Sometimes the best life hacks are the simplest

Occasionally, I’ll tackle a complex, nuanced issue on my blog and do my best to simplify and condense into a two to three minute read. Some days, though, I’ll point a finger directly at the mind numbingly obvious and there’s little to no simplification and abbreviation required. Well, this is one of those days.

I have worked with a few organizations and leaders who have lamented the lack of accountability within their organizations. When asked about it, I hear that rules are not sufficiently enforced, good behaviors are not rewarded, and toxicity isn’t called out and addressed. This is quite discouraging.

I discuss toxicity in organizational cultures in my book in some detail, but this lack of accountability thing seems to be prevalent and, for reasons I don’t fully understand, increasingly so.

Here’s the life hack. Take good notes. Write things down. Keep good lists.?

This doesn’t have to be sophisticated and you don’t need powerful task management software to do so… unless of course you’re managing a tax exempt financing, merging companies, building a bridge, or completing some other major project. For most of us, however, we just need to track tasks and have a good way of remembering stuff. Pencil and paper works.

This is a life hack because I continue to be struck by how many people don’t do this. They attend a meeting when ideas, solutions, and next steps are determined and then… never documented. Or, these are recorded somehow and somewhere but then flow out into the ether, never to be seen again.

I have commented on this before - it’s important to have a system - and am just surprised by how many people… don’t.

When you write things down and then figure out a way… some way… to remember things, people will notice.

In follow-up discussions, reciting what everyone promised to deliver can have a massive impact. If my boss is writing it down, I better do the same. And if my boss is going to ask me about it when we meet again, I better have it done.

This works. In a transformative way.

And it’s incredibly simple.

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