The Myth of Multi-Tasking by Sellena Ford

Time and time again I have an internal debate about multi-tasking, because I just can’t get away from it!  Just the other day I jokingly said to a friend’s husband, “Not too good at multi-tasking are you!”  He didn’t take offence, but merely turned to me with a look that said, why would I want to?  And actually he is right; it’s not big and it’s not clever.  There are numerous articles that back up the myth around multi-tasking.  It’s a necessity, but an unwelcome one.  I personally believe it’s more common in women; the ability to field phone calls, cook dinner, check accounts, walk the dog, time manage, ensure attendance at children’s evening clubs is most mother’s weekday night and I haven’t even tackled the working mother.

The article link below from Forbes in November last year, did stop and make me think.  “And not only that, trying to do too many things at once causes the brain to lose the capacity for deep thinking altogether.”  Well actually, put like that….

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nickmorrison/2014/11/26/the-myth-of-multitasking-and-what-it-means-for-learning/

Zest run a workshop around exactly this subject.  I have attended it, thoroughly enjoyed the concept of how to focus one’s energy and actually put this into practice once back in my real life.  Like many training programmes, courses and workshops, the learning is sometimes short lived.  We are totally committed initially, but as time (and life) moves on, we forget the learning as everything else takes over.  What we should be doing is making time to remember the benefits of energy focus, ridding ourselves of distractions and working out what matters most.

Looking after our mental, physical, emotional and spiritual energy are paramount when looking at being a good decision maker, a good leader, a good mentor and a good team player.  Concentrating on the job at hand, being motivated and centred, rather than fractured and “flitty”, can only benefit the organisation, your colleagues and ultimately yourself.  So essentially, this has been a reminder to you, and to me, that you need to go “Beyond Multi-Tasking”, as this place really does exist.

The 2014 Google Snapshot of the World by Sellena Ford

As the first month of the new year comes to a close, I felt it important to look at the world from a Google perspective from 2014 (don’t ask me why, but Google seems to know a lot about a lot!).  The top 10 Global Trending Searches 2014 - does any of the below surprise you, Flappy Bird at number 6 maybe!?

1.            Robin Williams

2.            World Cup

3.            Ebola
4.            Malaysia Airlines
5.            ALS Ice Bucket Challenge
6.            Flappy Bird
7.            Conchita Wurst
8.            ISIS
9.            Frozen
10.          Sochi Olympics

In terms of the top 3 global trending people in 2014 (different from sheer number of searches), Jennifer Lawrence finished in first place, followed by Kim Kardashian and Julie Gayet.  2013 saw the top three people as Nelson Mandela, Paul Walker and Malala Yousafzai.  I wonder what the balance will be in 2015; perhaps the General Election will encourage more googling on political figures this year?

The top three “how to…” Google trends in the UK were How to draw, How to kiss and How to crochet.  The USA “how tos” were How to AirDrop, How to contour and How to vote.  Touchy, feely United Kingdom?

So what has the trend been for Zest in 2014?  We saw continued growth and in particular, organisations who had drawn their training budgets internally during the recession, beginning to reinvest in their people once again.  We have seen an increase in organisations developing their internal coaching capacity through the coaching skills workshops we offer, developing through CMI Coaching and Mentoring programmes and bespoke workshops.

2015 has seen a major change for Zest with the retirement of Paul Cook from the business.  He has been a breath of fresh air and a hugely positive influence and Elaine and I are sorry to see him go, but wish him well in his new venture.  What does this mean for Zest?  We strongly believe that “when one door closes, another opens.”  Zest's future is developing our business model further and working more regularly with our expert business associates, in order to offer a broader range of workshops.  One of the things we love doing is nurturing the relationship with our existing clients; Elaine most enjoys these meetings when they involve discussions over coffee and cake!  This year we will concentrate on how we offer supervision and support to the ‘super coach’ groups we have already developed within some of our client organisations and look to offer our now considerable experience of growing coaching cultures to more new clients.

