Business wisdom

The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time

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The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time
by Tony Schwartz | 8:53 AM March 14, 2012
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Why is it that between 25% and 50% of people report feeling overwhelmed or burned out at work?

It’s not just the number of hours we’re working, but also the fact that we spend too many continuous hours juggling too many things at the same time.

What we’ve lost, above all, are stopping points, finish lines and boundaries. Technology has blurred them beyond recognition. Wherever we go, our work follows us, on our digital devices, ever insistent and intrusive. It’s like an itch we can’t resist scratching, even though scratching invariably makes it worse.

Tell the truth: Do you answer email during conference calls (and sometimes even during calls with one other person)? Do you bring your laptop to meetings and then pretend you’re taking notes while you surf the net? Do you eat lunch at your desk? Do you make calls while you’re driving, and even send the occasional text, even though you know you shouldn’t?

The biggest cost — assuming you don’t crash — is to your productivity. In part, that’s a simple consequence of splitting your attention, so that you’re partially engaged in multiple activities but rarely fully engaged in any one. In part, it’s because when you switch away from a primary task to do something else, you’re increasing the time it takes to finish that task by an average of 25 per cent.

But most insidiously, it’s because if you’re always doing something, you’re relentlessly burning down your available reservoir of energy over the course of every day, so you have less available with every passing hour.

I know this from my own experience. I get two to three times as much writing accomplished when I focus without interruption for a designated period of time and then take a real break, away from my desk. The best way for an organization to fuel higher productivity and more innovative thinking is to strongly encourage finite periods of absorbed focus, as well as shorter periods of real renewal.

If you’re a manager, here are three policies worth promoting:

1. Maintain meeting discipline. Schedule meetings for 45 minutes, rather than an hour or longer, so participants can stay focused, take time afterward to reflect on what’s been discussed, and recover before the next obligation. Start all meetings at a precise time, end at a precise time, and insist that all digital devices be turned off throughout the meeting.

2. Stop demanding or expecting instant responsiveness at every moment of the day. It forces your people into reactive mode, fractures their attention, and makes it difficult for them to sustain attention on their priorities. Let them turn off their email at certain times. If it’s urgent, you can call them — but that won’t happen very often.

3. Encourage renewal. Create at least one time during the day when you encourage your people to stop working and take a break. Offer a midafternoon class in yoga, or meditation, organize a group walk or workout, or consider creating a renewal room where people can relax, or take a nap.

It’s also up to individuals to set their own boundaries. Consider these three behaviors for yourself:

1. Do the most important thing first in the morning, preferably without interruption, for 60 to 90 minutes, with a clear start and stop time. If possible, work in a private space during this period, or with sound-reducing earphones. Finally, resist every impulse to distraction, knowing that you have a designated stopping point. The more absorbed you can get, the more productive you’ll be. When you’re done, take at least a few minutes to renew.

2. Establish regular, scheduled times to think more long term, creatively, or strategically. If you don’t, you’ll constantly succumb to the tyranny of the urgent. Also, find a different environment in which to do this activity — preferably one that’s relaxed and conducive to open-ended thinking.

3. Take real and regular vacations. Real means that when you’re off, you’re truly disconnecting from work. Regular means several times a year if possible, even if some are only two or three days added to a weekend. The research strongly suggests that you’ll be far healthier if you take all of your vacation time, and more productive overall.

A single principle lies at the heart of all these suggestions. When you’re engaged at work, fully engage, for defined periods of time. When you’re renewing, truly renew. Make waves. Stop living your life in the gray zone.

More blog posts by Tony Schwartz
More on: Managing yourself, Personal effectiveness, Productivity

TONY SCHWARTZ
Tony Schwartz is the president and CEO of The Energy Project and the author of Be Excellent at Anything. Become a fan of The Energy Project on Facebook and connect with Tony at Twitter.com/TonySchwartz and Twitter.com/Energy_Project.

Jim Collins Top 10 List

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Jim Collins’ Top 10 List — Jim led a highly insightful 3 hour opening session at last week’s Fortune Leadership Summit in Atlanta (and beamed to 9 locations around the globe). He capped it off with a top 10 list for growth firms:

Change “what” questions to “who” questions
Double your question to statement ratio
Embrace the “Stockdale Paradox” – keep getting up when knocked down
Discover your personal “hedgehog” – what are you both passionate about and best at
Be clear your Core Values, Purpose, and BHAG
Establish a 20 Mile March
Create a “Stop Doing” list
Turn-off electronic gadgets one day every two weeks
Focus on getting a huge return on your next “luck event.”
Strive to be useful (would the world miss you if you/your company was gone?)

