How many habits does it take?!

7 habits? 9 habits? 4 habits? 3?  Or are they principles? How about suggestions? 

I recently tweeted about Heidi Grant Halvorson's February 25th, 2011 HBR post "Nine Things Successful People Do Differently." I think it is a great read for anyone who is trying to Win Today. However, it did make me think that how in the sea of this new era we live in where predictability is relegated with the good ole days and the "knowledge" economy is in, we can be convicted by thought or circumstance of a need to change or improve our present selves. It can go a little something like this...

 1 - We may hear a sermon or a media show giving an abundance of compelling motivators and personal agreement to change.
 2 -  We leave the building or turn off the show with a ball of energy to discover the "new" us.
 3 - If the passion makes it through the night, or even past the next meal, we may even go and buy a book or join or acquire a new membership. "And this time we mean it!"
 4 - The abundance of reality that makes up the current you takes hold and we fall back into the comfort zone (which is actually our trained nervous system falling back into efficiency).
 5 - Guilt and disappointment over our inability to make those life changing "habits" assimilate into the new envisioned you. And sadly, the guilt feeling makes it even harder to start a personal change effort the next time, because your mind is naturally failure adverse.

To our own disappointment, we have all gone through such a cycle at some point in our life. Most of us will never publicly admit responsibility for the lack of change. Usually when asked how our self-advertised change was coming along, we will relegate the responsibility to some outside reason for its failure. But once a new and improved sequence of habits or suggestions emerges at the bookstore or in the mainstream media it can once again capture our passion and we go right down the same path.  Now let me stop here for a moment to insert my disclaimer for what I am about to suggest to make your next change attempt a manageable one.  If what you are trying to change has anything to do with a medical condition or addiction, please seek the advice of your own primary physician. Let's move on.

The issue isn't how many habits does it take to become the enlightened and efficient you, but rather what is your current capacity for change? You see, we all have a current capacity, or ability to efficiently and effectively perform.  If we set out to change a habit or acquire a new one, we first must take inventory of our current condition. I'm a big fan of any habit that can help us discover a more excellent personal and professional life! As a  matter of fact, in an effort to increase my win today "W" column I will keep abreast of the latest personal and organizational management trends. Yet, as I learn more about proposed "habits" I find that I have to actually pass on attempting some, or modify them. You see, I don't have the capacity to actually make some of those habits a new norm for me in their outlined state.

For instance, at a previous position of mine I had to attend a seminar regarding day planner organization. Admittedly, organization is not a natural tendency of mine. It wasn't until I worked for this manager who sent me to the seminar (who by the way was the most organized man I've ever been around) that I actually began adopting the organizational skills that I deploy today (fear of losing your job can do wonders). Yet, as I left the seminar with my new passion, planner tools, and education, I was never able to deploy the techniques at half the level of what the seminar prescribed. The reason was that my capacity for such a discipline was juvenile relatively speaking to the prescription that the seminar suggested.

You see, in the athletic world there are 4 principles to change that must be understood before we ever attempt to reach a new physcial capacity. These straightforward athletic training based principles are fundamentals to the physical training world, but to my knowledge, have not been clearly interpreted for the application of the personal and professional management world. 

The 4 principles are:

- The overload principle: Any load above and beyond your normal routine (capacity) will be stressful. It takes overload to make the adaptation process begin, but do not overload yourself too much. For example, if you never even walk as a normal routine of your day and want to start exercising, then walking 2 laps around a track will surely be above and beyond your normal routine. If this is you, do not do the new years resolution jinx and run a mile the day you decide to change. You will break yourself. For now, a mile is far beyond your capacity.

- The principle of progression: Capacity will change faster than you think, but will not change overnight. If walking 2 laps was originally above and beyond your normal routine than you will need to progress in some systematic form to 3 laps. In my experience, people can up the load in intervals of one week without over exhausting themselves as long as the progression of the load is realistic.

