If you want to give proper priority to, and build management and control around, your resolutions for 2012 you will stand a better chance of achieving them when you state them as positive actions.

Positive thoughts and actions are invariably more motivating than negative ones.

Research on ‘Thought Suppression’  – notably the “don’t think of the white bear” studies of Wegner , Wenzlaff et al (1987) proves that the paradoxical nature of the process of thought suppression is responsible for the returning of unwanted thoughts to mind.

This applies equally to our behaviours.

So, if you are looking to replace ‘bad habits’ or ‘weaknesses’ just focus on what you will replace them with and build some priority and management rigour around how you go about working on them this year.

Supporting people in managing priorities, goals and strategies is what my business is all about.  Get in touch if this will help you, your team or your business this year.

You and I will have no choice but to develop ourselves more effectively and work much smarter on our core purposes and priorities in 2012. That’s a no-brainer.

You will have a choice, however, in how you go about that critical, future-proofing work. That can be a killer – especially when you are already working at – or close to – maximum capacity, and probably putting in well over a standard shift…..  Day in day out.

You will have many choices on how you will do this meaningful work within your already crowded schedule and the increasing demands that will be placed upon you next year. Here’s a simple split for you….

Are you going to put more effort into deliberately building upon your strengths or are you going to level-up your weaknesses?

Let me strongly suggest the former strategy to you.

The results you are responsible for delivering next year will be more visible, more scrutinised and more questioned than in the past.

Arguably, your boss, your own team, customers or suppliers are less concerned about your physical, emotional and intellectual well-being than they are about how you bring your energy, resilience and creativity to bear on what they expect from you.

You are going to be responsible for your own development. No one is going to push you into a class, some people may encourage or guide you but no one is going to do it for you. It makes sense therefor, to pump your energy into leveraging what you are already doing well – something that already motivates or interests you – something that you can rely upon to improve your results.

Here are a few quick pointers for you.

1. Reposition your learning as the rocket fuel that will propel your performance during 2012 and beyond.
2. Take time now (yes, I know year-end is upon us with all it’s attendant pressures) to do a radical reappraisal of your strengths, then set about creating valuable contributions out of those strengths to, ultimately build on the best of you.
3. If you have not come across Marcus Buckingham  before I suggest you check him out, grab one of his books – His ‘Now, Discover Your Strengths’ book is a good place to start because you also get a code to take the online ‘StrengthsFinder’  self assessment tool.

Now, making this happen when you will be busier than ever on your day-job is going to require 2 things from you – whether you will be doing this for yourself or driving it for your team. You are going to need:

1. To develop a fuller, richer picture of what ‘Purpose’ looks like – beyond hard numbers – for you and your people, and then create a compelling strategy to help you achieve it, when everything else will be pulling you back to the events of the day.
2. To develop increased productive capacity within your schedules to actually do this work with ease, rather than trying to fit it in when you can. If you think that an extra 68 minutes extra capacity per person per day would help you, just get in touch or call me now on 0044 (0)1428 607763

You might find this quick overview of Marcus Buckingham’s ‘First break all the rules’ book useful. I think it is one of the best SlideShares on the subject on the web.

Enjoy!

That’s it for now, let me know if you have any thoughts you wish to share here in the comments section or – of course – by email  ot through my Book Me or Contact me forms.

I am not a Mac-Head and I don’t own an i-anything (although I have bought plenty for my family!) I am, however a big Steve Jobs business fan.

I love language and the power of words and this video is one of my favourite Leadership video clips ever …. and it is NOT the ubiquitous 2005 Stanford Commencement address …… and I have been studying Rhetoric for a long time, subscribing to sites like http://www.americanrhetoric.com/ since it started and- of course – http://www.ted.com/ .

Prior to meeting the amazing Paul Dunn a short while ago, my favourite Steve Jobs video was the ubiquitous 2005 Stanford Commencement address., with his 3 stories – the one about ‘Connecting the dots (which the wonderful Anne Marie McEwan and I were discussing this morning) – the one about ‘Love and loss’ and the third about ‘Death’.

BUT…. this clip is, to my mind awesome.

Imagine yourself in this meeting with him, shortly after he came back into Apple. This is a serious ‘Marketing’ oriented business meeting with his team, it is not a staged mega-media new product launch event.

Imagine how you would feel in the presence of your company leader talking to you about the core values of the enterprise. Imagine…….

RIP Steve Jobs and thank you.

The 23rd September marks the start of the 100 day countdown to December 31 – and even fewer official work days to achieve our career and business goals for the year. Whether we are on target or not, now is a great time to get serious again on the priorities that matter most to us.

• Now is the time to recalibrate our focus on our mission critical priorities.
• Now is the time to redirect our energy towards our mission critical priorities.
• Now is the time to manage the final push to propel us over the line.

Here’s 3 ideas to add to what you are already doing…

Get Clarity and Control over your priorities

Use today, or at least some time this week to get real clarity and control on what the 100 day timeline means for your ambitions and on what absolutely has to be done before December 31, despite everything else you have on your plate at the moment.  And – YES  – I know we are in the run in to quarter end! Build these as milestones or reminders into your Calendar, dump them into your Task or To-Do lists or other preferred priority planning process. Whatever you do, don’t leave these thoughts floating about in your head where they are hostage to the next urgency, crisis or interruption.

