Written by Aodan Enright on 27 March 2012
Every now and again, you encounter something that helps you clarify your thoughts.
Today, I was fortunate to listen to a piece of audio that helped me clarify a problem that I’ve seen develop for some of my clients, people in my broader network, and at times, myself.
The clarity has emerged around the question of who is the real ‘you’? Is it the person at work or the person at home? Are they the one and the same or are there different personalities in play?
This isn’t a study in schizophrenia. This is an examination of the tendency of people to compartmentalise their life into “work”, “home”, “personal” and other boxes.
This notion can be alluring. You can take on the required persona in your work domain and then be a nicer/kinder/stricter/whatever person outside of work. You can work in wildly different circumstances and behave accordingly.
This audio is part of a series from Paul O’Mahony (@omaniblog) exploring areas of confusion about his business. Paul’s work is unique but his challenges are common to many of us.
Paul makes reference to Twitter. Social media platforms have become so important to so many people in business. And it’s here that the question of the authentic self comes into sharpest focus.
The fantasy of compartmentalisation falls apart when the personal brand is embedded in the business brand. This is a rather fancy way of saying that when you’re selling yourself as well as the business products/services, then you’ve got to accept that you’re visible on the stage.
So many people believe they can separate their personal and business accounts on Twitter, Facebook etc. It ends up being something of a mess. People aren’t as stupid as we might sometimes like to think. If they’re interested in you and/or your products and services, they’ll have a good look at you online. And Google doesn’t care about the delineations within your own head.
Twitter is Twitter. Facebook is Facebook. Platforms like these can be a useful part of your marketing mix but unless you’re selling apps or downloads with one or two clicks, then they are not your business.
Here’s my take:
If you’re in, be all in. Don’t try to bullshit yourself or others. You are what you are, you are what you do. Rather than wasting time trying to portray a version of yourself that you think you should be portraying or that you think others expect of someone like you, get busy doing the stuff that allows you sing with pride “This is what I do”.
(And thanks Paul for the clarity! Full disclosure: Paul has participated in previous Smarter Egg programmes and is active in the ‘community’ around the existing circles and groups.)
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Written by Aodan Enright on 13 March 2012
A one month old boy exploring his father's well-worn copy of Break From The Pack
When you begin to read a book, you really don’t know where it’s going to bring you.
When I first heard of Oren Harari’s ‘Break From The Pack’, I was interested. I liked the premise of the book – how to succeed in a copy-cat world. But I see new, interesting books every week and regularly take no action.
It was when I was working with Ron Immink and Yanky Fachler that I first had the opportunity to read it. The more I read, the more I liked. I downloaded the audio version and consumed it avidly in cars and trains.
As I began to realise that it had significant learning for more than just corporate executives, I started to analyse the ideas in some depth. I have a vivid memory of spending a late night in the UCD Smurfit Business School library summarising some of the key concepts and linking them to other books and ideas. (Coincidentally, that very library was once the chapel of Carysfort Teacher Training College where my mother would, presumably, have prayed for success in her studies).
Soon enough, I’m building a development programme around the concepts within the book. People found it stimulating and at times, inspirational. We adjusted the approach and evolved the programme. Next thing you know, I’m allowing a picture of me with the bloody book on my head to be used in public. It’s creating a stir.
It’s an unusual feeling when you become synonymous with a book you didn’t write. This began to make me a little uncomfortable. I started to compile a document of thoughts and learnings from working with the Smarter Eggs, with the intention of sharing it with the author, Oren Harari. Then, suddenly, I learned of his passing.
That changed things. Now, I was dealing with the man’s legacy. I wanted others to hear his ideas and to apply them for their benefit. But the sadness of his passing knocked me back a bit. And then, the book began to disappear from sale, available only intermittently. I began to consider ‘retiring’ the programme. And, eventually, I did.
Within days of that decision, I received an unusual request: to speak at a conference in St. Petersburg, Russia which was built around the launch of the Russian translation of the book. In the spirit of adventure, I agreed.
