Dr. Roy Baumeister

Here’s something to think about when you make your New Year resolutions: Self-control is a limited resource. This observation comes from Dr. Roy Baumeister, a social psychologist at Florida State and world authority on willpower.

In one of his experiments, Baumeister set chocolate in front of adult participants and asked them to resist the temptation to eat it. (What happened to the good old days, when psychologists just shocked their volunteers with electricity?) Baumeister then challenged the participants with a brain teaser.

Baumeister found that the experimental subjects who flexed their willpower and resisted the candy gave up on the puzzle much quicker than the volunteers who sullied their fingers with chocolate as soon as his back was turned. The “strong willed” participants had less mental energy—and therefore determination—left to solve the puzzle.

Here’s how this relates to you…

When you resist temptation (or any other kind of distraction) you’re drawing from a well—a shallow well—of willpower. To repeat: Self-control is a limited resource. The core of our impulse control mechanisms are located in the prefrontal cortex, the most energy hungry part of our brain. And so, every time we slam the breaks on an impulse, the supply of mental energy we have left to resist the next temptation decreases. This has implications for the way we approach making changes in our lives…

Action Steps…

Make changes one at a time. Don’t try to stop smoking, drink less and lose weight simultaneously. Make progress one goal at a time and keep the others on the back burner. Regardless of how “strong-willed” you are, if you try to tackle multiple resolutions simultaneously, you risk overdrawing from your willpower well. According to Baumeister, trying to make too many changes at the same time actually results in regression.

Set up systems so you don’t have to waste your (limited) mental energy replaying the same “I don’t feel like it but I really should…” arguments over and over again. Returning to the subject of chocolate, I don’t know where the candy is hidden in my house. I can demolish a chocolate bar faster than a school of hypoglycemic piranha. So, to prevent total burnout of my willpower, Krys hides the candy and only doles it out when I make a specific request (and the piranha aren’t looking). I know, I’m pathetic…and thirty pounds lighter, baby! Nothing to do with my weedy willpower, it’s just the system I have in place.

Be especially wary when your willpower support structures change. One of the wheels fell off my exercise machine last week. A longstanding YMCA instructor called Vangie will be leaving for Colorado; sob, sob.  I, along with many of my YMCA buddies, am totally bummed out. And it’s a risky time for my exercise goals. Here’s why: Until now, all I have to do is get my butt to the gym where Vangie (and her wonderful colleagues Carmen and Rosie) tell me what to do…and I just do it. Some (most?) days I don’t feel like it, but I just do what I’m told. See how this conserves my (limited) resolve for other temptations?

When we lose part of our willpower support structure, it takes more of our (limited) mental energy to keep with the program. And, if we are trying to make too many changes at once or don’t have the other elements of our support structure in place, there’s a good chance that the wheels will fall off the “willpower wagon.”

Bottom line: Using the above action steps, conserve your biologically limited willpower so that it’s available for those times when you really need it.

Enough said, I’m off to the gym…I need someone to shout at me!

Happy Holidays and I’ll catch up with you in the new year,

Steve

Agree? Disagree? Speak your mind in the box below…

What can we learn from Mr. Perry’s all-too-human blunder? When I’m coaching presentation skills I warn attendees to be wary when using the phrase: “The three most important things are…” Under the harsh glare of the spotlight you may well forget the third item.

In fact, the best way to remember a list is by visual association because you’re acting in accordance with how your brain actually works.

Visual Association

Joshua Foer—author of Moonwalking with Einstein (a book about competitive memorization)—observed that governor Perry could have created a mental image incorporating the three cabinet level agencies he aimed to change.

To quote Foer: “Maybe his favorite elementary school teacher standing behind a lemonade stand handing out wads of cash, while shooting lightning bolts out of his underarms. That wacky image would have reminded him he wanted to cut education, commerce, and energy.”

Sure, it’s totally ridiculous. But, then again, this daft diagram might just have altered the entire course of Mr. Perry’s career.

FYI: Here’s a classic method for remembering a list of items. Give this method a try and you’ll be amazed how quickly and easily you can recall a series of (many more than three) unrelated items.

