WEBVTT 00:00:04.560 --> 00:00:11.140 Today's topic is managing constraints in knowledge 00:00:11.140 --> 00:00:14.160 work. That's today's topic. Excited to be talking 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:16.839 about this. Excited to be talking about this. 00:00:18.140 --> 00:00:21.379 One of the biggest problems with knowledge work 00:00:21.379 --> 00:00:25.760 is that our constraints are invisible. Right? 00:00:26.950 --> 00:00:30.370 It's true. I think that may be the number one 00:00:30.370 --> 00:00:34.369 issue. I think you're right. If we're headed 00:00:34.369 --> 00:00:37.990 to work in the morning and we want to stop off 00:00:37.990 --> 00:00:40.250 for a cup of coffee, we look at the drive -through, 00:00:40.270 --> 00:00:43.369 we know right up front. Is this viable? Is it 00:00:43.369 --> 00:00:47.670 not? Right? Nope. I'll be drinking crap coffee 00:00:47.670 --> 00:00:50.929 at the office just like the other day. You're 00:00:50.929 --> 00:00:53.670 like curses the damn, the damn high school kids 00:00:53.670 --> 00:00:58.210 are Dutch bros. That's right. They're wrapped 00:00:58.210 --> 00:01:02.490 around the corner. I can't get, I can't get my 00:01:02.490 --> 00:01:05.489 turbo charge on. No, that's the visible piece 00:01:05.489 --> 00:01:10.329 though, versus the invisible. What's interesting 00:01:10.329 --> 00:01:14.310 is I think coming out of COVID, a lot of companies 00:01:14.310 --> 00:01:16.310 are like, we need to get people into the office. 00:01:18.780 --> 00:01:22.099 Because a visible person is better than a than 00:01:22.099 --> 00:01:25.659 an invisible productive person It's right and 00:01:25.659 --> 00:01:28.159 I think there's a lot of truth to that the span 00:01:28.159 --> 00:01:30.939 of control, you know, if it gets too wide you 00:01:30.939 --> 00:01:34.239 have to Trust your teams differently because 00:01:34.239 --> 00:01:37.439 you're not able to mother them Yeah, the irony 00:01:37.439 --> 00:01:40.180 too though is is that and and maybe constraints 00:01:40.180 --> 00:01:42.040 are this way a little bit if you're on a physical 00:01:42.040 --> 00:01:46.299 line Doing assembly we can look up the line and 00:01:46.299 --> 00:01:49.000 see if somebody's taking a bathroom break. You 00:01:49.000 --> 00:01:51.579 know, you can see the cause, but knowledge work 00:01:51.579 --> 00:01:55.280 isn't like that. And so much of it is invisible. 00:01:55.459 --> 00:01:57.180 We really don't understand what the person ahead 00:01:57.180 --> 00:02:00.540 of us or two people up the production line, you 00:02:00.540 --> 00:02:02.640 know, up the life cycle. We don't understand 00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:05.700 what they do or how they do it. So, well, the 00:02:05.700 --> 00:02:10.400 interesting thing is, do we care? Like, like, 00:02:10.659 --> 00:02:12.460 you like, you know what I mean? Like, and not 00:02:12.460 --> 00:02:14.479 not to be mean, but like sometimes it's like, 00:02:14.719 --> 00:02:17.319 We're just we're just putting we're just putting 00:02:17.319 --> 00:02:19.379 the images in the PowerPoint or we're writing 00:02:19.379 --> 00:02:21.340 We're writing the doc or we're sending the email. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:26.159 Yeah, and like it's it's it's hard to find value 00:02:26.159 --> 00:02:28.819 Oftentimes I think in knowledge work because 00:02:28.819 --> 00:02:32.479 so much of it is is is an infinite game Yeah, 00:02:32.639 --> 00:02:36.120 like are you wake up and you got emails? Mmm 00:02:36.120 --> 00:02:39.300 the infinite game, you know the part of that 00:02:39.300 --> 00:02:42.159 infinite game is the priorities Right. And if 00:02:42.159 --> 00:02:44.360 you don't know what the priority is, it's hard 00:02:44.360 --> 00:02:47.080 to know how much time I belabor the infinite 00:02:47.080 --> 00:02:50.340 game. Yeah, I have. I have one account that says 00:02:50.340 --> 00:02:58.620 I only have 1700 