EFFICIENTLY LOST or HERE’S A LOLLIPOP
Sunday, October 14, 2012 § Leave a comment
Increasing efficiency can be fun. I suspect it’s deeply ingrained in our instincts. Say you are washing the dishes after a party. Starting randomly, within a few seconds you might be looking to set up a little assembly line, optimizing around quick, simple and repeat movements.
There are shelves of books about efficiency gains. “Read your email only once an hour,” and “schedule time to think,” might be tips you read. Most are valid techniques. They are a red-herring for most though. Some of the most efficient people I know are also the most ineffective. They are slaves to their systems of efficiency and often have completely lost the plot on what they are working for in the first place. They go home with accomplishments such as:
“I have no unread emails in my inbox.”
That’s fantastic! Here’s your lollipop as a reward.
Efficiency goals that are dependent on external events are the worst. “No unanswered emails in my inbox at the end of the day,” sounds like a worthy goal of responsiveness. The consequence of it is that you lose all control over where you are allocating your time – you are reflexively reacting to an unfiltered onslaught – any asshole takes your time.
If you are finding yourself looking up efficiency tips, or worse, you are already caught up in some manic system, I suggest you meditate on what’s lacking in your motivation and your clarity about your goals.
Efficiency is worthy, if it makes you more effective. If you are clear on your mission, efficiency comes about organically. Everything sorts itself naturally into an order against the question “how does it support my objective?”
CHANGE AND THINGS ARE GOING TO GET WORSE!
Sunday, September 9, 2012 § Leave a comment
Our fear of change has some pretty good arguments on its side.
Not only is there risk of failure everywhere, we often KNOW that things will get worse before they have a chance to get better.
The status quo typically runs with a decent efficiency. To change something meaningfully necessitates that we upset that efficiency. Things will get worse.
Maybe you have a job that’s OK,
a relationship that’s functioning pretty well,
a business model that’s keeping you afloat,
or a golf swing that’s not costing you a ton of balls.
If you are happy where you are, good for you – but then there can’t be any complaining.
If you want more, it’s helpful to recognize that you will need to measure yourself differently as you are going through change than in the efficient static system. Embrace the dip that you have to get through – you can’t avoid it. It’s idiotic to compare your game with past scores when you are in the middle of changing up your golf swing.
Business Buddhism 