The 2.5% Secret
“Do you know Vilfredo?” I asked Maria while the wine was poured into our glasses.
“No. Who is Vilferdo?
“Vilfredo Pareto” I smiled. “He was a revolutionary economist who’s seminal work, Cours d’Economie Politique, introduced a “law” of income distribution,later known as Pareto’s Law.”
“Sure I know. Pareto’s Law demonstrates that 80% of the wealth in society is produced by 20% of the population.”
It was too late to stop Maria as she continued “Pareto showed that this 80/20 ratio could be found almost anywhere, not just in economics. For example, 80% of harvested grain were produced by 20% of the planted seeds.”
“He was wrong” I laughed. “In our new economy the 80/20 ratio is much more disproportionate.
For example, French, English and Spanish languages have about 100,000 words but 2,500 are high frequency words that if we command them we comprehend 95% of most conversations. This can be achieved in 5 months but if we want to comprehend 98% of the vocabulary we probably need 5 years.
If 2.5% of the total subject matter provide 95% of the desired results, then the same 2.5% provides 3% less benefit than putting in 12 times as much effort.”
“This is amazing” said Maria. “The question is into what 2.5% should we invest our efforts?”
“Exactly” I continued. “This is our toughest challenge. Philosopher Nassim N. Taleb noted a major difference between language and business. Language is largely known but business is largely unknown. Therefore, in business 2.5% is not 2.5% of a finite knowledge but the 2.5% of what we know at the present time.”
Maria got excited. “I know what 2.5% will yield my best results”.
“So why don’t you focus on them?”
“Because they are the least urgent and they require deep concentration, laser-beam focus and thoughtful introspection. The 2.5% lose the battle to the 97.5% fire-fighting” Maria said gloomily.
“Most people don’t know what 2.5% will make a difference.” I said. “I use a ‘time-block’ system that ensures I spend enough time and give undivided attention to discover the 2.5% most important things that will yield results and focus on doing those things.”
What is the first thing you do every morning…beside brushing your teeth?” I asked.
“Check my emails…of course” Maria shot back without hesitation.
“Maria, once you start your day reading emails you lose any chance to deal with the 2.5%. You are taken over by other people’s agendas. You immediately start reacting to events. Sooner or later, emails suck your morning’s precious time.
Start your day with the 2.5% that matter. Discover what is the single most important thing that will make a difference today and just do it. Our success factors require focus, concentration and undivided attention. The 2.5% are too comprehensive to deal with while distracted by incoming emails, phone calls, meetings and other interruptions.
Supervisory managers need no more than one hour of undivided attention, focus and concentration on their long term 2.5% ‘make a difference’ goals. Middle-management needs up to 2 hours and top management up to 3 hours without interruption to think, strategize, develop and innovate. The rest of the day can be left for other matters.
The 2.5% are never reactive and always proactive.
How to choose the 2.5%?
Reflect on your past mistakes and your visions for the future. Then, ask for feedback about those reflections from your team. If your team doesn’t laugh at your goals…they are not big enough.
How to work on the 2.5%?
Time Blocks.
How do I do it? The first 3 hours of my day (after exercise and personal care rituals) are dedicated to business growth (strategic projects), professional growth (skills-set development) and personal growth (self-improvement).
The first hour follows Vijay Eswaran’s Sphere of Silence which covers reflection on mistakes, long-term strategic goals, short term objectives, daily tasks, personal growth and spiritual growth.
The next 2 hours are dedicated to working attentively, uninterrupted, and relentlessly on the 2.5% that matter.
Most of the executives tell me they don’t have time for this. It will disturb ‘getting thing done’.
They are right. They are very busy with getting things done. Some do it very efficiently but they work on the 97.5% which are not necessarily the most critical to achieve success.
The trick is to give 100% intentional focus and undivided attention to discover the 2.5% that matters and to incorporate dedicated ‘time blocks’ into your busy schedule to get the 2.5% done first.”
I smiled seeing Maria writing notes on the paper napkin. She has been always a lifelong learner.
Effectiveness vs. Efficiency
Maria Hernandez was the best marketing talent I ever worked with. She graduated in psychology but she fell in love with marketing during a summer internship working for an advertising firm and then went back to school for a MBA. Born to a middle-class Hispanic family in Colorado, she was very proud of her Mexican heritage and had hard time accepting an offer to relocate to South-East Asia leaving her loving family behind. We worked together in Singapore for a few years and we continued to be in-touch after our paths separated. Maria eventually moved to the UAE to work for a Marketing firm in Media City.
