News

Posted on

How to Say No and Become More Productive

Is there a way to turn down requests from other people and thereby increase your productivity? In the changing world we live in, you may have to say more No’s.

“If you want to get something done, ask a busy person.” This old saying has an element of truth: there are certain people who are able to manage scores or hundreds of tasks at a time, without a single one falling through the cracks. If they agree to add your task to their list, consider yourself privileged: there’s a high chance it will be done with quality.

However, experience suggests that the quote should be changed slightly to add a coda: “…but they are likely to say ‘No’.” The fact is that these busy people are black and white with their Yes’s and also their No’s. In order to reliably deliver, they must say “No” to many requests. Even worse, as their reputation grows, they turn down far more tasks than they accept.

As such, their calendar might be full. But what is it full of? Carefully curated tasks which they juggle with precision. They have balanced all the demands in their life and chosen the right blend of commitments. How are they able to pull off this trick?

1. Manage Tasks Using a List or Calendar

As you imagine, they don’t use memory to manage their tasks: there are too many. Instead, they have a system set up using lists and/or a calendar. They treat their tasks with importance and their time as a limited and precious resource. When someone asks them to complete a task, they don’t accept right away…they pause.

Their pregnant pause is not meant to be rude, but to consider, as a serious professional, what they should commit themselves to. Which prior commitments should be denied or postponed?

It’s a bit like visiting the doctor. Your medical practitioner doesn’t just tell you which medication to take based on your (supposed) list of symptoms. Instead, he/she performs a trained diagnosis. Their professional code of ethics guides them.

If there were such a code for the rest of us, it could be: “I don’t dispense time without careful consideration of all my commitments”. With a boss, for example, you may include the requestor in the decision, while showing him/her your calendar: “What should I put aside in order to complete this new task?”

This code-driven pause separates the novices from the practiced professionals.

2. Build Relationships

However, most of us are afraid to say “No” because we are taught, as children, to be nice or good, giving away our power to adults. We still fear the supposed fallout.

I have worked with top executives who routinely tell their ill-tempered bosses fake “Yes’s”. The result? Chaos. Eventually, the boss adapts by asking several people to do the exact same task.

To get past the fear at the root of the problem, author William Ury suggests the following approach to decline requests from anyone.

Step 1 – concretely describe your interests and values, while being as positive as possible

Step 2 – explicitly connect your “No” to your values/interests

Step 3 – explore other options to satisfy the request

For example: “This year I have committed to living a balanced life and making sure my son passes his GSAT’s. Tonight is set aside to help him, so I can’t be at your Zoom call. How about another night this week?”

For those who are productive, either a “Yes” or a “No” can build relationships. However, it takes skill to bring this off in real-time, under pressure from someone who is in power.

A long-term commitment to deliver better quality “No’s” only leads to more skill in this area.

3. Disavow Lesser Channels

In today’s remote environment, we receive requests via a number of channels. How do we respond effectively via text, video or audio when face-to-face communication is impossible?

The answer is to use the most interactive medium possible. If it means a video-chat or phone call, take the time needed. More interactive channels allow the opportunity to react in real-time.

However, if you must use text (the least preferred option), follow Ury’s formula. Do so and you’ll not only be protecting your calendar, but showing the respect that demonstrates your professionalism.

When they return to you with a future request, they’ll remember: you don’t play around with your commitments and you take care of people who approach you for help.

Francis Wade is the author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity, a keynote speaker and a management consultant. To search prior columns on productivity, strategy, engagement and business processes, send email to columns@fwconsulting.com

Posted on

How to Say No and Become More Productive

Is there a way to turn down requests from other people and thereby increase your productivity? In the changing world we live in, you may have to say more No’s.

“If you want to get something done, ask a busy person.” This old saying has an element of truth: there are certain people who are able to manage scores or hundreds of tasks at a time, without a single one falling through the cracks. If they agree to add your task to their list, consider yourself privileged: there’s a high chance it will be done with quality.

