This Week in Business Strategies

Jan. 6, 2020—To better assist shop owners with their production management, marketing tactics and leadership styles, Ratchet+Wrench has compiled a short list of essential business-building material from some of its favorite sources. Here's a look at a few must-read articles from the past week. 

How to Make Plans You Actually Want to Stick To – Forbes

A plan you are most likely to actually stick to needs to have three components: desire, small steps and reality. In other words, it needs to be something you genuinely want to do, with a series of small actions, starting from where you are today. 

The Only 4 Questions You Need to Ask to Create Resolutions That Stick – Inc

We tend to look back at the past ten years as a whole and can stress over what changes we've made—or haven't—and focus more on our failures than celebrate our successes.

When Individuals Are More Innovative Than Teams – Harvard Business Review

It is widely believed that breakthrough innovation is more likely to be achieved by teams. However, research has uncovered a factor that plays a key role in determining whether team outcomes will be superior to those of lone inventors: the structure of the invention.

Bringing Your Whole Self to Work is a Bad Idea – Fast Company

The notion that we are meant to find meaning at work—or find work meaningful—is a rather modern, if not postmodern, invention. In fact, there are actually clear benefits to not identifying with our work persona, such as being better able to manage negative job circumstances.