FOCUS IS EVERYTHING – OR IS IT?
General business thinking is that focus is essential to success. Focus on what is important; focus on customers; focus on quality; focus on profitability. You cannot be successful without focus, but apparently that focus has to be on everything! In a small Island like Jersey is specialism the key to success, or with a limited talent pool is broader skill set more useful to achieving success?
NEUROSCIENCE AND BEING ORGANISED
I am currently reading, and strongly recommend The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload Hardcover – 19 Aug 2014 by Daniel J Levitin (see link below)
Overwhelmed by demands on your time? Baffled by the sheer volume of data? You're not alone: modern society is in a state of information overload. The Organized Mind investigates this phenomenon and the effect it has on us, analysing how and why our brains are struggling to keep up with the demands of the digital age.
I won’t try to summarise the whole book, but would like to pick on theme with resonates with me. As a project and change manager I have always been a “jack of all trades” rather than a master of one. Instead I try and achieve success by understanding enough about a problem and the inter-relationship of issues sufficient to know who I need to include in the problem solving and solution delivery.
I often carry a notebook and pen and always make notes of people, ideas, events which may be useful. Comparing the human brain to a computer this is what Daniel J Levitin suggests is my off-line or external memory and useful for accurate research and recall, which is nigh on impossible to hold in mind all the time.
We can only remember a certain amount at any one stage, which is why we forget keys, birthdays, or the exact the wording of the first paragraph. Instead we generalise, blur, forget unless the issue is so significant, urgent or important that it trumps everything else. In those circumstances there a winner (the thing that comes to mind) and a loser (the other things that are crowded out).
Often when we recall we bring back to mind the emotions and bias, rather than the facts, creating imperfect or modified recollections.
THE WOOD FOR THE TREES
The problem with being too specialist is that the fixation on one issue may create focus on symptoms rather than causes, or fixation with the task (process) rather than the outcome (result). Moreover the deeper we analyse something the more we rely upon our experience, beliefs, bias and expectations to guide our interpretation.
Daniel J Levitin makes the good point that many of our best ideas are when we day-dream allowing the mind to wander and make new and novel connections. I recollect during my MBA a CEO in saying that they would intentionally mix teams of different disciplines to create random sparks, and different perspectives which may be the catalysts for new products and services. If nothing sparks within 6 months, they rotate again, constantly creating change on the edge of chaos with a view to encouraging creativity and innovation.
The problem with specialism is that “If the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem you come across becomes a nail”
So often in project and change management the issue presented is a smokescreen for a problem that is something else altogether. If you try to solve the apparent problem it’s like “trying to nail jelly to the wall” the solution simply evades you, despite your efforts.
In these circumstances understanding the mind of the people, and how they have rationalised and categorised the issues as they see them is key. Simply applying your logic, values, experience and will provoke conflict because although you may be looking at the same thing each of you may attached a completely different meaning, feeling and experience to it.
UNDERSTANDING THE INDEX
Simply starring at the place where you think the keys should have been placed will not make them materialise! Instead you need to put yourself in the shoes of the person arriving home late, in the dark as they open the door and the phone is ringing. They put down the shopping, stop the dog escaping and scramble for a pen and paper to note an important message.
Under those circumstances we are overloaded and our mind may remember the message, but at the expense of where we actually put the keys. TV Dramas like The Mentalist and Sherlock Holmes, as well as hypnotists and psychotherapists promote this type of mental replay as a means to understanding and unravelling problems that aren’t solved by pointing at the empty key rack and saying “it should be there!”
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM THIS?
Being on holiday and riding my bike I have covered many miles of Mediterranean roads, in warm sunshine and cool breeze. Being switched-off from work allow the mind to wander and offers a different perspective on things. Reading and reflection offers new insights for the challenges that are held in my notebooks.
Perhaps a key to success is to spring clean our mental filing system, allowing us to examine old ideas in a new light and re-categorise them. And perhaps the best time to do that is when your critical focus is switched-off.
The point is that simply thinking harder, with more focus, may not be the solution. We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them. (Albert Einstein)
If a long bike-ride is not the thing for you, then maybe go for a run, or just sleep on it.
LINKS
http://www.amazon.es/The-Organized-Mind-Thinking-Information/dp/052595418X
THE AUTHOR
Tim Rogers is an experienced Project and Change Leader. He is founder of www.ciChange.org and curator for www.TEDxStHelier.Com . He was Programme Manager for the incorporation of Jersey Harbours and Jersey Airport, and previously Operations Change and Sales Support for RBSI/NatWest, and Project Manager for the incorporation of Jersey Post. He is also Commonwealth Triathlete and World Championships Rower with a passion for teaching and learning and is a Tutor/Mentor on the Chartered Management Institute courses. He is a Chartered Member of the British Computer Society, has an MBA (Management Consultancy) and is both a PRINCE2 and Change Management Practitioner.
Tim HJ Rogers
PRINCE2 - MBA (Consultancy) - APMG Change Practitioner
Http://www.timhjrogers.com | Twitter @timhjrogers | Skype @timhjrogers | Mobile: 07797762051 Curator TEDxStHelier (http://www. TEDxStHelier.com)
Founder ciChange (http://www. ciChange.org)
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