October 2005 Leadership eNotes Articles

A U.K. psychiatrist conducted 80 clinical trials, monitoring the IQ of workers throughout the day.

What he found is shocking: His subjects’ IQ dropped 10 points when they tried to juggle messages and work.

The study, conducted by Glenn Wilson, Ph.D., at King’s College London University, was the latest in a series that shows how difficult it can be for workers to "turn off" electronic messages that distract and derail them.

Another survey, conducted online, showed this to be a worldwide problem. It captured the opinions of 38,000 people from 200 countries. The conclusion: Lack of productivity is at epidemic proportions.

Workers in the Microsoft Office Personal Productivity Challenge said they only have three productive days in a 45-hour week. U.S. workers cited procrastination as the biggest issue.

TEC speaker Guido Groeschel is no stranger to workflow pain. The founding partner of Sherpa Performance Guides witnesses it every day, and helps executives and their support staff climb their way out of it.

Among the tell-tale signs of what Sherpa calls workflow pain:

Feeling stressed and overwhelmed
Working hard but feeling like you’re falling short
Unclear progress on initiatives and projects
Action items falling through the cracks
Action items not delegated (for fear of losing visibility)
Using your email inbox as a ‘To Do’ list
Offices cluttered with papers
Post-It Note abuse

Any of this sound familiar? Too close for comfort?

Here, Groeschel details the steps to take if we hope to survive an avalanche of 23,000 e-mails (the average a knowledge worker fields every year)—among other electronic intrusions.

Remember: Buried in that disaster is vital material: Half the critical information that worker needs to do the job is housed within his or her e-mail system.

What’s a Harried Executive to Do?

"Take lessons from the world of high-altitude mountaineering where one must consistently demonstrate maximum performance in the most extreme conditions, where the risk is high and margin of error low," says Groeschel.

"At Sherpa we actively integrate climbing lessons and practices into our careful hands-on approach to executive performance."

Fundamental to the Sherpa approach is helping clients build a workflow system to turn workflow pain into workflow mastery.

Groeschel guides executives to put in practice a methodology so they can make decisions more effectively and efficiently in two key areas:

1. Clearing Your Inboxes: Dig out of the avalanche of information that fills your inboxes.

2. Performing in the Storm: Answer the knowledge worker question: What should I do now?

Clear Your Inboxes

The first step as you start the ascent to workflow mastery involves clearing your inboxes, which come in many forms: e-mail, voice mail and physical (the one that holds memos, snail mail, etc.).

Clearing them opens your work world to great possibilities of completed work. Groeschel recommends starting with the "inbox between your ears."

Externalize: Clear your "mental" inbox. What "to do’s" are you carrying around in your head? Commit them to writing by putting them on either your "task" or "project" list. Uncluttered minds can focus better.
Create a "front-end filter" that reduces the constant flow. This requires establishing a protective mindset. Do you really want to accept every piece of information that comes your way? Beware what you let into your world, because each item you let in takes time and energy to manage. Learn to love your "delete" key. Make sure your junk mail filter is working well.
Transform inbox items into "stakes in the snow." As mountain climbers, Sherpa’s principals often equate workplace challenges to those you might find on high-adventure trips. "Stakes in the snow" are actionable items—the tasks and projects that you will want to come back to as you find your way through the workweek.

Refuse to use your e-mail inbox as a "To Do" list. Set aside time to make decisions on all those extraneous emails, to schedule tasks and calendar items. Create folders in Microsoft Outlook that allow you to assign emails appropriately. Use the "task" and "project" functions.

Ultimately, your goal is to reduce the visual volume that you face so that you can make better decisions about what to do. Groeschel calls this principle "visual volume reduction" and has found that it is key for executives to get where they want, when they want, and how they want.

Perform in the Storm

"A typical knowledge worker has to deal with plenty of unplanned work. After getting through a storm, he or she has to tackle the planned work, which is on a task list or calendar," observes Groeschel. "The key question becomes, ‘What should I do now?’"

It’s a struggle to stay focused.

Avoid the "tyranny of the inbox." Don’t be lured into the e-mail lair, where what you choose to do next is influenced by the last few people who have e-mailed you, instead of your own goals and priorities. This will inevitably cause you to get off track and become even more unfocused.
Turn to your calendar and task list as "home base." Use this as your North Star for staying on track. Actively Prioritize your activities this way.
Calendar a time to return to your email inbox. Confine your e-mail reading, responding and further task scheduling to this time.

Conduct a ‘Beta Session’

"Knowledge workers are, by nature, ambitious. They thrive on over-committing," says Groeschel. "But you can’t move ahead with 72 projects at once."

A one-hour "beta session" each week helps balance the load.

In the mountaineering world a beta session is a tool that expeditions use to stay on track and reach the peak. "We’ve taken this idea and applied it to executives. The intent is to step back from the minute-to-minute, day-to-day work fray and look at the bigger picture," says Groeschel.

Check your project list. Make sure you’re moving your important projects ahead. Defer projects that you don’t plan to take any action on in the next seven to 10 days.
Check your task list. Are you taking on too much? Balance your load by deferring tasks that you don’t need to take action on in the next seven to 10 days.
Make intentions. Move important tasks to open slots in your calendar to get them done. Research has shown that people are over two times more likely to take action when they designate a time and place to do it.

"By making intentions and balancing your load of project, task, and calendar stakes, you can reach the peak," promises Groeschel.

Just as important, you are less likely to lose your grip and fall down the workload mountain, buried under the avalanche of e-mails, meetings, and other commitments.