The Productivity Pro Blog by Laura Stack - Time Management, Getting Things Done, How to Be More Productive

“People who never make mistakes never make anything else either.” — Adrian Savage, Anglo-American business writer.

“The comfort zone is the great enemy to creativity; moving beyond it necessitates intuition, which in turn configures new perspectives and conquers fears.” — Dan Stevens, British actor.

Comfort may be nice when snuggling into bed, but in the workplace it leads to laziness, complacency, and stagnation. To get ahead (much less retain your current place in the line-up), you need to get on the ball and regularly step outside your Comfort Zone. If you don’t make what some of my colleagues call “Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals” and enthusiastically reach for the brass ring as it comes around, you’ll soon develop an aversion to risk—a crutch that limits both productivity and success.

In the Zone

Some observers visualize our working lives as a kind of bull’s-eye containing three areas: the central Comfort Zone circle, surrounded by a relatively thin Learning Zone ring and a much wider Panic Zone. You can learn nothing new while in the Comfort Zone; but then again, if you overstep once you emerge, you might become too anxious to learn anything useful. This defines the Panic Zone.

Fortunately, you can widen both your Comfort and Learning zones if you move forward carefully and expand your horizons along the way. Here’s how:

1. Pinpoint your zone limits. Even when you think you’ve moved into your Learning Zone, you may be wrong. Regularly practicing a talent or ability won’t necessarily pump your productivity. If you want to become a great poet but stick only with writing iambic pentameter about raindrops and roses, you won’t make it far no matter how much verse you churn out. When something becomes too easy, you’ve bogged down in the Comfort Zone. Challenge yourself. Write some dactylic hexameter about bumblebees and bats for once, just to see what happens.

On the other hand, just because you’ve taken a big stride into new territory doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll wind up in the Learning Zone. You may have gone too far. If something seems far too hard or makes you feel unnerved, you’ve stumbled into the Panic Zone. Don’t be too proud to scale back a bit. The idea is to find a place where you feel engaged and challenged, yet can enjoy the experience and maintain the capacity to grow and develop.

2. Try something new. This step, more than any other, helps you define your zone limits. Let’s say you still use an ancient spreadsheet program just because you’ve mastered it. Upgrade to something newer, and you’ll almost certainly find yourself more productive and efficient once you’ve passed the learning curve. If you feel overwhelmed by the change, give it a little time and see if your panic recedes. If not, you’ve obviously slipped into your Panic Zone and should back out if possible.

3. Embrace change. A recent blog in Forbes magazine suggests that instead of running from change, you should run toward it. Given the Panic Zone, I’m not so sure that always represents the best option…but a brisk walk and a nice hug when you get there can’t hurt.

4. Seek continuous improvement. Always push yourself to improve. Even when something seems good enough…well, it isn’t. Test something that might work better. If it does, roll it out big. If not, try again with something else. Never settle for good enough, at least when you have the opportunity and time to try for better.

Here’s an example of what I mean: Many of us who once used monochrome DOS-based computers still wonder why it took us so long to upgrade when “Windows Boxes” became available. I don’t know of anyone who’s ever gone back, because as uncomfortable as learning Windows was at first, it immediately proved far more productive than DOS.

The Bottom Line

If you’ve stalled out or feel complacent at work, you may end up doing no more than enough to get by—which by definition limits your productivity. Stepping out of your Comfort Zone motivates you to succeed and forces you to pick a direction. So break through the comfort barrier and start excelling again.

If everyone remained in their Comfort Zones for life, human beings would still live in caves, eating things that didn’t fight back. But because some people refused to settle for what they had, we human beings have occupied every continent and conquered every environment on this planet—and a few of us have even walked on another world. Breaking out of your Comfort Zone helps you conquer your own little world.

“Talent hits a target no one else can hit; Genius hits a target no one else can see.” — Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher.

“I don’t have a lot of respect for talent. Talent is genetic. It’s what you do with it that counts. ” — Martin Ritt, American actor and film director.

While I’ve always emphasized competence, persistence, and hard work over talent, I’ll readily admit that talent does exist. We all have a few things we do well without struggling, whether because of personality, genetics, environment, education, or some unique combination of these and other factors. The talent rule holds as true in the productivity field as in any other aspect of life. Right off the bat, you may be the best multiple-project juggler in the company; a natural at focusing; a genius at tweaking workflow for maximal efficiency; or capable of turning out perfect prose under the gun and at the spur of the moment.

So, what’s your special productivity advantage? Most of us have one; we just need to find it. Have you invested the time necessary to do that yet?

