1 00:00:00,920 --> 00:00:04,040 Speaker 1: If you work in a big organization or even a 2 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:07,760 Speaker 1: small one, you've probably heard someone say we need to 3 00:00:07,840 --> 00:00:12,320 Speaker 1: work smarter, not harder. Well, that sounds good in theory, 4 00:00:12,400 --> 00:00:16,319 Speaker 1: but how do you actually do that in practice. Greg 5 00:00:16,400 --> 00:00:20,599 Speaker 1: McEwan is the New York Times bestselling author of Essentialism 6 00:00:20,760 --> 00:00:23,959 Speaker 1: and Effortless and has thought a lot about the way 7 00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:27,640 Speaker 1: that he works and how he can make it simpler, easier, 8 00:00:27,840 --> 00:00:34,320 Speaker 1: and more fun. So how does Greg actually simplify his 9 00:00:34,520 --> 00:00:38,680 Speaker 1: work and what does it mean to really streamline a 10 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:42,160 Speaker 1: process or a workflow? And the next time someone says 11 00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:45,839 Speaker 1: to you that you need to work smarter and not harder, 12 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:54,720 Speaker 1: what should you actually change. My name is doctor Amantha Imber. 13 00:00:54,880 --> 00:00:58,240 Speaker 1: I'm an organizational psychologist and the founder of behavioral science 14 00:00:58,280 --> 00:01:01,760 Speaker 1: consultancy invent Him. And this is how I work, a 15 00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:04,559 Speaker 1: show about how to help you do your best work. 16 00:01:05,680 --> 00:01:08,120 Speaker 1: On today is my favorite Tip episode? Will you go 17 00:01:08,200 --> 00:01:10,240 Speaker 1: back to an interview from the past and I pick 18 00:01:10,319 --> 00:01:13,520 Speaker 1: out my favorite tip from that interview. In today's show, 19 00:01:13,600 --> 00:01:16,880 Speaker 1: I speak with Greg mceew and we start by talking 20 00:01:16,920 --> 00:01:20,600 Speaker 1: about an idea that Greg wrote about in Effortless that 21 00:01:20,640 --> 00:01:24,440 Speaker 1: he refers to as the minimum steps required for completion 22 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:27,600 Speaker 1: and I was keen to hear about how Greg has 23 00:01:27,640 --> 00:01:30,120 Speaker 1: applied this idea in his own life. 24 00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:33,240 Speaker 2: Just to set that up just for a second. There's 25 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:36,680 Speaker 2: all sorts of examples of this in business. But I 26 00:01:36,760 --> 00:01:42,440 Speaker 2: interviewed Mike Evangelist who as that's his real name, but 27 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:49,280 Speaker 2: he worked at a DVD burning company, and this was 28 00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:52,160 Speaker 2: when DVD Birnie was brand new by one of these 29 00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:56,559 Speaker 2: machines that cost thirty five thousand dollars. The manual alone 30 00:01:56,600 --> 00:02:01,240 Speaker 2: was a thousand pages long, you can imagine. And Apple 31 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:03,920 Speaker 2: comes along and says, well, we'd like to buy that 32 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:06,240 Speaker 2: because we want the software that you've built and we're 33 00:02:06,240 --> 00:02:09,240 Speaker 2: going to put that standard on the new Mac. So 34 00:02:09,280 --> 00:02:13,680 Speaker 2: they're given a couple of weeks to prepare a slim 35 00:02:13,840 --> 00:02:17,680 Speaker 2: lined streamlined I think as the term. I'm looking for 36 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:23,880 Speaker 2: version of what they've had before. And they just keep 37 00:02:23,919 --> 00:02:26,320 Speaker 2: stripping this away. That's stripping away and stripping it away, 38 00:02:26,360 --> 00:02:28,160 Speaker 2: and they're so proud of what they've been able to 39 