The Broader Point

Are you striving to create a richer, more meaningful life for yourself in a science-smart way? Or, are you making life more difficult than it needs to be by struggling against how your brain naturally functions? If, for example, you’re trying to lose weight, are you aware of what scientists have discovered about willpower? Or, if you’re trying to get organized, are you familiar with the research on time management?

Here’s the deal: You can plough through the scientific stuff yourself. Or, you can let me do the heavy lifting and present you with the simple action steps that make all the difference. That’s what this blog is all about. I hope to see you two weeks from now…

I’d love to hear what you think. You can speak your mind in the box below…

Here – right at the top – is the bottom line:

When you over complicate your approach to what you do, you spend way too much time working on the system and not enough time working the system itself. This is the difference between reading a book about time management vs. actually implementing an idea from the book.

What’s more, part of being effective is acquiring consistency; developing good habits. Developing consistency is extremely difficult if the systems you’re using to manage your professional and personal lives are unwieldy.

We are drowning in functional reserve; all the things our processes and software can do, but that we don’t – or don’t know how to – use. There’s an opportunity cost to all that distracting functionality. You overlook the chance to make things super-simple so you can get going and take action.

And so here’s a simple way to look at how you tackle your professional and personal responsibilities…

Magical Software…

Imagine buying a piece of office software which – rather than having 2987 functions right out of the box – magically added functionality as you proved to yourself that you needed it. Not because you think it might come in useful or because someone (including me) said that a particular tool is really cool but, rather, because you’ve proved that it’s the solution to a specific problem that you’re facing.

Just so you know, I speak from bitter experience. I’m no icon of uber-efficiency and unflinching action. (I’m a guy who’ll figure out 24 ways to paint a fence and then get bored halfway through actually doing the job.) I’m also pathetically vulnerable to getting caught up in productivity flow-charts and glossy-looking software interfaces. (I’ve even been known to refer to a program interface as “sexy.”)

Like many of you, I too was suckered…

…into buying the all-leather planner with the ridiculously expensive calendar refills and non-standard rings; forcing me to buy a custom-made Franklin-Covey hole punch…which left an equally non-standard hole in your pocket. Did I use it consistently? No. Why? It was too complex.

Then, fed up with constantly rewriting to-do lists to meet shifting priorities and the natural ebb and flow of my energy, I switched to using the Get Things Done – GTD – system by David Allen. As you may know, Allen has acquired a cult-like following for his GTD system. (Am I a little jealous? Yep!) However, when I started talking to people about GTD, I started to hear tales of people falling off the GTD wagon. Great system, but still too complex.

A Student of Simplicity…

So last year I became a student of simplicity. I began using the magical software metaphor to discover ways of super-simplifying my work flow. I’ve discovered a bunch of productivity tools that significantly reduce my workload while boosting my productivity…without having to learn complex (and ever upgrading) software.

One of them is an extremely intuitive and totally free online software application for applying the core GTD principles called SimpleGTD. If you’re familiar with GTD, this simple application might well bridge the gap between knowing and doing. And keep you firmly on the wagon of greater stress-free productivity. That has certainly been my experience.

Action Step

If you don’t know the GTD approach to productivity, take the time to read Allen’s excellent book. Then get a SimpleGTD account and get going.

Important: SimpleGTD is a cloud computing application so you can easily access your GTD lists from anywhere. That said, I realize many of my readers are healthcare professionals and so have to deal with huge data storage and confidentiality issues. My advice: First, learn GTD. Second, start applying it in your personal life using the SimpleGTD software. Finally, using the magical software metaphor, take the insights you gain from using SimpleGTD into creating simplicity in your professional life…regardless of how you actually do it.

And the least flattering exercise? Here’s a clue…

…Yeah, aerobics. (According to the scientists, only 9% of women found men doing aerobics attractive…go figure!)

This picture was taken at my local YMCA. (A special “shout out” to all my new friends at Duke University Hospital, thanks for the T-shirt. If it wasn’t for you guys, I’d only get to wear my orange shorts at Halloween.)

I’m a big fan of the “Y.” If your only exposure to the inside of a gym is Bally’s Total Fitness TV ads, pay a visit to your local YMCA. The experience will be far less of a dignity stripper than you might think.

