BCWEEKES

Thoughts, Theory, and other such Ramblings

Thoughts

Some thoughts on Creating Expertise

Expertise is an interesting topic. One might visit my website and see that I frequently reference creating expertise, at the same time they find a variety of topics spoken about on this site. At one point, I was convinced if I wanted to become an expert I needed to focus on just one subject professionally. I have considered this for a long time and now feel differently about creating expertise.

Let’s look at Thomas Jefferson as a case study on expertise. Jefferson could be considered one of the most accomplished men in public life as well as the most versatile, jack of all trade if you will. The proverbial, “jack of all trades, master of none.” Yet Jefferson was considered an expert in many areas: architecture, civil engineering, geography, mathematics, ethnology, anthropology, mechanics, the sciences, and politics.

Thomas Edison makes another excellent case study on expertise. Edison developed a reputation as a skilled and creative inventor, having contributed innovations to printing telegraphs, facsimile telegraphs, automatic relays, stock tickers, and many other devices. In addition to being an innovator, his knowledge was deep in chemistry and business. His influence and innovative mind has influenced modern life for nearly a century after his death.

I hope that as people strive to become experts they will look at many aspects of their life and work to learn both broadly and deeply for in this they will find relationships and correlations with an opportunity for break throughs and profound knowledge.

Preparation for success is most of the victory

For many, the last day and first day of the year is a day for gathering with family and friends. For me and those I often spend this time of year with, games are an important part of the festivities.

I love board games, I love the strategic nature of testing myself against the games. Some times my ideas pay off, other times I learn a really good way to not play that game…

I do not mind losing at a game especially early on as I am working through the processes necessary to meet the objectives of the game. I will often test different theories in relation to what I understand of the rules, available actions or processes that can be taken, as well as the defined outcomes that are desired as victory conditions of the game.

Today was no different. As I was introduced to a new game, I had an experience worth sharing.

The game was not a complex game by any means and with a good teacher, it only took about 10 minutes to learn. In brief, you were to use actions to collect sets of cards to be played to perform a standard task that fits with the theme of the game. You were rewarded points for cards used to complete that task. After completing about 2 to 4 of these tasks along with the necessary turns required to gather the needed cards the round would end and a new one would begin. Another way of gaining points was to gain mastery in an area by collecting sets of two matching cards and claiming a related mastery skill in that area, then once you had that mastery skill anytime you played that matching card in a standard task you gained an additional point. Each mastery skill could only be gained by one player.

It happened that on my first or second turn I had the matching cards to gain one of those skill cards, suddenly I had 2 points and was in the lead. On my next turn, I was able to ignore what was going on on the mainboard and gather another skill and 2 more points. So it continued that I ignored the main method for gathering points and continued down my skill acquisition path. After gaining my 4th skill and awarded points it was commented on by the games teacher that in previous play the whole group had not collected many more skills than I currently had in their entire game. I continued to ignore the task point gaining method the others were involved in and continued my pursuit of these mastery skills. At one point, I even declared that was to be my strategy. I remained in the lead by a small margin.

By the time the other players started to look to follow my strategy, I had a good process in place and was able to continue my success in this area.

After most of the gameplay had transpired I finally completed my first of the standard task and leaped ahead. As it rolled around to my turn again I completed my second standard task of the game and brought the game to a swift end with a rather large margin of victory. I won the game by employing the standard task (most commonly taken) only twice.

It was clear to all that my strategy was a solid one and I am certain when we play again the others will employ a similar tactic and the competition for gathering mastery skills will be much greater. I will also be looking for new ways to improve the process and other paths to win. There will possibly be someone else that grasps victory and we will all have had another enjoyable time.

