Ron’s Short Review: Learn some habits from this book and you’ll be amazed how much wasted time is eliminated from meetings and how much understanding between people is accomplished.
Ron’s Short Review: This book changed my habit of getting meaningful work done. I have carved out time every month to isolate myself and my thinking on particular projects. The productivity improvement has been astounding.
I was at my computer at 6:00 am this morning. Three and one-half hours later I was stuck! I was facing a difficult client meeting and it was requiring extreme concentration and creativity to deal with the issue in a constructive way. But, I just got stuck. So, I got up and took a long walk.
Fortunately, I was in a location where I could walk in solitude on a very quiet path through the woods. I took a 45-minute walk. Let me break that walk into thirds for you.
Conscious of my surroundings.
The first third of the walk I was totally conscious of the sounds of my steps, the slight breeze rustling through the trees and the few jays that loudly proclaimed my presence. Nothing else. All my work thoughts were subconscious.
Deep Understanding
Over the next 15 minutes, the concentrated work I had done that morning began to blend with the solitude of my walk. I can’t fully explain it other than my mind began to produce some very high-level understandings. In that 15 minutes, it became clear how I should organize, structure and present the materials.
Blended Experience – Organized Plan
The last 15 minutes of the walk was spent enjoying a little bit of both. I once again became conscious of the sound of my footsteps and jays, but at the same time, I began to see the structure for the meeting, the key points to be emphasized and the steps to success.
High Productivity
Upon returning to my computer the next half hour of work was just incredibly productive. I took all of that thought process from that deep 15 minutes of understanding, put the structure together and began filling in all the pieces. Moving from being stuck to a very satisfying completion with some deep work in between.
Getting past Stuck
When we find ourselves stuck after 3-1/2 hours of concentrated work, most of us will stick with it, stay at the computer, keep hacking away, work until we get at least what feels like a conclusion. And yet, walking away is likely to be the most productive approach. Not to our email. Not to the break room. Not to our news feeds. Just getting up and walking out. Walking through nature in complete silence for 30-45 minutes. That’s when the deep work happens.
Word of Caution
Please understand. I did not decide to spend 15 minutes on each phase of that walk. What I’m sharing with you is my reflection on how I moved from being stuck to some very satisfying work. I didn’t plan to take a walk to solve my problems. I planned to take a walk. Taking a walk lead to some very satisfying productivity.
Deep Work
Deep work! That’s the key. A good walk in the woods. (Note: the book Deep Work by Cal Newport is a great resource.)
Ron’s Short Review: I think Bill takes the lessons from Strength Finders and puts them into a very practical format for taking your natural strengths and getting better at them but not allowing them to get in the way.
Maybe you should be to acquire success
Bio science is one of the most complex areas of science. The systems are so complex and inter-related that few scientist attempt to go there. To many, it just seems too daunting.
But, as scientist begin to probe this tiny, complex world one of the key features become evident. In order for an entire system to function properly and efficiently, many of the subsystems need to function at a sub-optimal rate.
- Could that sub-system operate faster? Yes, but that would screw up the timing crucial to the overall system.
- Could that sub-system generate more heat? It could easily double its heat output but that would overheat the entire system.
- Could that sub-system be reduced in size? Yes, but without a certain momentum, it couldn’t support the benefit it provides to the overall system.
Years ago, the book Fifth Discipline by Peter Senge introduced us to the idea that we must think systemically. The system as a whole needs to operate well and that should be our goal.
I’ve often run simulations during team building sessions. The title is self-explanatory. The exercise will “simulate” a system in a smaller size and shorter timeframe so that we can grasp what’s going on as a whole. Real systems are often too large and complex or take too much cycle time for us to fully understand what’s going on. Simulations attempt to simulate what’s going on in the time of a meeting (a couple of hours) and the space of a conference room so that the dozen or fewer participants can observe the system as it operates.