Get clear on Decisions

Revisit the real meaning of DECISION. I’m not suggesting you get all Philosophical here, let’s keep this simple (at least for now). A great many people prefer to ‘keep options open’ or seek further information, advice or even on-line reviews, before making a final commitment. With 100 days on the clock we don’t have that luxury so much any more. The word ‘Decision’ comes from the Latin ‘Decidere’, de = off + caedere = to cut. So, it might be helpful if we decide on what has to be cut out of our schedules, even if only until 1st January 2011!

Create personal accountability

Make yourself ACCOUNTABLE for this effort to someone you choose. We are all accountable to others in some way. Many of us are accountable to a number of people – our boss, our family, our mortgage provider for example. Not all of them will necessarily have OUR best interest at heart though. Accountability adds rigour to our efforts. Look for someone who does have your best interests at heart, someone who will hold up a mirror up to you, someone who will not allow you to compromise on your commitment to yourself. You might also offer yourself as an accountability manager for someone important to you.

So, 100 days and counting. I wish you well on the journey. What would you add to make this more useful to other readers? Your comments below would be most welcome.

Remember, our legendary training and support in this and other areas of managing purpose, goals, projects and priorities is only a click away.

Till next time, Richard Maybury

My friend, Tony’s grandmother, affectionately known to all as ‘Nan’ has been an inspiration to all who know her. See my post: http://richardmaybury.co.uk/2010/08/life-lessons-from-a-109-year-old-woman/ 

It had to happen. Her body could no longer do what she willed it to do and she died last week.

109 is a great innings and she led a full life of triumph, tragedy, happiness and sadness. This is not a eulogy though – wrong time and wrong place.

One of the latest things she was looking forward to (there’s a life lesson right there!) was a trip to Belgium with Tony. In one of her last conversations with Tony she was making sure  he would get the best exchange rate possible! Mixing ambition with attention to detail ….. at 109! …. RIP Nan

I am excited and frightened scared-stiff at the prospect of presenting 20 PowerPoint slides for 20 seconds each to a group of people I don’t know in Guildford following a recent conversation with Simon Strong from Human Zoo . Simon says ‘Say what you need to say in six minutes and 40 seconds of exquisitely matched words and images and then sit the hell down’. Gulp!!

Pecha Kucha originated in Japan and takes place in over 200 cities worldwide. It was invented by Tokyo-based architects Mark Dytham and Astrid Kleins who turned PowerPoint, fixture of monotonous cubicle life, into both art form and competitive sport. Simon has bought Pecha Kucha Night (PKN) to Guildford and he bills it as an event where creative people show their work in 20 images for exactly 20 seconds each. No bullet points. No sales. No hanging about. Pure Inspiration…

Now, many people consider my productivity and performance improvement training programmes – as well as my professional keynote speaking (especially at kick-off, launch and client-centric events) to be both inspirational and practical BUT this is a whole new ball game!

If you are near to Guildford Surrey on 15th February and fancy something a little different that evening why not check out the booking details here - it is a free event – but donations are accepted. Simon is also well worthconnecting with on Linkedin:  http://uk.linkedin.com/pub/simon-strong/1/490/979 

What should I talk about? It would be good to see a few friendly faces in the crowd. Gulp! What have I done? (well, one of my priority goals for 2011 is to step outside my comfort zone more often than in the past! Ho-hum!)

I will shortly be writing more fully on some ‘New Year’ insights and hindsights but for now I just want to clarify one point. This year, like every other year, will be a 525,600 minute marathon, not a sprint.

Yes, it is vital to start strong. Yes, it is vital – nay critical – to have a purpose and a plan for the year. And welding our purpose to our priorities will make each day more meaningful. Sprinting off at an unsustainable rate in any marathon, however, is a short, sure route to  pain and abandonment (consider how many hyped resolutions rarely make it much beyond Easter). Getting all our goals to the finish line on 31/12/1011 requires us to manage our purpose, our productive capacity and our personal productivity over the whole of the year. So, start strong – stay long, and make this year one of your best – no matter what life throws at you!

When it comes to managing our purpose, our goals, multiple projects, competing priorities and the tsunami of to-dos, emails and other communications that tumble out of them, I am relatively ‘Tool Agnostic’.  

Sure, a lot of our client work focuses on helping their people implement and sustain best practice workload management through established business tools like Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, ACT!, Salesforce  et al. However, if we are to create clarity and control over all these competing priorities, next actions, to-dos and tasks, there are far more fundamentalal things to get a grip on before we look at what tool to use, as you can see here

A few of these fundamental things are:

1. Know and commit to your purpose for the endeavour.
2. Keep the control and execution process as simple as possible to implement and sustain.
3. Use fewer tools and integrate them better to get stuff done
4. Review, revise and re-enthuse regularly along the way to maintain and improve upon momentum.

I was cornered at a recent TVSMC meeting by the excellent Benjamin Ellis, who, along with Jim Anning has created Milestoneplanner, the latest release of which I am happy to see now ties Next Actions to Milestones. This enhancement brings it closer to, what I consider to be, the ideal for a Project/Goal-to-Action organiser. It is absolutely usable right out of the box, especially within more informal worksharing teams and organisations. It may not be suitable – yet – for larger organisations using Microsoft Outlook or IBM Lotus as primary communication and scheduling tools because, as I know from direct experience with my clients, there is so much untapped potential within these programmes to support more productive priority and time management on an individual and teamworking basis anyway.