Reflecting on this today there are a number of insights worth considering, one I will share here—I may bring this up another post sharing other insights. For now—in relation to goals, we need to understand that getting our desired outcome might be made easier by adjusting our focus to acquire new skills. It is good to consider the path that might be traditionally followed, but we want to make certain we have explored ways to improve that path to victory. Have we honestly considered what new skills might be needed to reach our goal? Are we making enough time to improve these skills? Is the shiny object (gold at the end of our rainbow) actually distracting us from the best way to get there? It may seem that moving our focus takes our eyes off the desired outcome, but the reality just might be that we are finding a better and faster way to get our desired objective.

The Deception of Multi-tasking

Multi-tasking is one of those things that sounds like a good idea at first glance but upon consideration loses its credibility when looking at real-world examples.

The premise is that there are opportunities where two separate tasks can be done at the same time allowing for more tasks knocked off the todo list. The truth is we don’t multi-task, we task-switch and during that task-switch, we lose concentration and time.

First, let’s talk about computers. Here is the ultimate task-switcher—not multi-tasker. Computers quickly switch between the tasks at hand and offer the appearance of multi-tasking. I am not going to go into the technicals, but rather a common experience you may have noticed. Here’s how it plays out. You are in a rush and fire up the computer, impatiently as it is waking from sleep you jump to your favorite search engine… hmmm this seems to be taking longer than normal. Well, you have that email to send so let’s add email to the load. Now things are starting to really lag.

Now onto the human side of task-switching. Computer has finally fully loaded and you are humming along, blowing through the project recap email when your colleague, Jane, walks in to chat about another project starting next week. Just a few more lines and you can get this email off before your remote team leaves for the day. No problem you got this you’re a multi-tasker. Where were you in that email, that’s right the second line really needs rewording. Ok, need to focus on Jane for a moment this budget bit is incredibly important. Great, the added costs will be covered! Dang, took a bit to long there and now the computer has gone to sleep. Ok, the computer is back and now how to close the email. Alright, email sent on time and you covered what you needed to with Jane about the project kick-off meeting with her team. Wait, are you supposed to schedule that meeting or was Jane going to do it? You’ll have to figure that out tomorrow, six more priority items to get done before you leave.

Concentration is lost as one task requires increased levels of focus, during that time important bits of information from the opposite task are overlooked, You cannot concentrate on two tasks at the same time and give both 100% attention. Anything less than 100% and you will miss something important. Losing focus on the email when Jane came in and you had to refocus on where you were. By the way, it was really the third line you meant to rework and you’ll be getting some emails to clarify that part. Also, you remember Jane offered to schedule the meeting but you are not sure whether you both actually agreed on who would send out the invites.

Time is lost as a task that is not focused on always takes longer to complete. The computer went to sleep and took time to reload. In the conversation with Jane, You had had to ask for clarification on a point you should have grasped the first time she said it. Add in the time it will take to email Jane about who is supposed to schedule the meeting and well, more time wasted.

Better to focus on one thing, getting it done well and efficiently.

I don’t mind failure.

I read lots of thoughtful posts and memes about—

“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

― Thomas A. Edison

I really need to find the source on that, I like to often quote Abe Lincoln and his “You can trust everything you find on the internet” proclamation. Not that I am questioning Edison, it sounds a very Edison thing to say.

Nevertheless, I want to point out I don’t mind the use of the word failed or failure in the context of a specific goal, project, or business. I just don’t think of the word as being entirely negative as I feel is sometimes the supposition of many dogooder comments “You never failed if you learned something”.

Here are two examples of my failures.

Retail startup—My first business failed miserably, no dodging that one. It simply did. I failed to create a viable ongoing business. At the same time I learned so much. I learned so many things I should not do again, a few things I did do right, and even more that I should do on future ventures. Had my goal been to learn a lot of hard lessons in a very short time I would have had resounding success and been able to go on to publish and present a PhD level course on all I had learned.

Language learning—I have had the goal to learn Spanish and German. Yep, I have had those goals for 20+ years. And I have failed. I cannot even legitimately claim to have learned anything more than if you really want something it takes lots of hard work. Of course, that is a very good lesson to learn.

