Speed Thinking at its essence is the ability to create, solve, decide or collaborate quickly. The benefits of working at an accelerated pace are that you can become more productive and efficient (hence freeing up more time for yourself) and you can often unlock new, surprising possibilities that you would otherwise filter. This makes it an innovative way of handling time-pressure situations.
 
Q.  And what is one of the most time-pressure situations we all face in our life?
 
A. Sitting for exams.
 
If you ever need to be able to think clearly and quickly it is in an exam type situation. That is why I have been working in schools and universities to show students my new speed thinking system (i.e. 2 minute-9 possibility mechanic, 4 step process and a SpeedLinks tool). Recently I taught all the year 11 English students at one of the best private schools in Sydney. My theme was, How to improve your exam results using speed thinking.
 
According to the students and teachers the benefits of this new approach are:
 
- It helps you to get started and not to procrastinate.
 
- Speed Thinking enables you to get out your content and then you can play around with it (students are amazed at what they actually have retained).
 
- It allows you to better connect and organise your thoughts and
 
- Speed Thinking helps you to become more flexible, just in case the exam question varies from what you have studied in past exam papers.
 
‘I like the way it makes you think under pressure which is what you need for exams‘ highlighted one student.
 
Another suggested, ‘I enjoyed speed thinking and I believe it will be of great use during exams as I find it difficult to formulate ideas when put under pressure.‘
 
The message?
 
If you are a part-time or full-time student then Speed Thinking can help you improve your results. This new life-skill can be used in exams and many other situations from making group-work more productive, solving problems, setting goals, revising and getting started.  
 
Why not give it a try.

We need to think differently about time and how to make the most of what limited time we have. To that end I have developed the 24 hour Business Building Process.
 
The idea is as follows:
 
A key manager briefs  the rest of the organisation about a challenge they would like some help on (this could be done once or twice a week). The brief should be tight, focused and actionable.

It is much better to say we would like some new ideas on how we could reduce customer waiting times in the next 30 days at a cost of less than x dollars rather than we are looking for some customer service ideas. Being focused begets creativity.
 
It might be say at 9.00am on a Tuesday. By Wednesday 9.00am anyone (or any team) in the organisation can respond with their ideas or possible solutions.
 
By 9.00am the following day (Thursday) the leader must have responded to all participants and publicly recognised the three best ideas. These could win a dinner for two for example. This stage addresses the main problem with employee suggestion schemes–they take too long to give people feedback.
 
The benefits of this process are as follows:

•      You generate a range of new, exciting business ideas when you need them. This stops people from procrastinating.
•      Everyone has an opportunity to contribute their creativity.
•      A sense of focused creativity energy is created.
•      It is a chance for new team members to shine and develop new skills.
•      If the process works in one division or team it can be rolled out to the rest of the organisation
•      It helps to build a more innovative organisation.

 I would love to hear from anyone that gives this process a try. I have used it with groups when we have gone away for a 2 day conference and it works!
 
Yours at Speed.
 

Speed Links can be used by an individual and/or a team. It is powerful, quick and a practical tool you can use everyday to generate big, new ideas.

The Speed Thinking System consists of three key elements:
1. A 2 minute, 9 possibility mechanic
2. A 4-step process (Start, evaluate, build, action)
3. A new tool called Speed Links.
 
I have attached the latest version of Speed Links here.
 
As you can see it has a number of features:
-          There are nine inner bubbles (reflects the 9 possibilities)
-          Nine outer bubbles (the build stage)
-          There are no numbers (you can start anywhere with Speed Thinking)
-          It is highly visual (more right brain)
-          There is a space in the middle unlike Mindmapping for example, which starts with a central idea and branches out.
 
How to use Speed Links:
I will show you just one application (there are over 30).
1.       Write you challenge in the top right hand corner.
2.       Now start by creating nine initial thoughts or possibilities in the next 2 minutes (one thought per inner circle). The key here is not to filter or judge your thoughts.
3.       Now select one or more of the inner thoughts that you find the most interesting or surprising (i.e. the evaluate step).
4.       In the next two minutes try and build on this initial thought and make this idea, nine times better.
5.       Repeat this step until you have developed a big new concept.
6.       Now select the most promising idea and write nine ways to you can action or test this new idea (e.g. I could talk to a few customers about it). Make these actions as specific and tangible as possible.
7.       As a further step try numbering your inner circles from 1 to 9 (or how many initial thoughts you came up with). Now at random try and connect your initial idea 2 with the number 5—what happens or emerges?
 