The Ground Rules

I believe almost anyone willing to learn and work hard can become super-productive, given the proper guidance and tools. I also believe that once you’ve identified your productive strengths, you should focus on improving those above all else. Now, I realize this goes against tradition, with its focus on shoring up weaknesses; and I certainly don’t want you to think you should ignore those weaknesses altogether. But consider this: what makes more sense, improving a skill from excellent to fantastic, or spending the same amount of time moving from abysmal to mediocre? If you can afford the time for both, go for it. If not, focus on your strengths first.

This especially makes sense when working in a well-constructed team environment, because you’ll probably have co-workers who can overcome your shortfalls and vice versa. I know someone who’s great at reading maps, but so-so at gauging real world topography. When the boss paired him with a co-worker who couldn’t read maps as well but had an excellent sense of direction, they made a great team.

Points to Ponder

If you haven’t identified your productivity talents yet, give these points some thought.

1. What comes easiest for you? Think about a task you can accomplish successfully without much strain. Do most people struggle with this particular task? If so, you’ve found a strength you can exploit.

2. Does time fly when performing a specific task? Remember the old saying “Time flies when you’re having fun”? It also flies when you work on a task you can really get into, focus tightly on, and do well at.

3. What can you do without thinking twice? Those tasks probably represent talents, whether innate or developed.

4. Do people compliment you for doing something consistently well? If so, consider that a talent…especially if they compliment you with money.

5. Do you feel passion for a specific task? While this doesn’t necessarily translate as talent (I imagine we’ve all felt passion for things we’re terrible at), it certainly makes a difference in how much discretionary effort you put into it, and may represent a productive talent.

Once you’ve identified a potential productivity talent, test it in your workplace. You may find that no one does a better job of communicating between teams, or putting together final reports, or even lubricating the rough edges between personalities. Once you discover something that really works for you, start improving on it for your team’s benefit and your own.

Final Thoughts

While you’ve got to know your limitations (to paraphrase cinematic philosopher Harry Callahan), don’t obsess over them; work around them and improve them when you can. By the same token, don’t just try to coast on your talents. Never forget this: talent plus hard work beats lazy talent any day of the week. In most cases, hard work alone beats lazy talent, especially when coupled with determination and all-around competence. Don’t assume that just because you have a talent, you don’t have to hone it. No matter how impressive, a knife with a dull edge won’t cut nearly as well as one given a few licks with the whetstone.

“Man is most free when his tools are proportionate to his needs.” — Soetsu Yanagi, Japanese philosopher.

“Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.” — Leo Babauta, American blogger and journalist.

In 1900, Lord Kelvin reportedly declared during an address to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement.” Just five years later, Albert Einstein burst onto the scene with a unique theoretical approach that helped firmly establish the precarious new field of study we now call quantum physics, and we’re still exploring its ramifications today.

The lesson here? Just because we’ve studied a field intensely for a century or more doesn’t mean we have nothing left to learn. The same thing goes for the study of productivity. While certain well-established basics will always apply, new methods and theories constantly flow in, often through cross-fertilization from other disciplines—making mine a lively, dynamic field.

This week, let’s take a look at three relatively recent ideas about productivity, and how you can overcome the weaknesses they reveal—or otherwise put them to work in your favor.

1. The Productivity Paradox. Since the early 1990s, some efficiency experts have scratched their heads over the fact that dramatic increases in computing power haven’t resulted in similar leaps in organizational productivity. They’ve proposed several explanations, among them human limitations; an unavoidable “lag time” in final results; and the assertion that maximum productivity occurred decades ago, with the initial adoption of mainframes by large corporations.

Then again, this observation may simply reflect the Schlimmbesserung concept: the old German idea that every “labor-saving” invention just results in more work. Instead of beating the carpet clean twice a year, we now vacuum it twice a week—because we can. Since we can now print out a new copy of a report whenever we like, our desire for perfection slows us down…whereas we might have accepted a minor imperfection and proceeded faster when we had to retype everything.

Whatever causes it, the productivity paradox represents a limiting factor affecting anyone who works with computers and other high-tech tools. Rather than let it slow you down, fast-track your adoption of useful new applications, maintain top-notch, well maintained IT systems—and stop playing with all the bells and whistles. Doing otherwise allows tasks to fill and overfill the time allotted to them. For example, unless your work requires it, you can cut off most Internet access and leave reading and answering email to specific times of day. Focus tightly on the workplace benefits a new technology provides; play with it only on your own time.

