WorkPuzzle

Why Every Manager and Business Owner Should Dream of Sushi

Very few movies come along that impact me as powerfully as the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

How can an 85 year old man, with a restaurant seating 10 people, receive the highest possible rating from Michelin, charge $365 a meal, and serve nothing but sushi? That's right, no appetizers, no desert, no side dishes, just sushi.

Sushi is all you’re getting.. and sushi is all you'll want.

Jiro has been deemed by experts to be the best sushi chef in the world. How good? A 3 star rating from Michelin is reserved for restaurants where the food is so good that it is, “Worth traveling to the country just to eat there.”

 

But that is only part of what makes Jiro Dreams of Sushi an interesting story.

How this man developed a reputation for the best sushi in the world is where this story gets very interesting.

Early in his difficult life, Jiro threw himself into becoming the very best sushi chef he could possibly be. He never set out to become the best in the world, or become rich. However, those extraneous things happened as a result of doing his very best every single day. Hence the title of the documentary; desiring to improve his skills every day led him to, "Dream about sushi."

Here are some quotes from the chef himself and one from his son:

“ Once you decide on your occupation… you must immerse yourself in your work. You have to fall in love with your work. Never complain about your job. You must dedicate your life to mastering your skill. That’s the secret of success… and is the key to being regarded honorably.”-Jiro Ono

“I've never once hated this job. I fell in love with my work and gave my life to it. Even though I'm eighty five years old, I don't feel like retiring. That's how I feel.”-Jiro Ono

“Always look ahead and above yourself. Always try to improve on yourself. Always strive to elevate your craft. That's what he taught me."- Yoshikazu Ono

"I do the same thing over and over, improving bit by bit. There is always a yearning to achieve more. I'll continue to climb, trying to reach the top, but no one knows where the top is."-Jiro Ono

Now, to be fair, you'll see that this kind of intense striving can lead to some poor fathering. He admits that he was not a good father. However, despite this fact, both of his sons have taken up their old man's craft, and pursue it with similar enthusiasm.

Do you know anyone with a similar dedication to their craft? I do. My wife is a dental hygienist and an instructor at a college, training dental hygiene students. While she never dedicated so much time that she came close to putting her craft above her duties as a mother, she was always improving, always wanting to be better, and wanting to stay abreast of the latest research and techniques. I love this about her. I don't get it, (why someone would be so interested in teeth and the mouth with that kind of dedication)... but I love it.

Many years ago, I figured out that most of the people who turn out to be interesting are usually those who are interested in excelling at something. What do you excel at? Do your customers and coworkers perceive you to be dedicated to excellence?

Whether they do or don't, know this: It is never too late to become seriously dedicating to doing something every day, improve what you offer, what you know, or how you serve.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Tidemark Online Community: Dipping Your Toe Into a Private Social Network

Over the last few weeks, we’ve focused significant time and dialog on the topic of social media. In the process, we’ve attempted to give you insight concerning an up and coming business trend—the widespread use of private social networks for business applications.

If you’re new to the conversation, you may want to read a few of the previous posts on this topic.  Visit WorkPuzzle and scroll back through the discussions over the last month or so. It won’t take long to catch up.

In my personal conversations with readers over the last few weeks, I've noticed there still seems to be a little confusion and concern about how all this “private social network stuff" works. If you are confused, don’t feel discouraged.  Emerging technologies will always feel awkward and intimidating at first, but will later seem less frightening and even routine (you probably don’t get concerned about opening up your email, right?).    

How do you get over the initial awkwardness of new technology? One way is to join a private social network as a user before running a network (a virtual office) by yourself.

 And that is exactly what we are offering you today. 

I'd like to personally invite each of you to join the Tidemark Online Community as a way of “dipping your toe” into the concept of a private social network.

I promise you, joining is relatively painless (it takes about 3 minutes to create your profile) and you can control your involvement and privacy. By joining our online community you’ll experience a little bit of how we do business at Tidemark.

Now keep in mind—Tidemark is not a real estate company. Some of the issues that we work on in the virtual office do not directly translate to the ideal real estate virtual office. However, by joining and participating in our private social network, you’ll start to see how becoming a community manager of a virtual real estate office could work for you.

To get started, click on the link below. We look forward to seeing  you on the virtual side of Tidemark.

