Emerging Workforce and Workplace Trends Post COVID with Professor Gary Martin

“We need to think this through!” Workplaces have been changed by COVID, probably forever, but making those changes work long term will require more.

Professor Gary Martin and I discussed current and evolving issues for workplaces and their leaders as we recover from COVID.

Stay tuned for other exciting guests this July.

More than Words with Rachel Callander

This week we were joined by the amazing Rachel Callander wherein she went through some questions we can ask ourselves, our community, or our team to help us navigate communications as we head back to reconnecting and rebuilding relationships.

If you wish to contact Rachel or receive a copy of her workbook or tools around communication, you may visit her website at: rachelcallander.com.

And to watch our earlier sessions, you may check on the playlist here.


We have a fantastic line up of guests for the Wednesday webcast in June: 

June 3

Mark Butler - Mental health, Stress and Mindset. Mark has researched mental health in workplaces extensively in a 25-year career globally. We'll explore the line between personal and collective responsibility for robust mental health and resilience. 

June 10 

Grant "Axe" Rawlinson - A Kiwi based in Singapore and an adventurer that makes the stuff I have done look mild. He played international rugby and has over 50 expeditions across the globe under his belt including walking across countries, cycling across continents, climbing Mt Everest and crossing sea's completely by human-power. We'll talk decision-making, goals in uncertainty, mindset when all seems lost.

June 17

Shaun Nannup - Human being and Aboriginal Elder. Shaun connects people with powerful stories of belonging. Aboriginal people have culture dating back at least 60 000 years in Australia. Shaun and I will discuss connection, sustainability, and what's important when you are focussed on legacy beyond your lifetime.


June 24

Bonnie Davies - Founder, CEO and Creative Director for Gelo. Bonnie is all about “Unboring things”. Bonnie is constantly rewriting the playbook for creative, performance based businesses. She also creates and becomes Famous Sharron. We'll talk innovation, doing things differently, refusing to quit and ask why so much stuff is boring.

Come and Join us 2:00 PM Perth time on Wednesdays.


More from Mike

Subscribe to Mike’s weekly Unshakeable Newsletter here.

Join the weekly Don’t Panic - Surviving COVID19 webcast here.

Download a 1-page resource on the power of gratitude in Unshakeable teams here.

Buy a copy of Mike’s book “Thrive and Adapt” here, or sign in for a complimentary PDF copy

Contact Mike to discuss organisation wide Well-being and Resilience programs that create Unshakeable teams:

mike@mikehouse.com.au

+61 423 193 196

Human and Social Impacts with Suzanne Waldron

I had a wonderfully warm and generative conversation with  Suzanne Waldron. We discussed so many things including economics, contentment, striving and production, change, art, spirituality and more. There are sure to be some gems for you in there - enjoy!

To watch our earlier webcasts, you may click on the playlist here.

Next week…

More than Talk with Rachel Callander, Global speaker, Author and master communicator. Connection is key to humanity. Connecting/reconnecting with people, reversing isolation, communication with artful care.


More from Mike

Subscribe to Mike’s weekly Unshakeable Newsletter here.

Join the weekly Don’t Panic - Surviving COVID19 webcast here.

Download a 1-page resource on the power of gratitude in Unshakeable teams here.

Buy a copy of Mike’s book “Thrive and Adapt” here, or sign in for a complimentary PDF copy

Contact Mike to discuss organisation wide Well-being and Resilience programs that create Unshakeable teams:

mike@mikehouse.com.au

+61 423 193 196

Forecasting for Real with Michael Ford

Forecast is never about predicting, it's about preparing.

This week, Michael Ford joined us to talk about 'how a robust forecasting process is essential as we design pathways through and out of COVID'. 

The discussion touched on:

  • Forecasting

  • Growth

  • Budgeting

  • Recovery

To watch the webcast, click on the link below:

If you have questions for Michael, visit Castaway, or contact him through Linkedin here.

To watch our earlier sessions, you may click on the playlist here.


Here's again our guests in the next couple of weeks:

20 May - People Impacts with Suzanne Waldron, Human behaviour specialist and TEDex Curator. COVID19 impacted many and will for some time. Many people also made an impact during this time. A lively exploration of globally important issues and thinking. 