One of the simulations I’ve used is “Paper Planes” created by Discovery Learning Intl. Just as the title suggests the team will build Paper Planes to meet certain specifications and performance standards. Each person is assigned to a station, equipped with the proper tools and trained well before the simulation starts.
GO! The team has 30 minutes to produce as many planes as possible. The average number of planes produced in the first 30-minute run? 0.5! That’s right, half the teams never get a single plane across the finish line. After three runs with debriefing and re-engineering time between runs, teams will often produce 20, 30, 40 planes and more. Why the difference?
During the debrief and re-engineering times, teams begin to look as the system as a whole. It often makes sense to spend less effort and manpower at certain stations (sub-optimize them) so that the whole can be productive.
So, bioscience says that some systems should be sub-optimized to keep the entire system healthy and functioning optimally. A simple manufacturing simulation says that some systems should be sub-optimized in order to produce the maximum output.
And yet when we look at corporations as a whole, we still see leaders incentivizing functions, departments and divisions to operate at optimal levels with little regard to what that does to the whole system. One thing it clearly does is establish points of friction and incentives that are odds with each other. Teams at the top never seem to gel as teams because they’re never encouraged to remove their functional “hat” and put on the team hat to make those tough decisions. The decisions that require one group to take a back seat to another group in order to optimize the whole.
Do you have a team of leaders or a group of functional heads all trying to optimize their piece? Answering this question could go a long way in discovering your maximum potential.
A 19th-century Russian author challenged his brother “Don’t think about a polar bear right now.” Our modern version might be:
Don’t think about:
- That email right now
- Your next meeting right now
- The project that’s due on Monday right now
- Any other obvious thing that occupies your mind right now
The point is, it’s very difficult to clear our mind of the many present and urgent things so that we can get into deep thinking and deep work. Interruptions, mental and otherwise get in the way.
I’ve written a few blog posts about the technology and “always connected” habits that we’ve gotten into that deplete our ability to think deeply about important issues. But, even if we eliminate the technology of the day (our Russian lived over 100 years before an internet browser existed) we still have difficulty avoiding the distractions of the moment.
I’ve been working at understanding my own distractions and how I can avoid them long enough to do some deep thinking. One model that comes to mind is the Kubler-Ross stages of grief.
I’ve used these stages as a model for dealing with difficult feedback. Maybe they can help us with distractions as well.
Stage 1: Denial
- I can handle this.
- It will only take a minute.
- It doesn’t really distract me.
- I can get back to my thoughts immediately.
The first stage is to get real about the impact of the distraction. Study after study tells us that if we divert our mind to another topic, it takes a great deal of time to get reoriented and back on track. Don’t kid yourself. Distractions are costly.
Stage 2: Emotion
With the Kubler-Ross model, we’re usually thinking about anger. But it’s not just anger, it’s any emotion. I think the distracting emotion here is elation.
- It will be fun to just check Facebook for a minute.
- I just want to see what last night’s scores were.
- Connecting with my friend cheers me up.
Caving into your emotions is costly.
Stage 3: Bargaining
- It’s only a few seconds.
- This won’t take long.
- I need the fix to keep my energy up.
You can bargain all you want but it’s still a distraction. Even the time it takes to bargain is costly.
Stage 4: Depression
- What’s the point, I’ll never get good at this anyway.
- What makes me think I could generate a good result simply by avoiding distractions.
- I’m just not that good.
Avoiding time for deep thought for any reason is costly. Convincing yourself that you’re not good enough even if you give yourself the time becomes self-fulfilling.
Stage 5: Acceptance
- I can get better at this.
- I may stumble to start with but I’ll get better over time.
- Each time I avoid the distractions helps me get better at doing it again next time.
Believing that you can do this and accomplish it in small steps is rewarding and avoids the cost.
Stage 6: Action
Once you get into the habit of avoiding the distractions you’ll be amazed at the productivity and joy it provides.
Kubler-Ross tells us that we go through all of these stages when it comes to grief. It’s just that each person goes through them at a different pace.
