Was There Life Before 7/24 Connectivity?

Today's New York Times has an interesting essay by Ben Stein entitle, Connected, But Hermetically Sealed. It is nice commentary about how we use technology to seal ourselves off from the real world.

Mobile phones, PDA's Ipod's, all great technologies that contribute to the quality of our lives also serve to diminish the quality of our lives by isolating us.

Imagine, sitting with a group of people, none talking to each other, but all engaged in text messaging as vigorously as possible.

Yesterday, on a bike ride, I passed someone saying "Hello" as I passed. They didn't hear me or respond, because they were listening to their Ipod.

All of us are guilty, I find myself hiding behind my (de)vices. After all, it's so much easier to bury yourself in email, messaging, playing a game, or listening to music than to be engaged. Rather than observing what's going on around us, rather than talking to friends, colleagues, and, god forbid, strangers, we can hide behind the technology. Without these (de)vices, I have to actually pay attention to something or someone else. I have to listen, I have to hear a different point of view, I have to learn.

It strikes me a ironic, these devices intended to enhance communications instead isolate us. We deal with only the familiar and turn a blind eye to the new.

These devices, which can improve our productivity, are actually diminishing the quality of our experience. Instant accessibility supposedly helps us be more reachable for urgent things, enable us to respond faster. When I reflect on the emails, text messages, and phone calls to my mobile, as far back as I can recall, there was nothing that couldn't wait a few hours. In fact there are many things that would have been better off by waiting a few hours.

I have often thought back to pre-historic times---when we didn't have mobile phones, PDA's etc. How did we deal with "urgency?" I have been engaged with top executives in major businesses worldwide. As I reflect back, business and the quality of decisions these executives made did not seem to suffer from delays of a few hours. In some ways, one might argue that many issues which are urgent at one moment, are no longer important 30 minutes later. The built in buffer of waiting a few hours to get back, actually made numerous issues become non issues and disappear.

Many organizations are recognizing these issues. they set limits on sending and receiving emails. They limit use of Blackberry, phones and other (de)vices. We don't need an organization to help us with that, each of us can take action.

1. Set your own time limits to email.
2. Let calls to your mobile phone roll into voicemail---don't interrupt what you are doing to answer it.
3. Let text messages queue up, look at them periodically, but not instantaneously.
4. Take some joy in looking around, watching what is going on around you, engage in the real world.

We Don't Have Time To Do It Right!!!

Why do we seem to make the time to re-do things--several times over--correcting mistakes, but we never find the time to do things right in the first place?

I've been pre-occupied and frustrated by this issue for several weeks. Two multi-billion dollar organizations I am working with are on similar paths. They are in such a hurry to act that the action itself takes precedence over doing things right.

Both organizations have smart, motivated, well intended people. Both face major challenges in executing even the simplest strategies. It troubles me that such smart people are caught in a trap of executing so stupidly.

Here's an example: A key project--recruiting new resellers, engaging them and motivating them to sell my client's products/services is critical to the growth strategy. A program was announced and launched. However, no one had taken the time to develop the detailed plans for fulfilling the program and dealing with the responses.

Here's where the problems started (you might say they started with the absence of thoughtful planning), but the announcement was a wild success! Within 30 days, we had responses from over 200 organizations wanting to partner with my client. We didn't know about these response for over 30 days because the person getting the responses 1)Didn't know what to do with the responses; and 2)Didn't inform management of the responses.

We found the problem after about 35 days. You might think the problem was fixed and we could declare victory---but that makes too much sense. This company spent lots of time talking about the need to solve the problem, but didn't focus on actually solving it (the solution had actually been designed and could have been quickly implemented). In the meantime, more responses and requests for partnering came in. At the end of about 50 days, we had 400 pending requests---none of which had been acknowledged.

People panicked and started focusing on symptoms. An email was sent to the 450 respondents, it told them they now had an access code to my client's partner/reseller website. It neglected to welcome them, it neglected to tell them how to get started, most importantly, it neglected to give them the access code.

30 days has passed since then, frustrated potential partners are not getting responses to their queries, yet the company solved another symptom. It sent out the userids and passwords so that people could access the reseller web site and start learning a little about the products. The only problem though, no one provided these ids and passwords to the webmaster, so all attempts by the resellers to access the web site were rejected with not explanation.

And undoubtedly the story will go on. At each point, before, during, during, during..... I have encouraged the client to get a small task team together and to define a detailed plan, assign responsibilities, and execute the plan. But everyone's been too busy to sit down.

