Hartford Business Journal

www.HartfordBusiness.com • August 27, 2018 • Hartford Business Journal 25 COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS Meet with yourself to manage yourself By Marty Rotblatt D ave Barry, American writer/humorist, once said, "If you had to identify, in one word, the reason why the human race has not achieved, and never will achieve, its full potential, that word would be 'meetings.' " If your calendar resembles mine, it is meeting heavy. And here I am suggest- ing, imploring, that you set up another meeting, this one with yourself. Many years ago, I attended a seminar focused on improving the quality and quantity of my work. A key recommendation was to set aside time to spend with me … alone. I try to practice this, and it has been one of the most impor- tant decisions I have ever made. Meeting with myself provides a broader view of how to change how and what I do. It's one way to recharge and to maintain (and manage) my sanity. How often should this appointment be scheduled? The recommenda- tion was to establish a once-a-week standing appointment … same day … same time … 30 to 60 minutes. Start by eliminating distractions like phone calls and emails and focus on things that go beyond solving the immediate crises of the day. Eliminating distractions isn't enough to fix the problem. SmartBrief on Leadership conducts nonscientific polls reaching over 240,000 business leaders. In a recent poll more than 77 percent of respondents reported being overwhelmed "sometimes" or more frequently by the quantity of their work. Your brain must be retrained to concentrate more effectively to have greater power over distractions. To help take control of your distractions, adopt these strategies for your meet- ing with yourself: • Identify your most productive time of the day, the time when you can be most effective. Place this time block on your calendar as "busy." • Close your door and let everyone know you are in a limited-atten- dance, highly important not-to-be- disturbed meeting. • Do not take calls or read or answer emails. • Stick with your appointment until the end (don't walk out on yourself ). How should you focus this "me" ap- pointment? • Align your time to your goals and the organization's strategic plan. Identify priorities. • Focus on results you want to see in your work. Gather data and exam- ine where you've made progress, where you've made mistakes and what needs attention. Focus on frequent mistakes rather than on one-of-a-kind mistakes. • Scrutinize how you spend your time, energy and key work re- sources. Eliminate the worst ways you use these resources and then determine how to best spend them. Small changes in how you use your time and energy will show huge results over time. • Tackle your inbox. Your inbox consists of piles that have accumu- lated since your last appointment with yourself — the notes you have written to yourself, articles you have set aside for later reading, mail you have failed to get to, and other items that have not been dis- carded or filed. Put them in their proper places or figure out how to handle them. • Plan for professional development … for yourself. • Look at your week ahead. Review and time activate your revised to- do list. Plan and strategize on how you will undertake these items as well as appointments and projects. What results should you expect? Once the habit becomes entrenched, your dreaded to-do list should shrink. The growing pile of reading materi- als will dwindle. Strategic goals will be met sooner. Your quality of work will improve with more quality plan- ning time. Others will see you more relaxed and more deliberate in your actions. Sports broadcaster Steve Mari- ucci once said, "I never wear a watch, because I always know it's now — and now is when you should do it." Schedule some "me" time now and you and those around you will be glad you did. Marty Rotblatt is a nonprofit consultant with Nonprofits Work, a presenter for Leadership Greater Hartford and graduate of its executive orientation program. HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM POLL LAST WEEK'S POLL RESULT: Who will be Connecticut's next governor? NEXT WEEK'S POLL: Does your company have open positions it's unable to fill? To vote, go online to hartfordbusiness.com BIZ BOOKS How to create an innovative work culture By Jim Pawlak "Innovation Judo: Disarming Road- blocks and Block- heads on the Path to Creativity" by Neal Thornberry (Evolve Publishing, $19.95). Large busi- nesses don't start large. They start with an entrepreneur filled with original ideas (i.e. new, better, different, faster). As the business grows, it adds layers of employees, manage- ment, silos, procedures, red tape, con- gruent thinking — and, with respect to innovative ideas to spur growth, "corporate constipation." No one chal- lenges the status quo because they don't believe anyone wants to listen. For those who want to get them to listen, Thornberry looks to the principles of judo (seiryoku zen'yō — maximum efficiency, minimum effort — and jita kyōei — mutual welfare and benefit) and the concept of jū yoku gō o seisu (softness controls hardness). His seven principles start and end with "preparation." What does it mean to be prepared? Your idea may be great to you but it may not look great to oth- ers. You have to flesh it out and find ways to sell its benefits (e.g. creates value for the firm and its customers, defensible, scalable, etc.) to others. There's no one-size-fits-all approach to selling it because others have different perspectives and hot/ cold buttons. Part of your homework involves learning about how to frame your idea to the individuals whom you need to get onboard. That framing requires some seman- tic antics. Instead of saying you have an idea, open with "I believe there's an opportunity for us to … ." This shows the other two things: 1. You've done your homework; and, 2. You value and appreciate their input. The book's innovation landscape survey and opportunity template will help you craft your game plan. 35.4% Ned Lamont 16% Oz Griebel 48.6% Bob Stefanowski READER COMMENTS: "Stefanowski is the only one who can help this state and we do need a lot of help. Ned Lamont is actually worse than Malloy, which is unbelievable in itself. We don't need more taxes placed on the taxpayers of this state." "We are too tax burdened in CT. Time to change this. I see too many people leaving the state and certainly understand why." "Independents want to vote for an Independent. And we are the majority 'party.'" Marty Rotblatt Jim Pawlak Book Review

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