unread messages. I think that's 00:02:58.620 --> 00:03:02.659 I think that's a big fat lie. But it also tells 00:03:02.659 --> 00:03:06.080 me I have almost 5000 deleted items. Oh, there 00:03:06.080 --> 00:03:09.340 you go. That are probably also unread. So, yeah. 00:03:09.340 --> 00:03:11.580 Let's talk, let's talk about how constraints 00:03:11.580 --> 00:03:16.900 show. Right? Yeah. Just limited, limited focus 00:03:16.900 --> 00:03:21.360 or decision -making. You know, it's the, it's 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:25.000 the, it's almost, it's the meme around, you know, 00:03:25.080 --> 00:03:26.819 that meet, that meeting could have been an email. 00:03:27.139 --> 00:03:29.780 Right. Yup. Right. Or let's go and have a meeting 00:03:29.780 --> 00:03:33.409 to set up the meeting. Yeah. Because we don't 00:03:33.409 --> 00:03:35.030 we don't know we don't even we haven't even defined 00:03:35.030 --> 00:03:38.189 the decision. Yeah, how about how about context 00:03:38.189 --> 00:03:42.189 switching? 20 24 minutes was the statistic I 00:03:42.189 --> 00:03:45.550 heard most recently When you take a task you're 00:03:45.550 --> 00:03:48.270 engaged with set it down go do something else 00:03:48.270 --> 00:03:50.409 and then come back It takes you 24 minutes to 00:03:50.409 --> 00:03:52.909 get back to a place of the same level of effectiveness 00:03:52.909 --> 00:03:58.509 That's crazy that seems high to me and yet if 00:03:58.509 --> 00:04:01.250 I'm trying to Produce a larger piece of work 00:04:01.250 --> 00:04:03.389 if I'm working on something that I really need 00:04:03.389 --> 00:04:05.349 blackout time for the whole day. That's probably 00:04:05.349 --> 00:04:09.449 true Yeah, so context switching a hundred percent 00:04:09.449 --> 00:04:11.990 Well, the I mean especially with your phone. 00:04:12.409 --> 00:04:15.349 Oh Right, you get a ding because someone sent 00:04:15.349 --> 00:04:17.790 you a message and you know next thing you're 00:04:17.790 --> 00:04:29.490 playing is you're playing monopoly No, well, 00:04:29.589 --> 00:04:32.649 and constraints, you know, the point of them 00:04:32.649 --> 00:04:35.449 being invisible too, is that it may not, we may 00:04:35.449 --> 00:04:37.350 not realize that we're operating under constraint. 00:04:38.269 --> 00:04:40.149 So here we are playing Monopoly and we have a 00:04:40.149 --> 00:04:42.329 hard deadline at five o 'clock, but it hasn't 00:04:42.329 --> 00:04:46.970 been well communicated. Yeah. Yeah. I think, 00:04:46.970 --> 00:04:48.990 I think, especially in our increasingly cross 00:04:48.990 --> 00:04:53.209 -functional world, that shows up a lot, right? 00:04:53.209 --> 00:04:56.170 Hey, can you get that to me today? Not, I am 00:04:56.170 --> 00:05:01.410 jammed up with a 5pm deadline. Yeah, I I sadly 00:05:01.410 --> 00:05:04.810 I did that with my team today. Oh like I mean, 00:05:05.050 --> 00:05:08.449 well, okay full disclosure our our podcasts are 00:05:08.449 --> 00:05:12.990 not recorded at 5 a .m. In the morning This is 00:05:12.990 --> 00:05:15.870 being recorded on a let's see what say a Thursday. 00:05:16.050 --> 00:05:21.709 Yeah, but today I literally went in and and You 00:05:21.709 --> 00:05:25.649 know totally did that I get that for a figure 00:05:26.750 --> 00:05:30.310 And just endless communication. So I listened 00:05:30.310 --> 00:05:32.009 to, I think we talked about this a couple of 00:05:32.009 --> 00:05:34.610 weeks ago, but I listened to Slow Productivity 00:05:34.610 --> 00:05:38.670 by Cal Newport. And he mentioned that emails 00:05:38.670 --> 00:05:43.350 are the new, what used to be a phone call. And 00:05:43.350 --> 00:05:49.129 that really stuck with me. Like it's an interruption, 00:05:49.930 --> 00:05:55.259 it's a conversation. with with net not necessarily 00:05:55.259 --> 00:05:59.100 any expected outcome or Follow -up unless the 00:05:59.100 --> 00:06:00.980 person's really good at their follow -up. It 00:06:00.980 --> 00:06:03.160 was just this really it was a really interesting 00:06:03.160 --> 00:06:06.100 conversation or really in a conversation a really 00:06:06.100 --> 00:06:09.259 interesting like Concept to think about when 00:06:09.259 --> 00:06:11.959 a good a good pot a good podcast or book on tape 00:06:11.959 --> 00:06:14.240 does feel like a conversation So that made sense 00:06:14.240 --> 00:06:17.459 to me. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I do think that's I 00:06:17.459 --> 00:06:19.800 think it's interesting because we don't weigh 00:06:19.800 --> 00:06:22.329 constraint always when we're thinking about our 00:06:22.329 --> 00:06:26.949 method of communication. And so if I have a timely 00:06:26.949 --> 00:06:29.269 response I'm seeking, of course it's going to 00:06:29.269 --> 00:06:30.790 be a phone caller. I'm going to walk over to 00:06:30.790 --> 00:06:34.850 somebody's, you know, office or cube if that's 00:06:34.850 --> 00:06:39.670 viable versus scheduling a meeting and completely 00:06:39.670 --> 00:06:42.290 missing our deadlines. I think somehow that's 00:06:42.290 --> 00:06:44.189 gotten lost. It's really interesting reflection. 00:06:45.170 --> 00:06:48.550 So tell me why you think that these constraints 00:06:48.550 --> 00:06:52.589 are bad or maybe even worse than we think. Like 00:06:52.589 --> 00:06:54.949 you said, the 24 minute thing, like that doesn't 00:06:54.949 --> 00:06:56.930 surprise me. Especially if you're doing deep 00:06:56.930 --> 00:06:59.149 work. Yeah, that's it. That's it. The deep work 00:06:59.149 --> 00:07:01.250 in particular, I think is the right application. 00:07:02.389 --> 00:07:06.509 Yeah. The invisibility piece sticks with me. 00:07:06.709 --> 00:07:08.610 You know, you bled off with that at the beginning. 00:07:08.810 --> 00:07:11.290 The fact that we can't see it, we can't visibly 00:07:11.290 --> 00:07:15.399 manage it. Um, even if it's on our own desk sometimes, 00:07:15.399 --> 00:07:17.759 I don't know about you, but that kind of constant 00:07:17.759 --> 00:07:20.740 switching sometimes means I have a high priority 00:07:20.740 --> 00:07:23.100 item. And if I don't write myself a sticky note 00:07:23.100 --> 00:07:26.079 and put it on the top of my cell phone or put 00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:27.720 it where I'm going to reach next, I'm going to 00:07:27.720 --> 00:07:31.300 lose track of it. Cause I have 17 tabs open and 00:07:31.300 --> 00:07:34.060 I have, you know, I bet I have on average probably 00:07:34.060 --> 00:07:36.779 six to seven applications and browsers open at 00:07:36.779 --> 00:07:40.810 any point in time. You know, so. The context 00:07:40.810 --> 00:07:43.990 switching and then the invisible. It's not that 00:07:43.990 --> 00:07:46.490 it's not there, it's that it's buried behind 00:07:46.490 --> 00:07:49.949 a lot of other content. So I don't know, what 00:07:49.949 --> 00:07:53.970 else do you think adds to this whole? I think 00:07:53.970 --> 00:07:56.850 just a lack of clarity and what the priority 00:07:56.850 --> 00:08:00.569 is. Yeah, that's good. Or the fact that the priority 00:08:00.569 --> 00:08:03.670 changes. Like I've been tracking, I've been trying 00:08:03.670 --> 00:08:06.730 to be more productive in my week. And over the 00:08:06.730 --> 00:08:08.589 last two weeks, I've realized that I've got a 00:08:08.589 --> 00:08:13.569 great plan. And by Tuesday morning, it is just 00:08:13.569 --> 00:08:17.990 chewed up and I've given up. Shot all to hell. 00:08:19.529 --> 00:08:22.350 It just feels like my priorities or my calendar 00:08:22.350 --> 00:08:27.310 is winning or I'm losing the meeting war. It's 00:08:27.310 --> 00:08:31.329 really hard to know what priority is so that 00:08:31.329 --> 00:08:35.769 you can work on the right thing and not, you 00:08:35.769 --> 00:08:38.860 know, kind of do death by a thousand cuts on 00:08:38.860 --> 00:08:41.600 a thousand different tasks