- The principle of specificity: If we are to change something, acquire a new habit, we must be specific. We can't just run into a weight room and lift sporadically each day.If we are to measure progress, we must focus on one discipline or in the case of athletic training, one exercise. Usually the personal management technique gurus do a great job of providing the specificity.

- The principle of rest: This is often times the largest hurdle for the new habit disciple that wants change NOW! Again, using athletics as an example, I cannot demand that my players perform the same lift at the same load sequentially. I must prescribe that there is at least a day off in between the load attempt if they are to grow their capacity. You see, the rest factor is when the muscle is actually building its capacity since the taxed muscle fibers will heal in such a way that they will be able to operate efficiently the next time that load is applied. Rest and progression go hand in hand.

In hindsight, here's how these 4 principles could have helped my day planner organization change effort. First, I should NOT have measured myself against my manager. His capacity to perform all of those finely tuned day planner duties with an unconscious competence was far beyond my newbie self. While all of those day planner techniques were sound and beneficial, to take them on all at once like I did provided more frustration and distraction to my day than efficiency. I should have prioritized the techniques in an order of relevance (overload/specificity). Next, the progression by which I was held accountable for was unrealistic. My manager required that we all communicate and plan with the methods prescribed by the seminar starting the next day. The accountability was certainly a motivator, however the expectation was unrealistic. Instead of applying the majority of my energy towards my organizational responsibilities and some towards my day planner learning, the exact opposite occurred. I began to measure my success for the day in term of my day planner efficiency instead of my actual employment responsibilities. As I mentioned above, in terms of specificity, I should have prioritized the day planner disciplines in regards to relevance to my job demands instead of attempting all the day planner duties at once (specificity). Lastly, myself and my manager should have reviewed the week's day planner performance to see exactly what I was performing effortlessly and what I was still grinding away at. Then, and only then, we could have come up with a outline of what I should attempt to tackle the next week (progression/rest). Remember, the idea behind any of the habits that the guru's prescribe is to make you more efficient and enlightened. That can only happen if and when it becomes a natural schema for us instead of a constant workout.


The wow factor of an entertainer's endorsement may be inspiring, but the motivation will quickly fizzle if you aren't aware of the key fundamentals to growth. In my own life, I will always begin a change with these principles in order to pull back the curtain regarding workout plans or personal behavioral change initiatives I'm attempting. Inevitably, I will fall off the path to change, but when I look back to the principles it helps me to re-focus and continue the journey. Once you figure out the fundamentals of these 4 principles you can give yourself good odds for change. At that point, it only becomes a matter of how many habits, principles, or suggestions that you have the capacity to change.

Win Today!

Victor

Vantage Point: valuing perspective for daily performance demands

When I was a boy, my father would occasionally take me fishing after school.  It was in those moments when I would learn some of my most lasting lessons.  On one particular trip we searched for a secret fishing hole that someone had told us about. Finding the spot took a bit longer than my limited patience could take. Sensing my anxiousness, my dad led us up to a higher plane in order to get our barrings. In a spirit of frustration I asked , "Why are we walking up the hill when we were told the secret spot was in the valley?" My dad patiently looked at me and and said, "Vantage point." "From this higher place we could expand our line of sight and better understand the landscape of the valley." Once on the top of the hill, the markers we were told about to find the fishing hole began to make much more sense. This was the first moment in my life that I began to understand the value of vantage point.

 

      Depending where you are on the mountain, your frame of
reference,your criticism, your reactions, and your decisions
are critically influenced by the vantage point you hold.

In our daily attempts to win each day, the principle of vantage point can play a major role in such areas as; conflict resolutions, assets management, and overall context. In a the May 2011 issue of the Harvard Business Review, professors Ikujiro Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi wrote an article titled The Wise Leader; How CEO's can learn from practical wisdom to help them do what's right for their companies. In the article they write
"The world needs leaders who will make judgements knowing that everything is contextual, make decisions knowing that everything is changing, and take actions knowing that everything depends on doing so in a timely fashion. They will have to see what is good, right, and just for society while being grounded in the details of the ever-changing front line. Thus, they must pair micromanagement with big-picture aspirations about the future (2011)."  Nonaka and Hirotaka give us some food for thought regarding just how critical an appreciation for the principle of vantage point can be for our daily competitiveness.