Give it a go and let me know what you think

I recently visited Singapore to run a number of workshops with Intel and to present at Asia’s largest HR conference. When i was there i noticed that the Singapore Prime Minister, Lee Hsien Loong issued the following challenge to the country–we must improve our productivity by 2-3% annually for the next 10 years.
 
I imagine every manager and leader will be thinking along the same lines. To continuously deliver more and more results with less and less resources means that you have to become more productive with your time.
 
As with any change program it should start with you. So exactly how can you personally achieve an improvement in your productivity.
 
Here are nine initial thoughts:
 
1. Reduce the time of your meetings by 15 minutes. Try it–i have tested it with a large company and we achieved the same outcomes but in 25% less time.
 
2. Don’t drive–catch a train, taxi or bus. This is a simple but powerful suggestion. It may cost you more in fares but suddenly you have extra time to think and work whilst someone else worries about delivering you to your next destination.
 
3. Try and reduce or get rid of at least one activity that wastes your time. It could be a meaningless report or set of statistics that no-one reads.
 
4. Set your self a time limit to work on a project e.g. this work-out is always written in 30 minutes or less.
 
5. Just start. If you want to be more productive you have to stop procrastinating. Even if you start a project (ideally using Speed Thinking) for a few minutes you will have focused and engaged your mind. Even when you are working on another project your unconscious mind is still trying to solve the original problem.
 
6. Don’t multitask. This does not run counter to the previous point. When you work on a project you should be totally committed to that activity and not trying to do ten things at once. There is more and more research that suggests that multitasking adds time to your projects.
 
7. Start with the easy things first. From a Speed Thinking point of view you want to create momentum and energy. So just start, get some early wins and move on.
 
8. Make quick decisions. Unless it is a life-changing decision, most decisions are better being made quicker than not. In a fast-moving environment there is research that suggests that that this leads to higher performance as you can take advantage of opportunities and it speeds up your learning.
 
9. Conduct or ask for ten minute approval meetings. Say to your boss you need literally 10 minutes to discuss say 2 decisions. as long as you are prepared, your boss will love you as they can keep projects on track and be more productive in the bargain.
 
What are some of your ways of becoming more productive? I would love to hear from you.
 

If you run your own business and offer any type of service to a large company in particular you better have a tight, simple but compelling elevator pitch. By this I mean a short description of what you do and why you do it.

This is easier said than done but after playing around with different versions my elevator pitch is as follows:

I can show you and your team how to unlock  breakthrough results in minutes!

This elevator pitch promises a benefit, it is intriguing and perhaps most importantly, I can actually deliver it.

The reason why I do what I do is that helping people to improve their performance in time-pressure situations (e.g. an exam, solving a customer problem, running a shorter or a better meeting so that time is saved) can make a real difference to people’s  lives.

This is my elevator speech–what is your’s?

best wishes,

Ken Hudson

Did you know the insight behind Weight Watchers? In case you have missed it, there were some 50,000 Weight Watcher meetings in 30 countries last year with a turnover of $4billion. What’s more, it actually works according to recent research  by the Medical Research Council. Weight Watchers it seems is an effective way of taking and keeping off excess weight.

This is a considerable business based one one insight by the founder Jean Nidetch in the early 1960’s. The insight? Losing weight is easier if you are not doing it alone. This one insight led to her meeting with a group of friends all with the aim of supporting one another as they tried to lose weight. An amazing new business was borne.

Similar to Jean i have had a similar insight although in a quite different field. I noticed in my business or innovation workshops that when i gave managers less time than they were used to or expected they often produced high quality work and they felt more energised.

I became fascinated with this insight and through trial and error and a dollop of imagination I created an entire new thinking system which i have called Speed Thinking. Now I may not have anywhere near the success of Weight Watchers but you can dream. My aim is to build a business but bring my insight to the teachers, trainers, students, managers and coaches of the world because it believe I can make a difference to people’s lives by improving their results in time-pressure situations.