27 May - More than Talk with Rachel Callander, Global speaker, Author and master communicator. Connection is key to humanity. Connecting/reconnecting with people, reversing isolation, communication with artful care.

See you in our next session!


More from Mike

Subscribe to Mike’s weekly Unshakeable Newsletter here.

Join the weekly Don’t Panic - Surviving COVID19 webcast here.

Download a 1-page resource on the power of gratitude in Unshakeable teams here.

Buy a copy of Mike’s book “Thrive and Adapt” here, or sign in for a complimentary PDF copy

Contact Mike to discuss organisation wide Well-being and Resilience programs that create Unshakeable teams:

mike@mikehouse.com.au

+61 423 193 196

Don’t Panic - Surviving COVID19, Threats, Opportunities and COVIDSafe App with Brian Smith

This week, Brian Smith, Founder and CEO of QuadIQ, shared what security threats, and opportunities we may need to navigate through post restriction world, and his thoughts in using the COVIDSafe App.

To watch the webcast, click on the link below:

If you have questions for Brian or if you wish to know how QuadIQ can help, you may contact him through: brian.smith@quadiq.com

To watch our earlier sessions, you may click on the playlist here.


Here's again our line-up for May as we switch our focus to recovery and evolving:

13 May - Forecasting for Real with Michael Ford, Founder and CEO of Castaway Forecasting, an Aussie business going global. Meaningful forecasting? Wishful thinking, doomsday or warm figures plucked from the air. We’ll get real about forecasting that makes a difference.

20 May - People Impacts with Suzanne Waldron, Human behaviour specialist and TEDex Curator. COVID19 impacted many and will for some time. Many people also made an impact during this time. A lively exploration of globally important issues and thinking. 

27 May - More than Talk with Rachel Callander, Global speaker, Author and master communicator. Connection is key to humanity. Connecting/reconnecting with people, reversing isolation, communication with artful care.

See you in our next session!


More from Mike

Subscribe to Mike’s weekly Unshakeable Newsletter here.

Join the weekly Don’t Panic - Surviving COVID19 webcast here.

Download a 1-page resource on the power of gratitude in Unshakeable teams here.

Buy a copy of Mike’s book “Thrive and Adapt” here, or sign in for a complimentary PDF copy

Contact Mike to discuss organisation wide Well-being and Resilience programs that create Unshakeable teams:

mike@mikehouse.com.au

+61 423 193 196

Don’t Panic - Surviving COVID19, Decision Making with Jason Clarke

Jason Clarke’s session on decision-making was informative and tactical. Lots of practical advice for making tough decisions. Click below to watch the recording. 

The tools Jason covered can be found here, along with many other tools for thinking.

If you would like to contact Jason his email is jason@mindsatwork.com.au.

Previous sessions can be found here.


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Next week, I'll be talking to Stephen Young who is a 40-year veteran of local and international crisis management. His company Turning Point Crisis Management works with leaders to build organisational resilience and responsiveness. Stephen and I have presented together and independently on crisis management courses for Fire Services, Biosecurity, Police Counter Terrorism, Oil Spill Response Teams (local, federal and global).

In a crisis, there are 5 key leadership tasks:

  1. Sensemaking,

  2. Decision-making & coordination,

  3. Meaning making,

  4. Accounting for the response, and

  5. Learning for improvement/future prevention.

We'll discuss the first 3; how can we make sense of this Coronavirus situation, what decisions must we make and how will we make these, and finally how will we make meaning of this crisis to all of our stakeholders. Crisis leaders get harshly judged when they passively stand by and wait for the situation to unfold. How can you ensure you are proactive enough without being foolhardy?

More about Stephen here.

I look forward to seeing you on the call.


More from Mike

Subscribe to Mike’s weekly Unshakeable Newsletter here.

Join the weekly Don’t Panic - Surviving COVID19 webcast here.

Download a 1-page resource on the power of gratitude in Unshakeable teams here.

