Where did my cheese go?!?!

Yes, someone, somewhere is moving your cheese.

Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson, M.D. is one of my top three favorite business books – the other two being The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Make the Noise Go Away by Larry Lucas.  It is a lesson in change told as a story about characters in a maze – Sniff & Scurry (two mice) and Hem & Haw (two mice-sized humans) and how they each deal with the change created by their pile of cheese disappearing.  The mice never stop looking for cheese because they know it won’t last forever and that does not scare them.  They act instinctively, not thinking about the past or worries for the future, just focusing on the goal of finding more cheese.  Hem & Haw are too complacent and scared of the unknown that they make themselves believe their pile of cheese will last forever and don’t’ look until it’s gone and too late.  Then they spend most of their energy focused on what they lost instead of finding new cheese.

I have three takeaways from this book:

LESSON 1: Stop thinking too much about your cheese and start chasing it; or, don’t make stuff so complicated.

LESSON 2: Even the biggest cheese doesn’t last forever, so try to see change coming; or, don’t be complacent.

LESSON 3: Don’t worry, there’s always new cheese to be found; or, don’t let fear paralyze you.

At the end of the book, Sniff, Scurry and Haw are doing pretty good, and the reader is left hopeful that Hem will eventually read “the writing on the wall”.  So don’t fret, you’ll find new cheese soon!

“The secret of change is to focus all your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” – Socrates

“Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.” – Confucius

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The Power of "Because"

Never underestimate the power of “because.”  And, I don’t mean the typical parent answer, “because I said so!”

When my daughter, Noa, was little, she used to drive me crazy asking me one question….”Why?”  Why do you need to go to work, daddy?  Why do we have eyes?  Why do you have no hair?  Why are trees green?  Why do we sleep at night?  Why?  Why?  Why?  And the most dreaded, “but why?”  Which was the question she kept asking after every answer I would give her until I started answering “just because” until one of us got tired of it and walked away (usually me).

A classic study conducted by a Harvard psychology professor revealed that people were 33% more likely to let someone use a copier before them when they gave a reason for the request.  Shockingly, the power of because held strong even when the reason was redundant: “May I use the Xerox because I have to make copies?”

The takeaway is obvious: people are far more likely to understand, empathize and agree with you when you explain the reasons behind your actions.  In fact, next to using the word “you” and answering the question “what’s in it for me?” for the other person, “because” followed by an explanation (even a lame one) is the second most persuasive word in the English language.

Giving the reasons why also help create connection.  I realized after a few years that Noa’s unending asking of why was not for the sole purpose of learning about the world (or even just to drive me crazy).  It was her way of creating a connection with me.  Just like at home, strong connections are critical in the business world.  They tilt business in our favor, create understanding and help us be civil to each other when we are under excessive stress.

Things To Do: When you are communicating with someone else, take a minute to give them a reason why.  Be brief and be honest with your reasons – the gift of context makes everyone’s day easier and less stressful.  If you’re a subordinate, explaining why is the most respectful way to decline a request or offer an alternative course of action.  If you’re a leader, explaining why reveals you’re not just a dictator, issuing commands and saying “no” arbitrarily.

“He who has a WHY, can endure any HOW.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

 “People don't buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe. ” 
― Simon Sinek

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Time Bandits

On March 10th clocks roll forward an hour for Daylight Savings.  We lose an hour.  (Damn, where did I put that hour?!?!  Daylight Savings stole an hour from me!  Well, didn’t your mother tell you not to leave an hour lying around in plain sight where anyone can grab it?!?!).

Now, Daylight Savings didn’t really steal anything from us.  When you wake up Sunday, you didn’t lose anything; there are still 24 hours in each day.  But there are real time bandits in our day.  According to Edward Brown in his book The Time Bandit Solution, he states that interruptions waste 40% to 60% of employee’s work time.  And they result in restarts, momentum loss, do-overs and what he calls “distress manifestations” such as irritability, mental fatigue and stress. 

Today’s workplace often has an “interruption” culture.  Everyone thinks it’s acceptable to interrupt your work without thought.  And, interruptions are so common and acceptable that some of us contract “interruption addiction” welcoming interruptions, needing them to get through the day, making us our own worst time bandit.  We often put others interests above our own deadlines and workloads.  We answer emails and text messages instantaneously.  We think our time belongs to everyone else at work.  Even though for some positions this actually might be true, there is still things we all can do to guard our time from time bandits!

1.      “Time-Lock” an hour a day.  Block one hour a day marked as “busy” on your calendar.  Pick a time that is your most productive time of the day (e.g., if you are a morning person, do it in the morning).  Discuss the time with the people you work most closely with – supervisor, peers, direct reports, etc – to make sure it works well for them as well and to ask them to respect your time lock, only interrupting you in an emergency.  Remove anything that you know will distract you (and make you your own time bandit) like cell phones, music, email, etc.  Then, use your time lock wisely – plan the work ahead of time, then work the plan. 

2.      Set up “Batch Processing.”  Batch-processing is an old computer term where you group similar repetitive task.  By doing this we can save time, develop work momentum, and get things done.  Look at what you have to get done today.  Group similar tasks together.  Then, get all those tasks done before moving on to the next group.  This is also called “single-tasking”.  By keep our brain focused on the same or similar tasks instead of jumping around, we become our own assembly line.

“The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot." ― Michael Altshuler

 “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst." ― William Penn

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