Photo courtesy of "ydiggnme" via Flickr

Lately I’ve been feeling a little blah about work.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my job, but I’ve been at this for almost 10 years now, a lot of this is stuff I’ve done before.  One sales call starts to look like another sales call; writing another proposal, or meeting new people at an event, well, doesn’t seem so exciting the 900th time.

So it was just at the right time that I picked up “The Inner Game of Work” by Timothy Gallwey.  Tim has a lot of good ideas in this book, but the one that I’ve been working with the most is that there are three measures of satisfaction in work, Performance, Enjoyment and Learning.  He says that if any of these three get out of balance (e.g. if you focus only on performance) then the other two will suffer. So if you are feeling flat about your work, you might try dialing back on the performance measures, and add a dose of learning.

But how do I add learning to tasks that I’ve done 900+ times?  Glad you asked!

One solution is to be really observant. I may be on my 5th interview of the day, but I can still watch really carefully for the facial expressions that the interviewee is giving me.  Even on the phone, can I recognize the emotion in their voice, are they excited, scared, nervous? By focusing in on these critical details I realize that this interview isn’t really the same as the other 4, their emotions are all different; in fact it’s at totally different person! Being observant has helped me to see what’s unique and different about this interview, and since it’s different there are things to learn.

A second solution is to challenge my own thinking. Writing that proposal, how can I get the idea across with fewer words?  Or what if I tried using an illustration, or a chart?  Would that improve the communication? Forcing myself to look at the challenge afresh, and maybe learn something new in the process keeps me learning.

Now comes the magic part; this not only helps me to keep focused on tasks that I’m not that fired up for, but it also improves my performance.

When I listen for the emotional clues in the interview, I’m listening much more closely to the interview.  When I try to craft the shortest sentence that communicates what I need, I think more deeply about what I need to communicate. You get the idea; it’s a double whammy!  Not only is the task more interesting and enjoyable, but the performance improves too!

So if you are doing more tactical work, or if what you have on your plate is too routine, see if adding some learning or challenge can help revitalize the task and improve your performance.

What do you do to rejuvinate your routine tasks?

I know that I’m reading a really great book when I keep nodding at each page, “yes, yes, exactly…”  The authors are telling me something that I knew intuitively, yet somehow they have given voice to that hunch and even explained it with elegance.  That’s exactly the experience I had while reading “Switch” by Chip and Dan Heath.

Switch is a follow up to Chip and Dan’s excellent first book “Made to Stick” about how to communicate in a way that people will remember what you said.  In Switch they look beyond communication to actually getting people to make change.  As a business growth advisor my business is entirely dependent on getting people to do things they may not want to do, I do this every day.  But the Heath brothers not only taught me some new things about making change, they also gave me a simple framework that helps me think more clearly about why change might be difficult for a client, for a friend or even for my kids.  The book is broken down into three sections, each describing one necessary ingredient for successful change.  First there is The Rider, the rational part of the brain that steers the course.  The Rider needs good reasons, and needs to understand why.  But The Rider’s influence is limited because he sits on top of The Elephant, our emotional dinosaur brain that so often interferes in The Riders lofty plans. The Elephant responds to feelings, to emotions and needs to be on board to make any real change.  Then there is The Path, the situation or system surrounding the person trying to change even a well coordinated Rider and Elephant can’t find their way if The Path is obscured or full of obstacles.  Sometimes a change in the system is all that’s needed to get change to stick.

This framework is immensely helpful when trying to identify why people aren’t making the change you expect, is there a lack of skill, a lack of will, or an environment that hampers their success?  The book even provides little practice cases where they give you an example and you can diagnose what you would do.

My first read through the book is reminding me of my first pass through some of my favorite books of all time.  I keep finding nuggets that I carry around through my day, that are immediately practical and usable.  I also know that there is stuff in here that I will need to ponder and practice for many years.

If this sounds intriguing to you, and you want to learn more, Chip and Dan will be all around the country to discuss the ideas and sell some books.  They will be in Chicago March 11, you can get more information and register at the Switch Book Tour page.  I look forward to seeing you there!

Switch is available starting February 16th, I received a free advance reading copy from Chip and Dan’s Web site.

Just Added:  I found another great review at the San Jose Mercury News: “You Wanna Change Things?”

I recently received a copy of Donald Miller’s “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” from Thomas Nelson’s BookSneeze program. I really don’t know what I was expecting. Prior to this I was unfamiliar with Donald Miller even though his first book “Blue Like Jazz” sold over a million copies. I half thought it might be a biking book (it’s not really, despite the cover and title). What I found was an engaging and insightful group of essays.

Donald Miller has a rambling, self-examining style, reminiscent of Anne Lamott and in “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years” he points this verbal magnifying glass toward his experience of writing the screenplay for the movie version of the autobiographical “Blue Like Jazz”.  In doing so his director mentions that they are going to have to make some changes to his life because it’s “a little boring”. This revelation leads Donald to explore what he would need to do to make a better story for his life.

