The Eisenhower Matrix helps you decide whether urgent means important. It helps you to prioritize your work and helps you focus on what’s important right now!
It will also help you to stop doing those tasks that add no value to you. In this video, we share why the Eisenhower matrix is such a powerful tool for making you more productive and effective. Learn how to use the tool and access a free downloadable template you can use as much as you like and share with your colleagues and friends.
Critical thinking is an essential part of the Thinking Focus Toolkit for Team Leaders and Managers. Here’s a link to the free download https://bit.ly/urgentversusimportant
Use critical thinking tools to ensure you’re focusing on what matters.
Critical thinking follows creative thinking or task analysis; it helps you to prioritise where to spend your time. They work by eliminating bias, which means you will make more objective decisions rather than relying on your gut or what you like to do.
Whether you are awash with ideas or overloaded with tasks, the ability to critically evaluate where best to spend your time and what will add the most value and make you most productive is an essential skill.
With the Ease versus Impact Critical Thinking Tool, you can ensure you are focused on the highest value activities all the time.
Critical thinking is essential to the Thinking Focus Toolkit for Team Leaders and Managers. This is a free downloadable resource that wiill help you, but don’t keep it to yourself; feel free to use it and share it; you can access it here:
At Thinking Focus, we believe teams and business units underperform not by choice but because of self-imposed and organisational constraints.
We help people adopt a growth mindset that unlocks interference and accelerates the adoption of new behaviours, which leads to greater organisational performance.
We are privileged to work with some amazing clients. We particularly enjoy our ongoing work with a global med-tech company, working with a passionate, determined and driven team.
As organisations are starting to get people back into the workplace, or at least having these kind of conversations on the agenda, we have been keen to hear what some of our clients have been saying about this. At a recent round table discussion online, it’s clear that people are feeling a wide range of emotions about returning to their place of work. It is also clear that there are things that leaders can do to help ease the transition, and the concerns.
It is probably worth starting with a cautionary note about the language we use when talking about this topic. As our client ‘S’ pointed out when the question of ‘going back to work’ was raised “It’s something that we’ve been pulled up on because people get slightly agitated with it. When we say people are ‘going back to work’, people have been working and believe me, people get really, really annoyed with you when you say that they’ve got to go back to work.” So, a simple reminder when talking about this is to refer to ‘back to the office’ – this might help you start off on the right footing!
We recognise that what is about to happen for many people is a second, significant change in the way they work. In March, and almost overnight, there was a move for people to work from home, which presented a great number of challenges. What we’re seeing now is a reversal of that change to start to bring people back in to their ‘old’ working environment, although this time on a staggered basis for many organisations. As we start to ask people to break their ‘new routines’ and start to think about re-engaging with some older ways of working – creating ‘the new normal’ we keep hearing about – it’s worth noting that some people will be nervous about this, seeing this as ‘scary’, and in some instances even asking whether it is ‘dangerous’, but we’ll look more at this a little later!
So, what kind of things might be going through people’s minds as they consider the return to the workplace? What we’re hearing is that there will be wide range of thoughts, which probably comes as no great surprise. As leaders though, what approach should we take?
Many organisations have recognised that people will be curious about returning to the workplace: how different will it look, what will be the same and what will be different? The messaging to get everyone to switch to working from home back in March may have unintentionally created feelings that offices (as well as many other public spaces) are not safe. That feeling is going to linger for a while. People may be going back to an office that they have visited many times, but it is not really the same place anymore, with social distancing creating new rules and expectations on how we act within the space. This all creates a feeling of a familiar place being unfamiliar and people feeling unsure of how it will work or even if it is a safe space anymore. This is the challenge that, as leaders, we need to overcome.