that that just never 00:08:41.600 --> 00:08:46.639 get to quality or even good. Yeah. It's it is, 00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:48.639 you know, constrained oftentimes is what tells 00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:52.740 us what is good enough. Yeah. And we push back 00:08:52.740 --> 00:08:55.320 on the idea of constrained. It always sounds 00:08:55.320 --> 00:08:59.700 bad. But I'll tell you, if I have a light day, 00:09:00.419 --> 00:09:02.940 I waste my entire day at my desk doing two or 00:09:02.940 --> 00:09:06.600 three rinky ding things. Yeah. you know, unless 00:09:06.600 --> 00:09:09.500 I've, unless I've wisely committed to like, Hey, 00:09:09.559 --> 00:09:11.279 Chris, let's go golf this afternoon and play 00:09:11.279 --> 00:09:13.740 hooky or, you know, something like that. It's 00:09:13.740 --> 00:09:17.940 just a squander the day. And so, um, oftentimes 00:09:17.940 --> 00:09:20.539 this idea of like, what, where do we manage tight 00:09:20.539 --> 00:09:23.820 and where do we manage loose is a conversation 00:09:23.820 --> 00:09:25.740 I've had many times with clients over the years. 00:09:25.860 --> 00:09:28.600 And in the face of constraint, we know we have 00:09:28.600 --> 00:09:31.460 to play it tight. Then we're on a deadline when 00:09:31.460 --> 00:09:33.279 we're turning something around for a client, 00:09:33.600 --> 00:09:36.710 when things have broken. and time is working 00:09:36.710 --> 00:09:39.570 against us, then we mobilize and hero mode comes 00:09:39.570 --> 00:09:42.570 out and we're in a tight flight formation, we're 00:09:42.570 --> 00:09:46.710 actively communicating. But we also don't, we 00:09:46.710 --> 00:09:49.750 can't run like that all the time. I think we 00:09:49.750 --> 00:09:51.769 do need to give ourselves intentionally a little 00:09:51.769 --> 00:09:54.179 bit of loose time and that's where... some of 00:09:54.179 --> 00:09:56.600 those human interactions. Like, that's a great 00:09:56.600 --> 00:09:58.460 opportunity for a meeting. Let's do something 00:09:58.460 --> 00:10:00.659 generative instead of just talking about the 00:10:00.659 --> 00:10:03.340 facts that could have been an email. That's a 00:10:03.340 --> 00:10:05.919 good time to loosen up a little bit and, and 00:10:05.919 --> 00:10:09.019 do a little bit of humaning together. So tight 00:10:09.019 --> 00:10:12.440 and loose. That is such a good point. I've actually 00:10:12.440 --> 00:10:15.179 been thinking about that a lot where our modern 00:10:15.179 --> 00:10:19.860 society and modern work does not match our historical 00:10:19.860 --> 00:10:23.490 work. Which would be gathering food or hunting 00:10:23.490 --> 00:10:29.009 or building a place to stay dry. It just does 00:10:29.009 --> 00:10:30.970 not match that at all. And what's interesting 00:10:30.970 --> 00:10:34.610 is all of that stuff followed the seasons. So 00:10:34.610 --> 00:10:37.570 you had your harvest time where you were busy, 00:10:37.570 --> 00:10:40.909 right? And you had to can all that stuff and 00:10:40.909 --> 00:10:45.309 you had to get it into the root cellar or whatever. 00:10:45.690 --> 00:10:49.659 And then winter came. And what'd you do? Yep, 00:10:50.139 --> 00:10:52.379 not a whole lot. You tried to keep warm sharpen 00:10:52.379 --> 00:10:56.139 tools get ready next. Yeah Yeah, but but it was 00:10:56.139 --> 00:10:58.580 it was not this it was not this hectic pace and 00:10:58.580 --> 00:11:03.539 I feel like most knowledge work is We are constrained 00:11:03.539 --> 00:11:08.600 by our capabilities as humans And so by the by 00:11:08.600 --> 00:11:10.879 the time Friday rolls around most of us are so 00:11:10.879 --> 00:11:13.879 frazzled because we've had You know two hours 00:11:13.879 --> 00:11:17.360 of downtime in that week And our bodies are like, 00:11:17.360 --> 00:11:20.519 check this out. I'm going to shut you down. Right. 