Time Management

Walking Into a Glass Wall and Why I Can Point a Finger at Poor Design

Cover Image of "The Design of Everyday Things" by Don Norman

 

I wrote the post below back in 2014, but the lesson is timeless so I’m bringing it back.
This incident happened the day after meeting the iconic Don Norman who teaches that it can be poor design rather than human error that contributes to things going wrong. In this story, I can see that it is both. You’ll have to let me know what you think!

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Original Post

This morning, I walked full speed ahead into a glass wall. A glass wall I knew of. A glass wall I even anticipated someone walking into, I just didn’t think it would be me.  It wasn’t pretty. Unlike Martha Stewart, I will spare you the photo.

So you know how this story will end, but allow me to back up a bit to explain how I got there. Yesterday I had a full day planned. Full of good things – a walk with my dog, lunch with inspiring entrepreneurs, delivery of a quick but meaningful productivity primer at the Women in Biz Conference, time to read the beginning of “Thrive” by Arianna Huffington while taking the subway (and reveling in NOT being stuck on our sadly in need of repair Gardiner “Expressway”, a complete misnomer for the next two years), an hour to sit in the sun and get creative, dinner and meeting fellow organizers in Toronto, and the highlight for me, listening to Don Norman, esteemed thought leader and author of “The Design of Everyday Things” in discussion at the Rotman School of Business. It’s my desire to have Pliio® become an “everyday thing” so you can imagine how interested I was to hear him speak.

I don’t often have insomnia (thankfully), but last night my mind was on fire after listening to Don’s talk and reading “Thrive” so I ended up awake for over half an hour in the middle of the night. Despite the lack of sleep, I was eager to attend my regular 8 am yoga class with a teacher who I respect for his breadth of knowledge, how he practices what he preaches, his sense of humour, and his redefinition, for me, of the term “hot” yoga.  Have a peek at www.mryoga.com where you can meet Daniel and discover a wealth of information on how to practice yoga.

The class was wonderful – working out the kinks (my word for pain in muscles I didn’t know I had) of a conditioning workout I did with Brent Bishop and his crew on Saturday morning over at Think Fitness.  We finished as we normally do with a restorative, mind-cleansing Shavasana also known as the far less elegant sounding ‘corpse pose’. Whether I’m getting better at the meditative state or whether, more likely, it was my bout of insomnia last night, I came out of the class feeling a little out of this world.

I had a regular client scheduled across town for 10 am, so knew I had to move quickly this morning to make it there after class. Being a bit time pressured, I decided to change my route on the way out of the gym. I normally wash my hands before leaving, but figured I’d head home quickly and get ready there so I made my way straight to the gates.

The gym where I work out is in a corporate office building with a lovely atrium over the stairs. When the gym was renovated recently, they built glass walls around the atrium to preserve light (which I love). The shortest way to leave the gym is around the atrium and through the cardio area to the entrance gates. I came down this wide hallway, narrowed by the recent placement of exercise balls (storage always seems to be a challenge in the gym, but that’s another story).

I could see the gates right in front of me and walked purposefully towards them.  Head up, not texting, not distracted by something at my side, eyes forward. In fact, eyes forward gazing directly at the parking ticket machine into which I needed to put my receipt. The only thing is, I forgot to take the sharp left, through the too narrower passageway that actually gets you there.

Instead, I tried to come through this “wall”.

 

I hit the glass so hard, it shook and triggered the alarm which immediately called the police. I dropped to the ground, my nose bleeding.

While getting cleaned up and speaking with the police (who were definitely amused), I learned that I am not the only one to have made this mistake. At least five other people had walked into the same wall.

Wait, what? They knew this and nothing was done?

One of the concepts Don talked about was that accidents happen, but often not why you think they do.  Often design plays a part in guiding a person to move a certain way.

If you notice the floor, the edges of the hallway are marked on the left side. Today, the hallway no longer goes that way.  The dark line is a subtle cue to guide you in that directly. With the renovation, this wasn’t updated.  Glass walls block the commercial-sized hallway, and you must rather travel through a residential-sized passageway into the cardio area to get to the gates. So why write about this?