Join the Tidemark Online Community

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Employment Brand: What Do Young Candidates Really Think of Your Organization?

Real estate companies spend a lot of time, effort, and resources managing their consumer brands...and rightfully so.  If someone is going to buy or sell a home, the perception the individual has of your company’s brand will play a major role in their choice of an agent.

Think of the emotions you’d like a consumer to experience when they think of your company.  Maybe these are some of the things your brand stands for:  well-established, trusted, experienced, competent, dependable, innovative, phenomenal customer service, etc. 

While all these are great attributes and characteristics that most any consumer would desire in a real estate company handling a transaction, they may cloud the water when it comes to representing yourself to potential candidates...especially when it comes to younger candidates. 

Many well-established companies are struggling with this issue.  Not everyone can be Zappos (a progressive online retailer based in Las Vegas), Kixeye (an edgy game developer that makes Entertainment Arts and Zynga look like fuddy-duds), or even Zillow.  In fact, many companies need to be seen as dependable, but still desirable places to work for the younger generations. 

Much has been written on this topic, and there are some companies that have spent fortunes trying to reconcile this dichotomy.  One of the most successful case studies is this effort is Enterprise Rent-a-Car.  Started in 1957, Enterprise now has more than 5,000 offices in North America.  Enterprise is not exactly an exciting new startup company, and yet is consistently named one of the top companies in the United States for launching a career.  Take a look at the Enterprise Career site and see how masterful they’ve become at solving this problem. 

But, what if you don’t have the resources to build a far-reaching branding campaign to make such a distinction between your consumer brand and your employment brand?  There is still much you can do to make this a reality—especially if your cognizant that a distinction needs to be made. 

The most natural place for a hiring manager to start transforming your employment brand is during the interviews you’re conducting with younger candidates.  This approach is low cost and can have a profound impact on your office as you bring in new hires who are the flesh and blood realities of your employment brand.   

To interview younger candidates more successfully, you’ll need a better understanding of what they see as interesting and engaging in a potential employer.  

To help in this effort, I’d like to point you to some insight provided by Gary Hamel, best-selling author and professor at the London Business School.  Last March, Dr. Hamel published What Matters Now, an insightful book on change, competition, and innovation.  And recently, he followed-up with an ERE article, connecting the principles in his book to the topic of hiring the next generation of top performers. 

More specifically, Dr. Hamel addresses the mindset that young candidates consistently display in evaluating whether an established company is “with it” or “past it.”   

The article highlights 12 of these mindsets, but I’ve selected the five that I find most insightful: 

1.  Contribution counts for more than credentials.  When you post a video to YouTube, no one asks you if you went to film school.  When you write a blog, no one cares whether or not you have a journalism degree.  Position, title, and academic degrees — none of the usual status differentiators carry much weight online.  [In progressive companies], what counts is not your resume, but what you can contribute. 

2.  Tasks are chosen, not assigned.  The internet is an opt-in economy.  Whether contributing to a blog, working on an open source project, or sharing advice in a forum, people choose to work on the things that interest them.  Everyone is an independent contractor and everyone scratches his own itch.  Progressive companies encourage work to be done in this way as well. 

3.  Power comes from sharing, not hoarding.  The Web is also a gift economy.  To gain influence and status, you have to give away your expertise and content.  And you must do it quickly; if you don’t, someone else will beat you to the punch and garner the credit that might have been yours.  [In progressive companies], there are lots of incentives to share and few to hoard. 

4.  Mediocrity gets exposed.  Online rating systems have become ubiquitous — for hotels, books, local businesses, and products of every sort.  Though not every review is useful, in the aggregate they provide a good guide to what’s remarkable and what’s rubbish.  In traditional organizations, employees don’t get to rate much of anything.  As a result, one often finds a ‘‘conspiracy of the mediocre’’ — ‘‘I won’t question your decisions or your effectiveness, if you don’t question mine.’’  There are no such cabals [in progressive companies].  If you’re inadequate, you’ll be found out. 

5.  Leaders serve rather than preside.  [Among progressive companies], every leader is a servant leader; no one has the power to command or sanction.  Credible arguments, demonstrated expertise, and selfless behavior are the only levers for getting things done.  Forget this [in your organization], and your followers will soon desert you. 

If you’re interested in the other seven mindsets, read the rest of Dr. Hamel’s article.  If you’re more strategic and want to change how your company operates, you may want to pick up his book. 

