The Right Rhythm

We have known for many years that some of us are larks and some of us are owls.  Well, this simple categorisation has been confirmed by experts (2007 study published in Personality and Individual Differences) who suggest there are actually four of these states - called chronotypes.

There are evidently four chronotypes: Lions, dolphins, wolves and bears. 

Lions wake up early with lots of energy, while wolves are most energetic in the evenings. Dolphins are light sleepers who are often diagnosed with insomnia and bears need a full eight hours of sleep every night.

The significance of this s that each of us should establish a work-rest pattern and schedule which matches our own particular chronotype.  We need to work with the natural rhythms of our body, not fight against them.

Your chronotype can have an impact on your personality, sleep behaviour and general health …. And, of course, on your productivity.

You can take a quiz to establish your chronotype at https://thesleepdoctor.com/sleep-quizzes/chronotype-quiz/.

Get the Balance Right

Many people have been working from home during the pandemic. In fact many of them are still working from home for at least part of their working week.

For most of these people, this has been great for their work-life balance.  They have been better able to balance the demands of their work with other responsibilities - family, childcare and so on.

Work-life balance has been a ‘hot topic’ for a number of years. Some industries became ‘toxic’ and made unreasonable demands on staff, expecting attendance (real or virtual) over extended hours.  This was made worse by the availability of technologies which kept people in contact with the workplace over (and beyond) those extended hours.

The problem is that the working-from-home aspect of the pandemic has tipped the work-life balance too far away from work.  We hear rumours of lots of people ‘quiet quitting’ - working the minimum they can get away - very low productivity.

So, firms now have the tricky problem of moving the pivot back towards work without antagonising staff to the point where the quiet quitting becomes much louder.

The balance might not move back into the toxic zone but it needs to move back into the productivity zone! 

Do Less

Can we raise productivity by doing less?

Well, if that lesser activity has a greater impact, then Yes, We Can.

You need to shift the mindset of your managers to concentrate on key results and key impacts, rather than counting units or activities or hours worked.

Focus on these impact activities and you start to moves the needle into the ‘golden zone’, that vertical thread that connects mission and vision, through objectives, through key performance indicators to actions and activities.  If that thread is broken, you are wasting resources.

Get your staff focused on key results and you should move the needle back to where it should be - where it has the most impact on productivity.

A popular (and iconic) example of this involved President Kennedy’s visit to the NASA Space Centre in the early 1960’s...... 

During the visit, President John F. Kennedy noticed a janitor carrying a broom. He interrupted his tour, walked over to the man and said ‘Hi, I’m Jack Kennedy. What are you doing?’ 

‘Well, Mr. President’, the janitor responded, ‘I’m helping put a man on the moon.’ 

To the naked eye, this janitor was just cleaning the building, but in the more mythic, larger story unfolding around him, he was helping put a man on the moon. And the point is: No matter how large or small the role, employees are (or should be) contributing to the larger story unfolding within the business  - and to the ultimate mission.

They, and you, should be concentrating on what really matters. 

Know Your Enemy

If it aint broke, don’t fix it.

That’s a useful slogan in some circumstances - but not in business.

If you expect the status quo to deliver success, you are likely to be disappointed - or you are in some sort of niche situation or industry.

If you aim to maintain the status quo, you are not improving.

But your competitors might be.  

While you relax in your confidence in the current situation, they come roaring past with new ideas, new products, new features, new processes - or any one of the myriad things that can give them an advantage over you.

The status quo - and especially your complacency with it - is your enemy!