This is a fine example of an open, transparent, collaborative, yet simple web-based process tool to enable individuals and teams keep on top of agreed deliverables.  It does just enough, simply enough, to help teams share their plans, communicate on them, track deadlines, capture actions, update and deliver results relatively easily. 

Check out the 2 minute video below then Download it  and experiment with it.

Remember, our legendary training and support in this and other areas of managing purpose, goals, projects and priorities is only a click away.

Finally, do connect with Benjamin, he is well worth getting to know.

Today, 23rd September marks the start of the 100 day countdown to December 31 – and only 69 official work days to achieve our career and business goals for the year. Whether we are on target or not, now is a great time to get serious again on the priorities that matter most to us.
Now is the time to recalibrate our focus on our mission critical priorities.
Now is the time to redirect our energy towards our mission critical priorities.
Now is the time to manage the final push to propel us over the line.
Here’s 3 ideas to add to what you are already doing…

1. Use TODAY, or at least some time this weekend to get real clarity and control on what the 100 day timeline means for your ambitions and on what absolutely has to be done before December 31, despite everything else you have on your plate at the moment. Build these as milestones or reminders into your Calendar, dump them into your Task or To-Do lists or other preferred priority planning process. Whatever you do, don’t leave these thoughts floating about in your head where they are hostage to the next urgency, crisis or interruption.
2. Revisit the real meaning of DECISION. I’m not suggesting you get all Philosophical here, let’s keep this simple (at least for now). A great many people prefer to ‘keep options open’ or seek further information, advice or even on-line reviews, before making a final commitment. With 100 days on the clock we don’t have that luxury  so much any more. The word ‘Decision’ comes from the Latin ‘Decidere’, de = off + caedere = to cut. So, it might be helpful if we decide on what has to be cut out of our schedules, even if only until 1st January 2011!
3. Make yourself ACCOUNTABLE for this effort to someone you choose. We are all accountable to others in some way. Many of us are accountable to a number of people – our boss, our family, our mortgage provider for example. Not all of them will necessarily have OUR best interest  at heart though. Accountability adds rigour to our efforts. Look for someone who does have your best interests at heart, someone who will hold up a mirror up to you, someone who will not allow you to compromise on your commitment to yourself. You might also offer yourself as an accountability manager for someone important to you.

So, 100 days and counting. I wish you well on the journey. What would you add to make this more useful to other readers?

Remember, our legendary training and support in this and other areas of managing purpose, goals, projects and priorities is only a click away.

Till next time, Richard Maybury

How many people do you know who, in some way, define themselves or allow themselves to be defined by their job, their home, their car, their social status or some other ‘thing’? 

Go beyond tips, get into real productivity and achieve more with less easier. Book Richard ‘Mr Productivity’ Maybury for practical productivity training, speaking and support services. Click the ‘Go Beyond Tips’ graphic or contact us for proven, measurable results.

My friend, Tony’s grandmother, affectionately known as ‘Nan’, is 109 years old and lives in her family home with her daughter, Tony’s mum. Her heroic approach to life is a constant source of inspiration to those of us who are fortunate enough to know her. 

Now, having overcome the triumphs and tribulations of a very full life, you would expect ‘Nan’ at 109 not to be the fittest player on the park. That said, she is always a player and is rarely to be found spectating on the sideline. Last weekend Tony thought his nan was not looking as well as a few days ago and he asked her if she was unwell. Her reply is an object lesson for all of us. 

She looked him straight in the eye and said

‘I couldn’t be better, its just my body that is letting me down’. Nan

 It is such a powerful statement that I had to share it with you here, because my sense is that many people define themselves in some way through what they do and what they have, and too few people have as rock-solid a sense of identity and meaning as Nan has. 

So, here’s 3 questions I am asking myself, following my conversation with Tony, you might find it useful to ask these of yourself: 

1. How closely do I define who I am by my business, job or some other ‘thing’?
2. I have friends who have lost their jobs- and worse! Perhaps they were once ‘Something in Banking’, ‘Something in IT’ or something else important and impressive. As a friend, I may be supporting, challenging and reassuring them. Perhaps they tell me that they know it is ‘Nothing personal’ and that their loss does not undermine their self image. But, how does what they tell me stack up against Nan’s position? How can I help them further? 
3. How about those young people I know who have come out of education and are struggling to find their first job? How can I help them define who they are when everyone else is busy labeling them?

Following my chat with Tony about his Nan, I have pulled out Viktor Frankel’s masterpiece ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ – which is an inspiring (and moving) read. One I recommend. Meanwhile I will leave you with my best wishes and a couple of Frankl’s quotes to sit beside Nan’s. Let me know if you have any thoughts on this.

Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human. Viktor E. Frankl

Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. Viktor E. Frankl

‘You have taken me well beyond the edge of my comfort zone – and now there’s no way back.’

Part of what I do for a living is what I call Targeted Executive Support.  I don’t promote it but friends in the IoD and other network groups, as well as those leaders I have worked with, keep a steady stream of people knocking on the door looking for focused, short-term support in their business /professional world. Usually it is connected with improving the impact they have on their roles, their business or their career. Had we gone too far this time?

