productivity posts
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The Big Picture, The Shiny Object, The Overwhelmed and Paralyzed
September 09th, 2010
Have you lost your way? Are you stuck in the “Why Are We Here” stage of project development?
When working with teams, I often run into leaders and executives struggling to complete a task or project. Instead of realizing that they need to re-vitalize their own personal engagement and commitment, they are engulfed by a cloud of ‘stucked-ness’. The true death of project development.
Progressing through the stages of project development ultimately lies in our ability to apply a little emotional intelligence. Having a personal awareness of ‘what’s going on’ and recognizing how to manage behaviours to get unstuck are key to navigating through the tough stuff that will get us to the next stage.
I have found that there are three common scenarios of ‘stuckedness’ within teams around project development:
1. Lost Sight of the Big Picture
What happened to the idea of my blog being the perfect platform to connect with and build business relationships?
As my recent blog on the stages of project development describes, priorities recently tore me away from my project of writing and posting regular blog posts. In dealing with the tacticals of each post such as audio, video, SEO, categories and tags, I realized that getting caught up in the details of the project had clouded my original reasons for blogging.
Therefore, when I reached the ‘Why Are We Here” stage, I found myself back-peddlin’ after losing sight of my original project excitements, which were my values and the big picture vision.
2. Shiny Object Syndrome
How come the project seemed like a good idea last week, but this week you want to move onto something else, even though the other project isn’t complete?
I have often witnessed those stuck in the ‘Shiny Object Syndrome’ of the “Why Are we Here” stage. They typically lose interest in the project very quickly. They live off of the adrenal high a new project offers. The many
to-do’s required to get a project off the ground has them feeling cornered.
They are ‘stuck’ in the tension of aborting versus continuing.
3. Overwhelming Paralysis.
What if your role in the project is a task which is not aligned with your primary strengths?
I worked with a VP of Human Resources recently who was struggling to complete the budget for her division. Her strength was people not finance! Her lack of confidence and competence paralyzed her progress.
With self-awareness comes an opportunity for self-management. In each of these cases, the “Why are We Here Stage” offers an opportunity to move forward.
Now that I know I’ve lost sight of the big picture, I will re-connect with the vision of my blogs.
Those suffering from shiny object syndrome will have a sense of accomplishment once the project is broken down into manageable goals.
For people stuck in overwhelming paralysis, consider the advantage of building project support. Asking someone to be your accountability partner or finding someone to discuss the tasks with will alleviate your project anxiety and allow you to take charge of the project by getting help along the way.
The project stages offer us a framework to access where we are in our project. By combining emotional intelligence, self-awareness and self management skills, you already have the ability to apply these techniques and new behaviours to ensure all projects are successful.
How do you move on, when stuck in the “Why am I Here” stage?
Is this a project vacation, a dis-engagement or a sabbatical?
August 31st, 2010
My professional development blog is all about engagement, achieving project results and accountability; critical elements to staying on track and measuring results of key goals. But what happens when one project takes a back seat to all of the rest?
How does one attempt to re-engage?
September has arrived and I realize that I have taken a serious blog vacation. Actually, more like a blog sabbatical; it has been five full months since my last post.
My first reaction is to want to punish myself for my inability to stay on track, to walk my own talk, to have dropped this ball. But, at the end of the day, this type of damaging self-talk will get me deeper into my sabbatical; feet up on the sofa, bag of chips in hand, feeling all rational and self-righteous about my decision to take a break and work on other, seemingly higher-priority projects.
Back on my feet, chips put away, I realize that a more proactive and solution-oriented process would be more productive; to evaluate the project as it goes through the stages of project development.
Stage One: Romance.
This is the beginning of a new project. This stage is full of imagining wonderful outcomes. The positives woo us and we jump in with two-feet. I imagined numerous posts to my blog, steeped with rich content and overflowing with comments from people all around the world.
Stage Two: Why Are We Here
This is the stage of the project when we start to realize all that is required. The project suddenly becomes more complicated than my blurred vision presented in the romance stage. Reality sets in as I start to understand that creating professional blog posts require things such as category definitions, relevant tags, search terms and twitter links. Blog posts need to be written well (not one of my strengths) and we thought needs to be put into the video inserts’ audio quality, lighting and editing – phew. This blog thing all of a sudden became quite a project!
Stage Three: Conflict/Power Struggle
Feelings of resistance, procrastination, frustration combined with the fight to stay connected and engaged makes the end of the project seem miles away. We have lost the hope of its initial vision or result ever coming to fruition. This is the stage that I circle back to in those moments of dis-engagement as described above; you know, the image on the sofa, chips in hand, damaging self-talk, yadda, yadda.
