Being Smarter

We are delighted to announce a new guest blogger to the Being Smarter stage – Francis Wade. Francis is the author of the 2Time blog that focuses on helping smart people develop and upgrade their own time management systems. He’s going to be writing with his unique take on the subject of time management systems over the coming months.

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A friend of mine who is a brilliant web designer recently complained to me that a lot of the time management stuff to be found on the internet was simply cr*p! I thought about it for a minute, and then I agreed.

I did a short survey of the comments floating around on Twitter and found that a lot of it should insult anyone with average intelligence and ability. While I’m not immune from charges of being an arrogant “smarty-pants,” I think that that there is reason to be annoyed.

Here’s why….

1. Same old, same old

Much of the stuff that’s written about time management has been said elsewhere, MANY times. Merely repeating the same bromides makes little or no difference to most of us who have heard them many times (and may even have repeated them at some point.)

For example, “Start meetings on time” is not something that you can say to an adult without their eyes glazing over… they have heard it before. Putting it in an article or a blog post doesn’t help. When I read a time management article I am looking for something that I haven’t heard before… in fact, I’m hungry for it. When I don’t find it, I am mildly disappointed, especially when the headline hints at some new thinking.

The truth is, it’s hard to come up with fresh ideas, and most writers seem happy to rehash well-worn sentiments that have no impact whatsoever. For the reader it all adds up to a boring sense of deja vu.

2. Magical results with no effort

Many courses and books promise the near-impossible. They convince us that we can produce results with little or no effort, if we just follow the “Top 10 Secret Tips that Executives Use.”

The use of the word “tip” is what makes it all sound so easy to do. Authors make it seem as if a small piece of advice, and a quick and tiny tweak can produce a massive breakthrough in stubborn habits.

Unfortunately, the experience of most people is quite the opposite.

The fact is, time management is built on habits, rituals and practices that take many years to develop. A little tip is hardly ever enough to ensure a solid transformation.

Many don’t buy the snake-oil that’s being sold in this case, and turn away shaking their heads in disbelief… they know that habit changing is hard work, and involves more than just a small change here than there that takes little or no effort.

It reminds me of the exercise machines that used to be sold on television, in which the viewer just needed to strap on a “Jiggler-matic” and watch TV while all their fat was jiggled away. Lots of quick results for no effort!!

3. One size fits all

Many gurus who come up with commercial time management systems would have us believe that their particular solution, which works so well for them, will work just as well for us.

Here is a short list of the things that don’t seem to matter:
- our age
- the culture to which we belong
- the kind of work we do
- our education
- our experience implementing other systems
- our goals and needs
- whether we are executives, or even professionals

The belief that everyone can and should follow the same system makes me imagine long lines of soldiers in a totalitarian country marching in perfect goose-step to martial music: perfect clones of each other.

Instead, we are unique people, and it’s crazy to think that one system of time management can be the final solution for all needs, for all people.

4. Follow or else

Some gurus go even further and insist that a user who doesn’t follow their system down to the last letter is ruining the whole thing, and is likely to fail.

This particular claim is a Catch-22 of sorts.

It’s virtually impossible to implement all the practices of a time management system that someone else creates. There are just too many habits to copy, and too many new word and ideas to remember.

The catch is that the creator who claims that it must ALL be followed, comes out being the only person who can implement the whole thing perfectly. They win, and the rest of us are big losers.

5. Disregard my accomplishments

Perhaps the most puzzling aspect of these guru-led systems, however, is that they completely disregard the progress that smart people often make.

Instead of starting with the system that a person is currently using, and figuring out where it’s working or not, they treat all users as if they don’t know what they are doing. They tell the user to start all over, as if they are currently using nothing at all.

That’s harsh medicine!

For many smart people, it’s like transferring them to a new high school and putting them in a class without first doing any kind of assessment.

It just feels wrong.

Most smart people don’t need complete and radical overhauls of their time management systems, as they have been working on perfecting them for years. Instead, they are looking for a way to effect intelligent upgrades.

They also realize that there might never be a time in their professional lives when they stop upgrading their systems, due in part to technology changes. Continuous improvement is the only way to keep up with the flood of information that comes at them. Once a credible assessment is done, however, they can adjust on their own and make small changes that stand the test of time.