How do you know if you never try

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Everybody has limitations. Some are physical, others are psychological; some are emotional, others are financial. No human being is perfect, no one is without difficulties. There is nothing easier than to say, “I have this problem, so I can’t possibly do this, that, or the other thing.” But, suppose the universe says, I’m not interested in “can’t.” I want to see what you can do, because you can do more than you think.
It’s true, you may fail. You may not be successful in what you set out to accomplish — but that’s no reason not to try. Perhaps other people will see you struggling and come to help. Perhaps your initial efforts will allow you to see another approach to your task. Or perhaps you will be the recipient of a miracle.
“I can’t, don’t ask me” isn’t an option — for how do you know if you never try?

Ethics and Integrity

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A recent study performed by the Institute of Business Ethics found that companies displaying a ‘clear commitment to ethical conduct’ consistently outperform companies that do not display ethical conduct. The director of IBE, Philippa Foster Black stated, “Not only is ethical behavior in business the right thing to do in principle, we have shown that it pays off in financial returns.” Part of your commitment as a business leader is to create and maintain the processes and a culture that dictates ethical behavior. Ethical behavior is not an easy path, nor is it a path taken without thought and consideration. As a leader, decision with value connections will be presented frequently. Examples could include employees stealing from the company, doing personal business on company time, modifying accounting records, or extending a customer discount that was not earned, etc. Clearly defined organizational goals and clearly stated organizational values are integral to your ability to make the best decisions and take the right actions. As you deal with different types of situations you are being evaluated very closely by your team. As you lead by example, you become a champion for the organization’s commitment to ethical behavior. As you look to enhance the ethical policies and processes within your company, take into consideration the following five principles.
• Be trustful: Recognize that customers and employees want to do business with an organization they can trust. When trust is at the core of an organization, it is easy to recognize.
• Meet obligations: Regardless of the circumstances, do everything in your power to keep commitments and obligations to employees and customers. An incredible amount of trust is built when an organization honors its commitments. If unforeseen events stand in the way of meeting an obligation, immediately communicate the challenges and work together to find resolution.
• Reevaluate all documents and materials: Make sure all department and organizational documents and literature are clear and precise. Make sure they don’t misinterpret or misrepresent.
• Have documented processes: Every organization is structured differently. However, having documented processes and policies on how your organization interacts with customers and employees is critical. If processes are properly documented there is no question what a product or service should be or whether a customer exception falls within the acceptable guidelines. Take a hands-on approach to all accounting and record keeping as it will allow you to end an inappropriate action in a timely fashion.
• Be respectful: Treat employees and customers with respect regardless of differences, positions, titles, ages, or diversity. Always treat others with respect and courtesy even if you agree to disagree.
Successful implementation of these five principles becomes a leader’s daily commitment and responsibility. Oprah Winfrey said it quite simply, “Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to ever know whether you did it or not.”
Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation

Where Good Ideas Come From: A Must Read Book

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Where Good Ideas Come From: A Must Read Book

By Verne Harnish “Growth Guy”

There are a handful of authors whom I suggest business leaders read everything they write: Jim
Collins, Pat Lencioni, Malcolm Gladwell, and Steven Berlin Johnson – the latter likely the lesser
known of the group.

In fact, it is one of my best-read mentors, Reade Fahs, who first turned me on to Johnson’s work,
hammering me for not having read Steven Johnson’s earlier book Emergence: The Connected
Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software.

In essence, it’s “emergence theory” that describes precisely how a Google, Facebook, or
Wikipedia can achieve in a few years what it’s taken other enterprises decades to achieve in both
scope and scale. And the lessons learned can be applied to any business to help it scale faster.

Johnson’s latest book Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation builds
on Emergence and debunks many of the myths around innovation. More importantly, he
explores in depth why some environments squelch new ideas while some environments seem to
breed them effortlessly. Again, all companies can take a lesson or two from Johnson’s
discoveries to increase the number of important ideas it generates, the lifeblood of growth firms.

Connect vs. Protect

As Johnson so eloquently notes: “If there is a single maxim that runs through this book’s
arguments, it is that we are often better served by connecting ideas than we are by protecting
them…they (ideas) want to complete each other as much as they want to compete.”

Over the years I’ve encountered numerous inventors and potential entrepreneurs reluctant to
share their ideas for fear they would be stolen. In reality, the likelihood is high that someone else
is also pursuing the same innovation and that the person who shares their idea with the most
people is going to garner greater input and thus create a better idea faster.

Do your promotion and incentive systems encourage information hoarding or sharing? Do the
people with the most information tend to win in your company and thus are reluctant to share
what they know with others? These people systems must be adjusted to support knowledge
sharing.

Liquid Networks

Much of the success of sharing an idea is related to the size, diversity, and quality of one’s
network. This is why certain cities and environments are better at stimulating important
breakthroughs than others.

People who make a conscious effort of having lunch with those in another department or division
will dramatically increase the odds of a better idea. People who purposefully surround
themselves with friends of diverse backgrounds and interests also do better.

