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Micro Habits and Learning

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Kevin Eikenberry writes a cracking blog and has recently been discussing micro-habits. If I understand him properly a micro-habit is a habit that you have for a short period of time – but then you lose.

So for example if you read a book for 30 minutes every day for a week – for that week you have the ‘micro-habit’ of reading. No doubt some people become more comfortable with the reading micro-habit, find some real benefits from it and it becomes a fully fledged habit. Something that they do, as a part of who they are, routinely. So micro-habits are experiments with new ways of being in the work. New ways of operating.

By definition these micro-habits are not natural behaviours. They are things that you have to make yourself do. Yo are forced to deviate from your norms. Once you experience some benefits and these outweigh the discomforts then the micro habits become habits – and hey presto – you have learned!

The big problem is putting up with the discomfort for long enough for the benefits to start to become apparent. Often the benefits lag behind the investment. Sometimes we give up too early.

So lots of micro-habits lead to lots of learning.

Is it true that without micro-habits learning in any real practical sense cannot happen?

  • What micro-habits have you taken up at the moment?
  • How long will you stick with them for?
  • How will you know if they are working for you?
  • If you aren’t trying new things then have you stopped learning?

After the Floods – Coping in Times of Crisis – and Thriving Once They Have Passed

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I live and work in Yorkshire, which has been hit pretty hard by summer flooding. Tens of thousands of homes ruined and businesses disrupted across the county. It is taking an enormous physical effort to get things back on track – and hundreds of people are putting in super-human efforts to try to get things on the mend.

One of the upsides of this disaster is way it renews faith in human nature. The news is full of communities pulling together, helping each other and bouncing back; journalists proclaiming that ‘the people in this community are special’.

Unfortunately we don’t have many super-humans in Yorkshire and the strain is taking its toll. That is why I was pleased to see a great post today from Carmine Coyote on a one minute “stress busting” technique. If you are reaching breaking point, or even just beginning to feel the pressure then why not try it. It is a simple, 6 step – 60 second routine that if repeated several times a day will help you to recognise and manage your stress.

While it might help to manage the symptoms – and raise your awareness of the need to make changes in the way you work – Carmine’s technique alone will not provide a long term remedy to your stress at work.

That will only come when you start to manage differently – to:

  • build better relationships of trust and respect with fellow workers
  • give, receive and act on feedback on a daily basis,
  • coach every member of your team every week
  • delegate more and more effectively – so expanding your teams capacity to do more with less resources
  • focus on what really makes a difference – and stop doing the marginal stuff.

This requires

  1. a little bit of skill (it is easily learned)
  2. an iron will (otherwise you get sucked into ‘fire-fighting’ again!)
  3. a real determination to deliver on your responsibility to build a great team.
  4. a real belief that people are special and have tremendous potential.

Your job as a manager is to provide them with a context in which they do great work.

The Manager’s Dip

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Seth Godin‘s new book is called The Dip. The Dip is the hard spot – it is the place that most people give up. Having started off with high hopes the dip is when ‘reality strikes’ results are not what were hoped for and you are faced with two choices; ‘give up’ or ‘push on’.

Every new management job starts out being exciting and fun.  Then it gets harder and less fun and then it hits The Dip.  It is incredibly hard and not much fun at all.  A scarily high number of managers are bang in The Dip. And they are trapped. Too scared to quit. And no belief in their ability to change.

Even the best managers fall into The Dip.  But they recognise it quickly and make some decisions (take some actions) that get them out of it quickly.  Sometimes they move on – and fall into The Dip in a different organisation.  Other times they stay – and they change.  They commit to beat The Dip because it’s worth it.

How do they beat The Dip?

  1. By building trusting and respectful relationships with other people who can help them to beat The Dip – managers, peers, reports, customers and other stakeholders.
  2. By building up the reward once The Dip has been beaten. (‘Do you know what it will mean if we can just get through this?’)
  3. By coaching, giving  feedback, delegating and developing the potential of every one who can help to get through The Dip.