However, experience suggests that the quote should be changed slightly to add a coda: “…but they are likely to say ‘No’.” The fact is that these busy people are black and white with their Yes’s and also their No’s. In order to reliably deliver, they must say “No” to many requests. Even worse, as their reputation grows, they turn down far more tasks than they accept.

As such, their calendar might be full. But what is it full of? Carefully curated tasks which they juggle with precision. They have balanced all the demands in their life and chosen the right blend of commitments. How are they able to pull off this trick?

1. Manage Tasks Using a List or Calendar

As you imagine, they don’t use memory to manage their tasks: there are too many. Instead, they have a system set up using lists and/or a calendar. They treat their tasks with importance and their time as a limited and precious resource. When someone asks them to complete a task, they don’t accept right away…they pause.

Their pregnant pause is not meant to be rude, but to consider, as a serious professional, what they should commit themselves to. Which prior commitments should be denied or postponed?

It’s a bit like visiting the doctor. Your medical practitioner doesn’t just tell you which medication to take based on your (supposed) list of symptoms. Instead, he/she performs a trained diagnosis. Their professional code of ethics guides them.

If there were such a code for the rest of us, it could be: “I don’t dispense time without careful consideration of all my commitments”. With a boss, for example, you may include the requestor in the decision, while showing him/her your calendar: “What should I put aside in order to complete this new task?”

This code-driven pause separates the novices from the practiced professionals.

2. Build Relationships

However, most of us are afraid to say “No” because we are taught, as children, to be nice or good, giving away our power to adults. We still fear the supposed fallout.

I have worked with top executives who routinely tell their ill-tempered bosses fake “Yes’s”. The result? Chaos. Eventually, the boss adapts by asking several people to do the exact same task.

To get past the fear at the root of the problem, author William Ury suggests the following approach to decline requests from anyone.

Step 1 – concretely describe your interests and values, while being as positive as possible

Step 2 – explicitly connect your “No” to your values/interests

Step 3 – explore other options to satisfy the request

For example: “This year I have committed to living a balanced life and making sure my son passes his GSAT’s. Tonight is set aside to help him, so I can’t be at your Zoom call. How about another night this week?”

For those who are productive, either a “Yes” or a “No” can build relationships. However, it takes skill to bring this off in real-time, under pressure from someone who is in power.

A long-term commitment to deliver better quality “No’s” only leads to more skill in this area.

3. Disavow Lesser Channels

In today’s remote environment, we receive requests via a number of channels. How do we respond effectively via text, video or audio when face-to-face communication is impossible?

The answer is to use the most interactive medium possible. If it means a video-chat or phone call, take the time needed. More interactive channels allow the opportunity to react in real-time.

However, if you must use text (the least preferred option), follow Ury’s formula. Do so and you’ll not only be protecting your calendar, but showing the respect that demonstrates your professionalism.

When they return to you with a future request, they’ll remember: you don’t play around with your commitments and you take care of people who approach you for help.

Francis Wade is the author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity, a keynote speaker and a management consultant. To search prior columns on productivity, strategy, engagement and business processes, send email to columns@fwconsulting.com

Posted on

Secrets of Task Management

How can you manage your tasks in a way that allows you to escape overwhelm? There are certain invisible principles you need to use to stay on top of an expanding workload. When known, they dramatically change your career for the better.

However, no-one teaches us the importance of managing our tasks skillfully. It’s usually discovered in the breach: when life isn’t working the way we want and we scramble for answers. Instead, most live on auto-pilot, never questioning why they do things the way they do. Let’s make some of these secrets conscious.

Secret 1 – Tasks Come from the Inside

What is a task? In its purest form, it belongs to a class of “psychological objects” that can’t be touched or seen, but still have an emotional weight. That’s because they come from within: each one is born when you quietly assign yourself an action to be completed in the future.

This is a self-taught practice. Around the age of seven, someone teaches you how to tell time. You realize it’s a great resource and start to create tasks which can only be executed later.

At first, all this takes place in your mind. Before long, you have developed a daily habit of creating mental commitments, even though the initial number of tasks is small. After all, that’s what a child’s parents and teachers are for: to remind them what they need to do.