2. The Theory of Constraints. Initially formulated in 1984, this management philosophy observes that any system is limited in achieving its goals by one or more constraints: e.g., technology, personnel, safety requirements, quality control, legal obligations, etc. There may be tens or hundreds of constraints, though typically only a handful really matter. The only way to increase throughput and potentially “break” a constraint is to:

• Articulate your end goals well enough to identify the constraint.
• Determine how to exploit the constraint to get the most out of it.
• Align your organizational goals and systems to support said exploitation.
• Make any changes necessary/possible to ease or eliminate the constraint.
• When you’ve broken a constraint, go back and start over with another.

Like many aspects of productivity studies, the Theory of Constraints emphasizes a process of ongoing improvement—POOGI for short. (Despite my fondness for creating memorable acronyms, I can’t take credit for this one!)

3. The Lean Process. “Lean,” as its proponents sometimes call it, derives from the tightly controlled manufacturing methods used by Japanese automaker Toyota. However, you can apply the concept to nearly any workflow process. Basically, the lean process defines as wasteful any action or expenditure that fails to add value to the end user, targeting it for elimination. You can generalize it to include things like bad habits, multitasking, excessive dependence on technology, etc.

“Lean” dovetails nicely with my own emphasis on focus, work/life balance, task triage, self-reliance, and strict self-discipline. But beware: as with anything, you can overdo it. Zealous excision of a seemingly replaceable process or person may break your system and cause more harm than good. Take extreme care when wielding the “lean” scalpel. If possible, test the change carefully before taking any irrevocable step. A careless leader can do long-term damage to their organization with a stroke of a pen.

Productive Change

Nothing remains static, even in well-established fields like physics and productivity studies. A single paradigm shift can trigger an avalanche of new ideas, opening up a whole rich vein of “ore” for us to mine. We haven’t entirely explored quantum physics after more than a century; we may never grasp all its aspects. I feel the same is true for my field. So keep an eye out for evolving ideas about workflow and efficiency, and think about how they might apply to you. You might just discover the key to your own quantum productivity.

“Hire people who are better than you are, then leave them to get on with it . . . Look for people who will aim for the remarkable, who will not settle for the routine.” — David Ogilvy, British advertizing executive; often called The Father of Advertising.

Most people regard management as overseeing and directing the work of subordinates: giving orders, delegating tasks, providing guidance, and making sure everyone consistently produces quality output. Of course, that is a fair textbook definition.

But management doesn’t always flow downhill—great employees manage UP as well. In recent years, the theme has become an increasingly popular one in management circles. Basically, managing up hinges on actions that make life easier for both the boss and the employee, offsetting the boss’s bad productivity habits when necessary. My office manager, Becca, is a classic case-in-point of one who manages up superbly.

The Downside of Managing Up

Before I discuss ways to maximize upward management, let’s better define what managing up is not, because some people are leery of the whole idea. In a recent Forbes article, for example, the writer expresses his fear that some workers might interpret the need for managing up as a license for mind games—like corporate climbing and brown-nosing—and advises against even trying it.

People being people, some will deliberately twist the concept of managing up, and some will just misapply it. Yet in condemning the practice, I believe the Forbes writer underestimates the intelligence and self-interest of most managers—and dismisses a valuable workplace strategy. I want Becca to figure out how to manage me better. The old management philosophy of “she’ll do what I say when I tell her to” is outdated. I look to Becca for her advice and trust her to take initiative to tell ME what needs to be done, rather than sitting around waiting for me to tell her to do it. As a manager, any unreasonable demands, last-minute urgent task-dumping, poor prioritization, unrealistic deadlines, and similar productivity bombs aren’t acceptable. If your boss really is like that, there’s nothing wrong with taking respectful action to head those counterproductive behaviors off at the pass.

To make it absolutely clear: Managing up does NOT include manipulation, deliberately causing confusion, undermining authority, or damaging credibility. Aside from causing resentment that can halt your advancement, such amateur games negatively impact your personal integrity.

Managing Up Appropriately

When managing up, then, your goal must be to help both yourself and the boss, ultimately to the benefit of the entire organization. Now that we’ve discussed what managing up isn’t, let’s look at ways to approach it correctly.

1. Align yourself with your boss. Determine what’s most important and convenient for your boss, and shoot for those goals. If you don’t know what’s needed, ask. Becca comes to me each week with a prioritized task list of what she believes is the correct order, reflecting the best use of her time, and asks me to reprioritize any changes. She basically asks, “Help me help you.” In doing so, you can more easily anticipate what your boss is likely to require of you. Would she like a detailed weekly listing of what you and your team have accomplished? When should you approach her with questions? Would it be best to leave your suggestions for her daily drive time, or would she prefer to handle them during a particular time-block, or on a specific day of the week?

