In my experience most “jobs” both academic and industrial become swamped with a series of minor maintenance tasks which leave absolutely no time for inspired work, research or original thinking. This is not good for the organizations, and it is not good for individuals. It leads to mediocre individual performance, ill health and a general lack of energy. For the institution it leads to a machine that has lost the vital spark. In academia lecturers look on with envy and nostalgia at their Phd students, with time to do real research and thinking. In industrial research and development, the experienced staff look on with envy at the junior staff with their clear objectives and time unpolluted by politics, meetings, and other organizational time fillers. So what are the solutions to these problems?
People often feel compelled to leave their job for the greater freedom of the outside world, spurred on by frustration. But this usually is not the answer, unless you are rich or can live in a cave, surviving only on a loaf of bread and water. Walking out from the institutions only serves to leave the would be maverick with another set of issues, funding issues, social issues, which will take time to solve.They will be no closer to spending time on original ideas and the institutions lose out by not solving the problem of how to make a home for inspired individuals.
Another solution maybe to become so brilliant at a job that you rise above normal people, maybe you walk on water one morning, or fly through the air, or maybe invent the number one new product, surpass all production targets, or obtain a noble prize. The institution then has to reward this performance and, leave these stars to do whatever they want and just wheels them out for the annual state visit. Some companies have positions a bit like this. When I was at IBM people could become IBM fellows, if they did something brilliant, and then they could spend their time how they liked for the rest of their career. HP implemented something similar too. However this solution is unrealistic for most people, and even if people believe that they could do something brilliant (which maybe then can), then the problem is such that they would need to first free time from the ‘hamster wheel’ of humdrum existence to find the time to shine.A ‘chicken and egg’ problem.
So what is more realistic? Reading the books, about successful people’s behaviour. They all seem to recommend another way.This is certainly something I have experimented with and found to work to an extent. Firstly, the best advice is always, unless it is really untenable, just stay where you are. But staying put and deciding you will try and alter the situation, life is too short to be spending your time doing something you dislike. Just, instead, decide to start a systems change within your organization, centered on you, to create the organization that you would like to be in. This sounds a bit new age, or ‘consultant speak’, but actually it is neither, it is just something practical, and it is about you taking responsibility rather than expecting others to do the work for you.
If people change how they behave in an organization and decide they will alter what they do one of two things happens, from an organizational systems point of view. Either they will be thrown out (seems to be rare ) or the organizational system will try and accommodate the change and allow it to happen. If the system throws you out then you now know it was time to move on, so no problem there, you found something out. At least now know what you needed from an organization is not here and it is time to look for it elsewhere.In the long run you will be better off and the organization will be better off. But the accommodation scenario is the more usual and the more interesting, and is actually the most surprising for people who have put up with a job they have fundamentally despised for so many years.This behavior requires a lot of clarity, courage, and a plan over many months.
So how do you change your behavior. The first thing is to actually decide what your priorities are, your priorities, not those of the people around you. The truth is that most people don’t know what is closest to their hearts. Actually if you could spent a significant part of your day doing the thing closest to your heart, what would it be? Until you can answer this question, you have no right to change! Finding the answer to this question is perhaps 90% of the battle. Once you have found out your ‘A project’ then you are ready to change.This is your center. It is like in Judo, first find your center, then let the opponent throw themselves!
Next it is time to rearrange your time and work priorities around your new priority. You actually do not need to tell anybody, but it might help to discuss it with someone you trust from time to time. First you think of your day or week as an apple pie and carve it up into two portions. The ‘A project’ portion and the rest. Decide how much time would you need to spend on your A project to really get it going, maybe 10% or 50% or 75%?This is important. Once you have decided you should write yourself a contract, for the next 6 months you will spend X% of your week, working on your project, no more and no less. You should also review this contract and your progress weekly at an important time in the week – say 8am Monday morning.It is important that you spend your best quality time on the A project. So if you work best, first thing in the morning, then this is when to work on your A project.
So what next? Well just do it. Spend the allocated time on your A project and move the rest of your life and work into the remaining proportion. Surprisingly, usually, nothing suffers. I can remember deciding to work 4 days a week in one company. I spoke to a lot of part-time people first about dropping to part-time.. Without exception everybody told me in hushed tones a terrible secret, they actually got more done part-time than when they were full-time! Time is the strangest of things. or put another way, if you are actually spending time doing what you care about the rest of your life is energized and you achieve more.
Steve Hinde
Director Business With Heart
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