We know that simpler is harder than complex: team tactics to up your game
As teams and individuals, we share a deep belief in the missions that we are here to serve. We do our best work to impact our goals. That means an extreme focus on delivering stellar solutions to whom we serve.
Because we focus so much on bringing the best to others, we sometimes forget to bring the best to ourselves: too many meetings to attend, too many slides to read, too many fires to fight. We all agree that too much complexity is… too much. This is why I’m writing to you today — I want to share 3 simple tactics that my team uses to help us focus and operate better.
1 — Run meetings as an investment
Situation: We have calendars that are triple-booked. We show up to meetings, and we don’t know why we are here. We schedule meetings to organize more meetings!
Complication: Too many meetings reduces our productivity and often prevents us from doing meaningful work.
Resolution: Treat our time as a scarce resource by running meetings as investments.
Learn about meetings that don’t suck from Ken Norton, Product Management Partner at Google Venture:
Meetings that don’t suck: Break free from the tyranny of the conference room (6min read)
2 — Deliver simple and concise presentations
Situation: We use slides to put our thoughts down and communicate them with others. Business plans, data reports, strategies, technology architectures, roadmaps, etc.
Complication: We lack consideration for our audience which prevents us from delivering a clear message. We cram as much information as we can into a presentation and create a lack of focus and confusion.
Resolution: Let’s understand our audience and deliver simple and concise messages.
Learn more about the 10-20-30 rule from Guy Kawasaki, former Chief Evangelist at Apple:
The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint (3min video)
The 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint (3min read)
3 — Break free from distractions
Situation: We excel at firefighting and get laser focused when a crisis comes up.
Complication: We lack this level of focus for the longer term problems we are solving for.
Resolution: Put what doesn’t matter on the back burner.
Learn about the DOC framework to say NO to your colleagues:
“Focus is about saying no” — Steve Jobs (1min video)
The DOC Framework For Just Saying No on the Trello Blog (5min read)
The Story behind the Story
I have been personally using those tactics on a daily basis. I’ve met with a C-level exec that was sharing how hard it was for his teams to focus and actually make the best of their time. We did a little research and bingo! The challenges were the usual suspects: purposeless meetings, never-ending decks, and bombardments of requests.
With deep empathy, we crafted a framework coined “simpler is harder than complex” that is easy for teammates to digest and apply (know your audience…). We also measured a baseline and defined what success would be like within 3 months.
We used Return On Time Invested (ROTI) as a way to measure our progress:
When I think about the time I invested in my last meetings, I would say that:
0 — The meeting was a complete waste of time — no value was received.
1 — More time was wasted than value was derived. For instance, while 30% of the meeting time was useful, 70% was not.
2 — An even split (50/50) of value and time spent. I spent half the time on things that aren’t directly useful — but overall, the meeting was a wash.
3 — More value derived than time spent. If I spent the same amount of time on my own trying to seek out the information and decisions I gained in the meeting, I couldn’t have done it.
4 — Very strong value for time spent. The meeting was crucial to moving forward, so the investment of time was clearly worth it.
As you start experimenting with some of those tactics in your team, think about how you will measure success. What is your baseline today? What do you expect it to be in a few months?
About me: I’ve been operating as an internal consultant to help people align and achieve a common goal without being their boss in a Fortune 5 company for the last 2 years. Before that, I experienced different roles in Product Management where soft skills are about the ability to lead teams, communicate with diverse groups and influence change throughout an organization.
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A Fusion publication. We are employees of UHG and these views are our own and not those of the company nor its affiliates.
