Arguably the problem most of us face in being productive and performing at work these days is that we are bombarded with information requests, communications, interruptions and other stress-inducing activities. These challenge our powers of concentration and work against our best endeavours to be creative and innovative.
We know from our extensive experience of working with leaders and managers that they spend their time, too often on things that reduce their effectiveness. Many things could increase their efficiency including delegating and empowering staff but doing this often involved stopping doing other things.
Take time out
So how is it we get ourselves into these poor working habits? Many managers will seek to blame the organisation – its culture and the current climate. They clearly feel that they have very little choice in how they change things and this increases an already pressure building situation at work.
As employees we often end up succumbing to “time thieves”. Those endless, fruitless meetings; the email tag; unplanned phone calls and visits and so on. Even if we comply with every tip on good time management, there still doesn’t seem to be any guarantee that we will ever get the opportunity to exercise our creativity by designing and improving elegant solutions to complex issues. The fact is, brainwaves and light bulb moments rarely happen in the 9 to 5 hurly burly of the office.
More Headspace
Overwhelmingly, the managers we speak to relish the opportunity that workshops and coaching present to step back from the workplace and their staff, and meet with others either from other areas of the organisation or external to it.
Why?
- Managers, like many employees are so busy working with their heads down that they seldom take time to reflect, evaluate or consider how things could be more effective
- Organisations can become so task focused that their employees spend little time recognising the ineffective habits of how they and their teams work, often reacting to the stimulus around them in an inefficient way, rather than responding in a more considered way
- Our best ideas and creativity rarely arise in conditions of stress – and our workplaces are becoming increasingly stressful for staff and managers from whom more is expected from less. TIME to reflect or appreciate what is going on around us is needed to figure out ways to make things work better in the future.
Deliberately getting away from everyday situations, break time chats with colleagues serve as useful ways of slowing down for a while. Time to address relevant issues, focus without interruption on issues that are nagging at you is not time wasted.
So what advice should we be giving managers and staff? Slow down, focus on the present and reflect on what is working for you and what is not.
A recent workshop I attended on Mindfulness in the Workplace highlighted a growing number of large employers who are introducing meditation practices to help increase resilience to stressful situations, improve focus and concentration, support creativity and innovation. They are evaluating the impact of these interventions on decision making, memory, emotional intelligence, cognitive flexibility, productivity and employee satisfaction and engagement. We have begun to investigate its effectiveness in safety and accident prevention. Watch this space for more information coming soon.