Smart Stuff 4 Work

Already Abandoned Your Resolutions…Who Cares?

2012-01-27T10:10:00-06:00

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Most people have about as much success following through with New Year’s resolutions as they do trying to lick their elbow. So, like many, perhaps you resolved to get more organized in 2012…and like most, you’ve already abandoned your resolve.

Who cares? Now you have a choice. You can whine about it, feel guilty about it…or you can do something about it.

This very short book outlines 10 simple steps you can implement over a 10-day period. The steps are so easy, it’s not worth formalizing a new resolution. Just read the ideas and give them a try!

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Cookies, History And Business

2012-01-26T09:59:00-06:00

Recently, I rekindled my interest in world history to prepare for a new book project. If you reflect on history, things have unfolded much like the events in the children’s book “If You Give a Mouse a Cookie.”

Just in case you missed the mouse-getting-a-cookie book, here is a brief summary of the plot: A kid gives a mouse a cookie, the cookie creates the desire for a glass of milk, then a straw, then a napkin, then a mirror, then scissors, then a broom and so on and so forth. Basically, the cookie launches an ongoing series of perceived needs for something else.

As for history, the universe was formed about 13.75 billion years ago. Then about 4.5 billion years ago, some of the gases produced during the formation of the universe cooled down enough to coalesce into Earth. And then a lot of other stuff happened over the next 4.49 million years.

Okay, that brings us up to about 10,000 years ago. That’s when a mouse-getting-a-cookie-like event occurred with humans. About 10,000 years ago, humans invented agriculture – and it was like giving a mouse a cookie. Before that, humans primarily hunted and gathered. They typically kept hunting and gathering until they depleted their local ecosystem; then they picked up and moved on to new territories.

For many reasons, not the least of which was the fact that it was getting harder to find a new place to hunt and gather, some innovative-minded humans decided to look for a new gig to replace hunting and gathering. So they domesticated crops and animals and added farming to their bag of survival tricks. That was a cookie-getting event in history. Not only did humans survive, they prospered.

Due to this prosperity, the number of humans inhabiting Earth started growing exponentially (farming could easily support more people than hunting and gathering). Farmers could hang out in one place and get their job done, so villages began growing. Then villages needed some form of government to coordinate things among the growing population of humans who did not always agree on everything. Then people and villages began accumulating wealth. Then villages grew into empires. Some empires began attacking others to plunder their wealth. Empires needed military organizations to protect their wealth (or to attack others). I could go on and on about how one thing leads to another, but you get the point.

OK, what can we learn from this that can help us in our businesses? Pay close attention to cookie-like events that might trigger new needs and desires. For example, read the daily news with a mouse-getting-a-cookie mentality. Scan the news every day and think: How are the events unfolding in the business community going to create business opportunities for me? Or, how might events cause a decrease in demand for some of my products and services?

That’s enough for now. I think I need a cookie.

Article by Chris Crouch from Memphis Daily News.

Smart Stuff 4 Work is written by Chris Crouch. Chris has spent years researching and studying both the mental and physical aspects of being productive and is the author of several books on the topic including Getting More Done, Getting Organized, and Being Productive. He is also the developer of the GO System, a training course for improving workplace productivity.

Draw Line To Prevent Overloading

2012-01-19T10:14:23-06:00

What if by simply drawing a line you could reduce the suffering and anguish of thousands and save lives in the process? Wouldn’t you think it was a good idea?

In 1874, seafarer Samuel Plimsoll did just that. Plimsoll found a way to prevent ships from being overloaded and sinking under the weight of excess cargo. Literally thousands of lives were saved because Plimsoll Lines, indicating the maximum vessel load capacity, were painted on the sides of ships. Given today’s overloaded workplaces and lifestyles, we can learn a lot from Plimsoll’s approach. We can learn to draw a line indicating our maximum capacity and prevent the negative effects of personal overloading.

When it comes to matters of staying afloat, a brief review of Archimedes’ principle is in order. Archimedes discovered that a body immersed in a fluid is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the displaced fluid. Apply this to the world of shipping and the consequences of overloading are clear. Ships sink when they weigh more than the water they displace. As seafaring commerce developed in the 1800s, insurance coverage on the ships and cargo often enticed ship owners to significantly overload their ships. If the ships arrived safely, the payoff was greater for the more heavily loaded ships. If the ships sank, insurance covered the loss. Unfortunately, the cargo on many of these ships happened to be human beings. Thousands of people lost their lives on these dangerous voyages. Eventually the general public became concerned enough about the loss of crafts, crew and passengers that British Parliament was forced to appoint a committee to investigate the growing number of sinking ships.

