Cleaning up for the Housekeeper

Have you ever found yourself running around the house wiping things down and straightening up BEFORE the housekeeper arrives. It sounds crazy, but we’ve all been there…embarrassed or unwilling to let the world see what’s REALLY going on, how bad the mess really is.

Businesses fall into this same trap when it comes to working ON the business through strategic planning and execution. There is always one more thing to clean up or straighten out BEFORE they can rally the team to build and execute a strategic plan. The list of examples we’ve run into is long.

• “It’s been really busy. Once things slow down a little bit and everyone catches their breath we will be ready
• We just hired a bunch of new people and it would be better if they had some experience first
• Our controller has been out dealing with an illness and we really need her at the table before we do something big like that
• We just started converting our systems over to a new software package and it’s got everyone buried. They won’t have time until we’re done
• Our new sales manager really needs everyone’s help to get things cleaned up in that department before we can talk about business strategy
• We are changing locations and that’s going to be very disruptive. It would be better to wait.
• There’s a new product line we are introducing and that has our full attention right now
• Our org chart is going through some big changes and until that settles down we just can’t manage any more change
• The CEO is about to go on sabbatical for two months.
• There’s a recession coming, let’s get through that before we start building plans to grow the business”

What is it that makes all of these excuses irrelevant?

First, to call them excuses isn’t quite right, because they are born out of a misunderstanding that comes from inexperience in the disciplines of strategic planning and execution. They aren’t excuses so much as they are the reality that faces small business teams every day. They are the whirlwind.

The Whirlwind

In their book The Four Disciplines of Execution Chris McChesney, Sean Covey and Jim Huling coined the term “the whirlwind” to describe the day-to-day responsibilities, fires, rabbit holes, dead ends, employee crises, and customer headaches that exist in our jobs. The whirlwind is inescapable because it is everything you are getting paid to do as part of your 40-50 hour per week job description. In fact, in our work with leadership teams all it takes to be extraordinarily successful over the long term is just 2-3 hours per week away from the whirlwind. This is time when you close the door, go to a coffee shop or work from home on your biggest 90 day priority. The rest of the time we know you will be mostly reactive, living in the whirlwind.

Let go and let your team

It is usually the leader that is trying to manage the whirlwind hoping that one day it will subside and there will be time to actually work on the business. Unfortunately that day is never coming.

The alternative is to let go and allow the team to manage the businesses in the midst of all kinds of whirlwind activities. I said earlier that we have seen every one of the items above used as an excuse NOT to work on the business. You might be surprised to know that we have also seen every single one of those items listed as a strategic priority tackled by a team that was growing the business. That’s right, one business’s excuse is another business’s strategic priority.

What’s the difference between a team that is just trying to survive the whirlwind and one that is tackling huge whirlwind issues and making them strategic priorities? The simplest answer is growth. Businesses trying to survive are usually stagnant. Those with leadership teams addressing the whirlwind in the context of a strategic plan are growing the business. Both businesses are going through the same set of circumstances. One is growing and one is maintaining the status quo.

Status Quo vs Actual Performance

Leaders struggling to maintain the status quo are rarely measuring the actual performance of their leadership team. They have taken on too much of the responsibility themselves, and rightly perceive that it’s not fair to hold people accountable for performance they haven’t been given the freedom to improve.

A different approach is to be transparent with the team and admit that yes, the house is a wreck. However, from this point forward, it is the team’s responsibility to get things in order, not just the business owner’s responsibility. The owner is simply one member of the team and cannot be expected to do it all.

The owner and the team can then decide how performance will be measured. Note we’ve said nothing about the owner setting an unrealistic expectation for performance in the face of overwhelming whirlwind responsibilities. We haven’t introduced expectations at all. We are just measuring how the business and individual leaders are actually performing.

Some important things happen when we start measuring what is actually going on in the business.