Stage Four: Choice
Choice gives us the ultimate project ‘fork in the road’. We can choose:
1. Commitment - a decision to navigate the conflict, get creative and choose a new, more engaging way to tackle the project. This is an exciting stage – the one when I get clear on a process for building each blog-post. It’s a simple process with easy, repeatable steps. I feel light and ready to jump in with both feet like I did in romance, only this time I know more about blogging and my commitment has some competence to fuel the fire.
2. Resignation - a decision that the conflict is too big a mountain to climb. This is where we throw in the towel and choose a new project so that we have the thrill and adrenaline rush of the ‘new’, romance once again. The bad news is that we could risk to get to stage four with the new project as well, always circling between stages 1 to 4, never reaching the delight of stage 5. If I decided to remove my blog from my site, never to post again, I would be in the resignation stage.
Stage Five: Co-Creative/Project Engagement
In this stage, we understand fully how to remain engaged; we are both committed to the process and competent with the skills needed to complete the project. With my blog, this is the stage I will get to one day. The process will be locked down and easy to deploy, I will feel as if I fully understand the elements to great blogging and I it will become a top priority each week.
If you ever start to beat yourself up for dropping the ball on a project for a more important priority, give yourself permission to evaluate the project against these stages of project development. Acknowledge which stage you are in and make a choice to move to the next. Re-engagement in a process, not a destination!
Please tell us about your recent project sabbatical.
Reflect & Renew. Your Strategic Plan is Calling…
December 24th, 2009
With 2010 right around the corner, executive leadership teams and entrepreneurs pull up their sleeves to renew their vision for the future. In order to engage your teams and create increased buy-in and alignment, consider a meeting with the sole purpose to ‘reflect and renew’. Break out the post-it notes and sharpie pens and ask team members to brainstorm on the following questions.
THE BIG PICTURE – Reflecting on the Last Year
- What successful strategic decisions did we make? And how did I measure success? eg. $ or non-financial reward?
- What strategic decisions did we make that were not successful? And why?
- What strategic move did we make that surprised me with its outcome? eg. professional ease, profit, customer experience?
- What strategic decisions do we need to consider going into this upcoming year?
- What strategic decision am I holding back from making? Why?
THE BIG PICTURE – Looking Inward. Looking Forward.
- What do I want to continue doing in our business?
- What do I want to stop doing in our business?
- How am I holding the development/growth of our business back?
- How am I promoting the development/growth of our business?
- What is one personal bad habit that I have that I need to stop?
- A year from now – what will our business look like?
Let me know how it goes! All the best in 2010 to you and your teams.
Renée
Need A Workplace Break? Start Smokin.’
October 13th, 2009
CEOs & leaders try to create a workplace culture to match their brand identity. However, management of productivity and results can sometimes set employees into a flurry of activity which, in turn, can detract from the espoused cultural norms.
The brutal fact is that in some workplaces the real cultural norms are – if you want to take a break, you need to start smokin’!
I received an email in response to my “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most unproductive of them all” post. The commenter (let’s call her Suzy) had the courage to blow the whistle on the unspoken norms in her workplace.
Suzy said the culture did not support the idea of taking a break here and there, going for lunch or just taking 5 minutes to walk around the office. Instead, she described how she found an outlet for a break with one of her smokin’ co-workers. She realized that the smoker took regular smoke breaks throughout the day. So she decided to share an outdoor break with the smoker. It was almost as if the habit of smoking allowed people to take a pause. During these short breaks, Suzy could re-group, re-energize and return to her desk being more focused and productive. The smoker has now left the team.
Suzy no longer has a reason to take a break, not being a smoker.
After reading my blog, Suzy checked her assumptions about the unspoken workplace norms with a couple of her co-workers. They agreed. One gent sheepishly revealed he felt the need to hide if he wanted to take a break.
What are the brutal facts of the workplace culture within your company? Are you allowed to take little breaks so you can be more productive? If you can’t, is your culture contributing to people burning-out?
Do you, CEOs, leaders and executives, have the courage to question the brutal facts of your espoused (this is what we say we do) workplace culture vs. the real culture (this is what we actually do)? Do you think that your culture is burning people out? If you want to find out, ask people anonymously. If the answer is no – great!
If you find out that your company has a burn-out culture. Are you willing to make the necessary changes – promoting individual productivity and team sustainability ?
And finally, please don’t start smoking just to take a break.
Mirror Mirror on the wall, who’s the most unproductive of them all?
October 01st, 2009
Right now you’re probably buried with work, right? Even so, you took a quick break to check out this post. But if you’re like most executives, you probably need more “time out” from your workload to recharge, build relationships and trust, and maintain maximum productivity.
Believe it or not, most executives are not nearly as productive as they could be. So if you have another 80 seconds right now, check out this video on the importance of increasing productivity and building trusting relationships by simply taking a time-out within each day.
