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Zero Based Thinking

Zero Based Thinking finds the assumptions your business runs on without anyone noticing. Brian Tracy popularized it. I learned it from my friend Dave Greeley, and I use it with clients and in my own business.

The question it answers

Knowing what I know today, would I make this same decision again?

Use it when

A process exists because that’s how it’s always been done.
You’re keeping someone you wouldn’t hire again today.
You’re about to plan the next year and want a clean slate first.

It’s the wrong tool when

Nothing has changed. If you've learned nothing new since the last decision, running ZBT again just reopens it and wears out your team.
The decision is small and easy to undo. Save it for the hires, offers, clients and partnerships that are expensive to stay in.
You're using it to dodge a hard conversation. "Would I hire them again?" is the start of that conversation. It doesn't replace it.

Challenge your assumptions

Dave Greeley had a successful career as a Creative Director at the global ad agency BBDO Worldwide. The most useful thing he taught me is to always challenge assumptions. They’re hard to spot, because most of what happens in a business runs on autopilot or in reactive mode. Dave shared the method I use to find them: Zero Based Thinking.

Zero Based Thinking: a line from the past runs to a dashed line marking today. From there, you decide what to keep doing with what you know now.

The question

With what I know today about past situations like this one, and the way I dealt with them, would I want to do the same thing again this time?

You can only answer yes or no. If it’s yes, keep doing what’s working. If it’s no, stop it or restructure it so it fits today.

ZBT cuts through the clutter and emotion a situation carries. It gives you a blank slate to rebuild something as well as possible with the knowledge, skills and resources you have now.

Ecela Spanish

Ecela Spanish runs Spanish immersion programs in South America, and many of their students need financial aid. Students enrolled anywhere from six weeks to ten months before their program started, so Ecela assumed they had to build a custom payment plan and follow up process for every student.

Would they start with custom payment plans today? No. We tested two structured options at enrollment: a monthly plan over eight months, or paying in full no later than six weeks before the course started.

In the first round, 40 percent of new students chose the monthly plan and 10 percent paid in full. The other 50 percent still asked for a custom plan. That 40 percent stabilizes cash flow for the program and smooths out the spring and summer spikes. Staff effort to coordinate and collect payment dropped by 50 percent, and that was only the first iteration.

Where it fits

Zero Based Thinking and the mindset of continuous improvement work together as the foundation for finding and fixing your bottlenecks. I also use it before planning, to get clear on what you really want out of your business.