1. Leaders who belong on your team accept responsibility for their areas of performance.
2. Those who don’t belong on your team quickly self identify and look for a way out.
3. Reality sets in and people realize that even in the midst of the whirlwind performance needs to continue and improve over time.
4. The biggest whirlwind items, those that affect the entire team, become priorities that marshal the full attention and resources of the team.

We Aren’t as Special as We Think

I met with a business owner once who went on and on about all the reasons now wasn’t a good time for him to work with the team on growing the business. He rattled off three things that I remember well. First, he had just made a big tax payment and needed some time to rebuild cash reserves. Second, his inventory software was changing over to a cloud based system. Third, his controller and right hand person was looking to retire. He was in the pool building business.

So I said, “wow, it must be tough to be the only pool builder in the country with low cash reserves, a big systems upgrade and a key vacancy to fill all at the same time.”

We both knew he wasn’t that special. He had just finished telling me how a friendly competitor had grown 30% while the owner’s wife was battling breast cancer. We both knew a former employee of his who had started a landscaping company that managed to double in size despite losing half his equipment in a trailer fire….without insurance.

My point is that we all think our whirlwinds are special and that they make it infeasible to grow the business right now. But there are other business owners out there facing the same things we are, probably worse. Not only have they accepted the whirlwind as a fact of life, they have made the biggest, most difficult whirlwind problems priorities in a strategic plan to grow the business. And they’ve let go of any need or compulsion to protect the team from the whirlwind or from an expectation that the business still needs to perform and improve.

Start working on the business today. Building a plan to tackle your nastiest whirlwind items is a great place to start. Then get out of the way and let your team do the work. It is likely some of them won’t be up to it, but don’t let that stop you from letting the rest of your leaders shine. Don’t worry, they already know the house is a mess. It’s part of their job to help clean it up. Give them a chance and start growing again.

How I Found 25 Hours a Week to Think

There is a famous quote ascribed to Henry Ford.

"Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason so few engage in it."

I was curious so I went looking for the source. The quote is from an article Ford wrote for the April 1928 issue of The Forum. I would encourage you to read it. Apart from his thoughts on "thinking" it is worth the read to see how closely the issues and debates of his day match our own. You can view page images of the original periodical here. But back to the quote.

Thinking is indeed hard work. In the article Ford draws a distinction between thinking, wondering, just having ideas and intelligence.

Intelligence comprehends the outlines of a thing. Thinking breaks it into its elements, analyzes it, and puts it together again.

The problem, as in Ford's day, is that our overcommitted schedules and multitasking habits drive out any time to just think. Last week I was listening to an interview with Sara Blakely, founder of Spanx. She lamented the loss of time to just think because one of her favorite places to be alone and think is in the car. But now her office is only 15 minutes from home. Single, childless adults cannot relate to this, but a kid free car is near and dear to every parent's heart. I can sympathize with Blakely's desire for a longer drive to work. She solved her problem with a fake commute. Every morning she drives around Atlanta for an hour on her way to work and another hour on her way home.

Blakely's story reminded me of my college years. I inherited my grandfather's Dodge Ram 50 pickup truck, and I would drive it from Central Florida to Chattanooga, Tennessee for school. It had an old AM radio that was virtually useless on the interstate. So for eight hour stretches of time I would sit behind the wheel and just think. I can remember getting ready for a trip and deciding what I would think about, what project I would work on, what problem I would try to solve for the next eight hours.

That was back in the early 90's. In that same scenario today, without a radio, I would just put on my headphones and start listening to whichever audiobook or podcast currently had my attention. I would literally consume information for eight hours straight with very little time spent digesting it or working out its application for my life.

I'm not saying that podcasts and audiobooks are bad. I listen to a lot of them, and I get great information. But I admit that my application of their ideas and concepts is pretty shallow. Without the time to seriously think, break apart the ideas and put them back together again my application is mostly just tips, tricks, and hacks that require a minimum amount of effort.