But as you enter adolescence and adulthood, things change.

Secret 2 – Only Kids Should Be Using Memory

If you have ever worked with a full adult who regularly fails to do the tasks they intend, you may agree that they have a “bad memory”. This is probably true.

But it obscures a bigger problem: they are using the memory-based techniques of a child, rather than the grown-up methods of an adult. Here’s why so many get stuck.

As I mentioned, you are a self-taught task manager. However, as you grew out of your teenage years, the number of tasks increased, but your approach remained the same: to habitually use your memory.

Before long, you started to experience problems. Overwhelm crept in as you struggled to prevent promises from being broken and appointments from being missed. The harder you tried to remember, the worse things became.

Perhaps you got lucky and a parent or friend intervened, or maybe you figured out the changes you needed to make on your own. Instead of relying on memory, you began to write down all your tasks on paper or a smartphone. In either case, you stopped trying to use a Band Aid to heal an amputation, and switched your approach for the better.

The fact is, most adults have lives which are too complex to be using their memories for task management. However, most of us still complain about having a poor memory for our tasks, long after we should have given up that method.

Pro Tip: you can evaluate the capacity of a teammate by observing his/her reliance on memory for important tasks.

Secret 3 – Migrating to Better Tools

Most professionals understand the need to switch from memory to the use of written commitments (or even the employment of an administrative assistant). However, they don’t realize that this should be the first of many transformations. Research shows that your appetite to manage more tasks is insatiable: successful solutions lead to greater task loads.

These volume increases inevitably make you hit new limits. Consequently, whenever you experience symptoms of overwhelm and other task management problems, you should analyze your current combination of tools and behaviors. They must be upgraded to keep up with an increased number of tasks.

Unfortunately, this is simpler than it sounds. For example, you might recall the age when you shifted to writing down your tasks on an aid like Post-It notes. Since then, you moved on to using digital tools, but let’s imagine that you recently started noticing that familiar feeling of falling behind.

You may be tempted to believe that a return to Post-It notes would help, but here’s the surprise: it won’t. That approach was useful at a lower task volume, but cannot fit your adult life.

Now, you must perform a fresh analysis of your entire self-taught system. Look for small changes to make which together can give you brand new, added capacity. Do the research and experiment with different suggestions and technologies before settling on an upgraded approach.

But the best benefit is that now you’ll know that whenever you feel overwhelmed, the answer is never to revert to what worked for you in the past. Instead, you must go forward to adopt behaviors which are suitable for a future of even more tasks, and less overwhelm.

Posted on

Overcoming COVID’s Communication Gaps

As a leader, has the advent of “working from home” distanced you from your employees? As a result, have you witnessed unwanted behaviors? Perhaps you have even realized the unexpected: workers who are actually worse off.

In some companies, we have noticed a surprising phenomenon: Employees who had a good relationship with the organization’s leaders before COVID are now becoming fearful of the same executives. In other words, a certain anxiety has arisen.

It’s led to many staff members working longer and harder, but this added effort doesn’t come from a healthy place. Ultimately, this behaviour does more harm than good because it’s being driven in a way that’s just not sustainable.

The Problem

The average Jamaican worker operates in a perpetual state of low anxiety. The proof? Managers who arrive here from other countries notice talented individuals acting like victims. Furthermore, many of our workers thrive when they migrate to more supportive environments.

On a daily basis, local staff members cope with their fears by developing a heightened sensitivity towards the “Big Man” or “Boss Lady”. Outsiders are shocked to see the deference our employees give to powerful people, going out of their way to elevate and “Big Them Up”.

For example, staff members in some organizations know exactly where the top manager is at all times: when she is absent, work comes to a halt. In others, people scan the CEO’s demeanour to understand his mood. If he is on the warpath, they broadcast the news internally, and warn their colleagues to act accordingly.

But these are all just survival techniques. Our workers developed these habits because executives embody a threat to their well-being. As in slavery, the wrong word from the wrong leader can lead to dire outcomes: public shame, disrespect and separation.

