learn to work ‘better’ instead of ‘harder’

this extends to how you use and train your people.

by bill reeb

overachievers typically don’t have a problem working hard, but they often have a problem working “better.” so let’s focus on learning how to work better.

more: what to stop may be more important than what to do | expect and embrace failure anytime you do new work | determining your desires should be an active process | know where you are running to | let go of what you think you know
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regarding any technique, know that by remaining open to learning while doing the work (letting go of what you think you know), that is where you will find the “wisdom in the work,” which can bubble up into profound thoughts and ideas that can help you work better.

balance short-term efficiency gains against long-term effectiveness expectations

it is important to be aware of the choices you make every day between being effective and efficient in your performance. in my view, being effective implies taking the necessary steps to achieve your desired long-term results. being efficient is about managing short-term waste – focusing on the fastest way to get results.

the idea of working better is based on being both efficient and effective in what you do. but all too often, we take the gains available from short-term efficiency while putting at risk or sacrificing our long-term effectiveness.

when i joined my current martial arts school about 14 years ago, because of my eight years of previous training in “hard” martial arts styles, i quickly advanced in rank (when you join a new school, you start over  as a white belt). i shied away from the “softer” chinese and japanese styles taught at the school because i felt that i could get promoted more quickly building on what i already knew (efficient). the problem was by the time i was a purple belt (a beginning instructor level), i was way behind in my overall development toward becoming a black belt because of my limited knowledge of the softer side of martial arts.

after i realized the error of my ways, i started focusing on the chinese and japanese styles. but learning how to be softer at this point of my development was even more difficult because not only did i have to learn new skills, i had to unlearn many bad habits i had developed over the years by overcommitting to the harder styles. i chose the short-term gain in performance (efficiency) over making important long-term progress (effectiveness) toward my overall objective. in the end, what seemed like a shorter path to black belt actually became a much longer one.

consider training your people as another example of this technique. the most efficient approach we can take to maximize the production of our people is to tell them to do only those projects they

• currently know how to do,
• can do without supervision and
• can complete with no mistakes.

for today, tomorrow, this week and maybe this month, the company will reap rewards for this philosophy.  during the short term, why train anyone to be better, faster and stronger when we can get more out of those people by having them produce at their maximum capacity right now based on what they already know and have been successfully demonstrating?

so, a common question on the table for my clients is, “should we focus on gaining more production and rewards now, or should we focus on building a stronger, more profitable organization for the future?” my response is “balance.” we need a certain level of production to be profitable now, but we also need to be building a work force that is competitive and profitable in the future.

this brings me to another concept, which is:

we too often allow the urgent to take priority over the important.

when we focus on the urgent, we tend to make short-term efficiency choices. working better is about incorporating the power of both efficiency and effectiveness, not about sacrificing one for the other.

where might i be sacrificing long-term effectiveness for short-term efficiency gains? how can i work “better” so that my efforts are both efficient and effective?

posted on march 2, 2018