Design Thinking is a fresh way to look at innovation. It’s about creating the opportunity for something really new that meets the needs of the end user in a desirable way. Design Thinking involves analytical thinking AND intuitive thinking – it requires both logic and creativity. Are you looking for a way to delight your clients and customers? Are you interested in creating new and exciting products and services in your market? Cindy Stradling of Athena Training and Consulting interviewed me about Design Thinking on her BlogTalk radio show – check it out here: http://bit.ly/JmEWZ7
Why you should care about Design Thinking – Athena Alliance Radio Interview
File under: Creativity,Management,Mind Mapping,Uncategorized — Comments (0)
Find Your Voice Workshop
June 13th, Verity Club, 6 – 9 pm. I’m looking forward to this workshop, led by my friend Stephen Shedletzky. This workshop is designed to inspire participants to share personal stories so that you can build confidence and your public speaking skills. Attract the people you want to work with and connect with through the use of engaging and meaningful stories. Full details and to register: http://findyourvoice-inspiraction.eventbrite.com/
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Accountability Buddies – How to Make it Work
What is an accountability buddy system or partnership? Working with someone else to stay on track with completing tasks that move each of you toward your goals. Tell your partner what you intend to do and by when, then report back if you did it. You can add more to it if you want, such as asking your buddy to encourage you or enforce consequences if you don’t complete your actions. You can be in touch daily, weekly or some other time-frame.
As I’m an independent consultant, I often spend time with others who have their own businesses or work independently. For a while now, I’ve heard people around me talk about “accountability partnerships” but until recently I’ve resisted. Here’s why:
- Priorities change – if I said yesterday I was going to do something, then get an important call from a client, the other action can go out the window
- I don’t like being told what to do and this feels a bit like reporting to a manager
- I like to keep things simple – the fewer emails I have to send or calls I have to make, the better
Despite all of that, I have realized that having an accountability buddy can work for me. When I’m working on a client project, the deadline keeps me focused. However, I have some tasks that I’ve set for myself, that don’t have deadlines (and just writing a date on it doesn’t help). Here’s why I like having a buddy:
- Choosing a task to tell my buddy I’ll commit to helps me to focus on what’s important
- Knowing I’ll have to report back to my buddy creates a deadline that feels real
- I get my tasks done (like writing this blog!)
How to set up your own accountability buddy system:
- Choose someone who wants to report back on the same time frame as you
- Agree to the format: will you email or call each other? When? What will you include? Keep it brief so it doesn’t become a burden!
- Agree to be flexible – you can drop tasks if there’s a real reason (not an excuse!) to do so
- Ask the other person what support they want or need from you, for example, encouragement, reminders, or consequences!
- Agree a timeframe to try it out
Once you’ve worked with your buddy for a while, notice and discuss what’s working and what isn’t, then agree to any changes if you decide to continue. I think many people can benefit from the focus and commitment that will lead to increased productivity.
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Let Your Unconscious Mind Do the Work!
Have you ever made a quick decision and then regretted it? Have you ever left a meeting and thought after of a great comment or insight that you could have shared?
When do you come up with your best ideas? Have you ever had a great idea when:
- You’re about to fall asleep
- Driving (and it’s relaxing!)
- Going for a run
- Chatting with a friend about an unrelated topic
- In the shower
Our unconscious minds need time to incubate to respond to challenges and opportunities and to make good decisions. David Allen (of “Getting Things Done” fame) wrote in his newsletter about two psychologists in Amsterdam (Dijksterhuis and Nordgren, 2006) who published research that indicated decisions made after the unconscious has had time to process the inputs are always better. I also wrote in an earlier blog entry about how going for a walk is part of my creative process.
Here’s how to let your unconscious mind do the work:
- Present, read or discuss information relating to the situation.
- Brainstorm either alone or in a group. Get your ideas flowing. What ideas may be useful? DON’T ask for a decision or agreement to a solution.
- Take a break. Do something completely unrelated to the topic at hand, particularly any activity that will help you relax. Don’t even TRY to think about the situation. However, if ideas come up, let it flow. Make notes of any solutions.
- Bring your ideas back to your client, team or office. You’ll probably find your ideas flow more easily and you are more confident in your decisions.
This is most useful when there’s an important decision to be made, or an opportunity or challenge to respond to. Decisions about what to have for dinner can probably still be made in the moment!
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How to Unlock the Power of Doing One Thing at a Time
Double Your Productivity
We’ve been hearing for a while now that multi-tasking doesn’t work. The good news is, if we focus doing one thing at a time, we can double our productivity.
Tony Schwartz says in his article The Magic of Doing One Thing at a Time that he gets “two to three times as much writing accomplished when I focus without interruption for a designated period of time.” Brian Tracy agrees. Referring to the concept of single-handling, he says: “You can actually double your productivity even if you do nothing else.”
What to Focus On?
Doing one thing at a time only works if we know we’ve chosen the right thing and feel that other things are under control. It requires being organized. It’s not possible to focus if our minds are chattering away about all of the other things we could or should be doing. To resist the feeling of wanting to switch to email, send a text or look up something on the web, we need to feel that our work, in general, is under control.
To be organized and feel my work is under control, I use David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” system. The first three steps involved in his system for mastering workflow are: collect, process and organize. Collecting is bringing together all of the things I might have to do, by looking in places such as email, written notes, calendar items and so on. Processing is figuring out what I need to do about each item. Organizing is putting everything in the right place (files, lists, project plans, calendar and so on). When I’ve done this, I can look at my lists and see what makes sense for me to do right now. I feel confident that I’ve made the right decision on what to do, by clearly defining and organizing my other work before I start.
How to Start
Make a list – what are all the things that you could or should be doing, right now? What are your key projects? What do your clients or colleagues need from you right now?
Look at your calendar – what’s coming up in the next week or the next month that you need to plan for? Add your actions to your growing list!
Pick a task and do only that – Now that you can see all of your tasks in one place, pick one and work on it. Avoid all distractions – turn off new email notifiers and put your smartphone out of sight!
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