Prioritization and Clarity on what you Value (5-16-18)

Last week was about prioritization, oil changes, and taking care of ourselves. This week is about prioritization and clarity on what we value.

Let’s pretend that you wake up on Saturday morning. You look at your to-do list and you need to mow, get groceries, sort out your finances, hang out with friends, and run other errands. Which thing do you make sure you have to get done? Which things might you let slide? How do you decide which one to do first? Let’s pretend we are in the exact same situation with the exact same

to- do list. Now let’s add a twist. Your house is on fire. What action do you prioritize? I imagine that you grab your family and get out of the house as fast as you can. Having your house on fire, gives you instant clarity on what you need to do.

You might be wondering where this is going. I believe that prioritization challenges arise when we are not clear on what we value. In the above example, you started with a to do list and no sense of what you valued. When your house was on fire it quickly caused you to realize that you value the life of yourself and your family and that everything else is secondary. This is a pretty dramatic example, but it is a way of crystallizing what you value so you can take action.

Think about life for a moment. What do you value? Are you clear on that? Now, here is the hard question. How closely does your life reflect what you claim you value? If you aren’t clear on what you value, then you can’t prioritize things in your life, because you don’t have a starting point. I’ve found that the more my life reflects my priorities, the things I claim to value, the better life is for me.

When it comes to deciding what I value in life, I do it in two ways. First, I think about the roles I play and which ones are the most important. My goal is to be a great person, husband, dad, friend, and employee in that order. The second way I crystallize what I value might sound a little hokey, but it’s something that has had an impact on my life. My senior year of college I had the legendary Professor Skinner and she had us go through an exercise where we wrote our own mission statement. She then laminated these and gave them to us. I’ve kept mine in my wallet ever since. I feel that when I live this life is good. I bring all of this up to say that the exercise has helped me find clarity on my purpose and what is important to me, which has helped me prioritize things in life. If you haven’t ever done anything like this, I’d encourage you to reflect and even put your mission statement on paper. If you want some more food for thought you can check out this website https://www.andyandrews.com/personal-mission-statement/

The challenge: Are you clear on what you value and how that impacts the way you prioritize things?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Prioritization and Oil Changes (5-9-18)

This week I’d like to start a new series that encourages us to think about prioritization in different ways. This week we will start off by thinking about prioritization and oil changes.

What I’m about to tell you is a completely true story. My younger brother’s first car was a mustang convertible. He got an awesome deal on the car, because the guy was in a rush to get rid of it (long story). Now here is where the story goes downhill. My younger brother absolutely ruined his first car. Right about now, you’re probably assuming that he got into some kind of accident. That’s not true. He had the car for over 3 years, drove thousands of miles, and he NEVER changed the oil. NEVER. Eventually the engine just stopped working. Without oil, it basically locked up and couldn’t move. A family friend who has worked on race cards and demolition derby cars said it was the worst engine he had ever seen. My brother had the means and the opportunity to change the oil, but he never made taking care of his car a priority. Tell me this isn’t one of the dumbest things you’ve ever heard in your life.

You’re probably wondering where this is going. Sometimes, I treat myself the same way my brother treated his mustang convertible. Sometimes, I get so wrapped up in work, kids, and life, that I don’t make taking care of myself a priority. During these times I don’t eat well. I don’t exercise. I don’t go to the doctor like I should. I don’t rest and relax. I don’t do the things I need to do to take care of me. Do you ever fall into this trap? Have you ever went a few weeks or a month and looked back to say, “Whoa, I’m not treating myself very well right now”?

Much like my brother, I have the means and the ability to take care of myself, but sometimes I just don’t make myself a priority. Much like a car, my body is the thing that transports me around in this world, so if I don’t take care of it, everything else will suffer including my family, friends, and work. I’ve found that the only way I can truly take care of myself is if I’m extremely deliberate about doing so. For example, in order to take care of myself physically I’ve discovered I need to work toward achieving some kind of goal. Usually, I sign up to run a race, which will put me on a schedule to eat relatively healthy and work out on a scheduled basis. I need to be deliberate about taking care of myself in other ways too. I make a concentrated effort to put away my phone when I’m outside of work, so it’s out of sight and out of mind. I have to create boundaries, so I can put work down in order to enjoy some free time. If I’m not deliberate, I won’t take care of myself and sooner or later I find myself locking up like my brother’s engine.

