What Matters Most   Karl Ahlrichs explains “the world that we’re in now, and emerging now, we can call it the ‘new normal.’  

“Where we were wasn’t sustainable and it may not be reattainable.  There’s this zone that were in for probably the next year to eighteen months where the new rules haven’t been written yet from an employment standpoint, from an employer’s standpoint, from an employee’s standpoint.

Ahrlrichs says that uncommon sense is needed for this crisis we’re facing.  “On October 15 of 2008 at about 2:30 in the afternoon when we collectively looked at each other and realized that the stock market was heading south and we weren’t sure how far south it was going, that common body of knowledge became dead batteries.

“The panic that we saw on the pundit TV shows and in the business press was that the markers that we had always counted on as being good guide posts to how to run business really weren’t responding the way people thought.

“So, that’s when I realized we were done with common sense, we really need uncommon sense to get through this.  It was not just a cute marketing phrase, we really needed to back away from the thinking that got us here and go to the next level.

“For the first time in years, everybody’s nervously eyeing each other and focused on survival.  Unions are willing to give unilateral give-backs.  Employees are willing to work harder than they thought they should.  Managers are willing to adapt to a one-size-fits-one mentality.  This is a time where everybody is really back to basics.

Build a Road Map

Karl suggests that one of the best things we can do is build a road map and figure out a couple of things from that.  “When I say ‘road map’ I really mean road map.  I mean a piece of paper with squiggles, arrows, notations that can guide your path.”

Ahlrichs elaborates, “Get a copy of your organizational chart as it is today…the boxes and the dotted lines.  First step is locate yourself on the map and look at who’s around you, and draw in additional people in their proper spots who may be key vendors but this is basically the road map of who is in your world and what their official reporting structures are.

“Then get out a second color pencil and start adding clues and cues about who [each] person is, how they react to the outside world, how they get data, how they decide things, basically cryptic words that describe what they’re like.

“Then get another set of color pencils, draw in a different color, the actual alliances of people.  This person over here in marketing and this person over here in operations went to the same school, they belonged to the same fraternity, they’re buddies.

“I guess my point is draw in the political affiliations.  What is the glue that holds people together?  By the end of this exercise, things will be making better sense, and into the future as you keep it updated, this will be an excellent guide for a couple of things: communication and why did that happen.

“Communication from the sense of I want to make sure this message gets to that person, let me get out my road map and let me make sure who is on my side, who is allied with them, who hates them, and make sure my message is guided around the land mines and through the welcome spots.

“And then secondarily, you’re really able to figure out why something happens.  And one final point, do not leave this on your desk.  This is your own secret road map.  This is not to be shared.  This is your own private view of the world.  While it’s being done for the noblest of reasons, mainly for better communication and for you to understand things better, others might see this as Machiavellian and manipulative and political.

Ahlrichs is suggesting that this road map will take some stress away from our panic.  “We’re panicked because things don’t make sense.  Once we map out what we do know, then we get a level of clarity that allows our brain to really start working on the fiddely bits around the edges but it also has the reassurance of  ’Okay, this makes sense.’  Once you figure out what you can control, you let go of what you cannot control, and there gets the clarity of being good employee in these modern times.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Vital Life Skills

Sometimes, the stress wreaks havoc with our powers to observe and figure out what’s going on.  “People who just appear to be lucky, one of the key things behind that is a lower personal stress level.”

What makes us better observers?  “There’s really three life skills that have emerged that have moved to the head of the pack.  They are listening, adaptability and, let’s call it presentation, we could also call it communication.

“We’re back to basics now and the core competencies that really are going to make a difference, one of them–and this is a key one–that’s a willingness to listen.

“I’m an extrovert.  For years, I only had two modes.  I was either talking or I was getting ready to talk.  I was either talking or I was waiting for you to stop.  In our current situation, I truly do have to listen, and that has been a very difficult skill for any extrovert to learn.

“The second point on life skills that apply to work was adaptability.  We have to become different and we have to be comfortable becoming different.  Speaking personally, I’m over fifty.  People don’t like to change much as they get older because patterns are comfortable.

“In addition to listening, a key life skill is maintaining behavioral flexibility.  I find the best way to really keep the personal flexibility as a part of my life begins back at home before I get to the office.  We wake up in the morning and we always go to the same place in the bathroom, and we always do the same things in the same order, then we go and get the same cup from the same spot, and pour the same beverage into it, and get in the same vehicle, and drive the same route, and by the time we get to the office, we’re already twenty rituals into daily life.  Now we want to become adaptable at that point?