Quick Tips:
- For 30 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the afternoon. shut off all electronic devices. Unplug from the business imperative that you must always be in touch. Instead be in touch for energized pockets of time,
- Make personal contact with people. Have 5-minute check-ins. Walk around, say “hello”, “how is it going?”,
- Peak at the ‘paper’ in the reception area – get the scope on who is waiting for a meeting with one of your colleagues and why?
- Take a colleague for a coffee or lunch. You can re-energize, build relationships, solve business problems and have fun all at the same time!
What else do you do during the day to recharge and improve your productivity? Let me know.
Don’t Throw Your Junk on My Desk
September 29th, 2009
“If I send you an email, do not acknowledge its receipt with a ‘thank-you’, ‘got it’ or ‘done’ response – don’t bother” said my new client, in our first face to face meeting. At first, her words seemed brash, but later made complete sense.
She, a VP at a global organization, continued “Recognize, I interact with a large volume of email each day. I will not respond to your emails unless, I don’t agree with the contents”
Not only had she clearly articulated her expectations and norms of working together, but she had taught me to not throw junk on her desk.
Email management has become a source of frustration and angst that contributes to team dysfunction and decreased results.
As business leaders, we can greatly improve team productivity by changing our consumption and production of action, information and junk related emails…and teaching our teams to do the same.
Here’s how:
Consider all emails that flowed into your inbox within the last 24 hours.
- What percentage required your action?
- What percentage required that you stay informed? (eg. actions which you support)
- What percentage was junk? (not junk mail that would get stuck in the junk filter but junk-mail created by your colleagues)
Now consider all the emails you sent yesterday.
- What percentage requested action?
- What percentage outlined required supportive, informed, knowledge and/or resource based actions?
- What percentage of your sent emails were junk? (e.g. didn’t fall in #1 or #2. Be honest!).
Just as my new client broached the topic with me. I encourage you to do the same with your teams, and practice hitting the ‘delete’ key before throwing junk on other people’s desks. I can personally attest to this strategy – it works!
The Secret to Email Productivity for Executives
September 22nd, 2009
Email is a great source of stress and frustration for business leaders and executives. It kills productivity, hinders results and decreases personal motivation. A minor shift in your email management process can produce a major productivity improvement.
Clients tell me on a regular basis, “I get 300 emails a day,” “I have 1200 emails in my inbox ,” “It’s hard to stay on-top of the ‘incoming’ – urghh.”
Checking email, reading email and answering email can take hours of time if you let it. But only if you let it.
I have the secret to email productivity - and it works!
Picture your mailbox at home. Mine is a black metal mailbox affixed to a stone wall. Now, visualize it completely jammed with letters, over-flowing with envelopes.
At home, we don’t treat our mailbox as a storage system. We do not keep letters there for nights upon nights, weekends…forever. No! Every day we remove the mail, sort it and do something with it – open, toss or save for later. That’s the same thing you need to do with your inbox.
Here’s the solution: treat your inbox like a mailbox, not a storage box.
- Create 4-5 folders to prioritize messages. I use ‘Urgent’, ‘Important but Not Urgent’, ‘Awaiting Reply’, ‘Read’, ‘Resources’.
- When mail arrives, SORT into appropriate file folders before doing anything else!
- Deal with the ‘urgent’ emails once your sorting is complete. I look at my urgent emails twice a day.
- Deal with the secondary folders on a regular basis - I check the ‘Important but Not Urgent’ emails every second day and dip into the other files once per week.
In order to make this work, you will have to catch yourself to SORT first and to ‘deal with’ second. On the days when you let this slide, you will quickly notice how your emails get out of hand.
Try it and see how it goes.
Say No to Silos!
September 15th, 2009
One of the things I’ve noticed this past year, especially given our difficult economic environment, is that individuals on teams are hungry for results. In fact, they’re so hungry for those results that they’re grasping everywhere they can –anywhere, from corners of the business — to get a result. That desperation is taking their focus off the company’s core strategic objectives and increasing their tactical behaviors.
It’s chaotic, really. And when they’re faced with chaos, many team members tend to focus more on their own individual activities – what’s happening on their own computer –instead of focusing on their teams and team objectives. And that’s increasing the “silo” effect within organizations, which hampers productivity, innovation, growth, and more.
So how can you combat this silo effect? By creating “interdependence” goals in your teams. These goals are designed to stimulate teamwork, combat silos, and increase engagement. There are many forms these goals can take; here are a few to get you started.
One-Way Learning Goal
means that the team sets a goal for all members to understand a specific concept well enough to explain it to another team. For example an engineering applications group and engineering sales team must explain their methods, goals and challenges to one another.
Product or Process Goals
encourage teams to reach consensus on product or process issues such as dealing with customer complaints or the launch of a new product.