Here is the bottom line:  These mindsets will resonate with the younger candidates that you’re interviewing.  Also, many of these principles dovetail nicely into the business processes and culture that most hiring managers are trying to create and maintain.  There is a win-win in this connection and something that can differentiate you from those stodgy competitors who are in an increasingly weak position to lure your candidates away.  

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

How to Effectively Deal with Resistance

In the last edition, I described the psychology of why people become resistant after initially feeling and acting excited about a proposition that requires change.  Specifically, I described this very natural human reaction within the realm of recruiting.  

I won't repeat what I've described already in my last two editions (1, 2).  Instead, I will focus today on what to do when you meet resistance or a sudden change in direction.  

Let's say that an excited candidate, who has been positive about the prospect of beginning the licensing process, suddenly says:  "I'm no longer interested." 

What do you do? 

Before I tell you what to do, allow me to describe, instead, how to think about it:

Do you believe that this candidate has no internal conflict in their head about the decision?  In other words, do you really think that they are that adamant about not moving forward?  The answer is NO.  They DO have internal conflict.  The only reason that they sound adamant about their decision to initiate an about-face, is to ward off their own internal conflict.  They are, in essence, pushing the conflict outside of their head. 

You see, the anxiety that comes with change is temporarily diminished when we allow ourselves to believe that something is a "bad decision."  At that point, it really doesn't matter what reasons we come up with to justify our decision to remain stuck and resist change; Our objective is to not have to consider both sides of the argument.  

So, what does the above scenario cause you--the recruiter, salesperson, or manager--to do?  

If we don't know any better, it causes us to take up the other side of the argument, and begin to come up with numerous statements and explanations to counter their reasons.  This is the fatal error.  As you take on the other side of the argument, you leave the candidate free to bolster their side of the argument.  Game Over!  Once you've done this, you've lost all power and credibility.  You are no longer viewed as someone who is simply helping facilitate the best decision, rather, you've become in the eye of the candidate, someone who is in it for your own selfish reasons.  

So, what do you do instead?  

You must force the candidate to take the conflict back within their own head, rather than construct this duel.  How do you do this?  You must simply reiterate what you have observed in their behavior and speech that represents both sides of the argument.  For example:

"Two days ago, you said that you were very excited about going to licensing school, had enjoyed meeting our agents and manager, felt as if it fit you and who you are, and now you are saying it's not for you.... What happened between then and now?" 

Get them talking and owning their flip-flop...not to make a point, but to drive them back to the whole dilemma, which is their anxiety around change.  

If you catch yourself wanting the change more than they do, you will lose.  That NEVER works.  There must be a certain amount of indifference to the outcome...very warm and friendly indifference, but indifference.  The more indifferent you are to the outcome, the more bold you become in your observations and questions.  

So, here is a quick checklist to refer to when dealing with resistance: 

1. You can't want it more than they do. 
2. Force the conflict back into the their head.
3. Patiently make comments that force them to answer the question:  Where did the positive reasons disappear to? 
4. Exercise the power of warm, friendly, persistent, and hopeful indifference.  

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Understanding Resistance

In the last edition, I described the importance of understanding the psychological principle of self-activation, and how to take advantage of a candidate's first step toward joining your company. 

In closing, I described what is a natural reaction for most people to their initial steps toward any change...that reaction being anxiety and a depressed mood.  That's right, it is absolutely natural for most candidates to demonstrate enthusiasm and excitement when they first consider a new opportunity.  But don't count on this newfound excitement lasting very long.  You see, excitement and fear are opposite sides of the same coin -- A candidate usually oscillates back and forth between these two emotions before, hopefully, settling somewhere in between and reaching a rational decision. 

If you have been discouraged in your recruiting efforts by your candidates' inability to maintain enthusiasm throughout the recruitment process, you need to understand that your candidate is likely experiencing something psychologist refer to as the defense triad.  If you don't understand this triad and deal with it as it arises, you might as well jump into the nearest sumo wrestling ring.  You will lose the fight.  

The Defense goes like this:  Self-Activation, leads to Anxiety, which leads to Defense.  

What this means is that once a person begins to experience anxiety, they will come up with a multitude of reasons why they can no longer consider moving in the direction they were just previously excited about.  And not only that, they will not budge an inch! 