Buy a copy of Mike’s book “Thrive and Adapt” here, or sign in for a complimentary PDF copy

Contact Mike to discuss organisation wide Well-being and Resilience programs that create Unshakeable teams:

mike@mikehouse.com.au

+61 423 193 196

Ancient Mindfulness

A hunter using handmade tools must be completely alert to the smallest signs of prey. A gatherer constantly scans for signs that foods are ripe. Colours, scents, congregations of birds, or insects all point to food. For our ancestors, a full belly was preceded by mindfulness. Distraction was a perfect recipe for an empty plate. Many traditional cultures were also mindful of the sustainability of their food supply - Seasonal Mindfulness. Many considered their impact on their children’s children - Generational Mindfulness. I reckon we are deeply drawn to mindfulness, because we understand instinctively that we do better when we are fully present and focused.

Viewed through the eyes of our ancestors, mindful clarity seems like an essential survival skill. In our time-pressured world that same clarity seems critical to Thrive and Adapt when faced with constant change and uncertainty.

And it needn’t take too much time. People have precious little of that already. I don’t know anyone, in any role, who is sitting around with their feet up, wondering what to do with all the spare time they have. The transitions between our many roles get more abrupt with less time to reset between them.

Some transitions you might make today:

  • Sleeping to awake

  • Alone to interacting with others in your home

  • Passive to active

  • From ‘home self’ to ‘work self’ (clothing, thinking, body language, etc)

  • From the comfort of home into the ‘world out there’

  • Into and out of transit (cars, trains, bikes, taxis, buses etc.)

  • Planning to action

  • Action to review

  • Into a meeting

  • Self-directed to directed by a boss/team/task/customer

  • From following to leading

  • Into and out of decision-making

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Which transitions create the greatest challenges for you?

Which do you slip into without really thinking?

Some transitions are massive, like entering a really important once-in-a-lifetime conversation. Others are small and mundane, sometimes deceiving us with their simplicity and commonality. At each transition pressure can build or dissipate. Each is an opportunity to reset our energy and intention. Or, we can be swept along over the waves and reefs of life, being pushed by circumstances, rather than being in control. If we don’t deal with the tension created at each transition, it builds.

In the short-term, that build-up makes life and work less pleasant and effective than they could be. In the long-term, all those moments potentially add up to one big reckoning, when something big and important gives way, and we are forced to face their accumulation all at once. People face them daily in the form of major health challenges, failed relationships, projects, and businesses. Some pay with their life.

How do you deal with the big and small transitions of your day?

Here's a tool for clarity, presence and focus in the middle of moments of pressure or transition.

Thriving Under Pressure

People who Thrive and Adapt fully accept and face the circumstances they are in. They recognise what they can control and what they can’t. They don’t waste energy on things they can’t change. Thrivers recognise the flow of what is happening around them and use it to their advantage. They take action, solve problems and take responsibility for the outcomes.

Thrivers create calm and opportunity for themselves and others. They are highly effective in any circumstances they face. They are constantly seeing, shifting and doing - hunting for the most effective way forward.

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Feeling the pressure…

Capt. Richard De Crespigny was the pilot in charge of Qantas Flight QF32 out of Singapore bound for Sydney when the Number 2 engine blew up. The damage was extensive and rendered the plane barely flyable. The workload in the cockpit was immense. De Crespigny was literally flying for his life and those of the other 364 passengers and crew aboard. It was definitely a survival situation. De Crespigny’s clear, cool-headed leadership helped the crew sort through an unprecedented situation and cockpit workload. He focused on what was working and what they could control, thereby avoiding the distraction of the many potential disasters beyond their ability to fix. They pulled off an almost miraculous landing with no loss of life.

It’s a great example of an Adaptor at work! DeCrespigny’s book “QF 32” is well worth a read and has many lessons for dealing with pressure and leadership under pressure.

You can download a summary here.

How do you adapt to pressure?

What can you control in your current circumstances?

A Daily Lesson in Survival

Every day I see someone pick up their phone while driving. The instant they do, they enter a survival situation.

Research by Professor Dingus in Virginia quantified this. He says, “Taking your eyes off the road to dial a cell phone or look up an address and send a text increases the risk of crashing by 600 to 2,300 per cent.