The guy who I quoted above is a successful FD. He said this yesterday, whilst we were wrapping up in our final session. I asked him if he knew anything of Christopher Logue and he didn’t. Excellent! Another opportunity to introduce someone to this under-appreciated 2005 Whitbread Poetry Award winner poet and his wonderful poem, ‘Come To The Edge’ which has inspired my training and support practice for over a decade now. Here’s the poem:

Come to the edge.
We might fall.
Come to the edge.
It’s too high!
COME TO THE EDGE!
And they came,
and he pushed,
and they flew.

©Christopher Logue

Thank you Christopher, for your inspiration. Thank you also for being a poet that has a life outside the rarefied world of Poetry! By the way, for many years on the web this poem was incorrectly attributed to the French poet Guilliame Apollinaire. This is being slowly rectified. So now, you, dear reader, can spread the word and clear the confusion.

Here is a good place to start learning about Christopher Logue , the poet, then look for his CND work, his Private Eye contributions and other ‘lives’.

OK let’s get one thing clear. This is more about strategic planning and strategic priority management than it is about comparing Donald Rumsfeld with Neolithic man. Stick with me – it will be worth the 3 minutes and one click, I promise.  

Go beyond tips, get into real productivity and achieve more with less easier. Book Richard ‘Mr Productivity’ Maybury for practical productivity training, speaking and support services. Click the ‘Go Beyond Tips’ graphic or contact us for proven, measurable results.

I was visiting Avebury this week. The hot sun heated the tall sarsen stone that I rested against in the heat of the afternoon. I was taking in the enormity of the largest European Neolithic stone circle built at Avebury around 5000 years ago. I like Avebury because, unlike its near and more famous neighbour, Stonehenge, you can physically experience the site, touching the stones, clambering up and down the henge banks, and even having a pint in the village pub, built inside the stone circle. I have always found it to be a good place to stop and think for a while, as I did on this occasion.  

We only know so much about Avebury and other Neolithic sites and there is much that is unknown. Indeed, you can say that when it comes to Neolithic sites like Avebury and Stonehenge there are more ‘Unknown unknowns’ than there are ‘Knowns’.  

This thought took me back to a very recent illuminating conversation I had with Simon Gifford about Strategic Planning, Decision Making and Strategic Priority Management. Specifically we were talking about some of the work he does in helping business leaders make strategic decisions in the face of “unknown unknowns” and how this complements my own work in helping people manage their strategic priorities.  

 “There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know.
There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we now know we don’t know.
But there are also unknown unknowns. These are things we do not know we don’t know.”
Donald Rumsfeld when he was United States Secretary of Defence 

 The Paradox of understanding our future environment in the face of Unknown Unknowns

As simon puts it: 

Most critical strategic decisions taken today are implemented in the medium to long term future – and so the environment in which the decision is implemented and played out, is usually quite different to the one in which the decision is made.   

When we add the need for predicting possible futures to the challenge of our ‘unknown unknowns’, we realise the paradox with which we are faced: “How can we possibly understand our future environment if there are things we don’t even know we don’t know about?”  

Simon was explaining how plotting Probability, Impact and Defendability  (PID) on one axis against ‘Knowns’  to ‘Unknowns’ on another axis, we can build a graphical representation of what might be significant in our strategic planning scenarios.   

Finally he pointed to a couple of approaches that would be useful in reducing the level of the ‘Unknowns’ which he calls ‘The Challenge Board’ and ‘Knowledge Surfacing’, which I commend to you.   

Simon is MD at Genesis Management Consulting Limited. If decision making and strategic planning is important to you I strongly suggest you click on over to his blog and download his paper ‘Taking strategic decisions in the face of “unknown unknowns”   
His contact coordinates are: Web-site: www.genesis-esp.com  Blog: http://www.genesismc.wordpress.com  

Of course, you can also ask me about our support for managing strategic priorities, project management and managing competing priorities within demanding workloads generally.

Some words of encouragement for you, if your race towards your goals in the first half of the year did not go as well as you had hoped.
You might know someone who could use this to re-energise themselves and redouble their efforts for the times ahead, if so feel free to pass it on.

”Quit, give up, you’re beaten” They shout at me and plead
“There’s just too much against you This time you can’t succeed”.
And as I start to hang my head in front of failure’s face,
my downward fall is broken by the memory of a race.
And hope refills my weakened will As I recall that scene
Or just the thought of that short race Rejuvenates my being

A children’s race, young boys, young men; how I remember well,
excitement sure, but also fear, it wasn’t hard to tell.
They all lined up so full of hope, each thought to win that race
or tie for first, or if not that, at least take second place.
And fathers watched from off the side, each cheering for their son.
and each boy hoped to show his dad that he would be the one.

The whistle blew and off they flew Young hearts and hopes afire
To win and be the hero there Was each young boys desire
One boy in particular, whose dad was in the crowd,
was running in the lead and thought “My dad will be so proud.”
But as he speeded down the field across a shallow dip,
the little boy who thought he’d win, lost his step and slipped.
Trying hard to catch himself, his hands flew out to brace,
and midst the laughter of the crowd he fell flat on his face.
As he fell, his hope fell too; he couldn’t win it now.
Humiliated, he just wished to disappear somehow.

