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Management Tools

Why Logic is an Unproductive Way to Address Illogical Behavior

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As Chief Happiness Officer, Ginni ensures that iDoneThis is helping teams and companies stay connected, enhance productivity, and improve their inner work life. Every so often, a team leader will reach out to ask why some team members just aren’t getting on board. It hasn’t been a straightforward question to resolve, so Ginni reached out to friend, time coach and productivity expert Elizabeth Grace Saunders, for some help. (This is the 1st of a 3-part “Manager’s Series”.) 

Does this sound familiar?: You’ve been trying to implement a change on your team that will lead to increased productivity. Although you’ve explained why the new behavior is important and saves time, certain people won’t budge. And no amount of explaining—or even coercing—seems to bridge the disconnect between what people should do and what they actually do.

The answer to the puzzle of why people don’t do what is logical and beneficial for the individual and the team, lies deeper than you might think. In such cases, you most likely have a logic-resistant emotional issue to address.

As a time coach and trainer, and author of The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment, I’m acutely aware that addressing underlying emotional issues plays a foundational role in shifting people’s habits. That’s why in Chapter 2 of my book, I go through six crippling emotions—and how to overcome them. To get you started empowering your team in 2013, I’ll cover one of them here.

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Crowdsource Your Company’s Bonuses

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I’m sure we’ve all worked at companies where the loudest guy gets the biggest bonus.  In most companies, compensation is determined by a cabal of execs—guys that you may never have met—evaluating work that happened up to a whole year ago.  Bonus compensation ends up being a function of politics, not performance.

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51% of employees feel that the performance reviews upon which bonus compensation is based are inaccurate according to a 2011 survey by Globoforce.  A 2010 literature survey in Psychology Today concluded that 87% to 90% of employees hate performance reviews because the feedback is not useful, the whole process is stressful, and they’re left demotivated as a result.

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Rethinking Productivity

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I’ve learned that if I’m thinking about my productivity tools, I don’t have enough enthusiasm for my projects.

— C.J. Chilvers, Rethinking Productivity for Creatives.

Fabian Kruse writes about “the loop” inherent to getting anything done, and the idea that periods of procrastination, having doubts, and losing momentum are just part of that natural productivity cycle. So, while productivity tools and techniques are valuable, they don’t necessarily prevent the slower parts of “the loop” from happening again. In fact, they become a part of the loop.

The reason why I hate productivity systems is because they easily become a dominant part of “the loop”. And once they become a dominant part of the loop, they become a problem. A problem that keeps creatives from focusing on what matters – and from doing what they want to do because their muse is calling.

While Kruse focuses on the lives of “creative” people, his post applies to pretty much everyone as a reminder that productivity systems are tools and managers, not creations. At the end of the day, there’s no point in having “make a to-do list” on your to-do list.

C.J. Chilvers also writes about the paradox of productivity tools and the struggle that remains in getting important things done. The solution, for him, has been that “the easier a system is, the more will get done.”

We hope iDoneThis is a super-easy system, helping you record more daily dones that matter!

How Pipedrive Achieves International Scale by Working Remotely

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The reason why we exist is to help companies like Pipedrive work richly.  They have an amazing story — they’ve gone from Timo selling books door-to-door in San Jose to a company that spans three continents and has created one of the hottest and most useful CRM tools on the market today.  We’re so proud to be an ingredient in their success.

Pipedrive

I love the guys at Pipedrive because their ambition is global.  They know that sales is a problem that knows no boundaries—not language nor culture—and so from day one, their scope has been international.  Pipedrive was founded in Estonia, but at any given time, its founders are in Tallinn, San Francisco, Santiago, or Nairobi to spread the good word about Pipedrive, a simple CRM that people actually use.

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