In addition to “toning & firming” me into the incredible physical specimen I am today (see above), my instructors have reminded me of some important leadership lessons. First off…

Normalize The Learning Curve

When trying to encourage someone who is struggling with a brand new activity, it’s tempting to sugar coat their initial efforts. Unfortunately, if a newbie knows that his or her first efforts are mediocre, a vapid “Oh, you did great” is unlikely to be as supportive as intended; no matter how well meaning.

Rather than giving faint praise, a more effective approach is to normalize the learning curve. This honors the person’s efforts and, at the same time, encourages them to persist. I’ve seen this in action at the “Y.” I’ve overheard instructors make comments to a new stepper like: “Step aerobics is tough, isn’t it? It’s like learning how to dance with a step in the way. This confusion passes after a couple of classes.”

In what ways could you normalize the learning curve for your new staff members? How might you normalize the curve for your children?

Define The End Point

When sweating in the gym, there’s nothing more disheartening than hearing an instructor say: “Just eight more push ups…after the next eight.” Followed by: “Did I say eight more? I lied…” And so on!

Without a well-defined end point it’s tough to allocate resources. And that’s equally true whether you’re talking about reps in the gym or implementing a new corporate initiative. So, let your staff know what the terrain will look like when they’ve arrived. And, if the goalposts shift—as they often do—try to roll the modified directives into the same overall end-point.

Don’t Let Your Staff Dictate Your Energy Levels

First thing in the morning, my “Y” buddies and I can be an apathetic bunch. When the instructor asks: “How are you doing?” Our ‘reply’ is frequently blinking silence; pathetic! Fortunately my fellow steppers and I have been blessed with instructors who keep radiating energy until the class catches their enthusiasm.

It’s easy for a leader to lead when his or her staff are full of enthusiasm for a new project. And much harder when the “project blues” kick in. Maintaining your enthusiasm when it isn’t being reciprocated is tough. It’s far easier to respond to apathy with more apathy.

That said, your passion really can turn a floundering ship around. So consciously and patiently keep putting out energy, even when nothing is coming back. And, just like my pals at the “Y,” your colleagues will start to catch your fervor.

Agree? Disagree? You can Speak Your Mind in the box below…

If you’re anything like me and your honest answer to those questions is “yes,” here’s a thought experiment you can bring to mind next time you feel your blood begin to boil…

Let’s play a game…

Imagine you and I are alone in a room. I explain that there’s a man, called Stan, standing outside the room who you don’t know and will never meet. Then I hand you 100 bucks with the request that you share it with Stan. You can give him everything, nothing, or any amount in between…

Here’s the catch: Stan can accept or reject your offer. If he accepts it, you both keep your share. But, if Stan feels it’s unfair and rejects your offer, you both lose everything…And I get to keep it all!

So you’re the “Splitter,” and Stan is the “Decider.” How much are you going to offer Stan? How much do you think most people would offer Stan?

What Most People Do…

The researchers who created this game discovered that most people choose to split the money 50/50, but not everyone. Sometimes the Splitters choose to keep more of the cash for themselves; and this is where things get interesting. When presented with an unfair split, most Deciders reject the offer; opting for nothing rather than something. Peoples’ emotional outrage at an unfair split causes them to reject free money.

Think about this for a moment: If I simply offered you 20 bucks, no-strings-attached, you’d accept it, right? Why wouldn’t you? But, if I offered you 20 bucks in the context of this game, the research suggests that you’d probably choose to walk away empty-handed.

If it was a strictly logical decision, it wouldn’t matter how you were offered the money, money is money…and 20 bucks is better than squat. But the perspective you have on the offer triggers your emotions, and so—in a fit of righteous indignation—you’d most likely reject it.

In essence, you’ve taught someone you don’t know and will never meet a lesson in fairness at a cost of 20 bucks. Was it worth it? Only you can answer that question. The important thing to appreciate is that we play versions of this game throughout our lives. We perpetuate office conflict or get into ongoing disputes with loved ones; cutting off our nose to spite our face.

Action Step…

Are you currently involved in any situations where your emotions have gotten the better part of your common sense? What would a strictly logical, benefit-maximizing computer program do in your situation? Next time you feel the urge to vent, remind yourself of this experiment and ask yourself: Am I at risk of rejecting “free money?”