If people were genuinely aware of this risk, they would never pick up the phone on the road. It is a genuine, life-at-risk survival situation. To take the risk, there’s got to be a lack of acknowledgement of the circumstances they are in. Either a sense that, ‘I’m so bloody good at driving, this risk doesn’t apply to me’ or ‘The traffic is cruisey, I’ve got heaps of space and time’. There are only three possible outcomes.

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1. A near miss - this is the best possible outcome. It might shake the driver out of their complacent denial.

2. A sudden, violent reminder that Phone + Driving = Accident. This is, at the very least destructive, always traumatic and in the worst-case scenario, fatal. Definitely a bad outcome.

3. The driver gets away with it, reinforcing their delusion - this significantly increases the future potential for 1 or 2 to occur. The fact the driver got away with it increases their sense that they are not in a survival situation. They are more likely to do it again, in increasingly busy traffic conditions, and for longer periods of time.

All survival states are like this. The risk may not be directly to life or limb. It might be measured in financial or relationship terms, but lack of decisive and timely action will inevitably lead to a confrontation with the risk. What critical situations do you face but chose to ignore? Where might your blindspots be?

Reference. Dingus, T, Hanowski, R and Klauer, S “Estimating Crash Risk: Accident data must be considered in the context of real-world driving if they are to lead to realistic preventive behavior”. Human factors and Ergonomics Society, 2011

Adapting Under Pressure

In 2004, I was part of specialist survival crew for the Pilbara grand finale of Pushed to the Limit a BBC reality show to find Britain’s toughest family. We gave the two final families a few days of survival training and set them off on a multi-day survival challenge. It was tough. It was hot. They were far from their comfort zone.

Each family had two adults and two under 18 years old. One family was a single mum, 21-year-old daughter, 16-year-old son and 14-year-old daughter. The 14-year-old was the stand out example of adaption for the week.

On a particularly tough day they walked many kilometres along a river in the Pilbara. They’d done it hard, making many mistakes and errors of judgement that sapped their energy and stacked the deck against them. They were on the verge of giving up. Mum had been the stalwart leader of the team, but was exhausted. She had carried 15 litres of water all day even though they were walking beside large fresh water pools. Even with the abundance of water she was badly dehydrating herself. The family lost their compass and flint. Confusion about navigation and inability to light a fire added to the pressure. Late in the day they dropped their tin can, losing their ability to purify water by boiling and make a cup of tea (tea is a great way to create a sense of control and familiarity under duress).

The family began to fragment. The 16-year-old son became a constant burden to the rest of the group and was pushing them to pull out of the contest.

At one of the checkpoints they were met by Chris Ryan (ex-special forces and BBC host) who got stuck into them about their poor performance. The 14-year-old burst into tears, followed by others in the family. It was a low point for all of them and looked like it might be the end of their story.

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A short while later the 14-year-old daughter made a massive adaption. She lifted her head and dried her tears. She reflected on Ryan’s feedback with the family and decided that they needed to lift their game. She stepped up to lead the family. For the rest of the scenario she drove leadership, planning, support and motivation. She held the family together and rallied them through their toughest moments.

In that moment, and for the rest of the course she was an Adaptor, taking full responsibility for her results and rallying her family to do the same. She made no excuses, and was prepared to fully face the circumstances. She was prepared to carry others if necessary. Pulling out was no longer on her radar. She brought strength and certainty to a difficult situation. Her family made it to the finish line largely because of her leadership.

Sometimes It Just Doesn’t Go to Plan

Sometimes it just doesn’t go to plan. I don’t know what It’s like for you, but for me being off plan can be deeply unsettling. It's easy to get caught up in ego, fear, and blame. It's easy to get reactive. In workplaces, it can lead to crappy team dynamics, highly transactional methods of working, mistrust, misunderstanding, expense, lack of engagement, presentism, conflict, friction and tension. How we act is driven by our perception - what we believe to be true. But the map is not the territory. Our perception has huge gaps in it, created by bias, blind spots, filters and our fickle attention.

Becoming a student of how you see the world, and working to make your unconscious assumptions visible are great ways to limit the impact of our limited view. It also helps us make the most of the diversity of skill and experience in the people around us.

