Two moments in November really struck me. They caused me to think, am I improving or coasting?

For me, working at Improving Enterprises indicates I should be improving at a sustainable pace. Sustainable pace is subjective and relative to the person. It might look like a rocket ship for you and a slight hill for me.

Firstly, one of our vice presidents, Tim Rayburn ended our monthly Dallas townhall with an exercise. It was designed to help us think differently about recruiting. Near the end, he said something to the effect of,

“Improvers talk to people who are probably Improvers, they just don’t know it yet.”

Tim Rayburn

Bold statement and a solid indicator for company culture.

Secondly, another executive, Ken Howard facilitated an evening training session on human interaction. He was covering motivation at one point when he mentioned,

“We discovered that many of our colleagues are geared toward creativity and learning.”

Ken Howard

This is a strong indicator for problems getting solved. But not messes getting cleaned up in the breakroom!

Company culture is impacting business operations. As a result, how culture is built influences how business value is created.

I write posts using the tag “humans being.” Occasionally, I make a mess of interactions with people.

How do I fix my mess? I have to work on my “soft skills”. At times, I ask to be forgiven. I stop speaking mid-sentence.

Stop coasting and start improving

From start to finish, life is about continuous improvement. Life is painful in that way. But, I would not trade it for the alternative!

So, this gets back to my starting question. Are you (and me) improving or coasting?

Trust me, there isn’t anything wrong with coasting. From time to time, coasting is a good thing!

Consider this question when your goal setting for next year. Improving or coasting, the choice is yours. Finally, I choose improving, you should too.