While the exact coping mechanisms vary, their intent is the same: to relieve the state of anxiety. And to some degree, they succeed.

The Pandemic’s Impact

Enter COVID-19 and the mandate to work from afar. Some are thriving: they have escaped the scrutiny of micro-managers and enjoy a fresh freedom to be productive.

However, most are not accustomed to the new disconnection from their organization’s leadership. Now, they are left to their own thoughts and worst fears: a bad thing. Here’s why it happens.

The fact is, the average worker is a social creature: closely linked to other people in the workplace with whom they can share informal interactions all day long. Any scary news or rumors were (before COVID) moderated by the presence of their colleagues, even if no words were passed. At a glance, one could gather critical information by simply observing the environment.

Furthermore, if the CEO happened to walk through the company, staff could feel comforted by her proximity, reducing their anxiety. The quality of her “Good Morning” and the quickness of her pace communicated valuable messages. Questions like “Will I be fired today?” dissipated with her smile.

With new work from home norms (such as Zoom) all these emotional supports have disappeared. In fact, staff is spending more time in meetings than ever before. Perhaps it’s all an effort to compensate for the lack of informal communication which has fueled rumours and driven up anxiety.

Creating the Contact People Need

In a radical departure from the past, some are suggesting that the physical workplace should be retained…but only as a place to socialize. By contrast, an employees’ focused, productive efforts should occur at home, where they are free of distractions. The original purpose of the two locations should be swapped.

But that’s futuristic, post COVID thinking. We can’t follow this prediction today because of the pandemic. What can be done in the meantime?

Some companies have responded by creating informal gatherings between employees. These are opportunities for their people to enjoy each other’s company without a business agenda. Apps like Remo and Airmeets are built for these kinds of interactions, offering far more possibilities than the average meeting software.

However, the most important chats are not with peers, but with superiors. These can be implemented to prevent a rise in anxiety. In spite of busy schedules, some companies are including executives in game nights, cocktail hours, joint training and other gatherings. These are designed, scripted activities (not just random hangouts) which are meant to reduce the emotional distance from bottom to top.

In this context, these informal, but intentional, interactions between leaders and staff serve an important purpose: they help compensate for a cultural challenge in the Jamaican workplace. Together, they provide a way for companies to avoid a predictable spike in employee anxiety in pandemic times. It’s a corporate tactic suited for the distance we’re forced to maintain.

Posted on

25/55 Productivity Accountability Technique

In this week’s episode, we are going to introduce you to a productivity accountability technique called 25/55 (named for touching base every 25 and 55 minutes of every working hour). We describe what the 25/55 productivity accountability technique is, its components and why it works, how long you should practice a technique like this, and even a discussion on automating your check-ins. We’ll close out with some tips for those who may not feel like 25/55 will work for them; you’d be surprised! (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/108 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing 25/55 Productivity Accountability Technique from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast | 25/55 Productivity Accountability Technique Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Francis Wade Show Notes | 25/55 Productivity Accountability Technique Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. You Mean I'm Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?!: The Classic Self-Help Book for Adults with Attention Deficit Disorder (The Classic Self-Help Book for Adults w/ Attention Deficit Disorder) by Kate Kelly and Peggy RamundoFlow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, PhDDefault Mode Network (mind wandering)BlipBlip (Android)TelegramToggl TrackApple ShortcutsIFTTTRescueTimeActivTrakManicTime Raw Text Transcript | 25/55 Productivity Accountability Technique Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Voiceover Artist 0:00Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place. ProductivityCast, the weekly show about all things productivity, here are your hosts, Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud, with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17Welcome back, everybody to ProductivityCast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity. I'm Ray Sidney-Smith. Augusto Pinaud 0:22I'm Augusto Pinaud. Francis Wade 0:24And I'm Francis Wade. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:25Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to our listeners to this episode of productivity cast. This week, we'll be discussing something called the 25/55 technique, we're going to talk about what it is why you would do it, how it all kind of works? And then how long you should do the 25/55 technique, if at all? What are the parameters for why you would want to do it, and some of the underpinnings for why you would approach the system for some particular length of time or not. So let's get into what the 25/55 technique is. Its origins are a bit muddy for me. So do not think that I know everything about this origin story, the details that I can say and remember well enough is that many years ago, this is going back a little bit more than a decade ago, a friend of mine had asked me to, in essence, start doing this. And I said, Oh, well, where did this come from? And my best recollection is that it was generated from some thoughts related to the book by Dr. Edward Hallowell. You mean I'm not lazy, stupid or crazy, which is, which is a self help book for adults with ADHD. And so I'll put a link to that book in the show notes. And so I believe that's where the, the idea of this all came from. The 25/55 technique is a method for you to be able to touch base with a social accountability partner throughout the day, and helping you to plan and manage from the half hour level.
Posted on