2. Determine her preferred communication style. Some bosses like one-on-one meetings; another might delegate directives down one level down for distribution. I like Becca sitting close to me, within ear shot, so I can randomly ask her to do things as I triage my day. So I’ve literally placed her work station right outside my office. She has spontaneous “Laura in the office” days and focused “Laura out of the office” days. Other bosses prefer to communicate on the phone or by email. I know a writer who regularly works with a magazine editor who discourages phone calls. The editor sends warm, chatty emails, but she believes calls just waste time. However, a client of mine believes it’s much more efficient to pick up the phone and end a volley of emails back and forth over a particular email. The more you can sync your communication style with your boss’s, the better you can serve her.

3. Discover your boss’s personal style. Does she come across as analytical, easygoing, passionate, authoritarian, or people-oriented? The latter may want to hear from you daily; if so, don’t miss an update. Conversely, an authoritarian may never want to hear from you unless something goes wrong. Adjust your own style to mesh with hers in order to limit friction and do your job more effectively. Never take your boss’s personality personally. You might think she doesn’t like you, when in fact, you might be the most indispensable person in her life, and she wouldn’t dream of taking a promotion without taking you along.

4. Do quality work. Turning in projects on time and under budget should be a given. True value lies in paying close attention to everything important to your boss. Take initiative without asking, lending a hand whenever she needs one. Keep her informed per her personal style and communication preferences. Build trust. In short, provide such good value she’d be a fool to even think of letting you go. Becca thinks of things before I do and lets me know what she’s put in place. It’s always such a relief!

5. Avoid company politics. Pretend politics don’t exist. Do your job well and stand by your boss. Some may sneer at this as “sucking up,” but in reality, it’s a little thing I like to call loyalty. ‘Nuff said.

6. Look for ways to increase your value. Search out new responsibilities you can take up on the boss’s behalf, as well as new opportunities for your team or group. Take over appointment scheduling. Attend meetings for your boss. Take over some of your boss’s work. Look for activities that have pressing deadlines but are low value for your boss. Becca started drafting contracts and invoices for my review, voluntarily, after watching the process and determining it was a snap. Never stop learning more about your job and how you can contribute. Study, observe, participate, and share what you’ve discovered.

The Final Analysis

When you manage up properly, you increase your value not only to your boss, but to your entire organization. You become a treasured asset she doesn’t want to lose.

Managing up requires neither mental telepathy nor manipulation: just good, careful work and a willingness to please. Not to channel Horatio Alger, but managing up reduces mostly to doing your job well and cheerfully, working hard, and maintaining a willingness to make life easier for your leadership, so that life is easier for you. Forget trying to manipulate anyone—and ignore the distrustful nabobs who claim the boss doesn’t really want your input anyway. She definitely does!

“I might as well put some action in my life/Breaking the law, breaking the law…” — Judas Priest, British heavy metal band.

“[Parkinson's Law] is the magic of the imminent deadline… The end product of the shorter deadline is almost inevitably of equal or higher quality due to greater focus.” — Timothy Ferriss, author of The Four Hour Work Week

In an essay published in the The Economist in 1955, British historian Cyril Northcote Parkinson formulated his most famous axiom: “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion.” Though originally applied humorously, Parkinson’s Law hits uncomfortably close to the mark. You can apply it to everything from committees to finance to corporate structure—and people have.

I believe it’s especially applicable to personal productivity. Have you ever noticed how super-productive you can be on the most tightly scheduled of days, whereas time just seems to get away from you when you enjoy a lighter schedule? It happens to us all.

But what if it didn’t? Imagine what you could accomplish if you set out to break Parkinson’s Law daily. Imagine how we might change the world if we all did. Let’s picture what that might look like!

1. Set deadlines for everything. While you may like the idea of having no set due date for your next report, I guarantee you’ll start putting it off right away, then put it off some more…and then you may never finish it. While a deadline doesn’t guarantee you’ll finish a task or project on time, at least it gives you something to shoot for. If nothing else, set milestones for yourself, representing a certain “distance” into the task per given amount of time. Better yet, combine deadlines and milestones and assign both to everything, even subtasks and minor items, so you won’t dawdle.

2. Refuse to multitask. If you don’t set clear boundaries between tasks, they’ll inevitably interfere with each other. If nothing else, just shifting gears slows you down, as you clear the mental slate of one set of data in exchange for another. Imagine doing this four or five times within a ten-minute span; a fair portion of that time might end up wasted. If you multiply that lost time by the 48 ten-minute intervals in the “typical” eight-hour workday, you can see how this might represent a problem.

