Posts from — February 2008

photo by Dan Smith

People will pay a price to keep irrational options open when making decisions

Thanks to one of our favorite blogs - Lifehacker - for the heads up on this article from the New York Times. Today they looked at a new book “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions.” by MIT researcher Dan Ariely. We’ll have a slightly different take on their reports.

Both Lifehacker and the Times open with the story of the Chinese General Xiang Yu in the third century BC who crossed the Yangzte River to attack his enemy. On arrival he burned his ships so that his troops would focus only on advance with no option remaining for retreat. Of course, the obvious message that most readers take away is that leaders must focus their teams to move forward - even if Xiang Yu was a bit over the top in his enthusiasm for the method!

The Chinese General closed the door on a very rational option, but the book points out that most of us are irrational in our unwillingness to let options close. Indeed, we will often keep them open, even when we know these pointless or even negative options are costing us. In simple terms how many of us as consumers have found it almost painful to pass up a particular model filled with features that we know we will never use. I once spent a pile of extra money on a video camera because I couldn’t let go of that way cool feature of shooting at night with that Green IR lighting. Why?

In the research or consumer contexts this fact of human nature is very different than the workplace. Still, there are two key messages for leaders in this information.

First - this natural human trait to not let options go can result in decision-making paralysis. Opportunities are lost because leaders cannot make decisions that “close doors” in order to move in a particular direction. Or worse, leaders tax their teams collecting and presenting more and more information so that a decision can be taken that should already be obvious. This is all too common even as leaders know that being a nimble organization that can make decisions and change quickly is a key to success today.

“…this natural human trait to not let options go can result in decision-making paralysis.”

Second, is the all too common danger of being an executive workaholic that can be the result of not being able to emotionally let go of things in the workplace. We follow up the 250th email of the day, we take on one more project for someone because we fear the opportunity that might be lost otherwise. All the while we may be seeing time with children or our spouses slip away because of all the hours spent at work. We pay a personal price - and much of it to keep irrational options open - options that by definition are irrational since most of us would list family as our number one priority.

Another blog I enjoy following is that of Tim Ferris - author of “The 4 Hour Work Week” who has a post entitled “The Art of Letting Bad Things Happen” in which he shares a number of bad things that happened while he went on a trip and chose not to check his email - but also the overwhelming list of good things that happened because he was able to let go. In order to have big things happen, sometimes you have to let go of others - let doors close.

You may have to let some options go, let some doors close, so that your career can advance. You may also need to let some career options go if you are to have the family life that you dream of.

Consider your work and home lives - are there things that you need to let go of in order to move forward?

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For all the complex time management systems out there, the single quickest way to improve your productivity has to be what I call the “big rocks” method. I first stumbled upon it in Steven Covey’s best seller Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. This isn’t the most novel information - but for any busy worker it bear revisting. Most of you will have already heard of the method where you fill your jar with the biggest rocks - the most important items on your task list - and then fit in the smaller rocks, then the sand and suddenly find you still have room to pour in quite a bit of water. Try the reverse and pour in the water or sand first - the more trivial and less important tasks - and you have no time remaining in your day to fit in the more important tasks that you need to focus on.

The other piece of the Covey puzzle is his four quadrants of time management. The key there is to find time to work on the “important but not urgent” items rather than the unimportant but urgent items. Of course the important items are the big rocks again, but he also makes the point that if we work on these things when they are not as urgent then there will be fewer of the unimportant but urgent items creeping in.

“For the busy executive…focus on those things that are most important to you and your firm.”

For the busy executive, or aspiring executive, who may well feel they are already good masters of their day this is still worth thinking about. You have to deal with the demands of many people, many projects and likely many masters. It is easy to let others take your focus away. Think about the big rocks in your job and use that to focus on those things that are most important to you and your firm.

It’s impossible to describe what took Covey two books (see also “First Things First”) to cover in a blog post. Perhaps it’s best not to anyway. To make a change in your daily routine that is immediately effective you want something simple.

Implement the Big Rocks method tomorrow by taking a minute when you sit down at your desk and write down the three most important tasks that you need to accomplish that day. Focus on them and do not let anything distract you from accomplishing them. In fact chances are that if you were to cross those three things off your list in the first hour of your day and then go home you would be more effective in your job than had you frittered away the day with time wasting tasks - simply pouring water into your jar to fill the time of your day.

If you’d like to get started, all you need is a piece of paper and some resolve but blogger and consultant Dave Seah has taken this to a whole new level and has made his forms for task management available - check them out and his whole line of Printable CEO forms.

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World-class mentoring with podcasts and vidcasts - stop wasting your commute!

It’s a competitive world and the landscape of the workplace is always changing. In order to stay on top of your game you need to be constantly learning. You must stay on top of your professional knowledge while trying to expand your base so that you are ready to move into new areas in your business.

