Not surprisingly, email was at the top of the list. And there were a lot of other usual suspects in the top 10, too – phone calls, interruptions from co-workers and frantic supervisors or clients. We coded these as “necessary evils” – they may be annoying, but we probably can’t make them go away without also loosing some important abilities.

There were also a lot of what we call “shiny objects” on the list – things that you could, in theory, completely ignore but that have a certain siren song allure… especially when the work in front of you isn’t that interesting. Things like computer games, surfing the web, and playing with the cat or dog fall in this category.

Then there were those pesky emotions that make it hard to focus. Things like feeling intimidated, overwhelmed, or not up to the challenge.

Finally, there was the plain old lack of focus and getting lost in the sheer volume. Whether it was feeling like there’s too much to do, too little time to do it, or just not knowing what to focus on, it all comes down to losing a sense of the big picture, and getting confused between what’s “important” and what’s merely urgent.

We lumped the responses together and here’s what we found lurking under the surface.

The biggest distractions are pretty evenly balanced between the necessary evils and the shiny objects.

Dealing with each one involves slightly different strategies. You might be able to go cold turkey on mahjong, but your boss or your clients may not be entirely OK with simply ignoring all future emails.

So, what’s your biggest distraction? And what do you think it would take to minimize its impact in your work week? We’d love to hear about the strategies you’ve tried and the ones that really seem to work. For the next couple of weeks, we’ll be sharing these Action Ninja techniques that help you get and stay focused.

photo by tquiddle

We can’t be aware of everything in the present moment, no matter how mindful we are. Our sense organs are only equipped to perceive some of what is happening – certain limited wavelengths of light, for instance. Even within this range, it’s not possible to be aware of all of our sensations at once.

William James wrote that a baby’s initial impression of the world is “as one great blooming, buzzing confusion.” As we grow and learn, we create filters on what we perceive: categories, expectations, and stories, or what psychologists call “schemas,” that structure our attention to help us focus on what is important to live, grow, and achieve our goals. We learn a habit of paying more attention to our parents than to others because we experience them as the bringers of food and comfort. As we go through

So, I thought: why not do that virtually with Twitter.

Over the week, I’ll be sending out tweets as I’m reading Incognito: the secret lives of the brain by David Eagleman, a neuroscientist who studies the subconscious. The book looks fantastic and I’m looking foward to sharing it with you.

If you want to follow along and you’re on Twitter, follow us @emotusoperandi or follow the hashtag #Incognito. If you’re not into the Twitter thing, you can also follow along on the website with our Twitter feed – on the home page and the community bulletin board.

Also, if you’re interested you can buy the book here. (Note: I don’t make any money off this – I just think it’s a cool book.)

Have you ever been around a really precocious child that keeps asking why? Sure, it can get annoying, but the kid is on to something.

One of the things we forget to do enough as adults is to ask why – and then KEEP asking why until we really get to the heart of it.

There is a really simple “technique” you can use called variously the 5 Whys, or 6 Whys, or 3 Whys. For simplicity, we’ll call it the X Whys. I put “technique” in scare quotes because it’s really more of a habit than a technology requiring a specific procedure (though there are people out there willing to charge you to make sure you ask ‘why’ correctly).

The goal is to get beyond the surface to understanding the root causes or issues. It is most often applied to problem analysis, but it can be applied to practically anything.

The process is simple:

1. Identify a problem or challenge (or any other topic that you want to explore)
2. Ask “why”
3. Repeat until you get to heart of the matter.

Really. It’s that simple.

But how do you know that you’ve gotten to the heart of the matter? Well, when I was the precocious child it was when my dad got so frustrated that he said “it’s a God thing” (which also pretty much sums up my current theology). You can tell you’ve gotten to the heart when the only answer you can give to “why” is “because.”

Now, there are a few different ways you can use the results of the process. Your penultimate response – the one just before “because” – often highlights core values or principles. And the one just before that often highlights a core process.

In the end, the real value comes simply from asking the question and tapping into that curiosity to really understand what is going on that we all had as children. The good news is that you still have it in you… just start asking why. Why not?

The truth is that everyone I meet has been a LOT more successful and productive than they realize and give themselves credit for. It might be natural to dismiss all the little successes and dwell on the minor disappointments, but it will also suck away all the energy that you could be using to be even more successful.

So, even though it’s unnatural, take a little time each week to build and add to you success board. Here’s an easy How-To-Guide.

1. Get a cork board, poster board, or similar and set it up in a visible place near where you work.
2. Brainstorm at least 30 accomplishments – large and small – from the past 3 months.
3. Get three different sized Post-It notes, Note Cards, or pieces of paper.
4. Transfer small accomplishments to the small cards, medium accomplishments to the medium ones, and.. well, you can probably figure out the rest. Feel free to look for images, draw pictures, or actually use pictures that represent you successes on the cards.
5. (This is the MOST important part) Commit to adding at least 3 new accomplishments to the board each week.