Naturally I wanted to meet with Maria on a trip to Dubai, and I couldn’t think of a better place than the Maya Mexican restaurant, right on Jumeirah beach.
I tried to dress smarter than casual because Maria tended to overdress for any event. Her mantra has been to keep her uniqueness all the time. She kept to her promise and when she picked me up from my hotel she was ready to go to a Royal Gala rather than an outdoor Mexican feast. Tall, good-looking, dark hair with a strong square featured face, Maria was an expressive, extroverted, warm woman with natural curiosity about people.
It was only an hour later over generous portions of tacos and margaritas that I found that Maria felt that the transition from a professional position to management was not as smooth as she expected. She struggled with delegation and editing her team’s write-up consumed most of her time. She felt that her team dragged her down rather she lifting the team up.
Maria loved marketing but not marketing management. Beyond looking after her clients, which she did very well, she now had responsibilities to her firm and her team, and she has not met the expectations of her employer, her team and even her own self.
Many executives taking the first steps from professional roles into management don’t spend enough time discerning the changes required to achieve their new goals. Maria is not an exception. She is so busy running after daily tasks than her calendar can contain, exhausting herself and working very late hours. Being what her friends perceived as workaholic hasn’t changed anything. Maria’s first conclusion was that the problem was “time management”. She read the books The Time Trap: The Classic Book on Time Management, by Alec Mackenzie and The Personal Efficiency Program: How to Get Organized to Do More Work in Less Time by Kerry Gleeson. She took actions upon the books and eventually improved her efficiency managing efficiently her outstanding tasks, replying efficiently to more emails and editing more campaigns and advertorials.
After a short time of believing she had solved the problem, Maria found herself frustrated again. Her impact on the business had not changed one bit. She didn’t progress towards new strategic goals and her team started to lose faith in her leadership abilities.
Maria had a rude awakening.
Improving efficiency does not improve effectiveness.
Definitions of efficiency and effectiveness vary. My favorite are:
- Efficiency means performing in the best possible manner with the least resources (i.e. time and effort).
- Effectiveness means accomplishing a purpose by producing an intended result.
Being effective is about doing the right things, while being efficient is about doing the things in the right way. Efficiency focuses on the process (means) whereas effectiveness focuses on achieving the (end) goal.
But here is the problem. It is much easier to improve efficiency than effectiveness because efficiency is concerned with the present while effectiveness is related to the future.
Most times being efficient requires inflexibility and following processes rigorously, and thus discourages innovation. On the other hand, being effective requires keeping the long term strategy in mind and adapting to changes quickly, thus encouraging innovation as it means thinking differently to meet a desired goal.
A big step toward leadership is putting effectiveness at a higher priority than efficiency. But this won’t be enough unless we are very clear about our purpose and align our plans and actions cohesively toward a congruent direction. Then, and only then, will we impact our business and careers.
The higher we scale the corporate pinnacle, the more effective we are required to become.
The opposite is also true.
The more effective we become the higher we scale the corporate pinnacle.
So how do we become more effective?
- Define our life purpose and values.
- Set long-term goals that are aligned to our life purpose.
- Integrate our goals with our career and business.
As long as we are not crystal clear about the “right” – the long term goals – we will still be swimming in the muddy swamp of efficiency trying to chase the holy grail of effectiveness.
My thoughts returned to the dining table where Maria was enjoying the Enchiladas. I shared with Maria my thoughts about effectiveness vs. efficiency and her eyes lightened.
“This is the missing part of the puzzle” Maria said. “Would you believe that strategic plans that can make a difference in my life, career and business, are on my list for the last 18 months?”
Her eyes watered. “Every single day my most important goals and projects, the things I want to do more than anything else, are pushed aside by firefighting, urgent tasks and micro-management”.
“What should I do?”
Maria’s question hanged in the air for a long moment.
“Focus on effectiveness, set making long- term impact the top priority. Everything else will follow” I replied.
“How?” Maria asked.
“It’s a long answer”. I smiled. “Let’s order another glass of wine”.
Digital Effectiveness
I was excited to meet George after 5 years. We worked together in Hong Kong and he since moved to the Middle-East. I was waiting for him at the rooftop of the recently opened Marina Bay Sands resort in Singapore when I saw his tall, tanned and confident figure looking for me at the entrance.
