Working Smart

Another good article (despite the title which I fear may send people down the wrong mental path)

Please Stop Complaining About How Busy You Are - Meredith Fineman - Harvard Business Review

 

The main message; that there is a distinction between working hard versus smart, is spot on.. But there's more depth to be had in this article than than a glib statement of the obvious.

I'll paraphrase, but one of the best observations Meredith makes is that she used to be a swot and that she used to diligently grind through all the detail:

One of my greatest lessons as a businessperson has been to throw out that skill set. This isn't to say you shouldn't be diligent or that you should half-heartedly execute, but rather, that it's crucial to know what you have to do as opposed to everything you could do. It's about being strategic.

Work smarter - not harder is about unlearning some of the skills and habits that made us successful, that got us so far, but will actually hold us back if we don't adapt.

 

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Using the work planing process in your own life

STP and MTP

Acronyms such as STP (Short Term Plan) and MTP (Medium Term Plan) exist within nearly every Financial Services company I have worked within.
STP is the short term outlook, usually 12 to 18 months at most. It is this plan than is usually the most relevant measure of 'success' in terms of your personal performance. For example:

• Are you achieving the impairment targets by month for the FY13 (Full year 2013)
• Are you achieving your utilisation etc

For years I diligently tracked my Work performance against these measures weekly, monthly and quarterly. Making sure I was on track, forecasting where I would land and making course corrections along the way as necessary. But not once did I ever do the obvious... Why not follow the same cycle for my *personal* objectives.
The relentless STP and MTP cycle within my work life is a mirror to the same process I should be going through in me personal life.

1. Setting my strategic direction and choosing what makes sense to target in the short term and medium term
2. Setting specific, measurable targets that can be tracked and forecasted
3. Stress testing the plan (What happens if the scenarios change for the worse)
4. Having a time once a year to go through this entire process bottom up
5. Having time regularly to track performance and communicate to stakeholders about the risks and opportunities
6. Having time once a year to formally look back and RATE the actual performance. What went well, what are the strengths or weaknesses. What areas need to be invested in to stay on track with the longer term objectives?

So now I do the obvious thing. As I go through this cycle in work - I go through it in parallel in my personal life

The Personal STP 

Setting my strategic direction and choosing what makes sense to target in the short term and medium term

In GTD terms this is a the yearly 40k feet view. What do I want to achieve (what is my personal strategic direction?) Basically - what will make me happy?

This list (Or 'Strategic Direction') is written down and analysed. 

(I would show you but it's deeply personal! :p)

Setting specific, measurable targets that can be tracked and forecasted

How can I ensure that on those cold, dark mornings when it's raining that I'm getting out of bed and making some progress towards those lofty 40k feet dreams? Is this gym session 42 of 60? Is this the day when I'm going to achieve a personal best for "Fran"? Is this the day when a significant other and I are going to move in together? Basically when I go to sleep at night how can I say to myself "yes, today I did indeed inch closer to objective X?"

Ironically I think this sort of measurement is SO much easier in work related situations. Did we achieve impairment target of YM? Yes - in fact we outperformed by 20%. Fantastic!! Big warm feeling. The trick is coming up with something similar in a personal context.

The real trick is this measurement, tracking and forecast is the PUSH and PULL to get me to stumble, at least mostly, in the 'right' direction - especially when I don't want to.

Stress testing the plan (What happens if the scenarios change for the worse

On those really, really dark days. Sometimes a win is a small as "Did I NOT get into a fight" or "Did I at least make it to the gym even if it was a rubbish session". Small steps count some days.

Planning in advance for 'Stress' is productive. This is along the lines of "What if this happens... What would I do?"

This helps with both the 'control' aspect and the 'is that really important to me if I'm totally honest aspect'.

I have some idea what I would do if I lost my job, if I needed to drop everything to look after that friend or if the zombie apocalypse happens.

But I can also honestly say - when it comes down to it, in the total extreme... Who or what is important to me.

If my life was burning to the ground, what would I go back into the flames to save? To me, those things and ONLY those things go into my MTP.

Having a time once a year to go through this entire process bottom up

Once a year. I delete my Omnifocus personal projects and start this process again. Its cathartic. If it's important my STP / MTP will end up in a similar state. If it's not important then then it's gone.