You’ll never avoid them but if you get good at speeding through them you get better. Just to make myself clear, speeding through them doesn’t mean caving into the distractions quicker. It means to get beyond the temptation of each stage quicker.
God speed.
From Wikipedia:
“Addiction is a brain disorder characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences.”
The two properties that characterize all addictive stimuli:
- reinforcing (repeated exposure) and
- intrinsically rewarding (it feels good)
Habits and patterns associated with addiction are typically characterized by:
- immediate gratification (short-term reward), coupled with
- delayed deleterious effects (long-term costs).
Addictions that come to mind:
- alcohol
- accountability
- cocaine
- dedication
- nicotine
- productivity
- food
- gambling
- sex
Whoa! Back up the truck! Did I include accountability, dedication, and productivity in that list of addictions? Those are the positive terms we use in the business world. But they can become as addictive as the traditional addiction list.
One of the more profound concepts hitting the top of reading lists today is Deep Work. Isolating the time needed to be productive. The reason that it’s receiving attention is that we have so little opportunity to experience it. But, those who do carve out the deep work time are beginning to get labeled as superstars.
What’s preventing us from getting into deep work? Back to the definition of Addiction at the top:
A brain disorder characterized by compulsive engagement in rewarding stimuli, despite adverse consequences. Compulsive: irresistible interesting or exciting; compelling.
Can’t get through that meeting without checking your phone?
Can’t stand to be out of touch 24/7?
Getting distracted by many commitments?
Never learning to say No to any request?
Making quick decisions rather than taking the time to learn and understand?
Many of these behaviors get labeled as accountable, dedication, productive. But when they become compulsive, they have long-term adverse consequences.
- Burnout
- Stress
- Destroyed or damaged health and relationships.
And, by its nature, the longer you feed the monster, the harder it is to return to healthy behavior.
Remember the old TV commercial that said “This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs.” You can imagine the images that went along with the words.
In today’s world, we need to change the paradigm to “This is your brain. This is your brain suffering from addiction.” It doesn’t make any difference what the drug is. It’s addiction that destroys your brain.
Daniel Pink spoke often of getting into the flow in his book Drive. You know you’ve been in flow when you look up and you’ve completely lost track of time. You’re so engaged in your work that time is not a consideration. You’re in the flow.
Even though I experience it on a regular basis I hadn’t heard the word recently until an article by Srinivas Rao titled “What it takes to lead an extremely high flow life” caught my eye. The hints that it took to get into high flow included:
- Avoid Interruptions
- Work for long enough to get into flow
- Do deep work
Sounds simple enough. Every team I work with lately is telling me how wonderful it is to avoid the interruptions of their daily routines. Avoiding the interruptions rewards them with the time they need to really get into some deep work. NOT!
Every team I’m engaged with is asking me to help them with the stress and pressure of their business lives. I’m observing mental stress, emotional stress, and physical stress. People are getting sick, losing touch with their family and friends and feeling that they never have enough time to get into the work that they’re good at, enjoy and have been hired to accomplish.
Why have we allowed these things to happen to us? Everybody seems to understand that it’s happening and it’s destructive but there seems to be a sense of helplessness to get out of the tornado, plant your feet on the ground and get some work done. Why?
I believe one of the reasons (maybe the main one) is that we’ve lost our ability to say No! I just finished reading “The Power of a Positive No”. It’s good to understand why we’re hesitant to say No. The book offers what it calls the Three-A Trap:
- Accommodate: We say yes when we want to say no.
- Attack: We say no poorly
- Avoid: We say nothing at all
And The Combination is the deadly mix of all three. Our reasons for not saying No are powerful; I don’t want to lose my job, I don’t want to damage our relationship, I don’t want to look ignorant, and the list goes on. But what are we doing by not saying No? Destruction and falling short of our goals. Not good things.
The simple word decide can be an answer. Think of all the words you know that end in “cide”. Cide in Latin means “put to death”. When we decide, we’re not supposed to keep saying yes to everything. We’re supposed to declare what we’re not going to do so that we can accomplish the important things.