But as he fell his dad stood up and showed his anxious face,
which to the boy so clearly said, “Get up and win that race!”
He quickly rose, no damage done, behind a bit that’s all,
and ran with all his mind and might to make up for his fall.
So anxious to restore himself, to catch up and to win,
his mind went faster than his legs.; he slipped and fell again.
He wished that he had quit before with only one disgrace.
“I’m hopeless as a runner now, I shouldn’t try to race.”

But in the laughing crowd he searched and found his father’s face
that steady look which said again, “Get up and win that race!”
So he jumped up to try again, ten yards behind the last.
“If I’m to gain those yards,” he thought, “I’ve got to run real fast!”
Exerting everything he had, he regained eight, then ten…
but trying hard to catch the lead, he slipped and fell again.

Defeat! He lay there silently. A tear dropped from his eye.
“There’s no sense running any more! Three strikes I’m out! Why try?
The will to rise had disappeared All hope had fled away
So far behind so error prone A loser all the way
I’ve lost, so what’s the use?” he thought. “I’ll live with my disgrace.”
But then he thought about his dad, who soon he’d have to face.

“Get up” the echo sounded low “Get up” and take your place
You were not meant for failure here “Get up”, and win the race
”With borrowed will “Get up” it said “You haven’t lost at all”
For winning is no more than this To rise each time you fall

So, up he rose to run once more, and with a new commit
he resolved that win or lose, at least he wouldn’t quit.
So far behind the others now, the most he’d ever been,
still he gave it all he had and ran as though to win.
Three times he’d fallen stumbling, three times he rose again.
Too far behind to hope to win, he still ran to the end.

They cheered the winning runner as he crossed the line first place,
head high and proud and happy no falling, no disgrace.
But, when the fallen youngster crossed the line, last place,
the crowd gave him a greater cheer for finishing the race.
And even though he came in last with head bowed low, unproud,
you would have thought he’d won the race, to listen to the crowd.
And to his dad he sadly said, “I didn’t do so well.”
“To me, you won,” his father said “You rose each time you fell.”

And now when things seem dark and hard and difficult to face,
the memory of that little boy helps me in my own race.
For all of life is like that race, with ups and downs and all.
And all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
And when depression and despair shout loudly in my face,
another voice within me says, “Get up and win that race!”

I came across this poem again through a friend, Andy (Thanks Andy!) It resonated deeply with me and have shared it with many people who have also found it useful. It is called ‘The Race’ and is writen by D. H. Groberg.  I find that simple words can stir the soul to action much more than management speak! One of my mother’s learned poems, which she used to recite to us kids, has lived with me forever – and now lives with my 2 sons. You can find it here.

 What words inspire, ignite, motivate and move you in good times and in bad? I’d be grateful if you would consider sharing them here, through leaving a comment below.

So, part of your priority management strategy over the next month or so  is not to miss any critical World Cup matches. Here is a link to a great Microsoft Excel file that will place all the fixtures into your Microsoft Outlook calendar for you in one click.You can use it to plan your workload vs Football priorities either in your main Outlook calendar or a separate World Cup Calendar subfolder. Either way, you will see your matches alongside your other priority calendar commitments which you can sync with your Blackberry or phone.

This clever Microsoft Excel import to Outlook file was created for me by my Excel Guru friend Sean Blessitt over at http://www.astradyne.com
Simply click on the link to download and save the file to your desktop, open it up and follow the instructions. You will have all World Cup football fixtures in your Outlook calendar in a couple of clicks.  Let me know what you think! Enjoy!!

OutlookWorldCupFixturesRichardMaybury_TZ

Ask about how we can help you create a better work-life balance and how we can help you weld your tactical priorities to your overall purpose. Contact me here

Everywhere I go, recently, people are telling me 2 things and I wonder if these are true for you?
 

1. Those who are thriving, in particular, tell me that they are having to be even more creative in how they approach their business; its almost like they are in a constant cycle of disruptive innovation and continuous reinvention as they anticipate and respond to a challenging market.
2. Everyone seems to sense that it takes more work, effort (and sometimes -pain) to achieve the same business results as we enjoyed pre-crunch.

In this environment it is more important than ever to be able to weld our overall purpose to our daily priorities. It is almost like the old days of separating our ‘strategic thinking time’ from our ‘operational time’ is a luxury we can not afford. If we are to avoid chaos, however, we must have a robust, simple structure to our workload and priority management that allows us to think strategically whilst operating tactically.
 
This means, amongst other things, having a one-click view on what is important (professionally, personally, this quarter, next quarter and beyond) so that we can flex tactically with the explicit knowledge of the impact of that decision on our overall objectives.
 
Strategising will always be important – it is just that right now my sense is that conditionality, consensus, creativity and continuous anticipation and response-ability are more important than ever before. I’d really appreciate your thoughts here to help me firm up my own. You can shere your thoughts in the comments section below

Life can be a roller coaster at times. Sometimes we are just about managing to juggle our competing priorities before they become conflicting priorities. Sometimes we are squeezed right up tight against a critical deadline. Other times we feel lost, cast adrift and long for the cut and thrust of meaningful activity.  

Sometimes we can get caught up in the minutia of the moment and we can very easily loose our perspective whether we are too busy or not busy enough!  

Here’s an exercise that I call PACTS which, in less than 5 minutes, can help us reconnect with our higher purpose whenever we need to (and that’s best done on a very regular basis!). The great thing about this is that all the components seem to flow so naturally when we do it a few times. Let me know what you think. What do you do to connect with your purpose when priorities are bearing down on you? 

