I am really fascinated by the way most companies are run today. From my experience and past occupations, most don’t really know what they are doing. I thought a lot about the phrase, “don’t know what they are doing,” because it does hold a lot of meaning. Meaning it is that the companies don’t have a set method for solving problems or taking action. It is also somewhat surprising how much money these companies lose in the process of finding an answer.

Ready-Fire-Aim
I first read about this approach on StevePavlina.com. Even though I had read it some time ago, I have only begun to recognize the value it has in making decisions. The method name does practically explain itself. “Ready,” refers to actual planning on a certain action. You, “Fire,” by taking the action. After which you gather results and gain a lot of knowledge on what has just taken place. Next, you know where to, “Aim.” Now you have knowledge which you did not possess before you fired. This is valuable experience when it comes to taking action again.

Ready-Aim-Fire and Ready-Fire-Fire-Fire
These two methods are not nearly as effective. If you actually look at them, they are not really methods at all. Yet upon further analysis they seem to be composed of chaos and disorder.
First of all, with Ready-Aim-Fire most people get stuck on the Aim step. You might have even have done this in the past. You get so caught up on preparation that you forget to take action and fire to test your results.
Second is the Ready-Fire-Fire-Fire mistake. This is how I see most companies operating. Here you are making a plan and continually executing it without taking a step back to learn from you mistakes. This is the easiest way to lose money and resources such as employees in the process.
For example, a business has a problem with customer volume. Their first response is to recognize the problem. Next they compile a bunch of possible resolutions to the problem. Afterwards they begin testing each resolution one after the other. If something doesn’t work, they simply try another. There is a big problem with this method- the company forgets to Aim. Instead they are continually wasting company resources to find the quickest fix to the problem.

Information Gathering
Collecting information can save you a lot of time and money. Information gathering during the aim step is important but it is also crucial to fire in the right direction at first. During the ready step you are basically trying to reach something.
Let’s say that you want more customers to know about your business. With the Ready-Fire-Aim method you can figure out what works and what doesn’t. Start by making a plan. At this point you don’t know much about what will make them come to you site, but you know a little. So you take action and launch a promotional offer which sounds attractive to you. After a little while the amount of customers slightly, but not as much as you had hoped. So you now know more about what they like and will participate in. You now compile all of the information your action has left you with and begin the method again. This time when you fire, it will be more likely to hit with extreme precision.