Now, months later, the client is at this point: They have 100's of people wanting to be resellers, the majority of whom have not received a response for at least 45 days, in some cases for over 90 days. Those who have received the first response, were confused and frustrated because they were not provided the information to do what was expected. Those who received the second response, see yet again, a failure in execution. Many potential resellers are so frustrated and fed up with their experience, they no longer want to partner with this organization.

I am frustrated, 1) My client has spent countless person hours in activity that has not only not helped resolve a problem, but has made the problem worse. 2} There is a tremendous opportunity cost---people who wanted to be resellers and who could produce significant revenue are now so upset they are no longer interested. 3) All of this could have been avoided with a 2 hour planning session-----but they were too busy to do this.

If this isn't depressing enough, this isn't an unusual case. It seems to be more the norm than the exception. Activity trumps thinking. Action overrules planning. We always have time to correct mistakes, we never have the time to do the right thing in the first place.

I started my career many years ago in IBM. At the time I started, there was a simple sign on everyone's desk. It had one word: Think.

Reflecting back on that sign, that notion has never been more important to effectiveness and producing results than it is now. Every minute we spend thinking or planning can save us hours and hundreds of thousands of dollars in wasted effort. It can help us realize millions of dollar in revenue and profitability.

But I'm at a low point----people are probably too busy to think about this. People just don't have the time.

Unforced Errors -- A Killer To Effectiveness

I just read a brilliant Post on the Slow Leadership Blog entitled: Why Organizations Make Unforced Errors. Frankly, I can't state it better than has been already stated, but I will extract a few key points.

The concept of forced and unforced errors comes from sports (I know, we tire of sports analogies, but this one is important). Forced errors occur because the opponent is playing better than we are. When I speak, I frequently challenge organizations to OutCompete the competition. By this, I am referring winning through superior skill, offerings, value, or execution. OutCompeting the competition involves performing at the highest possible levels---and doing it on a sustained basis.

Unforced errors are the things we do to ourselves. They have little to do with the opponent or the competition. As stated in the blog, unforced errors result in us throwing away our advantages.

For the most part, unforced errors are avoidable---high performing people and organizations set themselves up to eliminate unforced errors.

Effective teams, working well together, completely aligned in purpose, strategy, focus, roles/responsibilities, make fewer unforced errors in executing their strategies.

Organizations and individuals that slow down, taking the time to think and organize make fewer unforced errors.

Planning and attention to details, understanding everything that needs to be done, beforehand, reduces the chance for unforced errors.

The quest for speed in execution is not inconsistent with this theme, but speed is useless---damaging---unless it is part of a well developed and sharply executed plan. We produce too many unforced errors focusing on speed as the end, not a means.

"Busyness," high activity levels, and multitasking increase the likelihood that we will make unforced errors.

Wimbledon is on now, the Olympics are coming up. Whatever your sport of choice--look at the world class performers in the sport. Look at their forced and unforced errors. Look at how they plan, focus, and execute. Look at how teams work together a one. Look at the speed at which they execute well thought out plans and strategies--maximizing their advantage and minimizing the unforced errors.

Take these lessons into your lives and businesses to improve everything you do.

Distracted: The Erosion of Attention And The Coming Dark Age

As a person who constantly rails against the levels of multitasking most of us have fallen victim to, I was intrigued by a new book: Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age by Maggie Jackson.

I have just had the opportunity to quickly skim it, and think it is an important book to read. It seems well researched, presenting data on the impact of multitasking and our inability to focus. It projects a dire future---I'm not sure I quite buy into that---but will re-read.

Technology has provided us wonderful means of staying in touch. It provides us access to oceans of information. We all have wonderful tools.

However, in leveraging these tools, it seems we may have lost sight of what they are supposed to help us do. They should help us get more done----yet because of our inability to focus, our willingness to succumb constantly to interruptions, we seem to get less done. They are to help us make better decisions, yet it seems that we have less wisdom or knowledge.

In our fast moving, bullet point focused worlds, it will be hard to sit down and read this book, but it is worth the time----and the reflection.

Quiet Time--Break Away From Email, Phones, Blackberry's

Interesting article in today's New York Times: Lost In E-Mail, Tech Firm Face Self-Made Beast. The article examines efforts by many companies to understand the impact of constant interruptions on productivity.

Companies are finding tremendous results in forcing people to stop distractions for a period of time each day, devoting that time to thinking or getting real work done (such a concept!). The article cited a Basex study which placed the impact in lost productivity in the U.S. due to distractions at more than $650 billion annually!