And there are a number of ways our clients have already been dealing with this. ‘J’s organisation has been using technology to help them “We’ve consciously kept a communication line open to all of our teams to let them know exactly what’s going on every single step of the way. And we’ve done that by making videos to send to them – we’ve brought in some animation software so we can create some short snappy animations that talk through what’s happening, what’s changing. When it comes to moving back into the office, we’ve had a company do a virtual 4D scan of the entire building. This shows all the sanitizer stations and the one way signs, and they can walk around the office virtually through all of the areas and all the floors so they know what’s where and how it’s going to look when they come in. So they understand where their desk is, the way they have to go, where all their resources are. If you look at one of the kitchenettes, it will come up with a sign to say “only one person allowed in at a time”. So we’ve made them try and feel comfortable with the fact that we’ve done everything we possibly can, plus more. And that’s gone down really well in easing some of the anxiety that people have got.” 4D scans could be a great approach, but to counter this one client also mentioned that their approach was more basic, having stickers on desks that simply highlighted which ones could be sat at and which ones couldn’t – and this was proving to be equally useful.
Another common feature of returning to the workplace is staggering how to bring people back. Again ‘J’ commented “We’re going to be slowly bringing back teams, those are at the least risk will come back first. We’ll make sure they’re comfortable in the office and they’re up and running before we bring the next back and so on. We’ve already made that announcement to them, but also said that we’ve got no date in mind. This is what we’re doing to make it as comfortable for everybody, which seems to have gone down well.”
This may be working so well for companies that, right now, not everyone wants to come back to the workplace. As ‘H’ put it “We’ve probably got about 20% who can’t wait to get back, who were missing the social aspects. We probably then have another 20% who perhaps have health concerns or relatives who have health concerns and are very nervous about going back. And then probably a whole group in the middle where it’s quite a mixed bag.”
Similarly ‘S’ mentioned “We’ve done a ‘back to the office/ site’ guide, which explains everything we’ve done, about our one way system, about using the canteen and about having respect for others. We have a little bit at the beginning of the guide that says people are dealing with this differently, so consider having that mindfulness and appreciation for how people are. And when people are coming back, we’re getting their managers to give them an induction for coming back to the office so that they don’t just slip into their normal pace.”
So, it seems that having some type of re-onboarding process will be helpful in allowing people to process their emotions and feelings and start to think about getting back into some sort of routine.
As leaders, this is really important, as it bridges the rational elements of ‘let’s make arrangements, put a plan in place, communicate’ with the emotional elements of ‘feeling unsure, being insecure, feeling tentative and wanting re-assurance’.
This is why the ‘scary and/or dangerous’ concept was mentioned earlier. Scary/Dangerous is based on two scales and allows us to use one of our favourite ‘explainer’ tools – the four-box grid!
We feel that our reactions to situations that we feel are dangerous are hardwired into us and are a protective measure – if we do something that is dangerous it could, ultimately, cost us everything. However, dangerous is rational calculation, one that we often get wrong, as there are so many cognitive biases that get in the way. On top of that you have the hardwired reaction, whether we see something as scary or not, which is an emotional response. Our emotional responses happen almost instantly, and rarely use the facts of the situation. When you start to consider these two side by side, we have four scenarios.
Let’s take something that we know is dangerous – for instance standing on a cliff edge, leaning over. We probably know that this is dangerous (admittedly with degrees of risk) but, sitting where you are right now reading this, does this feel scary to you? For most of us, it won’t. However, if we were there, at the cliff edge for most of us it definitely would be scary. Where things are dangerous and scary too, you would really have to ask yourself why would you do that? These things we place in the ‘Crazy Zone’!
Where something is dangerous, but we don’t perceive it as scary – and there may be some people reading this who are happy standing on the cliff edge – you still wouldn’t do this in a blasé way, would you, you’d still be careful. These things go in the ‘Caution Zone’. If you’re going to do them, take care! Sat at home, reading this, being asked to think about being in a cliff edge is clearly not dangerous (you’re not really there) and for most isn’t scary, so you’re really comfortable with this analogy – hence these things go in your ‘Comfort Zone’.
