My last post hits a chord far and wide. I received reactions from across the USA, from London and from Melbourne. OK, that’s also connected to my gypsy past, but I’m happy to see the responses.
So what can you actually do to make sure you get time to think?
Here are a few tactics that clients and colleague have used with success.
1. Book a meeting with a phantom colleague. My client was one of those people with an over developed sense of responsibility to everyone but herself. So naturally she’d never let time scheduled for herself, even if it was for strategic work, keep her from the open door policy her staff were used to. It was great for her team, but not for her if she was to step up to the next level of her business responsibility. Quite simply, we began doubling the length of our 1-1 coaching sessions, and when she would arrive the commitment was for her to work on strategic issues only until I arrived. No one would call her during these meetings and I would arrive after the first hour to debrief the time she finally had to think. (And no, I did not charge her for the hour she spent by herself; it was booked on her calendar, not mine.)
2. Find a sounding board. Set the agenda to think strategically with a colleague who is a good sounding board. This is ideal for you extroverts who have to brainstorm out loud. My clients who engage me for this like the way I probe the if-then implications of their ideas, explore the assumptions behind their thinking, ask how competitors and colleagues competing for same resources might look at the situation, or just push them to envision future scenarios where their strategies are/are not taking hold.
3. Anticipate and schedule for the unexpected. Stuff happens no matter how you plan for it. So plan for the unexpected that changes your schedule at the last moment. Manage to a achieve a percentage of the time you set aside for yourself, such as scheduling 4 one-hour planning sessions a month with a commitment to realize 50% of these. If you have to cancel the first two, you’d better have a good reason allow the others to cancel without rescheduling. This tactic is good for those of you who are driven by metrics and batting averages.
4. Embrace an R&D metric as your metaphor. Companies that don’t put any resources into creating their future (i.e., R&D), sooner or later cease to have one. Why should you be exempt from that same logic? Even the Federal Government plans to invest 3% in R&D, and more is warranted if your business condition and customer base is changing. Be conservative and adopt a 2 percent threshold; choose to focus on strategically important issues as your most important priority for 1 of the 50 hours a week you work (and if your are reading this, you probably spend at least 50 hours a week focused on your business/profession).
5. Park the urgent issues for one hour. Following David Allen’s Getting Things Done approach, get all of those non-strategic issues out of your head. List them, park them, acknowledge them as urgent, but let them wait one hour. Don’t let them fill up your core thinking space when you want to think big.
6. Think BIG. Remember this isn’t a trip to the dentist we are planning, its your future. See this time as an opportunity to unleash your creative mind and your passion. Ask BIG ‘what if’ questions. Instead of just asking what’s missing today, ask “In what type of world would every customer be lining up for this product?” Ask yourself, “What would clients say of my product or service if they were giving it an Emmy Award?” To paraphrase Gary Hamel, really big questions can stir the soul. And when the hour is over we can each go back to our crazy overworked lives. But what do you want to be dreaming about at the end of the day?
I’ve seen different clients and colleagues use each of these approaches. The key is to find the tactic that works best for you and when one ceases to work, find another.
What tactics have helped you ensure you get time to think strategically?
BestCustomerConnection, by Marc Sokol
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