I'm continuing to think about ways to track saved time. I'm still generating ideas. This is a list that I occasionally return to. Sometimes I add things, sometimes I don't.
Ways to track saved time or to address the issue:
Make a video of the old way and the new way.
Analyze time spent on projects leveraging the old way and the new way.
Survey team members regarding time savings using various methods.
Capture time savings from changed methods on a periodic (weekly, bi-weekly) basis during the course of the project.
Ignore the problem and use lower cost resources.
Ignore the problem and don't use lower cost resources.
Use project postmortems to discuss the effectiveness to determine the value.
The first habit is 'Be Proactive' which Stephen Covey defined as human being's ability to be self-aware and to choose values over feelings in how to address their response to a stimulus.
This is very good and very powerful. But how do you get better at it? Well, life offers you opportunities all the time, to be sure. But what if you could actually practice somewhere offstage?
Enter meditation - the mindful practices presended in Headspace (and I'm sure elsewhere) are exactly that. A great opportunity to observe your mind and practice being aware of your response to your environment.
Your business moves at the speed of your decisions. Can you make decisions quickly and enact change quickly?
What do you do that empowers decision making? Do your team members trust you to be level-headed and listen? Do they bring you information in the hopes of seeing decisions made?
When you push back do you do so fairly and with an explanation?
Or do your team members hide things? Do they fear bringing you information because of your reactions?
Does this negatively impact your business?
Who are your team members? Where does your team end and where does it begin?
What stops you from offering a word of praise to those you think did a good job?
I think that it is important to recognize those you work with - those below, along-side, and above you in the org. chart. That means everyone.
I occasionally have conversations with people because they feel like the thing I am recognizing is too small to warrant recognition. I disagree that wins and recognition should only be called out on big items, for the following reasons:
You need to exercise your recognition muscles and get in the habit of recognizing people. If you wait for the one big thing then you are likely to be out of the habit and practice, and you may not follow through on recognizing the win.
Recognizing individuals for small things that you value is important because there are plenty of things that need to get done this world that aren't glamorous. Recognizing people for these things is not wrong, when it matters. Very often this is about how it was done, not what the thing was. Did someone do it cheerfully? Easily? Did it make your day better? Did it make the whole machine work a little better? If the answer to one of those is 'Yes', then it mattered and is deserving of recognition.
Praising small things that are important isn't lowering your standards. Well, it isn't lowering my high standards anyway. I know what my standards are. I just outlined them above. What are yours? Is anything going to meet your standards?
The last item might sound a bit harsh. It probably is. The most important question I think you should ask yourself if you are out of the habit of recognizing others: Is it your standards or something else that is getting in the way?
What if the thing you once called inspiration was simply your mind distracting you from your real work and purpose?
What if real inspiration turns out to be something else entirely?
Well, perhaps not entirely. Consider, how a stream that flows into a river is now only part of the river. Similarly, the old inspiration is part of, but much smaller than, the new inspiration.
The two things can be so different as to not seem much alike at all.
Be glad, in the end, that you came to the river. Know that the river will lead you to other rivers, lakes, eventually the ocean. There are depths there, things which today you don't know, but may yet be revealed to you.
Jonathan Fries on .