Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

[Review] The Myth of Multitasking

About 20 years ago, I read my first "management fable" style of book. It was the classic Ken Blanchard book, "The One Minute Manager." I wasn't 'wowed' by the book, but I really liked the fable-style presentation. Since then, I've really enjoyed the fable style of business books, and quite a few management fables have made a lasting impression on me (you can see some of them in the "Related items" listing at the end of this review)."Remember this rule: the more responsibility you have, the more hats you wear, the more likely you are to become inefficient."

I'm happy to say that I've just read another book that's going to be a lasting part of my memory: it's Dave Crenshaw's, "The Myth of Multitasking (How 'Doing It All' Gets Nothing Done)".

You're fooling yourself

The core principle of this book really resonated with me: you're fooling yourself when you try to "multitask" activities that require your focus and attention, as this approach introduces inefficiencies that cost you more (both in terms of time and quality) than you realize.

Crenshaw presents a tale of Helen Whitman, a chaotic, frustrated business leader who is working very hard but getting burned out because her business's results are flatlining. Helen's frenetic work style has rubbed off on the rest of the business, creating lots of activity but yielding very little in terms of results.

The coach quickly determines that Helen's problem is her work style (which she thinks of as multitasking) is preventing her from giving adequate attention to important tasks, her family, and her team. The coach explains that multitasking is a myth -- a 'damned lie' to be precise -- and she isn't doing multiple things at once. What she is actually doing is rapidly shifting from one task to another. In the book, this approach is called "switchtasking," and there is a great exercise in the book to show the inefficiency of switchtasking.

What about the times when you feel you can successfully do two things at once? The coach makes a distinction between switchtasking and "background tasking" such as driving while talking on the phone, but he asserts that even with background tasking there is a cost.


What's it costing you?

Using some simple but illuminating exercises, the coach illustrates just how inefficient switchtasking really is and then takes Helen through a process to illustrate just how much this inefficiency is costing in terms of productivity. Through these activities, Helen realizes her sense of time is very distorted and she also becomes painfully aware that her efforts to give people and multiple tasks her attention all at once is creating some extreme dysfunction in her relationships with her family and employees.

Worse, Helen realizes that her bad habits are rubbing off on her team, and trickling down to impact their relationships with customers. Not good. But, as the saying goes, the first step is to admit you have a problem and ask for help -- and Helen does just that.

The rest of the book takes us through the changes (small and large) that Helen makes in her working style which help her defend her time, and strengthen others' trust in her by demonstrating that she is worthy of their trust.

Don't worry - you, too, can have a happy ending

OK, you're probably not surprised that the book has a happy ending, but you may be pleasantly surprised at some of the practical methods it includes to help you gain control of your time, improve your results and achieve a better quality of life.

To augment the story, Crenshaw includes a meaty set of worksheets and exercises in the appendix to help you replicate the same kind of personal discovery and analysis that Helen goes through in the book. It's up to you to apply what you learn, but I found it very helpful to have the tools at hand along with the instructions for how to use them.

This book is a quick and easy read -- the fable portion is about 100 pages long -- but it packs a lot of learning in a short space. I recommend it for anyone who wants to be more productive, but I particularly recommend it for anyone who believes they are a good multitasker. Is that you? If so - remember, it's not called "The Myth of Multitasking" for nothing...



Related items


[Review] Big Ideas to Big Results

Many organizations reach a point in their existence when they hit a plateau or begin to stagnate. When that happens, they often seek a "breakthrough" in their performance. Sometimes, they succeed and sometimes they don't.

I recently read "Big Ideas to Big Results," by Michael Kanazawa and Robert Miles, which is all about increasing your chance of success when you're seeking to re-vitalize your company. This book had a unique attraction for me, since I worked with Mike and Bob on one of the transformations they discuss in the book (it was called "Taking Charge" and is referred to at various points throughout the book, but specifically summarized on page 118 & 119).

The authors have worked together on a number of corporate transformations, and they share their experiences to help us minimize the chances that we'll run the "typical" course: some lame, corporate feelgood program that achieves nothing. I've been there and it is not a fun fate.