The final box is where we know it isn’t dangerous, but we still have an emotional reaction telling us it is scary – here we are nervous but can be helped to move forward – this is the Change Zone, and our role as leaders in the current situation, and in helping people return to their place of work, is to help our people ‘come back’.
Linking this to COVID19 and how people may well be feeling is worth drawing out.
Why are things dangerous right now? We have a situation that has (as I write this) taken the lives of around 46,000 people in the UK, and over 667,000 worldwide. This clearly falls into the dangerous category. Yet, there are clear steps that we can take to reduce the risks and make things safer, even if we cannot get to zero risk. We do lots of things with some level of risk, from sports to driving; the difference is that we have normalised those risks and are not constantly reminded of them as we are with COVID19.
Why are people feeling scared right now? There’s the obvious link to the dangers presented by COVID19, but also most people have been secure in their own bubbles, most have stayed safe and kept themselves and their loved ones safe. The talk about leaving bubbles and returning to the workplace is a clear change from this. There are now a range of factors people can’t control – will work colleagues have exercised the same amount of care and followed the rules, or will they have been cavalier in their attitudes? What about getting to work, will they need to be on public transport with a number of strangers? The list could go on.
It is this feeling of scary that is holding people back, and the practical plans that make things safer may have very little impact on the emotional responses of a lot of people. Think about the 20-60-20 split mentioned by ‘H’, 20% don’t perceive this as scary, 20% think this is very scary, but 60% are not sure and are looking for leaders who can help them work this out. Our aim as leaders, therefore, is to help our people to see that we have done everything we can to remove as many of the dangers as possible, and it seems our clients, amongst many others, have some practical approaches to doing this. We also need to help people with their emotions, recognising that we all view ‘scary’ differently and will need different types of reassurance.
Many organisations discovered that they can introduce significant change rapidly when they had to reorganise their workforce to being home-based. Does this mean that all change should be quick?
Paul, Rob and Rich explore why this change has worked so well, and ask what are the lessons we can learn from this for future change.
This podcast was recorded while we are still in lockdown. Like most people, we are working from home (kids and pets may appear at any time). Apologies for the quality of one of the mics on this podcast. The perils of working without a producer.
We are still focused on the questions that are getting in the way.
Teams have been broken, split between furloughed and working, home-based or office-based. Teams that were once aligned against a common purpose are now divided. What does this mean for managing teams going forward? How can leaders bring teams back together?
Rich, Rob, Ricky and Paul (and Paul’s dog) discuss the implications and unintentional side effects of some of the difficult yet necessary decisions that have had to be made. How do we get back to one team and one vision?
This podcast was recorded while we are in the middle of lockdown. Like most people, we are working from home (with kids and dogs), making do and still looking to answer the questions that are getting in the way.
Some teams just get it, they immerse themselves in the work or activities of the team to deliver amazing results. What is it that they have, that other teams don’t? In this podcast, Paul proposes that this is down to a connection to the higher purpose, and along with Graham they explore what that means.
This podcast is part of a short series on productivity, where we are exploring how you can Sell More, Save More and Do More, both personally and for your team.
Social
learning is about the way we learn, while the 70:20:10 model concerns where we
get our learning from. Both are linked and relevant, we think, to the work that
we do at Thinking Focus, so we thought we’d take a closer look at them.
The
social learning theory first formulated by Albert Bandura in 1977 shows that we
learn best by imitating the behaviour and actions of others. It’s all about
people learning from each other; picking up new skills, ideas, opinions and
experiences from those around them.
This
applies equally to learning in the workplace. Think about it: where do you feel
you have learnt most of what you know? During formal education? Or from your own
experience and the insights of your colleagues?
