Strategist, Ned Hodge, asks “how do you get things done when the whole world is exhausted?”

In The House

Innovations and initiatives from Strat House clients and partners.

• Unilever helping women farmers to grow pineapples and their incomes
• Adidas takes on Samsung’s controversial ‘Night Owls’ ad in women’s safety campaign
• Unilever Study Reveals Influence of Influencers in Sustainable Behavior Change
• Dove are standing up for #KidsOnlineSafety
• Gong cha named best food & drink franchise at the 2023 Global Franchise Awards
• Find out why LinkedIn And Dove Are In It Together To Help End Hair Discrimination

When It’s Hard To Get Things Done

“It feels like the whole world is exhausted.”

It’s not a meeting opener we typically expect to hear from a client (in January). But, this is 2021.

With the vaccine around the corner, it should feel like we’re on the home stretch. Instead, determination and energy seem to be in short supply. The novelty and adrenaline of the first wave have worn thin (please no more Zoom happy hours 🙃!). Everyone I’ve spoken to recently is struggling to get things done when most businesses are having to ask more of their employees, and change is the only certainty.

Creating the right flexible conditions to do deep work is something I experiment with a lot through my work at Strat House. Since Mel & Rachel founded the company three years ago, we have established (through trial and error) some optimal ways of working flexibly and remotely supported by new routines and rituals. These ways of working are certainly being stress-tested in this situation, but they do give us a small head start when it comes to getting things done.

Here, therefore, are three practical exercises I find helpful when it comes to retaining a sense of agency, motivation and belief in my abilities:

Start with what is in your control

Without realising it we lose time worrying about things we can’t control. I find it helpful to assign issues into three groups of influence, using an exercise from Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People: 

• Zone Of Control – Draw a circle and list within it the things you can control …from how you start your day to which meetings you accept. This zone represents your direct impact. Sometimes the zone may seem small, but I find reflecting on it gives me a sense of focus.
• Zone Of Influence – Next draw a larger concentric circle and list what and who you can influence (e.g. the initiatives you put your weight behind). Monitoring this zone allows you to not only manage your own energy but can also help to sustain the energy of those around you.
• Zone of Concern – In your last concentric circle, list the things that are out of your control. It may be a long list 😉 but the unassuming power of this zone is that it frees up headspace – by keeping in check how much time you give to these concerns.

Understand urgency vs. importance

Even when you’re not living through a global pandemic it’s easy to get distracted by the urgent. In 2020 ‘Firefighter mode’ was inevitable. But of course, that can mean neglecting the important. I like to view important tasks as leading to achieving goals with long-term impact. Urgent tasks demand immediate attention and are often at the expense of long-term success. So confusing the two can have very real consequences. The Eisenhower Matrix is one tool for this problem, but I prefer this hacked version because I find it makes me more decisive:

• Plan – Thinking ahead to avoid missed deadlines. List out the tasks to move things forward.
• Do – Urgent? Check. Important? Check. These tasks are your priority for now.
• Drop – This is the best (and most satisfying!) part of the model. Drop any task that isn’t urgent or important. If that thought causes dread, then leave the task for a week and revisit.
• Question – For urgent but unimportant tasks ask – “is there real urgency behind this?” “Can I automate it or delegate it?” and “what would happen if I dropped it?”

With thanks to NOBL for introducing me to this.

Energize Every Day

This is a phrase we love at Strat House from the LEGO team. It serves as a simple reminder to channel our energy and that of our team. How you do it matters less. That you do it matters a lot.

Some things that have worked for us include:

• Telling each other of how much bandwidth we have – Not just talking about our work tasks but also if we’re juggling a house move or home-schooling.
• Pulling each other up – When people feel anxious or uncertain, they need to be reminded that they are good enough no matter what is currently going on.
• Scaling down our channels – We flirted with Slack but found it too interruptive. Now we use WhatsApp during specific periods of the day. It’s fine to tell others how you wish to be communicated with or what times you will be checking messages.

You can read more on LEGO’s Leadership’s Playground here.