3. Be done when you’re done. Rather than succumb to perfectionism, know when to let go. As a writer, I’ve found that releasing a book or article to the world can almost feel like abandoning a child. But if you don’t cut the umbilical once a project has fully matured, you might dilute its impact with constant revision, and you’ll definitely hit a point of diminishing returns before long. Do your very best work, of course, but don’t overdo any task.

4. Challenge yourself. Once you’ve trained yourself to swim laps in an Olympic-sized pool, you can’t go back to dog paddling without being bored silly. Sure, you need R&R, but don’t rest on your laurels too long or you’ll backslide. If a task no longer challenges you, move on to something tougher; otherwise you’ll find wasteful ways to fill up the empty time your competence creates for you.

5. Plan for next. Don’t dwell on it, but always know the next item on your list. That way, you don’t need to waste time between tasks.

6. Always have work on hand. Suppose you finish what you’ve planned five hours into your workday. Don’t waste the rest of it! Instead, reach for your “someday” list: the roll of important but non-urgent things you’d like to take care of but keep deferring in favor of high-priority items, required daily tasks, and crises. If you’ve been itching to tweak your report production flow or brush up on your information processing capacity, now’s the time.

More is Less

Taking it easy always uses up more time than working hard…and if taken too far, it gets boring and wasteful. Rather than let your time slip away, tighten your focus: stick strictly to a time budget, restrain your instinct to multitask, move on immediately whenever you finish something, and always push the envelope. The more efficiently you can complete your tasks, the more time you can recapture for better use.

“A horse never runs so fast as when he has other horses to catch up and outpace.” — Ovid, ancient Roman poet.

“Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything.” — Wyatt Earp, Old West gunfighter and lawman.

As a professional speaker, I’m frequently faced with questions I haven’t been asked before and must think quickly on my feet. Or suppose you’re the team expert on Boxlets, your company’s proprietary spreadsheet program. If your boss needs a quick fact or a doubtful customer starts grilling you on why he should buy Boxlets and not Lotus 1-2-3, you’ll require the capacity to think fast and produce accurate answers. If you feel like your brain doesn’t move as quickly as you need it to, here’s what I’ve found has helped me make it THINK faster:

1. Take care of yourself. This should always come first, but when time grows short, what takes the hit? Rest, diet, and exercise, almost inevitably. How can you do your job well if you’re dragging around on five hours of sleep or feeling sluggish from those 20 extra pounds? Well, stop holding yourself back! Get the right amount of sleep, eat decently, and exercise regularly, so your brain will function at its best. Last week’s sales figures will be at the tip of your tongue!

2. Hone your memory. While rote memorization will never beat true learning, you do need to keep your facts immediately accessible; and in any case, a good memory helps in traditional learning too. So study the important things repeatedly until you’ve internalized them. How many fields can Boxlets 3.0 handle? How many types of charts can it produce? How many megabytes of memory storage does it require? If you have memory problems, you can train yourself using myriad memory enhancement techniques, from Dale Carnegie to the latest memory aid software. Keep trying them until you find something that fits your learning style.

3. Improve your focus. As I write this, I can hear the thudding bass of a car down the street, driven by someone who thinks the whole world wants to hear his playlist. The standard open-plan office can prove even more challenging, with its hallway conversations, ringing phones, clattering keyboards, and photocopier whirs. Even if you try to ignore it, such distractions subconsciously demand a piece of your attention and therefore slow your thinking. When you need to get in the zone, seek solitude in an empty conference room or work from home. Or wear headphones and listen to classical music. Turn off your email, phone, and cell. How else can you beta-test Boxlets 4.0 undisturbed?

4. Nourish your brain. All Boxlets and no play makes you a dull expert. Almost everything you read teaches you something. So give your mind the “food” it needs. Read a lot. Learn new facts. Study a foreign language. Play Sudoku and sharpen your intellect with New York Times crosswords. Keep your mind active, and you’ll be able to jumpstart the synapses with minimal effort the next time someone asks you, “What version of Boxlets do you recommend for Ubuntu 13.47 on an IBM enterprise server?”

5. Knowledge = Power. It may sound like a cliché, but that doesn’t make it wrong. Learn every bit of lore you can about your specialty and associated topics, so you can reply with authority. But broaden your knowledge outside your own expertise as well. I used to call my dad, the “Jack of all trades and master of none,” which wasn’t true because he has a Ph.D. in Philosophy and literally “wrote the book” the cadets at the Air Force Academy studied from. But I meant he could talk about virtually ANYTHING. He was so well studied and knowledgeable about so many things, he could talk intelligently to anyone about just about everything.