It took us a while to catch up with happenings of family, friends and colleagues and to enjoy the view of Singapore Marina Bay at dusk, over a superb glass of wine…
Bzzzzzzzzz…
George’s cellphone rang louder than an ambulance siren. He compulsively picked it up, glanced for a short moment, typed quickly and placed it on the table.
We had a few minutes of conversation about the impact of social media on future marketing when…
Bzzzzzzzzz…
George was faster than a cheetah hunting its prey. He did not notice the annoyed looks from the surrounding couples who were trying to have a romantic dinner.
Over the next 30 minutes George received, read and responded to more messages than my wine sips. He was not the same guy I knew 10 years ago prior to the era of BlackBerries, iPhones, Tablets, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, multiple email accounts and several mobile devices. This George was disturbed, unfocused and stressed. He did not complete a full anecdote without…
Bzzzzzzzzz…
“Do you have a lot of emergencies in your business, George?” I asked gently even though I was losing patience.
“Well, you know, the expectations are to respond to every communication at light speed. If I wait, other people will respond and take action before I am even aware. I also receive alerts from my blog, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and my personal email accounts. I want to crunch them immediately before they accumulate to enormous numbers. This is life today buddy. No choice”.
I was puzzled. George was a senior executive in a multi-billion Euro telecom conglomerate. How could he manage such a large organization responding to every email, text message and social media alert at the same sense of urgency?
“How are you doing at your job, George?” I asked?
“I’m doing well but too busy with fire-fighting and tactical matters instead of long term strategies. Information overload becomes more challenging every year. Connectivity changes the world and enables rapid response but it is also a double-sided sword. I do not remember when was the last time I took a break to introspect and think. Thinking has been replaced by communication.”
I nodded my head in agreement.
“A few years back we had moments that we were not reachable.” I said. “We don’t have them anymore. We are reachable 24/7 and we are expected to respond rapidly because everyone assumes that we are connected anytime and everywhere”.
My sentence hanged in the air because George was typing something on his mobile after another ear defeating bzzzzzzzzzzzz.
It was a good time to order the bill and say goodbye to my very distracted friend.
Can senior executives be effective if they manage their communication in such a chaotic, reactive and random way?
No, they cannot.
Business leaders can lose the effectiveness battle to the misleading feeling of efficiency by reacting to the information overload that surrounds us.
What can we do? In this supper connected world we have to respond to the enormous amount of communication. Don’t we?
No! Not all time.
The connected world steals our inner world to the point we cannot think because we listen all the time to the noise that comes from the sources that connect us to the herd – thousands of people all the time.
We want to be in a state of mind that enables us to make the right decisions and differentiate between important matters and clatter. It is very difficult to reach a peaceful state of mind while our attention is always outward and never inward.
In order to become effective leaders we want to enable our inward focus that allows us to discern the right direction.
One of my favorite stories on the meaning of peace by an unknown author is as following:
“There once was a king who offered a prize to the artist who would paint the best picture of peace. Many artists tried. The king looked at all the pictures. But there were only two he really liked, and he had to choose between them.
One picture was of a calm lake. The lake was a perfect mirror for peaceful towering mountains all around it. Overhead was a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. All who saw this picture thought that it was a perfect picture of peace.
The other picture had mountains, too. But these were rugged and bare. Above was an angry sky, from which rain fell and in which lightning played. Down the side of the mountain tumbled a foaming waterfall. This did not look peaceful at all.
But when the king looked closely, he saw behind the waterfall a tiny bush growing in a crack in the rock. In the bush a mother bird had built her nest. There, in the midst of the rush of angry water, sat the mother bird on her nest – in perfect peace.
Which picture do you think won the prize?
The king chose the second picture. Do you know why?
“Because,” explained the king, “peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble, or hard work. Peace means to be in the midst of all those things and still be calm in your heart. That is the real meaning of peace.”
It is the peaceful mind that develops effective leaders. Not the non-stop connectivity and instant responding to the blur of information.
We enhance our leadership effectiveness when we leave the outer world with its unstoppable demanding connectivity and enter our inner world for just a short while. In this short break we organize our thoughts and priorities and we align our actions toward our goals.