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Hasty Decisions

I was instructing on a Survival Course when one group made a hasty decision to walk past a water hole without filling their bottles. It was understandable, the waterhole was smelly and murky and they were certain a windmill lay just ahead. But they were wandering lost for several hours. They ran out of water before they found the ‘windmill’, which turned out to be a gate. They had misread the map symbols. Dehydration compounded fatigue - sapping energy and seeding indecision. They spent a hard, dry night filled with anxiety before stumbling upon a water hole the next day. Topping up when they had the chance would have taken the pressure right off. For the rest of their walk, they paused anytime they passed a potential resource and made a conscious decision to use or bypass it. 

This is a great example of rapid feedback in survival scenarios. Similar patterns play out at work when people:

  • act without all the information,

  • get defensive or aggressive about their point of view,

  • are not on the same page, resulting in re-doing work, wasting time, resources and energy, and/or

  • think they have clearly communicated to each other, but are actually mistaking 'windmills' for 'gates'. 

When have hasty decisions not worked well for you? 

How can you build more conscious decision making into your work?

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What Survival Situations and Scenarios Teach Us

When I talk about my experience as a survival instructor, the audience is split roughly three ways. One-third thinks it’s fascinating and would love to get out there and try it. One-third never want to get caught anywhere near the outback with me. The remaining third think it’s interesting, but wonder what the relevance is to their everyday world of work.

Here’s what survival situations and scenarios can teach us.

Over the years I’ve been in actual survival situations on the ocean, on yachts and in kayaks. I’ve survived being pinned underwater in a fast-flowing river. I was there again trapped on a rope while abseiling waterfalls in Vietnam. I’ve put myself and many others through survival scenarios while working as an instructor for a world-leading survival school. In those situations, you get to see people right at the edge of their capability.

Speedy Feedback

Survival situations are clear. There are straight lines between choices and results. The feedback loops are rapid and aggressive. Outcomes from a particular way of thinking or acting show up quickly. Sometimes in minutes. At most it will be a few days.

A Snap Shot

You’d think it would be different in comfortable and controlled environments - after all, there is no direct threat there. But feeling or thinking we are under threat is enough. In modern workplaces, and in life, there's more complexity and the feedback is slower. It's harder to draw clear links between how we respond to circumstances, and the results we get. Survival gives a compressed snapshot of how we behave under pressure that can be translated to the everyday circumstances we face. Any time we are under pressure ineffective patterns get magnified.

How effectively people decide, lead, resolve conflict, deal with uncertainty, handle changes, work under pressure, build rapport, deal with disappointment, handle incomplete and changing information and manage expectations under pressure is key to modern workplace performance. Some people have a great toolbox of effective behaviour. Others have patterns that just make things worse.

What’s your toolbox like?

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Thrive and Adapt – No Matter What

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I spent 20 years of working in the worlds of survival instruction and organisational change. The personal factors that lead to people surviving or not, fascinate me. As I have studied and worked with people in a variety of settings - one thing stands out.

Under pressure some of us become instruments of our own demise, reacting in ways that are foolhardy and dangerous. Others survive.

Among the survivors are a group who do more than merely survive – they Thrive and Adapt.

Survival doesn’t have to be a life-threatening situation. We face tough circumstances in life and business as well. I reckon any situation that needs a rapid response to prevent it getting worse counts as Survival. The people who Thrive and Adapt show up all through life – and if you are not already one of them you can learn the skills that make it more likely that you will Thrive and Adapt – No Matter What.

How effectively we respond to the circumstances we face comes down to:

·      how we see the situation and how well we understand the limits of what we see,

·      our ability to shift our perspective and approach, especially under pressure, and

·      what we do consistently to set us up for success.

How adaptable are you?

Resistance to Change

Humans are actually really good at change. Our drive to make things better and easier has been one of the key success factors for our species. And yet so often there is resistance to change, even when we know it is a good thing we are trying to implement. The source of resistance is rarely explored, but if you can identify it clearly, it’s much more likely you will succeed!

Leading from where you are

"The team don't like or respect him", he said. "But I can make a difference to how the team operates, even if I'm not the leader."