“It really needs to be a core part of life.  I drive a different route to the office pretty much everyday.  If I pull out of my garage, half the time I turn left, half the time I turn right.  I am sending my brain a message that the pattern is to not have a pattern.  If I find myself listening to the same station three or four days in a row, I’m changing stations, or I’m turning the radio off, or I’m plugging in my Ipod and learning Spanish, or I’m just doing something different.  This is causing the brain to get comfortable with change.”

We take that adaptability into the work place with us.  “I said it was a life skill for a reason, not a work skill.  We’re trying to be more effective at work, and this whole social networking…Facebook…that’s becoming a part of the organizational world where it’s not a social network anymore it can become an operational network where those are tools used to communicate inside and around organizations and across silos.  That means you have to be adaptable enough to be in it and understand it.

“The third point is communication…presentation.  We have such high standards of what a good communication and what a good communicator and what a good message looks like that, if we don’t keep our communication skills polished or if we don’t learn newer or better communication skills on a daily or weekly basis, we will be very frustrated because our ideas will not have traction.

“We need to understand that the standards for what we will put on page have to be fitting to modern sensibilities, modern standards, modern attention spans so we have to write concise, engaging, short prose.  We need to write zippy sentences and have a hook and an interesting angle.

“Secondarily, there’s a skill that’s been languishing in the background for decades but it’s going to come up front and center these days, it is the power of summary.  People want the punchline first.  You walk into a meeting and the boss turns to you and says, ‘Why didn’t our marketing plan work last quarter?’  You need to lapse into reflective thought for no more than five seconds and give him the answer in one sentence, ‘We missed a marketing window in Europe, we hit it on the East Coast, there were two shifts in buying patterns we did not expect and we think we have it covered for next quarter.’  There in one sentence is the punchline.

“Now, you can go on and support it.  The boss relaxes because you understand the situation and you can concisely summarize it.   Power of summary is an executive tool.  The power of summary is something introverts are very good at and extroverts are not.  That’s again something we extroverts have had to learn.  We just want to talk through the whole thing and someplace in there is the answer.”

Uncommon Sense

In summary, Karl provides three tips to provide employees with uncommon sense in this time of crisis.  “All those years that I worked coaching people on their personal careers, I found there were three things always present in the people that seemed to land on their feet and do well.

“They are personal focus, attitude and we’re back to listening skills.

“By personal focus I mean they could at least articulate what they wanted, not specifically perhaps but what was in it, or not specifically perhaps but what wasn’t in it. 

“So that somebody doesn’t say:

‘What do you want?  I want a job.’  

‘What kind of job?   I’ll take any job.’  

“That doesn’t help!

“Secondarily, our society rewards attitude and it punishes people with a pity party going on.  The ones who flagellate themselves and announce that they’re not lucky, that this is being done to them, that the world controls them.  Pschologically, it’s an external locus of control, they’re not running themselves.  We would perceive it as this person has a bad attitude.  Even if you’re grouchy, it’s important not to appear grouchy.

“Third, again it really comes down to listening skills–listening and paying attention to the world around you, the people around you, the situations around you, reflecting on it and that guides your actions.

“If somebody has those three things:  focus of some type, a post off on the horizon that they’re driving to, the appearance of having a positive self image and personal self control, and a feedback loop of listening to the world around them.

“If they can do those three things and they use them in an operational networking framework, if they’re using it within a social networking framework, if they’re using it within their family, I have observed that these people as they go through life will reflect and feel that they had a fulfilling time on earth and that’s all we can really hope for.”

What Matters Most   Nathan Shedroff has a great smile.   It gives the impression he solves problems with a good sense of humor.

Nathan says, “It’s the only way to approach life.”

In his newest book, Design is the Problem, he explains, “Design and designers have helped create a world where people are compelled to buy things that they don’t necessarily need or buy new versions and throw out their old versions when their old versions aren’t particularly bad.

“We contribute to consumer society that is beyond consumer, it is about over-consumption.”

This is why design is the problem.  Shedroff continues by explaining the idea of retail therapy.  Retail therapy is the idea that “purchasing things, whether we need them or not, is going to make us feel better about ourselves, which is completely fallacious because it’s temporary, it’s unmeaningful and it’s unsustainable.”