Is Your Company Pivoting Fast Enough?

While no-one thinks that business-as-usual will take you through these tumultuous times, how can you tell if your organization is transforming quickly enough to earn a place among the survivors? Are you watching for signs that reveal the truth about the pace of your digital transformation?

Recently, my wife and I visited the optician. Unfortunately, buying glasses was the last thing on our minds. We only needed prescriptions because we intended to try an online service: Zenni Optical.

Together, we ended up spending about two fun hours on their website, trying on 20-30 frames each. How is that done virtually? The company takes a short video of your head as it moves from side to side. Then, it superimposes whatever frame you choose from its vast inventory, as you vary the colour and fit. All you need to provide is your prescription to place the order.

They offer a 30-day return guarantee, and added features such as sunglass clip-ons, tinting and various coatings. Not only did I spend more time than I ever have trying different options, but I also ordered two pairs. The total price? Less than US$100. My package arrived yesterday and with it, my first new glasses in over a decade.

If I owned a local store, or made a living selling glasses, I’d read the above story with a sense of dread. This particular digital transformation delivers the same product at the end of the day, but disrupts the traditional choosing and ordering experience. Will the optician’s office of the future consist of a doctor, a computer screen, and a MailPac account?

Arguably, if an owner of a store selling glasses doesn’t already have a strategic plan that involves a dramatic pivot, he/she should prepare to close up shop. It may be too late.

But how about your industry? Are you planning to deliver superior value to your customers at dramatically better prices? Or faster? Here are three simple steps to take in 2021 to ensure that you end the year as a survivor.

1. Drive a Specific Vision, Not a Mad Scramble

Granted, in 2020 we were all caught in a harem-scarem dash to save our companies. But now that the dust has settled, don’t sit back and wait for the next disruption to come along.

In fact, if you haven’t defined a detailed mid to long-term destination such as the 25-year vision Grace Kennedy crafted in 1995, you could be in trouble. Perhaps your stakeholders, tiring of the non-stop drama, may already be asking: “Why bother?” or “What’s the point?”

Reacting to one crisis or opportunity after another is exhausting, even if you do so successfully. Eventually, customers, employees and shareholders start looking for alternatives. In fact, you should reject their blind “loyalty” as a temporary glitch. It only lulls you into complacency, while delaying their inevitable withdrawal. Keep them engaged by redrawing and communicating your preferred vision of the future.

2. Find the Best Role Models

Companies often relax their efforts to hit world-class levels, arguing that Jamaican customers are willing to accept a lower standard. The truth is, my optician’s customer service has been falling for years, evidenced by the sour looks we received when we informed them of our intentions to purchase elsewhere.

My advice? Forget about local competitors. Instead, find the world-leader, then push yourself to believe that it’s coming to Jamaica soon. Now, build your transformation plans around that presumption, aiming to pivot your business more quickly than others can.

This may mean adding capabilities few understand or appreciate. For example, not a single person knew how to operate a SIM card mobile phone before Digicel’s entry. However, the value became apparent, so everyone learned; even those who couldn’t read or write.

3. Use the Best Pivot Process

I recall working with a board of directors which decided, in its wisdom, to reduce its average age over time by 10 years. The logic was brutal: it desperately needed young blood.