After watching him flip an alarm clock around, his four-year-old asked: “Why did you do that?” “I’m looking to see what time it is,” Kluger replied. To which his daughter observed “As well as the times it isn’t”. Cute, right? (And isn’t that what every parent wants? A child on the fast-track to a career in philosophy.)

My point is that it’s drop-dead easy to look at a situation from opposite points of view (even a child can do it) if—and it’s a big “if”—you decide to do it. Which brings me to the subject of this post. On Tuesday, I fell within one of my whiskers of being ripped off by a Jedi-level confidence trickster…

The Sting…

I’m currently looking for a part-time sales assistant. (Side note: If you happen to know anyone please let me know, thanks.) In this regard, I was contacted by a woman pitching her sales services. Let’s call the woman in question “Jane”. (With apologies to every wonderful, upstanding Jane who reads this message.)

After 50 minutes in the hot-seat with Krystal (and getting her seal of approval – no easy task) I spoke with Jane for an hour. She was extremely knowledgeable about the speaking industry, utterly charming and totally persuasive. Exactly what I’d be looking for in a sales assistant, right?

However – and luckily for me there is an “however” – I always run my decisions through a simple set of reality checks; whether I feel in my gut that I need to or not. In this case, honestly, I didn’t think I needed to do it.

Both Krystal and I knew that Jane would be a Godsend. She had a manner on the phone that would melt the heart of even the most jaded meeting planner…You know who you are. Krystal and I really wanted Jane in our team. The decision was all but made. Turns out, had I not rigidly insisted on applying my own safeguards, I would have been badly fleeced. So, despite the overwhelming conviction that I was simply going through the motions. I asked the following “watch my back” question…

The Question

What about this decision do I know for certain? What if I’m wrong? In other words, just like Kluger’s daughter, I asked about the opposite point of view. And then, despite the strong conviction that I was making busy work for myself, I contacted the Better Business Bureau. What I discovered unearthed a trail of deception that left me shell shocked.

First off, Jane’s business was rated “F,” the worst possible evaluation. Further digging and Jane’s house of cards fell apart. She is a known felon, convicted of extorting an astronomical sum of money from her former business partner. But, hey, I’m the last person to suggest that people can’t change. Unfortunately, since her conviction, Jane has continued to use her super-powers for evil; dragging speaker after speaker along rip off road…I felt shell shocked. Even now I can’t quite believe it.

Now, you think I’d know better. I’ve formally studied persuasion and influence, and met enough car salesmen to last me a lifetime. And quite frankly, at 48 years old, I’ve been dragged around the block a few times. There was no way this soft-spoken, witty, intelligent woman was anything other than legit. I would have laid money (and very nearly did) on Jane’s honesty. Unearthing the truth really shook me.

Action Step

Here’s the take home message: Always look at a decision from the opposite point of view. Right now, consider one of your upcoming decisions. What do you know for certain about this decision? What if the opposite were true?

I only asked these questions because it’s part of my decision making process. Do you have systematic safeguards in place to avoid getting caught out? Most of the time, the last things we think to question are those we know for “certain”. However, they’re often the elements we most need to question because this, and only this, will expose our presuppositions.

Enough said. I’ve got to dash. I need to email an Indian Prince who wants me to do him a favor.

I know nothing about American Football.

That said, his famous quote “The dictionary is the only place that success comes before work,” while technically accurate, helps propagate a dangerous lie. Most people think (wrongly) that to be successful, you simply need to find something you’re good at and work hard. I call this the Success Myth and it’s a crock. Look around you, talented, hardworking people are everywhere…and most are not successful. Think for a moment, I bet you know someone who’s talented, hardworking and broke. It might even be you.

The consequences of buying into the Success Myth can be unbelievably devastating. You know you’re talented (and have degrees and awards to prove it). You’ve committed (and recommitted) to doing whatever it takes to be successful. And yet, you crash and burn—and have absolutely no idea why your dreams lie in tatters. What stone did you leave unturned? What opportunity did you overlook?

I know the drill: First, you attempted to reach your illusive goals by making even more of a Herculean effort; spending weekends at the office, pulling ‘all-nighters’ and skipping vacations. And, as you hunched over your office desk, life shriveled into depressing drudgery.

