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

If you have been watching the football World Cup like I have, you will have been amazed at how poor England’s performance has been. They have some of the best players in the world in Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard yet when they get on the pitch they cannot seemingly pass the ball more than a few times to one another without giving it away. Their coach, Fabio Capello is equally mystified but suggested to BBC Sport that ‘it is a mental thing. Absolutely. When you are under pressure, big pressure, sometimes the legs do not work normally,"
 
Perhaps the same is true at work and in life generally? Under time pressure situations e.g. when we are put on the spot and asked for a comment or a new idea in a meeting or presentation we freeze. Or when we are sitting for an exam and we know the material but we cannot think clearly. I know I have. 
 
Yet for other people they have told me that they do some of their best work under some form of time-pressure. When there is a deadline it seemingly brings out the best in them. Having a deadline creates a sense of urgency and stimulus to act.
 
This ability to be able to perform and produce high quality results under time pressure I believe will become the most important skill that any high performing manager or leader will need to develop. Why? Because increasingly, we are being asked to deliver more and more results with less and less resources. This might include less people, budget and most importantly time. Hence everyone will be facing more time-pressure situations so we need to adapt the way we work and study to this new environment.
 
The answer? I am not sure it is the only answer but certainly one answer is to learn to be able to think, collaborate, create, solve and decide quickly. In short, we need to become Speed Thinkers when the situation demands it. Most people find the idea and experience of Speed Thinking uncomfortable at first but they will need to get over this if they wish to progress. Speed Thinking can be liberating and it means that you do not have to time to filter your responses and listen to your internal negative judge. You are more authentic and creative.
 
Speed Thinking is also more energizing. It creates rather than uses up your energy. The message? The next time you are faced with a time-pressure situation try Speed Thinking. Just start. Try and create nine possibilities in the next two minutes. Just start, it does not matter where just start.
You could then become one of those people that actually enjoys and thrives on pressure (not like the England soccer team).
 
Dr Ken Hudson
Inventor, The Speed Thinking System.

Intel has long been regarded as one of the leaders in technology and innovation. It’s realization of Moore’ Law (i.e. processing power doubles every two years) is an amazing feat. But not only are the Intel managers interested in accelerating the processing power of computers but also in quickening the pace of their thinking.

That is the challenge I set myself when I spoke to a number of Intel managers in both Singapore and Malaysia recently. The theme of my presentation was that Speed Thinking creates a positive cycle. Fast thinking leads to fast action, quicker results and accelerated learning.

This was also the key message that I delivered at a talk I gave at the HR Summit held in Singapore. This is Asia’s largest HR conference with thousands of managers and leaders attending. For me, the major themes of the conference revolved around engaging employees, leadership and how HR as a function can deliver a more accountable and results oriented capability to any business.

The conference was well-run (Key Media) and Singapore continues to amaze me with its emphasis on developing its only true asset—its people.

Dr Ken Hudson
Chief Starter,
The Speed Thinking Zone.

A million years ago I was a young man trying with all my heart to become a first grade soccer player. I once came on as a reserve but never quite made it. The reason? The first grade coach described me as a one-pace player. By this he meant that regardless of the circumstances of the game I played at my own steady pace. I could neither quicken up or slow down.

 

I believe that thinking is exactly the same. You can decide how fast or slow you think depending on the time available and the nature of the situation–by doing so, you can become a more effective and flexible problem-solver, idea generator and decision-maker.

 

Let’s consider a practical example. I am in the process of designing a course on overcoming procrastination. I started thinking quickly and designed the first outline of the course. Then I realised that there were many gaps in my knowledge so I slowed down and reflected on the content (slow thinking). This led me to start a LinkedIn discussion and I read numerous research reports. Finally I quickened my pace and completed the design of the course and then sent it around to various people for comments.

 

My message? Getting anything done requires just starting and I have found the best way of doing this is to do it quickly. Once started you can then slow down then speed up. The aim is to continuously create movement. You also feel good and there is a sense of progress.

 

Try it next time. Don’t procrastinate–just start (quickly). Then slow down and reflect and ruminate if you need to then accelerate. You will get more done and you you will stop procrastinating.

 

If only someone had told me this earlier on in my soccer career I might have played for a rich club overseas–but that is another story.