Enter Samuel Plimsoll, a member of British Parliament. Plimsoll’s solution was stunningly simple. He proposed that a mark or line be painted on the sides of all ships to indicate the limit to which the vessel could be legally loaded. If the weight and buoyancy of the ship caused it to dip below the line, referred to as the Plimsoll Line, the ship could not set sail. It is estimated that this line, still used today, saved countless lives since the late 1800s.

So here we are in the 21st century. Most of us don't live anywhere near the sea. What can we learn from the Plimsoll Line Story? We can acknowledge that consistently overloading a workday makes no more sense than overloading a seagoing vessel. Keep it up and you will sink. In terms of overloading your workday, that simply means that your current commitments exceed your capacity to deliver. I recently watched an interesting MIT Sloan School of Management lecture by Professor Rebecca Henderson on overloading. She showed data and made comments supporting the fact that entire companies included in some of her research projects were 300 to 500 percent overloaded.

Occasionally pushing hard to work through a heavy load is fine. However, when “occasionally” turns into “consistently,” it is time to draw the line on overloading. Other wise – prepare to sink.

Article by Chris Crouch from Memphis Daily News.

Attracting Clients With Clarity

2012-01-12T11:12:00-06:00

In my role as a consultant, I occasionally encounter situations where, shall we say, things are not going well for my clients and they want solutions to their problems.

Recently, a client asked me the following interesting question, “If you were asked to give your clients the best advice you could offer in one sentence or less, what would you say to them?” Without thinking much about it, I replied, “Seek and provide clarity.”

Clarity will not solve every problem or help you take advantage of every opportunity related to your business, but it will usually be a significant part of any solution. Think of the frustrations and failures you experienced last year. How many of them were somehow related to lack of clarity? Now think about your successes. How important was clarity in these situations?

OK, enough philosophical discussion about the value of clarity. I think most of you understand this without me telling you. However, the important question is, “How can I do a better job of seeking and providing clarity?” A simple three-step process could be the answer. It involves pausing briefly before you act or speak and answering the following three questions: 1. What? 2. So What? 3. Now What?

Let’s clarify the purpose of these three questions.

What? – Think about how you can best describe or articulate exactly what you are thinking or talking about in as few words as possible (similar to a newspaper headline).

So What? – Describe why you, or the person (or people) you are managing, selling to, or communicating with should care about the issue.

Now What? – Once you and others you are dealing with clearly understand the idea and understand why it is important, determine what action you (or they) can take to follow up on the idea.

Hopefully by now you understand exactly what I am talking about (clarity) and why it is important (it can help you solve problems and take advantage of opportunities). Now let’s focus on how you can follow up on this idea.

When you sense any lack of clarity related to important issues in your life, get out a blank sheet of paper and somehow divide it into three sections. Make keyword notes related to your thoughts on the three different questions in the three different sections. Add words, mark through words, circle words and do whatever it takes to refine and distill your thoughts. Stick with it until you are clear about what you are thinking or talking about, why it is important and what to do about it. Of course, the piece of paper is not as important as learning to think in terms of the three questions.

In addition to other benefits you realize from increased clarity, implementing this idea can help you attract clients. People are bombarded with a relentless barrage of confusing information every day. In such an environment, the competitive advantage shifts to those who can clearly and consistently articulate answers to the questions What? So What? and Now What?

Article by Chris Crouch from Memphis Daily News.

Gain Peace With Circular View of Time

2012-01-05T10:02:00-06:00

Sometimes a slight mental adjustment can make all the difference in the world. For example, how you choose to view the passage of time can lead to significant frustration or ongoing peace of mind.

Unless you consider some of the oddities of quantum physics, there are basically two ways to think about the passage of time. You can adopt a linear view of time (which seems to be most people’s choice) or you can adopt a circular view of time. Allow me to illustrate the difference by using imaginary dominoes.

