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The Fix Tool. The Fix Tool was created to help individuals and organizations move beyond simply identifying problems and begin solving them. One of the most common frustrations leaders experience is watching the same barriers appear repeatedly. The issue is discussed in meetings. The problem is acknowledged. Everyone agrees something needs to change. Yet weeks later, little progress has been made. The reason is rarely a lack of concern or desire, but more often that people have no consistent process for turning obstacles into solutions. Before we ever begin working through the mechanics of the tool itself, it is important to understand several habits that exist within healthy barrier-busting cultures. These habits create an environment where the fixed tool can thrive and where people naturally begin developing stronger problem-solving abilities. Habit number one, be clear about the goal. Those who consistently overcome obstacles are remarkably clear about what they are trying to accomplish. They know what success looks like. They understand why it matters. They can describe the outcome they are pursuing and communicate it in a way that others can understand. This clarity becomes critically important because it shifts attention away from the barrier and toward the destination. When the goal is clear, we look beyond the obstacle. Our attention shifts onto solutions. Strong clarity reduces barrier focus. Habit number two, look at the scoreboard. A scoreboard provides an immediate picture of where a team stands. Players know the score. They understand how much time remains. They can quickly evaluate whether they are moving toward victory or falling behind. Everyone needs a scoreboard, a reliable way to tell where we stand. People are naturally encouraged when they see progress. They are naturally discouraged when progress remains invisible. Even when positive movement is occurring, it can be difficult to stay motivated if no one can actually see the advancement taking place. Years ago, while leading a team through a major initiative, we developed a visual scoreboard that allowed everyone to see where projects stood at any given moment. As projects moved closer to completion, their position on the board changed. As setbacks occurred, adjustments were made. The board provided an honest picture of reality. It removed guesswork and replaced it with visibility. The team rallied around the scoreboard. Friendly competitions emerged around tracking their progress. It was placed in a prominent place in our offices and served as a visual representation of our success. A scoreboard is right. The numbers don't lie, you can't escape the story on the board, and the only way to change where you stand is to dig in on the field. This can drive effort, teamwork, and focus. The value of a scoreboard extends far beyond measurement, it creates accountability, it creates ownership, it helps people understand how their individual efforts contribute to the larger objective. Most importantly, it provides a real-time view of progress. Nothing motivates people quite like seeing movement toward a meaningful goal. Habit number three, celebrating the win. Nothing builds a barrier busting culture quite like winning. One of the mistakes many leaders make is waiting until the very end of a journey before acknowledging progress. They postpone celebration until the final outcome has been achieved. While reaching the ultimate goal is certainly worth celebrating, healthy organizations understand that meaningful victories occur all along the way. Imagine again the illustration of ten locked doors standing between you and a million dollar prize. The reward may not arrive until the tenth door is opened, but successfully navigating the first eight doors still represents significant progress. You are further than you were before. You have overcome obstacles that once stood in your way. Those victories deserve recognition. Celebration reinforces positive behavior. It reminds people that progress is occurring. It creates energy, momentum, and confidence. Most importantly, it helps individuals connect effort with results. When organizations celebrate perseverance, they create more perseverance. When they celebrate problem solving, they create more problem solving. When they celebrate barrier busting, they create more barrier busting. These three habits, clarity, scoreboards, and celebration, create the foundation for a healthy barrier busting culture. They establish the environment in which the fixed tool can operate effectively and consistently. The fixed tool simply provides a practical framework for addressing barriers systematically. Start date. We always begin with a start date as a point of reference. This allows you to look back occasionally and see just how long you have been working to overcome this issue. Whether the process becomes long and drawn out or is brief and easy, this date will serve as a motivation. It also works with the end date to create a window of effort. This gives you the chance to manage your energy, focus, and emotions in a greater way. Barriers that require intense effort for long periods of time can erode resolve. Giving ourselves a chance to breathe without losing track of our progress can be exactly what we need to keep going. Pre-step number one, clearly define the problem. This step is often overlooked because people naturally want to jump ahead to solutions. We see a problem, become frustrated by the problem, and immediately begin discussing how to fix it. Unfortunately, solutions developed before the problem is fully understood often address symptoms rather than causes. Effective problem solving requires precision. What specifically is not happening that should be happening? What outcome are we failing to achieve? What result is missing? These questions force us to become specific. Instead of talking generally about disappointment, frustration, or underperformance, we begin identifying the actual gap between current reality and desired reality. The clearer the problem becomes, the easier it becomes to solve. Vague problems produce vague solutions. Clearly defined problems create clearer answers. In this step, you want to provide as much detail as you possibly can. Don't be afraid to use extra space. The box provided is not a limit, it's just a reminder that your clearly defined problem goes here. Pre-step number two, redefine the problem as a goal. This is an important part of the barrier busting process. Instead of asking, what is wrong? We begin asking, what would success look like if this problem were solved? This shifts attention away from the mound of issues blocking our way and gets our energy focused on the reason we are dealing with those issues in the first place. This answer will serve as motivation throughout the rest of the tool and the implementation process. This shift changes the energy in the room. It affects how we think about what is ahead. Consider the fun example of digging a hole in your backyard for a swimming pool. As you are digging, you run into big rocks and roots of trees. The immense amount of effort required to clear those obstacles could easily become demoralizing. But in the back of your mind is the picture of your family splashing and having fun on a hot summer day, as you sit back in your lounge chair sipping a lemonade. That vision will put energy in your shovel and hope in your heart. It reduces the rocks and roots to minor inconveniences in comparison to the huge parties that lie ahead. Rather than discussing what you do not want, begin describing what you do want. Rather than staring at the roadblock, begin focusing on the destination. This is the essence of barrier busting. People who bounce become consumed by the obstacle. People