Fast, Furious, and Functional

If you put the THINK formula into action, you may not have to consciously think when someone asks you a question: the answer will be right there on the tip of your tongue. Even in a situation outside your immediate expertise, THINK holds you in good stead, because it keeps you mentally agile, flexible, and resilient—which puts you light years ahead of most people.

“If you have always done it that way, it’s probably wrong.” — Charles Kettering, American inventor and former head of research at General Motors.

“The only completely consistent people are dead.” — Aldous Huxley, British writer

As surely as hair grows and flowers bloom, change will come rolling through your organization today, tomorrow, and always. Trying to resist it would be like trying to hold back the ocean. That didn’t work for King Canute, and it won’t work for you. Instead, take advantage of change: catch the wave, hang ten, and use its energy to your advantage.

Admittedly, that may prove easier said than done. But you can use that argument for almost anything. You can also blame someone else when change leaves damage in its wake because you did nothing. You can actively resist change, and snap in half like a rigid old tree. All these approaches fail eventually. If, on the other hand, you embrace change—in the tradition of agile flexibility that defines the most successful organizations among us—then who knows what wonders await you?

Rather than mire yourself in the mud of complacency and familiarity, learn as much as you can as change washes through, then apply Walt Disney’s famous dictum: keep moving forward. As a leader, this responsibility extends to encouraging your team to do the same, in ways both subtle and overt. Consider these three basic tactics:

1. Focus on the benefits. First of all, most changes won’t devastate you. For example, instead of wringing your hands because the company has slowed your workflow temporarily by shifting from one software or hardware platform to another—something most tech writers have faced a dozen times in their careers—focus on the buried gold and sell the benefits to your team. Look and you’ll surely find.

My dad typed his dissertation on a typewriter. Then we started using word processors, where you typed into a little window and then hit go when it was ready to type. Then we had WordPerfect for DOS, then WordPerfect for Windows, and then Microsoft Word—and before long, Word was the world’s #1 word processing program. Did you resent the inconveniences of shifting from one to the other? You knew how much the change would benefit you.

2. Reframe the challenge as an opportunity. Rather than angst about the difficulty you’ll face as a result of the change, offer it to yourself and your team as a chance to learn something new, improve your workflow, increase your mental flexibility, and hone your agility. It’s especially effective if you can see it as an adventure, something that adds spice to your life. Just accept the possibility that the change can prove good for you, if you let it.

Many people resisted remote “cloud” backup for their files at first, because they didn’t understand it and were afraid they’d lose data if they tried something like DropBox or CrashPlan. Yet this is clearly the wave of the future, and most who’ve faced the challenge squarely have found it not just easy but also fascinating, opening up whole new possibilities for improved productivity.

3. Phase It In Gradually. With rare exceptions, you don’t have to dump your old way of doing something in favor of the new right away. You generally have time to thoroughly investigate the change, dig up and share out the nuggets of gold, and provide any necessary training or tools to smooth the transition.

This represents how most pharmaceuticals enter the marketplace. It can take years for a drug to proceed through the process, from discovery to animal and human trials, and finally FDA approval. Many never make it. Some get rolled back even after long-term use. Take Avandamet, a combination of antidiabetes drugs Avandia and metformin. Separately, both lower blood sugar; but when combined, they work even better. However, early forms of Avandamet made some people ill, because the formulation was chemically unstable. The manufacturer rolled it back and reformulated several times before achieving FDA acceptability.

Keep Moving Forward

Don’t change just for change’s sake; that represents an unforgivable waste of resources. Change will inevitably find you. When it does, the secret is to treat it as a surfer would a monster wave: get a little ahead of it and ride it into shore, enjoying the thrill as you harness its power. These three steps, while representing just a few of the possible ways of embracing change as it occurs, can help you do more than just survive when the wave leaves you in the surf. They can help you come up smelling like roses…instead of dead fish.

“The most empowering condition of all is when the entire organization is aligned with its mission, and people’s passions and purpose are in synch with each other.” — Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic, and leadership expert Peter Sims

“Alignment begins with a constituency of one.” — American inspirational writer Kristin S. Kaufman.

One of the business world’s standing challenges is aligning long-term organizational strategy with day-to-day operations—the short-term tactics and logistics that combine to ensure the organization stays afloat. Indeed, bringing the two together may represent the most difficult part of a leader’s job.

