Close the Loop

Once you’ve mobilized the troops around your recommendations and shipped them, you may be ready to tackle the next challenge. You still have one last task to do, however, to close the loop on the entire process. Some people may consider this stage as optional, but I feel it’s fundamental to your success as an action hero: Do a final analysis that isolates the actual impact of your recommendations. After running through your analysis, you may discover that the business value generated by your recommendations is higher or lower than expected. If the difference is significant between your original estimate and how the optimization is trending toward that target, you’re going to want to understand why. Digging into the gap early could help to troubleshoot a problem before it becomes a serious issue. On the other hand, if there’s an unexpected overachievement, you’ll want to drill into it further so you can gain valuable insights that can benefit other projects.

“The more you are willing to accept responsibility for your actions, the more credibility you will have.”

—Brian Koslow