Now, you'd think that it would be difficult to differentiate between a defense that is rational...and defense that isn't.  Take for instance, a candidate who says on Wednesday, "I am thrilled with the possibility of finding out more and seeing if this may be in my future."  And then on Friday says, "NO.. I'm really not interested now," or "I just spoke to my spouse who says this isn't a good plan."  These are most likely defenses.  How do I know?  Because the initial interaction was one of reciprocal discussion, but now they don't want any feedback.  Whenever someone does this kind of about-face, and you are suddenly treated like a threat, the person is truly acting out of a defense against their own first step of self-activation.  

You see, the only time that we are all very comfortable with first steps and change is when we are young.  Fortunately for most of us, we don't mind falling a few times before learning to stand on our own, or falling harder a few times before walking or running on our own.  But, as people get older, we resist change and become more attached to security and familiarity, even if we are bored with the familiar.  Research shows that if we get too bored, we don't grow and can't enjoy what we do.  We must continually challenge ourselves to remain vital. 

Unfortunately, educating the candidate about the above won't help.  Instead, you must understand how to deal with resistance when you see it.  In the next edition, I'll give you some insight on how to best do this in a way that leaves you more relaxed than you can imagine.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

The Importance of Self-Activation

If you've ever attended any of our presentations, you've heard both Ben and I refer to Self-Activation, a concept that is the foundation on which much of our recruiting platform is built. 

What is Self Activation you ask?

Allow me to begin by explaining what it is not.  If someone were to call you right this minute, and ask if you'd like to purchase one of their new or used cars, what would you say?  My hunch is that you would quickly interrupt their sales pitch and tell them to never call again.  Why is this?  There are several reasons, but the primary issue is that you have done nothing to demonstrate any interest whatsoever.  This is the coldest of cold calls.  They are chasing you, much like a predator chases its prey -- the target (you in this case) has never taken step one towards demonstrating any interest in the product. 

On the other hand, let's say you drive on to a local car lot, and someone approaches you... Are you offended?  I hope not.  Of course you might say something like, "Allow me to look around a bit" and then later ask him/her questions.  But their approaching you is completely reasonable and expected because you're taking the first step.  The first step is another way of understanding self-activation.  The act of you driving to the dealership to look at cars is one form of self-activation toward the ultimate goal, purchasing a car.  If "self-activation" were on one side of a continuum, the other side would be disinterest, and in the middle would be apathy.  

If you've ever tried to teach a child to swim... oh, how important is it to let that first step be theirs!  Right?  Because if you force the issue, they will resist it for months to come.  How to establish the perfect conditions to get them to take that first step, is the primary problem to solve.  

In whatever you do, whether it be sales, recruiting, or management...begin to consider how to watch for, and even actively elicit from others, forms of self-activation.  Without the other party self-activating, you are stuck in the very weak position of wanting something more than they do.  That never works. 

So, the question that we continually ask ourselves in order to assist you in attaining more candidates and to build software systems to track those candidates is, "How do we elicit a self-activation from people who have never thought about working in real estate before?"  Without going into great detail, we attempt to understand the pain that ordinary people feel, and use this knowledge to appeal to that pain in a way that resonates with reality. 

Once the candidate takes the CCI and expresses interest in being contacted, they have activated their "self" to do  something unusual and new, thereby leaving the door open for you to pursue them for an interview.  Voila!  No cold call.  

In your work, how can you spend more of your time talking to people who have already taken steps toward you without wasting time pursuing people who are running the other way?

1. Identify the pain of your target audience
2. Identify the answer for that pain
3. Identify ways that you might already have access to that target audience (people you could truly help)  
4. Identify easy steps that you can take with them with little commitment in each step
5. Have a solution that addresses their pain

You might be saying, "...but many of these warm leads seem to resist the very thing that they have shown interest in."

That is absolutely normal and should be anticipated.  In the next edition, I'll share with you how to deal with the defense that usually follows self-activation.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Surprise Your Candidates: Play the Respect Card

I think I highlighted one of Peter Weddle’s articles a couple of months ago, and I usually like to let more time go by before I cite him again as a source for a new discussion.

But, the content in his latest newsletter was just too good to pass up.

Why?  Because Peter (unknowingly) identifies a hiring advantage that real estate companies can quickly and easily use to differentiate themselves from traditional employers.

This may surprise you, but that differentiator is respect.

