Those of you who are working through my Bowling Club Survival and Turnaround eBook will know that I am a stickler for working to a plan and within that “ALWAYS” working on the top 3 issues that will move us closer to our goals.

Some readers have had a bit of difficulty getting traction with their turnaround plans through one problem or another; almost exclusively linked to apathy or inertia within the club or committee, a reluctance to get moving on big change.

For those of you in this category, who feel like they are trying to push water uphill, here is a little system you can use to organise your thoughts and maybe encourage those around you to engage with the plan a little more readily. Its really just about asking 4 simple questions:

What went well last year?

You can easily apply this question to your club situation and come up with

a substantial list of the things that went well; keep doing this stuff.

But of course, like me and countless others; not all of your plans and projects went well last year so I recommend that you follow the first question with this one:

If you had a magic wand what would next year look like for your club?

This is a key question as it will bring up all sorts of ideas about how your ideal club would look and should definitely be done as group exercise. This can be a very exciting exercise as it engages people, some of whom might not otherwise give their opinion freely, in the job of defining how the perfect club would look. In doing this they get involved at a level that is positive and they are on record as having “joined in”. This should result in a flipchart full of ideas! Exciting stuff.While they are “hot” you could engage them in the following question also; or you could take their vision and decide to make it a reality on your own or at sub-committee level. Whatever route you take, here is the way to do it:

What do I have to change to make this vision a reality?
A much more concise list will come out of this question and it will probably be project orientated; you might end up with a lot of potential projects here and that is why its better done as group because somehow you need to vote this down to the 3 potentially most effective projects so that you don’t spread your resources too thinly.

You can always come back to numbers 4 to 6 on your list later, but you will probably find that the goalposts have moved by then due to the success achieved when your top 3 projects are completed. What should you do if this happens? Start at the top of this post again and keep the momentum going.

The last question you ask is the deal maker:

So what do we need to do in the next 30 days to make this all start to happen?
Out of this should come actions?

Readers of Bowling Club Survival and Turnaround will remember that actions and projects are very different.

You are looking for stand alone actions that can be competed in one piece of effort; projects can be defined as a series of actions leading to the achievement of a goal.

Any comments, questions or any input of any kind please just drop it in below and post.