It’s hard to describe or summarize Donald Miller, so instead here’s:

Ten Things I learned reading “A Million Miles in a Thousand Years”

1. You are the lead character in your own story.
   If you want your life to tell a great story YOU have to make decisions that will create that story.  You need to make choices that require risk and that may cost you something.
2. Great stories have characters who want something.
   “If you watched a movie about a guy who wanted a Volvo and worked for years to get it, you wouldn’t cry at the end when he drove it off the lot…” It takes wanting something big and unreachable to get us to really care.
3. We care about characters who overcome obstacles.
   Life has curves, but those curves are actually what drive us to do more, care more, and make our lives more interesting and the curves themselves help us to build character.
4. We care even more about characters who sacrifice themselves for a cause.
   It’s not enough that we just go through life and navigate the curves that come.  If we want to create a really compelling, even epic life story we need to sacrifice; give more than is comfortable, or reasonable or smart.
5. Fear can keep us from creating great stories.
   “Fear isn’t only a guide to keep us safe; it’s also a manipulative emotion that can trick us into living a boring life.”
6. Great stories have unique moments that are memorable.
   This one really got to me.  You can live a happy, enjoyable life and if you don’t do anything out of the ordinary, if you don’t take a few things ‘too far’, you can have a really enjoyable life, but nothing memorable.  Memorable experiences stand out from the ordinary.
7. Extreme experiences are not enough.
   Hiking Machu Picchu is something few of us get to do.  While the natural beauty and extreme nature of the trail are unique, it’s still just a nice walk.  What is the stakes?  How are you putting yourself on the line and taking bigger risks?
8. There’s nothing like a good redemption story to make me cry (unless it’s the next story about the death of a spouse).
9. “I’m a tree in a story about a forest… and the story of the forest is better than the story of the tree.”
   This is one of the more lasting lessons from this book for me.  Though I want to be the central character in my story, that story is not central to anyone else but me.  I may have successes and tragedy, I may want the world to stop to congratulate or comfort me, but that’s not going to happen.  The best thing I can do is find the places where my story can weave together with the story of those around me and create that rich tapestry we call life.
10. Donald Miller is a man who is wise beyond his years.
    Seriously, this guy is in his mid-thirties, and while he’d be the first to tell you he doesn’t have it all worked out, he’s got some great insights for folks of all ages.

After reading this book cover-to-cover over the course of a long weekend (I could hardly put it down at points) I’m now soaking in some of these lessons.  I know that my story will be different for having read it.  Stay tuned and you can let me know if I’m telling a better story with my life or not.

What story are you telling with your life?  Would it captivate you if it was made into a movie?

Leaders are readers, or so the saying goes.  I frequently get asked what books I would recommend to improve the skills of founders of creative service firms. These are my typical recommendations.

E-Myth is the classic work on running a small business.  Michael Gerber has some crucial insights about how to structure and organize your small businesses to so that you can run your business instead of having it run you.  If you feel like the whole business depends on you, and you can’t get your employees to take responsibility this book has the answers.

Jim Collins is my #1 most favorite business author.  Built to Last & Good to Great are must read books for every leader in business.  I think that Built to Last is the best of his books, it’s clear and actionable, and holds terrific insights into how you can create an enduring great company. There’s also a great monograph, Good to Great for Non-Profits, highly recommended after you’ve read the books themselves.

David Maister is the unchallenged guru of professional service firm management.  As with Jim Collins it’s hard to pick favorites, but I find clients are most often impacted by the business development lessons in The Trusted Advisor.  True Professionalism can be a terrific book to take younger professionals through to help them to orient themselves to what the job of a “professional” is.  Managing the Professional Services Firm is a more advanced work, more applicable for larger firms, but with lots of meaty lessons. These books are must reads for my team members.

Vern Harnish’s The Rockefeller Habits, has a great structure for how to run a business well. He has the best system for reporting and a meeting rhythm to keep all the parts of your business connected and well fed with information.  It’s short, but packed with practical information.

Lastly, Crucial Conversations by Patterson et al is a terrific book about how to have conversations when the stakes are high. So many of our conversations with employees, partners, prospects and clients get emotionally charged.  Each person is bringing in their own story about what’s happening and what should happen.  This book can help you to keep a clear head and communicate effectively even when others can’t.

Lastly, there are a number of Harvard Business Review articles that have been as useful and powerful to me as any book, Who’s Got the Monkey for managing tasks with your subordinates, Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time is important work for keeping you fueled, and energized for the long haul.

This is quite a reading list, and of course it’s not exhaustive, just my favorites.  What books, articles or Web sites keep you up to date and growing?