 

Best wishes ken

 

I just came back from a HR SUMMIT in Hong Kong where i was one of the speakers and i was surprised that the issue of Work-Life balance was never mentioned. From all recent research among managers (particularly women) work-life balance is one of their major goals yet among HR managers at this coference it did not seem to rate a mention. Why is this so?

Perhaps the answer lies in these difficult times that simply having and keeping your job is the first and only priority. With retrenchments and down-sizing leaders are trying to reduce their cost base so that an astute manager will not want to raise an issue when simply having a job is a bonus.

The emphasis at the conference seemed to be on the measures that leaders go do to retain their all their staff, reduce their cost base and keep retrenchments at a minimum e.g. for example one company has asked every one of their leaders to take a 5% permanent cut in remuneration, another has offered a 12 month sabbatical for any employeee without pay.

But is this enough? It reminds me of the climate change debate, many initiatives have been put on hold because of the current financial crisis but shouldn’t we expect more from our business leaders. Why can’t we expect that work hard to maintain employment that offers some form of work-life balance. If you are an employee why would you expect anything less?

So lets no let our leaders (particularly in HR) off the hook. They keep telling anyone that will listen that people are our best asset yet what they are really saying is people are our best asset when it suits us and for most leaders, today it does not suit them at all.

Ken Hudson

 1. Adopt Hudson’s Law of Meetings

‘Hudson’s Law of Meetings’ is an adaptation of Parkinson’s Law which states that: work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion. Hudson’s Law suggests that meetings expand to the time set for the meeting. So the first step in designing a better, faster meeting is to simply reduce the meeting time. In the service organisation where we are trialing these ideas we have reduced the meeting time from one hour (the default time) to 45 minutes with no reduction in output. Indeed there is a growing awareness that time is short so people must remain focused. For example, every 15 minutes a dedicated time keeper poses the question to the group that we are one third of the way through the meeting—are we one third of the way through the agenda? This reduction does not sound much but it does mean that you have reduced your collective meeting time by 25%. This time saving enables people to get to the next meeting, make a coffee, answer some emails and prepare for the next meeting and be on time.

2. Keep it Simple

Speed and simplicity have a symbiotic relationship. In trying to go faster you often have to simplify things. In simplifying a process or activity you can go faster. Hence with meetings it is a good idea to develop a standard agenda layout and format that can be used for most meetings. In the service organisation every department and it seems every manager had their own agenda layout. This slowed down comprehension and sometimes led to confusion where people were searching for where to find information and what preparation they had to do.

Every meeting should have an agenda with the purpose and the desired outcomes clearly stated and sent out at least 24 hours before the meeting. In this way the logistics of the meeting (e.g. place, time, location, participants) are confirmed. Much like kids at school where no hats means no play—no agenda means no meeting should take place (unless in an exceptional circumstance).

3. Collectively design some meeting rules and stick to these

One of the best things we did with the team from the service company is that they collectively designed a set of new meeting rules. These are the ‘rules of the game’ that everyone was expected to follow. Because they were created by the team they had a better chance of being followed and reflected the unique culture of that department and organisation. For example, some of the rules they agreed to were:-start every meeting on time (no ifs or buts), no meetings between 12.00pm and 1.30pm and no mobile phones in the meeting or any other electronic devices.

These rules also created peer pressure that made it easier for the person who called the meeting to enforce.

4. Speed Think your way through a few agenda items

In a normal meeting every agenda item is allocated roughly even time. But with a speed meeting you should divide the agenda into those everyday items and the more strategic ones. You can then speed-think the everyday items which will enable you to obtain a result quicker and the meeting will create momentum and energy. It will also free up more time for the more difficult items.

Another effective practice is that after you have made a decision, have two minutes of gut-feel time where anyone at the meeting can voice their intuition. People are now given permission to express what their emotional minds are telling them e.g. ‘I know the numbers don’t add up but my intuition is telling me that there is still a good opportunity here.’ We know that our intuition works ahead of our rational mind and informs all our decisions. A formal ‘gut feel’ time respects and validates this process.

