Are You Listening

Yesterday I boarded a flight to Philadelphia.  That is nothing new as when you live in Pittsburgh to fly most places you either fly to Philly or to Charlotte.  The good news was that Philly was my final destination.  What was very different about the flight was that my seat was one row from the rear of the plane.  Normally I would prefer not to sit that far back but this was only a short flight.  

As seems to happen more and more often this flight was full.  Since we were flying mid-day there were a number of business people with their briefcases, backpacks, and pretty much everything else they were allowed to carry on to the plane.  There was even a young mother carrying a fairly young child joining us in the back of the plane.  Sometimes when I see a young baby I get a bit anxious as flying is not yet normal for them and can be upsetting.  Actually, I wonder whether flying is normal for anyone even those that fly frequently.  

Our flight attendant got everyone boarded about fifteen minutes early.  This was no small feat.  Then she proceeded to make an announcement explaining why she was moving us along so quickly.  It turns out that yesterday was the equivalent of her Friday (it was Tuesday for me) and she had a date in Philadelphia.  The point being she wanted to get home and get ready.  She then proceeded to make all of the customary announcements that are required by law and airline safety rules.  I have heard these announcements thousands of times yet I still stop what I am doing to listen.  Perhaps because I typically sit in the front of the aircraft I listen as a means of being polite to the person that will be serving me for the duration of the flight.  It is also possible that I listen because I think it is prudent to do so.  Either way, I do listen.  

As I sat in the rear of the plane what I observed was that very few of my fellow passengers were listening at all.  I saw people playing with their stuff, wearing their headphones, and texting/reading email, but very few were listening.  At one point our flight attendant said in her Philadelphia accent “lissen.”  That did not seem to work.  When the plane was taxiing to the runway there were still a number of people that had to be told to remove their headphones, and turn off their electronic devices.  This included my seat mate who was asked by a pilot after repeated requests, to turn his phone off (it was ringing at the time).

I think that we are becoming a society that does not listen very much.  We have way too many ways to ignore the people around us and given that most of us carry our personal information and entertainment everywhere we go why would we listen to anyone at all?  The problem is that in failing to listen we are also failing to learn.  We are missing the world around us.  We are not seeing because we are not listening and when we don’t see we can’t be productive.  See what I am saying?

All year I have been hearing the same message over and over again.  I am listening and waiting to see what this is all about, and as a final note I hope that flight attendant had a great date since I was listening.  

Are you listening?  Listening requires action.  What are you going to do?  If you want to read more about listening Go Here  If you like this post please post a link on FaceBook or Twitter.  I would like to know if you are listening.

The Greatness Guy

I was having a conversation with a colleague in a coffee shop several months ago.  We talked about family, philosophy, exercise and food.  Pretty much the usual conversation when you meet someone in person for the first time.  As we got around to the work that we were preparing for that day my colleague shared with me his role based approach to his job.  On the surface someone that did not really know him would say that he has a sales role in our organization.  However, my colleague told me that he sees himself as a “Greatness Guy.”

To the uninformed, my colleague’s self-ascribed title might seem a bit arrogant.  But this bears a fuller explanation.  We work for FranklinCovey.  Our organization has as its mission the following:  We enable greatness in people and organizations everywhere.  My colleague (we can call him Mark since that is his real name) sees his role in sales in our company as one of creating opportunities for greatness for our clients.  Thus, the role of Greatness Guy.  

I was thinking about Mark today and that statement came back to me.  Imagine what might be different in your world if you stopped seeing yourself from just your job title.  Let’s say you are a third grade school teacher but instead see yourself as a Creator of Curious Minds.  Or rather than seeing yourself as a Manager see yourself as a Communicator of your team’s Worth and Potential.  As a Mom you could see yourself as a  Character and Competence Coach.  Or for yourself you could become a Corporate Athlete.

What Mark has realized is that there is great power in thinking about our roles from a different perspective.  When we focus on the outcomes we want to achieve we can see and do things differently.  Your accountability increases, and you establish a clear set of expectations about what you can be counted on to do and achieve.

A significant part of being productive is to first decide what you really want to achieve. We can choose to decide for ourselves what we want to do or we can wait until the priorities of others dictate our responses.  A focused and proactive approach to our own most important outcomes and priorities is fulfilling and increases the chances that we might actually get something done that really matters.

Oh yes, and as for Mark, he is not just selling solutions, he is enabling greatness with people and organizations around the world.  What roles do you play that you need to think about differently?  Let me know what you think.

Productivity is About Getting Things Done

This past week I had the opportunity to work with a couple of different organizations on improving their productivity.  I find often times that at the end of the session I get several comments from people that indicate that they appreciate the ideas and that they are anxious to begin to apply the concepts.  That feels fulfilling at the end of a long day working with a large group.  But, when you think about it that is not the point of spending time working on productivity concepts.

What we really want as a tangible outcome from a day focused on Productivity is an improvement in the amount of work we get done.  Whether you are improving your email processing, reducing the size of your inbox, or defining your roles and goals, none of this will matter if you don’t deliver your projects on time.  