As leaders, parents, friends, and employees, we can all benefit if we take a step back from the moment to assess the context that our vantage point is feeding us. For instance, as the head football coach of a college team I am surrounded by a wealth of opinions. Initially, I may agree with some, however as the HC, I may disagree with others based on my more expansive vantage point. You see, I'm held accountable for leading the entire program to a greater good. While an opinion may be presented to me with sincere passion and conviction, my position allows me the perspective of knowing how decisions and circumstances can be intertwined with other cause and effects. Conversely, as time goes on, I may begin to loose the prospective of my front line people since I am further removed from what their daily reality is. Ironically, like most leaders, I am judged by the daily performance of my front line people instead of my over-arching vision. Therefore, a default response of mine to the front line frustrations can never be "they just don't understand." It is imperative that I never loose awareness of just how impactful my decisions can be to the front line since such power distance implications of vantage point can be the root of underachievement and organizational dysfunction. I have to keep my interpretive context  full of fresh insight from the top and the bottom.

 





Application of this principle within the context of the grass roots, vantage point can be the root of family and relational dysfunction. You see, depending where you are on the mountain, your frame of reference, your criticism, your reactions and your decisions are critically influenced by the vantage point you hold. At every level, everyone wants to win, this is why we can be so passionate about our personal positions and opinions. Our position can be  functional, or dysfunctional based on our perception. While a parent has the vantage point to restrict their teen from a potentially detrimental social situation, all the "rebellious" teen has to work off of is their vantage point that places tremendous value on the social currency implications of not going. Such a difference in vantage points can produce a lack of empathy between leaders and followers since they do not experience each other's consequential line of sight (see Vantage Point Index).



To win today, lets give room for the vantage point principle. As leaders, push for fresh perspective of the front line. Your macro directives may be right for the greater good, but will rely on the buy-in of your front line people. As followers, push to empathize with the responsibility demands effecting the greater good that leadership is accountable for. A follower's behavioral agenda may be short sighted in light of the grand scheme. 

In terms of communication, it is the responsibility of everyone to resolve the end by means of relying on the maximum line of sight that we have, while appreciating the line of sight that others bring to the table. By doing so on the daily, your relational unit around you will reciprocate some incredible nuggets that add value to your envisioned reality. Nonaka and Hirotaka state it this way, "When leaders cultivate such knowledge throughout the organization, they will be able to not only create fresh knowledge but also to make enlightened decisions (HBR, May 2011)." Practicing the vantage point principle fosters an environment of openness and trust since we recognize each other's vantage point reality.  As organizational leaders, the strong warning to not applying this principle is that we can tend to think too much of ourselves and our own opinions, essentially flipping the index upside down, resulting in severe organizational dysfunction and collateral damage. In the end, our desire and abilities are useless if we can't find that secret fishing spot in the valley!

Win Today!

Victor

The enemies of the penny principle

Last Friday night I attended an event to honor a few professionals in my field that have achieved tremendous success. I was particularly impacted by a statement of one of the recipients who stated in his acceptance speech, "I know I'm not the smartest guy, but I do know that most people do not work hard. So, I used that as my strategic advantage to get where I am today." This statement is true, however what does working hard really mean? 

As I drove home late Friday night, a rush of conviction came over me to conduct my personal and professional matters with a stronger work ethic! The problem is that there isn't 25 hours in the day. Just then, reality hit me...I already have a great deal on my plate. A plan to "just work harder" is a little like using a shotgun to win a marble shooting contest.  We all can do more, however doing more may just mean creating more chaos. Even more, in the hectic world we live in, it seems that we've witnessed enough collateral damage in-terms of bank failures and broken relationships that those liable can say were all in the spirit of working hard. This statement, combined with my recent post "The Penny Principle," prompted me to think about how simple, but profound this paradigm can be in terms of bringing clarity to what working hard means.  

