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Making 2014 Your Most Productive Year Yet: The ONE Thing You Can Do Every Day

Posted on 12/05/2013 by ·
Making 2014 Your Most Productive Year Yet: The ONE Thing You Can Do Every Day by Laura Stack #productivity

I'm not a big believer in New Year's resolutions. Frustrated by bad habits like procrastination, disorganization, or a lack of exercise, many of us vow to change. We make a New Year's resolution such as, “This year, I'll walk on my treadmill three times a week!” By March, the treadmill is gathering dust down in the basement. Defeated, we give up further attempts to change. Why does this happen? I believe it’s because we don’t make reasonable resolutions to begin with and thus fail to keep the ones we make. So people either stop setting goals (never a good choice), or they make resolutions that are ridiculously easy to keep. The solution? Stop focusing on massive gains. Instead, make it your goal in 2014 to improve 1% each day. If you can improve 1% each day, you’ll double in ability … [Read more...]

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Congress, Deadlines, and (Lack of) Productivity

Posted on 12/04/2013 by ·
Congress, Deadlines, and (Lack of) Productivity by Laura Stack #productivity

I was interviewed today for a piece on Marketplace, the public radio business and economics program, based in the show’s Washington bureau. I got so fired up I decided to write it down and get your take. I was asked about all of the deadlines Congress faces after the Thanksgiving holiday (to come up with a budget, to avoid “sequestration,” to pass a funding bill, and to raise the debt limit, etc.), given that legislators have already missed or extended many previously. I was asked to comment on the Congress’ productivity and what they can learn from a “productivity expert.” Okay, so first they would have to learn how to be productive. What is productivity? A ratio of input to output. This Congress is the most unproductive in history. If you take the number of days congress has been in … [Read more...]

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Outgrowing the Old: The Necessity of Change Management

Posted on 12/03/2013 by ·
Outgrowing the Old: The Necessity of Change Management by Laura Stack #productivity

"He who rejects change is the architect of decay. The only human institution which rejects progress is the cemetery." -- Harold Wilson, British politician. Successful businesses have always adapted readily to change, but at no time in living memory—and likely at no point in history—has adaptability been a more desirable business trait than it is today. Given our recent economic difficulties, in combination with accelerating technological sophistication, change occurs almost daily—whether we want it to or not. The greatest obstacle to necessary change is a reluctance to modify or abandon procedures that have become familiar and comforting. But a flexible, agile organization has no choice but to change in the face of reality. As German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once pointed out, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity ·

Whistling Up an Orchestra: The Value of Teamwork in the Workplace

Posted on 11/14/2013 by ·
Whistling Up an Orchestra: The Value of Teamwork in the Workplace by Laura Stack #productivity

"There's no I in team, but there is in win." -- Michael Jordan, American basketball player. Those of us who gravitate toward leadership in business organizations—or create our own businesses as entrepreneurs—tend to be the independent sort. It seems ironic, then, that we achieve our highest levels of productivity only when we come together as teams. The fact remains that human beings are social creatures. We couldn't have been otherwise and risen to become this planet's dominant species. Nearly everything worthwhile we've achieved has come about as a result of team effort. Even those we often perceive as lone-wolf geniuses—people like Einstein, Mozart, and Da Vinci—worked in a collaborative milieu (e.g., science and music) or surrounded themselves with talented people they could … [Read more...]

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Don’t Think Yourself into a Corner!

Posted on 11/08/2013 by ·
Don't Think Yourself into a Corner! by Laura Stack #productivity

The human imagination is a wonderful thing. When you throw open the floodgates of creativity and embark on a brainstorming session, you can formulate any number of ways to deal with an unsettling problem. Afterward, you can test your ideas to see which one will work best for your specific situation. This is where some of us run into the brick wall of overthinking. Ironically, creativity can be a drawback if allowed to range too freely, especially if you have trouble evaluating the ideas you've dreamed up. I recently read an article in which the authors criticized "idea monkeys," creative people with so many bright, shiny ideas they can't bear to settle on just one and explore it fully. Until they learn to prioritize and focus on their best ideas, they won’t accomplish much. The other … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Personal Productivity · Tagged: , ,