Bottom Line

Most smart people have already given some thought to their systems of habits, practices and rituals and understand that changing them is no trivial, superficial business.

If they need help, it is the kind that must go well past the superficial tip-giving that seems to have infected so many. Instead, they require solid insight that illuminates the challenge of time management and results in consistent new behavior.

That wouldn’t be annoying — far from it. Whenever I have been lucky enough to find that kind of help, I have been very, very grateful.

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Francis Wade is the author of the 2Time blog and the originator of Time Management 2.0. He’ll be back in a couple of weeks with more words of wisdom…

Ian Mash of Yeoman Consulting helps us to continue the theme of ‘practical ways to help your business life” by sharing some of his experiences of working at the coalface as a senior manager in one of the UK’s largest companies – BT.

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How many of us get up to do a full day’s work, and then conform to the expected norm?

Most of us I suspect, but the key to competitive advantage is to continuously challenge the norm, continuously challenge the status quo.

Think of the new and successful products or brands that do just that. Look at EasyJet. Who would have thought, 20 years ago that we would all be flying around Europe for £20 a seat, and that whilst we had to give up a free warm gin and tonic and a handful of nuts, we now accept a cheaper price and ‘what you see is what you get’ service.

BA certainly didn’t.

Look at Apple’s continued success based on innovation…the Ipod, and the iPhone. OK some of the ‘apps’ are pretty trivial like the beer glass one, but others like the SatNav one are powerful and have started to really shore up the niche.

Look at Mark Copeman’s idea of challenging the status quo of the training world with The 8.45 Club, a great idea to keep up to date while you’re having that first cup of coffee. (Ed-Thanks Ian) All of these are about challenging the status quo, getting an edge and most importantly asking ‘Why?’, the world’s most powerful question.

Why do we do things that way?

Why can’t it be done this way?

There are big inhibitors to that ‘why’ question in most companies… “because we’ve just spent £x million on a new system to support the process’ or “because that is how we built the business doing it this way”, but the competition or new start up doesn’t have that inhibitor when they’re looking for their edge…so it’s important that you challenge the status quo on a regular basis, if you’re not going to be playing panic catch up on your competition.

Interestingly that got me thinking about the question “what is a strong brand?” I remember being asked this by my marketing tutor and answering that “it was one I went to because I recognised it”. A torrent of sarcasm ensued and he drummed it into me, that a strong brand was one which one someone was prepared to pay more for.I’m sure BA comforted themselves on that mantra when Easyjet sprang up. In my view, they are both strong brands and plenty of folk still use BA… but Easyjet certainly doesn’t fit the definition of my old tutor.

So, maybe a strong brand is about being clear on the price for the deliverable and being consistent with that deliverable. Any way you look at it, it’s a challenge to the status quo.

Ian Mash will be back with more pearls of wisdom in the next couple of weeks and can be contacted on +44 7860 621976 and via email at ian dot mash1 at btinternet.com
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Ian Mash of Yeoman Consulting helps us to continue the theme of ‘practical ways to help your business life” by sharing some of his experiences of working at the coalface as a senior manager in one of the UK’s largest companies – BT.

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When I’ve been looking at new product development or moving into new markets, I’ve always been struck by how quickly folk want to get down to the design phase. Frequently I’ve noticed that the main design input has been personal bias or copying the competition. An old marketing guru of mine tore me off a strip for just such a view when he asked me why I had chosen a particular design. When I answered that it was what I would have wanted had I been in the market he used the phrase

‘Beware the sample of one’.

Given the cost of new product development and the cost of failure if you don’t get it right, a little time and effort at the front end using proper customer segmentation and needs analysis will save a lot of red faces later on. It’s our job as management or marketing professionals to do this spadework up front.  It doesn’t have to be rocket science.

Personally I like Kotler’s (Marketing Management, Analysis, planning and control) views of perhaps 3 axis segmentation e.g. gender, hair colour shoe size so that you can get to the segment of fair haired women who wear size 6 shoes for your better mousetrap. There are of course many others who write on segmentation, it’s up to you to choose.

This brings me onto my next thought. Often we are deluged with huge amounts of information or views from colleagues. As a manager it’s not easy to cut our way through, but I’ve seen an increasing trend from people of not wanting to listen to counter views and arguments because it takes up their time. This is a dangerous course and the time saved will be wasted in spades later when you re-appraise the position.