who bust through become consumed by the solution. FIX the fixed steps. F equals find the root cause. F one, define your barriers. Now that you are clear about the problem and the goal, the next step is to identify every barrier that could possibly stand between you and success. This stage often reveals that what initially appeared to be one problem is actually a collection of smaller obstacles working together. Some barriers may involve communication, others may involve resources, systems, trust, accountability, training, expectations, or leadership. The objective is not to assign blame. The objective is to gain understanding. We want to see the complete landscape before deciding where to focus our efforts. The more clearly we understand the barriers, the more effectively we can address them. You will want to take your time and any additional space you need to list all the barriers you can think of. Also, provide as much detail about each as you can. This is similar to the two prep steps, but it plays a very important role in getting to a solution. F two, redefine them as goals. Once those barriers have been identified, each one is redefined in terms of success. This follows the same logic as the previous redefined step. F3, assess the impact. One of the most valuable aspects of the fixed tool is the ranking process that follows. Every barrier is evaluated according to two criteria impact and effort. Impact measures how much progress solving the barrier would create. In this step, we rank the barriers from lowest to highest in terms of the impact that solving that barrier would have on reaching the goal. For example, if you have identified seven barriers, you would put a one under impact for the barrier you believe would have the least impact toward reaching the goal. You would put a seven under impact for the one you believe would have the most impact toward reaching the goal. It is very important to assign a number for every barrier. You will not have repeat numbers under impact. Effort. Effort measures how much effort will be required to bust through the barrier. In this step, we rank the barriers based on the effort required to bust through them. In our example of seven identified barriers, the barrier we believe would require the least amount of effort receives a one. The barrier that we believe would require the most amount of effort receives a seven. Subtraction. Now we just do some math. We subtract the effort from the impact. Keep in mind some results may be negative numbers. What we are trying to discern is which barrier would have the greatest amount of impact for the least amount of effort. We may be tempted to go after the barrier with the biggest impact. However, it may also require an effort that becomes too much. Balancing impact with effort allows us to get things moving in a significant direction without burning up our resolve. Identify the top three. Finally, we look for the highest numbers. Put a check mark next to the top three and any ties. These are your strongest candidates for the final step. I equals identify a strategy. After identifying the highest priority barriers, the focus shifts toward strategy. This is where planning becomes intentional. Specific action steps are established. Measurable indicators are defined. Evaluation methods are determined. A roadmap for moving from the current reality to the desired outcome is created. I pre step. Choose a goal. Looking back at the list of barriers you just ranked, choose either the highest ranked barrier or one of the top three you identified. Transfer your goal narrative from that barrier into the chosen goal box. I four, create action steps. What practical steps are you going to take to accomplish this goal? What actions are required on a routine basis to achieve success? List no more than three for each goal. More can be added later once these are completed. I five, define measurables. How will you know you are progressing? What indicators along the way will confirm that you are moving forward toward your goal? Be specific about what you expect to see during each evaluation period, daily, weekly, monthly, etc. I six, evaluations. This part of the tool is meant to help you track how often and how well you are doing the action steps. If you did the action, color in the square. If you did not take the action, leave the square blank. There is no part way or almost option. You either did or did not take the action. Over the course of using the tool, you will be able to look back and see how consistently you took these actions. You should see a pattern emerge. If you took the steps properly, you should see progress. If you have not or have been inconsistent, you should not see as much progress. Celebration reward. As you are completing the setup of the tool, it is important to begin planning how you will celebrate when you reach your goal. Who will you invite to celebrate with you? We perpetuate what we celebrate. Research shows us that having a plan for celebration plays a key role in motivation. It keeps us excited about the hard work ahead. End date. This date may be when you predict the goal will be reached. It may also be an interval for overall evaluation. If you are going for a longer term goal, you may need to break the process up into shorter lengths of time. This gives you the chance to make adjustments in the event your plan is not working like you thought. Frequency plus time plus accumulation. Once you have set your end date, don't look back. It's important to stay the course for the entire interval. Otherwise, you may never know if your plan was effective or not. Short of an emergency, you should stick with your strategy and let it play out. You can always make adjustments when you reach your end date. X equals execute. Now that you have your tool all set up, you begin. Start taking the steps. Stay committed. Check all those boxes. Soon enough you will come to a point of evaluation where adjustments can be made. Until then, just keep plugging away. Repeat. When you have reached the end of your interval, after you have completed your full evaluation, you may need to make an adjustment. If so, I recommend starting from the beginning with a new tool sheet. This does not mean you are starting over, it means you are dialing in. Your problem may be the same, your goal may be the same, but the barriers will likely have changed. Starting with a fresh sheet gives you the chance to see with new eyes. You can follow this pattern until your goal is ultimately reached. Remember, planning is exciting, discussion is enjoyable, execution can be difficult. Execution requires discipline. It requires consistency. It requires accountability. Most importantly, it requires patience. Meaningful progress rarely occurs overnight. Lasting change is usually the result of repeated actions applied consistently over time. This is why the Fix tool places such a strong emphasis on tracking actions and evaluating results. By monitoring execution, you can gain an honest picture of reality. You can determine whether the strategy itself needs improvement or whether the real issue is inconsistent implementation. That distinction is incredibly important because we may be tempted to abandon good strategies when the true problem was simply a lack of consistent execution. As progress begins occurring, the cycle returns once again to celebration. Victories are acknowledged, progress is recognized, momentum is reinforced, the culture becomes stronger because you begin seeing evidence that barriers can be overcome. Ultimately, the fixed tool is not really about forms, rankings, measurements, or worksheets. It is about developing a different way of thinking. It teaches us how to move from reaction to strategy, from frustration to progress, and from barriers to solutions.