I wish that I could report there has been a sudden and unexpected groundswell of respect that candidates have gained for the real estate industry in recent months.  While this would be well-deserved among many of our clients, there is no real evidence that any change in behaviour has actually occured here.

The change has instead happened among traditional companies who hire employees.  Many of these companies have become very disrespectful toward their applicants, and many candidates have noticed this change.

Peter makes the following observation from the candidate’s perspective:

“For the first time in modern American history, those in transition now have to worry about serial unemployment.  They must endure a grueling and often lengthy job search, and then they have to deal with the ever-present possibility that they may lose their job 6, 12 or 18 months down the road.  No sooner are they employed, it seems, than they face the prospect of becoming unemployed all over again.

There are, of course, a range of reasons for this phenomenon.  The lousy economy, changing consumer tastes, and the introduction of new technology certainly deserve some of the blame.  In far too many cases, however, there's another cause.  It's employers behaving badly.

What does that mean?

Bad employer behavior includes misrepresenting the nature of a job - the tasks it involves or its compensation - and/or the nature of the organization - its culture, values and leadership.  The former is rare because it can only occur if recruiters and other employees are complicit in the cover-up and thankfully few are willing to do so.  The latter, on the other hand, occurs far more frequently than it should primarily because the warning signs are overlooked or, worse, ignored.”

At first, you may not see traditional employers as your competitors, but when it comes to attracting and hiring talented candidates, they are the ones who most commonly lure candidates away.

And while they seem to have the “unfair advantage” of offering upfront salary and benefits, this advantage has a disproportionate impact on desperate people—these are the individuals who put up with the abuse and ignore warning signs of poor employers.

Every real estate hiring manager knows that desperate candidates do not make good real estate agents.  They typically cannot afford the start-up costs and sustain focus on the long-term payoff of a real estate career.

So, an interesting dynamic has developed-- We have traditional employers who disrespect candidates and naturally filter out the desperate candidates for themselves.  Who’s left in the pool?  Non-desperate candidates who have the resources, talents, and self-esteem to not jump at the first thing thrown their way.

Anytime your competitors act badly, it’s an opportunity for you to differentiate yourself.  But you have to counter their missteps with good behavior of your own.

Peter goes on to describe how this is achieved in the hiring process (again, from the candidate’s perspective):

“A decent employer is one that provides the environment, encouragement and support for you to succeed.  In short, it's an organization that respects you as a person of talent.  It recognizes the contribution you make to its success and treats you accordingly.  As a consequence, you are able to perform at your peak, and that outcome - excelling at your work - is the best guarantor of continued employment.

Respect, however, is a two-way street.  Yes, an employer should respect you, but you must also respect yourself.  You must think enough of your talent to ensure you can always deliver it on-the-job.  You must constantly refresh your skills and knowledge so that your talent is as strong, versatile and durable as it can be and must be in today's highly competitive global economy.

With self-respect in place, you are in the right position to evaluate the level of respect you would get from prospective employers.  How do you make that judgment?  Look for telltale signs in the recruiting process of each organization.

For example:

• Does the employer acknowledge the receipt of your resume when you submit it and thank you for doing so?
• Does the employer keep you informed of your status as the evaluation process unfolds?
• Does the employer remove filled positions promptly so you are not applying for jobs that are no longer available?
• Does the employer provide a clear and complete description of its culture and values on its organizational web-site and/or Facebook page?

If you are invited in for an interview, are you greeted in a friendly and courteous way or are you treated as if you're just another widget with DNA?

And, while you are interviewing, are you able to meet with the people who would be your coworkers and are they able to speak freely about their working conditions?”

All of this boils down to respect.  Are you willing to put in the time, effort, and focus on details to show another human being respect in the hiring process?  If you make this commitment, you’ll be well-positioned to attract and engage the next generation of talented agents for your office.  If not, know that you’ll be in head-to-head competition with traditional employers to hire desperate candidates.  That’s a game you can’t win--even if you do make the hire.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

The Toggl Experiment: Time-Tracking Tasks

I'd like to follow-up on a discussion that Dave started earlier this month (1, 2) on the importance of finding and consistently following a system.  One of the tools he suggested using as part of his quest to stay on track was a web-based time tracking tool called Toggl.   

There is a story around this tool that I think is worth sharing... 

