Prep - Do - Review

This simple action model will guide you to think of every activity not as one step - simply doing something - but as three steps: preparing to act, acting, and then reviewing the outcome.

Here's how it works.

Prep. Before acting, take literally a minute to prepare. Ask yourself, What am I about to do? Why am I going to do it? (That is, what goal, no matter how simple, are you trying to reach?) Who will be involved or affect, and what are their interests? And how am I going to do it?

Do. Perform the action you prepared to take in the prep step.

Review. Afterward, reflect on what was done and the outcome, including any expected or unexpected consequences. Identify the lessons to be learned. How would you perform the action differently in the future? This is probably the part most managers we know neglect. They assume that the right lesson is self-evident, but it rarely is.

Prep - do - review may sound simple and obvious. But too often we simply react to what's in front of us. We deal with what's there on its own terms, and our only goal is to solve it, resolve it, and move on. How often do we stop and consider the broader context or the consequences for all concerned? And how often do we pause for a moment, reflect on an event, and identify what we learned? Raise this approach - a way of thinking that usually takes no more than a few seconds - to the level of a practice that you follow in virtually everything you do.

This text is part of the book entitled "Being the Boss - The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader", written by Linda A. Hill and Kent Lineback, Harvard Business Review Press.