Good managers know:

  • when they can beat The Dip and it is worth beating
  • when the Dip will beat them or it is just not worth the effort.

Some managers know neither of these things.  They just hang in there, working long hours, making little progress like a hamster trapped in wheel and The Dip just gets bigger and deeper.

5 Minute Management Breakthroughs

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Exactly how much can you as a manager achieve in 5 minutes? The truth is that for many managers, 5 minutes is more than enough time to create a management breakthrough – to transform (at least temporarily) the nature of their relationship with the people that they manage.

So here are some ideas:

Find Out What Matters

Spend 5 minutes with each member of your team, and ask them about the things that matter most in their life. When you know what really matters to people and provide management that reflects these priorities the working relationship is transformed.

Try this: “I’d like to know a bit more about you. Can you take a few minutes to tell me about the things that are most important to you at the moment?”

The response might be initially work oriented or not. If it is work oriented try a follow up question such as “And what about outside of work? What things are important to you there?”

A small minority of people will not be happy talking to you about non work related stuff. Most will be thrilled that you want to spend a bit of time finding out about them as people rather than employees.  If you are using weekly 121s this is a great theme to explore on a regular basis.

Recognise the Good Stuff

The vast majority of things that happen in the vast majority of organisations are overwhelmingly good.  However as managers we learn to focus on what is not good, what is not expected, what is not under control.  This can make us seem hyper-critical.  Take a minute to think about all the GREAT things that your team has done this week.   Take opportunities to focus on the good stuff, acknowledge it and thank people for their contributions to it.  But mainly just be aware of it.  As you build your awareness of the achievements of your team you will build a more constructive relationship with team members.

Move Into Service Mode

Take 5 minutes to fill up everyone on your team’s coffee (or water) cup. Buy them an ice cream on a hot day.  Serving is a great way to show your team that you care. Especially if you know who drinks coffee and who drinks water before you get started.

Serving people is a great way to strengthen the relationship.

Thank You

Write as many thank you notes as you can to your team in 5 minutes. Be specific, and let them know just how much you appreciate them and their work.  You can send choose to send a quick e-mail,  but a hand written Thank You note works much better.

Most of these things work well if you do them just once.  Most work far better when they are repeated – perhaps daily, weekly or monthly.  We are great at spotting patterns and making meaning.

Set up patterns that show that you care.

Then people will begin to believe that they really are your ‘greatest asset’.

Choosing a Strategy – The Big Leap Forward or Tiny Steps?

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Choose Your Way Forward

Every organisation is looking to improve the effectiveness and the efficiency of its operations. We are all looking for ways to make progress.

The Big Leap

Most of the time organisations go for a ‘big leap’ strategy. They choose a framework or mental model to hang their change efforts on (swot, lean thinking, systems thinking, balanced scorecard, 6 sigma, quality models etc) and then go through a process of ‘strategic planning’ followed by an implementation phase when employees are ‘engaged’ to make change happen.

They plan the jump, build the ramp and then open the throttle. This is by far the preferred choice of most organisations and some of them manage to make the leap.

The Tiny Steps

This is a much more unusual strategy for making progress. The first step in making this work is getting every one in the organisation crystal clear on what the organisation exists to do and how they can contribute. This is where third sector/social change organisations have a real advantage over the profit chasers because of the potential that lies in giving people the chance to make a real difference in society.

The second step is about talking to employees one-on-one every week – about what they have done, what they are going to do and how they can build their contribution in the future. Working with simple management tools including feedback, coaching and delegation these one to ones provide the vehicle for continually keeping everyone ‘aligned’ and contributing to the organisation. Every week it provides an opportunity to coach, improve and delegate. And these processes generate progress and change through a series of tiny steps. Every employee growing their contribution – every week. Week by week, person by person progress is made.

This ‘Tiny Steps’ strategy is a pretty rare choice for organisations to take. It does not rely on gurus or consultants to make it work. It does not need to be underpinned by advanced training – it requires time, commitment and discipline. It requires great management – not great theory.

So choose your way forward with care.