I am always surprised, and even amazed, to see how much time we waste every day on things that really do not matter. The problem is not the fact that we are spending time on non-important matters; it’s the consequences of this. It’s the fact that we are not spending enough time on things which are very important to us, such as family, health, the key projects at work which will have a big impact on our performance, and so on.
In recent years, the advances in technology at work have been phenomenal. We now have amazing tools at our fingertips which are available to everyone. If you think of email, research by the Lotus Development Corporation shows that people are receiving on average forty to fifty emails per day. Some of my clients are getting over 200 emails every day.
This is great on one view. A high level of communications ought to signify a high level of productivity in our businesses. But we are paying a high price for this. A few years ago one of my coachees heard a very interesting survey on the radio. Apparently in Australia white collar workers check their email, on average, 50 times per day …
I cannot verify this survey but I know that people are constantly looking at their inbox. We start working on something, and we stop every few seconds to check whether we have received new emails. We continue concentrating on our work, and we hear the ‘bing’ from our inbox to indicate a new email has arrived. It’s hard to resist — we humans are curious by nature — and here we are checking our emails again. We return to our work, and after ten minutes feel a bit bored. Guess what? We re-re-recheck our inbox!
Sound familiar? But it does not stop there. The recent move for many companies from compartmentalised offices to open plan workspaces adds to our lack of concentration. Research shows that, on average, people are interrupted every three minutes.
Although the above examples are mainly relevant to corporate life, they have an equally important impact upon our personal lives.
I have seen another survey which demonstrated that 66% of corporate strategy is never executed. Companies spend a lot of time and money to think ahead, to decide their long-term vision and strategy. They pay high-level consultants or recruit high fliers to do so. They involve many people and resources to produce a lovely Word document and numerous PowerPoint® slides to display their plan and strategy.
Only to see that two-thirds of it will never be executed.
In my experience, one of the biggest challenges for companies today is execution. They might be clear on their strategy, on where they want to head. But if you check what people are doing on a day-to-day basis, what they spend their time on hour per hour, you realise there is often a big gap between what they are doing and what they are supposed to do. There is a big gap between what they should be doing to have a major impact on the business, and what they are really doing.
Many people tell me one of their biggest frustrations is that they find themselves at the end of each day having worked hard on a lot of small crises, but having not had the time to focus on any of their big-ticket items.
The impact of our lack of efficiency and effectiveness does not stop in the workplace. When I ask my clients what they would like to do if they were more in control of their work and time, I often receive such answers as:
‘Come home earlier to see my kids.’
‘Have more time to go to the gym and look after my health.’
‘Avoid bringing my work stress home.’
‘Avoid waking up at night thinking about what I forgot to do.’
Inefficiency impacts us both at work and at home.
Most of us have never been taught how to work
What a bold statement to start with! However, in my view, this is one of the most important reasons for lack of execution and lower-than-expected performance. Most people are committed to their role and want to do a good job. They are neither lazy nor unwilling. But they are not working efficiently — they work hard but not always smart. They have never been taught how to work.
It normally surprises people when I make this claim, but I believe most people have never been taught how to work. We go to school, universities, and gain a qualification. We train and qualify as doctors, accountants or engineers. And one day we start working.
Let’s take some simple examples. We get a desk and a computer, and before we know it we get bombarded with information. We receive many emails and have to handle many paper documents.
In my career as an effectiveness coach I have seen many ‘information management systems’. From people who have nothing on their desk, to people who have a few piles to remind them of the things to do for the day, to people who have huge reading piles, to people who have a desk which looks like a bombsite.
I have even met a few people who had two desks: the current one and the old one. They used to work on the old one, but it became so full of paper and files that they had to move to a new desk. And they still use their old desk as a filing system. Curious filing system indeed!
To have a laugh with some of my clients I sometime take pictures of their desk before I begin working with them. One day I might ask my clients if I can publish some of these pictures — you would not believe your eyes!
When I ask people why they chose this ‘information management system’, the most common answer is, ‘Trial and error.’ I then ask if this is the best system for them, and I hear, ‘I don’t know — I have never been shown how to do this.’
Another example which demonstrates that most of us have never been taught how to work is the way we manage our priorities. The most common way I have observed is what I call the ‘note pad strategy’. At the start of every day, you start a new ‘to do’ list in your note pad. You write all the tasks which need to be done for the day.
On one hand people enjoy having a ‘to do list’. They can keep track of everything they have to do and they can add things throughout the day.
On the other hand they are often frustrated with this system. New things keep being added to their list. They finish the day with half of the list not completed. And at the start of a new day they have to scramble through all their previous ‘to do’ lists to collect all undone or unfinished items.
When I ask people why they do it this way, I get answers such as, ‘I have so many things to do every day that I need a system to keep track of all this.’ When asked if this is the most effective system for them, most people don’t know. They have never been taught some simple yet effective work habits.
As most people have never been shown how to work, they have developed work habits that are not the most efficient and effective ones. There is nothing wrong or shameful in this. Peter Drucker was one of the most famous effectiveness coaches. He wrote many books including the famous The Effective Executive. In this book he wrote:
‘In forty-five years of work as a consultant I have not come across a single natural, an executive who was born effective. All the effective ones have had to learn to be effective. And all of them had to practise effectiveness until it became a habit.’
We are not born naturally effective. We have to learn the principles and practise them until they become habits.
My main focus is to improve the performance of individuals, teams or divisions by challenging their work habits. And the lift in productivity and performance by simply improving people’s work habits is amazing. So much time, energy and money is wasted because of poor execution.
The purpose of this book
The purpose of this book could be viewed solely as a guide to improving your performance at work by giving you simple and practical tools to be more effective.
While I want to help you to improve your productivity by challenging your work habits, my ambition in writing this book is to have an impact not only on your business