And you and your businesses for 2015?  What will you do differently, what’s working, what’s not…?  It would be good to hear your story, even better, if you would like a chat with us (don’t forget prerequisite coffee and cake!) please get in touch.

YOU DO NOT HAVE ANY CHOICE! by Paul Cook

Together with my excellent and incredibly attractive colleagues at Zest (my lawyers have informed me to say), I have been writing Chartered Management Institute (CMI) accreditation material for a ‘First Line Management’ course during which time my auditory senses drifted onto Absolute Radio and an old favourite track of mine.  I am paraphrasing now but basically let me ask some questions;

Don’t you like the way, I move when you see me?

Don’t you like the things that I say?

Don’t you like the way, I dance? Does it bug you?

Don’t you like the cut of my clothes?

Don’t you like the way, I seem to enjoy it?

Stick my fingers right up your nose!

Or listen to the song if you prefer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1F1Ez4-VOM

Jean Jacque Burnell and Hugh Cornwall’s seminal punk band (The Stranglers) had stumbled on something here because their strapline ‘something better change’ tends to indicate a futuristic analogy which in 1979 may have been unintended at best, and unimaginable at its most zealous.  There is another possibility; they both have time travel capabilities and penned the lyrics based on what life is like for a manager in 2014 or beyond.

In 1979 there were some massive changes happening; the Ford Cortina MK 2 became the Ford Cortina Mk 3, pubs were allowed to open past 1030, TV gained a new fourth channel (shrewdly entitled Channel 4), and some other things around school milk I think?  So let’s grade the lyrics from time travelling punk rockers as if a manager today, because inclusion is powerful and difficult at the same time; you may not agree with the way somebody moves, verbalises ideas, dresses or acts, but as a manager (within the realms of morality or professionalism) do you have any choice?  As a manager in 2014 look what you are embracing; mass immigration, constant legislative updates, austerity fluctuation, global competition, high tempo risk, political intervention, technological acceleration, complex employee flexibility and a workforce designed to test you in all of these spheres.

So ‘something better change’ should really be ‘everything always changes.’

I recommend many techniques and skills for being an excellent change manager but not necessarily inserting a digit into a person’s olfactory gland.  Instead look at your people, admire what the collective brings, grab the differences and realise the no choice potential.  There will be amazing professions out there that do not even exist yet!  Just ask The Stranglers when they get back from 2054.

“People will try to tell you that all the great opportunities have been snapped up.  In reality, the world changes every second, blowing new opportunities in all directions, including yours.” -- Ken Hakuta

Career Progression Spins Around your Head - by Paul Cook

The energetic airstream rushes violently through the unsuspecting lungs, limbs turning to lead, head thumping whilst defensive adrenaline pumps and the cyclic rage of the elements force oxygen and gravity into one confined yet terrifying moment. It was only a micro second before that the balmy autumn breeze had bought calmness and serenity into its world which had then been crushed by the selfish actions of another.  This terror, this self-seeking action maintained purely to gain an outside chance of mystical futuristic financial success, is not based on science, but pure superstition. Yet it did know that if unlucky it, or other members of its family, may experience such an event two or three times in a lifetime, the linyphiidae or more commonly referred to ‘money spider’ is routinely and randomly spun around one’s head three times in attempts to brighten up the fiscal future.
 

There are of course other ways of progressing financially and generally these traditional approaches do not involve arachnid manoeuvres.  You could win the lottery, inherit a fortune, invent something that everybody wants, have a risky punt on the stock exchange or bet your house on a rank outsider.

All commendable and achievable (not without some external risk factors) of course but I want to explore the more commonly used system of ‘getting promoted’.