The great thing about this exercise is that it can be done any time any where – with the exception of when we are driving – obviously! 

P = Prepare for the simple exercise

This is the very important few moments we give ourselves prior to getting into the zone. Time to turn off or tune out of all noise and distractions wherever you are. For me this includes the simple preparation activity of turning the BlackBerry off. Sometimes I find it useful to gaze into the distance (especially skywards) in a frighteningly unfocused way.

A = Allow ourselves to access a state of Awe.

Awe is defined variously as an overwhelming emotion of reverential fear, admiration or wonder; wonder inspired or caused by something majestic, sublime, powerful, beautiful, mighty, sacred. The point here is to allow our quietened mind to take in the enormity of what is around us. We can wonder at the vastness of the universe as revealed through the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Or the tiny intricacy of the Rhinovirus  There is no preferred formula, just so long as we are able to put ourselves, our priorities, our current concerns into some perspective in a short period of time. 

C = Connect to our Core

Now, we allow our thoughts to flow back to ourselves, but back to the core of what we are, our core values, the things that really matter, the things we sometimes take for granted. This is not a thorough examination of all our core values, we just allow ourselves to focus for a few moments on the one or two values that bubble up in this moment. You might want to envision yourself living a particular core value at a high 10. What would you living a perfect expression of that value feel like?

T= Take time to be thankful

“Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.”Marcus Tullius Cicero

Now it the time to be grateful for exactly where we are right now. It doesn’t matter who we  are thankful to, it could be your God or your guide if you have one, Mother Nature, the ‘Universe’, your parents, partner, siblings or friends  – or even the driver who waved you out of your turning and made your commute to work that little bit more human, more hopeful, more positive. 

S = Set our success strategy

Right, we are almost ready to reengage with the reality around us. Before we do so, though, a few moments to set / reset our strategy for the rest of the day in the light of the past few minutes in the PACTS process.  

It may be that the past 4 minutes has reenergised our commitment to the priority management plan we had already established for the day and we can crack on refreshed.
It may be that new priorities have been thrown up as a result and now need to be actioned or scheduled.
It may be that the past 4 minutes has provided us with further insights, inspiration or resource to enable us to create and control the goals that will help us manage our overall purpose.
It may be that we remember to call our parents or that old friend we have rather taken for granted recently, or just to look someone in the eye and say a meaningful ‘Thank you’ when a good service has been rendered to us.

There it is, a simple, seamless process that can help us reconnect to our purpose and our priorities. I’m curious to know what you think? What simple approaches to you find particularly useful? Feel free to share or link them here.

You can always contact me if you want to know more about how we help people manage their competing priorities, their mandated and optional goals and the critical results that want to achieve.

I have been around a lot of talk this week on ‘Leadership’ and ’Management’. I suppose it is to be expected, given that I have been running various training sessions and forums over the week, ranging from a ‘Strategy in Action’ workshop that I ran for one client through to a ‘Welding purpose to priorities’ forum I facilitated and, finally on Friday, into discussions on ’Sales Strategy’ with George Petri and others after the unmissable IoD 859 Club. But today I was blown away…

Sunday mornings tend to be a time of reflection and renewal for me and I was reflecting on Leading and Serving over my slow Sunday morning cappuccino at home with Aled Jones on Radio2 quietly in the background.

Then, as part of his sign-off, Aled read out this quote by John Quincy Adams, the 6th President of the USA,

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”

What got me was the word ‘ACTIONS’. Talk is cheap. Rhetoric, no matter how brilliantly constructed to engage emotionally or logically, is nothing without the sweat of struggle to see a dream through into reality.

Much to reflect upon, and then the pragmatist inside me focused into one of my favourite definitions of ‘Values’ from one of my favourite Business World Leaders, Jack Welch:

‘Values are just behaviours – specific, nitty-gritty and so descriptive they leave nothing to the imagination..’

The same could be said of Leadership! Here’s to a great week next week!

To discover how we can help you, your team and your business turn your vision, strategies and goals into real results within the constraints of the conflicting priorities of the day-job just contact Richard Maybury now

Gabriella Climi has come a long way in a short time. Her single ‘Sweet about me’ has sold over 2 million copies world-wide, she’s won numerous music awards and sang the Australian National Anthem at the Melbourne Grand-Prix last weekend. She’s just 18. And she has a secret – a secret you should know about.
You know that I find inspiration in the extraordinary things ordinary people do well and I like sharing them with you. It’s also important to know I’m not writing this as a raving fan although I do like the sentiment and the pure pop production value of her latest single ‘On a Mission’. 

Here’s the scoop: It is not just talent, hard work and luck that has got her to where she is right now.

I have just found out that she has a massive Dream-Board at home. On this Dream-Board she has put all the people and the shows she would like to be involved with in her life. A pictorial representation of some of the things she finds important, motivating and empowering. As a big fan of the excellent and influential ‘Later with Jools Holland’ TV show, she has him on her dream-board.

No surprises then that she found herself singing an acoustic version of her song on the ‘Later’ show in December 2007!

So friends, what’s your vision, your purpose and your goals? What do they look, feel and sound like to you? How do you store, access and leverage their potency? Especially when everyone in your busy life is intent on pulling your focus and energy into their daily grind?

Naturally, if you want any support in this I’m only a call or a click away.

