You Can Expect What You Inspect

The things you care about you will pay attention to.

That’s the point of this post.

There is an old saying from the manufacturing and statistical process control world that says you can expect what you inspect.

Which, if you have read Dr. Stephen Covey’s books, you may recognize this as one of his seven principles.

Begin with the end in mind

This is an easy thing to say and generally a pretty easy thing to do

For those that are graduating this month you lived this. You set your mind to something and you delivered on it. However, as life and other challenges intervened you may have made a few changes along the way. And that’s OK!

You set an expectation

Whether you changed majors then or are looking to change jobs now you can set an expectation of what you want to see. Then, you can work backwards to fill-in the components of what needs to happen in order for that expectation to be met.

You inspect your expectations

This is something that’s been going on for thousands of years and it shouldn’t surprise anyone. But, a lot of times we find ourselves wrapped up in tasks and day-to-day activities that are not leading towards our expectations. This is a risk everyone needs to manage directly and deftly.

You adjust your expectations

This is where the book Essentialism comes in. Below is an excerpt from my post What’s your Vector, Victor?

Essentialism Guides Your Vector

There is a great book by Greg McKeown called “Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less” where he distills the essence of our daily efforts into one simple graphic. The graphic is a collection of vectors … and his point can easily be seen by how we may be allowing ourselves to become undisciplined by allowing our “vectors” to have reduced magnitudes and scattered directions. If you have the book … check out page six. Or click on the link above and go to “first pages” and see page 6,

Every day you only have so much time and energy to give something. Make sure that when you apply that energy that it’s going in the direction that helps you achieve your expectations. Set checkpoints for inspecting your progress.

Getting your Vectors Flying in Formation

More specifically, set your expectations and then focus on getting your vectors flying in the same direction. When you set your expectations correctly AND inspect them periodically to make sure they are going in the right direction you will stand out in your career.

It takes work and focus to do this day after day. But, the result is that you will achieve the things that are important to you.

Just remember … you can expect what you inspect.