Take the time to read the article.

Better yet, everyday, try to take at least one hour off---don't check email, don't answer the phone (landline or mobile), don't use your Blackberry, don't surf the web, don't sit in a meeting. Use the time to think, prioritize, or get some real work done. You'll be amazed at what you accomplish.

Why Don't Managers Think Deeply

Today, the Harvard Business Review Working Knowledge Newsletter and Art Petty On Management had complementary articles on Why Don't Managers Think Deeply? It's a fascinating topic that should concern all leaders. Both are worth reading, and, dare I say, thinking about.

I'd like to add some of my own opinions about why manager's don't think deeply:

• People confuse form with substance: Brilliant presentations, PowerPoint's, or "hot programs" may be attractive and create a lot of interest, but many have no depth beyond the bullet point on the chart. People haven't really thought about what the strategy and the most effective means of execution. People don't get into deep discussions about the issues or alternatives.
• Activity trumps results and effectiveness: We. particularly American business professionals, have a bias to activity. We see nothing wrong with Ready, Fire, Aim. The activity is often unfocused, aimless, and ineffective. We are often to busy with our activities to take the time to think.
• Activity can be mistaken for accountability: "Busy people must be doing important things and producing good results." In reality, busy people may be busy people, but "busyness" does not necessarily mean a lot is being accomplished. The greatest sin made in the name of "busyness" is multitasking--we simultaneously sit in a meeting, process our emails, text message on our phones, and think about what we want to do on the weekend. This keeps us from focusing on what we must do.
• Thinking---at least results focused thinking-- forces us to make choices. It forces us to commit to a course of action and to execute it. Many people are afraid to commit to a course of action. It is better to react or do nothing than it is to commit to something and to be held accountable.
• Thinking deeply is messy hard work. It is difficult to reduce it to a bullet point. It is demanding and takes time---but time spent thinking doesn't look like activity. The results aren't pretty and can sometimes be complicated to present and get others to support.
• Thinking deeply requires the ability to integrate and synthesize. Some people just aren't good at this--but it is critical for leaders.
• Thinking deeply isn't rewarded in a lot of organizations. It's hard to measure, consequently hard to reward. Thinking takes away from "busyness." it's easier to measure and reward activities.
• Thinking deeply may be threatening to senior executives. Senior executives who don't take the time or have difficulty thinking deeply about issues will, justifiably, feel threatened by subordinates that take the time to think before acting.

And I could go on, but enough for now. I would be remiss though, if I didn't look at some of the downsides of thinking deeply. I have encountered people in business who are deep thinkers, yet who cannot translate the results of their thinking into meaningful action.

Deep thinking must be accompanied my meaningful---thoughtful action. Without this it is never tested and the results are never produced.

Meetings, Meetings, Meetings!?#?!!%&*

"A person's stature in business is measured by the number of meetings on their agenda!" Sometimes I actually believe people think this is true. I see too many people participating in too many meetings---that accomplish absolutely nothing!

The problem is worse in today's "always available" global business environment. People are always on, conference calls, and other "meetings" consume our lives. I recently did an informal audit of a number of clients and found many scheduling meetings from 5:00AM through midnight! I also found, that during this 19 hour period, many were in meetings for as many as 12 hours during that time.

The meeting is not an end--it is a means. Increasingly, I believe meetings should be the last alternative we choose to get things done.

I was struck today by Fred Wilson's A VC Blog. He outlines some guidelines to managing "Unproductive" Meetings. They included (with very liberal interpretation by me):

• Limit the length of time up front--keep it short.
• Have a hard stop that you enforce.
• Set an agenda at the start of the meeting. Here I disagree with Fred a little. I think the agenda should be set and distributed before a meeting. If I possibly have the option, I do not attend meetings where an agenda has not be pre-distributed.
• Don't say yes to every request that is made.
• Do it right in the meeting, if you can: Here Fred is referring to quick emails or phone calls. We all know that "to-dos" don't get done. Those that can be accomplished by emails or calls, I do immediately.
• Ask the person who called the meeting to follow up: Have them send the notes with what is being requested or has been committed. If they don't, then it can't be important.