00:11:20.700 --> 00:11:22.240 Or, or we're in it. We're going to sleep all 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:25.799 weekend because, because we are not machines. 00:11:27.100 --> 00:11:28.840 Well, that's, that's the truth of it, Chris. 00:11:28.879 --> 00:11:32.700 And I think, uh, stay with me for a quick second, 00:11:32.700 --> 00:11:34.919 but you know, the constraints that we experience 00:11:34.919 --> 00:11:38.740 as knowledge workers are different than what 00:11:38.740 --> 00:11:41.000 our parents and grandparents had in the workplace. 00:11:41.899 --> 00:11:44.759 And you simply, you know, you didn't have a typewriter 00:11:44.759 --> 00:11:48.590 on your desk. And so once you wrote out the letter 00:11:48.590 --> 00:11:51.169 that needed to be typed, it was out of your hands. 00:11:51.669 --> 00:11:55.049 You know, and you could move on to the next thing. 00:11:55.149 --> 00:11:57.830 Whereas today we type the letter, we call it 00:11:57.830 --> 00:12:00.710 an email, and it can bounce right back to us 00:12:00.710 --> 00:12:03.690 almost instantaneously. And it can be circulated 00:12:03.690 --> 00:12:06.129 well beyond the stakeholders we intended it. 00:12:06.370 --> 00:12:10.309 And now we've taken a little bit of a molehill 00:12:10.309 --> 00:12:13.090 and it's exploded into a mountain that we now 00:12:13.090 --> 00:12:17.080 have to manage, right? And so I think your point 00:12:17.080 --> 00:12:19.440 is a good one. I've twice this week, two different 00:12:19.440 --> 00:12:21.720 conversations, very different audiences. They 00:12:21.720 --> 00:12:24.720 said, we don't know yet how AI is going to disrupt 00:12:24.720 --> 00:12:27.600 our work. But we know it's going to disrupt our 00:12:27.600 --> 00:12:30.580 work. And it's because we're living in this knowledge 00:12:30.580 --> 00:12:32.519 space where we're trying to push and pull data. 00:12:33.259 --> 00:12:40.049 So yeah, very interesting. That's Yeah. I think 00:12:40.049 --> 00:12:43.529 there's just, we got lost there for a second. 00:12:43.570 --> 00:12:45.750 We're back, we're back. Come and fill your patterns 00:12:45.750 --> 00:12:50.450 in just this invisibility of constraints. I think 00:12:50.450 --> 00:12:52.750 you mentioned it before, just too many priorities. 00:12:52.929 --> 00:12:58.809 Yeah, right. A couple of jobs ago, I was working 00:12:58.809 --> 00:13:01.610 on this thing and I was doing some data cleansing 00:13:01.610 --> 00:13:03.789 and I had found 13 different areas in which the 00:13:03.789 --> 00:13:10.460 data was off. Sure. politically kind of stepped 00:13:10.460 --> 00:13:12.480 on some toes. And so there was another person 00:13:12.480 --> 00:13:19.799 that came and also created a list. And this person 00:13:19.799 --> 00:13:22.379 was, we were trying to figure out on her list, 00:13:22.460 --> 00:13:25.500 which was most important. And it was, and basically 00:13:25.500 --> 00:13:28.379 they all were important of her list of 24 or 00:13:28.379 --> 00:13:31.519 something. 24 million priorities. Or it was, 00:13:31.519 --> 00:13:34.259 it was so frustrating. It was like, you just 00:13:34.259 --> 00:13:36.580 can't like, just someone make a decision here. 00:13:38.350 --> 00:13:41.250 know that the constraints are there and either 00:13:41.250 --> 00:13:44.750 we work around them or we work through them or 00:13:44.750 --> 00:13:48.070 They work us over, you know, yeah rarely do we 00:13:48.070 --> 00:13:51.009 seem to have time to yet the other thing the 00:13:51.009 --> 00:13:54.029 other thing we have is just Dependencies cross 00:13:54.029 --> 00:13:57.190 team oftentimes. Yeah Oftentimes within teams. 00:13:57.190 --> 00:14:00.230 It's very siloed like it we that within within 00:14:00.230 --> 00:14:02.690 the teams. It can be very efficient Sure, it's 00:14:02.690 --> 00:14:04.710 just when you go outside outside the walls of 00:14:04.710 --> 00:14:10.340 those silos It can be torturous. Yeah. I agree. 