Get Some Time Back in Your Day

Two of my favorite productivity and time management experts are hosting free learning experiences this week.

Jason Womack: Goal Setting, this Friday 5/22, from 10:15am-10:45am Central. Click here for details on this free session. NOTE: Jason was a recent guest on my People and Projects Podcast. Click here to listen to the interview.

Dave Crenshaw: Author of The Myth of Multitasking, this Friday 5/22, from 4:00pm-5:00pm Central. Click here to register for the free session. NOTE: Dave was my guest on the People and Projects Podcast back in February. Click here to listen to the interview.

Enjoy!

Labels: learning, podcast, time management

posted by Andy at 6:16 PM  

"Develop Your Skills? Hey, You're Just Lucky to Have a Job!"

I recall speaking at a national sales meeting back in early 2002 (a difficult time for many companies who were still digging out from 9/11). I hung out for a while afterwards for a meet and greet and decided to stay for the next session, which was led by the VP of Sales. He started talking about the new commission structure, which was clearly not being embraced by the sales team. In frustration the VP eventually blurted out, "Hey, if you don't like this--go get a job somewhere else! You're lucky to have a job!"

That'll rally the troops!

During difficult times, it's easy to fall into the trap of neglecting our teams: dropping the priority of developing our people under the presumption of "they're lucky to have a job and won't go elsewhere." I'm not advocating we put up with whining over difficult changes that need to be made. Rather, I'm talking about managers who don't keep employee development a priority because they think "they don't have to" or "can't" during difficult economic times.

Stephanie Overby wrote a nice piece in a recent CIO Magazine issue entitled Forging Good Leaders in Bad Times. I particularly appreciated contributions by Dr. Karen Sobel-Lojeski: "Leaders are developing whether you want them to or not. The question is: Do we want to be aware of that and guide that in a conscious way?"

Toyota CIO Barbra Cooper added a point we emphasize in our leadership development keynotes and workshops: "I try to take advantage of everyday events—problems or personnel issues—and turn them into real-time learning opportunities." Leadership development training is happening all around us, every day, if we pay attention.

Add this article to your list to read this week. And contact us to learn how we can help you develop your teams. We can do so effectively without capsizing your budget! Even as you work to keep your business afloat during these stormy times, remember that everyone wins when you develop your people. When the ill winds pass (and they will), your organization well be better positioned than ever to take advantage of new opportunities.

Labels: appreciation, executives, leadership, teambuilding, teams

posted by Andy at 8:45 AM  

Distraction Turns To Tragedy

Motorcyclist Fatally Struck by Car; Cops Say Other Driver Painting Nails

That was the headline in our local paper Sunday morning after a tragic accident the day before. The outrage continues to pour in, especially when it appears the nail-painting driver will only be charged with "failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident."

My guess is there will be additional fines and litigation against the offending driver. Yet I suppose the most painful sentence for her will be living with the result of her lack of attention. One comment on a discussion board mentioned the driver is a nurse: someone who helps save lives. In a split second, for no good reason, she ended one.

The discussion boards on local news sites are filled with "lock her up for life!" sort of judgments. My first reaction to the tragedy was similar: "What a loser! Painting her nails?"

And yet I couldn't help but be reminded of one of Jesus' comments about someone who had obviously made a mistake as well: "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her."

How often will I text someone (while I'm driving) that I'm running a couple minutes late? Or scroll through a list of names to make a call? Or twirl the selector on my iPod to find the podcast I want to listen to? Or eat? Or review some notes before a meeting? Or shave?

Or [fill in the blank]? The answer: too often.

I've posted about attention and distraction a number of times and discussed it on my podcast with the author of The Myth of Multitasking. We are a culture of distracted multitaskers. The data clearly indicate it's not just the phone or iPod or nail polishing that impairs our driving. Reaching across the car to grab a bottle of water can make the difference between stopping now or a half-second too late.

I understand that many of us fancy ourselves as great multitaskers, and certainly some seem better than others. But brain science increasingly makes it clear that we are fooling ourselves: "To put it bluntly, research shows that we can't multitask. We are biologically incapable of processing attention-rich inputs simultaneously," says Dr. John Medina, author of Brain Rules. He goes on:

"Cell-phone talkers are a half-second slower to hit the brakes in emergencies, slower to return to normal speed after an emergency, and more wild in their 'following distance' behind the vehicle in front of them. In a half-second, a driver going 70 mph travels 51 feet. Given that 80% of crashes happen within three seconds of some kind of driver distraction, increasing your amount of task-switching increases your risk of an accident. More than 50% of the visual cues spotted by attentive drivers are missed by cell-phone talkers. Not surprisingly, they get in more wrecks than anyone except very drunk drivers."

This isn't just an issue on the road. People are distracted by e-mail in meetings. Managers try to draft something on their computer while having a one-on-one with a staff member. Noises from a cubicle next door make it difficult to focus on your work. Thankfully the results are not typically as tragic as someone dying, but there is a toll nonetheless.

Our local paper's editorial board had a good response this morning: "Don't _____ and Drive"

That's good advice for the road. And it can be a good reminder for us all to manage our distractions more aggressively as we go through our day today.

P.S. As I was finishing this post up this morning, my 12-year old son wanted to talk. I found myself bouncing between the conversation and this post. How ironic. I had to turn away from the keyboard and focus on him. Otherwise the likelihood of him feeling I wasn't listening (and a typo showing up in this post) would have dramatically risen. Here's to less distractions in your day today!

Labels: denial, mistakes, multitasking, podcast, reality, time management

posted by Andy at 7:41 AM  

Training the Darth Sidious Way

This week I facilitated leadership training with participants from across North America as well as Europe. Each day we had a different group of people join us in Chicago, which means someone from the U.K. would spend more time getting to and from the session than they would in the actual training itself.

Every indication was that people loved the classes. But I couldn't help but think about the time issue....

Think about how much time we waste... Waiting. Commuting. Hurrying up....just to wait.

Remember in the Star Wars movies when Darth Sidious would pop into a discussion as a hologram for a little pep talk with Darth Vadar? How different would things be if we had such technology? How would that change the way we look at business, meetings, office layouts, even cities?

What would the impact be to the travel industry? Training? Whatever industry you are in?

I've not shown up in a hologram yet but I've presented in meetings using state-of-the-art video conferencing technology (sometimes referred to as telepresence). It's impressive now but just a shadow of where things are headed.

I enjoyed watching this clip from a Cisco meeting where John Chambers has an on-stage holographic conversation with two guys who are 14,000 miles away. Even if you only watch the first couple minutes it will give you a sense that the technology might not be, well, light years away!

By the way, if you want to invest in your own skills (and those of your team) yet don't have much time or money, check out our e-learning offerings! It's the next best thing to beaming me to your office!

Labels: e-learning, innovation, time management

posted by Andy at 9:14 PM