Most of you, at some point in your life, have lined up a group of dominoes in a fashion that allows you to knock them all down by tipping the first one over. Now think Pixar-like and imagine a similar line of animated dominoes marching by in front of you. In this illustration, each domino represents one unit of time. If you need, let’s say, five units of time to complete a task, you simply reach out and grab five dominoes as they pass by. If you need seven units of time to complete the next task, you reach out and grab seven more dominoes.

However, from a linear point of view in your imaginary world, if you don’t reach out and grab the dominoes as they pass by, they continue their march until they fall over an imaginary cliff into an abyss never to be seen again. From this mental point of view, unused time is lost forever. Feelings of frustration often accompany this sense of lost time.

Now let’s make a slight mental adjustment and think of time as circular. In this imaginary world, the animated dominoes march around you in a circle. If you need some time to complete a task, again you reach out and grab what you need. However, in this scenario you will always have additional chances to use the time. The same dominoes will come around again next cycle.

For example, let’s say you have a bad day and don’t accomplish what you set out to do for the day. A circular view of time helps you think, “I wish I had accomplished more today, but time is coming around again tomorrow and I will have another chance to get things right.” Yes, I know it is a mental game, but such is – to a large extent – life. Remember, what happens to you does not matter as much as how you respond to it. Adopting a circular view of time helps you gain and maintain peace of mind in a somewhat chaotic world.

Use this kind of thinking if you make New Year’s resolutions. Many people develop great resolutions this time of year and quickly abandon them after one slipup. Do your best to stick with your New Year’s resolutions as long as possible. However, if you slip up and break your resolve, think circular. Think, “Oops, I slipped up today; however, I’ll get another chance to get it right tomorrow.”

Article by Chris Crouch from Memphis Daily News.

Toss ‘Dented Stereos’ Before 2012 Begins

2011-12-29T11:30:00-06:00

It is a great time of year for renewals. Thinking of new things to do, new ways to do old things, recommitting to things undone and so forth and so on. As some say this time of year, “Out with the old, in with the new.”

I believe you can easily think up plenty of new things to do. I’ll leave that up to you. I want to focus a bit on the “out with the old” part of the equation. What do you need to get rid of to make room for all the planned newness?

Look around your office or workspace. If you pause for a moment and think about the individual things you observe, each item in your office probably evokes one or more of the following emotions: joy, sadness, anger or anxiety. Before the end of the year, if at all possible, consider getting rid of anything that evokes sadness, anger or anxiety.

Years ago I read a story about a woman who owned a dented stereo. The dented stereo was located in a prominent place in her apartment. It was extremely difficult for her to not notice it. And every time she noticed it, she felt sadness, anger and anxiety. That’s because her ex-boyfriend got angry one night, threw something across the room and hit the stereo, putting a noticeable dent in the left side of it.

As it turned out, this particular temper tantrum was the last straw in a series of events that led her to the conclusion that she was in a toxic relationship. She decided that night to end her long-standing relationship with the guy who dented her stereo. It was the right thing to do, but it was not an easy thing to do. She got rid of the guy and began to move on with her life – except for one small item: the dented stereo.

Every time she saw the dent in the left side of the stereo, it dredged up negative memories related to the former toxic relationship and breakup. Finally, she decided to discard the old, dented, negative-memory-generating stereo and buy a new one. She was pleasantly surprised by how this seemingly small decision and act made such a significant difference in how she felt about her living space.

It may seem like a little thing to you, but most people’s workspaces are littered with energy-draining, sadness-anger-anxiety-evoking items: binders and old papers related to long-abandoned projects, unread books and brochures that will never be read, equipment that no longer works, things that trigger negative emotions.

Why not use this time of year as an excuse to launch an “out with the old” project? Take an hour or so to get rid of unneeded things that take up space and drain your energy. Put the “new” and “happy” in your Happy New Year.

Article by Chris Crouch from Memphis Daily News.

Hokey Plans Can Be Effective

2011-12-28T12:47:00-06:00

As Jimmy Buffett said in his song: “What if the hokey pokey is what it really is all about?” Here are three things I like about the hokey pokey: 1. It’s simple. 2. It’s easy to understand. 3. It’s easy to implement.

Hold these thoughts for a moment.

It’s that time of year for some of you. Time to make new plans for a new year. It seems to me that the hokey pokey can serve as a great model for developing successful business plans and strategies. I mean, come on, how hard is it for most of you to put your right foot in an imaginary circle, and then take it out, and then put it in again and then shake it all about? And what about doing that funky hokey pokey dance and then turning yourself about? And finally, how difficult is it to keep repeating this pattern with various body appendages until time to wrap up the process by putting your entire body in the imaginary circle and shaking it all about?