You don't care if a business strategy is dropped? Why should you care if a rubbish personal strategy is dropped? This is the time to really embrace that mindset.

Having time regularly to track performance and communicate to stakeholders about the risks and opportunities

In work we ALWAYS have to tell somebody on a VERY REGULAR basis how we're performing. When it;s going badly it sucks (I would imagine ;p)

The same discipline should carry into personal STP / MTP. You REPORT your progress. Good or bad. Probably to yourself but ideally to your significant other (I would imagine ;p). If you deserve a kicking, take the kicking and get better. If you're being a hero, bask in the glory.

If you don't measure and report your progress. You drift off course.

Having time once a year to formally look back and RATE the actual performance. What went well, what are the strengths or weaknesses. What areas need to be invested in to stay on track with the longer term objectives?

To me this one is mostly negatives. I rate my end of year performance. What did I do well - great, why didn't you do more. What did you do badly, no excuses but why is that acceptable? What is holding you back (or who?) - why didn't you drop them.

It's not a pleasant process. But I think it's necessary... This is why I sync it to business review periods. It works well for me in terms of reminding me I need to do it AND it usually gives me a kick up the backside to draw a line in the sand, to stop procrastinating and to make the hard decisions.




And then the cycle repeats again and again... Grinding out results

Course Correction

Dealing with Managers who need ‘Course Correction’

Course correction.

In this sense I am referring to dealing with Managers that do not appear to know quite where they are going with work. It’s a polite term for the Manager who doesn’t have a clue, who hasn’t got things straight with *their* manager and is therefore firing work blind or the Manager who is working in an environment that is changing rapidly but hasn’t managed to tell you the goal posts have moved

You know you’re in this situation when one or more of the following situations occurs:

1. You do a piece of work and your boss whips out a tonne of obstacles you knew nothing about but they knew about for months
2. You do a piece of work but your line manager argues over very small details that were previously not identified as critical to success
3. You do a piece of work but your line manager is not interested

Why call this ‘course correction’? In the ideal world you, your manager, your team, your business etc would all be going in the same direction aligned to those objectives that we all spend so much time avoiding
In the real world. There is never perfect alignment (correction there is rarely perfect alignment) and the best thing you can do *personally* is chase after those people that are responsible for your end of year rating and make sure you’re at least going in the same general direction as them

I'll publish a series of posts:

• Setting the Course
• In Flight Course Correction

Bottom line. No matter what the cause - the best way to protect *yourself* is to plan to ‘Course Correct’

The principle is as follows:
You increase the number of times you check in with your manager and say quite explicitly ‘Hey Boss, this is what I’ve got on, this is where I was thinking I was going with them and by the way are you happy with this’

Note. This is arguably little different than you normal practice... The emphasis here is consciously *increase* your normal good practice to the point where the risk of getting

The following method is based directly upon the GTD model. But I include specific examples of the tools (and why I advocate you do it this way)

Let’s start with a worked example

I’m in a meeting with my Line Manager about something terrible interesting. During this meeting there is a tangental conversation and the following conversation happens
Line Manager: Hi, yes this sounds like a great project and I’ll allocate Howe to do that. Howe - you ok with that
Me: Yep sure

This is what I do next.

I add ‘Project X’ to my Project List
I totally forget about Project X

Every day I have a list of actions that I complete. They are:

1. Action: Review my Calendar
2. Action: Review my ‘Waiting for ...’ list
3. Action: Review my list of calls / emails / texts that I needed to make.
4. Action: Process my ‘Action Log’
5. Action: Review my ‘Project List

Action: Review my Calendar

What meetings have I got in my diary today (that’s where I spend most of my time/ attention and what meetings are up coming)

Action: Review my ‘Waiting for ...’ list

Who and what am I waiting for to come back to me? Do I need to stop waiting and chase them? Is what I’m waiting for still relevant / important (if it’s not - I delete it) Basically do I need to chase anything

Action: Review my list of calls / emails / texts that I needed to make.