It was an inspiring conversation with a young man who understood leadership. He was working in a team where the official leader was dictatorial and inconsistent. The team spent a lot of time over the 'water cooler' complaining about their boss and the direction he was taking them. 

"That just adds to the dissatisfaction and tension. When people push back they make themselves a target." 

When I asked what he did differently, here's what he shared:

  • I don't buy into gossip. It doesn't help anyone. If something is factual, i share what I know, otherwise I stay out of it.

  • I don't talk behind people's back, and when I hear others doing that, I pull them up. If I have feedback to give, I'll do that straight up with the person it concerns.

  • I do the best job I know how, even when I don't like how the instructions are given.

  • If I'm told to do something unreasonable, I respectfully  say why I think it is unreasonable.

  • I maintain my own standard of work and encourage others to do the same - It's easy to let it slip when you don't like the boss, but that reflects as much on me as on him.

It's a great example of leading from wherever you are. This young man is making a contribution to his team and his workplace that adds value and quality. What he is doing makes his team more unshakeable.

How do you lead from where you are?


Be Bold!

Have you ever had moments as a leader when you have felt unsure and timid. I certainly have. Regardless of whether you hold an "official" leadership role, we get called upon to lead in all manner of ways. Leading is an interesting thing to do. And in my experience it's a great way to grow. Leadership has presented opportunities for some fantastically positive outcomes and some subtle influence with people that has steadied the ship. It's also presented challenges, self doubt and a reasonable share of mistakes.

Sunrise over the Southern Ocean

Sunrise over the Southern Ocean

 I spent most of last week on the beautiful south coast of WA with a group of year 9 boys. These emerging young men were walking, paddling, cycling and surfing and learning about leadership in practice.

There were some outstanding young men and we had some great conversations about what makes a good leader.

One in particular stood out from the crowd. He was able to positively influence his peers, rally their focus and energy and organise them for a result. His presence created a sense of calm and certainty. That was on a good day. There were other times when he was right in the thick of disruptive and counter productive action. Chalk and cheese. It was as if a different person showed up. 

We had a great conversation about it. He was really aware of the swing and said he much preferred to lead well. When I asked what was holding him back he had the answer straight away.

Self Confidence. 

He was concerned about what people would think, unsure about making the right call, not wanting to seem too confident, afraid of the attention he might receive, sometimes feeling the weight of responsibility. These are familiar themes from the work I do with leaders, and from my own experience. 

To lead is to step up in many big and small ways. It takes boldness. To say what needs to be said. To do what needs to be done. To acknowledge the efforts of others. To be responsible and accountable for your results. To raise the bar. To move between the spotlight and the background as the situation demands. To think ahead. To collaborate. 

However and wherever you lead. No matter how large or small your role. Be Bold!

Focus - Broad and Soft vs Narrow and Hard

When I was learning to fly, I was introduced to the Air Speed Indicator (ASI). The ASI is the flying equivalent of a speedo. It tells you how fast you are going. Whether you are taking off, landing or just flying around there are important speeds to be aware of. You manage speed to get the best performance out of the aeroplane. Unlike a car, speed is managed by raising or lowering the nose, rather than adding or reducing throttle. Lift the nose and it slows down and starts to climb. Lower the nose and it descends and speeds up. There's a window of best performance speeds for different aspects of the flights. At each side there is an extreme that you really need to avoid to stay safe. Too slow and the aircraft stops flying. Too fast and you risk structural damage or loss of control. 

Like most trainee pilots my focus was fixated on the ASI. I would watch it like a hawk to get the right speed. My focus would become increasingly fixated and hard. Trouble is, it doesn't work that way. There's a bit of lag between what you do and the speed shown on the dial. Trying to control speed with your eyes glued to the instrument means you porpoise through the sky - nose up, nose down, nose up, nose down. The speed never settles and you literally chase the needle, and the plane all over the sky. When you get too fixated on the needle you can end up with a growing oscillation that is increasingly out of control. 

