Thursday, April 29, 2010

Message of the Day - Rigidity vs. Flexibility - Part 2

Good Morning,
 
I had received a request to follow up on this message from one of my readers to share more examples of being flexible versus being rigid in our daily lives. So, I came up with a few thoughts which I hope can further explain planning and acting with a flexibility mindset.
 
The first thought is to not fill up your day with a huge minute by minute agenda. The less room you leave in your plans for the unexpected, the greater your chance of not completing your agenda, and worse getting less and less completed off the list at all.
 
Years ago I asked a former supervisor of mine, Damian, his secret to being productive in a non-stop, ever-changing environment. He told me that he planned only 20% of his day. If he planned to work 10 hours, he planned less than three of them. This gave him cushion to change gears when something came out of left field.  I have since taken this advice and made it part of my operating procedures. This is good advice because something almost always comes out of left field.
 
I say almost always, because on this past Wednesday I had one of those days where I planned, as usual, only 20% of my day. I finished those items in the morning and by the early afternoon, I had nothing going on. There were no fires to put out, no last minute critical projects to jump on. It was a rare day when the stars were in alignment. So when that happened and after I got through musing over it for about 10 minutes, I went to my list of ongoing projects and found one that I could push forward on, and did so.
 
Another way to be flexible is to see a bigger picture of what is going on. By this I don't mean the big picture of the company, the strategy, etc., rather a bigger picture of being flexible by accepting the fact that everything can and often does change. Even professionals who have performed the same actions over and over again can be caught off-guard. The best are better prepared for the unknown by including curve balls in their training.
 
When something comes along which you are familiar with, you are better able to change gears and take care of what is necessary.
 
Being prepared for what may happen and at the same time, planning for things to change are two keys to embracing the fast paced change which comes at us from all aspects of life.
 
Thanks again for the request for more on this subject. And if anyone would like me to write on any subject or read a specific book and share my thoughts, I would love to, simply send me the request.
 
Enjoy!
 
 
http://learnandgrowdaily.com  Click here to order: "Learn And Grow Daily!"
502-533-9336
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)