If you feel you’re spinning your wheels and not getting closer to the things you really want, then you need to step back and be clear about the future. When we get real clarity around the outcomes we want, whether that is work or our life outside of work, we make better decisions about the behaviours we choose on a daily basis. In fact, research shows that when we are unclear about our ‘future selves’ we operate with a brain region reserved for thinking about other people instead of ourselves.

A simple research experiment measured people who were disciplined at keeping financial goals (savings targets) with people who were not. The one difference they found was that those who could achieve these long term goals had a clear picture of their ‘future self’. Accordingly when they thought of themselves in the future, they used a brain region corresponding to self-thought.

By contrast, when the researchers looked at those who couldn’t achieve the long term goal, they found the pictured their ‘future self’ with a slightly different brain region – one that is reserved for thinking about other people.

When we are unclear about our future, we don’t even treat our future self as being us. This has incredible impacts on the decisions we make. If it’s not us in the future, we don’t seem to be as accountable for the decisions we make.

People often ask me if we can build up a tolerance to stress. They reason that if we can subject ourselves to high levels of stress as much as possible, then we should be able to perform better under high stress situations because we become immune to it. The answer is no. But here are three things that can at least make it better.

If we are talking about extreme levels of stress – situations that are high intensity, long duration, and uncontrollable – then unfortunately we don’t become immune. In fact the opposite can actually happen and we become hyper-sensitive.

When we are repeatedly subject to a situation or stimulus, we find that generally there are two physiological options: the reaction either becomes desensitized to the stimulus or it becomes habituated.

If you go and live in a warm climate for a number of months, then usually what you find is that you desensitize to the temperature. What felt hot when you arrived three months ago doesn’t actually feel that bad now.

Habituation works the opposite way. If you took a job in a call centre, and every time the phone rang you had to push two buttons to take the call, after a year, we would find that this response hadn’t dulled, but in fact would have become more automatic. You might even find that if you are sitting at home and the phone rings you have this automatic response to to push the two buttons. The reaction has habituated.

In many cases the response to prolonged, high intensity, uncontrollable stress does exactly that – it habituates. The stress response becomes so ingrained and so well trained that it becomes triggered by even the smallest resemblance of a stressful situation. Just like the ringing of the phone puts the ‘push a button’ response into action, the slightest hint of stress can put the stress response into action.

The most famous example of this is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in soldiers who have returned from duty. The unpredictable, high intensity, long duration of stress on the battlefield has so well trained their stress response that it only takes a car backfiring or a bad dream to put that stress reaction into full action.

The equivalent in the workplace is that people under intense stress for a long period of time cannot perform. Like the PTSD soldier, they make mistakes, they become incredibly risk-averse and they resort to ‘survival’ behaviours. We also put thru health at extreme risk if stress related illness, they lose focus and become de-motivated and possibly depressed.

If you are managing your people through a period of uncertainty and high stress (lets face it, who isnt?) Then here are some things to remember:

Controllable stress is not the same as controllable stress

Even though there are things that people have no control over at all, the main thing to realize is that it’s perception of control that really matters. Make sure that people have clear plans for how to succeed in the current environment – plans give us a great sense of control. Also give people autonomy where possible – even autonomy over small things makes a difference.

Social Support is critical

It may sound like whining, but people do need an outlier to talk about hoe frustrated they are and sometimes how hard it is. Create bonds within your team and allow the team to vent every now and then. Follow this up with some action planning to show people that there are things they can be doing to make it better.

Consistency combats insecurity

Try to find things that you can consistently do or focus on. In uncertain times, people look for consistency wherever they can get it. Keep your goals consistent and make some actions and behaviours consistent as well.

We all do it. And usually to our own detriment.

There’s not necessarily a pattern: sometimes the task is too hard, sometimes too boring. Sometimes it’s too big or other times it’s too trivial. Whatever the case, there are two real explanations for why we procrastinate.  One is changeable and the other isn’t.

The unchangeable reason: we are wired to be lazy

Human beings have an inbuilt, hard wired tendency to do the easiest thing. This is an evolutionary throwback and one of our most useful survival mechanisms. Our need to survive taught us to preserve energy. After all, you don’t want to be attacked by a saber-toothed tiger (or another human) only to find out that your fuel tank is empty and you are unable to run away or put up a good fight.