Beware of zombies

The authors do a nice job of keeping things interesting by telling colorful stories to illustrate their points. One I enjoyed is Michael Kanazawa's discussion of "Zombie Projects" which he encountered, ironically, while working in the same area as Dilbert's creator Scott Adams.

"Zombie projects had supposedly been killed through inattention or lack of formal funding, but, in fact, they continued to live on as pet projects of key manager who couldn't or wouldn't let go."

These kinds of projects suck resources and motivation from the rest of the organization, causing "drag" on the business. The authors discuss the reasons these projects are allowed to exist and most of the book deals with how to ferret out and get rid of these kinds of useless activities.

Set the right drumbeat

Another interesting topic covered in the book deals with how leaders can make or break their team's success through the "drumbeat" they establish. Examples of leaders who to force too much "sense of urgency," which often has the opposite effect; rather than getting people to work harder or faster, their "urgency" shuts down debate and makes people feel anxious or frustrated.

They offer some powerful tips for how to manage your team's "sense of time" so that people use their times productively, without panic, and without feeling like they'll slow down progress by injecting their opinions or challenging things that are happening.

Engage the masses

One of the things that comes out strongly in the book (and one of the most memorable aspects of the Taking Charge project I was part of) is that the authors have developed a true methodology for engaging  people across a company and focusing them on a specific set of outcomes. Their construct called "Tablework" is a big part of encouraging innovative thinking and microcollaboration among small teams, which is then reconnected back into the company's larger objectives.

Perhaps the most powerful aspect of their approach is the drive to create "leaders at all levels" - crucial in creating a self-sustaining, effective business that can scale. A big part of that is letting people throughout the organization own various aspects of strategy and execution - and holding them accountable.

But one other vital aspect of this is making sure people feel recognized for their part in the company's success, and helping them discern the difference between things they must do and things they must strive for. They present the latter using a concept I really love - the distinction between "promises" (absolute goals) and "declarations" (a statement of intent when the means to get there are unknown).

Get big

This book is jam packed with information and techniques, but is fun to read. I also believe it can be a handy recipe book to help managers and leaders deal with specific problem areas, even if you don't go through the whole transformation process form end-to-end.

If you're a leader looking to drive your business out of the "same old same old" then I highly recommend Big Ideas to Big Results.

 

Related items

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Cool news roundup

I've been a bit busy lately but, in cleaning up my inbox I found several very cool news updates that I want to share with you:

SameCell is now at Version 2.0!

I've written about SameCell in the past (here and here) and still think it is a very cool app for the Blackberry. It is even cooler with their version 2 (full list of new features on the SameCell web site).

Beyond some nice interface improvements I think my favorite new feature is their new Events feature (example at right), that lets you create new events (and even new event categories) and broadcast them to other SameCell users nearby. You'll notice an intriguing "Speed Trap" event, for example. You can also customize how you broadcast any event to others - including whether you share your contact info, your location, etc.

They've also added some tagging and rating features to you can tag favorite locations, rate restaurants, and things like that. Very nice additions to an already powerful application.

And it's still free. Find out more or sign up at the SameCell site if you're interested. I've already dropped my hints there that I'd love to see an iPhone version, by the way.

Free photo calendar creation tool available

Thanks to Kathy for telling me about a free online tool to create calendar pages with the photo of your choice. You can print any month's calendar with an image you upload on the page size you select. In a few seconds, you have a PDF of that month's calendar that you can print or share. Perfect for hanging at work or around the house.

My kids will have fun with this one! If you want a sample, click here to download an August 2008 calendar page I made. It features the picture I used to create the current Genuine Curiosity banner background (it's one I snapped of a museum in Cannes, by the way).

You'll note there is not advertising or anything else on the calendar - just your stuff. Pretty cool.

Corporate Change Manifesto at ChangeThis!