Go ahead, I dare you to get a mini flash mob together at work, go to the break room or outside and lead them in a hokey pokey session right now. Scientists now know that the brain cannot tell the difference between a real and an imagined event. So even if for some reason you cannot do the hokey pokey physically, you can do it mentally. You can read the rest of this article later.

Now, if you were open-minded enough to get a group together and do the hokey pokey (and you all still have jobs), think about some of the things you learned. It is easy to do it on your own; it is easy to do it as a group. Everybody can master and execute their part pretty quickly. If you were flexible (or brave) enough to actually take a group of co-workers out to the parking lot and lead them in the hokey pokey, no one in the group will likely forget it soon. Unfortunately, by contrast, most strategic plans are easily forgettable. And unless you are a total curmudgeon, the hokey pokey is fun. Doing it makes you feel like a kid again.

Getting important things done at work requires that individuals do their jobs well and that groups work well together. It is a good idea to break plans down into step-by-step, reasonably easy-to-execute actions for everyone in the group. Everyone in a workgroup should be able to easily remember and execute his or her part of the plan. And, if at all possible, work should be fun.

Dwight Eisenhower once said, “In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensible.” Maybe Ike and his generals should have tried doing the hokey pokey occasionally during war-planning sessions. If nothing else, it would have certainly confused enemy spies. Who knew Jimmy Buffett and Ike could help us so much with our plans for the new year?

Article by Chris Crouch from Memphis Daily News.

Holidays Perfect Chance To Assess ‘Family Tapes’

2011-12-21T14:23:00-06:00

When I was young, neighborhood friends and I would get together to play football, baseball or other games. Often we would play all day, and sometimes we would still be playing when dinnertime rolled around.

Occasionally one of my friends would say, “Why don’t you eat dinner with me?” When this occurred, my nervous system kicked into full alert! I would morph into a zombie-like entity and reply in a monotone voice, “No-thank-you-I-cannot–do-that,” and go home. Hold that thought and fast-forward 40 years.

Several years ago, I was attending a training session with about 90 participants. The session ended at noon and I knew about a dozen of the participants were invited to attend a special luncheon with the speaker afterward. I was not one of the invitees. However, during the morning break I had an interesting conversation with the speaker. As a result of this conversation, he invited me to join them for the luncheon. The zombie-like entity suddenly reappeared and I robotically replied, “No-thank-you-I-cannot–do-that!”

At the time, I was studying psychological behavior tapes. These are thought patterns that somehow get programmed into our psyche and strongly influence or control our behavior. I remembered from my studies that if you say ‘yes’ but really want to say ‘no,’ or say ‘no’ but really want to say ‘yes’ to a request, it probably means a psychological tape is influencing your behavior.

In this case, I really wanted to say ‘yes’ and go to lunch, but I had been programmed by my parents 40 years earlier to decline all unplanned invitations to dine. The main deterrent to accepting such an invitation was intense guilt. In the case of the playmate’s invitation, I was told that accepting such an invitation was totally inappropriate and I would, in effect, be taking food out of the mouth of my friend’s family members if I joined them for dinner when they were not really expecting me. I now understand that some families have the opposite tape and believe that when it comes to meals, the more the merrier. Not so in my family.

I bring this up now because however you choose to celebrate the holidays, there is a good chance you will spend some time interacting with relatives. Exploring family tapes is something to do at holiday gatherings. Understanding your traditional family tapes can help you understand and, if needed, alter some of your tapes. Simply recognizing that I had a “decline-all-last-minute-meal-invitation tape” and acknowledging that this was behavior I did not want to continue the rest of my life allowed me to rewrite this particular behavior tape. I’ll now happily accept a last-minute invitation.

Here’s the deal on tapes. Some serve you well for your entire life. Some serve you well as children but not as adults. Those who better understand their behavioral tapes stand a better chance of altering unproductive behavior. Listen to the Hank Willams Jr. song “Family Tradition” and have fun with your family over the holidays.

Article by Chris Crouch from Memphis Daily News.

