Tag Archives: focus

Organizations and the Laws of Physics

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I am writing this article to create an imbalance in the world of those who read my posts. I am not in any way attempting to consider all of the options, or to be fair.  I just want to Step on your t pets a little. If it makes you uncomfortable, that is a good thing.  It is what this article is meant to do.

Newton’s Second Law of motion, in paraphrase, states that to change the state of motion of an object, a force must act on it to create an imbalance in forces. The object will then move to establish a new state of equilibrium.

The second law of thermodynamics, in paraphrase, states that systems always move toward a state of equilibrium. This movement will persist until the system reaches absolute zero (system death) or equilibrium is reached.

These concepts taken from physics also apply to human endeavors at the individual and organizational levels. In the human experience we call equilibrium the “status quo”.  I personally find that the status quo is a place for those who need rest or are not motivated to move forward. I am not against rest, but if you are resting and your competition isn’t, you’re losing ground. In other words, the status quo for me is good only when the status quo is to avoid the status quo.  Chew on that one for a while.

The status quo mentality usually forms in organizations and individuals who are internally focused. Being internally focused will isolate you from your external operating environment. You do not feel, or you fail to recognize, external forces that create imbalances in your external operating environment. The result is that you become out of alignment with the world around you. You fail to benefit from changes in the environment or maybe you even fall victim to them. The ostrich may have protected his head, but his rear end is more than a little exposed.

I know that some will say that organizations and individuals must isolate themselves from destructive forces in their operating environment in order to protect their assets.  I will answer that I disagree. Individuals or organizations that do not try to manage within the environment they operate in are simply exchanging one master (the larger outside world) for another (isolation). We do not have to be mastered by either. We control our choices and we become stronger and more robust as we exercise our ability to choose.

Let me give you examples. Governments and businesses isolate themselves from the governed and customers with bureaucratic layers of management. Religions do this by operating on a paradigm of exclusion (us, them) instead of a paradigm of inclusion. The result is that some governments, businesses and religions become more and more isolated, lose connection with their sense of purpose and eventually fail.

So what do you do? First understand that nothing stays the same in our world.  We age, tastes change and the people around us change. There is an interesting story line in the movie “The Time Machine”. The time traveler sits in his time machine and watches the world change around him.  He is isolated from the effects of the change and when he arrives in the future he is out of place and out of sync with the world around him.  The world experienced the changes first hand and has adapted, he did not experience the changes and finds himself in danger without a full understanding of how to cope. In the movie the good guys win, but in real life it probably would not have turned out that way.

We don’t have to agree with, or placidly accept, the changes around us. We can push back, adjust our strategy, etc. What we cannot do is ignore what is happening. The wise person evaluates these changes against reality and avoids letting others interpret their meanings for them. In sports we call this “keeping on your toes” or “keeping you eye on the ball.” In life it is simply a matter of paying attention to what is happening around us and keeping the main thing, the main thing.

In short we must embrace change. The world is moving onward with a great deal of inertia and it doesn’t care if you get left behind. The days of large stable bureaucratically ran organizations are coming to an end.  These are the days of smaller, fast and flexible, organizations that can move quickly to take care of customers, no matter how the environment changes. What customers, and people in general, want are solution providers, not protestors or clingers on to the old paradigm.

One way to manage this is to balance long term projects, goals and rewards with short term projects, goals and rewards. The long term perspective tends to add stability to an organization’s progress over time.  The short term perspective creates more employee engagement and a degree of instability, which is also good. Short term projects, goals and rewards operate in the current reality and force us to see what is actually happening right now. Long term projects, goals and rewards keep us focused on our mission and vision, which may be based in another reality. Short and long term efforts tend to modify each other in a healthy way when managed properly.

The balance point is always shifting.  Don’t let it become a tripping point.

Fractured Thinking

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Have you ever been behind someone in traffic who was driving exceptionally slow or erratically? Then when you passed them you see them speaking or texting on a cell phone? You have just witnessed fractured thinking. It doesn’t take much imagination to see what kind of safety problems this creates.

Fractured thinking occurs when you are forced to jump around from one cognitive activity to another, or splitting your thinking between multiple subjects. It is usually the result of interruptions, or outright hijacking, of your intellectual activity.

The interruptions and split focus effects us in places outside of our cars also. Imagine that you are working on a project and you get interrupted by a phone call, text message, or a personal visit. You don’t just restart right where you left off when the interruption occurred. Some back tracking is usually necessary.  Sometime you even forget to get back to the original task. The next thing you know, you make a mistake and get to deal with all of the negative results.

It used to be good advice to not answer the phone every time it rings. Don’t let the phone dictate your work flow. Let the voice mail pick up or simply work in a different area.  One without your phone. Working in a different area will not work anymore because we carry our phones with us. “Hands Free” functionality will free up your hands, but you are still subject to the interruption and fractured thinking.

Here is the trick. Realize that you are addicted to your cell phone. You do not have to answer the phone every time it rings or alerts you about an incoming text message. You still have the power to control incoming information and to channel it into a less destructive time.  Really…You do.

Here is how.  Select ring tones that can be assigned to specific callers or groups of callers. That way when the phone rings, you can make a decision about answering now or waiting on a message based on what ring tone you hear. Text messaging is even easier. Simply turn off the notification and check your phone for text messages at a better time. How many people text you in an emergency? Not many, especially if you tell them that text messaging is a low priority communication medium for you.

Don’t use emergencies as an excuse to continue your addiction. I have arranged with my family to make an immediate second call to me in an emergency.  That second call within a few seconds tells me that I need to answer. A little planning on the front end saves me a lot of aggravation during my daily routine.

The take away is that you do have control over your cell phone. It is only a myth that you have to answer it’s every beck and call. The less fractured thinking you have, the better your performance will be and the more successful you will be.  Not to mention having less stress.