5. Make every meeting also a learning experience

Every meeting should both have a purpose an outcome and ideally be a learning experience. It is a chance for the younger less experienced to learn from the leaders of an organisation and for the leaders themselves to role-model what they expect from others. Meetings reflect the culture of a business. If the culture is open and diverse you would expect the meeting to be conducted in a similar way. If on the other hand, the leadership team adopts an autocratic style this will become very evident in every meeting.

At the service business where we are trying to help some of their team break out of a few sloppy meeting habits we have suggested that the last few minutes of every meeting be allocated to a quick discussion on what worked in the meeting, what did not work and what did we learn and could do better next time. By thinking about meetings as learning opportunities ensures that whatever you decide, no meeting is ever a waste of time.

Running faster, better meetings is an important management and leadership skill that needs to be developed. I believe that every organisation should develop their own way of conducting meetings that reflects it culture, values and priorities and that this should be taught to all aspiring leaders of the future. It will make the business more efficient and productive and the time spent in meetings more enjoyable.

Dr Ken Hudson

Remember when time management courses were all the rage?

 It seemed to make perfect sense. There were courses on managing staff, managing projects, managing budgets so the idea of a course on managing time was the next logical step. You apply the same rational approach that you do to every other business activity. You plan, control, prioritise, review etc. But is this the way that we should be thinking about time?

Have we entered a new era where so much (e.g. work, growth, sales, information etc) is expected from so few resources (e.g. time, people, dollars) that trying to become better at managing time will not be enough?

Can you really manage time in the first place?

Don’t we need to think differently about time? As Einstein said we need new thinking to solve new problems.

My aim with Speed Thinking is to help everyone create more time for themselves by becoming more efficient and productive with everyday problems, ideas and solutions. By doing so you actually feel better and you often do better work. It also means that you can free up more time to invest in other activities that have meaning to you.

The thrust of Speed Thinking is that everyday problems can be resolved by paradoxically not over-thinking these. By keeping it simple and by thinking quicker. All you need is two minutes and the courage not to filter your responses.

It is not about managing time but creating more of it for you to spend it how you wish to.

So start thinking quickly right now!

Ken Hudson

 

 

According to the latest Boston Consulting Group Survey on Innovation:

http://www.bcg.com/impact_expertise/publications/files/BCG_Innovation_2009_Apr_2009.pdf

The two biggest barriers to innovation identified by leaders around the world are:

1. A risk-adverse culture and

2. Lengthy Development Times

Yet as they note, one of the least popular metrics remains time to market (used in 19% of organizations). If the old saying, what gets measured gets done, then speed to market will be an ongoing obstacle for most organizations in the future.

This seems strange to me. Most leaders are aware that the market-place is changing rapidly and consumers have an increasing expectation of speed of service yet speed to market is not on their radar. Also most leaders know that staying ahead of your competition is a sure way to grow revenues so why the reluctance.

Perhaps the penny has not dropped yet. Speed is a major differentiator in the market-place today. Speed is an organizational wide capability. And speed can be improved upon with the right training, tools and culture but it requires a letting go of the old slow and steady as she goes.

Organizations today have to be built around speed. Speed wins every time.

The leader that can think faster than his/her competition will dominate. Long live Speed Thinking.

Ken Hudson

 

I have been running a series of Speed Thinking sessions for a major airline as part of their emphasis on customer service.  Why Speed Thinking? Well if you are stuck in a line you hope that the person behind the counter can look after you quickly and efficiently. Speed is the new expectation of customers world-wide. They are comparing the broadband speed they achieve over the internet with the slow response times of business to their complaints. Not surprisingly, customers are not happy.

So what to do about it? Teaching front line staff to think quicker might be one option.

Lets return back to the airline–in the past two groups (39 people) I have asked people to rate themselves on how fast they are thinking at the beginning of the session (on a ten point scale, 1-slow, 10 very fast).
 
Their average score was 6.10
 
At the end of the 1.5 hour session I asked them the same question and their average score increased to 7.46 -this is an increase of 22.3%!
 
This is a small sample and it is self-scored but imagine how more productive your team can be or how the service experience can be enhanced by being able to think 22% quicker.
 
Imagine being able to free up 20% of your time. You could go to the gym or spend more time with your family or just go home early. Not to mention that Speed Thinking also has a positive impact on your mood and morale as well.

Imagine the edge you will have on your competitor. You can be better, faster.