I don’t make those calls or send those emails.. I’m just making sure the list is good so that I can plough through it all later. I add or delete to these list quickly and move on

Action: Process my ‘Action Log’

This is my ‘inbox’ of actions assigned to me. Do I need to do them? Can I drop them? If they are really REALLY quick (i.e. it will definatley take less time to do the action than file it) then do it
If these actions are not really, really quick I file them onto a separate actions list that relates to the ‘why the hell am I doing this’ i.e. I move them onto the project actions list

Action: Review my ‘Project List’

This is a list of projects that I am committed to (Ideally I want to do them, but in reality they include those projects allocated to me)
I review this list and check:

• Do I know why I am doing this project? No really - why am I doing this project?
• Do I know what this project will look like when it’s finished? i.e. Umm. When does this project STOP?
• Is there a next action. There only needs to be one, there could be more and I might jot a few down but I am not spending my time planning the perfect project. I’m simply making sure that if there is a project that I’m resonsible for I know that at the very least I know what the NEXT thing I need to do about it is

Why Is It Here?

It’s at this point that I probably stumble accorss Project X again. I hadn’t thought about it since that meeting it was allocated to me
There are NO next actions. I havn’t thought of any... It’s at this point I do need to ask myself

• Do I know what I’m doing this project? Where does it fit into my objectives?
• Do I know what this project will look like when it’s finished?

The answer could very well be ‘No’.
That despite a lot of head scratching and navel gazing I conclude that I don’t have a clue why I’m doing this. The next action is simple
Speak With my Boss about Project X re the objective and what this project will look like when it’s finished. I’d probably (because it’s really really quick) send the following email:

Hi Boss, hope you’re good

I would like 20 mins of your time to discuss project X. I was just reviewing my active projects and conclude I’m not totally clear on the objectives or the deliverables for Project X. Would like to have your thoughts before commencing work.

Does this time suit?

Thanks and Regads

Howe

The answer could very well be. I totally and utterly understand what Project X is and why I’m doing it. The next action is simple
Speak With my Boss about Project X re the objective and what this project will look like when it’s finished. I’d probably (because it’s really really quick) send the following email:

Hi Boss, hope you’re good
I would like 20 mins of your time to discuss project X. I was just reviewing my active projects and have a very good idea on the objectives and deliverables for Project X. Would like to have your thoughts before commencing work.

Does this time suit?

Thanks and Regads

Howe

Yes. Practically the same email. The process here is to think about and documemt these questions:

• Do I know what I’m doing this project?
• Where does it fit into my objectives?
• Do I know what this project will look like when it’s finished?
• Speak With your line manager to ‘Set the course’ i.e. clarify both of our perspectives and to document the outcome

The Course is now ‘Set’

It’s immediatley after the course is set that you need to think about how much defense against course correction should you plan for

Factors that might influence this:

• The culture of the company. If it’s a ‘stab you in the back every chance we get’ I’d advocate turn the dial to 12 on course correction planning - if it’s gregarious and trusting turn it down to a number that’s less

Some observations:

Course correction is NOT:

• Lazy. It takes more time and effort to implement
• A method for not doing work. I am NOT advocating being the ‘Teflon’ Manager here - this apporach is not about delegating all work up or throwing work into committess to allow it to stall. It’s about being fast, making decisions and delivering high quality work with the extra focus upon designing IN protection to make sure that the rug isn’t pulled out from beneath your feet by others
• “Wasting your bosses time”

 

Posted with Blogsy

Two mins on the positive impact of GTD workflow

My two minutes on this topic

Before adopting a GTD approach although I felt was very effective I was constantly stressed. My head was constantly busy

GTD allows me to dump a lot of my work into a trusted system. When it works I'm super efficient and very relaxed

Don't get me wrong. I fall fall off the wagon occasionally - but I've learned that that's ok. It's reasonable easy to get back on

Add this to approach to a team. We're all more productive, less stressed and hopefully have a little more fun

Yes. I still work too hard. Yes I still do too many hours and yes my life isn't perfect. But I do know it's better for GTD

GTD probably allows me to cope with the bad stuff more effectively. The bumps aren't so bad

My workflow tools

• MacBook Pro
• iPad2 (not the fatPad)
• iPhone4 (5 when that comes out)
• Omnifocus for Mac
• Omnifocus for iOS
• Evernote
• Omnioutliner
• Omniplan
• Omnigraffle