None of this is easy on top of a long work day and your attempts to have a personal life. Some folks have a solution - start every day at 5AM. Fine if that’s what you want. But I think you need to find a way to be more efficient.
I would urge yo to make efficient use of your forced downtime while meeting and learning from some of the greatest minds in the world.
Say what?
Your iPod, or Smartphone or laptop all have the ability to put you in touch with some of the smartest people in the world via podcasts and vidcasts. What began as an amateur industry as countless people tried to share their voice with the world have evolved in the last few years and there are many professional - and free - resources out there. The power of these is simply incredible. On a flight last week I watched several “Ted Talks” on my iPod - inspirational talks from brilliant minds. They left me uplifted when I got off the plane, my mind filled with all sorts of new ideas I wanted to apply to my work.
Every day I walk to and from work, and millions of other people drive or take the train. How many spend all those hours every week listening to music? Why not listen to the Harvard Business Podcast, or one from the MIT Sloan School of Business? Learn from expert marketers how to grow your business or from management experts on how to become a more effective leader. If you commute one hour in each direction that’s 10 hours in a week - more than a full day at your disposal for learning.

Imagine how hard you would work if your company could have access to the emerging Chinese markets? Take a few hours while commuting each week to learn some Mandarin - you’ll hae a huge leg up on the competition when closing the deal!

So many people will work until the wee small hours knowing their competitors are working just as hard - but you may have a 5 or 10 hour per week window available to you that your competitors are not taking advantage of. The next time you open iTunes to put another 99 cents in Apple’s war chest, why not search for podcasts and try some free educational opportunities?

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Use your phone with Excel, PDFs, Maps, Video and more to super-charge your productivity on the road.

Many people develop gadget lust for the latest and greatest smartphone. I’ll admit it - I want an iPhone. Apple has done a great job showing me all the great things that it can do and how it will help me every day.

But did you know there are all kinds of smartphones out there that can do most of the same things, albeit in a much less sexy way? Buying a new phone might help you, but chances are that learning how to make better use of your current phone would be an even better move.

Google Maps is Available for Many Smartphones

I needed directions in a hurry while in a city I had never been to before - and it wasn’t to a common place that simply asking someone could have solved in time. Instead, I puled out my Palm Treo which I have Google Maps installed on. Presto, my problem was solved, almost as fast as if I had been at my desk with a computer. Yes, an iPhone would have told me exactly where I was on the map at the time but guess what? I looked at a street sign and that told me too! Not as cool as the iPhone, but it worked just fine.

Other Useful Smartphone Software

I carry information about clients with me on the road all the time. More than a address book can handle. Enter Excel via Documents to Go on my Treo which can display basic worksheets very well on my Treo. When Excel won’t do, I create PDFs - I use a free PDF print driver on the PC (Cute PDF) and most MAC applications produce PDFs natively. Word documents, web pages and more are available on the road.

Most smartphones can play music, show photos, and even play video - you just have to take the time to discover how. Play around a bit, it will pay off. And yes, you can use the built-in camera to take a picture of your car so that you won’t forget where you parked!

OK, I still really want the iPhone so I can have beautiful photo libraries and movies to show clients. But I think I’m getting good value from my phone and chances are you can make better use of yours.

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Everyone knows more than one person who doesn’t care how they look, and don’t worry what people’s perceptions of them are. The one who dresses down, or inappropriately, and justifies it in private expecting employers to look beyond and focus on what they do, not how they look. They like to point to Steve Jobs and his black turtle and jeans and say “look - Steve doesn’t wear a suit!”

OK, but he wears a very nice turtle. He has very nice jeans. He trims his beard and has a nice hair cut. In business you give impressions, like it or not. If you dress down when expectations are otherwise you are raising a big flag that says “not a team player.” You are also putting yourself first, when in reality you must put the customer first. If you are trying to advance your career you are just shooting yourself in the foot.

Perhaps there are some very liberal employers out there, but chances are that if you think yours in one of them - you are wrong! People are forming opinions behind your back and not sharing them with you. Leaders are doing you a disservice by not addressing it with you for fear of upsetting you.

Your goal if you are reading this site is quite likely to advance your career. You are trying to sell yourself professionally to someone - your superior, another firm, or a client. Accept that people form impressions, even if you disagree with them. Try this instead - dress for the job you want.

When people look around the office for the up and comer they are really looking for the person who already looks like they can handle a job. You probably haven’t done all the things they are looking for yet, so for the easy things you want to make it simple for those making decisions. If you “look” the part you have a leg up on your competition. If you “look” like a person I want to do business with I will look a little closer. Rightly or wrongly, if you don’t look the part, I will probably not give you any more notice.

You are not trying to win a fashion competition though. You do not want to look like you belong on the Board if you have yet to supervise a single person - frankly people will wonder about your ability to budget and allocate resources! You aren’t trying to overtly “one up” people. You are simply trying to look the part and make it clear that you belong on the next rung of the ladder. If everyone walks around all day in shirt and tie - make sure your tie is crisp, your shirt matches, and often even if it isn’t called for - put on a jacket. It does not mean that if your buddy wears Land’s End you need to go Armani. But if your buddy closes the catalogue after shirts - do a little browsing in the jacket department too. Ladies, I’m afraid I’d be making a mistake to try and find a similar comparison, but I trust you can interpret this advice in a similar way.

Set A Goal: Every day next week dress a little beyond where you do today. Put on a jacket, wear a suit. Whatever the standard in your office, exceed it a little.

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