HOW TO SMASH THE COMPETITION: Step-By-Step

I am constantly surprised by the fact that most people (and this includes businesses) don’t continually invest in those things that give them a sustainable competitive advantage.  What do I mean by sustainable competitive advantage?  I mean smashing the competition and while they are down, making sure that they don’t get up again without you having something to say about it.

At a personal level, this means being better, faster, more effective than your co-worker.  At a business level it means being the leader in your industry and always two or three steps ahead.

Today I want to talk about being better than your co-worker, and I don’t mean just a bit better, I mean significantly better and better in measurable ways.

Here’s how you do it:

1. Decide on what is important to be good at and focus on that.  Ditch all the rest.
2. Do a quick search on the net to find out how others who are experts at whatever it is that you want to be like got there, and what tools they used.
3. Buy and read the book/download the tool/ get the DVD/do the course/whatever-it-takes to understand how to do it.
4. Apply.
5. Keep Applying.
6. Apply again and again and again until it is a habit.
7. Keep applying some more.

Chances are, when you first start learning a new skill, or breaking an old habit that you will be VERY uncomfortable about it.  That’s to be expected.  Relax.  It will get easier – the secret is to stick at it.

Below is a scan from some notes that I took the other week when I was attending a colleague’s lecture.  The lecture went for an hour and was on the historical perspective of Scientific Management (not the most interesting of subjects to me, but I wanted to see how my colleagues were presenting in class in case I could learn anything about how to improve my own style).  I sat in the last row, furtherest from the lecturer and tried to keep a small profile.  

As the class filled up, I found myself surrounded by students, some of which had printed out the notes beforehand, and others who had not.  During the lecture I found it interesting to watch who was taking notes and what method they used….

What did I find?  Most just flipped along with the lecture slides on the PowerPoint Presentation and some jotted down a few points: most did nothing.

(click image to make larger etc)

I first learnt about mind-mapping about five years ago, and have been using the tool somewhat sporadically over that period.  Last year, though, I decided to get serious about it to see if it was really useful, or if I was wasting my time.

Here is what I found:

1. Mind-mapping increases my concentration on the topic at hand enormously
2. Mind-mapping increases my ability to recall information faster and more accurately than any other method that I know
3. Mind-maps are personal – it is very difficult for anyone else to read them and understand them – this means that you are an important part of the mind-map.  Without you, the data can’t be easily de-coded (this puts you at the centre of the information dissemination game; a valuable place to be).

The map above covers all the main points I would need to be able to know in order to feel confident in answering a question on that topic in, say, an assignment or exam.  It is contained in one page and not spread out over 60+ slides that were designed by someone else.  Most of all, though, it was created by me using both hemispheres of my brain and as such, the data is locked inside – not forgotten.

I pinned this map to my wall when I returned from the lecture, and didn’t look at it again until this morning.  Upon pulling it down and glancing at it again, all the information came flooding back and I feel super confident that I GET IT!  

What does this mean in terms of efficiency and effectiveness?  It means that I don’t have to spend hours slogging over old notes in a hope that I will remember them when it is important.  It means that all the time that I don’t spend trying to decode someone else’s work (the original  PPT slides) I can spend doing further research or study on another topic to vastly increase my knowledge in this or another related area.

What does this ultimately mean?  It means that because I learnt a skill that makes me far more effective and efficient at understanding new material that I can use these gains to skip even further ahead of the competition.  It means that the competition has to work more than twice as hard – just to keep up.  It means that I have a competitive advantage that is sustainable, and that eery day I practice developing this skill, is another nail in the coffin for the competition.

So, I have a question for you – what is a key skill, competency or capability that you, or your business needs to develop that will give you sustainable competitive advantage?

Find out what it is; learn it; apply it consistently, conscientiously and continually and watch yourself smash the competition.