Prioritize intentionally to focus your time and energy on initiatives that move you ahead.
The graveyard is not a temporary place. You tried it, you gave it your best, and it is not going to give you the results you are looking for. No amount of extra effort is going to make it better, or it is simply too expensive to maintain and manage with still no guarantee. That is a hard call, especially after you have invested real time and energy and everyone was excited about the idea. Great leaders are willing to step back and make it anyway, because retiring it makes more room in the garden and the gym for things that will pan out.
That is different from an idea you just do not have the capacity for today. Those do not go to the graveyard. They become parked ideas, and you should keep a list of them. As you complete things and more of your garden settles into routine maintenance, you will have room to pull something from that list and take it on.
Back to the Gym
You can have a beautiful garden and produce no fruit. The initiative is in place, everyone is going through the motions, and the scorecard still is not moving. If that is the case, it is time to go back to the gym and figure out what is going wrong so you can tend to the garden in a different way.
The gym can be any number of things. It might be bulking up an initiative so it gets better. It might be practicing and reinforcing what you are already doing until it becomes habit. Often, it is making sure you have a good regimen, especially around communication, that keeps strengthening the initiative. Spring called out communication specifically, and I think he is right. Sometimes the idea is sound, but the team does not understand what they are being asked to do or why it matters. Ask yourself, "What is falling short in my routines?" Then fix it and get back to the garden.
That is how the three work together. Initiatives do not move from one place to the next in a set order. Things move back and forth between the garden and the gym, and pruning can send part of something to the graveyard at any point. What matters is being honest about where each initiative stands right now and what it needs from you.
You Can Do Anything, But Not Everything
Near the end of the interview, Spring shared something his wife reminded him of: you can do anything, but you can't do everything. He now uses that line with his team, and it is exactly why you need a graveyard and a parked list. It applies to the garden and the gym as well, because both are finite. You cannot have four, five, or six things in the gym, because there are only so many workouts you can do. You cannot plant everything in the garden, either.
It is no different than a literal gym or garden. Many people start with a small garden and let it grow as they learn what they can keep up with. Some start with a home gym that has only one or two pieces of equipment, and that is enough for the work in front of them. When you need additional support or different equipment, you go to a larger gym, especially when it does not make sense to make the personal investment in that equipment yourself. Initiatives work the same way. Some you can handle with what you have, while others need your district manager, a peer, or support from the home office, with everyone locking arms to get it done. Only you can define your capacity, but you have to be honest about it.
Put This to Work Now
As you recap this year and start thinking about next year's goals, this is a perfect exercise to be doing right now. Take some time and write down all of your initiatives: the company programs you are responsible for, the ideas you are trying in your store or district, and the personal approaches you are working on as a leader. Then put each one in a bucket.
Graveyard: What needs to be retired for good?
Garden: What needs maintenance, and what is new and still needs time to grow?
Gym: What do you believe in that is not producing results, and which routines need work?
Parked: What is a good idea that has to wait until you have the capacity?
Talk it through with your team and look for it on your store visits, not just when you’re home or in your office. Once you have sorted everything, you will have a much clearer picture of what you can realistically accomplish in the year ahead.
So, what is sitting in your garden right now that really belongs in the graveyard?
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