It’s tough at any level, especially on the front lines where workers have a hard enough time taking care of their basic duties, plus the new initiatives their bosses throw at them. But then, organizational strategy probably doesn’t get much mention in their job descriptions. I’ll bet it does in yours, though. As a leader, you get paid “the big bucks” to align overall goals with the daily routine, because it’s the day-to-day that moves the needle.

I take it as an article of faith—and I trust you do, too—that people do better work when they can engage with and own their jobs. Conversely, they won’t care much if they believe their work doesn’t matter, so show them how it does. I recommend the 3T Method: Tell, Teach, and Train. Each step intertwines with the others at a basic level.

1. Tell. Don’t expect most employees to go out of their way to dig up the company’s mission and vision statements. Instead, meet with each one and tell them exactly why their daily work matters and how it fits into the organization’s overall strategy. Once they realize they matter (and especially that the higher-ups know they do), they’ll be more likely to take ownership of their work. Specifically, your team members need to know:

• The goal. What do you expect them to achieve? How will they know when they’ve arrived?
• Why they should care. Why is the mission important and compelling?
• How to get there. Who’s responsible for what? What specific pieces of the project will they undertake? What’s the timeline for completion? How will you track progress? How will their team members help?
• The final result. What rewards, implicit or explicit, will they receive? How will you hold them accountable for their results?

2. Teach. Once you’ve shown your people how and why they matter, carry it forward by empowering them. As the work situation or industry evolves, keep them in the loop. Post metrics to demonstrate how their work has gotten everyone closer to the finish line. Mentor them, helping them grow into and beyond their jobs so they can step into positions of greater responsibility…and honestly offer them a realistic chance of advancement. Nothing kills engagement like realizing you’re in a dead-end job.

3. Train. Consistently educate your team members in new procedures, software applications, and additions to their job descriptions. Don’t hesitate to help them refine their existing skills. Just because you have one type of hammer doesn’t mean you can use it for all hammering tasks. (Ever try to hang a picture using a sledgehammer?)

Facing the Future

Depending on your situation, you may not find the 3Ts easy to implement. But the concept itself is simple enough. Think of each step as an investment, because in the long run, they will save you money. You’ll find it cheaper to Tell, Teach, and Train a team of dedicated workers who stay with you for years, actively helping you bring strategy and tactics in line with each other, than to constantly find and replace people who have no idea why their work matters—and worse, couldn’t give a flip.

“Gain a modest reputation for being unreliable, and you will never be asked to do a thing.” — Paul Theroux, American travel writer and artist.

“From the backstabbing co-worker to the meddling sister-in-law, you are in charge of how you react to the people and events in your life. You can either give negativity power over your life, or you can choose happiness instead.” — Anais Nin, French-American diarist.

Volunteer leaders, freelancers, and corporate employees alike all depend on others to contribute or provide work. At some point, you will run into people who fail to deliver what they’ve promised. How should you react when people leave you in the lurch? Your reaction depends on a number of factors:

• Was the failure an oversight, or did they outright break a promise?
• Was this a one-time thing, or does it happen often?
• Do you rely on their work so you can do yours?
• Do you depend on their work for your team’s success?
• Are you co-workers, or is this your boss?
• In what way and how badly did their failure impact your productivity?

Based on the relevant combination of factors, you have several options, which may escalate if the situation worsens.

1. A gentle reminder. Nudge them about the matter; you may jar loose what they’ve promised. Maybe they just forgot. This is the most common response in most situations, especially when dealing with co-workers or the boss. Usually this is enough to produce a result.

2. Communicate the inconvenience. If their failure has compromised your productivity or the team’s, or if this has happened more than a few times before, be more direct than Step 1. Make it clear you depend on them to do what they say they will do. If your project requires their input, flat out tell them you can’t do your work until they supply it.

3. Have a serious chat with them. If Step 2 fails, take it up a notch and have an earnest face-to-face talk. Remind them of their promise, and pin them down on a due date. Look them in the eye when they tell you they will have it to you by a certain day and time.

4. Go around them. No result as yet? Find someone else to help you. This works best with co-workers. If someone has promised to do something for you and doesn’t, take them out of the loop altogether and go to someone else—if you can. This should be low on your list of options, after you’ve already pushed them for what they promised. Sometimes it represents the only way to avoid bottlenecks caused by what Albert J. Bernstein calls “dinosaur brains,” people who enjoy wielding petty authority.

