Day 296: Happiness and its place at work

I was having a conversation with a cohort today about happiness and success - does one yield the other, and if so, in what order? Does happiness result in success, or does success result in happiness?

I think happiness leads us towards success, and although there are some successes that make me happy, that happiness is transitory, temporary. It's a kind of feedback loop - the positive reinforcement of the success will increase the happiness overall. That leads right back into the intrinsic motivation to seek challenges and work towards success.

There are also some great non-successes (read: failures) that - over the long view - can make me happy because they eventually contribute to a future success. I have observed that many people learn best when they fail, er, struggle with a task, instead of having it handed to them on a silver platter or being spoon fed. If it was easy, it wouldn't be as much fun when you succeed. 

I had a pretty epic failure this past weekend, when I competed in my very first short-track speed skating meet. I had a terrible time in my three races, partially due to a nagging injury with my foot, but mostly due to a nagging negative attitude. I came into the meet expecting to perform horribly - so I wasn't surprised when I did. I tried to blame the injury for it all, but in reality, I had already admitted failure even before I started. My mind was not ready for me to perform the task in front of me, I had not prepared my mind (and heart) to do the work. 

I'm a pretty positive person overall - I prefer to be a positive force for change - but even I get grumpy now and then. Sometimes the storm clouds are a-rumbling and I throw a little lightning around. Sometimes it's very targeted at an individual or an incident, sometimes it's a general annoyance with the world. Usually the latter means I need a vacation while the former is an indication that there's a specific opportunity for improvement. 

I have another 6 weeks of fairly focused work ahead of me, before I can take a real break. Within that time, I have one more speed skating meet and our recertification audits. Both are BIG DEALs to me. I want to be successful at both. So it's time to knuckle down, and get on with the tasks at hand. I just have to remember to smile once in a while. 

Day 289: How do you help really really SMRT people? Get out of their way

This week I had the pleasure of helping a Black belt team with supply chain kaizen at a local technology company. This team, almost 20 people strong, was chock full of really really smart people. 

In fact they were so SMRT that I really had little to do, little to offer in they way of help beyond the occasional suggestion or challenge to the group. It's a bit of an odd sensation. I suppose I could have stuck my nose in to more conversations, but I was worried about overly-directing them, or influencing them too much. As always, I might have gone after different areas or opportunities than what the group chose to pursue, but that's one of the great benefits of participating in these events - I get to see what unfolds and enjoy the chance to see how other people think.

Balancing the "too much" vs. the "too little" is still my challenge. It's hard to find the sweet spot. 

This week was also a chance to let go a bit more, to be away from the office and delegate a fairly important and high profile activity. I am really lucky to work with a very competent team, so I knew it would all be ok. But I was very anxious in that I wished I could have been a fly on the wall and seen what had transpired! I think I will take this as an opportunity to further reflect on my role at my organization and how that might still further evolve.

AMac

Day 282: Where did the time go?

I have been lagging in my blogging activities lately, and I really have no good reason for it. OK I was busy with... work? family? friends? dog? skating? racing? volunteering? coaching?

Yep - all those things have been keeping me busy. Most of those things, I would say are important.

So why do I feel like I haven't accomplished much?

Perhaps it is because there are too many things in that list. Many of us have been led to believe that the ability to multi-task is a GOOD THING. 

It's the kind of attribute we like to put on our cover letters and resumes, we list it in job descriptions as something desired of our candidates.

But the older I get, the more I realize that not only am I terrible at multi-tasking but that a lot of other people are pretty bad at it as well. It's been written that our brains can only keep a reasonable grasp of 5 to 9 things/concepts/thoughts at one time. So why do we try to do more than that? 

There are a lot of times when multitasking will cost more time/money/energy and cause more confusion/defects/grief. Particularly when we don't give our brains enough time to rest - a break between tasks - to allow for refocusing.

Since I returned from my conference in mid-September, I have been running around like the proverbial headless chicken, trying to keep tabs on too many things, fingers in too many pies, ears tuned into too many conversations. 

Information is everywhere around me. I can get emails on my phone, my iPad, my laptop, and I can seamlessly transition between all three. I can IM with my peers on any of those devices; no problem. I can watch TV, YouTube, or some obscure European movie with subtitles on any of those devices, while thinking about that supplier audit I need to finish planning, you bet. I can take my laptop to a meeting and work away, while still keeping an ear on the conversation going on around me. 

No I can't. Not really. Not if I want to be effective at the task at hand.

So if I leave my phone at my desk and miss your text, or don't answer your email right away, don't take it personally. 

I'm just trying to focus on something.

AMac