Our neuro pathways have the astonishing ability to tell us things that are not true; ‘you are not good enough for this’, ‘the competition is better than you’, ‘you don’t deserve this’, and others which can be only tailored to you.  And as I have mentioned many times in previous blogs these barriers are sometime known as limiting beliefs.  So add a couple of other factors.  Other people also have the astonishing ability to add to your own limiting beliefs; some of these naysayers start on you when you are about five years old; they don’t mean to  they just think they are helping; ‘don’t do that you might get hurt’, ‘don’t look down’, ‘you’re not good enough for that yet’.  As advice progresses through into adult life we hear gems such as ‘look them in the eye’, ‘the competition is tough this year’, ‘don’t move your hands around’, ‘sit up straight’ and my favourite, ‘make them laugh’ (the latter is of course extremely good advice if you are prepping for a job at the circus).

Now let us add these excellent approaches to what your body can also achieve.  You can become the money spider, lungs filling, heart pounding, adrenaline pumping, limbs failing and blood sent to everywhere apart from where it’s needed.  A very good friend and ex colleague of mine who I shall call JK described one of his interview experiences thus; ‘all of a sudden the clock got louder, the furniture got bigger, my legs got shorter and I started to swing them like when I was a schoolboy’, which, he had become!  Even when he tried his best line to add comedy value whilst looking the chairman in the eye he actually saw the dry tumbleweed root cartwheeling across the carpet.  The formula for this is now known as:

Bitter experience+ poor advice x limiting belief = JK aged 7 ½

There is a much more effective and highly successful method to progression and success.  This method is unique because it is only available and tailored to you.  Click on the image for more information.

Reference articles:
National Geographic
Spiders do not have lungs or need interview technique to survive
Medellin Cartel (Colombia)
There are other ways to make money

“The only thing limiting your aspiration is your imagination.” ― Stephen Richards

The Art of Looking Good by Paul Cook

L'arte di guardare bene.

During the cold war John Cleese  documented the daily lifestyle of some Eastern European peasant village folk as they happily went about their chores on a farm; after narrating their apparent simple routine he then delivered the line ‘who would have thought these seemingly happy people are so hell bent on destroying western civilisation’.   

Mrs Cook and I have recently returned from a fantastic ten day escape to the beautiful region of Tuscany; beautiful is obviously a perception as it is straddled precariously amongst that ancient metaphor which culminates with ‘in the eye of the beholder’.  So I beheld vast tracks of olive groves, moody mountain range skies and an infinity pool of famed vineyards.  The Italian folk in that region have kind of cracked it if you apply pureness to what makes one happy; type into your favoured search engine (my lawyers have advised me to write) ‘what makes people happy?’ and you will find an overabundance of research, quotes, academic psychological observations and nuance; you will be given the top 3 the top 5 the top 100 etc.  You will even be given advice bordering on instruction!  It, (the engine), is like an agony aunt responding to your every indulgence - ‘Dear Google (oops) how can I be happy?’ – ‘about 270,000,000 results (0.37 seconds)’ what!  And why time it?  So a medley of options include; get a friend, grow organic veg, donate to charity, eat ice cream regularly, learn to tap dance.  I don’t think these things should happen in one day, but I’m sure someone has tried.  The simple answer if you ask me is go to Tuscany.  The people are encircled with great wine, fabulous food, amazing climate and relaxed tempo.  They are helpful, courteous, gracious and charming, until you get into and drive a car!

 

Our Fiat Punto duly arrived with the friendly sales bod, all wavers signed and off we head into our happy tourist world just at the exact time to re-enact the script from that well known literary giant author Daniel Handler, Lemony Snickets A Series Of Unfortunate Events.  Now I don’t mind receiving feedback from other motorists if I make a slight mistake but saying you will kill my mother seems a little strong; overtaking on a blind uphill left to right bend is also ok provided you do not feel the urge to barge me into the ditch at the same time and please, whilst standing next to your articulated petrol tanker which is also parked at a gas station, make some attempt to get a few feet away as you smoke your Marlboro Light.  However my favourite experience of all is the Italian ability to, no matter where or at what speed, drive centimetres away from your rear bumper whilst emitting a continuous noise only a hand on a car horn can achieve.