Then, when you still didn’t get the respect and recognition you deserved, you began to lose confidence and question your talent: “I guess I don’t have what it takes”. Or, in a flurry of psychological bait-and-switch, you blame your failure on bad luck. Either way, you’re exhausted, unfulfilled and bitter. You got sucker-punched and brought to your knees by a myth you didn’t even know existed. Let’s pin this myth to the dissection board…

Hard Work…

Lombardi was certainly a hard worker. Before coaching for the Packers, he frequently worked seventeen hours a day as defensive line manager for the Military Academy at West Point football team. And, let’s be clear, hard work is important for success. I’m not pitching some late night infomercial crap about making the big bucks while sitting on the beach, sipping margaritas and occasionally glancing at your laptop. Hard work is important, but is it sufficient? Let’s dig a little deeper…

When I chat with attendees after my speeches and workshops, I’m always struck by how hard people work. A practice manager comes to mind who frenetically puts out fires as he organizes fifty physicians at six different locations. An HR professional scrambling to get multiple training programs in place after an ‘eleventh hour’ shift in her corporation’s strategic direction. And I’ve lost count of the senior executives with dawn-to-dusk schedules full of exhausting back-to-back meetings, where they strategize with c-suite colleagues on ways to grow market share in the face of ever increasing, and stiffer competition…all the while trying to make time for family.

Hard work is vital, but it’s also commonplace. And you won’t ever distinguish yourself doing the same things as everyone else. No. Hard work is a key to success, not the key. Okay, so hard work isn’t the key, how about talent?

Talent…

If you want to do well, you’ve got to be good at what you do. That’s just common sense, right? As head coach, Lombardi displayed incredible talent for motivating the Green Bay Packers. Prior to his arrival (in 1958) the team were an embarrassment; having only won a single game the previous season. When he retired—nine years later—the Packers had won six division titles, five NFL championships and two Super Bowls.

So are talent and hard work, together, the all-important keys to unsnapping the combination lock of success? No, (just like hard work) talent is commonplace. Talented people are a dime-a-dozen. The TV show asserts that ‘America’s Got Talent,’ and it’s true. Once the judges have weeded out the no-hopers who’ve been rung in for our sadistic amusement, the rest are an incredibly gifted bunch.

And it’s equally true in the business world, ‘Corporate America’s Got Talent’. We’re all pretty good at what we do; otherwise we’d be doing something else. Make no mistake, if you’ve found something you’re good at and are working hard to be a success then you’re doing exactly the same thing as everybody and his brother (and sister). Talent and hard work alone won’t differentiate you in your organization and/or marketplace. They are nothing more than the expected price of admission into the business world. Talent and hard work are crucial, but not sufficient for extraordinary success.

There’s a vital third element that most people completely overlook. Talent and hard work put you in the game. This third element will separate you from the pack, so you trounce your competition and win the game…

The Third Element…

In addition to possessing talent and a strong work ethic, Lombardi was a visionary who saw his world from a completely different point of view. He looked at winning a game from multiple angles and, as a result, created a number of innovative plays and game strategies. Amusingly, in a game against the Chicago Bears, he went so far as to switch around the Packer’s jersey numbers to bamboozle the opposition; an unorthodox (and, I’m guessing, illegal these days) maneuver that reflects his ability to see his challenges from different viewpoints. Unfortunately, with his famous quote, he chose to highlight the need for hard work rather than a flexible perspective.

Here’s my advice: STOP working yourself into an early grave. STOP doubting your talent, which would be a tragic waste of your incredible potential. (Besides “talent” is such an ephemeral concept that, even during the best of times, we’re all prone to self doubt.) And START flexing your Perspective Power^TM.

Start evaluating your problems from multiple points of view. Start challenging the toxic stories you tell yourself. How? I’ve written a series of Perspective Power^TM articles, you can find them here. (In addition, this blog is chock-a-block with ideas for looking at any situation from different angles, feel free to look around.)

Learning how to flex your Perspective Power^TM will leverage your talent to the maximum and pump up your desire to work hard. You can enjoy the success and fulfillment that comes from achieving your true potential. The key lies in a fresh point of view.