This kind of tough approach might not fit your company, but it’s not enough to say “No.” You must create a change plan that works for your environment, and delivers the result you want. In other words, you need to manage the transformation in all its dimensions so that you don’t miss a step.

Consider: if your organization is lacking the right vision, outstanding role models, and a credible change process, then you are sewing the seeds of your obsolescence.

The harsh logic is that people are seeking value from wherever it may be found, just as they always have. New technology simply fast-forwards their search, disrupting everything.

Today we are witnessing the destruction of industries at an unprecedented rate. You must pivot fast to keep up.

Francis Wade is the author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity, a keynote speaker and a management consultant. To search prior columns on productivity, strategy, engagement and business processes, send email to columns@fwconsulting.com

Posted on

The Ultimate GTD App According to David Allen

At the end of November 2019, David Allen, author and creator of Getting Things Done, held his latest (and presumably final) GTD Summit and at that time, he released his written drawings for what he called the ultimate GTD app. In this cast, we discuss the description provided and whether any existing software has gotten close. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/107 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing the ultimate GTD app from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Francis Wade Show Notes | The Ultimate GTD App According to David Allen Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. Ultimate GTD app (PDF) eProductivity | Get It All Done in IBM Lotus Notes Omni-Automation Episode #51: The Ultimate GTD App - Part One - Getting Things Done® Episode #52: The Ultimate GTD App - Part Two - Getting Things Done® David Allen gives away the ultimate GTD app | Intentionally Productive David Allen's GTD App Review - ERW Blog - Effective Remote Work Community David Allen's GTD killer app can be created using OmniFocus and Shortcuts - OmniFocus / OmniFocus Automation - The Omni Group Forums David Allen on the Best Software for GTD - Getting Things Done® David Allen’s killer GTD app system brought into practice – Bert Kruisdijk David Allen on the Best Software for GTD - Getting Things Done® Amazing Marvin Nirvana Finot (Google Play) Microsoft Outlook (purchase Microsoft 365) Microsoft Access (purchase Microsoft 365) OmniFocus Remember the Milk Zapier IFTTT GTDNext Raw Text Transcript | The Ultimate GTD App According to David Allen Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Voiceover Artist 0:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. Here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17A quick note, before we get started with our episode today, for those of you listening, who are interested in engaging with others, listening to ProductivityCast, please find our digital community at www.personalproductivity.club, sign up, and we'll approve you into the community. Then finally ProductivityCast channel and join that you can comment on episodes, ask questions and engage with the ProductivityCast team and community. It's easy to sign up and it's free. Again. That's www dot personal productivity dot club. Thanks so much. And now on with the show. Welcome back everybody to ProductivityCast the weekly show about all things personal productivity. I'm Ray Sidney-Smith. Augusto Pinaud 0:53 I am Augusto Pinaud. Francis Wade 0:54I'm Francis Wade. Art Gelwicks 0:55 And I'm Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:57Welcome to our listeners to this episode, where we're going to be continuing a discussion we've had around GTD with David Allen. And what we wanted to do was actually talk about the ultimate GTD app. According to David Allen back in 2019, David Allen held what I'm presuming is going to be the final GTD summit in Amsterdam. And he brought together all of his Rockstar advocates of GTD over the years, they all talked about different aspects of GTD,
Posted on

Don’t Waste the Pandemic!

It’s often said that a good disaster shouldn’t be squandered. If you were to follow this maxim for 2021, how could you make the most of last year’s twin evils: a recession and a worldwide pandemic?

Most executive teams are happy to have survived to the end of 2020 in one piece. Thankfully, their companies are still running and few employees have succumbed to the COVID-19 illness. They feel a sense of achievement at overcoming an unprecedented attack.

However, this is a low standard. In the years to come, some will ask: “What big things did your leaders do with the pandemic?” In other words, how did you take advantage of the dramatic changes underway to ensure the company’s future?

Although most won’t have an answer, here are a few questions you can pose now. Use them to make the most of the havoc wrought by last year’s tumult.