I'd add some other rules that help me:

• All meetings should be held in rooms without chairs.
• Never-never-never order coffee or other refreshments for a meeting. Consider not allowing refreshments---even water brought into a meeting. People's thirst of caffeine addictions will keep meetings short.
• Any presentations should be distributed as position papers beforehand. People should be required to review these before hand so that you can use the meeting time to get things done. Lou Gerstner used a variation of this technique very effectively at IBM. If a participant has not reviewed the materials before the meeting, then they don't get to speak.
• If decisions are to be made, make sure these are clearly identified in the agenda.
• Decide what the meeting is about and keep it focused on that one thing. Is it an informational meeting? Is it a decision-making meeting? It can't be both.
• No multitasking involved--if you are at the meeting, be In The Meeting! No email, except at the end to do follow ups. No phones except at the end, No blackberry's or anything else. If those are more important, don't waste your time and those of others in the meeting.
• Calculate a cost to each meeting, make sure there is a positive ROI to meetings. For consultants, time is money--I am very sensitive about my time. Assess the investment in time (on a fully burdened cost basis) that each person is making in the meeting. Is the time justifiable?

The most important thing is block large portions of your time for yourself. You need time to think about what you are doing. You need time to to the work. You need time to plan.

Having A Bad Day?

Interesting post in The Positivity Blog. All of us have bad days, we feel off or unproductive. Shaking off whatever causes the bad day is difficult. The blog offers several points to help, I have reordered them and put my own twist on them:

Work out: Working out helps me clear my mind, getting off whatever is bothering or frustrating me. I am always refreshed and productive after I've worked out. Beyond the health benefits, working out helps me focus and be more effective. I encourage every professional to take a few minutes in their day to work out in some way.
Give value: This startled me, but when I got to thinking about it and my own personal experience, it made a huge amount of sense. Too often, when we have a bad day, we get consumed by ourselves--typically, this lead me further down. Giving value, finding a way to make a difference for someone else, breaks me out of this cycle. It stops me from thinking about myself and gets me to thinking about others and other things. It doesn't have to be a "big" thing. It could be a phone call, and email, taking the time to listen to someone.
Try something new: I'd add Do Something Different. If you keep doing the same thing, more often than not, it produces the same result. If that is the cause for your bad day, how will doing it more change things?
Ask the right questions: Questions like "Why did this happen to me," keep you mired in the situation. Questions like "What is awesome about this situation," "Is this really important in the long run," and others help you get a different perspective.
Get enough sleep: I might add---take a nap. Typically, we have bad days when we are tired. You tend to have a better day when you are fresh.
Eat: I'm not sure about this one, but the variation I believe is drink water! Hydration counts!
Just do it: Do what you really want to do.

Some interesting things to think about!

What You Stop Is Important

Everyone I encounter, professionally and personally, has more on their plates than they could possibly accomplish. In virtually every business, organizations are trying to do more, with fewer resources and people, in shorter periods of time. That seems to leak over into our personal lives, with each of us over committing to each other.

At some point, you start seeing very dis functional behaviors: Stress levels high, tempers short, people unhappy, people frustrated, fingers pointing, blame being passed and so forth.

I'm working with one large organization that has undergone a series of severe resource cutbacks over the past 2 years. They have cut the resources, but they haven't reworked the work. I encounter a lot of "thrashing." This is characterized by a lot of start and stop, immense levels of activity, but nothing is ever completed and results aren't being produced.

Too much of the time, I see people focused on improving the productivity and effectiveness---sometimes translated into, "How do I accomplish more in less time." People never consider stopping things, they look at how they can change to do more. This breaks at some point. Organizations literally break, they fail to perform, management and shareholders find new people to do the job. Personally, we break down. Illness is up, bills to analysts/shrinks/pharmacists/our local barkeeper are up, the quality of our relationships is down.

Something has to stop! Actually that's the answer--perhaps figuring out how to do more is really about what we need to be stopping. We can't continue to do thing in the same way or faster, perhaps we should be focusing on what we stop.

Recently, in working with a client in a major restructuring, we spent most of our time focusing on what we had to stop. There was a significant reduction in resources (read people were gone). Rather assuming we would just accomplish the same thing with fewer people, the management team had the wisdom to sit down and focus on what they had to stop. This approach freed the team up, enabling them to redesign the work, finding better ways to execute their strategies and achieve the goals they hadn't been achieving before. They are on a good path, only time will tell, but I suspect they will be successful. Prior to this, even with more resources, they were trapped they could do more. That wasn't working, but they never took the time to look at stopping things. It took a painful restructure to get them to consider the question.

Professionally and personally, for those who aren't achieving the results they expected, for those that are frustrated or can't find the time to do what they "need to do." Perhaps it's time to stop---take the time to figure out what should be stopped and get back to basics and essentials.

