Have you ever seen this acronym?  L.I.F.E.? 

I love it. 

I live by it. 

• Learn
• Implement
• Find
• Evaluate

• 

Full transparency:  when I was first introduced to the acronym, I was taught it as:  Learn, Implement, Fail, Evaluate.   

I liked the acronym because of what it represented.  I wouldn’t say I liked the F word. 

Fail… it doesn’t sound very good.  It sounds like something declined, was lacking, or was ruined.  Yet, failure is not what I see when I think about what it means.   I see it as checking the results against your expectations or making improvements. 

L.I.F.E. is a process for constant improvement.  

When I talk about building processes, trying a new productivity method, launching, or anything really, I recommend doing a cycle of implementing, monitoring, analyze and then tweaking/change. Repeat.    

or  

Implement – find – evaluate – learn – implement – find – evaluate. 

L.I.F.E.

This process for constant improvement has many applications.  For example, I talked with someone this afternoon about my experiences networking.  What worked, what didn’t, what I recommend etc.   It was a fun conversation, and I was happy to share. 

One of the recommendations I made was to try something, monitor the results, evaluate, make tweaks or changes and then try again.  Sound familiar? 

What do you think of the acronym? 

What do you think of my change? 

How will you use it? 

Continuous improvement is not about the things you do well – that’s work.  Continuous improvement is about removing the things that get in the way of your work.  The headaches, the things that slow you down, that’s what continuous improvement is all about.

Bruce Hamilton