To fly well your attention has to be outside the plane, with occasional glances at the instruments to confirm what you observe. A broad, soft focus allows you to see how the plane looks relative to the horizon, how the controls feel, the sound of the engine and the wind over the wings. These things along with the ASI allow you to fly smoothly and well. With your head up you can also pay attention to other important things like other air traffic, weather, and where you are. Hard fixation is a dangerous recipe. 

There are times when a hard fixation is useful. Analysing specific and complex data, and some types of problem solving are good examples. You don't want to be distracted by a broad view. Other times we need to scan more widely to be effective.

A great example of this is in sales. It's easy to get a hard fixation on the features and benefits of whatever you are selling and start lashing a potential customer with what you want to sell, in the way you want to sell it. We've all experienced this at some point - a salesperson flat out answering questions about the product or service. Trouble is there's a disconnect, none of the answers are to the questions that are important to you. It's like they are not even listening. In a worst case scenario you walk away from something you would otherwise have brought. 

A great skill in business is to be aware of your focus and intentional about it. Consciously decide what sort of attention/focus is best for the situation you are in, and then choose tools to help you maintain it. 

Goals vs Areas of Focus

We have been told for years that goals are the road to success. There's been everything from reputable research through to pop psychology explaining why goals are so important. The snap shot summary is:

  • Without a clear idea of where you are going, it's unlikely you will get there.
  • Setting goals that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound) makes it much more likely that the goal will be attained.
  • The goal by itself means nothing. Successful people also take massive action toward their goals.

I know many people who are great goal setters. It works really well for them. Goals help them get motivated and focussed and they regularly exceed the targets they set for themselves. But goals don't work for everyone, or in all situations.

More recently there has been a significant body of research suggesting that goals have a dark side and may not be as useful, productive or relevant as previously thought. Some of the factors include:

  • If a goal is not reached exactly (like it ran late or didn't quite reach the specific target), some people find that extremely frustrating and demotivating. They subsequently lose a lot of energy in self criticism due to the unmet goal.
  • In many circumstances, quality of work is sacrificed for reaching the target. While the numbers are achieved, how they are achieved is not always desirable. Some people will cut corners, act unethically, or neglect other important focus because for them the idea of not reaching the goal is worse than doing it poorly.
  • Specific goals can sucker individuals and organisations into an way of operating that is inflexible and unresponsive to changing conditions. Essentially they become too focussed on achieving the goal and their perception narrows.
  • There are other interesting organisational impacts emerging. If you are keen to know more you might like to check out this paper.

On top of this there are personalities and situations that don't lend themselves to goal setting. In these circumstances, goals can be counter productive. For example:

  • I, like many others have a strong negative reaction to being told what to do. At my worst even if it's me telling me what to do, and I think it's a good idea, my default reaction is resistance. When I set goals for myself, it's actually negatively motivating, and I have to play all sorts of mental games with myself to make progress.
  • If you don't know enough about what you are trying to achieve, it is very difficult to make meaningful SMART goals. The plane build I wrote about last week is like that. I don't know enough to be able to meaningfully estimate the time it will take to complete a component.
  • Sometimes a broad, soft focus is the most appropriate response to circumstances (I'll say more about this in a future article). If the operating conditions are highly dynamic, a narrow, specific focus can get you into a world of trouble.
  • Some goals are about creating new habits or just getting more focussed. Consistency over time, just showing up and taking action are more effective than driving for something specific.

That's where Areas of Focus come in. Rather than setting a specific goal an area of focus simply determines where you will focus your energy and attention. For those of us that don't like to be told what to do the softer focus brings greater energy and enthusiasm to related tasks. 

If you are a habitual and successful goal setter, I certainly wouldn't recommend you change what you are doing, but if you have not found goals to be useful, you might like to choose an area of focus.

Ask yourself - Where can I most fruitfully direct my energy and attention? Why is this area of focus important right now? Am I clear about what the vision is for this area of focus? Who else needs to be involved and how can I make it clear to them?

Once your area of focus is decided, the same rules apply as for goals - turn up and take massive action. That's the secret ingredient that makes stuff possible. If you want a great and inspiring example of massive action to get a result check out Jack Andraka, a teenager who is making significant progress in cancer research. The volume of work he has undertaken is impressive.