Yes, the happy people can also be brash, flash and flamboyantly passionate; it just perhaps manifests in different ways; this is culture and the strange thing is the behaviour transfers.  I started to drive like them; if that’s what they want, that’s what they’ll get.  I can do the signs, the language, the aggression; is it what we do to keep up, to be part of the crowd, to be accepted, to go with it, join in?

So is your business culture where you want it to be?  If it is then sip the Chianti, if it isn’t, then who is driving?  To the world, are you looking good; an art the Italians pride themselves in?  L'arte di guardare bene.

Legal note- None of my Italian friend’s egos were harmed during the composition of this blog.

My first work assignment after returning home was to visit a company near Milton Keynes. The people there seem happy enough; they thought my driving a tad aggressive.

“You don't have to fear your own company being perceived as human.  You want it.  People don't trust companies; they trust people.”   Stan Slap

Change Management Is Like The A4 London Road (Slough) by Paul Cook

If only the Britons had radar a few months before the Romans invaded.  Actually I’m not sure if radar works on wood, maybe a new app is needed?

http://www.zestbusinesscoaching.co.uk/change_management.php

As you exit the M4 junction 5 near Slough, Berkshire, you then enter a winding slip approach road which extends onto the A4 towards London.  This dual carriageway runs parallel to one of the biggest trading estates in Europe.  The slip is a few miles long and controlled by no fewer than 14 separate sets of traffic lights set at approximately 300 metre intervals.  Planning and speed are vital because it is a strange anomaly that if you meet the first of these light sets as they turn to red, you will then encounter every single one thereafter just as it turns to red; no amount of acceleration, revving, anger, handbrake turns or sat nav adjustment can alter it.  Conversely if you arrive at set one on green, then you sail majestically through to your business destination at a steady and comfortable passage casually observing the easy change of each.  It’s all about timing speed planning and patience.

Indulge me in suggesting that you cast your minds back to my previous blogs which reference emotional intelligence, emotional quotient and its link to self-management.  In her seminal book Emotionally Intelligent Living, Geetu Bharwaney explains, ‘The signal received by the brain from the heart is the most powerful signal in the body.  The electro-magnetic field produced by the heart is five thousand times greater in strength than the field generated by the brain’.  I recently experienced this surge in my own national grid whilst (under time constraints) attempting to operate my smart phone, pad, sky drive and search engine in unison, thereby conducting a speedy efficient completion of several business proposals:  It was at this point my information technology apps took on their own characters.  MS documents became known as ‘not responding’, Nokia 620 ‘signal unavailable’, cloud ‘not recognised at this time’ and google chrome advised me in a Dickensian accent (in my own mind) ‘Did you mean to spell it…?’  My verbalised descriptors of inanimate objects surprised even me as my frontal lobe was hijacked by the surge of heart sent electricity designed adjectives.

So there shouldn’t be any surprises really because after my dip in emotional control I quickly regained reality remembering that not so long ago these apps would have been regaled as nothing short of technological (or other) miracles; things change and so with that change aligns our human ability to rely on them and demand the best.  And if your competitors have something better then you must find a leveller.

It is acknowledged that the only constant is change, if you stand still you will stay there, a year from now you will wish you had started change today, failing to plan is…etc.

We just operate in a business world that is, and has access to, a lot of stuff that must be fast, efficient, reliable.  It would be an erroneous supposition on my part, if I suggested that any of you now should commence a business protocol linked to change, and I recognise that we are in a fast moving world beyond that of which our parents, grandparents and ancestors before them would find unimaginable.  If you explain to a teenager about written records, collecting pictures from the chemist, filing information in a wooden box and telephones that were used to make phone calls!, said young adult would display features of surprise and horror only matched equally if you then invited them to climb a tree for fun; actually this latter arboreal challenge was (over the years) completed regularly and successfully by my offspring particularly when I didn’t expect or want them to do it.