A guy I met recently was told by his UK employer that he was too sick to hold down a senior job, even though he was a rising star and was the youngest employee to ever hold his then current role. That clearly did not sit with his view of his world and his purpose in it, so he did something else. Something much bigger.

His name is Andrew White, AKA ‘The Vicar of Baghdad’, and I was fortunate enough to share an evening with him, along with some friends, the other day.
 
His life is far too rich to be condensed meaningfully into a few short paragraphs so I will only highlight a couple of fascinating facts and share the reflections I wrote out for myself after our meeting.
 
Yes, he is a vicar but read these notes in the same way you would if I was writing about Lance Armstrong (Its not about the bike, its about purpose and momentum) or Randy Pausch(Nothing to do with academia – everything to do with dreams).
 

• The guy suffers from Multiple Sclerosis, which is evident from his speech pattern and his gait.
• He is the trusted intermediary between fighting factions in Iraq, at one time receiving fortnightly telephone calls from the president of the USA whilst having meetings with leaders who the West demonised.
• He is heavily involved in peace and hostage negotiations in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East (over 140 hostage negotiations alone), dealing with people who often hate and mistrust each other.
• Saddam’s sons, Uday and Qusay once summonsed him to a meeting in their notorious Baghdad Hunting Club with the explicit expectation that if he did not accept their ‘Invitation’ the messenger and all his family would be killed. He attended the meeting and, unlike many before him, he walked out alive.
• He had 11 of his Top Leadership Team exterminated but still kept the show on the road.
• He has survived serious attacks on himself, as well as detentions, he deals with really difficult people every day and spends long periods of time away from his family.

 All this on top of the ordinary stresses of the day job you and I are subject to!

All this by a man who was considered by his employers to be too sick to do a much easier job in the UK!

Here’s what I wrote to myself after that meeting:

• We should never let anyone’s opinion (especially well intentioned opinions) define us.
• The only things that truly limit us are the limitations we put on ourselves.
• Purpose and passion make the hardest work ‘doable’.
• Inspiration is everywhere, the world is full of people who have less and achieve more than most of the people we know. We need to learn from them.

There is obviously so much more to this experience and my learning from it. I must admit that I was not going to post it up here and it was only intended as a reflection in my March newsletter. The truth is that the response to my newsletter was so overwhelming that I decided to get my reflections up here for all. I am certainly inspired, humbled and motivated since that meeting.

“We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.” – John Dryden

Improved self-management involves changing our behaviours. Often this means breaking old habits that we ‘know’ do not serve us well. The ruthless reality, though, is that our habits (both good and bad), exert a vice-like grip over our current behaviours.

Replacing old habits and building new ones, therefore, is seldom easy. It can not be achieved through applying random tips and tricks to current behaviours. Tools and technology, no matter how cool or compelling they look, often only add complexity and always dilute personal responsibility. 

There’s a lot involved in helping people – individually and as a team – change the habits of a working lifetime. It is something I have developed a deep expertise in.  It is an expertise I build into all our support programmes. That’s why we are able to help people deliver sustained behaviour change. 

I don’t mean to belittle the challenge of changing the habits of a working lifetime but here’s my top 5 suggestions. The first one is worthy of a workshop in its own right!

1. Know why you are embarking on the habit change journey. No purpose – no follow through.
2. Launch your new habit as strongly as possible. Change your routine immediately. Seize the first opportunity to act on your resolution because when you delay implementation, it becomes more and more difficult to sustain the new habit. 
3. Go public. Announce the change to those who care about you. Give them permission to support you and hold you accountable for your journey.
4. Keep the right score. Sometimes we can be winning but feel like we are loosing unless we keep the right score. You might find this post useful here.
5. Work through the pain barrier, knowing it will pass. Never let an exception occur until the new behaviour is firmly embedded. All new behaviours feel uncomfortable at first. Remember your first time driving a car? 

If you are looking for a better way to work, for yourself or your team, why not get in touch to see how we can help.

It’s amazing how people who don’t do ‘Change Management’ can make change happen! I was recently asked to facilitate a team meeting within a client’s Kick-Off event based upon ‘Change Management’. None of those present were ‘Change Champions’, Project Managers’ or held ‘black-belt’ titles in anything work related. They are just a group of hard working people who are responsible for creating and driving improvement changes within the business during 2010, whilst keeping on top of the day-job. Here’s how we tackled the challenge.

This is a medium sized business where every minute matters; they do not have a Project Management Office (PMO) and they can not take people away from the front line to drive the initiatives full-time. Following earlier work with them, the senior team agreed that successful delivery of the agreed initiatives would be incentivised and the appropriately categorised and calendared activities would be protected and respected by default within the business.

Given that I was only going to have a couple of hours with them during their kick-off, a full blown session on ‘Creating, executing and delivering Change Management’ was never going to work – no matter how powerful (or pompous) it sounded!

Luckily a friend had recently passed me a copy of John Kotter’s excellent little book ‘Our Iceberg is Melting’ which I had never read before. Like most people with a professional interest in productivity, I am aware of Kotter’s 8 step process for managing change within organisations (see below). And have well annotated copies of his ‘Leading Change’ and ‘Heart of Change’ books on my ‘Trusted Resources’ book shelves.

