discipline Archives - Dennis E. Gilbert

05
Jul 21
-

Time Value, Are You Getting The Benefit?

Time value might be a measurement you’re familiar with even if you don’t recognize it at first. It seems most people believe that good things take time, but how is that value measured?

When you first learned how to tie your shoes it may have taken some time, and some additional practice. Now you can tie your shoe in one or two seconds.

You might paint a picture with some water colors. It might have taken you an hour or more. The picture can be scanned or duplicated with a copier in less than one minute. It’s not an original, but it still has great value.

The same is true for nearly anything you do. At first, things take more time. After you get some practice it all seems easier and faster. The quality doesn’t have to be sacrificed and the time for delivery improves.

What is the real value of time?

Time Value

In the workplace, teams often seek solutions for problems. The easy problems, or the ones that have occurred before are more easily solved. The time to fix is minimal. That means more value for your investment of time.

Complex problems are a little different. They are often complex because there is a bigger learning curve. There is some time required to discover the root cause, strategize on ways to approach it, and ultimately some trial and error until the solution is fully realized.

It is a constant battle against the undiscovered or the unresolved. The value of your time and the associated performance improves when you put in the effort.

Cheap and easy takes less time. The value of cheap and easy is less.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

23
Mar 21
-

Right Thing Costs, They Too, Add Up

Tags : costs discipline integrity long-term costs short-term gain

Doing the right thing costs. It also has value. There is a tricky intersection between doing the right thing and doing something that satisfies the circumstances right now.

If you decide to eat an ice cream cone, you may be making a trade-off between the pleasure and good taste of the sugary snack and the calories ingested beyond what you’ll use. Those excess calories go somewhere and there is a cost associated with it.

It is true for most things. More isn’t always better and sometimes neither is having immediate gratification. What delights at the moment may have a price to be paid later.

In part, this is why discipline matters. Having the discipline and integrity to sacrifice some simple pleasures that ultimately become a painful cost later.

It is true in life, in business, and it is true for your career.

Right Thing Costs

When an employee is empowered enough to make a decision that affects the customer, the decision has a price.

It may be easy to give an angry customer a replacement order of french fries when the original order was unsatisfactory. It is not so easy to change the color of a house roof when the customer’s idea of brown was several shades different from the nearly black shingles that were installed.

The french fries are low cost and the complications of dissatisfaction are only typically felt for the short-term. The house roof, of course, has a much longer shelf life and a much higher cost. The complications are much greater.

What is the right thing to do?

Everything has a cost. Some costs are short-term and satisfy the immediate, other costs feel harder to absorb but in the long run, make up for the feeling of loss.

Future Vision

The difference is often established in the vision.

Is the business owner trying to make a quick dollar and sell off, or is the business owner in it to earn a decent living and build a long-term business that will last for generations?

Employees aren’t really much different. Does the employee visualize working there for many years, or is it a stepping stone to get in, grab what you can, and get out?

What is your vision of the right thing? What is the timeline for that right thing?

Both matter and both will determine exactly what happens next.

Doing the right thing isn’t always about the price paid right now. Often, it has a close relationship with the price you’ll pay later.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

16
Mar 21
-

Outcome Commitment, Do You Have It?

Tags : commitment discipline learning metrics outcomes

Each tick of the clock or the change in the small series of figure eight shaped LED bars means time is in motion. Many people see their work as a race against time. Do you have outcome commitment or are you just running through the motions?

At the start of a shift, people are either looking to roll up their sleeves and get dirty, or they’ve thrown the switch, and the count down to the end of the shift has just begun.

Going through the motions is a terrible waste. It means that there really isn’t progress and that the outcome of yesterday is all that remains as a guide for today.

Things are different now. A switch was thrown in early 2020 with the Worldwide pandemic.

The switch meant that moving forward was going to require change. While some progress was hindered and government agencies forced closed doors and shutdowns, others were on the move.

There was change, a shift, and a pivot.