Shedroff prefers to use the word “sustainable” when defining good design rather than “green” because sustainability better expresses what we’re trying to achieve.

 ”It’s not a perfect word, either.  There’s alot of controversy around the word ’sustainability.’  But the two most important things to understand about sustainability are:   it’s not just about the environment and natural resources, although that’s a big part of it.  It’s also about human resources or social issues as well as financial sustainability and financial resources.

“The other problem with the word ‘green’ is that it carries with it a lot of historical and cultural baggage.  It turns a lot of people off.  So, when people hear the word ‘green,’ many people think hippies and birkenstocks and the environmentalism movement from the 1970’s and, while the principles behind sustainability completely is compatible with a lot of what was being said back then, it’s still very different.

“And so, if you’re saying ‘green,’ for instance, for the first part your ignoring the social and financial implications and, for the second part, it’s not this ‘green’ that we were talking about in the 70’s, which is a turn-off for a lot of people.

“So, it’s not just a smart place to go if you want to open the tent for as many people as possible.”

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Restore

For the design profession, Nathan introduces four different strategies for implementing a sustainable design:  reduce, reuse, recycle and restore.

“Design strategies under reduce are all about getting the most out of the least amount of material.  So, how can we design and ship and construct products that don’t have excess materials, that don’t have toxic materials, or at least have fewer toxic materials and maybe made from renewable energy?

“All of these seem a little foreign to us today but if you went back to my great grandparent’s farm in western Kansas, everyone on that farm would understand immediately you need to make the most use of the materials you’re given and you need to be smart about how you use energy.  You need to be efficient.  So, everything under reduce is about how can you make most value with less material, less energy, less transportation, et cetera.

“Under the strategies for reuse, there are specific ways of designing things so they can be reused rather than just destroyed or landfilled.  The product can have life after the first intended use, which means all the embodied energy that went into constructing that thing doesn’t get wasted and destroyed.  It can be used for something else.

“And then, under recycle, there’s specific design strategies that engineers, designers and architects as well as other business people can use to make sure that when that product is finally not useful anymore, it can be broken down and recycled efficiently and easily if you take some certain steps in the development of that product to begin with.

“Lastly, once you’ve gotten really, really good at these other strategies, it’s not enough to just reduce the impact on society, on the environment, on the financial system of the things that you make, when you get really good at this, you can actually restore natural and human capital, and for that matter financial capital, and it’s a new way of looking and working. 

“So, rather than just being less negative, you can actually be more positive.”

Life Cycle Analysis

What may be called the whole story of sustainability encompasses people, resources and money.  We have a way looking at sustainability that analyzes the entire life cycle of our experience with the product or service.

“There’s an easy and a more in-depth explanation of life cycle analysis.

“The easy side is just that we all need to realize that when we go to the store and buy something a good 50-75% of the impact of that product we find in the store, during it’s life cycle, has already occurred.  And, it’s occurred in the manufacturing and distribution of that thing. 

“All product categories differ slightly so, for instance, clothes have a different impact in the use phase than they do in the manufacturing phase and certainly a different impact in the disposal phase.  And, every product and service goes through a period of manufacturing, which includes sourcing raw materials and creating sub-assemblies and final manufacturing and shipping between all these different entities, finally shipping to a customer at a store or at their home.  That whole phase is responsible for a great deal of resource and energy use.

“Then, when we have the product or service–we use it–there’s a use phase that often requires more energy and material.  For instance, your dishwasher requires you to put water in it, plug it into the electrical system to run it, and to use soap in it, so it’s still using goods but no where near as much material and energy that went into creating the dishwasher itself.

“And, when you’re done with the dishwasher, there’s a disposal phase.  Potentially, if it’s recyclable that dishwasher has to be broken apart and pieces that are valuable can be sent to different recycling streams or it gets thrown into a landfill or burned, which has an impact.  It has an impact on the environment in terms of the atmosphere.  It has an impact on land use.  A dishwasher is probably fairly benign but, if you’re talking about a television, you’re talking about lots of heavy metals that could then leach into the water supply and create a toxic problem in soil.

“And so, life cycle analysis just says if we want to make better decisions about this television or that television.  Or, this car versus that bicycle, we need to consider the entire life cycle of these products and really figure out what’s going on.

