem with finding an accountability partner is that it is probably not easy to find someone who wants to do this unless you know someone who is already.
Maybe sleeping in your workout clothes is super easy for you. But, on the other hand, it's not that effective because you don't have any trouble slipping into your sweats or you work from home and would robotically dress that like that anyway. It's just not something that will help drive your new behavior.
Organize These Behavior Ideas
Having developed your list of ideas you need to run through them twice. The first time label all that are easy for you to implement. Buying a Fitbit or some other exercise tracker is easy (you could order online) and it's just a one-time behavior rather than something requiring ongoing effort. Second, you'll want to run through your ideas once again and identify all that are effective like the accountability partner example.
Your Golden Behaviors
Finally, put together a list of ideas that you have identified as both easy and effective. These are your "Golden Behaviors," and those which you will focus on to achieve your goal. There's a lot (A LOT) more to this book than Identifying Golden Behaviors. But, this is one of the first steps to monumental change.
Work Comp And Golden Behaviors
I thought about this model in terms of Workers Compensation Insurance. There all kinds of behaviors and ideas I could recommend to anybody interested in reducing work comp insurance premiums, reducing experience modification rates, etc. And I know I've written "How To" posts in the past like this one.
But, I believe that, among the Golden Behaviors of reducing Work Comp Costs, having an independent audit performed on your program is the best; "the most golden." An independent audit is:
Easy
Free. We only charge a percentage when we are successful recovering refunds.
Not a commitment of your time. We have a turnkey audit process and do all the analysis and letter writing.
A 1-time event. No ongoing audit activities, processes, monitoring, etc. One and done.
Effective
A majority of our clients receive refunds.
A majority of our clients obtain adjustments that save them future insurance premium dollars.
And...
And, while we're auditing your work comp program, we might identify issues that could be solved with other Golden Rule ideas. For example, we could spot trends in your claims or claims handling we think you could easily address. Or, ways to track project payroll that could help you save money on your next audit.
One way or another keep us in mind whenever you decide it's time to address the cost of your workers' compensation insurance program. Maybe costs are or on the rise or you just haven't taken a hard look at your expenses in a while. Keep our number and email address handy! Call or email anytime! We look forward to helping save more of your hard earned money after you've identified your Golden Rules!
Stuart Cytron, MBA has been published in trade journals such Construction Forum St. Louis and St. Louis Business Journal among others. You can read more about Stuart and how he developed a passion for helping businesses reduce work comp expenses on his website.