The challenge: Are you prioritizing the time to take care of yourself?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Prioritization and Trade-Offs (5-30-18)

This is the last in the series about prioritization. We began by thinking about oil changes and prioritizing taking care of ourselves. Then, we reflected on what we truly value, because that is the only way we can prioritize things. Last week I shared what I’ve learned about prioritization from market research. This week we will think about prioritization and trade-offs. Once again, special shout out to Kathleen Pearson for being the inspiration behind this series.

Let’s pretend for a moment that you were planning a house party for about 10 people. You have a budget of $100. Ideally, you want to have invitations, food, drinks, party favors, and decorations. Would you dedicate $20 to each thing I just listed? Probably not. It wouldn’t make any sense for you to treat each of the 5 things like they were completely equal when they have different values. Depending on who you are and how you value those things, you would split up your money accordingly. As you spent your money you’d continue to weigh the trade-offs. As an example, every dollar spent on beverages is a dollar you can’t spend on something else. If the party was for my friends, I could spend most of my money on beverages and food, and it would be an awesome party. If the party was for my daughter’s birthday, I would allocate the money differently, and probably spend more on decorations and party favors.

You probably see where this is going. We face the above situation in work all the time. Instead of planning a party we are trying to achieve a business objective. Instead of $100 dollars we have finite resources. Instead of food, drinks, etc. we have projects, tactics, etc. to invest in. Unlike the house party situation, I feel we often fall into the trap of trying to do everything at work. As I mentioned last week, I’ve fallen into this trap because I’ve tried to impress people. Sometimes, I also fall into this trap, because I don’t think through the trade-offs we can make.

Usually, there are three main things you trade-off: speed, quality, and cost (time and/or money). It’s extremely rare to be able to have all three. If you have something fast, it’s usually going to be expensive or it’s not going to be perfect quality. If you have something of perfect quality it’s either going to take a long time to create and/or it will cost a lot. I know that we like to pretend that the world doesn’t work this way, but it does. We have to get comfortable that we live in a world of restrictions and as we face these trade-offs we need to do a better job of understanding what we are willing to sacrifice. For example, I know people always want an A+ on quality, but are there times where a B is acceptable? If it is, we can probably move faster and be cheaper. Bottom line, the better I understand the trade-offs I’m making, the more equipped I am to make better prioritization decisions.

The challenge: Do you understand the trade-offs you’re making?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Quidditch, Golden Snitches, and Prioritization (3-1-17)

Last week was about Hermione Granger, self-doubt, and running out of magic. This week we are going to turn to quidditch for a lesson in prioritization. In case you’re a muggle, allow me to explain Quidditch. The game consists of two teams of 7 players who fly on brooms and try to score points. There are 4 “balls” that are in play during a match. There is one quaffle (a ball you grab and throw through hoops to earn points), two bludgers (enchanted balls that try to knock people off their brooms), and one golden snitch.

The golden snitch is a small flittery ball that is enchanted to make is extremely elusive. Capturing the ball is worth a lot of points and is the only way to stop the match. Basically, capturing the golden snitch is the most important thing you can do in the game to achieve victory. In order to catch the golden snitch, each team has a player designated as the Seeker. The Seeker is a skilled flyer with a fast broom and their job is to avoid the other team and the bludgers in order to capture the golden snitch. The other players work with the Seeker to help them achieve the goal. You can click HERE to see this in action. So you’re probably wondering what this has to do with prioritization. As the paragraph states above, the golden snitch is the most important thing in the game. This means that each team prioritizes its personnel, effort, skills, and strategies in a way that boosts their ability to capture the golden snitch. If the team doesn’t prioritize golden snitch catching activities, then they will lose.