Have fun with it and when you are done with your board, take a photo and let the rest of us see your handiwork on Facebook!

photo by geograph

The first time around was so much fun, we’ve decided to do it again and again. We will be in the following areas to talk about what we are doing at Emotus Operandi. Stop by and check us out at one of the scheduled events, or drop us an email if you want to make arrangements for a special session.

• Madison, WI –  January 8th – 25th, 2012
• Vancouver, BC – January 27th – February 11th, 2012
• Los Angeles, CA – February 13th –  27th, 2012
• New York, NY – February 29th – March 17th, 2012

If you know anyone in the area who works with groups of creative people trying to change the world, send me an email and introduce us.

What's holding you back?

When you ask people what’s holding them back, most people will say money, time or a lack of something or other. But when you look at what it would feel like to live the dream, people almost always say things like “meaningful” “fulfilling” and “creative.”

So, here’s the $64,000 dollar question – does it cost money to do meaningful work? Does it take more time to feel fulfilled? Does creativity depend on any particular substance?

Here’s the ironic twist – if you focus more on moving towards those “feeling” goals, all the things that seem like they’re getting in the way do a 180-degree turn.

If you want to feel creative, why not start by looking for creative ways to deal with the obligations that feel like they’re in the way?

Looking for meaning? Think about how so many people in the world do more with less than you have sitting right in front of you and then dedicate yourself to doing all that you possibly can with what you have available right now.

Looking for fulfillment? Figure out how you can help someone else who really needs it and then DO it.

Living the Dream

I know… I know. It’s not easy. In fact, it might even be hard. That’s not a barrier – that’s the WHOLE POINT. Meaningful, fulfilling, creative, challenging work is hard – that’s WHY it’s meaningful and fulfilling.

So, here’s your challenge, should you choose to take it: pick one of the “feelings” from living the dream, one that really resonates, and just live it for an hour. Just one hour. If it’s “meaningful” – conjure up the feeling in yourself, anchor it in place, imagine yourself doing one small, simple task that would inspire the feeling, and – if you are daring – go do it.

Remember, it doesn’t have to big. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to give you a sense of “meaningfulness” that will last a life time. Just one little thing. But do it now. One small thing now is worth a 100 big things tomorrow.

Oh, and feel free to leave a comment letting me know how impossibly naive I am and how it might be true for others, but your situation is different. I like the challenge.

The Emotus Operandi team at CreativeMix. Image by Jeremy Lim

I’m a man on a mission, and I want your help. Over the past 5 years, I’ve been testing and refining a process that grew out of research I did for my dissertation on the emotional dynamics in groups and I think the time has come to spread the word.

For the last 10 years, I’ve been obsessed with finding reliable ways to convert all the energy wasted in fear, confusion, doubt, and conflict into actual forward progress on important goals.

I see it time and again: groups that get excited about a potential project that could transform their work only to see it lost in the urgent-unimportant firefighting of day-to-day work; individuals that kill a great idea with a thousand little doubts that keep them from even taking the first step; teams of people who care deeply about the work they are doing, but that trod along, living with petty conflicts and tensions rather than connecting at the level of meaning that really energizes their work.

Of course, I’m not the only one who has noticed this. There are armies of coaches and facilitators out there, all deeply committed to helping teams and individuals reach their full potential. But here’s the dirty little secret: most of us are struggling to figure it out, too. There are a lot of people doing really good work – but not realizing the level of success they know is possible.

Most of us make a huge mistake: we only look at the surface – looking for “best practices” or the latest management fad to fix all our problems.

I decided to take a radically different approach, one based on American Pragmatism and a practical approach to the scientific method. In short, the strategy is Aim > Act > Reflect > Repeat – building a learning process into the process itself. I read everything I could on culture change, organizational development, facilitation, strategic planning, etc. and combined it with reflections on the literally hundreds of groups and individuals I’ve worked with over the years. I kept looking for the consistent themes and the deep patterns to really understand what was going on.

The first thing I noticed was that there was a whole dimension to the experience of work that was almost completely absent from most of the debate; what I will call the energy dynamics of work. It struck me that the most common reason most plans failed was because there simply wasn’t the energy (not staff or money – but energy) available to tackle the tasks that needed to get done. Sometimes the energy was frittered away in unimportant “busywork.” Sometimes it was redirected into petty squabbles and conflicts. And often the overwhelming fears or doubts around the work transfixed people in place, like deer caught in the headlights.

This led to me to the First Law of Emotional Dynamics. Just like the First Law of Thermal Dynamics, in a closed system emotional energy cannot be created or destroyed – only transformed. Emotional energy can either come out as productive work moving you towards important goals OR it gets redirected into fear/self-doubt, conflict, or obsessive-compulsive behaviour. In other words, there is the same amount of raw potential in the group and the energy is going to get spent one way or another, the only question is how.