So I started to experiment. I decided to find as much thinking time as I could. I would stop consuming so much information and just try to process more. After about 10 days I calculated that I have at least 25 hours a week just to think. Here's how I did it.

Drive time

Like Blakely, drive time is by far the biggest chunk of discretionary time I get during the week. On most days I am traveling to and from one or more clients for meetings. I average about 350 miles a week. At an average speed of 35 miles an hour that's about 10 hours of drive time. On some days it's more and on some days it's less but 10 hours is about right. My normal routine during drive time is to just listen to podcasts or audiobooks. Instead I can reclaim this time and get uninterrupted quiet time to just think.

Chores

The second biggest chunk comes when I'm just doing things around the house. Washing dishes, mopping floors, doing some kind of outside project on the weekends… It all adds up. Normally I'd have headphones in listening to another podcast. This accounts for about 7 hours every week.

Walking the Dog

I spend about 3 hours every week walking the dog. Instead of listening to podcasts or music that time has been converted to thinking time.

Shower and Shave

I spend about 3 hours a week showering and shaving. Again, my custom is to multitask by listening to podcasts during this time. Simply turning off the phone gives me 15 minutes every morning and 15 minutes every evening to just think.

Solo Lunches

Two or three times a week I eat lunch alone. Rather than listening to podcasts, watching videos, or reading a book that time can be converted to thinking time. That's another 2 hours I can spend just thinking.

There are plenty of other times I could squeeze, but I like my podcasts and audio books. They give me food for thought, and also help me unwind. Thinking is work, and I'm not always up for it. Incidentally, replacing TV time is not on the list. I just don't watch enough TV to find much more than an hour a week to reclaim.

Tip #1: Deconstruct a Problem

So you've found your own 25 hours. What do you do with them? As Henry Ford said, just letting your mind wander is not the same as thinking. It is best to have an object for your thought, something you can meditate on and roll around, deconstruct and put back together. For me problems work best. Here's a sample.

• A client is struggling to make progress on a major project. How can we get them unstuck and get some momentum?

• Our outreach to clients is lacking. How do we engage with them more often and provide things they can use?

• I'm not keeping pace with my word per day count for my writing goal. What are some different ways I can approach this in my schedule or workflows?

• A company I work with is struggling to hire good people. How can we assimilate all we've ever done on hiring so our clients can use it effectively?

• We've pulled out the same report three times in a row with this client. How can we portray it in the dashboard so the people who need it don't have to ask for it anymore?

• One of my kids struggles to remember school assignments and bits of minutia that have to be signed, turned in, etc. How do you develop a task management system for a 9, 10, 11, 12 year old that is fun to use and not too cumbersome?

If you want to get serious about upping your thinking game keep a list of problems you want to work on. Don't be a slave to the last problem that crossed your mind. Disciplining yourself to spend time thinking is a valuable skill. It's best applied to the problems that are most important to solve.

Tip #2: Meditate

Your thinking time doesn't have to be all problem solving. You can also gain valuable insights by taking a thought, a concept, a quote or a piece of scripture and just meditating on it. You don't have to sit cross legged and chant mantras to meditate. Meditation is first and foremost contemplation and reflection.

You may not be sitting on a pillow, listening to serene music and overlooking a sunset, BUT the act of discovering some truth or application simply by thinking is a very calming and relaxing experience. I can be backed up in traffic, but if I'm meditating on one of the Proverbs, digesting the pieces word by word...I don't care that we're crawling along at 5 MPH.

Keep a list of cards handy that have inspiring verses or quotes or deep thoughts on them. I keep mine in the car since that is where I have the most time. This practice has the ability to change the course of your day and put you in a frame of mind to accomplish much more than you would otherwise.

A huge part of our role in business is to THINK. But you have to make the time first. Take a look at your days and weeks and I'll bet you can find a few extra hours to up your thinking game.

Let me know how you plan to do it.