So what does this have to do with work? In quidditch the golden snitch is clearly identified as the most important thing to achieve. In the real world it doesn’t work like that. Instead, it is up to the team to look at a very complex market in order to decide what is the most important thing the team must achieve in order to be successful. Another connection is that just like quidditch, in the real world you are flying around in a crazy environment where bludgers (external forces) try to knock you off your focus while competitors fly all around you chasing goals. You are forced to navigate an extremely complicated landscape, and it is up to you to prioritize the people, effort, skills, time, and strategies that will enable you to capture your golden snitch. If you asked your team right now what the golden snitch is that your team is trying to capture, could they tell you? If you asked them how their work enabled the team to capture the golden snitch would they know? If I asked you what your golden snitch was, would you have an answer? If you don’t know what your golden snitch is you can’t figure out how to catch it, which just leaves you fly around fast in circles. Sure it might look impressive, but it’s not really getting anything done. I’m sure we all have had that experience, right? I know that I’m currently in the stage of messy confusion where I’m spending time trying to figure out what my golden snitch is so I can best catch it, so if you’re there too then you aren’t alone.

The challenge: What is your team’s golden snitch? How are you prioritizing your efforts to ensure that everything is aligned to catching that golden snitch? (If only it were as easy as “accio what should be my top priority.”)

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Prioritization and Dishwashers Part 5: Clarity’s Kryptonite (6-22-16)

This will be the last in the series on prioritization. We’ve talked about dishwashers in regards to capacity, process, learning, and being intentional with people. Bottom line is prioritization is all about clarity. If you have clarity then you can appropriately prioritize. This week we are going to look at clarity’s kryptonite, an interesting conundrum of a lifeform called people.

Imagine for a moment that you had all of the dishes in the dishwasher and you were getting ready to start the cycle. Right before you did I ran up and started throwing stuff in there, which completely jacked everything up. What would you do? Would you run the dishwasher as is? Would you attempt to rearrange the dishes? Would you remove some dishes? This would never happen at work, right? Imagine you have your projects you are working on, and then someone starts throwing new projects (dishes) at you, because they are clearly priorities. What would you do? I know this never happens, but what if it did? How would you feel? It would be frustrating, right? What would you do?

Why does this happen? This happens because people are beautiful, emotional, flawed, and limited creatures as opposed to purely calculating robots. I love people and find myself frustrated by them at the same time. The thing is that we live in a world that is evolving rapidly and since people aren’t robots with amazing terabyte processing power the answers and insights we are looking for are never clean. For all of these reasons, what I’ve come to realize is that people (myself included) are NOT particularly good when it comes to clarity and truly understanding what they want.

So how does this understanding connect with our work? It changes the way we can approach people when they want to change our priorities. In the past, I would assume that the person asking me to change priorities was purely rational and knew exactly what they were doing, why they were doing it, and the outcome that would occur. Therefore, I would agree and do what they said without asking any questions. This always led to problems and complications, because I’d do work that really wasn’t that important or I’d do work where I didn’t understand the end game. Not good.

I’ve realized people are not robots and expecting them to have everything figured out when they don’t live in my world is a poor expectation to have. Instead of instantly agreeing to requests, I seek clarity before I do anything. First, I talk to them and reinforce what my current priorities are and why. Second, I ask questions to figure out what the person wants to change, why, and what impact that will have on the other work going on. Depending on the outcome of that conversation one of two things happens. The person realizes that what they want me to do isn’t as important as other things, so we drop it or I gain a new understanding of how and why my priorities are evolving, why this new project is important, and we figure out how to rebalance things. I can’t come to this place without having the conversation to gain clarity.

The challenge: Are you asking the questions to find the clarity you need before you accept projects and change priorities?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Prioritization and Dishwashers Part 4: Being Intentional and Washing Wine Glasses by Hand (6-15-16)

This week we will continue the dishwasher analogy with a focus on being intentional with help from Ryan Dawson and Steve Guthrie. After they read the initial dishwasher email about capacity, they sent me emails challenging me that not everything should go in the dishwasher. Ryan said that there are some things that are so important that they need to be washed by hand and Steve mentioned some very nice wine glasses that he always washes by hand, because that is the care they deserve and require.

