From old ways to better ways of working

If there’s too much to do and you can’t get through it all, what do you do? A productivity app won’t magically change an entire team or organisation. There’s a bigger change needed, a fundamental shift in how we think about work.

Many of the things we do in our daily work are old ways of working. They’re leftovers from when the world - and the work - was quite different.

Some of our dated work methods are routines and habits that are hard to break.

We can consider changing the way we work to:
💫 reduce wasted activity and effort
💫 deliver greater value to customers sooner
💫 increase productivity
💫 be more effective in all we do...

Which means we get to remove some of those old ways of working:
🗑 Low value tasks and meetings
🗑 Weeks of work on a project that never gets used
🗑 Changes to documents back and forth up the chain of command
🗑 Talk-fests that don’t lead to decisions or outcomes.

As with all new habits, knowing about them is one thing, using and practically applying them is a whole other thing.

It’s good to start with some knowing, that a shift to better ways is happening.

How adaptable we are

Some of us like to do the same things the same way. It’s easy. It’s familiar. It’s safe.

Others don’t mind a change ... they think it’s as good as a holiday! A little bit of difference or newness keeps things interesting. But then happily slip back to the world of sameness for safety.

Still others welcome difference, newness, change and evolution. All the time. It allows adventure, improvisation and ingenuity. It stretches us and we learn. We have new experiences and the challenge ... of a challenge.


How would you rate yourself?

Are you really up for change and being adaptable for new ways of thinking and doing things?

Or are you hanging on to sameness for security and safety?

This isn’t just little change like a new outfit or restaurant.

How the world is changing is requiring us to change. And some of us don’t want to change.

Rate yourself, again. Where does the arrow point to for you?

Keep an ideas book

Better still, curate an ideas book. Or even ‘work’ your ideas book.

When there are ideas and thoughts swirling about your head, what do you do with them? Try to wrestle with them? Try to ‘sort them out’ or get them into some semblance of order?

If your ideas are up there, mixing with all that other stuff like the inner critic, the self doubter, the small player ... it may not be the best space for our ideas to prosper or grow.

We trash and dismiss them, minimize and trivialize them.

Get your ideas out of there, quick!

Put them somewhere else ... to externalise them. Then you can work with them.

- As part of a habit or routine.
- As a source of inspiration and motivation.
- As a place of refuge and comfort.

Mostly, as a reminder of the possibilities and capabilities of the human mind .... without the weight and distraction of all that other stuff!

Get started on an ideas book.

And if you’ve already got one... share a photo of it below👇🏾- I’d love to see it!

Do you like ideas and creativity? Give this post a like and share it to encourage others.

You have an idea : now what

Think there are few original ideas?Let’s see how we can work to make an idea our own.

▶️ Ideation
A flurry of ideas or just one, is enough to get working on a project or creative task.

Ideas aren’t always original, aren’t truly our own or unique so we need to ‘work’ them some more before pressing ‘send’ or ‘publish’.


▶️ Exploration
What’s the history of this idea? Has anyone else written on it, published or created it? How original is your thinking? Do some research. (Or is your Google button broken?)


▶️ Extension
If you like the idea and want more of it, don’t copy it ... extend it. Do more thinking, reading, talking and developing. Take the idea further. This will require some work and it’s the point where some of us check out or seek a short cut.


▶️ Execution
Uniqueness and originality can often be found in the way things are done. Once an idea is explored and extended, then work on how it can be published or put out into the world in this new and improved form.


To advance your career, grow a business or build a brand, originality is absolutely worth the work.

Where ideas come from

Have you experienced cryptomnesia?

It’s where we mistakenly believe a current idea is our own creation when in fact we’ve ‘encountered it previously and then forgotten it,’ (American Psychological Association)

What the heck?!

So some of our blindingly great ideas aren’t that original?

Correct. We’ve gathered them from other places, forgotten about them, woken up one day and thought we’ve had a genius moment!

It's known as 'inadvertent plagiarism' or 'unconscious plagiarism'. And of course there’s outright plagiarism too. 😡

When our ideas have similarity to others, we could be experiencing cryptomnesia, unaware of the sources of our thinking.

We end up replicating existing ideas or we’re influenced by them (unknowingly) when we’re sorting and filtering our thoughts.

The world needs us to be more creative, to solve tricky problems and adapt to changing circumstances.

It’s worth the effort then to be more original ... and it’s also worth the effort to sharpen our own originality so we all diversify the idea pool.