Archive | June, 2009

Cause And Effect – Productivity Is An Action, Not a Result

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Discussions on “productivity” often focus on leverage or other financial management measurements. However, at its core, productivity results from better workload processing behaviors. People are the ones doing the behaving. So, to increase productivity, we must look at how they are managing the flow of work (and other things) during day. Small changes in these behaviors can drive dramatic results.

For example, if an individual increases his/her measured productivity by 1/10 of an hour per day (or 6 minutes), that improvement aggregates to 24 additional hours of production per year. That’s three days of additional production. Or, at $200 an hour, it’s almost $5,000 in increased billings. Multiply that result by the number of people in an organization and the productivity gains are significant.

More importantly, though, is my belief that better workflow/time management practices improve responsiveness, effectiveness and efficiency.

  • Responsiveness is delivering considered advice to a client in a timely fashion.
  • Effectiveness is having a solid handle on what must be done and an accurate understanding of when and how things will get done.
  • Efficiency it increases the amount of work getting done during the same time frame.

These are all key components to building and maintaining solid working relationships with colleagues and clients.

Individual productivity comes down to increasing the amount of time an individual is focusing on the work at hand. To increase focus, the distractions and interruptions that bombard us during the day must be reduced.

For example, one of the most repeated productivity recommendations in today’s world is to turn off the new e-mail notifications received via Microsoft Outlook or other e-mail clients. These new e-mail notifications are self-inflicted distractions allowed under the pretense of responsiveness. The reality is that they slice focus in half and actually reduce productivity.

Allow me to demonstrate my point. The other day I was working with an individual on some other Outlook efficiency settings. She was right in the middle of executing a simple instruction I had given her when a new e-mail notification popped up in the lower right hand corner of her screen. I watched her physically look away from what she was doing with me, review the preview pop up, then look back up at what she and I were doing. I ticked off the seconds in my head between the time she looked away and the time she began completing the simple instruction I had given her. The result was three seconds.

“So what,” you ask? Well, multiply that by even 100 e-mails per day. That aggregates to 300 seconds (or 5 minutes) a day of activity with no associated productivity; nothing happened. You can argue that the e-mail may have been more important than what she was doing with me, which is a fair point. However, even if she’d jumped onto that project, the lost productivity associated with the original distraction would still creep back into her day when she returned to the task we were completing.

I’m not advocating ignoring your e-mail; I’m advocating managing it better. In fact, I think most professionals need to check their e-mail as frequently as necessary, up to two or three times per hour. The point I’m making is that self-inflicted interruptions like these are adversely affecting productivity on both sides of the analysis. Checking e-mail is one thing, but being interrupted every single time one enters an Inbox is an unnecessary and unproductive distraction.

As this small example demonstrates, slight changes in workflow processing behaviors have dramatic effects on productivity. Increasing productivity improves responsiveness, effectiveness and efficiency. When achieved, the result is greater satisfaction – for you, your colleagues and your clients.

Great Delegation Skills

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Executives and professionals all delegate work. Leveraging others’ skill sets through delegation is a critical-path management tool for these individuals. Getting the right work to the right people who have enough time is the key to the efficient and effective completion of projects. Yet many people are poor delegators of work. Why that is and ways to improve your delegation skills follow.

Delegation Roadblocks

There are numerous reasons why people don’t delegate work or don’t delegate it well, including:

  • Individualists. Many are individualists and don’t tend to play well with others. Most high achievers focused and relied on their own efforts to succeed. Delegation requires the acceptance of a team environment and many high achievers  just aren’t accustomed to that way of thinking.
  • Fear. Many fear delegation because: (a) it questions their value if another can do the work, and (b) the delegator is exposed to negative consequences if the delegatee fails to accomplish the work properly. As for (a), your own worth is tied to your work product, not the stack of work on your desk. As for (b) the process detailed below will minimize the risk of failure.
  • Financial. Many believe that if they give away the work, their compensation will be adversely affected. The reality is that leveraging the skills of others allows the delegator to engage in other value-added activities, including higher value work, business development, etc.
  • Inexperience. As mentioned above, many lack experience when it comes to delegating properly. Experience comes from doing, so we’ll focus on that.

Delegation Framework

Here are some methods to improve your delegation skills.