‘Our Iceberg is melting’ is an excellent little book, a fable about a colony of emperor penguins whose iceberg home was in danger of collapse and who, therefore had to find a new home – fast!
It is also a fast read – 160 pages of large type with plenty of attractive colour pictures (it is a fable after all!) – a 60 minute read, max.

That little book became the pre-work and the workbook for my session. And what a session it was. Insights, inspiration, energy and processes flowed and were slotted into Kotter’s 8 step structure. This, along with our earlier work on ‘Teamworking’ and ‘Managing projects alongside the day-job’ generated a lot of practical take-aways from the session.

My own learning from this?

1. Always investigate book suggestions from people who seem to know what they are talking about.
2.  Stories can be truly powerful learning tools in their own right. I deliberately avoided introducing any additional concepts into my session.
3. Most people have most of the answers to most of their problems most of the time.
4. I will keep more up-to-date on writers I respect. Why didn’t I know Kotter wrote a book called ‘A sense of Urgency’ in 2008? Especially as urgency, workloads, priorities and projects are in my DNA!

Resources:
Kotters 8 steps can be read and expanded from here:  http://www.kotterinternational.com/KotterPrinciples/ChangeSteps.aspx

 Contact me for further information on how we can help you and your team with your productivity challenges. Inspiring, practical and durable solutions guaranteed!

Projects can and do go wrong. The UK government has deep experience – and often deeply painful experience – with projects. That’s why when the National Audit Office (NAO) and the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) within the Treasury produce a list of common causes of project failure, it might be worth a quick look at some of the specific failures that cause them pain… It would also be worth a slow reflection on how we manage our own projects. Use this list to question yourself about how you manage your important projects, large and small, personal and professional. Don’t forget to ask yourself uncomfortable questions about how you are managing your own project for your life.

Read this with a pencil in hand! http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/Project_Failure.pdf

If you are looking for a better way to work, for yourself or your team, why not get in touch to see how we can help. Call me on +44(0) 1428 607763 or Contact me

I made an 84 mile round trip yesterday evening to hear Tom Ilube, a member of the founding team of Egg PLC and now CEO of online protection company, Garlik. He was speaking at a WOW! event on 5 of his insights into building a business. I have no doubt he has more! Here is a link to the notes WOW made for us all following that meeting last night: http://www.thewowcompany.com/November-event.htm

The world will not always be on your side, that’s reality….. and we should not let that deter us from creating and delivering our magnificent obsession .
Mother Teresa had a sign on the wall of Shishu Bhavan, the children’s home in Calcutta, that was taken from The Ten Paradoxical Commandments, originally published by Kent Keith in 1968 whilst still at school. Here is his full list.

1. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centred.
Love them anyway.
2. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.
3. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.
4. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.
5. Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.
6. The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.
7. People favour underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.
8. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.
9. People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.
10. Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.
Develop your magnificent obsession, get to work on it, create a great day.
contact us directly to tailor a support programme to your needs.

Establishing a firm foundation for a project is critical to its success. If you don’t, then it’s a bit like building a house without bothering to lay proper footings. Things might look OK for a while (although if you look closely you can probably see the cracks already appearing). Inevitably though, the whole edifice will come tumbling down, bringing pain, distress and abject misery to all involved.

Our experience shows us that managers don’t lay adequate foundations for their project assignments. Instead they work on assumptions or what they intuitively feel to be the case. This is a very risky thing to do! Studies show that problems in establishing the assignment properly at the outset are a major cause of projects going off the rails.

So when you begin your next project make sure you have the answers to these ten questions. They will ensure that your project begins on a sound footing.

1. What’s wrong with the current situation? It’s important to define the problem, issue or opportunity that the assignment will address.

2. How will things be different when we’ve finished? What are the benefits that this assignment will bring to the organisation? There has to be a clear business case for the assignment.

3. What are the performance criteria? What does this “thing” that we will be creating have to do? How well will it need to perform? Here we are defining the business requirements for the deliverable, not the actual deliverable itself.

4. What’s the scope of the assignment? What is in and what is out? This will help to prevent the onset of the dreaded “scope creep” and provides the basis for change control.

5. What are the cost constraints? How much can the organisation commit to the assignment? Note that this is not the same thing as a detailed project budget!

6. What are the time constraints? Again, this is not the same thing as a detailed project schedule. Questions 5 & 6 refer to constraints, not estimates.

7 What project specific constraints exist?.  These could be people, equipment – whatever will constrain the project team’s ability to deliver the work.

8. Who is the project sponsor? It’s astounding how often this vital role is not clearly defined, resulting in confusion and delay due to slow (or no) decision making. Essentially the sponsor is the person who makes the decisions, on behalf of the organisation, about the assignment. They also hold the purse strings!

9. Who is the project manager? The person responsible for making it happen.

10. What authority is being delegated? Project managers need to know the limits of their authority, so that if one of those limits is reached it triggers a conversation with their sponsor. It’s important for project managers (especially for their sanity) that they have sufficient authority to make the day-by-day decisions necessary to deliver the work.

Of course, laying a firm foundation is only the first step to creating the project deliverable and many potential pitfalls remain for the unwary project manager. But without clear answers to these ten questions it is highly likely that the project will encounter significant problems later.

This article is written by my colleague Paul Stacey at Priority Management and published here with his permission. Paul is a lead facilitator for the Project Management Breakthroughs programme.

Call or mail me for further information