Every good coach focuses on productivity. Isn’t that what coaching is? Helping individuals reach their maximum potential through increased productivity is the natural objective of most coaching relationships.
But, there’s a problem with this goal. It ignores the impact of chaos theory on the world around us. As a result, we may be helping those we coach be more unproductive by encouraging them to maximize their productivity!
I learned about this concept from a new book I’m reading. It’s called What’s Best Next, and it was written by Matthew Perman*. Like many books on time management and productivity, Perman offers his take on how an individual’s personal output can be optimized.
A business owner in my network who leads a very successful shipping/logistics company recommended the book (I would love to see our company operate as efficiently as his does). But, it has peaked my attention because it addresses many of the issues I find frustrating about the very popular Getting Things Done (GTD) time management system.
Over the next few weeks, I’ll occasionally share a few insights I’ve received from Perman’s work. If any of these issues peak your interest, pick up a copy of the book for yourself—there is much to learn that I couldn’t possibly cover in WorkPuzzle.
Today we’ll discuss chaos theory and the impact it has on productivity. Here is an excerpt from Perman’s book:
Researchers have found that whenever most systems—such as airports, freeways, and other such things—exceed about 90 percent of capacity, efficiency drops massively.
Not just slightly, but massively.
This is called the “ringing effect.” The reason is that as a system nears its capacity, the effect of relatively small disturbances is magnified exponentially.
This is why traffic slows down at rush hour almost inexplicably. When you think about it, unless there is an accident, there’s almost no reason that traffic should be going slow. And, here’s the thing: you’re right.
Or, in other words, there is a reason, but it’s not what you’d expect. The reason traffic is slow is because of the relatively small and otherwise insignificant braking that some guy four miles ahead did—and the person a quarter mile behind him, and half a mile behind him.
It’s not that they are slamming on their brakes; under ordinary circumstances, what they are doing would have almost no effect on the flow of traffic. The problem is that once capacity is past about 90 percent, small disturbances have a huge effect. And so traffic slows down to a crawl.
That’s the ringing effect.
Since time management systems (some combination of task lists, calendaring, and project management) are by nature systems, they are too susceptible to the ringing effect.
It seems right to plan and schedule as much good work into your day as possible and then hold yourself accountable to great execution. Isn’t this what you try to do? Isn’t this what you coach your agents to do?
Personal confession here: I’ve been trying to do this for years and it’s very frustrating. It seems I’m less productive then I should be, and I’m pretty good at planning and execution!
What’s wrong? I pack my schedule and task list full and then small, unexpected events come along and push me into chaos. I’m living out the ringing effect.
How can this be fixed?
This is a complex question (that’s why someone wrote a whole book on it), but Perman made two suggestions I found particularly helpful:
Only schedule/plan tasks to 75% capacity. This is backwards to how I think, but planning less may result in accomplishing more. This acknowledges the reality that unexpected events happen, and they’ll impact even the best plans. For sure, this will help use accomplish more of the right things because at least those items will be on our schedules.
See your schedule as a time allotment of your roles. Each of us has roles we consider important in our lives—both personal and professional (ex. recruiter, coach, spouse, parent, etc.). Most people have 7 to 10 important roles in their lives.
If your schedule becomes a description of these roles, we can divide our week into time zones each representing the important responsibilities in our lives.
For example, if coaching agents is one of your roles you might want to create Tuesday and Thursday afternoons from 1pm to 4pm as your coaching time zone for this role. Focus all of your coaching activities and tasks into this time zone (don’t pack it too full) and focus on other tasks during other time zones.
These are two time management best practices that you can personally start implementing right away. Also, coach your agents to approach their schedules in this manner—you might find everyone in your office is a lot more productive.
*Note: Be advised that Perman’s book is written from a Christian worldview. His approach of addressing productivity may not be for everyone and may even be offensive to some people. If you’re sensitive to this issue, don’t buy the book. If you still want to learn about this topic but want to skip all the “philosophy stuff,” start reading at Part 4 of his book (page 189 and beyond) and skip Part 7 (stop reading at page 295). The 100 pages between these marks are very tactical with little philosophy mixed in.
This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.