Determine what works for you to get done the things that you really need to do.  If the systems you are using cause you to spend more time on them than you do on doing your real work, then it is time for a new system.  Remember, the choices we make each day should lead us to greater levels of productivity, not organized and systemic procrastination.

Choose well.

You Don't Have An Email Problem

I read an interesting article in TechCrunch over the weekend that offered a compelling defense of email. The article acknowledges that email has gotten out of control and that certain segments of our population (think millennials and other tech savvy groups) see email as bloated, outmoded, and very old school. To a degree I can see their point of view.  There are certainly other forms of instant communication that can be efficient for the “I need it right now” crowd. Urgency addiction aside, I believe that there is still a important role for email and that rather than email being the problem, the problem is more than likely you.  We don't have a problem with email, rather we have accumulated a series of bad habits as it relates to our use and abuse of the medium. 

Think for a moment about the ways in which you typically use email each day. If you are like many people you check email first thing in the morning (probably on a smartphone), often times before you are even fully awake and usually before you have your first cup of your preferred morning beverage. Things can fall apart right there. If you have received a message related to work you are most likely to move into work mode almost instantly. Perhaps this has even changed your morning plans as now you believe you need to get to the office as quickly as possible to deal with that problem. If, however you did survive the morning look at your messages without any significant problems you may now be likely to check your messages a few more times during your commute (there is just something about those unopened messages). When you do get to the office you sit down and turn on your computer and once again the very first thing you are likely to see is email. Every one of these actions is based on a series of habits you have likely formed over a number of years. These habits are typically at play without you even acknowledging them. Have you stopped to ask yourself lately if they are serving you well?  

Every day people complain about the volume of email messages they receive or about the size of their inbox. While many of the complaints are valid, I rarely see people actively engaged in changing the situation. There are solutions available. But there are also a number of myths that complicate the ways in which we interact with our email inbox.

The first myth is that email is bad. I read about companies that are abolishing email.  Some schedule days when email is not permitted as in no email Fridays.  The sense is that eliminating email will make them more productive. I doubt seriously that this is true. I know that in my world the abolition of email would make many of my client and personal interactions much less efficient, and likely far less timely. 

The second myth is that we should strive for "Inbox Zero."  To me this seems absurd. In a world where many of us receive an average of 150 emails each day striving for inbox zero could easily consume more than three hours of your day.  If we assume that you do receive an average of 150 emails each day, and your average processing time for these messages is a mere two minutes each, you would spend five hours each day to achieve inbox zero.  I quite imagine that spending this much time keeping your inbox empty would be at a considerable costs to the other areas where you are accountable for results.  

The third myth is that you don’t need a system for handling email.  This is perhaps the greatest myth of all since it is likely that more people ascribe to this myth than the previous two.  You need a system.  A system is simply a set of detailed methods, procedures and routines created to carry out a specific activity, perform a duty, or solve a problem.  Or to quote Orison Swett Marden, “A good system shortens the road to the goal.”  While I have indicated above that your goal should not be inbox zero, you do still need to manage your email, and that is best accomplished by employing a system that works for you.

So, if you have bad habits related to email it is time to change those habits.  Email can be a very helpful and productive tool when you apply solid habits.  As a starting place you should determine what are the requirements in terms of email response time in your organization or culture.  I have found that this is one of those great assumptions we have about our workplaces.  It is likely that your assumptions about email response time is greater than your work culture requires.  Determining what is required will free you up to determine how often you should process your inbox.  While three times each day is likely not to be an effective method for your workplace, it is also likely that 30 to 50 times each day would be considered excessive and unnecessary.  You need to find the proper balance that works for you. 

Once you know how many times per day you should process your messages next look for ways to reduce the actual handling time per message.  An example of viable ways to do that would be rules in Outlook or Lotus Notes or Filters in Gmail. Applying rules or filters can automate the processing of a considerable number of messages, perhaps as much as 25% of the messages you receive could be processed by a rule or filter.

Finally, create your own set of verbs that describe how you will process messages.  I use five.  They are Do, Delete, Archive, Label, and Later.  When processing messages I apply one of these verbs to every message I open or review.  This simplifies processing as I have reduced the number of decisions I must make in order to process each message.  Using this method I can power through a significant number of messages during each of my “processing sessions” which happen every time I choose to open my inbox.  I try to never open the inbox unless I have time for a processing session even if that means as little as 5 or 10 minutes.  You will be amazed as to how efficient this can be.

My final thoughts about your email habits relates to the ways in which we choose to be notified of our incoming messages.  I prefer to turn off all notifications, badges, and alerts related to incoming messages.  These turn out to be merely audible, visual, and at times physical (when you use the vibrate feature on a phone) distractions.  I take the position that I will always have new messages and therefore there is no reason to check to see if that is true.  Further, by deciding when I can process messages I am more focused when I do check my email.  This requires a significant amount of discipline which I admit I fail at from time to time.  Still, the key is to begin to make this a habit and like the formation of all good habits it takes time before they stick.

I would love to hear your thoughts and comments below.  Also, for those that read this post if you think it would be helpful to a friend or colleague please feel free to forward the link or email the post.