00:14:10.980 --> 00:14:13.299 Well, and it's the way we're organizing data. 00:14:13.899 --> 00:14:16.200 Yeah. I don't know if we've talked about it yet, 00:14:16.200 --> 00:14:19.940 but yeah, the idea of me see like mutually exclusive, 00:14:20.000 --> 00:14:22.860 but collectively exhaustive. We don't always 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:25.960 know where information lies or where it needs 00:14:25.960 --> 00:14:30.799 to be. You know, um, and, and that is themselves 00:14:30.799 --> 00:14:33.720 are constraints. Yeah. That's one of our next 00:14:33.720 --> 00:14:37.429 podcast is your work homeless. Nice. I know that's 00:14:37.429 --> 00:14:41.850 going to be a good one. We'll get there. So let's 00:14:41.850 --> 00:14:45.389 move into some fix it. Yeah. So what do you do 00:14:45.389 --> 00:14:47.049 today to solve kind of some of these problems? 00:14:47.110 --> 00:14:49.470 I think if you're an individual contributor, 00:14:49.470 --> 00:14:52.509 you have to track where you're blocked. Yeah. 00:14:53.110 --> 00:14:55.409 How else do you ever identify it? Right. Yeah. 00:14:55.590 --> 00:14:58.129 Like you have, and it either needs to be in a, 00:14:58.129 --> 00:15:00.570 in a global location that everybody's watching, 00:15:00.570 --> 00:15:03.570 uh, you know, in a, in your JIRA cases or whatever, 00:15:04.149 --> 00:15:06.840 or just. Even in even in your notebook. Yeah. 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:13.120 You know, guard time like protect your time. 00:15:13.860 --> 00:15:17.720 Yeah. It is our scariest thing, right? Oh, for 00:15:17.720 --> 00:15:21.679 sure. One hundred percent. And then and then 00:15:21.679 --> 00:15:23.120 the other thing, and you and I were talking a 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:25.320 little bit about this as well, but just ask leaders 00:15:25.320 --> 00:15:28.019 for clarity. Yeah. You were referencing a recent 00:15:28.019 --> 00:15:30.659 Drucker book that you were reading. Yeah, I finished. 00:15:30.820 --> 00:15:33.580 I just finished. I just finished management. 00:15:33.820 --> 00:15:38.320 by Peter Drucker. And it had some really good 00:15:38.320 --> 00:15:41.240 clarifying questions for bosses. I'll just read 00:15:41.240 --> 00:15:45.740 them to you. And actually, I did send these to 00:15:45.740 --> 00:15:47.139 my boss because I thought it was really good 00:15:47.139 --> 00:15:50.320 because it was one question is like, what do 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:53.580 I do to help you the most with your work? Right. 00:15:54.679 --> 00:15:58.519 And what do I do that hampers you? Like, unfortunately, 00:15:58.799 --> 00:16:00.860 I would love to say that I'm the perfect employee, 00:16:00.879 --> 00:16:02.559 but I'm not the perfect employee for everybody. 00:16:03.480 --> 00:16:08.899 Yes. And what should I do differently? Then what 00:16:08.899 --> 00:16:10.940 do you consider to be my most important contribution 00:16:10.940 --> 00:16:13.840 to the team or organization and to achieve our 00:16:13.840 --> 00:16:15.559 goals? What are the most important things that 00:16:15.559 --> 00:16:18.679 I should be focusing on right now? And what information 00:16:18.679 --> 00:16:21.159 do you need from me? How often and in what format? 00:16:22.320 --> 00:16:27.840 And I actually just realized this year that there 00:16:27.840 --> 00:16:30.559 are verbal people, there are written people. 00:16:31.080 --> 00:16:34.240 And if you communicate verbally to a written, 00:16:34.559 --> 00:16:39.480 to someone who likes to consume written, they 00:16:39.480 --> 00:16:43.419 will, you will miss it. The message doesn't land. 00:16:43.700 --> 00:16:46.059 It just doesn't, they're like, it has to be written. 