“And then, the complex side of life cycle analysis is that there are actual engineering tools that measure the impact and the amount of materials that go in at every step of the way and that’s really for designers and engineers to deal with. 

“So, when buying a product, you shouldn’t have to deal with that level of detail but they do have to understand that stuff comes from somewhere and after they’re done using it, it goes somewhere.  And those ’somewheres’ have impact.

“The controversy of the Hummer versus the Prius, most people would look at both of those cars and say, ‘Clearly, the Hummer is worse for the environment by a substantial amount than the Prius.’

“There’s only been one life cycle analysis that I’m aware of that’s been public, looking at the full impact of these cars.  In that first analysis, I think it was in 2004, the Hummer actually came out with a better impact than the Prius.

“And, of course, Prius owners and Toyota and lots of people were up in arms.  The interesting thing isn’t which one is better than the other.  The interesting thing is learning why it’s so complex.  Last year when they updated the same assessment, the new numbers showed that the Prius was slightly better than the Hummer.

“Part of the problem is that even experts can’t agree because this is such complex work.   So, sometimes our first assumptions that things are totally obvious aren’t necessarily so because so much of it is hidden from us. 

“All of the manufacturing costs and impacts are hidden from consumers.  We don’t get to go through the factories.  We don’t go to the mines where the minerals are mined.  Most of this is invisible to us, which is what makes it so difficult”

Savor the Design

Nathan also believes that design solutions should be savored.

“There’s a whole movement that originated in Italy called the ‘Slow Food’ movement.  It has since been translated into a lot of other areas as well.

“It started with the idea that fast food isn’t nutritious.  And fast food isn’t particularly enjoyable.  It’s just consistent and fast.  It’s not even particularly nourishing.

“Food is a communal activity.  It should be an enjoyable activity.  It should be nutritious.  It should be respectful of the way the food itself was grown. 

“Designers, architects, engineers and builders have the opportunity to do something similar with the things they create.  So, an example of this might be a set of china or silverware that has been handed down through generations in families.  Or, for instance, your Toyota pickup truck that you’ve had for over thirty years now and your relationship to it and the fact that it’s still running, you’re essentially savoring the ownership of that Toyota pickup truck.  And, it’s a very different way to view products and services and our relationship to them than fads and trends are built around fashion for its own sake where ‘Oh, that’s so yesterday.  Or, that’s so two years ago.  Or, pink is the new black.  No, orange is the new black.  No, black is the new black.’  It’s a completely different mindset to not worry about what the new black is and to savor the things that are well-made and enhance our lives, and designers and engineers and architects can specifically contribute to building those savorable things.”

There’s a wonderful line from an old Frank Zappa song where he said, “…[who cares if] you’re so poor that you can’t afford to buy a new pair of mod a-go-go stretch elastic pants.”

Shedroff agrees.  “And, two months from now, you’ll probably think, ‘Why would I have wanted to?’

“There’s a lot of talk about the recession these days and whether it’s going to change our consumption patterns.  And, you know I think it has a potential to, which I think it would be a good thing but I don’t think it’s anything for sure.  There’s a lot of discussion about what would a post-consumer world  look like?  What would the world look like both from a society standpoint and an environmental standpoint and a market standpoint if people consumed less or if they consumed more rationally and they just didn’t buy stuff to have fifty pairs of shoes, one for every emotion they happen to have or forty watches or three cell phones when they can only use one at a time.  What would that world look like?

“I think that’s probably the most interesting question to ask as we get close to the end of this decade.  I don’t think anyone has any answers yet but I have a feeling that that world might be a little bit more rational and meaningful and savorable than a world where we just constantly cycling through stuff for its own sake.”

Unmotivated and stuck in a rut, Leo transformed his life.

Today, Babauta’s life is very different.  Happier, he embraces simplicity.  He is self-employed, working at home and accomplishing more even by working less.  He is healthier, losing 40 pounds after quitting smoking.  Spending more time with his family, he now does the things he enjoys.

Leo’s transformation didn’t occur through a miraculous epiphany.  It occurred through good old-fashioned trial and error.  He explains, “It wasn’t overnight, and it wasn’t like, ‘I know how to do everything and let’s start doing it one at a time.’  It was failure that actually helped me learn and grow and improve.  While I’m still going through trial and error, I’ve learned some principles that have helped me to do any kind of change that I want to do.

