family_and_career - Janet Bailey on Diigo

04 Apr 08

To complain about a shortage of time is like a fish in the sea complaining that it has a shortage of water.
resistance and procrastination.
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- “I’m not really going to write that report now, but I’ll just get the file out” will cause the Reactive Brain to switch the resistance off. Since getting the file out on its own is not perceived as a threat, the Reactive Brain has no reason to maintain the feelings of resistance.
- we started with a conflict: the Rational Brain had the intention of writing the report, while the Reactive Brain was resisting it as a threat. Once the resistance was switched off, both the Rational Brain and the Reactive Brain were freed to co-operate in the writing of the report.
- for most of us the Rational Brain doesn’t know the best strategies to control the Reactive Brain. We therefore tend to rely on will power alone.
- In spite of all the highly rational decisions that we make, it only takes one or two things to go wrong for our beautifully planned days to be reduced to chaos. We react like headless chickens to the random play of events during the day. One phone call, one crisis, one unexpected demand, and our plan for the day starts to wobble.
- Even if one starts off with a very simple task indeed on Day One
- and moves by the slowest possible increments, it is almost impossible to keep going for a protracted time. The reason is that we will sooner or later get to a level of difficulty at which we are actively resisting the actions necessary to complete the task.
- this is how we generally judge the difficulty of a proposed action – by how much we are resisting it rather than by how much skill or technical expertise it will take. So many people see doing their tax return as very difficult, even though no real skill is involved.

Home - Get Everything Done

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family_and_career planning time_management

e-mails unanswered, calls not returned, deadlines missed, details unchecked, appointments delayed,
Methods I don’t recommend!
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- Prioritizing by Importance
- Prioritizing by Urgency
- Lists
- Don’t get caught in the activity trap -
- To Do Lists
- never have time to think.
- work through lunch
- don’t have time for exercise.
- don’t have time for a personal life.
- never have time to do the things you really want to do.
- constantly doing things which anyone else could do.

Indirect potshots and subtle and not so subtle putdowns
may puncture the heavy meeting air.
organizational uncertainty is
taking a toll; the glass always is half empty.
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- As
  confidence in self and leadership diminishes, staff tolerates perfunctory performance
  appraisal or robotic team meetings, or none at all. No real discussion regarding team
  effectiveness and support.
- As leadership disintegrates, coalitions form to defy
  authority and/or to band together for self-protection. Destructive competition among team
  members and cliques - looking good at another individual's or group's expense overrides
  the greater good.
- ignoring hard workers
  with dysfunctional interpersonal skills who incite personnel problems.
- overstressed, overstretched and
  chronically deadlined…
- feedback from group members is
  superficial.
- conflict identification and genuine
  problem-solving is squashed.
- "Do more with less" becomes "hoard more
  with less." Each department jealously guards information while selfishly pushing
  their interests or priorities over others' needs, timelines or concerns.
- high demand with low autonomy or
  control.
- little coordination between departments. Top down decision-making;
- Sense of high uncertainty and chronic vulnerability -- more
  work with less people and resources -- is taking its toll. Good people, experienced
  leaders are starting to bail out or buy out.

Dysfunctional Organizations

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dysfunctional family_and_career

many organizations have settled into a permanent crisis mode.
to stay healthy, for every period of stress, there
must be an equal period of “Whew!” to break the pressure.
6 more annotations...
- (1) people try harder as long as they can, (2)
  people burn out or break down and (3) people ultimately give up. A fear-driven, unhappy,
  pressured, can’t-win environment generates employees who check their brains at the
  door.
- “Insanity is doing the same thing
  over and over ...
  
  and expecting a different result.”
- This stay-the-course approach is like the New England farmer who had won the lottery. When
  asked what he was going to do with the money he responded, “I’m goin’ to
  keep on fahmin’ until it’s all gone.”
- The problem is a lack of absolute standards.
- Seamen have a saying about problems that is related to sub-optimization, “Not on my
  watch.” In dysfunctional organizations, everyone is worried about his or her own
  “watch” to the overall detriment of the organization.
- Remember the lesson of Sam Walton. He made billions using near-minimum wage workers,
  helping to destroy their local economy and taking its former profits out of town. Yet
  these same employees loved him because he (1) dressed casually, (2) treated everyone as an
  important person, and (3) drove an old pickup truck.