Career Tips - Issue # 18 (June 2005)

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Buffet or Five-Course Meal?

Peter Drucker, the great management consultant, author and thinker, was particularly intrigued as well as impressed by one of his clients who was the president of a big bank in the U.S. Drucker was working as a consultant with the bank and used to meet this gentleman once every month.

Drucker was intrigued because the president was very particular about three things:

1. Duration of the meetings: Their meeting always lasted for one and a half hours. No more, no less!

2. Interruptions: Never, ever, during the meetings, the president's secretary interrupted or phone rang. No interruptions!

3. Agenda: There was never more than one item on the agenda!

Unable to suppress his curiosity, Drucker asked him to explain the rationale of 1.5 hours duration of the meetings and also the mystery behind "no interruptions."

For the duration, the president told he had figured out two things:

1. His attention span was about an hour and a half. If he spent more time on a subject, he started to go in circles. That explained why meetings never extended beyond 1.5 hours.

2. He had also realised that nothing of importance could be tackled in much less time. That's why meetings were not less than 1.5 hours.

As for "no interruptions," he had given strict instructions to his secretary not to interrupt or pass through any incoming calls--except if the president of the U.S. or his wife called. Both never called!

According to Drucker, this man achieved a great deal more in one monthly meeting than many other equally capable people achieved in a WHOLE MONTH of meetings.

Power of Focus!

>>CAREER TIP: Imagine yourself at a buffet lunch. What would you do? You would serve four-five items of your choice in a plate and start eating--all of them at once. First, a bit of rice, perhaps. Then some vegetable. Then some salad. Then some rice, again. Then another vegetable. Again rice. Won't you continue eating a little bit of this and a little bit of that in a random sequence till you feel full?

Now look around and observe the way people work. Not all but many people, you might find, work in a buffet style. They would decide to tackle six or seven or even more items during the day. And then they would start with checking e-mails. Then receive a phone call. Then get up and speak with boss. Then start to work on that long-pending report/proposal/presentation. Then entertain a colleague who happens to drop by. Then read e-mails again. Then go for a meeting. Come back and check e-mails again...the process continues and soon the day is over.

In buffet style working, a person keeps doing a little of bit of this and a little bit of that, never focusing for sufficient time on any single issue. It has few consequences: lot of action (very busy!) but few solid accomplishments, pressure, stress, and a general sense of non-achievement.

Now imagine you're having a five-course meal. What would you do? Obviously, you would take your time and enjoy one dish at a time.

Do you realise that Drucker's client, the bank president, was basically following "course style" working? He would simply focus on one issue at a time. And that made him highly effective!

If you, too, wish to taste "course style" working, try the following tomorrow: Just spend one hour out of the whole day without any interruptions and with complete focus on one task that is bothering you most. For that one hour, don't look at your e-mails, don't receive or make any calls, don't entertain visitors to your place. Simply avoid any interruptions. Don't let your mind jump from one issue to the next. Just focus on that one important issue. What you might achieve in that one hour might be more than the cumulative output from rest of the day.

Make your choice: Buffet or course style?

Regret Minimisation Framework (RMF)

It was the spring of 1994 when Jeffrey came across a startling statistic: The Web usage was growing at 2300% per year. Yes, 2300%! Unlike others who ignored the number, Jeffrey thought about it. He realised the Web had to be something big otherwise things normally don't grow at such rates. Before long, he decided to take a plunge and do some kind of Internet-related business.

Those days, Jeffrey was working for a Wall Street firm and so the next step was to break the news to his boss. His boss listened to the idea and suggested that they go for a walk. Both of them walked and talked for two hours in a park. By the end, the boss had convinced Jeffrey to re-think the whole thing over next 48 hours before making a final decision.

It was a complex decision. On one side was a lucrative and stable Wall Street job with bright prospects plus the responsibility of his wife (he was married) and on the other side was this idea of doing an Internet-related business.

But despite the complexity and stakes involved, it wasn't difficult for Jeffrey to make the decision. If fact, he found it incredibly easy to do so. How did he make the decision to leave his solid, stable, well-paying job in favour of the risky venture of new business?

To make that decision of his lifetime, Jeffrey applied what he calls "regret minimisation framework."

What Jeffrey did was something simple but profound: He projected himself to 80 years of age and asked himself whether at that age, he would regret any of the following:

a. Making an attempt to do a new business related to the Internet.

b. Failing in business.

He found that the answer in both cases was "no." But he also realised that one thing that he would surely regret was "not making an attempt to act on his idea." And so, Jeffrey decided to take the plunge. He left his well-paid job in the middle of the year (sacrificing his annual bonus) and started a business selling books online. And the rest is history!

Today, Jeffery BEZOS is the founder and CEO of what we all know as Amazon.com

We have Amzon.com because someone wanted to have fewer regrets by the end of his life.

>>CAREER TIP: It's never too complex to make career decisions when we are reasonably sure of the outcome. For example, what's so great about making a decision to move to a new job that offers better salary and higher position?

Difficulty comes when you know what you will lose is certain but what you will gain is highly uncertain. Difficulty comes you are up against heavy odds. Difficulty comes when the failure is more certain than success.

If you ever have to make a complex and difficult career decision where things are not black and white, remember Amazon.com, Jeffrey Bezos and his Regret Minimisation Framework. Simply project yourself to 80 years of age and see the situation from that far. As Bezos says, "If you can project yourself out to age 80 and sort of think, 'What will I think at that time?' it gets you away from some of the daily pieces of confusion."

Indeed, RMF is nothing but an idea that we should conduct NOW in a way that we have minimum regrets THEN (at 80!). So if you want to try something new in your career, ask yourself: "Would I regret if I did not try at all?"

Will be back after two weeks.

Atul Mathur

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***Copyright 2005 Atul Mathur***

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