Month: February 2017

Things that slow us down

Things that slow us down may be things we need the most.

Every week since the summer of 2008, I’ve sent some version of the 200 words project – where I share a synthesis of an idea from a book I read within 200 words. The previous incarnation (2008-2014) was a team effort with a former colleague who came up with the idea. For the first 2 years, I didn’t participate much in the creation process. Around 2010, however, I took over most of the content creation and that continued in the form of the 200 words project today.

Creating these is a multi-step process. The first step is reading interesting books. Next, I take notes as I read. And, finally, I aim to synthesize relevant notes in a series of ideas that capture what I’ve learnt from the book. It is a slow process. But, it has been rewarding. In addition to blogging about them here, I send them out in a weekly newsletter of sorts to friends, acquaintances, former colleagues and clients. It’s worked as a wonderful way to stay in touch.

But, every once a while, I ask myself if the time has come to kill the project. And, admittedly, this has happened with greater frequency since I became a parent 3 months ago. So, I took a long 6 week break over the holidays to check in on my motivation to continue doing this. It still existed.

I had an epiphany last weekend when I was preparing future drafts – why was I keen to kill the project? It felt like it was slowing me down. In the limited time I had during weekends for working on this stuff, I could do other things or simply read more.

But, would more be better? Would I truly make the most of the books I read if I wasn’t synthesizing them?

It occurred to me that this process is likely valuable because it is slow. Boiling books down to their essence requires a certain depth of focus. It stands in contrast to my general pace of life. And, that difference was certainly challenging for many reasons. But, that investment in depth also reaped wonderful rewards in the long run in the form of learning and wisdom.

So, every once a while, slow might be exactly what we need.

Disproportionate energy

There are sure to be small things in your day that infuse you with a disproportionate amount of energy.

It could be a cup of coffee after lunch, a walk by yourself, a piece of delicious chocolate cake, or an extra hour of sleep.

If you know what there are, then it might be time to allow yourself that boost. Often, denying them just means thinking about them for the rest of the day or spending willpower attempting to resist.

If a small investment can give you a disproportionate energy boost the rest of the day, it is likely worth it. Engagement takes energy and we generally need all the boosts we can get.

We don’t make an impact by the number of hours we put into life. Instead, we make an impact by the number of hours we engage with life.

Policies and principles

As we learn to manage ourselves, we often start by setting policies. Policies are iron clad rules that help us achieve certain objectives. Examples of policies are –

1. I will always go to the gym first thing in the morning
2. I will never check email on Saturdays
3. I only eat sweets on Sundays

Of course, these policies are just ways to live by certain principles. For example, the principles behind these 3 rules might be –

1. I care a lot about exercise and would like to make sure I get it done
2. I need to feel relaxed during the weekend
3. I care about the sugar levels in my blood and would like to make sure I keep them low

Now, these principles provide us degrees of freedom. For example, you might be okay checking your email on a Saturday as long as you are feeling relaxed. And, those degrees of freedom enable us to be more effective by applying these principles based on the context.

Managing by policy is an amateur’s game. This is just as applicable whether we’re managing ourselves or an organization.

This, in turn, is exactly why culture matters – both in organizations and individuals. Google’s employees are not held back from discussing confidential information from their company’s weekly all hands because of a policy. Rather, it is their commitment to the culture. Great cultures are important because they enable leaders to focus on principles rather than policy.

For short term wins, policies can work great. However, if you are in it for the long term, principles are the way to go.

Frederic Tudor and Ice

Frederic Tudor, a young man from a rich family in Boston, once visited the Carribean (estd year – 1800). He was then seized by an idea – how about shipping New England ice to the Carribean?

After many attempts of shipping ice over and gradually overcoming challenges of transportation and storage (blocks of ice melt slowly so it was possible to move them even without too many innovations), he slowly began to stir up some demand. People in the Caribbean began developing an appetite for iced drinks. While Tudor nearly went bankrupt through the process, his fortunes changed by the end and he ended up a multi-millionaire.

But, this started a unique shift as all previous global trade had been about moving materials from warm places (abundant solar energy) to colder ones – spices, food, etc. The ice trade became very successful and the ice barons of New England became rich.

It is this ice that led to the growth of Chicago. While Chicago became a transportation hub thanks to some excellent engineering and building of railroads, it became the hub of the meat industry due to refrigerated meat. How that happened is coming up next week…

A man who has drank his drinks cold at the same expense for one week can never be presented with them warm again. – Frederick Tudor :)

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Source and thanks to: How we got to now by Steven Johnson

(This story and quote is part of “The 200 words project.” I aim to synthesize a story from a book (and, occasionally a blog or article) I’ve read within 200 words consecutive Sundays for around 45 weeks of the year.)