1) Do you have the right talent?

Under normal circumstances, most CEO’s and board chairpersons don’t like to rock the boat. While they may secretly want a company filled with top talent, they decide that it’s just not worth the fight. Instead, they settle for so-so standards, believing that you can’t have an organization of star performers.

Here’s another approach: the best football teams keep a list of potential replacements for every position. Looking forward, they plan for a time when each incumbent cannot improve his/her level of play. As such, no-one is granted an indefinite guarantee. Instead, these organizations continually scan the horizon for potential replacements.

Few local companies challenge their employees in this way: in fact, only a handful conduct proper performance reviews. This failure leaves them short – lacking the systems required to put top talent in seats. Consequently, when the time comes to make dramatic changes due to outside circumstances, they falter.

For example, in 2021 few companies escape the need for an urgent digital transformation. However, only a handful have the capacity needed to convert this strategic imperative into a reality. If your company has no active plan to upgrade its human resource strength, change your approach now, before the next interruption occurs.

2) Are you innovating enough?

Some time ago, an executive complained to me about the lack of a critical input to their company’s business. While it could be acquired locally, it was only available sporadically. We talked informally about taking strides to secure a steady supply.

Today, a decade later, the firm remains in the same spot. They failed to craft the strategy required, a weakness that COVID has “attacked”. If they had only taken the right steps at the right time, this would not be a concern. In fact, it would be an enormous source of competitive advantage leading to happier customers.

In my company, we were too slow in our pivot to offer an online version of our 2-day strategic planning retreat. Believing that COVID would pass in the near future, we waited…but now we expect companies to ask for lower cost, virtual retreats as a matter of course. We learned that innovation is easier to teach than to apply.

The truth is, when only a trickle of evidence is available, you need tremendous creativity to imagine what your customers and suppliers will need. Yet, there are standard, proven approaches to produce reliable, game-changing innovations. For example, use the Jobs to Be Done technique I mentioned in a Gleaner column from Nov 18 2016.

Here is a test – if you don’t have a list of practical innovations lined up for possible execution in 2021, you probably aren’t taking advantage of the pandemic. Teach your staff how to use the latest techniques and apply them even when it’s hard.

3) A Culture of Proactive Resilience

Jamaican companies know how to react to disasters: they are tough survivors. But few can make repeated operational changes which create room for transformational shifts. Unfortunately, CEO’s often behave as if their job is only about capably adjusting to outside fluctuations.

However, there is another approach: to always look to do more with less, thereby preparing your company to tackle the next disaster before it even appears.

The fact is that today’s pandemic is tomorrow’s hurricane, fire, or new digital competitor. These are just a few disruptions which can do serious damage to your enterprise. Consequently, you should be prepared by driving an enduring culture of continuous improvement.

Ultimately, this self-renewing corporate culture is more likely to succeed against rude surprises. It prepares your staff to tackle challenges effectively. This is the only way to ensure your firm’s success: the kind of place which sees the next disruption as an opportunity to transform itself for the better. Far from being wasted, it’s welcomed.

