How do you achieve more with less?
September 29, 2008
Welcome to the world of business today. Everyday people are expected to achieve higher results with less time, people and resources. At the same time as there is more competition, changes in technology and even more demanding consumers, partners and shareholders.
It is enough to make you tired just thinking about it. But that is exactly what more and more people are experiencing. It really is ’survival of the fittest’ as business managers become overworked, stressed, burn-out or simply quit hoping that there next job will give them some relief. But guess what? The grass is not greener over at the next pasture.
Do we have to put up with this? Time management can help you to some extent with its emphasis on pritorizing. Perhaps that is why there is so much discussion on obtaining a better work-life balance because for most of us, work is such well…hard work. As a very hard working mum of one of our daughters friends just told us that she was too stressed to go on a holiday!
Or to put it another way–work as we know it simply does not work anymore. Surely we need to reinvent work itself. Why do we accept that work has to be the way it is? Unless we run our own business, why can’t we try and change the way we work.
My proposition is that Speed Thinking might just be what we all have been looking for. If you can change the way you think, you change your actions, feelings, expectations and ultimately your results. It is your greatest leverage point.
Speed Thinking enables you to think in a faster, better and more powerful way. I will not go on but Speed Thinking has the potential (I believe) to totally reinvent the way we all work. To become an activity in life that is purposeful, has meaning and is an expression of our mostly hidden, untapped talents.
Does anyone want to join me in this new movement? Reinventing and reimagining work so that we can produce more by working less and that work can create energy rather than sucking it from us.
Ken Hudson
What is your Return on Time Invested (ROTI)?
September 21, 2008
In a time-poor world we need to invent new ways of thinking and behaving. Ones which can help you prioritize, make you more productive and create graeter value, quicker.
So, I think we need to create a new measure which i have called your personal ROTI or what is your return on the time that you need to invest in a project or meeting? Many of us have done this intuitively when we are weighing up the merits of attending a meeting for example. But it is now time to formalise this. Your time is valuable and it is a scarce resource. Hence you need to invest it where you will achieve the greatest return.
Enter this new measure of ROTI. Every time you are faced with a decision where and how much to spend of your time try and work out your ROTI. For example, I was recently invited to talk to a group of small business owners. Normally I would love to do this but it involved speaking at night (so minus 1 point because it takes me away from my family), it was an hour and a half away (another i point), this would be stressful (another 1 point detraction) and i was only speaking for 15 minutes (another neagtive one point). In return it would make be feel good (plus 1 point) and I might gain some new business (plus 1 point). In this case my personal ROTI on this meeting is in the negative so the decision becomes an easy one.
A new world, requires new measures. This simple concept will help you make better decisions and assist with your time management. It waill also ensure that you gain the greatest possible return from your time invested.
Do you use anything similar to a ROTI score to help you manage your time?
Ken Hudson
How to enhance group problem-solving
September 11, 2008
It is a paradox but if you want the group to be more productive then you should start with the individual. In all my work with teams i start with the individual then a smaller group then up to the larger group.
Using the Speed Thinking Process this is how i would facilitate a group problem-solving session. Let’s imagine the problem was how to improve communication across the group. Firstly i would ask everyone for their nine responses to this in the next two minutes–this should be done individually. Then i would ask people to discuss their responses with a partner (chosen at random) in two minutes.
The next step is for the smaller groups to select one of the barriers to group communication and discuss how to address this in two minutes (by creating nine possibilities). The smaller groups would select their best response and present this to the larger group.
The advantages of this process are:
- it is shorter
- everyone is involved
- everyone is heard
- there is a greater divergence of solutions and problems highlighted
- the ultimate decision and agreed actions are more likely to be implemented because there has been more engagement in the process.
Ken Hudson
Reduce meeting times by one third
September 5, 2008
According to a recent study conducted by The University of Missouri there is a way to make your meetings shorter without impacting on the quality of the decisions.
The answer?
Take the chairs away. The researchers compared the results from 111 meetings around a specific problem and found that the seated meetings lasted 34% longer. What’s more there was no difference in the decision making outcomes of the group.
In fact, among the standing meeting participants they expressed a greater satisfaction with their meetings.
This study can be found at:
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E1D6103BF931A15755C0A96F958260
Some of the reasons that a stand up meeting is shorter might be:
- The sheer novelty of doing this
- You do not become too comfortable
- There is some physical motivation to quicken the meeting
- And also according to the Speed Thinking principles a better decision is often made quickly anyway.
Imagine the possibility of freeing up one third of your time. It has to be worth a try!
Ken Hudson
What problem are you solving?
September 4, 2008
I just attended a small business conference where i was one of the key speakers. I was full of confidence as i wandered around the different stands. Until one of the managers of a web site business asked me:
With Speed Thinking what problem does it solve for customer, supplier, partner, employee etc?
What a great question.
I had to quickly jot down the following nine problems:
Speed Thinking will help anyone to address the problems of:
- Procrastination
- Small, incremental and ‘me-too’ ideas
- Achieving a better work-life balance
- A lack of personal energy
- Unproductive and time-consuming meetings
- Slow speed to market
- Decline in sales
- Too much to do and to little time
- Poor team building and results
By thinking about what problem you solve you are in a better position address to market and communicate your services.
What problem does your business solve?
Ken Hudson