Outside of government forced closures, those with great commitment had to trudge on.

Outcome Commitment

Workforce sectors were forced to learn and grow all the while education is reportedly in shambles. Young people in traditional K-12 education systems are reportedly struggling, while in the adult world those who choose to make learning a priority have grown.

The difference might be a reflection of the commitment.

There is a chance that something better is on the other side. It’s on the other side of disappointment, despair, and devastation. The opportunity is there for those who are committed.

When you know where you are going and you can describe it, there is a much better chance you’ll get there.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

22
Jan 21
-

Procrastination Is Something You Own

Tags : procrastination productivity skill time management too busy

Do you struggle with procrastination? Does it haunt you, sabotage your productivity, and leave yourself or others disappointed?

Many people are busy. Just being busy doesn’t mean that you are productive.

Ask someone in your workplace, or ask a small business owner, “What’s up, how’s it going?” They may often reply with, “Busy.”

When you knock on the door jamb of a colleague’s office, you may ask, “Are you busy?” Commonly followed by, “I just have a quick question.”

Likely the most confusing part about busy is that no one is really inquiring about productivity. You can make yourself busy if you want to.

I’m too busy…

for exercise.

to get involved with a Zoom meeting.

to connect for lunch next week.

Busy is a state of being occupied but certainly does not confirm productivity or efficiency.

Everyone has the same amount of time each day. Seconds, minutes, and hours, it’s all the same. How are you spending your time? What will you do in the next five minutes?

Procrastination Ruins Productivity

Procrastination, in-part, may be a state of making yourself busy.

Nearly all professions and all workplaces have choices about what they’ll do next. What are the priorities? Who will do what, and when?

Busy never addresses the question of productivity.

Procrastination is the act of delaying something or putting it off until a later time.

You can learn to be busy. You can learn to look busy. Another different choice is to be productive.

Being productive is a skill you master. It comes with a few hooks though. It means you’re willing to measure the value of the work you are creating each day.

Everyone works from the position of 24 hours in a day.

What will you accomplish, or are you too busy?

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

11
Jan 21
-

More Effort Always Beats Effortless

Tags : career competencies effort skill Talent

Pick any change and you’ll quickly see a connection to effort. More effort is often what people need, yet people often seek to give less effort, not more.

Is there a balance?

A balance emerges when more effort becomes more efficient. It typically becomes more efficient when new habits are formed and when learning curves are no longer an obstacle.

Easy Peasy

If you want to climb six flights of stairs with ease, and assuming you aren’t already accustomed to doing it, you’ll have to put in some extra effort.

If you are a front-line employee who has now become the manager, you’re going to have to put in some extra effort to learn the skills and develop management competencies. It won’t be, the same old, same old.

People often search for talent. Talent in sports, talent in the arts, and talent in the workplace. Does your talent come naturally, or is it more of a developed process?

More Effort Required

Many people might quickly suggest that talent is someplace in the middle. There may seemingly be some natural tendencies for people, yet people often become good at things they enjoy or things they excel at with less effort.

Getting better then, in either case, is conditioned by putting in more effort. Even if you are already good, you’ll get better with more effort.

The quest for effortless and easy is a nicety.

It will seldom take you very far in your career. Even when you have the raw talent.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

09
Nov 20
-

Weighing Alternatives is a Matter of Principle

Tags : alternatives discipline long-term principles

Big decisions or little decisions, short-term or long-term, what helps you decide? Weighing alternatives typically boils down to principles.

Some would suggest it is ethics or integrity. Others may decide the decision was based on outside forces or pressure.

Most of our choices are connected to principles. Your morals, a guideline, or your values and beliefs help shape the principles you will adhere to.

Recent high school graduates often base more advanced education choices on principles. In the short-term the opportunity cost is more. In the long-term, across many years, the theory is that it pays off.

Parents are influencers, so are other family members, friends, and the admissions staff.