Reward Goals
create shared rewards for team members. For example, in a training program for product knowledge or customer relations, learners receive an individual score AND a certain number of points if all group members score at or above a certain benchmark.
Resource Goals
means that individuals each possess specific resources needed for the team as a whole to succeed. This can be arranged by giving specific resources to different individuals in the team.
Role Goal
occurs when specific roles are assigned to team members (for example, recorder or time keeper). The roles can rotate weekly to give all team members the experience.
Task Interdependence Goal
occurs when one group member must first complete his/her task before the next task can be completed. For instance, collecting customer feedback might be assigned to two team members while research on customer feedback is done by two other team members.
One way to ensure that productive interdependence occurs lies with the face-to-face communication interactions between working team members. If leaders and executives create a plan to embed the different types of interdependence goals into monthly and quarterly plans, teams will show improved productivity along with team culture and professional trust.
Are you experiencing the silo effect in your organization? If so, can you think of any opportunities for including am interdependence goal into your teams within the next 30 days? Please share your thoughts in the comment area, and good luck!
Manage Multitasking & Interruptions for Increased Productivity
September 03rd, 2009
Managing workplace interruptions can be done effectively when leaders, managers and executives have the courage to assert themselves by articulating clear boundaries and communicating them to their co-workers. Clear boundaries establish personal and professional work parameters so that individuals can focus on priorities and get results.
Recently a client asked me how to manage multiple interruptions at work.
Sue, the Vice-President of Marketing & Communications spent the first 2 hours of her morning in a meeting, drinking coffee, and plenty of water (can you see where this is going?). When the meeting ended all she could think about was getting to the washroom. Opening the boardroom door, she noticed her direct report.
Without even a “Hi” or “How are you” the report chimed “Did you get my email?”
Sue looked at her and immediately responded – “Just a sec”.
She continued to race to the washroom door, all the while, sensing her direct report was still following directly behind. Approaching the washroom door, and getting closer to her own office – she hears her desktop phone ringing. Her mind floods with reminders of the chaos of emails she left behind prior to the meeting. As she reaches for the handle of the washroom door, she feels the vibration of her PDA…
Can you imagine the sense of overwhelm that Sue must be feeling? I can. Leaders, managers and executives are challenged with multi-tasking each day.
Sue could have been more effective by asserting herself:
- In the moment the direct report said – “Did you get my email?” Sue could have kicked into the depth of her self awareness – sensing the feeling of overwhelm and chaos to set a clear boundary.
Simple solution: “give me 20 minutes”, not 2 secs but 20 minutes.
Why does she need 20 minutes?
Because, it is not possible to be effective in the midst of overwhelm. As a leader, it is Sue’s responsibility to manage herself effectively so that she can guide her direct reports to increase productivity and ensure team results. Sue needed to give herself 20 minutes. Get back to her office, read the direct reports email, ‘land’ after her first meeting and get ready for the second.
Leaders, managers and executives need to become more aware of how they get knocked off course with multi-tasking and other workplace interruptions. Use the skill of setting clear personal and professional boundaries to be more productive.
Are you willing to share your lastest story of how multitasking has thrown you off track? Please enter your story in the comment section – let’s learn from one another.
How to Manage Interruptions By Being Clear on Priorities
August 25th, 2009
Managing interruptions and staying on top of daily multi-tasking each day is critical to being effective in business today. When business leaders discipline themselves to set clear priorities and communicate “norms for engagement” with co-workers productivity and results soar while overwhelm begins to decrease.
I recently had to find a new doctor. After I filled in the initial visit paper work, the receptionist handed me a document titled “Doctor’s Rules and Regulations” (norms for engagement). It clearly outlined the Dr. had only 10 minutes for each appointment. It directed me to bring one issue to the table at each doctor’s appointment. If I had two issues, I needed to make sure that I presented both within the 10 minute parameter.
The document then illustrated a time calculation: if each patient was one minute late multiplied by 45 patients per day equals the last patient waits an additional 45 minutes. He had clearly identified his priorities and this was his effort to communicate them to me.
Although my experience with the doctor was a little harsh, I recognized that he was clearly outlining his norms of engagement in my best interest. Think about it — one day I might be that last patient myself.
If you want to be more effective and manage your interruptions with increased ease, it is really important to sit down at the beginning of the day to consider your priorities. Whether it takes 5 minutes or 20 minutes – it is probably the most important time in your day
- to get clear on what you need to do,
- to be responsible for performance and results, and
- to clearly articulate your own norms of engagement to the people with whom you work.
That’s exactly what the doctor had done. He had clearly outlined his expectations of how I would prepare for the meeting, his expectations of how I would bring issues to the table. With this he clearly articulated our ‘norms of engagement’.
Take some time to identify what your priorities are for the day and to communicate them. Articulate your priorities clearly to others to establish “norms for engagement”.