What Aodan Enright looks like in Russian & 'The Effect of Madonna'
It turns out that the concept of ‘breaking from the pack’ doesn’t have the same cultural resonance in Russia. The metaphor isn’t as powerful or descriptive. So, their chosen title is ‘The Effect of Madonna’, a reference to Oren’s use of Madonna as a role model for calculated reinvention.
The conference itself was an extraordinary experience for me. Aside from being treated like royalty by a wonderfully welcoming group of people, it opened my eyes to a different business culture, where collaboration was the norm, rather than the exception. People from across the business spectrum there were open and enthusiastic about the ideas in my talk, even if some weren’t really fans of Madonna!
St. Petersburg, Russia, June 6th 2011. (Note Russian translation of slide)
Oren Harari highlights Madonna as someone who has consistently reinvented herself, moving herself into new trends, niches and markets early in their evolution, and often doing so while her previous incarnation was still profitable. In that regard, she’s a worthy role model for business.
Some of the lessons from Oren’s interpretation of Madonna’s story are challenging, and often seem counter-intuitive or inappropriate. But, I’ve yet to work with someone who didn’t find value from these challenges, reproduced in the slide deck below.
If I thought then that the Russian conference marked the end of my journey with Break From The Pack, time would prove me wrong. I have reinvented the original programme and am now running it again. The programme is different, but the inspiration from Oren’s book is still as strong as ever.
Other books have delighted me, moved me, or inspired me. But few have launched me down such a weird and wonderful road as Oren Harari’s Break From The Pack.
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* Roger Overall shares his thoughts on Break From The Pack from our Book That Inspired Me series.
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Written by Aodan Enright on 05 March 2012
Happiness is....
I’ve been working a lot recently with the concept of effectiveness and especially on ways of focusing or prioritising our efforts.
Looking again at the morning ritual of asking a clarifying question, it’s interesting to see what changes when you adjust the focus more on to the concept of happiness.
What would be different if you finished this sentence:
I’m likely to be happier at the end of the day if…
Both questions are looking ahead to the end of the day. Both are trying to identify some form of ideal state. So, should the answers be the same, or at least similar?
Some people have no clear association with the concept of happiness and their work. Work is work. It’s there to be done. Happiness is a different gig.
A lot of self-employed people tend to think they’re happier because they don’t have the obligations of a ‘job’. They work at what they want to do and therefore expect to be happier. (My observation of self-employed people is that they absolutely have a job but many haven’t realised it yet. And they’re not necessarily happier either.)
And how is the concept of happiness relevant for someone who works in the corporate world, doing the best they can five days a week? Do they start the day by having a conversation with their boss about their happiness?
And yet, research suggests that happy workers are more productive workers. Misery, angst and sorrow may be great sources of art, poetry and song but rarely help the daily worker get things done.
Are happiness and effectiveness interconnected then? Is it feasible to develop this Effectiveness Project without also exploring the impact of happiness? Can you have one without the other?
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Written by Aodan Enright on 01 March 2012
You know that sensation you feel that stops you from what you’re doing and entices you to check your email, or your social media feeds, or whatever has a call on you? Todd Henry calls it ‘the ping’.
Todd’s definition of the ping has been really useful for me. When he described it as a philosophy, it struck a chord: “Something out there is more important than whatever is right here”.
People say that if you call out and name a problem, you begin to weaken its hold on you. I think by recognising this impulse and actually labeling it, you’re in a much better position to get on top of it.
Hello Ping, we see who you are now, and soon, we’ll have you on the run!
It’s getting more difficult though. The connectivity revolution has meant that we can access pretty much anything in the world at any time from an electronic device that sits on our lap or in our hand. As we are fortunate to live in a truly wonderful world, it makes perfect sense that at any time, there’s something going on ‘out there’ that’s as least as interesting as we’ve got going on here, with the possible exception of when we are talking about ourselves!