Social
learning in the workplace is about interacting with others through good
communication, knowledge sharing, discussion, collaboration, and being
transparent about what you’re doing and why. Colleagues can help each other,
either explicitly or tacitly, to understand ideas, experiences, systems,
methods and processes. Yet most of us come into work with the rules set that
tells us to do exactly the opposite, work it out on your own, don’t share,
don’t copy other people’s work. These are the learning rules that schools
operate by.
Most
L&D professionals are familiar with the 70:20:10 model proposed by Charles
Jennings. In fact, it has become a standard part of discussion regarding
learning and development processes in the workplace. The model evolved from a
report in the 1980s which analysed a survey of 200 senior managers. It found
that they reported that 70% of what they knew had been learnt on the job or
through experience, 20% had come from social interaction with other people, and
just 10% had been learnt through formal education.
Although
there’s been some criticism of the 70:20:10 model, some of which we agree with,
we nevertheless think it’s useful in showing the rough proportions of
experience, social interaction and education needed for learning. It does
broadly tell us is that, to meaningfully and effectively learn new things, your
experience and the input and experience of people around you is the most
important thing. Social learning does tend to fit into 90 per cent of this
model.
It’s
all a great starting point for reflecting on how individuals within your
workforce learn and what the best ways therefore might be for their personal
development. It can be used as the basis for a wider L&D strategy that can
have far reaching effects on the culture and mindset of the organisation as a
whole.
At
Thinking Focus, we recognise that we essentially offer the 10 per cent ‘formalised
learning’ part of the Jennings model, but we do so as the basis for encouraging
people to behave in the 20 per cent of the Jennings model by interacting with
people, and to share the 70 per cent, their experience and knowledge.
In our coaching sessions and training workshops, and through our learning resources such as the Strategy Wall and our management development board game What Would You Do?, we are encouraging behaviours that enhance social learning. We create environments where the group learn from other and teach each other, generating conversations and giving people the tools to go and do the 20 per cent in real life. We are highlighting the untapped knowledge and experience that people could access from their colleagues.
We encourage
meaningful face-to-face discussion and debate. We offer formalised learning
elements and use them to highlight, encourage and create social learning by
developing skills and behaviours that cause peer-based learning and
self-reflection.
Assumptions, beliefs and past experiences are going to shape how we think about the sales process and the customer. Added to that, we also have to deal with pressure from targets and our managers.This will all condition how you behave during the sales process.
In our latest podcast, Ricky and Rob first discuss the reasons why we typically talk ourselves OUT of the sale, before looking at ways of talking ourselves INTO it.
Reasons we might use to talk ourselves out of the sale include making assumptions that our competitors are better than we are or that the customer doesn’t want what we are selling. We’ll second-guess how the customer’s going to react and what they’re going to say. We’ll ask ourselves: Why do they want what I’m selling, and why do they want it from me? Am I good enough? Is my product or service good enough?
So, how can you turn that around and to talk yourself INTO a sale?
Firstly,
focus on all the great things you do, the great experiences you’ve had in the past,
and the wins. Play over the narrative that was in your mind when you did well in
that call, sales meeting or sales follow-up.
Get other people involved, if possible. Reflect on a sales meeting with a colleague or sales manager, look at the successful elements that you can draw upon and learn from. For the less successful parts, think what you might do differently next time.
Be self-aware. You will only improve if you can reflect and learn from what you do. Nurture a growth mindset in yourself. Ask: What can I learn from this?
Finally, during that next sale, don’t get caught up in the moment and in the pressure of having to make the sale, or the need to deliver targets or win a new customer. We might wonder if our product or service is good enough, or worry that we don’t understand the product fully. As sales people, we’ll focus our attention on the product’s weaknesses, which we may have to defend, but spend hardly any time on why the product is great. We need to think from the customer’s perspective, not our own, and see the world the other way round – after all, they are buying it for what it can do, and not what it can’t.
What you actually want is to get the right outcome for the customer rather than selling for selling’s sake. Just focus on building a great relationship, understanding your customer and what they need, and then positioning your product for them.
