Posts from — February 2008

Sometimes you are going through life unaware of certain blessings. It’s almost like breathing air or walking without falling down. I am lucky in this way because I seem to have always known how to organize myself and my stuff. The older I get, it appears like I actually need things to be organized to be happy, at least in my work. When something like this is basically second nature, it’s hard to imagine how so many people struggle with this issue. In the field of professional development, leadership improvement and coaching, especially when the goal is to improve performance, being organized has a pivotal role for success. At the same time, while researching this topic for this article, I found that there are so many aspects that I probably have to create a small series. Here are the main aspects I found and some depth on one of them in this first part of the series.

-           The systematic attribute of human performance

-           Time Management

-           Procrastination

-           Multitasking

-           The Pareto Principle

-           Organizing truths

-           Motivation through self-valuation

-           Piling versus filing

-           The cultural dimension

Looking first at the systematic attribute of human performance focuses on the coaching I use to help people improve their performance at work and in their life. The term originates form Gary Morais assessment and coaching system developed for Global Performance Technologies Inc. When I first learned about it, I was wondering why it is called systematic, rather than organized. As I understand it at this point, the main focus goes towards the way individuals think. There are two basic ways to process information, the systematic one and the clustered one.

In the systematic approach, information is absorbed, categorized, prioritized, organized as part of a sequence and then attributed with a timeline or deadline. This last part especially applies when we are talking about a task, goal, project, commitment, etc. A person scoring high due to a systematic nature would operate in this sense. It’s not necessarily a conscious process, but becomes a habit. These people also have a calendar planner, use all functions in their Microsoft Outlook system or similar email tools, and follow a plan along a line of steps, and tasks, towards goals. They keep files, label everything neatly and have no problem finding stuff.

Conversely, the clustered approach can be compared to a three-dimensional table with lots of piles on it. In the brains of these individuals, new information is added to existing piles of the same topic or subject. For anything totally new a new pile is created. Some people call these piles clusters. As long as the work load is manageable people using this system, and the associated habits, complete the tasks on the most important (and sometimes most visible, or most attractive) pile. As workload and stress or pressure increase it gets harder and harder to keep all the different piles in view and know what needs to be done in which order.

Appointments and things are dropped, forgotten, misplaced, or delayed. Anything that appears to have some time left before its due is pushed back on the calendar, leading to procrastination. People working like this can get into a situation where they always believe they are behind without a chance to ever catch up because there is new data coming in constantly while plenty of old piles are still unfinished. This clustering and piling mentality leaves everything on the table forever, which gives the appearance that it gets harder and harder to succeed. The only solution is a radical break during which all the old stuff gets sorted, thrown away, maybe even filed, in an attempt to be more organized. It’s like releasing the pressure out of the cooker, at least for a while.

As you can imagine, the un-systematic approach to manage information and data can lead to stress, frustration, and frantic activity each time a deadline is fast approaching and postponed tasks need to be completed. These two different ways of processing data and the resulting consequences naturally have impact on performance. There are many different ways to change, especially if a person is willing to develop new habits and become more systematic. It cannot be said that people with a lacking systematic nature are not organized in general.

To close out this initial view at the value of being organized, here are some of the things to expect form people with low and high systematic nature.

Low systematic nature and attributes lead to tendencies of being impulsive, easily distracted, prone to be forgetful, appear to have their minds spinning all the time, somewhat frantic, stressed, and restless. There is a heightened level of anxiety, combined with fear of failure.

People who have a systematic nature are typically orderly, good planners, pay attention to detail, have a schedule with planned routines, know about their capacity and are willing to say no when an additional task would exceed their capacity. The almost mathematical approach to filing, sorting, and prioritizing can sometimes give the impression of less compassion and emotions. I have found this not really to be true, but the un-organized individual appears to have capacity for everything all the time and is always willing to listen, believing that they can always reshuffle their piles later.

The greatest values for a manager or leader to by more systematic lies in dependability, realistic estimation of work capacity for others and themselves, recognition of achievement, and the ability to create a plan that actually works – at least most of the time.

Between being totally systematic and not systematic at all, there is a very large range of variations. The more tasks one has to handle and the more individuals need to be managed and lead, the higher the demand on systematic approaches rises. Learning how to be more systematic is one important aspect on the path to success. Coaching can be a great help to learn how to change in this particular area of human behavior. The coach becomes more of a motivator and cheerleader, encouraging the coachee to actually do what was agreed to, in an orderly fashion. Unsystematic individuals know very well how things should ideally be done. What they need is someone who helps and reminds them to do it consistently, so it can actually turn from a forced exercise into a habit one doesn’t need to think about anymore.

As mentioned earlier, this is just the first installment about the value of organization. Look out for more articles to come in this series, covering the other topics mentioned in the first paragraph.

Axel Meierhoefer, President AMC LLC