Research is now revealing that the lure of email, social media etc. is as, if not more, addictive as the kind of drugs that have ruined lives for centuries. Why wouldn’t we be attracted to the unlimited excitement and fascination that awaits us in the big bad (online) world?
This is a problem, and one we need to tackle. Fast.
Back to Todd’s definition: he doesn’t use the word interesting or fascinating or entertaining. He uses the word important. And that’s good news. I’m not sure we can compete and win on grounds of fascination or entertainment but we can certainly decide for ourselves what’s more important. And this means we can own this problem, and take responsibility for it.
I’ve battled with the ping for a few years. I find some days I have him under control, other days I find him over-powering. But here’s something that I find works well for me. I’m going to call it ‘The Pause’. (why not name it and capitalize it, makes it seem very authoritative. Thanks Julien Smith, and others!)
I’ve noticed that when the ping hits and we stop what we’re doing to explore something else, it’s rarely a one-step process. Let me explain that by reminding you of your days of studying in a library. One minute you’re reading your book or scribbling on a page, then something distracts you, you look up and the spell is broken. It’s a one-step thing. You’re working, you look up, now you’re not working.
With electronic devices it tends to be a two or three step process. You stop what you’re doing, you click on something new, you wait for it to launch, then you’re off on another path. Sometimes you have to complete another step, press another button, enter a password etc. This is actually great because it creates some space for The Pause. And what is The Pause? It’s that moment when you realise when you’ve been pinged and you hold back before you commit to the distracting activity.
At first, it can be difficult to always do the right thing when you notice The Pause. You’ll probably find you’ll proceed to checking your email or Twitter or the news or whatever it is. But over time, you’ll begin to notice that you always have a Pause. And some of the time, you can actually back away from what you were going to do and go back to your work. The more you do this, the more strength you will build (some call this discipline or willpower) and you will be more likely to feel The Pause and then go back to work.
Environment matters a lot too. The more distractions that are within eyeshot, the worse the ping will be. All forms of reminders or alerts, apart from those which signal an appointment, are bad news. They are the highest form of the ping. As far as I know, it’s possible to disable all of these alerts. If they’re pinging you, get rid of them.
I’m learning a lot by working with a couple of our Smarter Egg circles on this topic. This stuff sounds so easy but it trips most of us up, most of the time.
(Image credit to Claudia Regina via Flickr)
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Written by Aodan Enright on 17 February 2012
A month ago I gave myself the challenge of developing a daily writing habit. The ‘experiment’ is now over and here’s what happened.
- I did well. I wrote on all bar two of the weekdays in that time period. One day I didn’t work at all, the other day I was in reactive mode for the full day and it just didn’t happen. I think those misses are ok.
- On two days I wrote but didn’t publish. Two factors here: getting into a topic that seemed to grow in front of my eyes and I couldn’t finish it in the time I had, and my feeling that what I had written just wasn’t good enough for publishing.
- I didn’t always write first thing in the morning. I did that a lot in the first week or two but found myself getting looser on when I would write.
- I found that I enjoyed it. Sometimes I would experience real frustration as I searched for a way to expand or wrap up a particular point but most of the time, it was a pleasure to write.
- I found that I became more confident in my ability to express myself and to relate some of the ideas behind the work I do. We’re talking single digit percentages here but still, I could feel it.
There’s something big in that last point. Writing seems to help me clarify my thinking. When my thinking is clearer, I tend to express myself with more confidence and, obviously, clarity.
Of all the reasons to encourage me to continue with regular blogging, this is the one that appeals to me most.
And here’s a bunch of random things that may be of interest:
- The number of visitors to the website increased. Yes, there were more good reasons to visit. My readership is quite modest compared to some of the high-profile writers but still, more people stopped by.
- I used Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ to share links to the posts. Twitter’s the easiest to use and tends to generate some conversation. LinkedIn seems to be effective in driving traffic. It appears to me that my LinkedIn connections are more likely to be interested in my writing than my Twitter followers. Google+ is the nicest platform to use but I only have a small number of connections there as yet.