I am suggesting a few things, all of which could have been avoided, combined into a rather unfortunate experience for my nose this morning. And when something goes wrong, it’s always worth learning from.  Here they are, not necessarily in order of importance:

1. Lack of time 

2. Lack of rest

3. Change of routine

4. Poor design

This brings me right back to Don’s presentation and the concept he shares on page 14 of his book. Don created the term “signifiers” for communicating “where the action should take place”.  We count on cues to tell us how to use things – whether to push or pull on a door, for example.  Signifiers are important for the clear-minded, well-rested folks among us, but even more important for the sleep-deprived, distracted, crew that abounds.

I can find many other examples where errors have emerged because of time pressures and changes in routine.  I have already blogged about two examples. “Losing” my car and the unfortunate occurrence of forgetting a child in the car [both of which I will be reposting soon].   Don’s book is full of design examples, and Arianna’s book starts off talking about accidents due to lack of sleep.

What have you noticed?  What have you learned? What can you share with us? On my to-do list for tomorrow – buy flowers as a thank you to the staff who took care of me this morning. I am praying there is no video to go viral.

 

UPDATE – March 26, 2015

I pursued getting the problem fixed and asked Goodlife to etch the glass so no one would miss seeing it in future. t took almost a year, but I’m happy to say that pursuing this safety improvement paid off.

Etching of Goodlife logo on glass wall

 

Your Employees Need You To Believe That Working From Home Can Work

Man in chair looking at sticky notes with question marks on them

Are you a leader who has never believed in working from home? Like Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo! and my last corporate boss, you think that employees need to be in the office to get the job done. The trouble is with millions of workers now being told to work from home, working from home simply has to work.  It’s time for a mindset shift. I must add it is also the time to express the utmost compassion as we navigate this new way of working. We are all suffering different degrees of loss and how you serve as a leader will be remembered.

You may remember Ms. Mayer’s bold move in 2013 ordering all remote workers get back to the office or quit. Some reports suggest it was a much-needed effort to trim the workforce. Whatever the reason, it caused a huge uproar and admonishment from the likes of Richard Branson that it was a step backward.1  There is an abundance of research that confirms productivity and other measures are often improved when employees work from home, but that’s not the point of this post.

In 2008, my then leader became my last solely because of her conviction that employees must be in the office. My kids were three and five years old, and their dad had a demanding job requiring an almost two- and half-hour commute. I had worked from home successfully one day a week, for about a year and was performing well, but that didn’t matter. I was told I had to be in the office every day.

I had started to suffer some symptoms of burnout: headaches, trouble sleeping, low energy to name a few, and wanted to keep contributing if I could preserve my energy by continuing to work some of the time from home. I appealed to my boss’s analytical mind sharing an audit of my responsibilities which revealed that 90% of my interactive work was conducted over the phone or by email and only 10% was completed in person. Nope. Her reply to my offer to work from home 50% of the time was a hard “No”. I found it somewhat ironic that we were working for a company that sold the technology that enabled remote work.

Back to you. Let’s look at some of the concerns leaders have about people working from home. And by concerns, I really mean fears. Fears are based on beliefs, and it is those beliefs we must question, understand, and deal with. Along with each concern, I’ve included some questions you might ask yourself to help shift your thinking.

 

1. I can’t get anything done when I work from home, so how can anyone else?

Here you might be extrapolating your own beliefs about what works for you as being true for others.

Ask yourself:

  1. Am I being fair in thinking others will have the same challenges I do?
  2. How might I confirm that an employee is performing adequately?
  3. What communication could help me?
  4. What about different reporting?
  5. How will I bring this up if I am concerned?

2. I had to come into the office, so my team should, too.

In this case, you might be craving a sense of fairness.

Ask yourself:

  1. Is it reasonable to expect conditions to stay the same?
  2. Is it fair to restrict employees as if they are?
  3. What do I need to let go of to see this as an opportunity

 

3. If I can’t see someone working, how do I know they’re working?

This mindset reflects a lack of trust and possibly a need for control. It may have something to do with your own work style, but not necessarily. Note, the answer does not lie with an increase in remotely tracking work through random screenshots. Autonomy matters.

