Productivity Archives - Walt Kruhoeffer

My Rating: 5/5

Summary: A book that explores why some leaders drain capability and intelligence from their teams while others amplify it to produce better results.

My Takeaways

There are 2 types of people: Multipliers and diminishers

Multipliers look beyond their own genius by extracting the genius from others.

Multipliers get 2x more from people because they extend and grow intelligence from others.

People reported that they got smarter from multipliers

Diminishers believe their genies is a rare bread and that they need to solve problems.

Multipliers believe intelligence can be cultivated. They find ways to stretch the individual and bring the right people together in an environment that lets them figure it out.

Multipliers challenge people and consult with others.

set a safe environment
Are debate makers that generate buy-in
Hold people accountable with high standards
Assumes people are smart
Talent magnet and that leverages people’s contributions at their highest point
Liberator who creates a safe environment for people to do their best work.
Challenger that defines an opportunity that challenges people to stretch
Investor who gives other people ownership and invests in their success

Diminishers are

micromanagers
Assumes people won’t figure it out with me
Tyrant who creates a tense environment
Know it all
Decision maker

Multipliers have a hard edge that expect great things

Multipliers don’t play small and have a great sense of humor. See comedy in error. Puts others at ease and allows others to be them selves. Use humor to create comfort

Diminishers don’t know they are diminishers.

Multipliers get 2x more from their resources compared to diminishers.

Multipliers are genius makers

Diminishers are empire builders who hoard resources

Multipliers bring out the best in others by creating an environment that brings out people best.

Liberators create space, pressure instead of stress

Multipliers demand peoples best work by defending the standard, distinguishing best work vs outcome

Multipliers generate rapid learning cycles. They admit and share mistakes.

Peoples best effort must be given not taken

Liberators have soft opinions. Soft opinions are perspectives you have to offer and ideas for others to consider.

Hard opinions are perspectives that are clear and emphatic. Offer these sparingly.

Multipliers play the role of the challenger if they don’t know the answer. As opposed to diminishers who believe their team’s capabilities stop at the leader’s knowledge.

Multipliers set a challenge by asking tough questions, and then give the team space to come up with the answer.

Multipliers stretch and test their team

Multipliers make goal setting collaborative so it makes the goal more tangible for the team.

Multipliers argue all sides of the decision

Frame issues. Find the right issue to formulate the right questions for others to solve.
Spark the debate. Make the question engaging and fact based and educational
Reclassify the decision making process

Multipliers are investors who give their people ownership they need to produce results independent of the leader by doing the following.

Defining ownership. (Name the lead, give owners for the end goal and stretch the role.)
Invest resources. Do this by teaching and coaching
Hold people accountable. Expect complete work and the consequences.

Be an investor by giving others 51% of the vote and asking for the solution to a problem.

Micromanagers get people who expect to be told what to do.

Investors get people who take initiative.

Multipliers can become accidental diminishers.

Multipliers get 2X more out of their teams compared to diminishers. This equates to more output from the same number of resources instead of additional additional resources to get more output.

Effective multipliers generally have at least 3 of the 5 multiplier traits outlined in this book. They neutralize a weakness and top off a strength.

You can run mini experiments within your organization to adopt a multiplier mindset and build a multiplier culture..

Spotlight multiplier moments and integrate business metrics to achieve a multiplier mindset.

Author: Cal Newport

My Rating: 5/5

Summary: Practical tips for being more focused in an age where there are distractions everywhere.

My Takeaways

Deep work helps you quickly learn hard things

Adam Grant batches his work on multiple levels

When you switch from task A to task B, your attention residue still sticks.

Our economy increasingly values depth, not shallow work

Being busy is a proxy for productivity

Deep work is systematically becoming more rare

Skillfully managing attention requires the brain to help cultivate a good life.

Knowledge work is more ambiguous than most type of work that has been around. This ambiguity makes it unclear as to what a knowledge worker does and how it differs from other types of knowledge work.

Deep work can generate satisfaction in an info economy vs craftsman economy.

Our brains construct our worldview on what we pay attention to – Gallager’s Grand Theory.

What you choose to focus on exerts significant leverage on how you move forward.

Your world is the outcome of what you pay attention to.

A work day drive by the shallow work implies that you had a better day.

Humans are at their best when they ar immersed in something challenging.

Current psychology suggests that To Build your working life around the experience of flow produced by deep work is a proven path to deep satisfaction.

Rule #1 integrate deep work into schedule.

Simple Rituals such as planning when, where and what success looks like when doing deep work takes the mental friction away from planning deep work and allows you to think clearer. (Charles Darwin example)

In order to maximize success you need to systematize the efforts that support deep work so you don’t waste mental energy on what you need.

Zagarnic effect: incomplete tasks will dominate your attention throughout the day, which is why it’s important to turn off work at the end the day and have a planned shutdown ritual.

Embrace boredom.

Must train the ability to think deep as it is a skill that needs to be practiced and developed.

Our minds are rewired to be constantly distracted which is something you crave.

Practice productive meditation during times when your body is physically distracted but not mentally such as walking the dog

Structure deep thinking process.

Schedule every minute of your workday

Fixed schedule meta habits can help orient your time to deep work instead of shallow work.

Become hard to reach by setting up sender filters, do more work when you send and reply to emails and don’t respond.

Send ambiguous responses to email so that you avoid long email chains.

Make people do more work to contact you so you avoid distractions.