Preparation is key to Performance.

 

1990 will be a year remembered for many things but notably the release of Madiba after 27 years in prison would be the highlight. Some other activities:

Adobe Photoshop made its first appearance

The World Wide Web software is first tested by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN.

Home Alone, Pretty Woman and Ghost were released

Liverpool wins the league. Their last until 2020

Oh yes Colin learned an important lesson.

In 1990 LSM’s were released for the first time. It was groundbreaking at the time designed to do away with the race demographic. People were categorized by their living standards based on 14 variables. The subject of this article is not LSM’s but how LSM’s made me realize the importance of preparation and performance.

I was tasked by my media director to present the concept of LSM and the findings to our major FMCG client. It was new we were not familiar with it and neither were clients. I presented it to the client and it was a disaster of note. To the point that I thought I was going to be fired. I screwed up royally. No half measures here. I left the office and sat in a coffee shop to ponder on what’s next. What to do? I went back to the office and offered my resignation to my media director. To which she responded (harshly by the way) who do you think is going to fix your mess when you gone, certainly not me she said. This was followed by more words in Afrikaans which I certainly cannot repeat here. I fixed my presentation and re-presented it to the client and thankfully it all went well.

So what was the lesson? What went wrong?

To be honest I was arrogant I thought I knew it all. I did not consult with others. I did not know my subject matter. I was not prepared and as such, I did not perform. I embarrassed myself, my media director and my company. A lesson I never forgot. Plan, Prepare Perform

As the carpenter says, measure twice and cut once. The level of preparation will determine the level of performance. – Unknown

This is a real story. No names were changed to protect the guilty.