None of us are that good we can work in isolation.

I’ve always felt that advice is for listening to, but not necessarily taking

Consider the idea of writing a mail but not sending it until later, it’s useful to give yourself just a little time to consider what you know and what you don’t know. Sometimes this can be overnight, but if time is pressing, and it often is, it can be a walk to the coffee machine, just to get that processing time to make your own decision. You’ll find that decision is both easier to make and easier to communicate when you’ve taken this approach.

Ian Mash will be back with more pearls of wisdom in the next couple of weeks and can be contacted on +44 7860 621976 and via email at ian dot mash1 at btinternet.com
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Ian Mash of Yeoman Consulting helps us to continue the theme of ‘practical ways to help your business life” by sharing some of his experiences of working at the coalface as a senior manager in one of the UK’s largest companies – BT.

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I’ve had time recently to contemplate things I’ve observed which really don’t do business people justice on a day to day basis. Having the right professional skills is such a simple concept – we only have limited interaction with most people and certainly in new situations people tend to make up their mind in the first 10 seconds. Once that has happened it takes a while to change that view.

1) Returning calls

Many of us have answering messages on the phone or mobile which say that we’ll call back. Or indeed, when it’s not convenient at that exact point to talk we say “I’ll call you back at 4.o0, is that ok?”, and then don’t.  We’re all busy people and respecting other peoples time will result in them respecting yours. If you make a commitment, put it in your calendar and deliver on it.

Mark McCormack in his book  ‘What they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School’ said that he didn’t trust managers who couldn’t take their holiday. In his view, if they couldn’t manage to take their holiday, what else couldn’t they manage to do? I think calling back comes into the same category. If you don’t deliver on that commitment, what else won’t you deliver on?

2) Control your emotion

One of the key professional skills in a close knit office environment is controlling your emotions. When I first stated work an old and wise manager who was my boss sat opposite me. One day I had a run in with a peer and wrote a great letter saying what I really thought of him. I felt a lot better. I showed it to my boss and he said “What a great letter, he’ll really know what you think of him after that!” He also said “I tell you what, put the letter in your drawer and then when you come in tomorrow, if you still feel the same way, send it”.

Naturally when I came in the next day I looked at what I had written, put myself in the other person’s shoes for a moment, then ripped it up and threw it away.  The same applies for e-mails, but it’s tragically easy to press send too quickly. Take my old manager’s advice, save it as a draft until tomorrow, it might save you a lot of humble pie eating.

3) Take pride

I see many, many e-mails these days where basic spelling and grammar have been ignored. It’s to the detriment of the writer I’m afraid, and I bet you notice it when it’s done to you. Whether its lack of knowledge or lack of effort I’m not sure, but the time pressure on us and the proximity of the send button doesn’t help. Use spell check and if you’re not too hot on grammar, then look at Lynne Truss’s book “Eats shoots and leaves” which is great. I’m not suggesting at all that I am perfect and I’m confident that there are plenty of errors in this piece, but it’s something to think about.

4) Bother to follow up

I guess this is very closely linked to my thoughts above. I’m constantly frustrated by people promising in a meeting to send me something or to complete an action and then seeing that promise unfulfilled. Is it me or are people starting to get slightly surprised when people actually do what they say they are going to? This certainly applies in the faceless call centre. I’ve had a couple of experiences recently where an email has been sent to me as promised from a call centre and there was a small part of me which was shocked.

Clearly this isn’t a great reflection on society – but don’t fall into that trap! A tip for you – bother to write down the action, however trivial in your to do list and then actually do it as soon as you are able. You will delight people.

5)  Be helpful

There’s a school of thought which suggests if you constantly go out of your way to help others, then you will be set for life. In the time I’ve had to observe some of these business people traits – I don’t see this helpful behaviour happening too often.

I’m a big believer in what goes around comes around. Go and make an effort to help a colleague today – and I mean really help – spend a couple of hours doing something for them that they aren’t able to do. It will make you feel good if nothing else and over time, it will pay back.

Ian Mash will be back with more pearls of wisdom in the next couple of weeks and can be contacted on +44 7860 621976 and via email at ian dot mash1 at btinternet.com

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