Agree? Disagree? You can Speak Your Mind in the box below…

This week the always amusing (and sometimes hilarious) Time magazine columnist Joel Stein wrote a very funny article about the downside of being hyper-organized. Called The Mess Manifesto, Stein confesses to losing “…days fiddling with the bottom of [his] Netflix queue, which is the section that should be labeled “movies I will never see.”

I’m referencing this article because it raises an important issue. Trying to be over organized can be counterproductive. It’s possible to spend ridiculous amounts of valuable time dragging & dropping digital folders within folders, within folders—ad infinitum (nauseam?) And, if you don’t remember where each document is filed, you can waste even longer trying to locate it again.

And so – after filing a digital scan of Joel’s article in my “Stein” sub-directory, within my “Funny” sub-folder, within my “Articles” folder – I decided to add my thoughts on his article.

Many of us manage digital files in the same way we manage paper files. This is partly a consequence of us all having computer interfaces with icons of folders and files: If it looks like a manila folder, we – understandably – treat it like a manila folder. (Yet another example of our perspective driving our actions.)

Among the funny lines, Stein provides an, easily overlooked, opinion: “Now that our e-mail and date-stamped photos are searchable, there’s no need to build all these folders.” This casual observation suggests an important fresh perspective on how we organize our digital world…

In his book, Getting Organized In The Google Era, Google’s former CIO Douglas C. Merrill – I’m guessing this guy knows a thing or two about organizing data – reinforces Stein’s observation: “Don’t file your information, search for it.”

Here’s my simple synthesis: Instead of “drag & drop,” think “search & tag”. When you get comfortable with search & tag, you have the time-saving option of putting all your documents in a handful of high-level folders and then using search to locate them when needed.

My goal here isn’t to give you a step-by-step guide to searching & tagging. (After all the procedure will differ depending on what software you’re packing.) Instead, my objective is to give some examples to open your mind to the time-saving possibilities. To get you thinking about alternative ways of organizing your own digital resources, let’s talk about search…

Search…

We’ve all become masters at searching for information on the internet. We Google anything and everything at the drop of a hat. However, many of us don’t think to use the same approach when picking through the contents of our own hard drive.

Both Windows and Mac operating systems have a basic search functionality that many of us use far less often than we could; and perhaps should. If we think to do it, we can easily search through the content of many of our documents using this search feature…

And where the search capabilities of our operating systems come up short, it’s possible to find free/low cost software solutions to enhance our ability to easily search the content of all our documents. For example, I’ve found the free PDFXChange software excellent for searching the content of PDFs (something Windows can’t do).

In this example, I searched for the word “healthcare” in 141 eight-page PDFs in a few seconds. Each instance of the word is highlighted (in blue) and clicking on the highlight opens the exact page within the document. If you have a stack of PDFs gathering digital-dust, this is really useful.

In addition to using software programs to boost our ability to search, we can also employ tags…

Tags…

Tags are an additional way to filter and search your files. (FYI: I’m not talking about those annoying “smart tags” that used to pop up in Word and Excel.) Tags are simply labels you can apply to a document. In fact, in Gmail – the popular email service – tags are actually called “labels”.

Here’s a simple example: Imagine you need to file an email receipt from Company ZYZ for Product A. One option would be to prepare a set of nested files: Product A (inside) Company XYZ (inside) Receipts. However, a far less time consuming alternative is to simply label the receipt with multiple tags; “Product A” Company XYZ, and “Receipts”. This can be done in a heartbeat. And, once tagged, it’s very easy (and fast) to locate the receipt using simple filters.

I also add tags when bookmarking web pages and note taking. Also, I’ve just started experimenting with Taglocity, a cheap utility which adds tags to Outlook emails—in the way that’s similar to what Gmail does by default…I’ll let you know if it’s any good.

Actionable Steps…

Making the transition from “drag & drop” to “search & tag” can feel dangerous. So, to ease you in gradually, here are some simple action steps. Next time your searching for a file and can’t find it quickly, try search. Also, when organizing your digital folders/files, don’t immediately default to dragging and dropping folders within folders. Instead, ask…

• Do I really need to nest this folder within yet another folder?
• Could the time I spend reordering my digital files be better spent elsewhere?
• Is there a way for me to tag this file?
• Does my computer have what it takes to search for this document?
• Are there free/low cost utilities that would enable me to search more efficiently?