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:49.539 And, and, and they, you know, the, the ones that 00:16:49.539 --> 00:16:52.840 have high EQ get that and they will be like, 00:16:52.980 --> 00:16:56.220 Oh, because that's what I need. And they surround 00:16:56.220 --> 00:16:58.179 themselves with this infrastructure that supports 00:16:58.179 --> 00:17:00.600 that. But sometimes people don't know. And it's 00:17:00.600 --> 00:17:02.600 like, well, you don't know. And both parties 00:17:02.600 --> 00:17:04.119 just think they're idiots. And you're like, no, 00:17:04.519 --> 00:17:07.900 you're communicating in the wrong style here. 00:17:08.720 --> 00:17:13.500 Yeah. No, that's good. All right. What should 00:17:13.500 --> 00:17:18.079 managers do? I think they should stop planning 00:17:18.079 --> 00:17:23.079 at 100%. Nobody's going to operate 40 hours out 00:17:23.079 --> 00:17:25.799 of 40 hours a week. No, this just doesn't happen. 00:17:26.400 --> 00:17:32.029 Maybe 80%. Like Aim for quality not for quantity. 00:17:32.190 --> 00:17:35.650 Well, and even I would even go back It goes back 00:17:35.650 --> 00:17:38.529 to these priorities Yeah, you know if you have 00:17:38.529 --> 00:17:40.430 a team and you know that you have three big things 00:17:40.430 --> 00:17:42.549 this week the most effective teams I've worked 00:17:42.549 --> 00:17:46.190 on is when a manager says this week Can we accomplish 00:17:46.190 --> 00:17:48.910 these three big things? Yep, because they add 00:17:48.910 --> 00:17:53.009 up, right? But if what you're trying to do is 00:17:53.009 --> 00:17:56.619 micromanage hours in and hours out It's a fool's 00:17:56.619 --> 00:18:00.000 errand. It's an infinite problem again. An infinite 00:18:00.000 --> 00:18:02.160 number of ways to squander all that valuable 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:06.420 time and you still don't get the output. Yeah. 00:18:07.359 --> 00:18:09.519 I think the other is just look for bottlenecks. 00:18:09.759 --> 00:18:13.299 Yeah. And I think this goes a little bit back 00:18:13.299 --> 00:18:16.900 to last time where we just talked about, you 00:18:16.900 --> 00:18:22.200 know, the, I don't know, just the unseen nature. 00:18:22.259 --> 00:18:27.190 Yeah. And I think I think being able to visualize 00:18:27.190 --> 00:18:30.190 what's going on. And I think one easy way to 00:18:30.190 --> 00:18:33.309 do this is just to say, show me where you found 00:18:33.309 --> 00:18:39.930 that. The other bottleneck, not just data, but 00:18:39.930 --> 00:18:43.210 I think about the communication piece. Oftentimes 00:18:43.210 --> 00:18:47.029 the constraint is the way that somebody interacts 00:18:47.029 --> 00:18:50.950 with the communication chain. So if you're finding 00:18:50.950 --> 00:18:53.529 that the emails they forward are a day, two days, 00:18:53.609 --> 00:18:56.359 three days old, It's no surprise you're blowing 00:18:56.359 --> 00:19:00.299 deadlines. There's a timeliness piece there. 00:19:01.279 --> 00:19:04.299 So, yeah, the bottlenecks is different than a 00:19:04.299 --> 00:19:07.420 witch hunt because oftentimes it's a lack of 00:19:07.420 --> 00:19:09.740 understanding about the critical role they play. 00:19:10.079 --> 00:19:13.000 Yep. So that's a great one. And then the last 00:19:13.000 --> 00:19:16.519 one is just stop rewarding heroics. The last 00:19:16.519 --> 00:19:19.420 minute, you know, I came in at the last I worked 00:19:19.420 --> 00:19:23.079 all weekend firefighting culture. Yeah, it just 00:19:23.079 --> 00:19:27.440 does not work. It serves no one. Yeah, that's 00:19:27.440 --> 00:19:31.119 a great call out. Chris, I think that those are 00:19:31.119 --> 00:19:33.160 excellent, both for individuals and managers. 00:19:34.220 --> 00:19:37.460 We know constraints are real. Oftentimes they 00:19:37.460 --> 00:19:39.900 help us do incredible things because they force 00:19:39.900 --> 00:19:42.740 us to think differently, but we have to acknowledge 00:19:42.740 --> 00:19:48.119 that they're. 100%. Cool, man. We did it again. 00:19:51.319 --> 00:19:54.460 Make that invisible visible. That's right. Shine 00:19:54.460 --> 00:19:57.339 a little light on it. All right. See ya.