“This feeling of success, I just wanted to carry it on to other things.  And so, I started running.  I started waking up earlier.  I started eating healthier.  I’ve since become a vegetarian.  I started doing things in my work life where I was more productive and organized.  I simplified my life, started getting out of debt.  I started using the same principles and just built upon my success one after the other.”

Babauta footnotes Bill Gates, “…he calls it a ’spiral of success.’  You have one success, you build upon that, and leverage it to get another success.  I did the same thing in my life.  Every time I had a victory.  I used that feeling of positive success and I used that to carry me on and motivate me to make another change.  Today, I’m still doing that same spiral of success.”

Leo blogs at ZenHabits.net where he encourages readers to celebrate their failures because there’s no learning or growth without failure.  He believes if you do something without any mistakes, and you do it perfectly, that would be something you had already perfected and you wouldn’t be learning anything new.  When you do something and you fail, this is an opportunity to learn and grow.

According to Leo, failure is not an obstacle, it’s a positive experience.  “Take that failure and say, ‘What can I do better?  How can I stop myself from failing with this same situation next time?’  Each of [my] failures was a stepping stone to my success.”

What Babauta recommends is that you look at change as an experiment, watching what works and what doesn’t work.  You try out a solution and watch for results.  Be open to changes and realize that the way you’re working isn’t necessarily the best way.  In his own life, he constantly experiments and changes the way he works.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Power of Less

Leo is the author of The Power of Less: The Fine Art of Limiting Yourself to the Essential in Business and in Lfe.  He recognizes that at home and work we are constantly dealing with technology.  For many of us, our life is based around email, electronic communications, browsing the weband using web applications.  He believes technology is overwhelming us.

“What happens is that it takes over your life, and technology becomes something that fills up your life and often controls us rather than us controlling it.”  The Power of Less is about how to limit the intrusion of technology into our lives so you can still make the most of it, but make room for what’s important, decluttering your life so you can focus on the essentials.

What stops us from approaching life in a simple and essential fashion is a global culture bent on multi-tasking, striving to do everything, get everything done and buy everything.  “We live in a culture of more.  The things I’m doing might seem like common sense but they’re actually counter-intuitive when it comes to our culture.

“When you say, ‘I’m going to do less, to focus on the important things, what matters most.’  Then, you have to say, ‘No’ to people.”

Leo points out that if you look at time management books from fifty years ago, they suggest doing one thing at a time.  If you look at Zen Buddhism, which is a couple thousand years old, they also say to do one thing at a time.  Single-tasking is old advice but it’s completely against our culture.  We’re stuck in it and it’s hard to break away.

“That’s why I teach people to create new habits because making changes like this is not something you can just, with a snap of your fingers, turn on and turn off.  You can’t just say, ‘I’m going to go from working like this like I have for years, multi-tasking and doing everything, to single-tasking and limiting what I do to just the essential.’  You can’t just do that, you have to create new habits.”

Unlearning What We’ve Learned

We are unlearning what we’ve learned in order to put in their place the common sense principles that Babauta has put to use changing his life.

Leo elaborates, “It goes against the society that we’re in right now.  A lot of times, it’s difficult for people because they don’t live in a vacuum where they’re by themselves and they can make these changes.  Again, you have to make people around you understand.  It’s hard to go against the culture like that.”

He certainly isn’t perfect but Leo is getting better at telling people ‘No.’ He says, “..it’s an ongoing practice so I’m continually reminding myself, ‘Okay, wait a minute, you’re saying ‘Yes’ to too many things.  It’s a skill and it’s something you have to get good at.  It’s uncomfortable for a lot of people.

“What we normally do is say, ‘Yes’ to most things and then what happens is we don’t have time for all of it.  And so, when you say ‘Yes’ to too many things, you are shortchanging other people because you’re committing to too much and you’re not able to fully focus on whatever it is that  you’re committing to.  At the same time you’re shortchanging yourself.  You’re allowing other peoples’ requests to fill up your life so you’re no longer living the life you want to live.

“It’s a matter of learning how to say ‘No’ and get comfortable with that.”

Motivation to change a habit often occurs by being passionate.  “It’s a matter of wanting to do it and keeping your eyes open for things that you’re passionate about.  Once you start looking, you’ll find it eventually but you have to start to search.

“Do something new.  Break out of your routine.  Find a way to be passionate about it.  I think you owe it to yourself to give it a try and try to find that passion.”