Finally…

If you have any other software suggestions for increasing the scope of “search & tag,” I would love to hear them. And, as always, your thoughts and questions are encouraged. You can Speak Your Mind in the box below…

How does Benjamin do it?

Here’s his answer: If I were forced to summarize my method in three words, I would say, “left to right.” While still in his teens, this simple shift in Benjamin’s perspective became the springboard for his amazing speed math skills. He argues that, while most of us do basic math from right-to-left, it’s easier to think through a math problem from left-to-right because that’s the way we read and pronounce numbers.

He also points out that, if you calculate from left-to-right, you also work with the “big” numbers first. It’s more valuable to be aware that your answer is “a little over 1200″ than it “ends in 8″. Makes sense, right? Small shift in viewpoint, big shift in results.

To learn More…

Benjamin explains his methods in his book Secrets of Mental Math. If you have teenagers, they need this book. I didn’t suggest this to you earlier because, trust me, kids don’t want math books for Christmas!

Also, if you’re a bit shaky in the mental arithmetic department, consider stealing your kids’ copy while they’re cogitating on the big numbers. Here’s the link: Secrets of Mental Math (Just for the record, I don’t make any money if you should choose to purchase the book through this link; it’s just for your convenience.)

All that remains is to wish you, your family and friends all the best for the holidays and 2011,

Steve

PS: If you have comments or questions, speak your mind in the box below…I will answer you, promise.

In this scenario the fish is an if-then, extrinsic motivator. If you kiss that pasty-faced professional speaker, then you’ll get a fish. It’s an approach to motivation that developed during the 20th century. If you provide a reward, then an assembly line worker will pick up the pace.

Unfortunately, there’s a catch (of the non-fish variety). While head down, get-it-done tasks can be motivated using if-then rewards, this kind of extrinsic motivation backfires when the challenge requires any kind of creative thinking.

Mentally Jumping-The-Tracks

Innovation, insightful decision-making and smart problem-solving requires the thinker to mentally jump-the-tracks. To be able to look at challenges from different angles and pursue different lines of thought. And, unfortunately, if-then motivators have the opposite effect. They narrow mental focus at precisely the moment when it needs to be divergent.

So, how can you motivate people without simultaneously narrowing their focus? Well scientists have explored this issue and their conclusions are very different from what’s currently used in the business world.

There is substantial scientific evidence that effective motivation is less about extrinsic rewards and more about intrinsic rewards, a.k.a. meaning. The problem is that talk about “meaning” sounds so fluffy. Surely people don’t want fluff, they want cold hard cash, don’t they?

Building Robots

In an experiment carried out by social psychologist Dan Ariely and his colleagues, subjects were divided into two groups and asked to build a series of Lego robots for progressively diminishing payment; two dollars for the first robot and 11 cents less each time after that.

(Quick aside: These robots are called Bionicles and, frankly, don’t look anything like Lego as I remember it.)

For the first group–the, so called, “meaningful” group–each completed Bionicle was stored in a large box under the desk.

In contrast, in the other “meaningless” group, when a subject completed one robot and moved on to the next, the completed robot was immediately disassembled, in front of the subject and the pieces returned to their original box…ouch!

Here’s what happened: On average, participants in the meaningful group built 10.6 robots while those in the meaningless group built 7.2 Bionicles. When researchers removed any meaning from the task, subjects reduced their effort—even when the payment schedule for each group was the same.

Emphasizing The Meaning

So, if you want a motivated team, an important question to ask is: How can I emphasize the meaning inherent in their jobs? Here are some dos and don’ts…

• Don’t make the fatal assumption that, because your staff work in health care, their jobs automatically feel meaningful.
• Do draw clear lines between a person’s efforts and meaningful higher-priority goals such as patient satisfaction.
• Do figure out ways to bring your staff closer to the front line. One effective way to achieve this is using video. This is sometimes employed at health care and business meetings to tremendous effect. Here’s a powerful example: Doris video.
• Don’t provide rewards in lieu of meaning. (If you choose to provide rewards make them small surprise rewards, given after the fact.)

Bottom line: Motivate your staff in the right way and watch them do the happy dance…

I would love to hear your opinions and ideas. How do you motivate your staff? How are you best motivated? Speak your mind in the box below…