啊，一月！一整年的美好时光就在眼前，就算是在当前充满风险的经济形势下，到处也还是洋溢着乐观情绪。“一月刚刚开始，一切目标看起来都可以搞定，”《1%解决方案：让接下来的一个月无与伦比》（The 1% Solution: How to Make Your Next 30 Days the Best Ever）的作者汤姆•康奈兰如是说。

    很好，可现实也无法回避。康奈兰曾为联邦快递（FedEx）、戴尔（Dell）、索尼（Sony）、家得宝（Home Depot）和塔吉特（Target）等大公司提供咨询服务，他发现，下列三大错误是经常妨碍进展的罪魁祸首：

1. 单纯依赖“自我激励”来启动计划

    “尽管自我激励确实能带来成就，但人们容易忘记的是，这句话反过来说也能成立，”康奈兰指出。“朝着目标迈进哪怕是一小步的成就，都会激励人们继续前行。”

    他指出，最近的一些研究表明，最能激励员工的正是看得见摸得着的进展。他建议：“为了创造一种不断前进的感觉，可以要求手下的人都作出承诺，在今后的60或90天内，改善其工作表现的某一个小方面——无论是每周多打两个销售电话，还是将生产流程加速5%。”康奈兰还指出，通过一步一步前进的方式朝着巨大变革迈进，可以“形成足够强劲的势头”，克服机构惰性。

2. 好高骛远、急于求成

    康奈兰称，很多企业往往“只考虑宏大的目标，而忽视达成目标所需经历的一个个台阶”，从而导致实现变革的努力误入歧途，可是，“积跬步方能至千里”。

    举例来说，倘若某个销售员每打一次推销电话，都将自己敲定买卖的技能改善哪怕1%. 康奈兰指出：“如果某人每天打三个推销电话，每次都实现1%的进步，那只需6个周，这个人的成功率就能翻一番。”

    另一种可能的情形是，上次工作表现评估要求你更好地倾听，因为它对所在的团队很有好处。“这种目标的问题在于，它太朦胧了，就算实现了都不一定知道。”康奈兰称。

    他的解决方案如下：市面上有大量书籍、磁带和网络教程，教人们更好地倾听，先从中选定一种来学习，然后“编制一份包含两件、三件或五件具体事务的清单，不能一次列出10件或20件之多，尝试用不同方式来完成这些事情。”然后就专注于这些具体的小目标吧。

    Oh January, the month when the whole year lies ahead and -- even in this dicey economy -- optimism is at a peak. "Everything you want to accomplish seems doable at the beginning of January," says Tom Connellan, author of The 1% Solution: How to Make Your Next 30 Days the Best Ever.

    Great, but then reality sets in. In his consulting practice with clients like FedEx, Dell, Sony, Home Depot, and Target, Connellan has often seen progress stalled by these three mistakes:

1. Relying on "motivation" to get started

    "It's easy to forget that, while motivation leads to accomplishment, the reverse is equally true," says Connellan. "Achieving even a small step toward a goal motivates people to keep going."

    He points to recent research showing that what motivates employees most is tangible progress. "To create that sense of forward motion, ask everyone under you to make a commitment to improve one small aspect of their job performance -- whether it's making two extra sales calls a week or speeding up a production process by 5% -- within the next 60 to 90 days," he suggests. Approaching big changes in bite-size increments "creates enough momentum," he says, to overcome organizational inertia.

2. Thinking only in big, bold terms

    Connellan says that companies' efforts to create change go astray when "they think only about the Big Goal, not about the stages they will need to pass through along the way. But small incremental changes add up."

    Suppose, for instance, that a salesperson improves his or her closing skills by just 1% on each sales call. "Someone who makes three calls a day, and gets 1% better at each one, will double his or her closing rate in six weeks," Connellan says.

    Or let's say that, in your last performance evaluation, you heard that it would help your team if you could listen better. "The trouble with a goal like that is that it is so nebulous, you won't know when you get there," Connellan says.

    His solution: Start with one of the many books, tapes, or online courses available on how to be a better listener, and "make a list of two, three, or five specific things -- not 10 or 20 -- that you're going to do differently." Then concentrate on those small efforts.