Notice how they are being INTENTIONAL about what they do and why they do it. They make intentional choices about what to put or not put in the dishwasher. Before we can think about being intentional let me ask you two questions. What is your job? What is your role in the organization? When you answered those questions, did you focus on the stuff you deliver for the organization or did you also think about your role in influencing the people around you? I’d argue that whether you are a supervisor or an individual contributor, your role in the organization is larger than just delivering stuff. The people I view as great leaders are the ones who understand that positively impacting others around you is as important as delivering stuff.

When you are creating priorities, are you also intentional about what you want to accomplish with people? Continuing with Guthrie’s metaphor, people are like wine glasses. You need to handle them with care and purpose. You need to be aware of what you’re trying to accomplish with them. Being intentional with people could be about executing specific strategies, but many times it’s about intentionally doing the little things.

A little thing I like to do is send emails with what I think are cool pictures like the featured dinosaur. Over the years I’ve had a lot of people joke with me and say, “Where do you find the time to find these images?” This comment always interests me. The premise of the joke is that I find the pictures because I have an abundance of time. What if I told you this isn’t the case? What if I told you I actually prioritize time to find funny pictures to send? I intentionally take the time to send cool pictures, because I think the extra effort will show people how much I care about them and that I want to brighten their day. I want people to know I care, because I view part of my purpose in the organization is to make people laugh and feel loved. If I can make people laugh and feel loved, then we become closer and we do better work together. Better partnership equals better results, which means we help more patients. I have decided that the benefit from the better partnership far outweighs the few seconds I spend on Google trying to find a fun image to send.

The challenge: Leadership is about delivering stuff and impacting people. How intentional are you about what you want to accomplish with people?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Prioritization and Dishwashers Part 3: Prioritizing Learning (6-8-16)

Happy Wednesday,

The inspiration from folks keeps pouring in. Last week we talked about dishwashers and the process for prioritizing. This week we’ll talk about prioritization, making the dishwasher better, and learning. This week’s entry is inspired by Katy Swathwood.

Let’s pretend for a moment that you want to make my dishwasher more effective. How would you do this? I wouldn’t paint my dishwasher. I wouldn’t put new buttons or decorations on it, because those things wouldn’t help the dishwasher be more effective. Instead, I might take a few different approaches. Maybe I’d find a way to increase water pressure. Maybe I’d invest in new dishwashing detergent that could do a better job. As Katy suggested, I could even spend time Googling how to properly place dishes in the dishwasher.

How does this connect with work? After Katy read the last blog entry she sent me this message that has stuck with me all week. “The other piece I’d add- that I think to many of us overlook- is making learning and growing a priority. If you are using a strategic priority or objective as a guide, it could be easy to overlook or dismiss an opportunity to learn and grow as a thinker, employee and person. If we take the time to learn, it may in fact help us get better at reaching our strategic objective in the long run.” The questions of the day. Do you make learning a priority? If you do, what do you focus on learning?

Connecting improving a dishwasher and improving yourself. Now think about improving the dishwasher for a minute. I’d spend time improving things that would help the dishwasher be more effective. Think about your job for minute. Are you spending the time investing in the right things that can help you be better? Are you investing in the right skills that help you reach your goals and objectives?

Andrew example. I work in Market Research, and my coaches, mentors, and colleagues all agree that the best of the best Market Researchers have to be great at Problem Definition and Communicating and Influencing, so these are the two main things I’ve been working on. I’ve asked for coaching (from my boss, peers, and mentors), created frameworks, asked for advice from people much much much better than me all in an effort to become better at Problem Definition and Communicating and Influencing., etc. There are a million of things I could focus on developing, but I focus on those two areas, because those are the things that would make me a better Market Researcher and enhance my ability to ultimately help patients.

The challenge: Are you making learning a priority? Are you working on developing in areas that matter?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Prioritization and Dishwashers Part 2: Prioritization and Process (6-1-16)

Last week we kicked off a series on prioritization by looking at dishwashers and the trade-off between how many dishes you can fit in (quantity) and how clean you can get the dishes (quality). This week’s message is inspired by Kathy Pearson and Nitin Gupte and continues with the dishwasher analogy. After reading last week’s blog Kathy sent me this short message.

