Come Up for Air: How Teams Can Leverage Systems and Tools to Stop Drowning in Work
The author does a good job of connecting the dots across all the interrelated aspects of changes. He explores topics like the change to solar energy and several technological advancements. I enjoyed the thought exercises that his approach takes. He puts into perspective the larger impacts and needs that the world has… so when we think, I have gone solar or electric cars, but what is the energy need of the world, and how do electric cars solve the transportation needs beyond just getting me to the grocery store and train station.
Some (I have so many highlights I just can put them all here) from my Kindle highlights;
Email is just an external to-do list that others can add to.
Email has a boomerang effect: the more emails you send, the more you’ll receive. There are three actions you can take when an email comes into your inbox: Reply, Archive, or Defer.
The Scavenger Hunt occurs when people optimize for the speed of transfer of information instead of the speed of retrieval of information.
In general, asynchronous communication is a more efficient and flexible method than synchronous communication, which forces people to stop what they’re doing and pick up the phone, join a conference call, or head to an in-person meeting. We already know the value of peak times, flow states, and planning your day for maximum productivity—and incessant interruptions can stop that right in its tracks. So one obvious productivity hack is to communicate asynchronously as much as possible. But that can also cause problems
Notification Costs: 60 notifications × 1 minute = 1 hour/day 1 hr/day × $50/hr × 1,000 employees = $50,000/day $50,000/day × 250 working days/year = $12,500,000/year
““Your Brain Is for Having Ideas, Not Holding Them” This quote by David Allen, the founder of Getting Things Done and author of the book of the same name, is a foundational element of productivity.”
“Nothing is less productive than to make more efficient what should not be done at all.” —PETER DRUCKER, father of modern management”
“Teams need more than just short-term tactics. They need methodologies, structure, and guidelines. They need to understand how to implement the systems, tools, and processes readily available to them to executive effectively and collaboratively.”
“Despite a new customer growth rate of 20 percent, 12 percent of our clients were canceling each month. We had been celebrating the constant influx of new clients and revenue growth, but that growth was actually hiding some core problems in our business. People were canceling left and right because we weren’t providing the level of service they expected. Good marketing was masking a subpar service—it was a ticking time bomb.”
“The reality is that you’re not drowning in work because there “aren’t enough hours in the day” but because of thousands of seemingly small inefficiencies at work that add up over time to become major drains on everyone’s productivity. Everyone feels like they’re overworked because they’re getting bogged down in daily minutiae, endless distractions, and frustrating inefficiencies instead of focusing their time on the most important work that needs to get done.”
“The difference between the two-person team and the ten-thousand-person team is that change becomes exponentially more difficult as the organization grows.”
“one of the quickest and most cost-effective ways to improve the operations of any business, as it makes everything easier. Great communication will assist with delegation, create alignment, increase awareness, and improve productivity. At Leverage, we typically find that just optimizing email usage can save well over two hours per week per person. And this is not rocket science”
The CPR Business Efficiency Framework focuses on eliminating the pain points most teams experience by optimizing the three operational areas foundational to every organization: Communication, Planning, and Resources. CPR—Communication, Planning, and Resources—in that order. The order is very important, because if you’re not communicating effectively, whatever plan you intend to execute will be delayed, and you’ll be documenting suboptimal processes.
“modern teams that are drowning in work need to use these digital tools in the right ways and at the right times to come up for air. The overarching principle is that knowing when and how to use each type of tool is far more important than the tools themselves.”
“I’ve found that most problems people face with technology are due to improper setup, training, and mindset around when and how to use them.”
“Asana’s 2022 Anatomy of Work Index, a yearly report on how knowledge workers spend their time, found that 58 percent of employees’ time is spent on “work about work”—activities such as communicating about work, searching for information, managing shifting priorities, and chasing status updates.”
“If you think about it, transferring information quickly is actually quite easy—just text everything! Most likely, nothing is faster. But the downside is that it becomes very difficult to find past messages and the information you need to get work done. So in order to work effectively as a team, everyone needs to optimize for the speed of retrieval by putting information where it belongs—even if it’s painful, and even if it’s longer in the short term.”
“For example, if you and your team currently use Slack, you’d be able to switch to Microsoft Teams in under twenty-four hours because you understand how to use an internal communication tool within the framework.”
“Clinical psychologist Dr. Patty Ann Tublin is a relationship and communication expert who helps entrepreneurs and executives improve their relationships through the development of soft skills and emotional intelligence. When I worked with her, she told me about a line from comedian Craig Ferguson that has stuck with me for a long time. When you have something to say that might affect someone’s feelings—especially when you’re angry—ask yourself: Does this need to be said? Does this need to be said by me? Does this need to be said by me now? It’s a great communication tip, but I’ve found that the same line of logic applies to work management. If you’re committed to questioning everything, then start by asking yourself the same line of questions any time a new task is added to your plate: Does this need to be done? (Maybe it’s irrelevant, unnecessary, not a good use of time, or not in line with your organization’s goals.) Does this need to be done by me? (Maybe there’s someone else this is better suited to, or it could be automated.) Does this need to be done by me now? (Is this important enough that it needs to be done now or can it be pushed back?)”
“Blake is the founder of the Nonverbal Group, a behavioral research and education company that teaches people the soft skills most employee training programs lack—effectively, how to read people and reinvent behaviors.”
Individual: Some people might be eager to learn how to use a new tool, but they tend to be few and far between. Most people have similar reactions when they’re told to change the way they work: I’m too busy for this. My systems are fine. The problem is that they see the change as something they’re forced to do. As an individual, shifting your mindset from “I have to” to “I want to” is one of the best ways to open yourself up to change and improvement.
Leadership: Leaders also must be willing to acknowledge past failures. If they insist that everything’s fine, it instills in the team that change is unnecessary and a waste of time. But when leaders acknowledge that mistakes have been made, they open the team up to the possibility of improvement. In essence, those in leadership positions need to be aware of the impact they have on others and act accordingly.
Lack of Open and Honest Communication: If people can’t voice concerns, speak up when they’re faced with problems, or challenge the status quo, organizational adoption will never truly occur. When everyone is able to communicate openly and freely, without worrying about repercussions or judgments, people’s real concerns can be addressed in meaningful ways. Adopting new tools and changing the way you work is supposed to be a chance to improve, and if people aren’t seeing that improvement, they should feel comfortable bringing it up. In other words, if everyone has changed the way they work but half the team feels it is ineffective or less productive—has the team really improved?
Misaligned Expectations: It’s important to be realistic about what you can accomplish and how long it will take. When we first started working with teams, we found that some people would get discouraged or give up when they didn’t see an immediate improvement. It doesn’t matter how many people or resources you have—alignment is perhaps the number one key to becoming operationally efficient.
Here is the LINK to the AMAZON Book