- I tend to include an image with the blog post. I don’t have the science behind this but it just looks better to me. But finding images can be a pain in the ass. And I’m probably breaking rules when I find them through Google image search. I even used some of my own.
- Some days I wasn’t really bothered if anyone responded or commented. I felt like it was a nice piece of work and I had achieved what I wanted to achieve. Other days, I was hoping for some interaction. It didn’t always come.
- There’s definitely a ‘pressure’ to perform when you set the expectation to do so on a daily basis. This can lead to an increased level of satisfaction when you get something good published early in the day but it can be an unwelcome additional headache as the day goes on.
- I was surprised how easily some of the ideas came. Often, they would pop into my head the day before and I would kick it around before writing about it. Some days, I just opened up the laptop and wrote about what was on my mind. This suggests there’s a lot more good stuff waiting to be shared.
So, what next? For a variety of good reasons, I’ll continue to blog in a purposeful way. I think I’ll be able to manage three posts a week. Whether I need to stick to a first thing in the morning routine remains to be seen. Practically, I can’t do that every day even if I wanted to.
One element of the original challenge was to ‘tame the ping’. I was only partially successful in doing that. I developed the writing habit but it didn’t really tame the ping. I’m playing with two ideas on that: only engaging with social media etc. while I’m eating (I eat more than I realised!) and keeping a countdown timer that limits me to 30 minutes over the full day. We’ll see how that goes.
Onwards and upwards then. The challenge has given me the taste for it. I can see the benefits. So, am I allowed to call myself a blogger now?
Posted in The Effectiveness Project | 2 Comments »
Written by Aodan Enright on 10 February 2012
I’m continuing to build up ideas for suitable practices and rituals to get the working day off to a great start. I’ve found useful habits for keeping the momentum going and for prioritising.
Now, I’m changing gears a bit, slowing it down and getting into a more reflective mood.
I’ve never been much of a ‘touchy-feely’ person. I’ve tended to just get on with stuff and deal with whatever came up. I found that I developed some touchy-feely muscles when qualifying as an executive coach. I had to get comfortable supporting someone when they moved into an introspective, reflective space.
I’m no longer ‘weirded out’ by it but I guess I still have my limits!
So, here’s something that I tried a couple of years ago at a time when I was struggling a little to build momentum behind my work and business. I’m not sure where I got the idea or the inspiration from but I developed a list of ‘reflections’ with which to start the day. I printed them out on a page and kept it near my desk so I spent a few minutes looking at them and thinking about them before whirring into action.
Here is what was on that page:
Sense of urgency
My time is not infinite
Today will never come again
Now is the time to act
I am at my best when I move with purpose
Clarity of purpose
Why am I doing what I’m doing?
What are my highest priorities?
What do I need to do today?
Self-belief & confidence
I believe in my own capabilities and skills
I am an accomplished, confident and assured professional
Whatever it is, I can handle it
Focus on achievement
It feels great when I accomplish something!
What am I going to achieve today?
What am I going to achieve this week?
Fun and enjoyment
It’s great to be able to choose what I do!
How can I have fun doing what I do today?
It’s interesting looking back on that now. Some of the things that were important to me then are no longer so. I can see a clear development in my confidence and clarity about what I’m doing. And I’m immediately curious as to what might be on my list now should I try to develop another one. And I guess in the spirit of the Effectiveness Project, I probably should!
If you had a list like this, what would you have on it?
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Written by Aodan Enright on 09 February 2012
I tend to operate by spinning many plates at once. I’m not the kind of person who has one single focus and spends all of their time immersed in that. Given that I am actively managing and growing a business and working hard to delight multiple clients, it’s inevitable that I have a number of projects ongoing at any one time.
Sometimes, it can be hard to keep them all going. A setback in one can derail another. But here’s something that I’ve found to be very useful as a daily practice, whether it’s done at the start of the working day or at the end, with a view to teeing up the work for the following day.