Perhaps doing this will also enable us to take some time to stop and smell the roses------sorry, I couldn't resist.

Why Multitasking Only Works To A Point

I've written before about the perils of multitasking and will continue to rant on this topic. I'm at fault for multitasking too much---I do emails on conference calls, update my calendar during web conferences, and manage to focus on watching the news rather than listening to my wife in the evenings.

Somehow multitasking has become the test of how important or how busy we are. I've been convinced that productivity and quality of results actually declines the more we multitask. Most of my evidence, however, has been anecdotal, or personal. (Sure I can quote accident figures about people talking on cell phones while driving.)

I read an interesting post in t the Wall Street Journal BizTech blog by Ben Worthen on February 1. In the post, he cites a study by researchers at the University of Oregon. Some points from his post: (paraphrasing Mr. Worthen's observations.)

• Researchers found the average person can only focus on four things at once.


• Despite claims to the contrary, there is no correlation to age. Younger people cannot multitask more.


• The complexity of things doesn't matter. There is little difference in trying to recall very complex/intricate items or simple things. That means little things that we take for granted, like following the car in front of us, take as much effort as something more complex, like a difficult phone conversation, or reading.

He concludes, that new technologies provide us the capability to multitask even more, however, human evolution has not kept pace and we have real limitations. It's an interesting post and worth reading. I still feel four tasks is overstating things a little.

The study does explain one thing.....why I still have problems walking and chewing gum at the same time......

In Praise Of The Checklist

Fast Company has an interesting short article, Heroic Checklist, that is a worthwhile read. I'm a tremendous fan of checklists, though in our consulting practice we find too many people resist them as either too structured or too simplistic.

Checklists are great, there greatness lies in their simplicity:

• They help keep us disiciplined and focused.
• They make sure, that in the rush of everyday activity, we don't overlook critical items/activities.
• They free us up to identify and focus on the most critical issues.
• They help us be more effective.
• They free us up to be more creative and innovative.
• They help us produce results.

Use checklists, keep them short and simple. They make a difference. They help us be more productive and effective.

Less Talk And A Little More Conversation

Yesterday I was watching CBS Sunday Morning. One of the segments was on conversation - something this world of technology has helped us lose. Sure there is a lot of "talk" - emails, SMS's, blogs, countless mobile calls, social networking tools.

Words flow between all of us, but are we really communicating -- are we having conversations -- something where we are engaged, listening, actively participating with someone else? Having a conversation -- authentic communication requires a lot of each party. Each person has to commit themselves to the other, at least for a few moments in time. A conversation requires us to engage, to listen, to be involved emotionally. We are forced to connect at a human level.

One of the greatest resources on the art of conversations is a book, Fierce Conversations, Achieving Success At Work And Life, Once Conversation At A Time, by Susan Scott. It is an important book, critical for anyone interested in genuine conversations rather than words flowing back and forth.

Having conversations is tough, but imagine what you can learn.

No "A's For Effort"

Kids are headed back to school----it's caused me to reflect on comments we hear from teachers, parents, and friend---"A for Effort." That term has slipped into our vocabularies and we apply it to all sorts of business and personal situations. I suppose it's an attempt to justify failure to achieve results.

It seems much of what is done, even rewarded today focuses on effort, not results or accountability. People are very busy, work incredibly long hours, load their agendas up with meetings, lots of activity, and overlay that with constant interruptions of Blackberry's, mobile phones and emails. Somehow "busyness" has become the end--its become what is recognized, rewarded, promoted.

All this "busyness" diverts us from focusing on effectiveness, accountability, personal responsibility, and achieving the outcomes or results we want. "Busyness" seems to be something that we can hide behind so that we don't have to do the tough work of figuring out what's wrong and why we aren't producing results. It's easier to schedule more meetings, work longer hours, send more emails. Perhaps what is really needed is time to reflect on the question Michael Hyatt poses: "What is it about my leadership that is producing these results?" We all have to accept personal responsibility for making a difference and achieving results. Many of us blame others or external factors. We fall back on focusing on the effort and the valiant try. We fool ourselves.

Ultimately, it's about personal responsibility or accountability. Each of us is responsible for and are in control of everything we do. If what we are doing is not, producing the desired result, it's up to us to figure out what we have to do to fix it. We can't blame it on others. It's about knowing that each of us has an impact and is responsible for what happens in our lives and business. It's owning this that enables each of us to achieve our goals and have an impact.

What are your thoughts?