Toggl was first brought to my attention by another Tidemark partner as a way of tracking the contributions that were being made on various projects.  In essence, it is a web-based software application that asks one simple question: 

“What are you working on?” 

The user types a simple task description (for example:  Preparing a WorkPuzzle blog) and then presses a “start” button.  At this point, a timer starts ticking away and documents the time the user is dedicating to this task. 

Since Tidemark develops recruiting software, I appreciate an elegant software design.  On this front, Toggl has some great characteristics—simple to use, works well on any browser/computer platform, has both mobile and desktop applications that integrate with its core web-based environment, etc...  And perhaps most importantly, the user interface design is well done—simple and easy to use. 

While these characteristics are noteworthy, they are not what makes Toggl such a useful tool.  Like most successful software businesses, Toggl helps solve a simple problem:  

The fact is...most people are disengaged and waste a lot of time at work.

This business reality has been well-documented over the last decade and has probably been going on for many years before that.  Kyle Lagunas, an HR Market Analyst for the popular blog, Software Advice, recently wrote a very insightful article on Engagement, that highlights recent Towers Watson research revealing that more than 60% of the U.S. workforce is not fully engaged in their work.  He also cites Gallup research, estimating that this lack of engagement costs businesses in the United States more than $300 billion in lost productivity each year. 

While I’ve read and known about this problem for years, I’ve never considered myself part of this “disengaged” group.  I’ve always prided myself in tightly scheduling events, creating detailed tasks list, and seeking out accountability.  

I work hard and stay focused.   

At least I thought I did...until I started using Toggl.    

Toggl has opened my eyes to a new reality.  It has forced me to reach a new level of self-awareness that has been (initially) disheartening.  I'm find myself asking these types of questions quite frequently: 

“How could that task take so long?” 

“Did I really spend two hours on email yesterday?  I don’t seem to have accomplished much with those dialogs.” 

“I’ve started this task four times and I’m constantly feeling distracted.  What is it about this task that I don’t like doing?”

“Why is there 15 minutes of downtime between tasks (you can’t push the start button until you start the next task)?  Could that downtime be used for something that renews my mind and spirit?” 

In essence, Toggl has given me the ability to look backwards—across my day, across my week, and eventually across my year.  While I’ve always been pretty good at putting together a plan, I was surprised to learn how poor I am at executing that plan. 

So, thank you Toggl, for creating a great tool.  If you’d like to try Toggl for yourself, check out their take a tour page.  It is a free app for personal use and not very expensive to use with a team.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Balancing Innovation and Stability

Some of our readers have commented on what appears to be an occasional conflict in our message, especially when we refer to innovation.  At times we emphasize the topic of stability and the unchanging fundamentals of human nature, and then we refer to the vital importance of innovation.  How could these seemingly contradictory messages co-exist?

I'm not sure that this can be answered in one blog, but I'll make a couple comments to help us think through the psychological ramifications of both extremes.  By extremes, I mean that they can be viewed as opposite ends of a continuum, with blind innovation on one end, and rigid stability on the other.

Psychologically, the need or proclivity for stability can be driven by fear.  Whereas constant need for innovation can be driven by impatience, lack of persistence, and impulsivity.

There are currently so many new innovations in technology alone...social media, cloud computing, and mobility are all equally hot topics right now.  So how does a company balance the need for these new technologies, while also maintaining their older, established systems and solutions?

The common understanding in Organizational Psychology, is that there must be a delicate balance and more importantly, you must be aware of why you favor either side of the continuum.  Are you always fighting for stability and resisting change?  Or, are you always leaning towards innovation?  I can tell you that I tend to lean toward innovation, and have slowly made my journey towards balancing that with stability and patience within the last ten years.

For you more impulsive types who seek to innovate everything, you might experiment with recalling instances where your patience and persistence with the status quo paid off.  In contrast, those of you who cling to stability might surround yourselves with people who ask questions that seem bizarre.  Typically, the more odd the questions appear to be, the more likely they are to possibly lead to something better.

A case in point...While Sony was asking "How can we build the smallest MP3 player," Apple was asking "How do we make listening to music cool."  We all know where this led.

So... I continue to listen to basically the same music....but in a very different way.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Preventing Brain Abuse: 4 Obstacles to Peak Performance

I know many of you were probably saddened to hear of Stephen Covey’s passing this week.  I still remember devouring his “Seven Habits of Highly Successful People” book while I was attending a naval training class on contract law in San Diego in the early ‘90s.  The class was notoriously boring, so I had plenty of time to read in the back of the room.