The most effective step you can take to reach effectiveness is described in the book The Sphere of Silence by Vijay Eswaran. Vijay wrote his book before Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, and other attention seeking and time sucking media channels. His quest for one hour of silence a day is great solution to be successful in the rest of the 23 hours.
The Sphere of Silence encapsulates the importance of silence in many aspects of life. In our über-connected world, silence means disconnecting from the outer world and connecting to our inner world.
The Sphere of Silence accumulates centuries of wisdom crystalized to a simple routine that takes one hour…every day…in silence.
Vijay Eswaran is not just an author of book he is also the founder and the Chairman of an international conglomerate, philanthropist and a sought after speaker. He claims that the daily one hour silence was key factor to his success.
The book was on my shelf for 5 years collecting dust.
I could not find one hour a day.
I have thousands of emails, business tasks, family commitments, community engages, physical activities….
I could not take an hour of silence!
I was wrong.
It was fortunate enough to participate in The Zone leadership development experimental seminar to have a Sphere of Silence session with Vijay Eswaran himself.
I follow the Sphere of Silence routine now with purpose.
The Sphere of Silence is a comprehensive still simple success system the one hour routine contains the following structure;
Reflection 10 minutes
Duty: Mid & Long term Goals 10 minutes
Short Term tasks 10 minutes
Knowledge 15 minutes
Devotion 15 minutes
This is the only routine that combines retrospection, planning, self-development and spirituality. These 4 pillars made the Sphere of Silence very effective and life changing for me personally.
How did I succeed to follow the routine every single day even when I was traveling or having very tight schedule?
I call it Sphere of Silence “On Steroids” (SOSOS). It means that I do the routine no matter how much time I have. Even if I have only few minutes, I will find the most important thing to reflect on, look at the most important goal I would like to achieve in the long term, the most important task I would like to achieve today, read (even if it is only one page) and pay gratitude to the creator.
In any other circumstances, I follow the time frame stated in the book. But when I cannot make the time, I just do the full routine in an accelerated way.
Only when we adopt a new habit do we see change in our life.
The Sphere of Silence enhances leadership effectiveness especially in the digital era.
Beyond Expertise
Our life journey funnels us toward our ultimate expertise. We are programmed to become experts in one field. We start our formal education in a wide variety of subjects that narrow down to one expertise. In elementary and middle school we learn geography, art, history, physical health and many other topics. However, as we grow, the education system provides us with less width and more depth in our potential area of expertise. For example, many high school students are required to choose their tendency toward science studies focused programs or social studies focused programs. American universities define the major after the sophomore second year while English universities require a decision of the major even before admission. Medical doctors start with a wide variety of sciences narrowed toward medical studies to become a general practitioner. Then, they continue the long ride toward expert certification.
Business management is no different. An accountant must be an expert in accounting. An engineer must be an expert in mechanics, electronics or other specific field. We are told that the greater our expertise, the higher we will climb the corporate ladder. Right?
Wrong!
Our expertise starts working against us in a very confusing manner. High expertise leads to professional growth and fast track career path up to middle-management. The first decade of our professional career teaches us that expertise provides sound-track career. It is true if we want to be stuck in middle-management. If we wish to grow beyond this point toward organizational leadership, then expertise works against us. It prevents us of growing to the next level for the following reasons:
- Expertise encourages a narrow view and a disconnection from the organization’s other functions
- Expertise causes a single-dimension problem solving because we are not aware of the impact of our expertise function on other functions
- Expertise blocks us from engaging other experts as we believe that our expertise is the crucial one (we all believe so even we don’t admit it. Isn’t it the reason we chose this expertise?).
It is very hard to make a conscious decision to stop doing something which has been the key factor to our success. Isn’t it? Yet, it is highly unlikely we will be promoted beyond middle-management unless we change our mentality mid-career and expand our knowledge towards new areas and broader interests.
The faster we understand that the key to success lies in multi-disciplinary professional growth, the faster we will breakthrough to effective leadership in our organizations.
Most professional managers are stuck. They are locked in their expertise safe-box rather than flying out, seeking new competencies and developing inter-disciplinary knowledge. The most formal multi-disciplinary business education is a Master in Business Administration. MBA programs receive criticism of being too theoretical and less effective than businesses would like but it is an opportunity to gain multidisciplinary business knowledge. In the past I have recommended it to colleagues. Only a few took the challenge and made the effort. Others felt that further expertise will be the key for their career path. They said that when they need a complementary knowledge they would approach other experts. They didn’t feel the need to learn new competencies since there were other experts they could engage on demand.