Output, Not Busywork: The True Key to Productivity

Posted on 11/06/2013 by ·
Output, Not Busywork: The True Key to Productivity by Laura Stack #productivity

"Don't confuse activity with achievement." -- John Wooden, American college basketball coach. "Beware the barrenness of a busy life." -- Socrates, ancient Greek philosopher. All my career, I've personal fought my tendency to “stay busy,” as if by doing so, I’ll inevitably be more productive...as if constantly getting things done, one after another, were somehow enough to ensure success. Intellectually, it takes very little effort to refute this tendency, though the proof never seems to get through to the people who need it most—from the $100-an-hour executive micromanaging his $10-an-hour assistant, to the teams who spend fifteen hours a week in meetings and spin off report after report, trying to figure out why they aren't more profitable. Hard work is necessary to succeed in any … [Read more...]

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Maximizing ROI: Continuous Improvement as a Core Value

Posted on 10/23/2013 by ·
Maximizing ROI: Continuous Improvement as a Core Value by Laura Stack #productivity

“If you’re any good at all, you know you can be better.” -- Lindsay Buckingham, British musician. Good enough is good enough, right? Perhaps that’s true for cleaning your house or writing an email, but as a leader, you know that can be a dangerous attitude. Complacency kills companies, much more quickly and thoroughly than ever before. You and your team must always strive to get better at what you do, because as Oliver Cromwell put it, "He who stops being better stops being good." If Cromwell's name rings a bell, that's because he was a master at bettering himself. He rose from relative obscurity in his 40s to become one of the chief politicians of early 17th century England. He participated in the English Civil War as a member of the Parliamentarians or "Roundheads," rising to a … [Read more...]

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Continued Progress Requires Constant Reevaluation

Posted on 10/18/2013 by ·
Continued Progress Requires Constant Reevaluation by Laura Stack #productivity

Like that children's song, some workplace tasks just never seem to end (“It’s a small world…”). They constantly cycle, and you can't shift your attention away for long, lest something slip out of whack (sorry for getting that song in your head). As exasperating as this may be, it's the reality. Consider, for example, the constant reevaluation of personal and team workflow. Few things are more necessary—or, in the end, more rewarding. The "good enough for government work" argument doesn't cut it in the white-collar world. So it makes sense to reexamine your tasks regularly, always looking for easier, faster ways to do them. Begin by reading widely in your field, so you know about new breakthroughs and theoretical approaches. Once you have a new workflow process up and running, keep a … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Productivity · Tagged: , ,

Teaching the Mission: Helping Your Team Understand and Achieve Alignment

Posted on 10/16/2013 by ·
Teaching the Mission: Helping Your Team Understand and Achieve Alignment by Laura Stack #productivity

Just as your car runs more smoothly and requires less energy to go faster and farther when the wheels are in perfect alignment, you perform better when your thoughts, feelings, emotions, goals, and values are in balance." — Brian Tracy, American motivational speaker and writer. In 2001, energy company Enron self-destructed in a scandal that still amazes those of us who witnessed it. Despite the core values literally carved into the façade of its Houston headquarters—Respect, Integrity, Communication and Excellence—top executives completely lost track of their company's official Mission and Vision. Instead, they focused on feathering their own nests and defrauding stakeholders to the tune of billions of dollars. As a leader, you can't allow anything like that to happen on your watch. … [Read more...]

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Constant Improvement Through Feedback Loops

Posted on 10/11/2013 by ·
Constant Improvement Through Feedback Loops by Laura Stack #productivity

When he was 10, my son Johnny took guitar lessons. One week he taught himself to play the song Sweet Home Alabama, practicing it for hours. When Johnny showed off his new song, his music teacher said, "That's great! Here's how you can play it even better," and showed him how to do a riff. To our surprise, Johnny was resistant to learning it. Later, when I pressed him about it, he said, "None of my friends play the guitar, so they won't know if I'm doing a bad job. They think it's cool no matter what I play, so I don't need to work so hard to change it." Naturally, I gave him the "mom talk" about how personal improvement is also done for the sake of it, not just for other people; that you take pride in knowing you did your best; that you should always strive to get better; and besides, … [Read more...]

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