Category: Decision Making

A Formula for Success

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Is there a formula for success?  If so, it would have to be a simple approach that can be used by anyone in any situation.  Tim and Brian Kight, the founders of Focus3, believe there is a formula that if used with discipline will lead to any desired result.  In fact, they recently highlighted it on their blog:

E+R=O (Event + Response = Outcome) is cause and effect. Desired outcomes require deserving responses. The cause must meet the requirement to create the effect. What does this mean for you?

It means use a moment each week to clarify the cause and effect of E+R=O in your life. Are you responding in a way deserving of the things you want? Decide on your objectives, lock your focus on their importance, and make every action reflect your real desires. When you do this, success is with you in every response, even before your true objective is a reached.

Read the rest of this entry on the Focus3 blog.

timandbriankight

 

Fixed vs. Growth Mindsets

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mindsetsImagine a room of students who are working on a very tough math problem.  Some of them give up quickly and say it can’t be solved while others preserve and work at it until they final succeed.  What is different about these students?   Believe it or not, IQ is not a factor.  According to research, it is mindset.

In her groundbreaking book, Mindset, author Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D. explored the reasons why some people have greater success than others.  She determined that it came down to whether a person had a fixed or growth mindset.  As explained on her website:

“In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort. They’re wrong.

“In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. Virtually all great people have had these qualities.”

Read more about this fascinating idea at mindsetonline.com

Overcoming Procrastination

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Do you want to know how to overcome procrastination?  I’ll tell you in the next blog post.

Just kidding!  When I present the Efficient Librarian workshop, I’m often asked the question, “How do I overcome procrastination?”  While it seems challenging the solution is easier than you may think.  In a recent blog post on the Getting Things Done web site, GTD expert Meg Edwards wrote about her own experience with procrastination and the simple way she overcomes it:

megedwardsI realized that the two things I did that caused me to procrastinate were:
1) I had a negative definition of the outcome
2) I focused on the complexity involved … which overwhelmed me so I did nothing.

What I did that got it moving was:
1) I changed the negative definition of the outcome to a positive definition that motivated me
2) I clarified and defined the next action which simplified what I needed to do so I could relax about the complexity around it.

Read the full blog post on the Getting Things Done web site.

Beware of Sunk Costs

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Imagine you paid twenty dollars for a ticket to a local amateur play.  The day of the show, a friend surprises you with a free ticket to an exclusive concert featuring your favorite musician.  Do you choose to go to the play or the concert?  When behavioral economists run this type of experiment, they find most people will stick to the less attractive option (the play) because they paid for the ticket.  This is an example of the sunk cost fallacy in action.

Our minds are easily trapped by sunk costs.  According to Investopedia, a sunk cost is a cost that has already been incurred and thus cannot be recovered.  While this concept is often discussed around investments of money, sunk costs also include time and resources.  Think of how often an organization will add patches to clunky system instead of ditching it to build a new one.  People will stubbornly remain committed to a project that is going nowhere because of all the work put into it, even if results remain elusive.

dollarsandsenseRemember, a sunk cost is not recoverable, which gives rise to the famous expression, “Chasing good money after bad.”  The trick is to evaluate the current status of a project, investment, or commitment in light of where it stands now and ignore past contributions.  This way, it is possible to stay nimble and take advantage of better opportunities when they arise.

More information on sunk costs, especially around money, can be found in the book, Dollars and Sense: How we Misthink Money and How to Spend Smarter, by Dan Ariely and Jeff Kresisler.

Work/Life Balance Myth

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davidallenIt has long been proposed that one of the secrets to a happy life is finding a work/life balance.  This is a magical equation where the right mix of meaningful work offset by an exact amount of normal life activity equals contentment.  However, is this really as true as it seems?

In a recent blog post, David Allen discusses this topic and comes to his own conclusions.

“There’s not really work/life balance, there’s just balance. I mean, work is anything you want to get done, right? It doesn’t have to be pejorative. Having a good vacation can be work. Just think of the affirmation: Wow, this really works! Is that a bad thing?”