  • Organize Your Work. You can’t possibly delegate work effectively or efficiently if you don’t have your own house in order. The “messy desk is a sign of a great mind” cliché is just that – a cliché. This article doesn’t address professional hygiene, but there are numerous resources available to those that need this assistance. The bottom line is: Get Organized!
  • What Can Be Delegated? Determine what components or projects can be delegated. Factors in this decision include skill set(s) required to accomplish tasks, interest or challenge in the work, and best use of available personnel. For example, a routine filing can be delegated, as can an ancillary deposition, but a key merger negotiation cannot.Like all skills, practice makes perfect. Though the list of steps above seems long, the steps are logically interconnected and flow easily once you acclimate yourself to the process. Improving your delegation skills will greatly improve both your own work and those of the people with whom you work.
  • To Whom Can it Be Delegated? Staff members can handle repetitive, easily completed tasks. Newer subordinates can handle more substantive work, provided the requisite skills have been developed. More advanced employees should handle less defined elements of a project and those that require application of more advanced critical thinking skills. Note: one factor to consider is the need to bring newer people along, so make sure everyone is challenged a little.
  • Define the Project Deliverables and Deadlines. One of the worst delegation mistakes work givers make is to ineffectively define what is expected from the delegatee. What may seem obvious to you is not so obvious to a less experienced individual. The same holds true for deadlines. It’s likely that you weren’t always able to complete projects in an efficient manner . Less experienced people need more time to become efficient. Give them specific and reasonable guidance on your expectations.
  • Estimate the Time the Delegated Task Should Take. Providing the delegatee an estimate of how long a task should take sets parameters around the task, as well as provides them a yardstick to use while doing the work.
  • Align Your Attitude/Expectations. This goes hand-in-hand with the last two points. Remember, it’s almost always more efficient for you to simply do the work yourself. However, there are only so many working hours in the day. Aligning your expectations with the work and the person to whom you’re delegating it will return a much better result for you both.
  • Schedule Enough Time to Meet. The better you explain the work, its background, and your expectations the first time, the fewer mistakes that will be made and the less repetition that will occur. If your delegatee walks out of your office with a sound understanding of the task(s), the better able they are to complete it without further assistance from you.
  • Delegate Ownership. Don’t have your delegatee come back at every step. Let them know that you want them to make decisions on their own. If they truly have a question they can’t figure out, you can always assist them, but challenge them to work through the problem on their own.
  • Obtain Feedback for Confirmation. When discussing the project, make sure you’re getting feedback that confirms that they understand what you’re saying. Similarly, feed back to them what you’re hearing to ensure you understand what they’re saying.
  • Engage in Progress Updates. Make time to check in on the progress of the project. This is especially true if the project is more involved. Just confirming for the delegatee that you’re interested in their progress will: (a) give them a greater sense of pride in the work and (b) provide ample opportunity to facilitate the work being performed.
  • Debrief if Appropriate. It’s always a good idea to debrief with the person you assigned work to if the project merits it. What went well? What could have gone better? These are opportune moments to greatly improve both the work product and the working relationships.

Like all skills, practice makes perfect. Though the list of steps above seems long, the steps are logically interconnected and flow easily once you acclimate yourself to the process. Improving your delegation skills will greatly improve both your own practice and those of the people with whom you work.

Productivity Makes Rain – No-Cost Marketing During A Downturn

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Issue

Whether productivity drives new business.

Rule

Clients use and refer professionals they know will be the most responsive, effective, and efficient – all components of productivity. This is especially true during business slow downs.

Application

Productivity drives new business because it increases your responsiveness, effectiveness, and efficiency in the following ways.

Responsiveness

Clients use and refer professionals who are responsive. Responsiveness is something more than, ”I’ll take a look at it A.S.A.P.” It’s a substantive communication that informs the recipient, e.g., ”I’ve reviewed the materials you sent and advise you to…” To be more responsive you must increase your focus by reducing distractions and interruptions. This allows you to spend more time producing meaningful responses for your clients. Here are several specific suggestions that will reduce your distractions and interruptions:

1. Turn New E-mail Notifications Off. E-mail is the boon and bane of modern productivity. It’s a vital communication channel, but it never stops coming! Allowing yourself to be constantly interrupted and distracted every time a new e-mail arrives in your Inbox is the equivalent of having the mail person enter your office every two minutes to drop things on your desk. It’s killing your productivity. Turning off the new email notice allows you to remain focused on the matter in front of you. Here are the steps:

  • In Outlook*, click on Tools, then Options.
  • On the Preferences Tab, select E-mail Options.
  • Click on Advanced E-mail Options.
  • Under “When new items arrive in my Inbox,” uncheck:
    1. Play a sound.
    2. Briefly change the mouse cursor.
    3. Display a new e-mail desktop alert.
  • Click on OK, OK, OK.

* Other e-mail programs have similar steps to turn off the new e-mail notification.