Ask yourself:

  1. What is causing me not to trust this employee?
  2. If there is a valid reason, can we build trust, or is this indicative of a bigger problem?
  3. If there isn’t, what can I do to experiment with trust?
  4. If I’m micromanaging, what effect could this have on my team?

 

4. I don’t think the team will collaborate effectively working from home.

There is no doubt in-person contact is the richest form we have but with video communication readily available we have a close second. Random interactions won’t happen, but it doesn’t mean you can’t encourage them.

Ask yourself:

  1. What can I do to stimulate informal communication?
  2. What formal initiatives could help encourage more effective collaboration?
  3. Could I improve psychological safety?
  4. Could I create more time to be creative, explore and experiment?
  5. How can employees be encouraged to build relationships at varying levels and across the organization?

 

5. We won’t have enough role modeling of leadership skills.

My former boss explained to me that this was her primary reason she wanted me in the office full time. We know from watching politics that leaders can be very effective from afar. So let’s not limit leadership by geography.

Ask yourself:

  1. What skills do I want to see shared?
  2. Between whom?
  3. In which other ways can this happen?

 

If you’ve been reluctant to embrace working from home, you owe it to your team to think more positively. Your team needs you to believe in them right now. It might require some creative thinking and thoughtful communication, and it will be worth it.

 

1 https://www.latimes.com/business/la-xpm-2013-feb-26-la-fi-yahoo-telecommuting-20130226-story.html

In April and May, 2020 I will be offering Live Q&A Zoom calls every Monday at noon EDT to answer questions on better working from home, personal productivity, and organization. Sign up by visiting www.clarekumar.com/workfromhome. You’ll receive my top “Three Ways to Better Work from Home” download and be invited to sign up for the session of your choice.

I also have a few spots open for private group coaching for individuals and leaders. Book a call with me to find out more.

A daily to-do list to keep you focused – Your Focused Five™

When you’re not terribly busy or managing a light load, you might be able to remember everything you’re responsible for, but what happens when the pace picks up or you’ve got more plates to spin? Having a reliable practice in place can help take the pressure off. This applies to everyone from students to senior executives. Keeping track of tasks can be helped by having a task management Ritual you can count on.

Take a second and think about your to-do list. Is it scrawled on a scrap of paper, jotted down in a notebook, lurking in an online app, or perhaps just jumbled in your head? Is it a regular tool you use, or something you create in a crisis?

If you use it often and it’s working well for you, celebrate that. It’s quite a win, as many people struggle (including me) to find a system they enjoy.

 

Ask yourself three questions:

a) do you use your system regularly? If not there may be something to explore with mindset or the medium. It may not be the right format, but we’ll explore that in another post.

b) is it working for you? In other words, does it keep you on task and on track?

c) how does it make you feel? Do you feel good during and after using it?

Let’s explore the last question. If you’re looking at your to-do list and it leaves you feeling overwhelmed and like you’re not getting enough done, something needs to change. We simply don’t need the tools we choose to use leaving us feeling at all depleted afterward.

There is a need for two (or more) kinds of to-do lists. Just how many you need will depend on how you think and prefer to keep different tasks separately, but at minimum, I recommend having two lists.

The first, likely massive list, is what I call your Master To-Do List. It’s essentially a download of what’s on your mind. Whenever you’re feeling overwhelmed or like you’re forgetting things, it’s worthwhile pausing, and even though it feels stressful, investing the time in going through your inbox, calendar, notes on your desk, and mind to capture your intentions.  As Daniel J. Levitin explains in his book “An Organized Mind” (1),

“Writing things down conserves the mental energy expended in worrying that you might forget something and in trying not to forget it.”

But, I caution you in using this Master To-Do List when it comes to focusing on your daily activities. It is simply too big. Have you ever ordered a plate of food, perhaps a big bowl of pho (Vietnamese soup), and kept eating yet it looks like you’ve hardly consumed anything? It’s somehow highly ungratifying, no matter how tasty the food.

From your Master To-Do List, choose five important things you wish to complete in a day and write those down in a separate second list I call the “Focused Five“.

Why five? Five is a small enough number to actually get through. The act of selecting items forces you to identify the most important activities to attend to. You’ll enjoy the sense of accomplishment that comes from ticking everything off your list.