Posted on

Dealing With Distractions in Open Offices

We received this comment below on the podcast (Episode 100), and so we're answering his question on dealing with distractions in open offices, to kick of the new year. Hey guys, thanks for the content! I’d like to hear your ideas about handling extended busy times. I’ve been practicing GTD (poorly, but trying) for 4 or 5 years and firmly believe in the system. I’m a manager in what is, unfortunately, effectively an open office. I don’t currently have the ability to schedule my time which makes it extremely difficult to work on the important things without getting interrupted. In the next few months I’ll be moving to a separate office in the same building which will then give me the opportunity [to] put a schedule in place. In the meantime, and for others caught in the same sort of situation (think customer service for example) it would be great to get some tips on what might work in these types of situations. Cheers!Brent (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/106 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing Dealing with Distractions in Open Offices from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast | Dealing With Distractions in Open Offices Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Francis Wade Show Notes Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. Ray— Scheduling calls for most interruptive conversationsActive noise cancelling (ANC) headphonesLuxafor lightsSound barrier panels (Ray’s preferred panels: Versare SoundSorb VersiPanel) Raw Text Transcript | Dealing With Distractions in Open Offices Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Voiceover Artist 0:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. Here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17A quick note, before we get started with our episode today, for those of you listening, who are interested in engaging with others, listening to ProductivityCast, please find our digital community at WWW dot personal productivity dot club, sign up, and we'll approve you into the community, then find the ProductivityCast channel and join that you can come on and episodes, ask questions and engage with the ProductivityCast. Team and community. It's easy to sign up and it's free. Again, that's www dot personal productivity dot club. Thanks so much. And now on with the show ProductivityCast Episode 106 Welcome back, everybody to ProductivityCast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity, I'm Ray Sidney-Smith. Augusto Pinaud 0:55 I am Augusto Pinaud. Francis Wade 0:56I'm Francis Wade. Art Gelwicks 0:58 And I'm Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:59Welcome, gentlemen. And Happy New Year, Happy New Year to listeners. This is our first episode of 2021. And hopefully this year will be a better year than 20, in the sense that after hopefully, you know, people start to get vaccinated in larger swamps and everything else like that, we'll be getting back to our normal lifestyles. And I'm looking forward to, you know, seeing people in real life again, very soon. And what we wanted to do today, is we got a listener question. And we thought, Well, why the heck not answer that listener question as a good...
Posted on

A Year in Review & Preview for Personal Productivity

What a year 2020 has been! This week, the ProductivityCast team reminisces on four of our eight favorite episode topics this year (and all eight are embedded below for your listening pleasure), then we discuss thoughts on interests for next year. Happy, Productive New Year! (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/105 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing the year in review, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Francis Wade Show Notes | A Year in Review & Preview Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. Top 3 listened-to episodes of the year Episode 094 - How Mind Mapping Fits Your Productivity SystemEpisode 070 - On Getting Things Done with David AllenEpisode 066 - Working from Home in the Age of COVID-19 Art's Top 2 Episode 063 - Email (23:38 - 24:32)Episode 089 - Amateur vs Pro (14:09 - 15:12) Augusto's Top 2 Episode 066 - Working from Home (47:16 - 47:49)Episode 070 - On GTD with David Allen (16:55 - 17:57) Francis's Top 2 Episode 091 - Do what you love as a career (23:01 - 25:05)Episode 079 - Detecting and managing burnout (self-awareness that pre-empts burnout) (30:09 - 31:20) Ray's Top 2 Episode 071 - Personal Outsourcing (12:13 - 13:35)Episode 087 - Automating Your Office (7:50 - 8:47) Raw Text Transcript | A Year in Review & Preview Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Voiceover Artist 0:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. Here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17 Welcome back, everybody to ProductivityCast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity, I'm Ray Sidney Smith. Augusto Pinaud 0:22 I am Augusto Pinaud. Francis Wade 0:23I'm Francis Wade. Art Gelwicks 0:25 And I'm Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:26Welcome, gentlemen. And welcome to our listeners to this final episode of 2020 for ProductivityCast. I can't believe it, but we have reached the end of 2020. Quite honestly, I think a lot of us are relieved that 2020 is over and looking forward to at least a better back three quarters of 2021 once we have a set of vaccines in order, and folks are starting to get back to a bit of normal life. And so with that, what I wanted to do today was for us to go through and talk about our most listened to episodes of the year, and then get into our favorite episodes of the year. Each of us has selected two episodes, we'll play the snippet, and then have a little discussion around why we chose it, whether it still stands, and then go round robin, for our picks. So let's let's discuss our top three listen to episodes of the year. And so if you are brand, new to ProductivityCast, this will be really good place to start in terms of listening to some episodes that have been most listened to in the year. And those end up being Episode 66 that is working from home in the age of COVID-19. Episode 70, we did an interview with David Allen, the progenitor of getting things done so on getting things done with David Allen, Episode 70. Then our number one, our top episode of of 2020 drumroll is Episode 94. How mind mapping fits your productivity system...