Notes Johnson, “it’s not that the network itself is smart, it’s that the individuals get smarter
because they’re connected to the network.”

Physical Location

And if this diverse group of people have a place to meet, the likelihood of a great idea emerging
goes up. Johnson highlights the research of Kevin Dunbar, a psychologist at McGill University,
who actually watched scientists work to determine how their “greatest hits” were discovered.

Recalls Johnson “the most striking discovery in Dunbar’s study turned out to be the physical
location where most of the important breakthroughs occurred.” Rather than occurring in the lab
as a lone scientist hunched over their microscope and stumbling across a major new finding,
Dunbar found the most important ideas emerged during regular lab meetings where a dozen or so
researchers would informally discuss their latest work.

“If you looked at the map of idea formation that Dunbar created,” describes Johnson, “the
ground zero of innovation was not the microscope. It was the conference table.” Therefore,
even with all the advanced technology of a leading laboratory, the most productive tool for
generating good ideas remains “a circle of humans at a table, talking shop.”

3M’s Innovation Center in Austin, TX, is the finest facility I’ve ever visited, designed
specifically to encourage new ideas. A key lesson all firms can take from their design is to
create a single centralized area of break rooms and restrooms encouraging the kind of shop talk
Dunbar’s research found drives new ideas. This is particularly important when a growing firm
moves to an additional floor in a building. Close off one set of restrooms and break rooms and
require people to bump into each other on the other floors.

Slow Hunch

The biggest good news, bad news revelation about breakthrough innovation is that it’s a lengthy
process. The idea of a “Eureka moment” is less of a momentary event and more of a slow,
iterative, and grinding process over time, often consuming a decade or more of effort focused on
solving a particular problem.

The good news is that you’re way ahead of anyone else in your industry if you’ve already
invested this kind of time and effort; the bad news is if someone else has beaten you to the
punch, starting a decade ago. For Apple, their design brilliance started with a calligraphy class
Steve Jobs took in college almost four decades ago.

To paraphrase Steve Jobs, I’m always amazed how overnight successes take a helluva long time
i.e. it’s never too late to get started!! Surround yourself with a diverse group of people with
whom you spend a lot of talk time discussing important ideas – and keep pounding away until
you discover an innovation that changes the world (or at least your company!).

“Try Not. Do or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda

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“Try Not. Do or do not. There is no try.” – Yoda
Many people are familiar with Yoda, a very wise Jedi Master from Star Wars, who was charged to train Luke Skywalker in how to use his “force.” This quote is from the scene where Luke was trying to mentally, by using his “force,” pull his plane from the muck of a swamp. Luke told Yoda he would try and he failed.

A very influential mentor of mine used to say time and time again. “There is no A for effort in business.” I grew up like many with the belief that trying my best was good enough. However, I have learned in 25 years of business that there is a strong connection between these two quotes. “There is no A for effort” really means it is all about the results you achieve and it is not about the attempt and to Yoda’s point, trying is merely an attempt.

In order to accomplish results and excel at what you do, you must have the skills but more importantly you need to believe you can do it. Trying is a self-limiting belief. After Luke attempted and failed, Yoda used his “force” to save the plane. Luke watched in amazement and when Yoda was finished, Luke said to Yoda, “I don’t believe it.” and Yoda’s response was, “That is why you fail.”

Belief is powerful. When you believe you can achieve something no matter how challenging, big or small, you will commit to do what is necessary to make it happen. You will learn what you need to learn. You will commit whatever time is necessary and you will seek out qualified assistance when needed. Because your belief is so strong you will access whatever resources are necessary to make it happen and you will cross the finish line victorious.

An attitude of trying will never propel you to take the extra step because your measuring stick of “I tried” gives you permission to walk away based on what is believed to be a good enough effort. People and businesses often fall short due to this simple but powerful belief. I mentioned earlier that belief is powerful. Therefore whether you believe in mediocrity or results, you will achieve what you believe.

Yoda also told Luke to “unlearn what you have learned.” If you are used to “trying” unlearn your way into a new belief of achievement. Here are some ideas that may help you.

Use positive affirmations and say them multiple times a day.
Surround yourself with people who will positively reinforce your plan and push you to excel.
Align with a coach to hold you accountable to your personal development.
Find a mentor who has accomplished similar results to what you are looking for and become a sponge.
Become a voracious learner.
Surround yourself with positive messages.
Disconnect from the naysayers in your life. Your success has nothing to do with their ‘I tried and can’t’ attitude so don’t let them hold you back.
Luke finally got it. So, when will you?

Tammy A.S. Kohl is President of Resource Associates Corporation. For over 30 years, RAC has specialized in business and management consulting, strategic planning, leadership development, executive coaching and youth leadership. For more information visit www.resourceassociatescorp.com or contact RAC directly at 800.799.6227.