In the Pixar movie “Up” an aging man comes to grips with his advancing years and potentially lost opportunities to fulfill life long dreams. It is a great movie for all ages for a variety of reasons. One small part that I particularly enjoyed was the talking dog that, in mid sentence would say, ‘squirrel!’ as he was distracted by a sound off in the distance. I think I liked it because I can often relate.
I was recently speaking with a friend and inquired how he was doing. He said, things were good, moving at a good pace, enough things going on to keep life interesting but not so much as to feel too busy or overwhelmed. It was refreshing to hear that quite frankly. I usually respond to that question by saying ‘things are crazy, I am way too busy’ or something to that affect. It is as if being too busy is some kind of badge of honour and if I am not swamped I feel like a slacker. I have come to realize however that ultimately this is not a great way to live. Among other things, being that busy all the time is hard on my mental and physical well-being.
Being that busy is also hard on teams. I have been commenting on the key elements of building a great team and last month talked briefly about accountability and the difficulty many of us experience with it. Beyond the basic discomfort most of us feel with accountability, I think one of the things that really gets in the way is being too busy or too distracted. When I am too busy it is usually the little things that get dropped. I do not usually forget big things, but when I am trying to do too much, the details can get lost and ‘squirrels’ distract me more easily. I will try to get one more email sent off before leaving for a meeting and I will arrive just on time or slightly late instead of a little early which I like to do. Or I will forget to get back to someone on that small request. Having too many things on the go at once usually means I am not paying close enough attention to any particular task and therefore run the risk of not doing the level of work I want to.
Those little details or distractions can really hurt a team. Accountability is not just about the big issues, as important as they are. It is also about the little things that contribute significantly to team dynamics. It is about having enough time to keep things in perspective, ponder the best way to have that ‘little but oh so important’ conversation, to have enough time to get to know one another and build the kind of trust that is foundational to good accountability and great teams.
I realize this might sound like I am saying ‘just don’t be so busy’, but most of us are all too aware of how difficult that can be. We all have a multitude of things vying for our attention and they are probably all good or necessary at some level. And we each work at different paces and can manage different levels of ‘busyness’. So there may not be a simple template to determine what you should or should not be spending your time on, but you can start by asking yourself how many squirrels have your attention and which ones are truly necessary and which ones are simply distracting you, at this point, from more important things.
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Squirrel!
I was recently speaking with a friend and inquired how he was doing. He said, things were good, moving at a good pace, enough things going on to keep life interesting but not so much as to feel too busy or overwhelmed. It was refreshing to hear that quite frankly. I usually respond to that question by saying ‘things are crazy, I am way too busy’ or something to that affect. It is as if being too busy is some kind of badge of honour and if I am not swamped I feel like a slacker. I have come to realize however that ultimately this is not a great way to live. Among other things, being that busy all the time is hard on my mental and physical well-being.
Being that busy is also hard on teams. I have been commenting on the key elements of building a great team and last month talked briefly about accountability and the difficulty many of us experience with it. Beyond the basic discomfort most of us feel with accountability, I think one of the things that really gets in the way is being too busy or too distracted. When I am too busy it is usually the little things that get dropped. I do not usually forget big things, but when I am trying to do too much, the details can get lost and ‘squirrels’ distract me more easily. I will try to get one more email sent off before leaving for a meeting and I will arrive just on time or slightly late instead of a little early which I like to do. Or I will forget to get back to someone on that small request. Having too many things on the go at once usually means I am not paying close enough attention to any particular task and therefore run the risk of not doing the level of work I want to.
Those little details or distractions can really hurt a team. Accountability is not just about the big issues, as important as they are. It is also about the little things that contribute significantly to team dynamics. It is about having enough time to keep things in perspective, ponder the best way to have that ‘little but oh so important’ conversation, to have enough time to get to know one another and build the kind of trust that is foundational to good accountability and great teams.
I realize this might sound like I am saying ‘just don’t be so busy’, but most of us are all too aware of how difficult that can be. We all have a multitude of things vying for our attention and they are probably all good or necessary at some level. And we each work at different paces and can manage different levels of ‘busyness’. So there may not be a simple template to determine what you should or should not be spending your time on, but you can start by asking yourself how many squirrels have your attention and which ones are truly necessary and which ones are simply distracting you, at this point, from more important things.
This entry was posted on Thursday, March 22nd, 2012 at 11:56 am and is filed under Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.