Read the rest of his blog entry on the Getting Things Done web site.

Head in the Cloud

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There is an amazing paradox happening right now.  Due to the massive growth of the Internet, people have access to more information at their fingerprints than can ever be consumed in a thousand lifetimes.  However, it seems as if misinformation and lack of understanding are proliferating just as quickly as new Facebook accounts are activated.  In fact, people almost seem to have a worse understanding of the world than their pre-Internet grandparents had!

headinthecloudIn this book, Head in the Cloud, author William Poundstone explores the question of whether all this online information is only serving to make us less informed.  Online information is easier to skim, but hard to dive into deeply.  Poundstone specifically highlights a phenomenon known as the Dunning-Kruger effect which can lead people to overestimate their own level of knowledge in a subject area.

“Those most lacking in knowledge and skills are least able to appreciate that lack.  … The Dunning-Kruger effect requires a minimal degree of knowledge and experience in the area about which you are ignorant (and ignorant of your ignorance).” (p.10 & p.12)

In short, a little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing.

Read more by picking up a copy of the book from your local library.

Bad Choices

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The word “algorithm” has a mysterious quality to it, as if only someone with an advanced degree in mathematics on computer science can understand its meaning.  However, an algorithm is actually a process or set of rules to be followed in calculations or other problem-solving operations. In fact, we use algorithms every day to make decisions in life, but we just don’t know it.

Inbadchoices his recent book, Bad Choices: How Algorithms can Help you Think Smarter and Live Happier, author Ali Almossawi cleverly and playful employs basic logic to solve real world daily task problems such as organizing socks, quickly finding your size in a rack of clothes, knowing when to visit the store for supplies, and solve a maze. Almossawi states:

“It is my hope that this book impresses on you the ability to better think about decisions throughout your life and better understand what trade offs they come with. … Much like critical thinking, algorithmic thinking is a highly capable tool that has the potential to impact behavior for the better.”

Pick up a copy of Bad Choices at your local library.

The Elephant and the Rider

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There is a general assumption that we are in control of our own decisions.  It is often assumed that our conscious mind makes informed choices based on rational thought which then guides our life.  Unfortunately, this is far from the truth as our emotional mind is often far more powerful than we care to admit.

switchChip and Dan Heath discuss this dilemma in their book, Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard.  They use an image from the work of psychologist Jonathon Haidt of the “Elephant and the Rider.”  The Elephant is our emotional mind, which is big, strong, and reactive.  The Rider is the logical side which is purposeful, rational, and factual.  As the Heath’s explain on pg.7:

“Anytime the six ton Elephant and the Rider disagree about which direction to go, the rider is going to lose.  He’s completely over matched.”

The Heath brothers then present a three stage model to empower the Rider to move the Elephant in the right direction in order to make a switch.  The model is useful for changing habits, planning for the future, and making calm choices in the face of emotionally charged issues.

Check out Switch today.  You can also get resources from the Heath brothers web site following a free registration process.

Interrupting Interruptions

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Think back to the last time you were hard at work on a project that required your full attention.  What happened when someone unexpectedly showed up at the door or called on the phone to interrupt your concentration?  How did you react?

I am sometimes asked how to handle interruptions.  This is not a trivial question.  According to a New York Times article, “Gloria Mark of the University of California, Irvine, found that a typical office worker gets only 11 minutes between each interruption, while it takes an average of 25 minutes to return to the original task after an interruption.”  Interruptions are a fact of life, so what is the best way to handle them effectively?  I see the solution as a series of executive decisions.

The first decision is to identify if the interruption is an emergency.  If so, handle it.

The next decision is whether the interruption will take less than two minutes to resolve (2 minute rule).  If so, clear it out of the way.

The third decision is the trickiest.  Does the interruption carry more value to your work world than the item you are engaged in right now?  If so, follow the interruption.  If not, ask the interrupter to schedule a time to meet later in the day or week to address the issue.  You can sooth any sore feelings by stating that scheduling a time to speak will allow you to give their item your full attention.

Interruptions are a fact of life.  How we handle them is the art of work.