What insights have you noticed? Can you build a business around it?

Everyone will have their own opinions on this topic but from my experience working with managers, teachers and students I believe the biggest problem is this:

How can we consistently deliver a higher quality and quantity of result (e.g. exam marks, sales, profits) with ever decreasing resources (e.g. people, dollars and time)?

At the moment the only way everyone seem to be coping is by working harder and longer but is this sustainable? People are under pressure and feeling the pinch. They are tired, stressed and risking burn-out.

And who believes the situation will get better? In the UK where I am at the moment, for example, the government has just announced it will cut its department budgets by 40%.

The issue that I am most interested is how we are adapting to this changing environment and in particular how can we be more productive in less time. Time for many people is their most treasured resource.

I believe their are 4 key strategies. We all need to become better at:

1. Managing our Time

Makes perfect sense. We all need to be skilled at organising, prioritising, planning etc.

2. Reduce those practices and behaviours that waste time.

Set yourself a challenge to identify one time wasting policy, proceedure or habit and try and reduce it in the next 30 days. Be ruthless. If something wastes your valuable time and does not add value to your life or to others then stop it.

3. Creating Time

We can create more time for ourselves by working smarter, being more efficient, reducing any tendency to procrastinate and living simpler lives.

4. Performing in Time Pressure situations

Again this makes sense. Because time is short we will face an increasing number of time-pressure situations e.g. exams or solving a customer problem.

My message is this. Relying on time management is not enough. It is a basic starting point. We have to learn a new type of thinking skill which I have called Speed Thinking–it provides a simple, practical tool kit and a 4-step process. It will help you and your team (or group) to become better at the other three time strategies.

This will mean that you will become more energised, creative and have more time for yourself.

I invite you to try it–now, don’t procrastinate just start (this is the first step in the speed thinking cycle).

Yours in Speed,

Dr Ken Hudson.

In a recent book by Jocelyn Davis, Henry Frechette and Edwin Boswell called Strategic Speed-Mobilize People, Accelerate Execution (Harvard Business Press, 2010) they outline in quite a compelling fashion some reaserch which suggests that :

Faster companies (when compared to similar but slower companies) had on average a 40% higher sales growth and a 52% higher operating profit.

Whilst this is not causal there is a strong correlation, indicating that speed to market is a key driver of business success. In a fast-moving world this makes perfect sense.

What I like about their book is their identification of the three major generations of speed and efficiency.

According to the authors, First Generation speed efforts concentrated on improving efficiency through practices such as lean manufacturing etc.

Second Generation speed focuses on people. In particular,  on mobilizing people and teams, leadership and building a climate of trust.

The Third Generation speed efforts they suggest are more outward focussed by encouraging customers (and suppliers/partners?) to accelerate. We are already seeing this with the introduction of Express Service lanes in supermarkets for example.

I believe the Fourth Generation movement will be around building a Speed Thinking as a capability across all the organisation. Imagine the energy and value that could be created if every member of the organisation could solve a customer problem faster and better or could conduct a more productive meeting in half the time.

What generation of speed is your organisation at?

Dr Ken Hudson.

I have just read Tom Peter’s new book called ‘The Little Big Things-163 ways to pursue excellence (John Wiley and Sons, 2010). As with all Tom’s books it is challenging and thought provoking.

One of his best ideas i thought was also one of the simplest. He calls it the 1% drill (pg. 407) and basically he asks each manager to try and cut 1% off their budgets. This simple, quick and relatively painless way to manage might be a good way to try and ensure that a business loses its fat and continue its pursuit of greater efficiency.

There is something about the idea of 1% that seems to generate buy-in from all leaders and managers–after-all no-one could really miss a 1% cut.

But why not take it further?

I suggest the following challenge for each manager, each week:

- How can i make this process 1% faster?

- How could we this week make our customer service 1% better?

- How could we make our advertising dollars work 1% harder?

- How can we make it easier for people to do business with us by 1%?

- How can we make our products 1% simpler?

You get the picture. It all sounds so easy to do. So why don’t you accept teh 1% challenge (every week) and let me know how it goes.

Dr Ken Hudson