So recognising speed of market and technological change, transformation, drivers, benefits, urgency, vision strategy, communication, empowerment, leadership; this is change and it is constant.

The last traffic signal at Slough is adjacently positioned to the regally designed 19^th century town hall and as you sit waiting at the last of your many red lights you have plenty of time to glance across and read the proudly displayed council logo ‘Mondays are rubbish days’          

“What if I told you that 10 years from now, your life would be exactly the same?  I doubt you would be happy.  So, why are you so afraid of change?” – Karen Salmansohn

Acquiesce – To agree to what someone wants - by Paul Cook

Back to work after the longer than usual holiday break and guess what? We have some conflict.  This is a common uplift in the business world based on people perception and change.  Taking that most amazing and free leadership skill second perceptual position (being and looking through the eyes of another person), we find that we have worked hard, become part of a magnificent high performance team, have great ideas for developing the business and on Thursday repaired to home for an extended and well deserved break (this section does not apply to those of you with young children).  During this sojourn our minds have integrated with relaxation, indulgence and social media and so has everyone else’s; ultimately Thursday’s team integration becomes Tuesday’s rebellion.

The leadership key is to assimilate all of it. Conflict is vital: the fact that it exists is recognition of free speech and/or ideas, as long as it is resolved effectively it will lead to personal and professional growth, working group to high performance.

http://www.zestbusinesscoaching.co.uk/team_business_coaching.php

So capture the ideas that come from relaxation or indulgence, but what of social media influence?

I am not always sure if I enjoy the benefits of the immortal iconic front-runner in the social information technology genre, but I do know that Facebook is somehow influential.  The billion or so (apparently) human users have organically amalgamated into what I can only describe (to myself) as a plethora of daftness.  Unlike its more mature and responsible Uncle ‘LinkedIn’, snappy go getter cousin ‘Instagram’, global career sister ‘Twitter’ or genial originators Grandma and Granddad ‘Friends Reunited’, Facebook seems to be the child sitting in the family car screaming ‘I’m bored’, ‘are we there yet’, ‘I want an ice cream’, “LOL OMG” whilst uncle L calmly reassures them and big sis T exclaims ‘I told you we should have taken the train’, ‘Shut up, I’ve got more friends than you’ being the stark FB retort.

This latter brag is true by a country mile and therefore Facebook becomes a kind of road crash TV; not actually watching road crashes, but viewing pictures of dogs balancing cats on their heads, strangely shaped vegetables pitched against an Australian sunset, CGI video clips of goldfish devouring leopards and isolated empty bottles of gin nestled comfortably in fine sand on a beach in Anguilla. It is also important to ‘post’ life changing, globally poignant annotations poetic beyond all measure; ‘Today I’ve eaten the last of my Christmas peaches’, ‘I’m Corsica, which Mediterranean island are you?’  I’ve reached level 97 in Candy Crush Saga’.  So this is what is happening in the planet and we could believe it if it were not for the sake and saviour of reality; I can listen to Capital Radio or BBC 5 live, Conservatives or UKIP, Laurel or Hardy, Putin or Obama (not sure why I linked those), but in the end its choice and the choice of business.  As Buddha once famously quoted ‘Never believe anything you hear unless it relates directly to you, not even if I said it’

So do we acquiesce or do we resist?  Captain Picard was once told by some bloke from Sweden that resistance is futile and we know what happened there!  There is no conflict on a Borg ship but plenty in Star Fleet; I know where I’d rather work.

According to psychologists Art Bell and Brett Hart, there are eight common causes of conflict in the workplace.  Bell and Hart identified these common causes in separate articles on workplace conflict in 2000 and 2002.  The eight causes are:

1.              Conflicting resources

2.              Conflicting styles

3.              Conflicting perceptions

4.              Conflicting goals

5.              Conflicting pressures

6.              Conflicting roles

7.              Different personal values

8.              Unpredictable policies