Bob Rasmussen, LIFE leader, shares a heartwarming story of his daughter and Orrin Woodward's PDCA process. The beautiful thing about Orrin's Top 100 All-Time Leadership Book is its practicality. Every principle he teaches can be used immediately to improve. Bob shares an example from his daughter's life. The LIFE Business is filled with people who have changed their lives by applying LIFE principles to their life. Here's the article.
As I was reading ORRIN WOODWARDS most recent outstanding book “RESOLVED” I could not help but reflect on the power of the success principles taught within this masterpiece. I am sure all those who read and apply this book to their future will be forever changed for the good! This book has become the foundation of the LIFE education system and the recently released MENTAL FITNESS CHALLENGE which is experiencing explosive participation right out of the gates!!
I would like to share a short story of the power of getting and applying the right principles to life. I am in to my fourth read/study of the book and chapters 5-6 got me thinking of a very successful outcome from using a rather simple principle called PDCA or PLAN, DO, CHECK, ADJUST which came from the engineering world to systematize improvements in a given area. The genius of WOODWARD shines through as he teaches that this principle applies to all people as well and can be used in any area for positive change. I had the good fortune to be exposed to this LIFE changing information years ago through the TEAM leadership development company. The basic premise of the PDCA principle is that anything we would like to change or improve can be tackled with this proven method. Once the area is identified we simply, make a plan of action, do the plan, check our results, adjust the plan based on our results and continue to cycle this process until we hit the desired goal. Simple yes, easy no, let me illustrate. My daughter had been dabbling with horses for a couple years and decided that she would like to focus in this area and see if she really wanted to pursue this for her future. At the time we could call it a hobby at best and she had been riding an older horse that could win once in awhile regardless of who was riding it. She discovered that she had a love for everything about horses and wanted to go to the next level.
My wife and I knew that the PDCA process was the way to improve so we taught Jessie the principles and have watched her in amazement continue to improve almost daily. She started setting short term goals which lined up with a five year goal to win at the AQHA World Show and is actually ahead of schedule according to veterans and mentors in the field. Her long term goal is to become a world class trainer with her own facility so two years ago we adjusted the plan and were able to get her into a working world class ranch and around one of the best gurus in the field. It is important to note that Jessie has earned her dream through hard work, not being given an easy route from us which has also been a catalyst for growth. About three years ago she bought with her own money a $2500 horse that was 4 years old and had not been trained out of a pasture near our home. She then started training hard with the PDCA process and their first year in the show ring was brutal. As with all change the process is uncomfortable and instant success is not a reality, so at the lower level shows she had difficulty even placing in her classes but she grasped what we were teaching her and continued on with the PDCA process. The next winter she worked as a stable hand and her mom worked at the ranch also for two months to earn mentoring and training in the clinics and private instruction from the best. Jessie then used deliberate focused practice to improve her horsemanship and starting getting results. In shows she could not place in the year before she was now dominating. We used the scorecard principle and tracked her progress to find that she was now getting “firsts’ in 67 % of her classes.
We knew through PDCA that it was vital to repeat the next winter at the ranch working sun-up to sundown getting more training and exposure to the dream she was now passionate about. Jessie is now almost 7500 hrs in the saddle on her way to the 10,000 hrs that Malcolm Gladwell teaches is necessary to master anything. This year we PDCAed to test the water at AQHA shows which was risky for her confidence and very intimidating. Jessie had a slow start but did place at the “Major Leagues” of horsemanship. She knew the PDCA process required that we mentor from someone with results and use deliberate practice to adjust. A mentor with 50 years in and world titles gave her some free instruction because he likes her hunger and two days later she got her first blue ribbon with a $2500 dollar horse beating $50,000 to $100,000 dollar horses that were trained by professionals and ridden by girls who have been riding since they could walk!!!! This new coach turned to me and said ” that does not happen here, not at this level”. Jessie has truly found her passion, this is not her hobby and her future is very bright, she truly has the potential to become great, and could literally sell this horse for a huge profit. This tells me she has discovered her purpose and I am so grateful we were exposed to the power of PDCA!
My point is this, anyone with a dream and some guts can still take LIFE changing information and apply it to live the the life you always wanted. Thank you ORRIN WOODWARD, TEAM LEADERSHIP, and the LIFE EDUCATION SYSTEM for giving my little girl the tools to make it happen! God Bless, Bob