In light of the penny principle, working hard means paying attention to the activities at hand is such a way that your presence and input will elevate the situation one step closer to a better envisioned reality. In other words, it is a matter of process. Which is exactly what the penny principle is all about.  Why does such a simple principle so easily slip by our daily activities sine we all know that great processes are the root of great successes. Moreover, we know that a great process can be identified by a detailed orientated and systematic approach to problem solving. With that said, I suggest to you that a fundamental culprit to the penny principle isn't necessarily the external circumstances, but rather the individual's internal ability to lead themselves. As I like to tell my players, "Manage the moment and the future will take care of itself." Here are three enemies to the penny principle that we all may have hidden within. 

1. Pace - In the rush of life we all strive to achieve more. For some achiever's there's nothing greater than the feeling of checking off a to do list! But, the pace of life or our efforts can actually be creating more cost than profit. I learned this lesson the hard way as a teenager while working on a construction job. Since I strived to finish the job by the day's end, my pace of work caused me to overlook the details. The next day my supervisor explained to me that he had to go back and re-do the work with greater detailed. This caused him a loss in pay which then caused me to lose money. Check your pace. Are you moving to fast to pick up a penny? It may even be so fast that you are actually dropping pennies. 

2. Laziness - Yes, there are many times when we need to be honest with ourselves. We could do more, however we just choose not to. I heard it once said "Three O'Clock is too early and too late to do anything." How are you managing your day? I don't want to guilt trip anyone, however let's be honest, there are times that we know that we are just not being productive enough.

3. Ego - I once worked on a staff of a very successful leader.  As a young professional, I was grateful for the opportunity. A month into the job, I was let in on an inside joke of some of the other young people on the staff who would purposefully drop pennies or nickels on the floor of the office just to see our boss pick them up. The supposed humor to the younger guys was that our boss couldn't resist to the urge to pick up the penny. In actuality, the joke was on the younger people. Our successful boss was successful because he practiced the penny principle! When let in on the joke, our boss just chuckled, but never wavered in his conviction. Is your ego causing you to step over the penny due to the supposed risk of being laughed at? 

Today, let's humble our mindset and begin to operate at a pace that doesn't forbid us from paying attention to the details, while keeping in balance the tension between laziness and working hard. By daily checking our sphere of influence for these three enemies, we are actually picking up pennies. 

Win Today!

Victor

The penny principle

Yesterday, my son had poured out his penny jar to find enough money to buy a new video game. He asked me the question "why do people like to have the paper money instead of all of these pennies?" I began to explain to him the convenience of carrying the paper money instead of all the pennies. He then went on to ask, "Isn't it still money?" Yes it is my son..yes it is.

In life, how many times do we ignore this fact that a penny is still money? There are countless times that we have all walked over pennies throughout our day because our mindset has been dilluted by convenience. The value of the penny is much greater than 1 cent!  There is a priceless principle to be found in the penny.  I call it the penny principle.

Every dollar is fundamentally built by the stacking of 100 pennies.  Every $100 is fundamentally the stacking of 1000 pennies. Take away the penny and you take away the fundamental starting point of the entire US Dollar financial system!  The same goes with the littlest details of a business venture or relationship endeavor. Every realized business or relationship success that we read about was built upon a proverbial penny.

For example, the finalization of a lucrative sales contract can be traced back to that first marketing call or contact that most likely was a part of a series of faithful marketing attempts to countless other client targets. More over, it may have been a contact that came from the "one last call" of the day after the sales associate experienced a full day of frustration. Yet, because making that one more call is a penny in the entire system of realizing and maturing an account, it cannot be over-looked.

The ego loves the external validation of success. Who doesn't. But the true measure of a champ is whether or not they will pick up pennies while others refused to be inconvenienced and step over it. Pick the penny up and you can know that at the very least you are one cent closer than the other pedestrians to realizing that dollar. This is why success is rare and the club "average" is full of members.

Win today!

Victor