This may be true about the car or home you’ll buy. It may be true about what you’ll eat for dinner. Pros and cons, short-term and long-term outcomes, or the consequences of action versus inaction.

Weighing Alternatives

When there are more alternatives you need to rely on your principles less. You can make a choice and the consequences of undesirable outcomes feel less risky. There is always another choice, at a later time, or on another day.

Often there are group dynamics connected to how you’ll weigh the options. Some of that is connected to your principles and some of it is connected to the social discourse you’ll choose to follow.

Your principles will guide you.

If your choices are only about the right now. Your principles probably lack the integrity or ethics you’ll need for the long-haul.

In a family of four, someone eating the whole bag of potato chips while no one else is watching seems like a reasonable choice. At least at the moment, in the right now.

The alternative requires discipline, caring, and compassion. It doesn’t satisfy the right now.

It’s about the principle.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and corporate trainer. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

04
Sep 20
-

Work Schedule and Doing What Comes Next

Tags : commitment productivity schedule task master tasks

What’s your work schedule look like? Do you have one? What’s your plan?

Being a task master is an effective way to get all the boxes checked. It matters and can be productive. What about the things that derail the checklist? How do you get those things accomplished?

It is important to remember that there will always be rainy day projects. There will be projects that get started but never get finished. Work completed that sits around unused and unwanted. And stuff that no matter how much effort you apply you’ll just never see the end.

It’s not uncommon to be energized by something new. A small (or big) challenge that you know is achievable and you’re excited to jump in.

There is also often procrastination. The same old, same old, project or task. It’s boring, mindless, and hard to determine its true value, yet it must be done.

Many people enjoy a hands-off management style. A style that isn’t suffering from micro-management or looked down upon from the ivory tower with a pen in hand ready to check the box.

Work Schedule

How are you feeling about your work schedule?

Is it appropriately busy? Could it be boring, monotonous, or seemingly without meaning?

What about things that can never be finished? Things that once completed start all over again? Completing sales orders, engaging customers, or keeping weeds away from your sidewalk. All continue to add up.

You’ll never watch every minute of what’s on YouTube. You can’t read every blog or listen to every podcast. The bucket is being filled faster than you can consume.

Whether you manage your own schedule or are being observed by a task master, it’s important to keep a few basics in mind.

Lists of work and are important. Yet, checking boxes is not necessarily a sign of quality or efficiency.

Likely, there will always be more on the list than what can be accomplished.

If you’re going to manage by a list, don’t allow things that can’t be finished weigh you down. Some things never end, or end only to start again.

If you’re deciding what to do next, don’t embark on something that will derail the real work that needs to be finished.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

16
Mar 20
-

Urgent Work Is a Different Priority

Tags : commitment decisions focus priorities urgency

How do you decide what is going to get done? Are you doing urgent work or just work that feels like it should get done?

One decision you make almost every day is closely connected to what happens next.

What are your priorities?

Your Priorities

Will you brush your teeth first, get dressed, or take a shower? What is your priority?

Will you grab a coffee at work, report to your work area, or discuss the latest news with a colleague? What is most important? What is urgent?

There are lots of ways to determine priorities. Often it is driven by some form of need. However, the need is not always the same as what you or others want.

You also likely factor in the concept of what you should do.

I should…

Go to the gym after work.

Tidy up this mess before doing anything else.

Finish the report before the meeting on Wednesday.

When you consider the should factor, you may discover that should isn’t always the most important or urgent. Should is often considered a nicety.

In the workplace, or in your community, you’re often challenged by trying to decide on the right things to work on. What is the most urgent?

Will finishing the report early help my coworkers? Does that rise to the level of urgency?

Is picking up trash in the park more urgent than working on a campaign to help shelter the homeless?

Urgent Work

People often decide on what they’ll work on next by the urgency that they perceive about the importance of the task.

Individual perceptions which are often driven by group dynamics, peer pressure, and even the media affect your sense of urgency.

The next time you want something to happen you may want to consider how others may perceive the sense of urgency. Urgent work always seems to take a priority.