Identify the next tangible action for each significant project and do what you have to do to get that done.
This is a powerful ritual on two fronts. First, it ensures that I’m making progress on my most important projects every day. It generates a real sense of momentum. Momentum generates more energy and more self-belief. Secondly, it forces me to think, at least daily, about what the next physical action is for those key projects. Sometimes we can get bogged down when we’re not clear on what the next step is, and most of the time that’s a function of our avoidance of hard questions and/or clear thinking.
A quick note: I use this for my ‘significant’ projects. Everyone will have their own definition of this. At present, I have five. All of those involve serving fee-paying clients. At times, I might have one or two less, or maybe a couple more. But once you go beyond that number, I think your focus will suffer. As it happens, per the GTD definition, I have approximately fifty projects defined. But it doesn’t bother me if some of these are left untouched for several days.
Daily progress on my most significant projects, with clarity of thought and purpose. Any ritual that produces that is worth the effort.
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Written by Aodan Enright on 08 February 2012
My immediate focus for my Effectiveness Project is to develop practices and rituals that make a real, positive difference to my work.
I’ve tried a bunch of different things over the years for starting the working day the right way. I’m going to revisit many of these in the next few days and will share them here.
This may be the simplest thing you can do: ask yourself the question,’if I could only achieve one thing today, what is it that would give me the greatest satisfaction at the end of the day?’
If you can find an answer to that question, the obvious thing to do is to start working on it right away. Make it the very first thing on which you take action.
And be smart about it. This isn’t a ‘world hunger’ question. This refers to specific tasks, projects or problems that are occupying your mind or are standing in the way of greater progress.
Funnily enough, it’s not always easy to find an immediate answer to this question. And maybe that’s why the question is so powerful. It forces us to check in on what our real priorities are.
Posted in Personal Productivity, The Effectiveness Project | 1 Comment »
Written by Aodan Enright on 07 February 2012
Mathematical equations are a wonderful thing. They are elegant and help us explain relationships in the physical world.
So, I was fascinated to read of Chip Conley’s new book ‘Emotional Equations‘. I had heard about it recently but was captivated yesterday by Bob Sutton’s review of it. It’s on my list of books I want to read now. This list is longer than it’s ever been!
It also got me thinking about the application of equations to the area of effectiveness and especially if there is, at the elemental level, an effectiveness equation. I think there is. And I think it’s the relationship between our desired outcome and what we actually achieve.
One thing still grates with me. I’ve written before about how it makes no sense to have effectiveness greater than 100%. This equation seems to suggest it’s possible to ‘over achieve’.
Just goes to show how difficult it is to whittle down our complex world into self-standing equations.
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Written by Aodan Enright on 06 February 2012
I believe knowing what to do is as important as knowing how to do it when it comes to effectiveness.
David Allen, of GTD fame, often uses the image of the martial artist when speaking of the ideal state of mind and of preparation for tackling the world of work. I’ve never practiced any form of martial arts (although I do have a black belt in Lean Six Sigma – how wonderfully geeky of me!) but yet I get exactly what he’s talking about.
It’s about knowing what moves make sense in response to a particular challenge and it’s about having the presence of mind to respond appropriately.
For example, today I have a number of meetings arranged and got a late message this morning asking for one to be deferred. On another day, I might have been pissed off about this and focused on the likely waste of time that the postponement had caused. I may even have jumped onto Twitter and asked if anyone was up for a cuppa.
But, today, I was fine with it. That’s because I am clear on exactly what I need to be doing for the next few days work-wise and I had all the necessary tools with me (phone, laptop, notes, book etc.). It was just a fast, seamless change of focus and no real loss of time or energy.
So next time a change of plan causes you to have either a negative reaction or derails your productivity, stop and think about it. It probably means that you have work to do on figuring out what is the best use of your time and ensuring that you have the capability to act on it at a moment’s notice.
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