Here is the problem. Other experts analyze issues and provide solutions without seeing the big-picture. Calling other experts to complement our single dimension expertise will eventually lead to bad decisions and higher failure rate.
An MBA is not the only way to gain multi-disciplinary competencies. Books, audios, seminars, workshops and other informal education can give you the same knowledge. It is more about changing our mentality rather than learning new topics.
Believe it or not, attending meetings with other functional experts with curiosity, really listening and focusing can give you knowledge and competencies in the other areas of the organization. It’s common for us when discussions are shifting to other areas, to divert our attention to emails, text messages or just leave. Who hasn’t thought “It is none of my business” and “tuned out” before? It is probably none of your business if you want to do the same thing until you retire. It is your business if you want to become a leader.
Organizational leadership does not grow through expertise. It grows as we get involved in the broader aspects of our organization. It grows when we assume responsibilities for new functions. It grows when we expand our expertise towards new disciplines where we haven’t been trained before.
Whether we are in science, business, education or any other industry, the future belongs to those who have the knowledge and depth provided by multiple disciplines. The next scientific breakthrough will come from scientists who combine biology, chemistry, physics and sciences that don’t even exist yet. The next educational breakthrough will come from educators that integrate teaching with information technology (IT).
Our career breakthroughs will happen when we expand our horizons and develop a multi-disciplinary approach to our career covering all aspects of business.
Is Multitasking a Myth or a Required Skill?
There was a time when I envied super multi-tasking executives. The first impression I had was that they succeeded to outpace everyone else by juggling various tasks at the same time. They wrote emails while chairing meetings, text messages while they were talking, browsed the internet and completed calls before understanding the topic discussed. It is only when you look at the quality of their work, the lack of details, the shallow ideas and the low attention to everyone and everything, that you start wondering whether these super multi-taskers achieve anything at all.
Can we REALLY do multiple things at once and be more productive?
Studies show that multitasking is not as effective as concentrated times. These studies have disclosed that people show deficits in performance even doing two very simple tasks at the same time. Our brain simply cannot focus on more than one simple task at once. For example, we can chew gum while we work, but cannot simultaneously focus on multiple complex tasks. Our brain must switch its attention from one thing to another. Every time we do this, our brain undergoes a process that takes time.
When it comes to paying attention, multi-tasking is a myth. The brain naturally focuses sequentially, one thing at a time. We are biologically incapable of processing attention rich inputs simultaneously.
John Medina explains in his book Brain Rules that when we attempt to complete many tasks at one time, or alternate rapidly between them, it takes longer to complete tasks and they are subject to errors. In the interim between each exchange, the brain makes no progress whatsoever and we lose time in the process. Although the brain is complex and can perform a myriad of tasks, it does not multi-task well.
Medina also shows that it takes 50% longer to accomplish a task for a person who is interrupted. Not only that, he or she makes up to 50% more errors. Evidence about how bad we are at multi-tasking is the performance of people who drive while talking on their cell phone. According to Brain Rules “cell phone talkers are a half second slower to hit the brakes in emergencies. In a half second a driver going 100 km per hour travels 20 meters. Only drunk drivers have more accidents than people talking on cell phones while driving!
We often see people texting while engaged in conversation. He or she who texts while in conversation, will miss a great part of what is said. In addition, by not maintaining eye contact and paying complete attention to the conversation, the texting person conveys that they aren’t interested and does not care for what the other thinks.
We don’t have to be multitaskers to be high performers. We have to be extremely organized, meet deadlines, have a list of things we want to do and make sure they get done.
Here are some ideas on how to be more effective and more creative. First, turn off the email alerts in our computers and cell phones. Also mute the text alerts (and emails) in our cell phones. Second, close the internet browser windows which we don’t use, especially social media and communication such as Skype or Windows Live. Third, limit unscheduled colleague interruptions. Fourth, block time to check e-mails and block separate time for creative work, important project and high-priority tasks.
E-mails are like chocolate – they are irresistible, often of no real value, and there is no such thing as eating just one.
If we don’t want to be like Pavlov’s dogs responding to every interruption, if we don’t want to look like a circus juggler, if we want to be less stressed and more effective…let’s stop trying to do a million things at once.
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