Organization Isn’t So Tough

2011-12-15T11:07:00-06:00

It’s that time of year again when many people begin thinking about getting organized. There are two very different aspects of getting organized. One has to do with the physical side of getting organized, for example, creating a more orderly working environment. The other has to do with the mental side of getting organized and being more focused.

Today, I will address the easier of the two, the physical side of getting organized. Perhaps we’ll chat about the mental side of getting organized on another day. The good news: Since clutter can be distracting, getting things in better physical order usually leads to more mental focus.

I totally agree that it is a good idea to wrap up the year with a little organizing. However, most people make a critical mistake when it comes to actually tackling the project and end up wasting a lot of time trying to organize things that do not matter.

Getting started on most projects is the hard part. One technique for dealing with this problem is to simply think of any step you can take and then ask yourself the question, “What, if anything, should I do before that?” Keep asking that simple question until you can think of nothing else to do. Your last answer becomes the first step of your project.

Of course, after you do that (and before you begin), you can also return to your original thought and ask, “What, if anything, should I do after that?” When you run out of answers to this question, you will have officially developed a step-by-step project plan.

But let’s get back to physically organizing your workspace. What is a logical first step for that project?

I believe the best first step for getting your office in order is scheduling a serious throwaway session. Set aside time to throw things away that you no longer want or need. Why bother trying to organize things that you should not be keeping in the first place?

If all goes well, discarding the clutter in your office will make you feel good and help provide the motivation and energy for executing the second step of the project: storing the things you plan to keep in a way that it will make it easy to find them later. If you care to know the details of how to do that, I’ve written entire books on the topic. However, my main point for this article is to simply schedule a discarding session. That’s it!

Now let’s put things in perspective. Mentally accept the fact it is not that big a deal to clear the clutter out of your office. The total surface area of planet Earth is 5,490,383,247,360,000 square feet (that’s about 5.5 quadrillion). The average office or cubicle workspace ranges from 100 to 400 square feet. When you look at it that way, you don’t have all that much space to keep in order. Get started today!

Article by Chris Crouch from Memphis Daily News.

Knowing Where You Stand

2011-12-08T13:38:00-06:00

Edward Irvine “Ed” Koch, three-term mayor of New York City, liked to ride or walk around the city and ask everyone, “How am I doing?” It was his trademark question. He didn’t seem to be trying to elicit praise from his constituents; he seemed to genuinely want ideas on how he could do his job better. It strikes me that this is a great question to constantly address in the workplace; only unlike Ed, employees of your business should not have to ask the question. They should get ongoing feedback without asking.

Wanting to know “where you stand” or “how you are doing” is one of those built-in aspects of the human psyche. And I’m not talking about the formal annual review process here. That is another topic for another day with its own list of pros and cons. I am talking about an ongoing dialogue between you and the people who work for you. People need and want appropriate feedback.

Imagine going to a bowling alley where they put a curtain in front of the pins. You see the ball go through the curtain, you hear the noise of some pins falling (and hopefully not the ka-thunk of a gutter ball), but you have no idea what really happened. You get no meaningful feedback on the results of your efforts. That wouldn’t be any fun. You would probably look for another bowling alley. Or perhaps you like to shoot basketball. What if, again, someone put up a curtain blocking your sight of the goal? How long would you shoot baskets over the curtain not knowing if you were making the baskets or not? I suspect not long.

Notice I specifically used the words “appropriate feedback.” There is a fine line between appropriate feedback and unproductive criticism.

If you think giving ongoing feedback on performance to your employees is a good idea, here are some things to think about. Give feedback on both sub-standard performance and positive performance. Think of it as similar to the dynamics of riding a bicycle. Although you are no longer aware of it once you learn to ride, your nervous system gives you constant ongoing feedback encouraging you to make adjustments in many different directions during your bike ride. The constant little adjustments help you avoid the need for big adjustments, like picking up your bike after a fall and hoping you can make it to the nearest emergency room for bandages, stitches or worse. The same thing applies at work. Making little adjustments helps you avoid more costly problems later on. And of course, the feedback needs to be specific, timely and based on facts. For example, whenever possible specifically relate the feedback to the company goals. This will create a two-for-one benefit by helping the employee improve their performance while reinforcing what is important to you and the organization.

However, if you are the boss, like Mayor Koch, you probably ought to get in the habit of asking, “How am I doing?”

Article by Chris Crouch from Memphis Daily News.