Sure you and I could both spin these into great lessons learned with some claiming that the value of the learning makes them not a failure, but the truth of the matter is, as outcomes, neither were or have been favorable based on the desired outcome. As for my life as a whole, they have proved to be great stumbling blocks from which I can choose to learn and grow. As such, I would not ask that I had not experienced those failures.

I fully expect when I try new and challenging things failures will come, yet lessons learned will be applied to future endeavors with the hope that failures come less and less in each area I focus.

Goals: Failure allows our success to be attainable.

We often joke about not setting goals to avoid setting ourselves up for failure.

I have failed before, more than once—and at times I earned that failure. I know how failure feels.

I have succeeded before, more than once—and at times I earned that success. I know how success feels.

It is true that failure, when viewed properly, can be one of our greatest learning experiences as we work toward goals. Failure, when it does not stop us, is just a milestone on our path. There is no use in looking back or stumbling forward making the same mistake over and over. When we experience failure we can analyze, learn, make adjustments, gain focus, and move forward. One step closer to success.

If the time has been taken to set and define goals, then as we stumble our focus can more easily return to the desired destination. If there is no end goal or direction to our path, then the failure becomes more permanent. We have a harder time seeing past the obstacle in our path.

#focusingonbest

Defined by Goals

One day Alice came to a fork in the road and saw a Cheshire cat in a tree. ‘Which road do I take?’ she asked. ‘Where do you want to go?’ was his response. ‘I don’t know,’ Alice answered. ‘Then,’ said the cat, ‘it doesn’t matter.

― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Defined goals are critical to any organization. How else will the direction the organization is headed be known? Goals should define where we are headed in 25 years, 10 years, 1 year, 6 months, tomorrow, and in ten minutes.

Goals allow for focus on what matters most and what matters now. Goals keep us on task. We should ask ourselves if what we are doing now and tomorrow is going to lead us to where we want to be a year from now.

The strategy of the organization should be defined by the end goal, with all tactics employed pointing in the same direction. Goals should always be set starting with the end in mind, then worked backward. One large goal supported by minor goals and the tactics and tasks needed to accomplish them. As an organization, the goals should stretch. Data and its analysis should be considered in keeping goals, strategy, and tactics as attainable and on target.

#focusingonbest

Why are small business owners not using social media?

When I started my first business, not many people used the web. Google was not there for me, no Facebook Fan Pages, no Twitter, no Instagram, and no Foursquare check-in. Social media… what was that? TV ads, print ads, and direct mail were expensive for me to run long campaigns. Not a lot of inexpensive ways to get my company out in front of my desired clients.

I enjoy visiting small businesses, attending farmers markets, and any place I can meet interesting talented entrepreneurs. I love the small business owner and often ask business owners how I can follow their company. The responses surprise me, often a company has made no efforts to create an online presence. No Facebook, no Twitter, no Pinterest, no anything. Other times I am told I can follow the company on Facebook or Twitter; but when I go to Like or Follow, there is no activity from the company on their page. Often the business information is incomplete or contradictory between social channels.

Why Social Media

Social media can offer an abundance of contact points for potential customers. So no matter where you client hangs out online you can be there, this does not mean you have to be everywhere and on all of the social sites. You can target the social channels that your best customers frequently use.

Use of social media also attracts the attention of Google and other search engines. Their task to offer up the best, most relevant information to their searchers’ inquiries. If you can answer questions, resolve concerns, and provide relevant solutions in your social channels you will rank better in search results.

Final Thoughts

Reflecting back on all I have learned in my business experiences, I wonder why in this age of opportunity so many companies are not utilizing social media. This is where I get confused, I know all about the struggles of starting a company. It’s tough. Time is precious and money is scarce, but here you have a medium to reach out, connect with your customers, and build your brand.

 

*Revision of article originally published 11/25/2012