What Are You Doing?

If you were to observe a day with my youngest son Wesley, you might come away with a glimpse of the inner workings of my mind. Time and experience has taught me to harness my ADHD, and utilize both its strengths?and weaknesses to accomplish my tasks. For instance... in college I discovered that I craved a certain amount of pressure to get an undesirable task completed. So, I would set out to write all the known research papers for the semester within the first month. Daunting task, but the self-imposed limit was one of many ways I learned how to "trick" my mind into staying on task. Also, the amount of time you give yourself to do a project, is exactly how long it will take to get done.

In the New York Times Bestseller - REWORK by Jason Fried & David H. Hansson, they engaged a topic entitled, "Reasons to quit." (Pages 100-102 in my hardback copy). I love this section, because it succinctly addresses things I seek to do instinctively. The authors introduce this idea with the following:

It's easy to put your head down and just work on what you think needs to be done. It's a lot harder to pull your head up and ask why.

They list several great questions, of which I would like to borrow their idea and challenge you with the topic of today's newsletter - What are you doing?

1 - Why are you doing THIS?

Stop for just a moment to think with me. Whatever your role within a business - intern to leadership/owner - you have a measure of responsibility. Within that responsibility are limits. The limits can be of ability, of objective, of scope, or even of time. The more gifted you may be, the harder to know where to draw that line. It becomes important then to define your WHY (as Simon Sinek so eloquently has communicated.) Not just in business, but in your personal and professional space as well.

As a business owner, in the early part of my career I found myself embracing a complex project that far outweighed the defined objectives of the client - because "I" had an agenda for the project that I wanted to accomplish. That agenda was derived from me seeing problems that needed to be fixed, but had not been observed, recognized or gained value as a "problem" in the eyes of the leadership to apply resources to its solution. My gung-ho, make-an-impact approach may have been appreciated in the final results, but was total overkill to what the client was asking for based off what they had defined as a problem. I have described those early years in business in Construction terms -

I designed the house and constructed the entire structure pro bono, for an opportunity to do the plumbing. All the client wanted, was a new toilet.

What's my point? I'd note the problems I observed and add them to my responsibility wheelhouse, instead of limiting solution creation to what the client defined as a problem. This might or might not be your issue, but if you do not have a clearly defined objective (a WHY), then you are burning through energy and resources blindly.

So, for the things you are engaging in - stop and ask yourself WHY you are doing a particular thing. Does it fit within the parameters of your job description? Is it something someone handed you and said - "do it" - and you never discovered the WHY? Is it just the way it has always been done, so it remains on repeat? Are you over-ambitious and like younger me - out to remake the world and improve on a problem that is not even your responsibility? Take a clear, objective look at the thing you are doing... and ask - "Why?"

2 - What's the PROBLEM to be solved?

My question differs from REWORK's "What problem are you solving?" My tweak returns the question to the goal sought, and ties back to the formative - What are you doing?

Put a job description on each channel of engagement. In other words, don't just do a thing because... but be purposeful in the effort. What ARE you doing? What is the PROBLEM to be solved? Is what you are doing - limited to solving THAT problem? Define the problem clearly - then solve THAT problem. The same is true of messaging! What's the purpose of your words? What's your desired result? Make it singular and clearly defined.

The effective speaker realizes the primary purpose of speech, is the communication of ideas and feeling in order to get a desired response. - Effective Speaker Principals

I heard a great illustration once about the difference between a yard sprinkler and garden hose with a single spray head. The water through the hose remains the same. If the water is dispersed from many holes (as in a sprinkler), the spray is weak and limited because it is is being divided in many different directions. Yet that water through the jet setting on a spray nozzle will reach further because it is singular and the force is in one direction. In the same way, if we concentrate effort in one direction - we gain greater distance.

I am running all over the place in my illustrations, because the point is valid for all these scenarios. Whether you are dealing with your packaging concerns, material choice for construction of the product, trade show displays, website verbiage (and the list continues ad nauseum) - define the problem and the desired goal, then determine the action to be taken. Cut out what detracts or is off course.

REWORK has excellent thoughts around this concept.

"What's the problem? Are customers confused? Are you confused? Is something not clear enough? Was something not possible before that should be possible now? Sometimes when you ask these questions, you'll find you're solving an imaginary problem. That's when it's time to stop and reevaluate what the hell you're doing."

3 - Run it thru a FILTER.

I have posed a number of questions already, but having a framework to evaluate your activities importance to the resolving the issue at hand, can be very helpful. Think of the common collinder. You dump the boiling hot pasta noodles in there, and it allows the cooking water to pass, but retains the noodles. Sometimes we need a filter for our daily activities and business efforts as well.

SouthWest Airlines has this built into their core. Their Purpose statement is:

Connect People to what's important in their lives through friendly, reliable, and low-cost air travel.

I heard a Keynote Speaker share a story around this, that explained the company runs all the "great suggestions" thru this Purpose filter. For example - offering a full boxed meal to passengers. Does the meal help the passengers connect to what is important in their lives? Possibly, but not more so than a simple drink and snack. Is it friendly? Sure, a meal feels generous and it is nice to get. Is it reliable? The meal does not impact the reliability of the flight, but if it does not suit the customer, it could be a detriment to their trip. Does it help us to maintain low-cost air travel? Adding the expense of a meal in a box would increase the cost to customers. So, based on the PURPOSE of our airline - adding a boxed meal would not fit within the parameters of our purpose.

Whether the above is true, I can't vouch for its veracity... but the idea and principle are sound, and the practice would be beneficial.

Wrap Up.

Develop your own filter for each effort engaged. Start with the questions already posed above, and consider some more to evaluate the effort.

• What are you doing?
• Why are you doing this?
• What's the problem to be solved?
• Is what you are doing - useful?
• Is what you are doing - adding value?
• Is what you are doing - the easiest/best way?
• Is what you are doing - really going to make a difference?
• Is what you are doing - truly worth it?

REWORK concludes their section referenced, with a powerful statement:

"Don't throw good time after bad work."

Thanks for joining me in this thought exploration around WHAT you are doing... I would love insights gleaned and the addition of thoughts you might add.

Finally, if you are in the Manufacturing space and wondering what impact effective Branding & Marketing can have on YOUR business - I would love to be an asset in helping you develop a more effective framework around WHY you do what you do. In the meantime, check out our other articles, and visit our website at https://www.adjourney.com

Thanks, Brian W. Sykes

AdJourney | Branding & Marketing for Manufacturing