Check your Inbox several times an hour to stay abreast of what’s arriving and needs your attention.

2. Face Away From the Door. Most office configurations have the desk chair facing the door. Given today’s open door policies, this is hugely distracting because your attention is constantly directed towards any motion passing in the hallway. Re-arrange your office so you are not facing the door. By doing so, you will reduce those unnecessary interruptions. This works in two ways. Your eye doesn’t catch the movement and the people passing by see you are working.

3. Silence Your Handheld Device. We have become enslaved to our PDAs. One of the greatest self-imposed distractions we create is having the various notification sounds and vibrations set to the “on” position. There is nothing worse than having one of those notifications erupting right in the middle of a conversation or during a concentrated work moment. Do yourself and others a favor, turn most, if not all, of those notifications off and check the device at regular intervals – to see what needs attending.

Effectiveness

Clients use and refer professionals who get things done. Effectiveness is the measure of that ability. You can increase your effectiveness by developing a workflow system that helps you better manage and act on your e-mail and other tasks. Suggestions include:

1. Disciplined Triaging. The way you triage your incoming stuff, electronic and physical, is a terrific place to increase productivity. Most people handle things in a fairly ad hoc manner, dealing with them as they arrive. Ad hoc triaging is very ineffective and distracting. Instead, place the newly arrived items in a predetermined location a designated inbox. That way you can periodically work through what’s there in a concerted manner. Your e-mail Inbox already does that for you with e-mail. Now, you can do the same with a physical inbox. The corollary for this tip is to make decisions when triaging instead of deferring them. This applies to items in both your physical and electronic inboxes. The vast majority of people defer decisions while looking through their workload; i.e., “I’ll deal with that later” or “I’ll handle that later.” That’s activity without productivity; nothing is being accomplished, but time is being spent cycling through the work. The better behavior is to decide specifically what needs to be done, who owns the next action item, and when you need to be reminded about it again. Then you can move that matter to a staging area (away from your designated work area) to be reviewed when the “reminder” date you set for it arrives.

2. Schedule Small Blocks of Open Time Just Before and Just After Meetings. You or your assistant can take better control of your schedule. Start and end times in calendaring software can generally be changed incrementally, so don’t schedule things back to back. Leave 5 to 15 minutes before and after meetings open so you can debrief on the prior meeting and prepare for the upcoming one. By jotting down some final notes about the meeting you just left, you not only memorialize the details about that meeting, you also enter the next meeting with a clear mind ready to focus on the subject at hand.

3. CC Yourself on Every E-mail You Send. There are two benefits here. First, you are announcing to the recipient that you are actively tracking this item on your end. You will be surprised at how many people you work with rely on you to remind them of the work you have given them. By copying yourself on the original e-mail, they will take note of your new tracking system and will likely respond in kind by doing the work without the need for an additional reminder.

Second, and more importantly, by copying yourself on e-mails you send to others, you can triage them properly when they arrive back in your e-mail inbox. This works better than periodically searching through your Sent folder because the Sent folder contains numerous e-mails that don’t require further attention, which makes doing so unnecessarily time-consuming.

Efficiency

Clients use and refer professionals who produce results in an efficient manner. When you control your workflow, instead of being controlled by it, you are more efficient. Not only does more get done, it gets done at a reduced cost to your client. Look for small ways to increase your efficiency so the aggregate effect is high. For example:

1. Open Next/Previous Item in E-mail. Most Outlook* users use their Inbox as a collection spot through which they rummage for important items. Many leave the Reading Pane on to assist in this methodology. The result is a ping-pong type of activity with the user bouncing from one e-mail to the next searching for the next action item. As noted above, this results in a lot of activity without much productivity and a lot of deferred decision making. By turning off the Reading Pane (View, Reading Pane, Off) and replacing it with an Open the Next Item or Open the Previous Item setting, you can work through each e-mail as you first open it. The result is you are deciding what to do with each e-mail as you go, deleting the trash, filing away the archival and reference materials, and leaving just the work in the Inbox. Here are the settings:

  • Click on Tools, then Options, and select the E-mail Options button in the first tab (Preferences) area.
  • At the top right of that box is a drop-down menu; click on the down-arrow and select either Open Next Item or Open Previous Item depending on whether you (a) read your e-mail from the top down (Open Next Item) or (b) read your e-mail from the bottom up (Open Previous Item).
  • Select OK and OK.

* Other e-mail programs have similar steps.

2. Physical Inbox/Outbox Placement. If you have a designated inbox and outbox, chances are you have them placed right on the corner of your desk or somewhere very nearby. If you don’t have a designated inbox and/or outbox, chances are your desk top or chair serves those functions. Either way, the result is that people coming in to place things in or take things out of them are causing you a fair amount of unnecessary interruption and distraction.