For this reason we found ways to save energy physically. For instance, we found an optimal walking speed that allowed us to cover a good distance but which also left us with enough in reserve to run or fight if we needed to. Likewise, we also saved energy mentally by doing the easier thing. We still do this today – given the choice between two things our overwhelming tendency is to do the thing that requires the least energy. This natural tendency is impossible to change, but you can fool it – which is the topic for another post.

The Changeable reason: we get a buzz

The first thing that weed to know here is that patterns of behaviour are reinforced by a chemical called dopamine. Whether it is a physical skill like swinging a golf club or a behaviour like your child tidying up their room, or even a pattern of thinking, the circuits for all of these things are strengthened by this same chemical. Dopamine is also called the reward chemical – it is responsible for the good feeling we get when we get something we like. This is the mechanical reason that positive reinforcement reinforces patterns of behaviour.

But why do we get a reward response when we choose not to do something? Especially when it’s detrimental down the track? Well, every time we decide to do the easier thing, we can internally relax a little. We get that little omens of ‘phew! Now I don’t have to do that hard thing’ and that is what creates the dopamine rush.

So the unfortunate reality is that procrastination re forces procrastination. It gives us a little dopamine reward and therefore reinforces the behaviour for next time.

How do we stop this from happening? Here are two things you can do

1)    Reward the harder thing.

Plan a small reward for doing the harder thing – this might be a quick trip to the coffee shop or reading an article that you’ve saved and haven’t had a chance to get to. It’s important to set up the reward first because the expectation of reward produces dopamine. This way the dopamine is for doing the harder thing rather than the easier thing

2)    Set a short time limit to get the harder thing done.

Take a stopwatch or use the countdown timer on your smartphone and set it for no more than 60mins. Set yourself a target of completing the task (or part of the task if it will take longer that this) and then press the start button. This creates a sense of immediate deadline and produces both adrenalin and dopamine in small amounts. Again the dopamine is for the harder thing rather than the easier thing. It’s important to use a timer rather than just looking at the clock. The clock doesn’t give the same sense of urgency.

There are others things we can do to beat procrastination. Try these simple ones first and then we’ll deal wit some others in a later post.

We spend so much time focussed on what we have to do that we rarely have enough opportunity to do nothing at all.

The thing about doing nothing is this: when our brains are completely

quiet, we have the greatest capacity for breakthrough ideas and truly creative thinking. We can make more connections between disparate things, which helps us combine different experiences and knowledge to achieve true innovation.

What happens when we get breakthrough ideas? Well, the first thing that happens is that our brain activity goes completely quiet. After this comes a big spike in activity across a whole range of areas and most scientists believe that this is how we combine different learning and different ideas to make a combined innovation. We literally ‘switch on’ different areas of learning all at once. The point is that these breakthroughs only come after a period of complete quiet.

When we think too hard about a problem, we don’t allow these periods and that’s why we can never find the answers to problems when we try too hard. In fact, people with damage in the most analytical part of their brains find it easier to do abstract problem solving.

Why do we cooperate?

The simple explanation is that cooperation is evolutionarily rewarding. The story goes like this:

‘We were only able to defeat much larger, more dangerous species because of our ability to work together – to cooperate, work in teams and help each other out. That’s how we became the earth’s dominant animal’.

But this only makes sense at a species level. If we look at our own individual survival, it would be far more beneficial sometimes not to cooperate. We could hoard more resources for ourselves, benefit from other people’s misfortune and generally get ahead.

And this sometimes happens. People forgo cooperation in favour of their own individual benefit.

So how do we enforce cooperation and fairness? There are some simple rules, spawned from evolution and game theory, that tend to work for all species. And, whether inadvertently or be design, eBay has implemented these principles to create one of the true self-regulating markets of the information age. So let’s take a look at the principles

Principle #1 – Open-Book Play forces cooperation

Open-Book Play simply means that all people participating in the ‘game’ are able to see how everyone else has played in past games. If everyone knows what sort of strategy you adopt (do you cheat regularly or do you usually do the right thing?) then you are more likely to cooperate. eBay publishes your feedback right alongside your username. If people can see what you’ve done in the past, you’re more likely to do the right thing.