“My experience is that the men in my household (husband, son) do not load the dishwasher correctly/efficiently. I am always able to get more in, and make sure everything gets cleaned. It got me to thinking there may be a role for process or expertise in your analogy.”

Now this got me thinking about a few different things. First, the men in her house need to step their game up. They probably aren’t in KP’s ballpark to begin with and their lack of dishwasher loading skills aren’t helping. Second, I agree that as my expertise grows, so does my capacity. There is a night and day difference between the amount of and quality of the work I do now vs. what I did when I first came inside. Third, the process angle is fascinating to me and it made me think of something Nitin Gupte explained in an email to me. Nitin used to work at Whirlpool, so he explained to me that Whirlpool actually tests how to best maximize the efficiency of a dishwasher. Whirlpool has tested and verified that there is a process you need to follow for loading the dishes in the correct way in order to maximize the dishwasher’s efficiency.

You might be wondering how this connects to work. What is your process for prioritizing things? Seriously, stop for a moment. If I asked you how you prioritize things could you give me a good answer? Over the past few years I have created my own process for gaining clarity and prioritizing projects based on things I have learned from supervisors, mentors, and peers. Essentially I ask three questions.

What is our overarching strategy/objectives? (This is the criteria I use to make decisions on what to do.)
How would this project help us achieve our objectives listed in our strategy? (This helps me determine if I should even consider doing the thing. If it doesn’t connect, why do it?)
How would this project be more impactful to the strategy than other things I’m working on? (This helps me figure out importance, so I can decide what to deprioritize if necessary)

Simple questions, right? Now think about the work you’re doing. Can you give clear and concise answers to those questions? I’ve found that if I can’t give a clear and definitive answer to those questions then I either shouldn’t do the project or I lack clarity somewhere. If I lack clarity, I can’t appropriately prioritize. If I can’t appropriately prioritize, I can’t be as effective as I could be. Once again, think about your work. Could you clearly articulate how it links back to the objectives of the overall strategy and how it will help drive success?

The challenge: What is your process for prioritizing things?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry

Prioritization and Dishwashers Part 1 (5-25-16)

I’m back from vacation and back into the fire. Does this feel familiar to anyone? That’s why I’d like to kick off a series exploring prioritization.

Imagine you have a dishwasher and a lot of dirty dishes that you need to clean. What questions would you ask or what would you do to figure out how many dishes to put in the dishwasher? Maybe you’d want to know how big the dishwasher is. Maybe you’d measure the dishes. This line of thinking leads you to ask, “How many dishes could I put in the dishwasher?” I would take a different approach. I would ask, “How clean do the dishes need to be when they come out of the dishwasher?”

My wife and I have disagreements about how full the dishwasher should be. She tells me that I don’t put enough dishes in and that I waste potential capacity. I tell her that when she overloads the dishwasher the dishes don’t get clean and we end up washing some of the dishes all over again which wastes time and energy. The thing is that we are both correct, and this conversation is the crux of our prioritization problems at work.

So how many dishes should we put in the dishwasher? What’s the right answer? I’d say you should put in as many dishes as the dishwasher can wash before it starts having a negative impact on the dishwasher’s ability to get the dishes cleaned. It’s a trade-off. Period. The more stuff I do, the less quality I can do it in, and I’d argue that’s the same for all of us. The key is whether or not we can find and maintain the balance between quality and quantity.

I don’t know about you, but there are times in my life when I allow myself to be overfilled. My to-do list becomes a mile long. I become swamped and exhausted, because I’m unable to truly be focused. I can try to do my best, but I end up doing subpar as a human, husband, dad, and/or employee. Often, I end up having to go back and rework the stuff I did, because I didn’t do it right the first time. As I continue to grow, I’m learning to do a better job of understanding the decisions about how I spend my time always involve a trade-off. I understand that there are times when I just need to put my head down and crank things out that are a little messy, but there are also times when I need to protect myself to ensure that I have the mind space to do a great job at home and at work. Bottom line: all work is not equal, so I shouldn’t treat it that way.

The Challenge: When you are thinking through your capacity are you trying to figure out how much you can do or are you trying to focus on how good the work needs to be?

Have a jolly good day,

Andrew Embry