First, make sure you have specifically designated areas for things coming in (the inbox) and things going out (the outbox). Second, place them at the end of the credenza/bookcase nearest your door or somewhere similar. It will make access to them easy for everyone and greatly reduce the level of interruption/distraction you suffer when someone is using them. Moreover, you can spot-check it on your way in and out of your workspace.

3. One Subject Per E-mail. One of the mistakes we make with e-mail is trying to cram too much into each one. Since they’re free to send and receive, place just one subject into each e-mail. That allows the recipient(s) to focus on one thing at a time. Moreover, details about one matter won’t get confused with details about another matter. Part of effective communication is clarity. Adopting the one subject per e-mail rule communicates much more clearly and will enhance efficiency.

Conclusion

During economic downturns, productivity is an especially valuable tool in retaining existing clients, in producing new work from them, and in securing highly valuable referrals. Implementing the suggestions above will help you increase productivity and develop more business.

The Ebb & Flow of Balance

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

One recurring theme we all face is balancing the demands of their career with those of our personal lives. These are often juxtaposed against each other, leaving a Hobson’s choice. Because each situation is unique, it is cavalier to suggest a list of pre-packaged solutions. Instead, this article will frame an alternative conceptual paradigm and provide some day-to-day coping methods within this new context.

Paradigm At Issue

Though this may be obvious to many of you, the premise of balance is too simplistic to describe the working world in the third millennium. That is, to balance something, pros and cons must be determined. Good must be offset against bad, and rarely is work categorized as good.

And that’s the rub. Work shouldn’t have to be bad. In fact, given the amount of effort that it takes to develop a career, work should be a positive factor in your life whenever possible.

Moreover, as your career continues to develop, what is important to you professionally and personally will change. Therefore, you will constantly be reassessing what a balanced lifestyle means. Thus, the work versus personal dichotomy never ceases.

The paradigm is simply inadequate.

And A River Runs Through It

Now consider a flowing river. Its rate depends on gradient, its current on topography. The steeper the hill or narrower the path, the faster the river flows. The larger the rocks or more ragged the riverbed, the choppier the water. Wide, slow areas are tranquil. Steep, boulder-strewn stretches are a cacophony of sound and water.

Life flows in much the same way. There are periods of high activity, as well as miles of reflective opportunity, and who knows what awaits us around the next bend.

Navigating this constantly changing environment requires some forethought and perspective management. Life is a long-term proposition and proper alignment should always be a primary objective. Several factors play into managing your alignment, including your familial situation, your career goals, your workload, and any civic and other non-professional obligations you have undertaken. If you focus on where you want to be 100 yards down stream and initiate the steps you need to align yourself with that goal, you will find greater satisfaction in your life.

Fine Tuning

Staying attuned to your immediate situation always facilitates obtaining longer term objectives. Here are several ways to maintain satisfaction on a day-to-day basis.

  • Mandatory Personal Time. The very first thing that gets lost in our hectic worlds is time for ourselves. This is not necessarily time to ourselves, rather it’s time for ourselves. Time to do whatever you choose. Start small – during one hour every week, do something you want to do. Spend it alone, spend it with your spouse or your child or children, spend it with a friend, even spend it with man’s best friend. Don’t give that hour away. If you find you need more, schedule another hour, and so on until you find the right mix. You’ll likely be more productive during your other hours knowing that your personal one is coming soon.
  • Manage Your Technology. Don’t let technology dictate your time. If you don’t know how to use it effectively and efficiently, then make time to learn how. Every hour you spend learning technology will return several fold to you when utilizing it. Similarly, if you’re a whiz at, but overwhelmed with technology, remember the single most important fact about any modern technology is the OFF button.
  • Quiet Time. Remember naptime in pre-school? This is probably the single greatest self-help tool ever invented. Whether you nap, meditate, or just sit quietly for a few minutes, find a solitary place (and many places will do) and take a quick 10-minute break. Close your eyes; let the stresses of the day wash out of you, relax and re-energize. Then get on with it.
  • Define Your Space. Experts disagree about whether it’s better to segregate your professional and personal lives or integrate them. Try one method, but do it intentionally. Drive your lifestyle; don’t let others or circumstance drive it for you. At least if you’re at the helm you can steer the ship.

Throughout your professional career, you will be pressed to make time allocation decisions. The frantic pace of the world is not likely to slow any time soon, so never forget that career/personal satisfaction is an important objective. Implement some simple processes to protect yours!