Principle #2 – Repeated Interactions

We are most likely to cheat if there is a one-off interaction with no future consequence. eBay can’t stop people having only one interaction, but this is obviously rare. And even though you might have only one interaction with a particular buyer or seller, you will have repeated interactions with the eBay community. This works in conjunction with Principle #1 to ensure cooperation.

Principle #3 – Third Party Punishment

One of the most compelling ‘rules’ of cooperation is the idea of third party punishment. Cooperation flourishes when A does something bad to B, and C, an observing bystander, punishes A for doing so. eBay makes this happen again through the publishing of past performance. If you do the wrong thing, you can essentially be ‘punished’ by way of others excluding you from the game. At eBay, that means that no one will want to sell to you or buy from you.

So how can we apply this in an every day business setting? Here are four things you can start doing straight away.

Make the rules transparent

Rules are the first thing that we need to focus on. Before we are able to hold people accountable for any behaviours, we need to make the rules of engagement clear. Work through these with your team. How do you want to treat each other? How do you want to treat clients?

Enforce the rules in public

There is an age old management saying: praise in public, punish in private. This is a great thing to remember, but there also needs to be a delicate balance. If someone breaks the team rules, people within the team need to know that something is being done about it. If they think that you are not paying attention to these behavioural discrepancies, they won’t understand that the rules are genuine.  Also, as the above principles of cooperation demonstrate, if your team members don’t understand that their reputation is on the line – they can break the rules without fear of damaging their reputation.

Make working together a part of every day

Make sure there are repeated, mutually beneficial interactions amongst your staff in some way, shape or form every single day. You’d be surprised how little cooperation is necessary in most teams – because we don’t create common goals that people genuinely need to work together to achieve.

Create mutual accountability

Mutual accountability is the holy grail of teamwork. Set an expectation that you want your staff to hold each other accountable – that it shouldn’t be up to the leader to do it all the time. After all, what happens when the leader isn’t there to see something happen? This is something you can do only once you have a high level of trust and support in the team and a commitment to open and honest communication.

If you can somehow implement the cooperation principles, then your level of collaboration is going to go up enormously. It’s a tough thing to do, but it’s worth the investment.

See www.tony-wilson.com.au for more

Here is a simple exercise:

Part 1:

Take a piece of paper and write the down the top three things that make you most valuable in your job. What are the things that only you can do? What are the things that make the most impact? If you spoke to your direct manager, what would be the things they would say that they want you to be spending your time on?

Now of those three, highlight the most important one.

Part 2:

Take an audit of your week. How much time do you actually spend doing that most important, highlighted thing? In percentage terms, how much of your week is devoted to doing the thing that makes the biggest impact?

If you’re like most people I work with, there is a terrible disconnect between the thing that you say is most important and the thing/s that you spend most time on. You might say that the most important thing that you do is developing your staff or maybe strategic thinking. You might spend all your time doing administration activities or putting out fires for clients.

Either way, here are some things you can do to get on track.

1)     Find out what’s getting in your way

First things first. What is it that you’re spending all of your time on? Do a time audit for two weeks and find out where your time’s going. If you’re not doing the most important things, then what are you doing?

2)     Delegate more

After you’ve worked out the above, pick at least two things from your to-do list at the start of each week and delegate them. These should be some of the things that are getting in your way. Take the time to do this now and it will save you time in the future. Don’t forget that you can start by delegating components of a bigger job if you’re not comfortable giving it away completely

3)     Automate where you can

In most jobs, there will be some things you don’t consider most important, but which need to be done anyway. Map out a process for these things so that you are not re-inventing the wheel every time you have to do them, or better yet set up some templates so you can automate/streamline them where possible

4)     Do a little bit of what you like

One of the things that can get in the way is the fact that you might actually like doing the other stuff. Maybe it’s a hangover from your previous position, maybe you’re just really good at it, but in any case, there is the lure of doing something you enjoy. You can do a little of these things, but make sure they’re not getting in the way. Nine times out of ten, the reason people like something is because they’re good at it. Spend more time doing the most important things – you’ll get better at them and then chances are you’ll like doing them as much as the others.

Your performance is directly related to your ability to pay attention to the things that matter most (and not pay as much attention to the other stuff). It seems like a small thing, but most people actually don’t know what’s most important. Work that out and you’ll be more productive and effective.