So my team began to put together a system from the ground up that was based on the First Law of Emotional Dynamics, attempting to understand not just ‘what’ to do, but when, why, and how to do it to be successful. The system incorporates many features that will be familiar to anyone who has worked with a coach or facilitator – learning from actual experience, looking forward to what is possible, creating a concrete action plan, and using accountability systems to keep you honest – but we put these pieces together in a comprehensive, integrated system based on a grounded understanding of what it really takes to keep moving forward.

So, now I’m a man on a mission. I want to spread the word far and wide. I’m going on tour around the US (to start), looking for opportunities to demonstrate how the process works – either in a short, interactive workshops (that we call “Finding the Sweet Spot”) or, for those willing to dive in, the whole 3 month process that starts with a one-day Jump Start workshop.

If you live in the following areas – or know someone who does – and would like to host a presentation or have a group of people interested in using the system, click here to let me know.

• Upper Midwest (Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison)
• Pacific Northwest (Seattle)
• Mid-Atlantic (Baltimore, Washington, Philadelphia)
• Southern California (Los Angeles)

We like to dream a little. Two-thirds said their “go to” activity was taking aim – clarifying the vision and making a plan. A few were action-oriented. And then there were the lonely reflectors in the crowd. (As a fellow reflector, I know the feeling.)

And, just as you might suspect, the majority seem to avoid taking action.

 It’s almost a mirror of the first graph. Two-thirds avoid action, a few avoid reflection and a few avoid looking at the big picture stuff.

Of course, it’s one thing to be aware of your patterns. It’s another to actually do something about it. So, here’s my challenge to you: send me an email with your avoidance area and I’ll send you a daily challenge next week to try to nudge you towards getting a little more balance. (The challenge will be in place of the general nudge.) One little thing you can do that will take less than 15 minutes to keep you moving in the right direction.

Yet it some key areas, it really lets us down. Sometimes we are all using the same word but mean very different things. Happiness is one of those words.

You would think after 10,000 years of human civilization – or at least what passes for it – and a nearly universal obsession with happiness, we’d all have more or less the same idea.

The challenge is balancing the kind of temporary smiley-face happiness with the more transcendent state of happiness we’re talking about in a God-given right to “the pursuit of happiness.” Sometimes things that lead to temporary happiness – having the extra beer or getting in the killing comeback in a fight with your spouse – give us a temporary high that leaves a big debt to pay. And other things – like working out or resisting the second dessert – make us decidedly unhappy, at least temporarily.

Most of us are thrown off track because we equate happiness with feeling good (now). We confuse the global, transcendent state of being – happiness – with the passing experience of feeling pleasure or, at least, not feeling pain. Pleasure is obviously a component of happiness, but it’s only part of the story. There is another dimension; a living, dynamic, fully-engaged component that deepens and expands simple pleasure, like salt makes sugar taste sweeter. It is the aspect of happiness that secretly loves struggling against a puzzle you can’t quite solve or that revels in the stiffness after a good workout. And it demands that we travel into decidedly unpleasant territory from time to time.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I am not advocating masochism. This is not about a juvenile, life-risking adrenaline rush just to make you feel alive. For wont of a better word, I call this aspect the catalytic component. A catalyst is something, usually used in small amounts, which modifies and increases the rate of a reaction without being consumed in the process. It’s the opposite of inert – something that lies there leaving things unchanged.

To start to get a handle on it what I’m talking about, consider dividing every day experiences into the following table.

Experiences in quadrant I and IV are no-brainers. Quadrant I includes things like the enthusiasm we feel when our ideas start to gel, or the excitement when the momentum builds. We all want more of that stuff and there’s no reason not to pursue it. Quadrant IV includes things like feeling overwhelmed and freaking ourselves out with horror stories of what could go wrong. No one wants (or needs) any of those bad boys.

But Quadrants II and III are a lot trickier.

Quadrant II is like Stephen Covey’s “important non-urgent” tasks, a place we need to spend more time, but often resist. The most common emotion in Quadrant II is discomfort – the kind of discomfort you feel when you try to stretch a little bit past your comfort zone. It’s the place where learning and magic happen but it is, by definition, uncomfortable. And sometimes frustration and even fear can fall in this quadrant.

Quadrant III is the evil twin of Quadrant II – it’s a dull narcotic of safety and comfort. Everyone has their own version of this drug – the “day job,” doing the same old things and expecting different results, magical thinking that if you just believe hard enough it will happen, or the endless busy-ness of modern life. Years and even lifetimes can be wasted in this quadrant.

Of course, having a 2X2 table doesn’t make the work any easier – it will always be a challenge to get your ass out of Quadrant III (after you’ve had a good rest) and spend some time in Quadrant II. But there is power in language. And there is utility in knowing that sometimes pain and discomfort are worth it.

It makes me think of the Shaker motto: “Work as though you’ll live forever; live as though you’ll die tomorrow.” Or as my father says: “suck it up, princess.”