Eat That Frog -- Book Review

This is one of the earliest books that I got on time management and was quickly able to finish most of the reading in real quick time! The final few chapters are where one would get stuck as the moving gets a bit tough in there. Finally, after multiple attempts was able to complete the book a month back. As the title suggests, Brian Tracy provides us with 21 different ways/techniques to beat procrastination and come up trumps against time. It is no coincidence that many of the techniques suggested are about increasing one's effectiveness. The author provides some really good tips on time management and it was very clear from the outset itself that religiously following even a few of these techniques would greatly improve one’s usage of time. Given below are snippets of the 21 different techniques:

      1)      Set the table

      2)      Plan every day in advance

      3)      Apply the 80/20 rule to everything

      4)      Consider the consequences

      5)      Practice creative procrastination

      6)      Use the ABCDE method continually

      7)      Focus on key result areas

      8)      The law of three

      9)      Prepare thoroughly before you begin

    10)  Take it one oil barrel at a time

    11)  Upgrade your key skills

    12)  Leverage your special talents

    13)  Identify your key constraints

    14)  Put the pressure on yourself

    15)  Maximise your personal power

    16)  Motivate yourself into action

    17)  Get out of the technological time sinks

    18)  Slice & dice the task

    19)  Create large chunks of time

    20)  Develop a sense of urgency

    21)  Single handle every task

Effectiveness vs Efficiency

Does effectiveness and efficiency refer to one and the same thing? If there are differences, which is to be given more importance? The idea of this blog post is to look at those.

The classic definition for effectiveness and efficiency by Peter Drucker is this: Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things. The other commonly given definition is: Efficiency is climbing the ladder of success fast; effectiveness is ensuring that the ladder is leaning against the right wall.

Let us look at a simple example to illustrate the point. Assume that a person has been trained on climbing trees and at the end of the training sessions he is able to climb 7 trees per hour. After this training, the person gets recruited by a company that is specializing in export of coconuts. The person is now expected to climb coconut trees and drop coconuts of the required quality. After a year, if the person has started climbing 10 trees per hour it would mean that his efficiency has increased from 7 to 10. However, due to his lack of knowledge if he is unable to differentiate from the ground between a coconut tree and a palm tree and has to climb all the way to see what kind of tree it is, his efficiency is of not much use. If all that he ends up doing is climbing 4 coconut trees per hour out of the 10 trees he climbs, his effectiveness is really low. Effectiveness in this perspective would mean that the person is able to identify correctly the coconut trees before he starts climbing them. It is clear that efficiency achieved before effectiveness will not add up to much. Extending this analogy to a much more practical example would mean that one has to identify his/her key tasks and perform them efficiently. It does not make much sense to hack away at activities that are not going to be of much value. The key to effectiveness is to evaluate before each activity and ask the question “Am I climbing the kind of trees I am expected to climb?”

Level Appropriate Work

If effectiveness is so important, why do people not perform at their peak levels? Why is ‘Peak Performance’ an attribute of only a limited set of people? Most of the time people perform activities which are a level below their current position in the organization. Consider the example of a project lead getting promoted to the post of a project manager overseeing many projects & project leads. If the person continues to do the activities of a project lead instead of working on the tasks of a project manager, he is performing one level below his position. The primary reason for someone doing this could be because of the comfort zones they have created for themselves in the work they are familiar with. Moving up the ladder entails learning new skills & letting go of some of the tasks they are experts at. This takes courage and a belief in their ability to perform new activities at the same expert levels. This also would require hitting the ‘pause’ button to evaluate the potential work, which performed exceptionally by them, would lead to maximum benefit for their team. The identification of those activities and performing those activities to the best of one’s ability is where effectiveness blooms.

Effectiveness or Efficiency?

The question that invariably comes up in any discussion about efficiency and effectiveness is “Which one should I pursue?” for getting better. The answer is one should work on both these aspects. Effectiveness without efficiency is going to slow down one’s progress towards their destination while efficiency without effectiveness is going to take a person faster towards the wrong destination. The recommended practice would be to work on improving effectiveness first and then concentrating on improving the efficiency. After all, choosing the right destination comes first before identifying the fastest way to reach there. 

Six Thinking Hats -- Book Review

"Thinking:the talking of the soul with itself" -- Plato

Is there a why to the books we choose to read? What prompts someone to pick, read and most importantly complete reading a book? Even though I got Edward de Bono's 'Six Thinking Hats' couple of years back, I could not go past the first few chapters. One of the main reasons was the explanations for the 'Six' thinking hats that was given upfront was too less and it did not pique my interest. So, how did I complete the book the 2nd time around? The main reason is that Dr.Murli gave a small but beautiful presentation on the 'Six Thinking Hats'. The information, though succinct, was powerful enough to propel till the completion line this time. Now going back to the question that was raised in the first line, the answer could be the subject under discussion itself and the narrative of the book are the primary motivators. 

Edward de Bono discusses the traditional western thinking approach of arguments and discussions as being flawed as it only allows people to take stands & of viewing only one side of the argument. Then he goes on to introduce the concept of ‘Parallel Thinking’. The example of everyone going together around a country house and seeing the same side is vivid & explains the concept of parallel thinking very clearly. The Six thinking hats method allows each one of the participant in a discussion to look at various perspectives ‘together’. The key concept to be understood is that of looking at the topic from the same point of view instead of each one taking a certain stand. This way, various faculties of the brain would get activated instead of just the critical thinking aspect of it. Given below is a gist for the thinking hats and their meaning:

White: Like a computer screen, this hat is to be used for presenting data & information regarding the topic under discussion. Opinions of others are also allowed to be presented under this hat.

Red: Think of the heart, the primary organ we associate with feelings. Red color is for expressing the feelings one has about a point. The advantage of wearing this hat is that there is no need for someone to justify their feelings.

Black: As a lawyer would do, the wearer of the black hat is expected to contradict and find holes in the points brought forward for discussion. Identifying the negatives, risks of a venture are the primary tasks when wearing a black hat.

Yellow: The yellow light of the sun cheers up the whole world and gives a positive outlook to all things under it. Yellow hat is for bringing out the positives of the item under consideration.

Green: A well nurtured seedling, with proper care, grows into a big green tree. Ideas are those seedlings that need to be protected. In the case of green hat thinking creating and nurturing those ideas are the primary purpose. Wacky, out of the box ideas are acceptable. Actually, those are the kind of ideas which are expected from green hat thinking.

Additional notes on Green Hat Thinking: This is the hat where Edward de Bono introduces the readers to ‘Lateral Thinking’. This concept combined with ‘Provocative Operation (PO)’ is just brilliant and would definitely pique one’s interest to learn more about lateral & creative thinking.

Blue: The blue sky spans across the globe and provides the overview. The blue hat is used to think about the thinking. It is also this hat that summarizes the thinking and if needed, creates another thinking topic. 

Bottom Line: Being new to the 'process of thinking', this book definitely provided a good starting point for me to start my travel about creative & lateral thinking. The flip side of this book is the blurred distinction between some of the hats. However, the author itself acknowledges this and this is something one should remember while reading this book. A definite read.