The Bolt

I thought about it for a while, and decided that one of the standard issue posters with a mountain in the background and something like the word "Leadership" and a catch phrase underneath wasn't my style. Plus, it wasn't personally relelvant to me, so my brain would quickly start ignoring it.

What behaviour did I want to change? Well, I could start with my use of the telephone. I know that when I'm on the phone, I have the tendancy to attempt to multitask by reading email or continuing to work while I'm carrying on my phone conversation. I say "attempt" only because it's obviously difficult to divide your attention in this way. Pretty much impossible, actually - in the end, one of the two tasks at hand ends up suffering due to divided attention.

So I searched Google, and ended up finding a vey relevant quote:

I printed this on a standard letter sized sheet of paper in very large font and pinned it on the cubicle wall directly in front of me, just above the eyeline of the top of my monitor. And there it has hung for the last six months.

Has it worked? Yes, very much so. Now when someone calls, I stop what I'm doing and I give them my full attention. The calls end up being shorter in duration anyway since I'm able to dedicate all of my thoughts to that conversation and participate fully. If I do find myself wandering back to thinking about reading email or doing other work, I guiltily glance up at the poster I printed and these thoughts disappear - either I get right back into the phone conversation, or I cut it short so that I can get back to work. Either way, I'm more productive, and I'm much more considerate of the other person.

I've never met Susan Scott, nor do I even know anything about what she does... but thanks Susan, your motivational quote on my cubicle wall has improved my conversation skills immensely.