My friend and fellow NCI teammate, David Richardson, recently wrote a blog post using a similar title to the one I have here. In his post, he compares the act of boiling water by adding heat to it, one degree at a time, to moving forward with your life’s goals.

He wrote, ‘All of us change as a direct result of the daily decisions we make and the habits they eventually become. Positive change doesn’t take place overnight ‘ it’s the result of hard work and repetition.

‘As you start, things might not happen as quickly as you want them to. Continuously adding one degree often takes us out of our comfort zone, but allows us to do things we normally wouldn’t.’

David pointed out that this applies to everything and everyone. But unlike that pot of water, people don’t have thermometers to let them know when they’ve not only reached their boiling points, but when they are at the cusp of changing state. He wrote, ‘A major breakthrough could be just one step away and you’ll miss it unless you continue to add one degree.’

Applying Heat

This really struck a chord with me, especially when it comes to training and education. So many people look for a silver bullet ‘ a way to set them so far apart from the pack that they will rake in all the money and glory. The problem is, they want it fast. Instantaneously.

1119_Today's Word: One Degree

That is a fantasy. We all know it, but somehow everyone loses sight of that as they make decisions regarding the training of their people and their approach to their marketplaces.

If you set a goal to provide true High-Performance services to your customers, you must commit to training. It must be part of your company culture and the services you provide.

It’s not a one-and-done event. That first degree of change just starts the momentum. Each degree added continues building toward that change of state.

The good news is that contractors are not alone when it comes to turning up the heat on the professionalism of their teams and their companies. The HVAC Industry is blessed with many resources to help contractors add one degree every day.

Your distributors are key to that. Virtually all of your vendors (distributors, manufacturers, trade allies, and associations) provide opportunities to help you train your people and yourself.

In This Issue:

In fact, this month we spoke with four distributors on how important training contractors is to their strategies and goals. Their comments are further reason why you should look to them for technical and non-technical training. Read the interviews at ncilink.com/DistRT.

Furthermore, Tom Turner of Austin Energy discusses the very important need for contractors to stay on top of changing methodologies for testing and diagnosing comfort systems at ncilink.com/LeftBehind.

You can also learn why combustion efficiency can sometimes be misleading in the latest article from NCI’s own Jim Davis at ncilink.com/Calcs.

And finally, see how High-Performance contracting offers more depth in how you positively impact your marketplace AND the HVAC Industry (ncilink.com/BookCvr). NCI Vice President Mel Johnson explains.

All these articles play nicely with the One Degree rule. Remember, if implementing High-Performance into your company was easy, everyone would do it. If you start at one degree per day, the sky is the limit.

Have you added one degree today?