Enduring awesomeness

I was up at 3am last weekend watching Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open final. Far better writers have written plenty about that game. So, I don’t think I’d be able to add much. However, sometime during the fifth set, I was thinking about the idea of enduring awesomeness.

Even as a kid, I was a casual tennis watcher. Like everyone else, I used to tune in to watch Sampras v Agassi at the turn of the century. But, watching Roger Federer was always something else. I remember watching his progression at Wimbledon 2003 as a pony tailed youngster and his first grand slam win against Mark Phillippousis. That was the start of something really special.

And, 14 years later, here we are. He’s older now and has had to adapt his game to suit his age. So, there are more high risk shots as he tries to keep rallies short. His backhand “weakness” (it’s all relative) has become a weapon. Against all odds, he’s still out there winning grand slams and showing us how its done.

There’s something incredibly inspiring about enduring awesomeness – the key word being “enduring.” We can pull off great work every once a while. But, to do it day in and day out over a long period of time – that’s something else.

My new year theme is engagement. I aspire to be engaged and conscious every waking minute – paying attention as I try things, conscious as I stumble and make mistakes, and engaged in creative, constructive and corrective responses to them. I’ve come to realize that it is this depth of engagement that characterizes fulfilling lives.

A friend, who was also watching the Federer Nadal final, suggested that Federer might retire after this. I disagreed. I felt he was enjoying himself too much to retire. Yes, the unforced errors were piling up. And, yes, his legs didn’t cooperate the way they used to. But, he just seemed 100% engaged, focused and determined to continue to learn, adapt and push himself. His head didn’t drop when he started the final set on the back foot. He had decided to fight. And, what a fight it was.

Deep engagement in one’s craft is a sight to behold. And, in his case, it is his consistent engagement over the past three decades in his craft that contributes to his enduring awesomeness.

I find that very inspiring.

That old dream

We adjust our expectations from life at record speed. That old dream, once achieved, becomes commonplace in our eyes. So, we move on to the next dream.

In high school, I dreamed of going to college abroad – ideally in Singapore for a variety of reasons. When that worked out, it became “no big deal” in no time because most of the folks I spent time with shared that reality. This happened at the next step and the one after that. Similarly, 9 years ago, just writing a long form blog post every day was a nod to my aspirational self. When that began to happen, I wanted to write better. And, when I felt I was writing better, my mind started wandering toward other things.

This is, of course, an endless cycle. Assuming you chose to work at it, unless you had a specific, incredibly low probability dream, you’ve probably done a decent job at getting to what you want to do and being who you want to be. Until that old dream became commonplace and you just began focusing on the next one.

It is important to to invest in tomorrow. But, life isn’t all about tomorrow either. As you think about how you’re doing today, spend time on that old dream. You are probably doing things and being someone that were once just aspirations. And, that’s a big deal.

Dreams do come true. It’s just a shame if we end up not appreciating that fact as much as we should.

So, every once a while, take the time to remember the days when you prayed for what you have now.

Dissatisfaction space

Dissatisfaction is a useful emotion every once a while because it pushes us to reconsider how we are doing things.

The first thing to do when we’re facing dissatisfaction is to not over react. It is a natural, normal thing. We wouldn’t change if we didn’t experience dissatisfaction with the status quo.

Next, create a bit of space – an hour early in the morning or late at night – to think. What is causing it? Are there simple things you can tweak to make things better? Commit to a change or two while you are at it.

And, finally, allow yourself to dive into something and make progress. The best way to harness the energy from commitments is to dive straight into making progress on something that matters to you.

Dissatisfaction is a powerful change agent. It is wasted if we just use it to beat ourselves up or if we try to ignore it (we can’t). Instead, we must view it as a signal to change how we do things.

It is a natural reminder that what got us here won’t get us there..

Influence

When people are trained on influence and persuasion, they generally study a combination of what master influencers do and what interesting social science research points to. The inherent assumption is that the difference between you and the master influencer that you will become is a few skills.

However, when I reflect on my attempts to persuade people, I realize that I’ve actually not been all that persuasive when I set out to be persuasive. Instead, I was most persuasive when I wasn’t trying at all.

So, what happened when I wasn’t trying? I was influence-able. I was more willing to listen, to ask questions and to have a conversation without attempting to make a sale. As I was in tune with what the right decision should be, I was able to really contribute to the conversation and help make the right decision.

It turns out influence isn’t all that different from most other valuable skills. It isn’t about them, it is about us.

Or, put differently, the hard part about influence isn’t learning persuasion. It is learning to be persuadable ourselves.

PS: You might be able to push your view onto someone else for a while. Or, you might even get them to act in a way that isn’t in their interest. It is generally short term. And, that’s not influence anyway, it is manipulation.