Is there a better way of doing this

When we’re doing something in one way, do we wonder is there a better way? Rather than finding just any old way to do a task or activity, what would make it better... better for you and your situation?

And what is ‘better’ anyway? Better happens when something is more acceptable … to us or perhaps to our customers, clients, family, colleagues or community.

It might be better because:

It’s quicker

It’s less stressful

It’s easier

It’s smoother

It uses less energy

It’s more affordable

It takes less effort

It happens faster

It makes us happier

It protects us

It extends our life

It cares for others

It is kinder, more efficient… and on and on we can go.

It’s a personal thing to identify what would make something better for you. And when focus is directed towards better, we can make decisions, change things and choose ways that will work for us.

For the better. My next book is coming soon ... ‘Better ways of thinking and working: How changing the way you do things, changes what you can do’. 

Where could you ease off

Where could you do less and it wouldn’t be noticed and wouldn’t matter?

In researching and writing the book ‘ish: The Problem with our Pursuit for Perfection and the Life-Changing Practice of Good Enough’, it's clear the problem with overworking is worse than ever.

We might work with someone who :

- Doesn’t let go

- Still has to finish ... something

- Keeps missing deadlines

- Needs to do more research, check more data.

Our workplaces must address this pursuit of perfection. It doesn't just apply at home or in the community. It’s rife in the workplace and often ignored, expected or justified.

So look at what you’re working on. Do you know what standard you’re going for or are you just continuing to 'go for perfect'?

If you stop, you will see that’s it’s likely already done well enough. Where could you ease off and people wouldn’t even notice? (This is not about neglecting standards where they're required. Settle down.)

It’s about the dramatic rise in the pursuit of perfection across age groups, sectors, cultures and countries. Notice it in yourself, your team, and keep an eye out for friends, family and the wider community.

Perfectionism is hurting us ... and we don't have to let it.

Could the discovery experience of travel, work at work

The promises and rewards of travel are many : exploration, discovery, insight, learning, life-changing experiences. We are invited to show up, not knowing much about a country or culture, encouraged to tour, learn, listen, sample, test and experience.

Could more leaders in more businesses encourage the joys of discovery at work, like travel does for us?

Are there fears that all that discovering will take/waste a lot of time?

That it won’t really deliver any benefits?

Or that it isn’t needed: at work we just do what we do, same as yesterday, last week or last year.

Newer ways of thinking and working include doing things like deliberate discovery. It’s invited, welcomed and expected. I’m not suggesting it switches to all, full-on discovery, 100% of the time. It’s not an all or nothing thing.

It’s about some. Allowing some time for discovery. Some budget. Some opportunity. Some guidance or coaching so that your team knows how to discover, explore and unearth.

Otherwise, one day you’ll wonder where all the good people went to, why they left. They’ll go where there are opportunities for a better ‘adventure’.

Working out what we think

As we cycle around something, a situation, an idea, a problem, a possible solution, we're usually trying to work out our relationship with it, to it. We're working out what we think, what we know and what we should or could do ... if anything. We exchange information with others. We try to advance the conversation.

Our opinions may not be fully formed. Our ideas may initially be hunches or hopes.

When we're in dull meetings, that perhaps should be exploring our relationship and connection to information, rather end up being status plays and waffle-fests with little if any structure to guide us through this exploration and sensemaking.

'Busy' leaders with time pressures don’t engage in or lead sensemaking activities often enough. But they pay the price later when team members are disengaged, disconnected, disinterested.

Spending some time deliberately making sense of ideas and information is engaging, exploring, discovering. It’s not time wasting but insight gathering for more swift and impactful decisions later.

Sensemaking is a super skill for today and most definitely a skill that lends itself to the uncertain future. 

The waste of misdirected effort

Imagine working on a task or project and later finding that much of what you’ve done isn’t needed, that you'd kept heading down a path that wasn't necessary.

I noticed a colleague working on a project recently, spending hours and days preparing and producing some work and ... it’s not needed. It was never needed. They estimated they'd spent a week of time, at a minimum - all of it not needed.

Time could have been better directed towards more valuable activities.

We make many decisions every day about what we’re doing; I doubt we’re truly thinking about what’s the best use of our time. We get caught up in activities and tasks that we spend way too much time on - disproportionate to their value or their return to us or others.

The 'sunk cost fallacy' drags us in and we don’t want to turn around and head back out because we wrongly believe we need to stay the course and keep on down this path. But we don’t have to.

It’s never too late to call time on something that’s not right or not valuable or not worth it. No matter how far you’re along the 'wrong' path.

Be willing to call ‘stop’ or ‘time’ or say ‘hang on a moment; can we pause here?’ and then shift to the more valuable path.