It’s not the squeaky wheel, but it may be the sneaky wheel.

Understand your priorities.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

10
Jan 20
-

Workplace Calamity Should Be Avoided

Tags : calamity focus metrics systems workplace

Smooth sailing is what most people desire. Things are a lot more productive without workplace calamity. Are things going smooth?

I believe it was Franklin D. Roosevelt who said, “A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor.”

Of course, we can find a lot of metaphorical truth in that statement.

Yet, what we typically try to construct are processes and systems to keep things calm.

Many years ago, there was a warehousing and manufacturing buzz term, “just in time.” It is still true today, only today it is often considered a common sense practice.

As an example, just in time inventory helps keep costs lower and efficiencies higher. Having only what you need when you need it makes sense.

In practice it is a system. A design that will keep everything running smooth.

Systems don’t always fit every scenario, but they often work well for operations.

Workplace Calamity

People factors can wreak havoc on systems. Assuming that the decisions, emotions, and experiences of people will fit nicely into a tight system can be a big mistake.

However, having a frame or guideline can still be helpful.

Systems, metrics, and measurements are helpful for keeping many things in check.

One of the biggest benefits to a good system is that it makes things easier. It keeps the sea’s calmer.

When you step outside of the system, and this happens often, it rocks the boat a little bit. The waters are not so calm. Things blow up, get embellished, and often become far more dramatic.

The key then, or so it seems, is to keep the calamity out of our workplace. It won’t be effortless, but it will be worth it.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

31
Dec 19
-

Knowledge Equalizer and What You Study

Tags : gain knowledge power read study

Knowledge is often considered to be power. Those in the know versus those who don’t know. What you study may be the great knowledge equalizer.

Jack’s hobby is gardening. He knows much more about growing vegetables than the average person. He reads everything he can find about creating the perfect gardening environment.

Susan loves cosmetics and beauty aids. She watches hours of makeup videos, reads on-line blogs on the subject, and knows hundreds of tricks and tips.

James is into big diesel pickup trucks. He watches videos, studies hop-up literature, and attends every swamp meet he can find. His truck is awesome and everyone in his small town seeks him out for diesel hop-up advice.

Technology and Knowledge

Just three decades ago it was much harder to access information.

In the workplace, the data processing department held the key to what you wanted to know, only, very few could access it.

Green bar continuous form paper spewed from line printers in climate-controlled rooms with false floors. The computer operator assembled reports in 14 7/8 inch hanging binders.

A few of the more advanced executives had a green or amber monochrome monitor in the corner of their office but many those didn’t know how to log on.

Knowledge was definitely power, only very few had access.

Knowledge Equalizer

Today it is a completely different World for those in first World countries. Information, lots of information is available right at your fingertips.

You can read, listen, and watch information right from the palm of your hand. You can study whatever you choose. If you study the information, becoming knowledgeable about a subject happens faster than ever before.

Certainly, data reliability and validity matter. The quality of information sources needs to be scrutinized. Facts will always need to be separated from opinions. Yet, the opportunity to gain power through knowledge has never been easier.

What should you know more about?

What are you reading, watching, and studying?

Is there information to help you build your career?

Knowledge is the great equalizer.

-DEG

Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSP^TM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.

Category Archives: discipline

Jul 21

-

Time Value

Mar 21

-

Right Thing Costs

Future Vision

Mar 21

-

Outcome Commitment

Jan 21

-

Procrastination Ruins Productivity

Jan 21

-

Easy Peasy

More Effort Required

Nov 20

-

Weighing Alternatives

Sep 20

-

Work Schedule

Mar 20

-

Your Priorities

Urgent Work

Jan 20

-

Workplace Calamity

Dec 19

-

Technology and Knowledge

Knowledge Equalizer

Search This Website

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Blog (Filter) Categories

Follow me on Twitter

Assessment Services and Tools

Recent Posts

Email Signup

Subscribe to newsletter

Contact Info