Keep this list right in front of you. Prop it up on your computer, leave it on your desk, or pop it into your wallet when you’re on the move. It’s a simple, low-tech way to keep your priorities top of mind.

I started out using index cards and then made a template to print my own cards to use each day. You can download it here.

If you get through your list, don’t forget to celebrate a little before choosing another item or two from your Master To-Do List.

Try it and I’d love to hear how it goes!

 

Source:

  1. Levitin, Daniel J. The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload. Dutton an Imprint of Penguin Random House, 2017 p 69

I work with organizations to deliver sustainable performance.  If you know of a forward-thinking company who wants to achieve objectives and help their leaders and teams avoid disengagement and burnout, book a Discovery Call to learn more about a range of engaging talks and effective coaching and consulting.

Four Ways to Have a Smooth and Productive Transition into Fall

Clare and Stephanie talking on couch
Stephanie Smyth of CP24 interviews Clare Kumar on getting organized for the fall. Photo: Screen capture of show on CP24

The change of seasons brings a change of schedule and some anxiety for all about how we’re going to manage it.

Watch the video here!

Here are some strategies which may help. If you’ve got others, please add a comment!

  1. Choose your outfit the night before.

It’s often beneficial to separate planning from execution. Planning requires decision making and sometimes problem solving. Execution is about completing tasks you know how to do. Since mornings are often more rushed, take time the evening before to select what you’re going to wear the next day . I check the weather and often plan from footwear up. Layering is your best friend for days which start out cool and warm up, or for transitions between hot weather and cool, air conditioned environments.

 

  1. Fuel up for your day.

Your brain is on average 2% of your body mass, yet consumes about 20% of your energy.1 Tune into what your body seeks to keep thinking clearly.  If you don’t want to eat a full breakfast before you leave for work or school, identify some portable, nutrient rich snacks which you can take with you.  You don’t want to end up depleted during your morning, or worse, “hangry”!

 

You might think caffeine is helping you boost your focus, but recent research suggests that it is simply an alleviation of your body’s craving for the substance. Consider cutting out caffeine to see if your mind is equally sharp without it.

 

  1. Create a task management system.

When schedules change and we take on new challenges, there is often a worry about keeping on top of everything. Because our brains are challenged to remember everything, as Daniel Levitin suggests in his book, “The Organized Mind”, “Writing things down conserves the mental energy expended in worrying that you might forget something and in trying not to forget it.2

 

Having a system that works for you is critical to staying on top of things, and comforting because you know you depend on it. Key elements of a system include a place to gather your intentions – a “to do list”, a calendar to make time less abstract, and notifications to cue your attention.

 

When building your task management system, pay attention to how you like to work. There is no right and wrong between paper and online solutions. What is important is that it is accessible when you need it, easy to interact with, and redundant (possible to recover information if lost).

 

  1. Avoid making a mess.

When arriving home, it’s easy to plop down our backpacks, briefcases, lunch and gym bags, kick off our shoes, throw off our coats, hats and sunglasses and toss our keys.  Generally, though, this approach leads to chaos.  Turn your “drop and dash” into “stop and stash”!

 

To avoid a stressful entry way, make sure every item you come in with has an easy home to land in. Drawers or hooks near the front door for keys. Cubbies or hooks for backpacks. Use a magazine holder for mail and papers parents need to review. Offer a bin per person for accessories.  Unpack your lunch bag and prepare it for its next use right away. This especially important on Friday nights to avoid unpleasant surprises!!

 

Changing behaviours takes time, so a little lot of coaching is likely required of housemates as you adopt the system. Not only with it keep the entryway clear, everyone will know where items are when they’re running out the door!

 

NEW – In recent months I’ve created new workshops which have been well received by clients such as Facebook Canada and Ryerson University. If your organization is looking for an informative, engaging talk on boosting productivity, becoming more organized or better managing work-life integration, please pass on my contact information, or connect us and I’ll be happy to follow up. With many thanks.

 

SOURCES:

  1. Appraising the brain’s energy budget. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
  2. Levitin, D. (2014). The Organized Mind, Allen Lane, Penguin Canada Books

Book a discovery call with Clare? Click here to contact me.