5. Go over their head. The purpose of any business or organization is to produce useful products or services, whether widgets or government policy, in as efficient a manner as possible—not to keep lazy or controlling coworkers happy. If you find your way blocked by one, consider going over them to their boss. Depending on the situation, you might obliquely mention your need, or bluntly point out so-and-so won’t produce. So-and-so might call you a snitch, but so what?

Fair warning: going over YOUR boss’s head is a really, really bad idea, no matter how crummy the situation, and doing so should represent a last-ditch effort. No matter how unfair it may be, you could wind up jobless for not following the chain of command. Go to HR first in dire circumstances.

6. The nuclear option. If the other person keeps it up and proves to your satisfaction they just don’t care—or worse, they think it doesn’t matter if they lie to you—end the relationship. If you’re coworkers, tell your boss you can’t work with them and why. If you’re the boss, put them on notice; and then fire them if they don’t improve. If they’re the boss, arrange a transfer or quit. You can’t do your job if those you depend on won’t let you. Again, this is the sixth and final step. It rarely comes to this, thank goodness.

Final Thoughts

You may work in an office where you suspect certain people don’t meet the minimum requirements of their jobs. You’ve seen it: they roll in at 10:00 AM daily or take two-hour lunches. My recommendation? If you’re not management and this doesn’t affect you directly, ignore it. For all you know, they stay till 10 PM to make up for arriving late, based on a previous agreement with the boss, or they have personal issues that limit their ability to work a full day. Even if you know they’re cheating, don’t let it stress you. It’s unfair, but you have enough to worry about. Put your head down, bull through, do your best, and trust those in charge to notice and have the intestinal fortitude to do what they should.

“You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.” — André Gide, French author (winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1947).

“An idea that is not dangerous is unworthy of being called an idea at all.” — Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright and poet.

While the business environment requires a certain level of built-in routine in order to maximize productivity, that doesn’t mean you can’t have creative fun at work. Remember what Peter Drucker taught us: “The business enterprise has two—and only two—basic functions: marketing and innovation.” So what does that have to do with creativity? Just this: when you reduce it to its essentials, innovation is creativity.

Innovation facilitates the agility and flexibility all organizations require to survive. So how can you increase innovation in your organization? Let’s look at a few possibilities.

1. Foster an open, creative work environment. To foster creativity, some companies provide workers with snacks, games, and “time off” during work hours. Google allows developers to work on their own projects one full day per week. Among other things, this has resulted in nifty services like Google News—so obviously, the approach works. You may not be able to offer that much freedom, but at least you can encourage communication, a positive attitude, and a low-stress environment. All these can support the greater mental flexibility and unshackled thought that result in profitable innovation. Team bonding events like retreats can also work, as long as you don’t make them competitive or stressful.

2. Motivate your team. Positive reinforcement in the form of rewards, bonuses, special privileges, comp time, and prizes will keep people on their toes. Not everyone will participate, but many will when they see their efforts have clear benefits.

3. Encourage diversity. A wide range of working styles, thought processes, and viewpoints is essential to avoiding groupthink, where a homogenized team loses the ability to see solutions obvious to outsiders. Innovation can only grow in a well-fertilized field. Rather than stunt its growth, find ways to encourage interaction and the exchange of ideas. Break down information silos between teams by getting them together to exchange ideas. Bring in speakers from outside to offer alternate perspectives. The cross-fertilization that results will blossom into ideas you can profit from.

4. Provide the proper tools. Carpenters can’t do their jobs with hammers alone; they also need saws, levels, planes, drills, and miter boxes. Make sure your people get the tools they need: computers, software, education, or training.

5. Create innovation teams. Build teams comprised of members with diverse working styles, experience, and skill-sets, whose primary purpose is to get together to innovate. I’ve seen this done as a full-time role or one or two days a week. Although some claim spontaneity goes out the window with such teams, solid communal thought, bantering, and brainstorming can result in surprising innovations.

6. Don’t penalize. To be truly innovative, you must risk failure. That’s just part of the creative mindset, since you fail more often than you succeed. If your team members fear punishment if their initiatives fail, why should they even try? Always provide a suggestion box, so employees can contribute anonymously. Even in an open environment, some people prefer confidentiality.

Hold That Line!

While you may be doing fine without innovation right now, at best you’re in a holding pattern. Someday, a more innovative player will knock you down a peg…and possibly out of the game altogether. You’ve heard the saying “grow or die.” Nowhere does this hold truer than in the business arena. Even if you provide an absolute necessity, like toilet paper or chocolate, someone can nibble on the edges of your market share with innovative marketing style or new ideas. Don’t let them! Get out there and innovate like crazy.