At the time, I was amazed how Covey was able to take timeless, proven principles, and boil them down into memorable and applicable guidelines that could be easily followed.  In many senses, he revitalized the time-management industry through his work.  In turn, he laid the groundwork for many innovators to come behind him and build their own systems based on the consumer awareness that he created. 

One of the most successful time management system-builders to come behind Stephen Covey was David Allen.  I’ve written several blogs about David Allen’s work over the last few years, and I use some of his techniques in my own life.  Powered by social networking technology that Covey did not have access to, Allen’s work has spawned a new ecosystem of “practitioners” who share how they use and make sense of Allen’s system. 

I came across a blog written by one of these practitioners last week that I think is worth sharing.  The blog was written by Todd Brown.  Here is part of what he wrote: 

“I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who would argue that their brain was unimportant (and if they did, you would wonder how well it was functioning anyway).  Yet on our travels we find that many people misuse their brains.  They expect it to perform well in areas where science and experience tell us it just doesn’t cut the mustard.  And that means they don’t exploit its full potential.

We’ve learned enough about the brain in the last 60 or so years to know that it is powerful and dependable at some things, and limited and unreliable when it comes to others.  Thinking creatively, drawing connections, brainstorming, focused thinking – all great uses for our grey matter.  But counting on it to remind me of the fact that I need to buy olive oil?  Allowing it to have the thought over and over ‘I need to email the proposal to the client?'” Only half-deciding what to do with several (hundred?) emails and leaving them in the inbox to fester?

That’s brain abuse.  Of course if you’re guilty of it, you are also the only one who can put an end to it.  A first step would be to consider a spotter’s guide to the forms the abuse might take:

1.  Re-thinking things.   

If your brain space is precious, why would you allow it to have a mundane thought more than once?  The only thoughts you should have multiple times are thoughts you enjoy.  Anything else should be dispatched to some place in your organizational system where you’ll be reminded when you can do something about it.

2.  Leaving thinking half-finished.

This is a close cousin of re-thinking.  If you have an email inbox that’s chock-a-block, I’m imagining there will be more than a few emails in there that you have opened, gotten a sense of, closed, possibly marked unread (the digital ritual that indicates 'I’ll think about that some more later'), and then left so you could move on to other things.  And you might have repeated this several times for the same email.

That’s not only brain abuse, it’s inefficient.  Better to finish the thinking: what’s the outcome that you want to or need to create that relates to this email?  In other words, when will it be done and off your mind?  And what is the very next visible action that you will take to move it forward?

3.  Trying to fill your brain beyond capacity.

Ever since George Miller’s research at Princeton in the 1950’s, we’ve known that our short-term memory is limited.  There is only so much that we can keep in there.  Miller reckoned the brain could hold onto about seven items before things are either lost, or fall into long-term memory.  And the problem with long-term memory is that you can’t be sure when things will re-emerge from it, like a huge field of jack-in-the-boxes popping up without much rhyme or reason.

You’d think that, knowing that our memory is so severely limited, we would deduce that there is no way it’s going to cope with tracking all of the dozens of moving parts in our lives.  But we see most people soldier on, heads full of details they’re hoping desperately to remember, but often generating failure, internal stress and distraction instead.  Better to make it a habit to empty your head at any opportunity.  Employ 'distributed cognition.'  In plain English, write things down, or send yourself an email, or voice mail, or whatever it takes to free up that precious mental space.

4.  Counting on your brain to remind you when you want to be reminded

My wife is fuelled by Earl Grey tea.  Her day starts with that first cuppa, and if it’s not available, it doesn’t start well.  When we go on holiday, it’s a very good idea to make sure we have some with us, as most places overseas won’t have it on the breakfast menu.  Do I count on my brain to remember that I need to pack the tea bags?  I value holiday tranquility too much.  Earl Grey appears (in bold letters) on my packing list.”

So, to honor the great groundwork that Stephen Covey laid for us all, make a commitment to heed Todd Brown’s advice and stop abusing your brain.  How?  Find and use a time/task management system that keeps your brain from getting stuck in these common, unproductive patterns. 

By doing so, you’ll set your brain free to focus on its highest and most productive work.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.