My friend Mike Kanazawa (author of Big Ideas To Big Results) has published a paper at ChangeThis called, "People Don't Hate Change, They Hate How You're Trying to Change Them." I worked with Mike and a team of others on a corporate transformation at Symantec Corp. back in the 90's and really admire his perspective. This manifesto is no exception. My favorite section is "Do More On Less" - which is a great treatment of the power of focus in a corporate context.

Download Mike's manifesto today - it's great reading. And watch for my review of Mike's book coming soon.

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Focus on your top three

When life gets busy (or my curiosity gene kicks in), it can be hard to focus on what's really important. As you've seen before (see "Related items" at the end of this post), I often turn to tools like PowerPoint and Mind Manager to make my life easier.

As for focusing on priorities, I have found that PowerPoint's "Smart Art" tools are particularly useful for creating a "Top 3 Focus Areas" list each month. On this one-page cue, I add my top 3 focus areas, and my top 3 desired outcomes for each. Essentially, these become my "must get done" items for the month.

I then print out the page, carry it around with me and make notes on the page to help track my progress, update my boss & peers, etc.

This is amazingly simple and very effective. I happen to use PowerPoint 2007, which has some snazzy templates (I often change them around just to make life more interesting - a couple of examples are shown here).

Give it a try, and see if it helps you focus.

Related items:

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[Review] The Offsite

"Do you think Martin Luther King, Jr. could have rallied a nation if he'd said 'I have 10 measurable objectives' instead of 'I have a dream'? I haven't had much discretionary time lately, so my "To Read" stack is a bit thick lately. However, on a cross-country flight this past Thursday, I read Robert H. Thompson's book: "The Offsite: A Leadership Challenge Fable."

As the name implies, the book is about a leadership offsite, and it's written in a narrative, fable form similar to books like Lencioni's "The Five Dysfunctions of a Team" (another great book that I've read a few times but haven't reviewed here).

The Offsite is a bit slow at the beginning - there is a lot of setup to help you get to know the characters better - but it gets interesting about a third of the way in, including some unexpected drama that happens away from the offsite, which the story even more interesting.

The Offsite takes us through a set of techniques through which a couple of "flatlining" organizations seek to break out of their performance problems. Through the story, I really felt myself identifying with a couple of the characters and was nicely drawn into the story. In fact, I wanted to go find the VP of Sales in the story and shake him for being such an idiot at one point!

5 Practices for success

Through this story, I learned about 5 "practices" that help people become excellent leaders:

  • Model the Way
  • Inspire a Shared Vision
  • Challenge the Process
  • Enable Others to Act
  • Encourage the Heart

These 5 simple titles don't really do justice to the ideas they represent, but I think the author does a good job of bringing out the essence of each of them in the book. These practices are based on The Leadership Challenge, which was created by Barry Posner and Jim Kouzes.

The concepts in this book helped me better understand "servant leadership," which I've heard a lot about but haven't yet researched enough to do it justice (but I assure you I will now).

Clicking concepts

Overall, this book was a great read and went very quickly. In addition to driving me to dig into an assessment tool called the "LPI" (Leadership Practices Inventory) which figures prominently in the book, I really liked several concepts from the book.

  • The Commitment Circle, which deals with expanding the people involved in your decisions, projects, etc. to bring in a much broader perspective within your sphere of influence;
  • Several exercises that are modeled in the book, dealing with establishing goals and specific actions to achieve them (yes, I know - every personal development book has that - but this one does it well);
  • A tremendous illustration about the power of being "vulnerable" to you staff and letting them know what you need help with, what you are struggling with, etc.

Compelling visions

One of the anchors presented in the book is a clear, inspring, unifying vision (whether for one of the many teams you may be a part of, or for yourself). A couple of sentences from the book sum it up nicely:

"Do you think Martin Luther King, Jr. could have rallied a nation if he'd said 'I have 10 measurable objectives' instead of 'I have a dream'? Leaders share their dreams, folks. They breathe life into their visions and communicate clearly for understanding."

The Offsite is a great addition to your reading list if you want to become a better leader, are struggling with ineffective leaders in your organization, or want to learn techniques to energize and unify a team.

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