Have you decided what you’re not going to do today? It’s the only way to get into deep work and flow. Enjoy the journey.
As reported in the New York Times recently, Google embarked on an effort to build the perfect team. And as Google would be prone to do, they began to collect data in search of a pattern. As one participant stated, if anyone is good at recognizing patterns it’s Google. I don’t think there’s any argument about that.
However, after collecting data on hundreds of teams the first problem they ran into is that they couldn’t find a pattern. Or more accurately they found too many patterns which is just as much of a problem as finding none at all. So the search continued.
In the end they did find two very interesting correlations that seemed to be present on every good team. Not surprisingly those two elements were trust and respect. The two of them together formed an environment that has been labeled ‘psychological safety.’ If the team members feel psychologically safe because trust and respect has been built, the team will become a high performing team. (Tweet this)
Another pattern that began to emerge however was the productivity of these teams over multiple problems and projects. Teams that fell short on psychological safety didn’t seem to perform well at any kind of problem. Conversely, teams that exhibited psychological safety seemed to perform well no matter the nature of the problem. So the one element that people most often assume to be a needed ingredient, subject matter experts, didn’t seem to make any difference if there was no trust or respect.
Now, here’s the part I enjoyed. The internal name for the effort was called the Aristotle Project. One of the foundational structures that I always introduce to the teams I work with is Aristotle’s Levels of Happiness. The fourth and highest level describes the five things needed for great team work. In Aristotle’s word they include: Truth, Love, Purpose, Beauty and Unity. Every team needs a purpose but to accomplish that purpose they must be able to share and speak the truth, do it in a loving respectful way, in the most beautiful and elegant form possible and finally reaching a commitment of unity. Without those elements a psychologically safe environment doesn’t exist.
Although I’m glad they actually made the effort, had they simply started with what Aristotle knew they could have saved a lot of effort in figuring out what makes great teams.
I read Jeffrey Katsenberg’s book, “Hard Things About Hard Things.”
I just listened to Ruth Chan’s TED talk, “Hard Choices.”
So here’s the Hard Thing about Hard Choices:
Ruth explains that any choice that can be quantified is an easy choice because all numeric values can be related to each other based on their comparative amounts but hard choices are based on values.
Values can’t be quantified and compared to each other. Values are based on who we are and who we want to be. Ruth goes on to look at the dilemma from a person’s point of view and concludes that taking the quantitative approach is the safest way out. Making a value based decision forces us to choose who we want to be. I agree. This is a great personal growth philosophy.
But here’s the hard part: I work with corporate leadership teams where I help individuals make their own personal value and growth decisions through my personal coaching. The problem is we also have to make hard team decisions.
I believe most corporate teams fool themselves into believing they only make logical, fact based decisions or believe all decisions can be reduced to a number exercise so that the >=< analysis can be made. But as Ruth explains, hard choices are not quantitative in nature; they’re value based.
So how do you get a bunch of MBA trained financial experts, engineers, marketers, and scientists to make the hard choices based on value?
You need to build team.
Not just a team with defined roles and responsibilities, not just a team with clearly defined interfaces and decision gates. Not just a team of various functions that get together to discuss and coordinate the business. Not a team, but TEAM!
Teams are built on respect and trust. Teams honor and appreciate the diversity of thinking, attitudes, and beliefs that we bring to the table. Teams know who we are and what shapes us and what values we hold dear and what values we won’t violate.
These teams are fully capable of making the hard decisions and are fully capable of making them work.
If you want to build a great company, build a great TEAM.
Have you been fortunate enough to be part of a great team? Share with us how that happened. What made it work? What’s keeping your current team from being a great team?
Ron’s Short Review: Many of my leadership clients are writing internal if not external blogs today.
Ron’s Short Review: Very good practical advice on presentation structure, content and style. Identified as Web writing but much of our business writing is Internet based today.