00:02:28,200 --> 00:02:30,600 Speaker 2: do in a couple of weeks, and they they're ready 40 00:02:30,600 --> 00:02:33,840 Speaker 2: for the presentation to Steve Jobs, and he comes into 41 00:02:33,840 --> 00:02:36,200 Speaker 2: the room. Before they get to the presentation, he walks 42 00:02:36,280 --> 00:02:39,359 Speaker 2: up to the whiteboard, and he draws the rectangle and 43 00:02:39,400 --> 00:02:42,800 Speaker 2: he draws this little you know, square within it that 44 00:02:42,880 --> 00:02:45,480 Speaker 2: says burn. And he says, this is the app we're 45 00:02:45,480 --> 00:02:48,200 Speaker 2: going to build. You just draw, take what you want 46 00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:51,320 Speaker 2: to burn, you put it here, and then you click 47 00:02:51,400 --> 00:02:54,880 Speaker 2: that button. That's the whole app. And as soon as 48 00:02:54,880 --> 00:03:00,280 Speaker 2: he did that, they all felt embarrassed about the that 49 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:03,920 Speaker 2: they'd prepared. They never shared the presentation because compared to 50 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:07,360 Speaker 2: what he'd just shown, it looked so complex, there was 51 00:03:07,480 --> 00:03:10,600 Speaker 2: so many steps and pieces to it. And that was 52 00:03:10,639 --> 00:03:13,919 Speaker 2: when he learned what he thought was a really sort 53 00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:17,840 Speaker 2: of lifelong valuable lesson, which is that Steve Jobs was 54 00:03:18,040 --> 00:03:23,119 Speaker 2: starting with zero. It wasn't taking complexity and whittling it down. 55 00:03:23,200 --> 00:03:26,960 Speaker 2: He was starting with zero and saying, you know, can 56 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:30,399 Speaker 2: I achieve it in one step? You know? And if 57 00:03:30,400 --> 00:03:32,520 Speaker 2: not one, can I do it in two steps? But 58 00:03:32,639 --> 00:03:36,840 Speaker 2: that's the idea. And so from that the goal is, 59 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:43,800 Speaker 2: can you solve a problem entirely by having in a 60 00:03:44,000 --> 00:03:46,880 Speaker 2: one step thing? Can we remove the steps entirely instead 61 00:03:46,920 --> 00:03:50,680 Speaker 2: of streamlining your process, you're saying, let's start from zero. 62 00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:53,160 Speaker 2: Can we do the whole thing in one step? So 63 00:03:53,280 --> 00:04:00,560 Speaker 2: that's the principle A particular way to approach simplification, it 64 00:04:00,600 --> 00:04:04,040 Speaker 2: says Agile talks about it in the manif Agile manifesto. 65 00:04:04,120 --> 00:04:09,640 Speaker 2: It's to maximize the steps not taken. If you can 66 00:04:09,760 --> 00:04:14,680 Speaker 2: do this, you start to remove from yourself the need. 67 00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:20,760 Speaker 2: No matter how easiest step is, it's still harder than 68 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:25,120 Speaker 2: taking no step. In fact, when I was first starting 69 00:04:25,160 --> 00:04:30,120 Speaker 2: in the podcast, I remember the team, that production team 70 00:04:30,279 --> 00:04:32,960 Speaker 2: sent me a list of instructions that I could send 71 00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:36,560 Speaker 2: to guests and there's like, you know, fifteen steps to it. 72 00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:39,080 Speaker 2: I remember reading it myself just going, oh my goodness, 73 00:04:39,120 --> 00:04:43,279 Speaker 2: that is overwhelming number of steps. I just thought, there's 74 00:04:43,320 --> 00:04:45,400 Speaker 2: no way I can send this out to guess it's 75 00:04:45,480 --> 00:04:48,280 Speaker 2: just too much for them to handle if I can't 76 00:04:48,320 --> 00:04:50,599 Speaker 2: even read it. And so I said, okay, what you know, 77 00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:54,400 Speaker 2: start from zero was the minimum number of steps someone 78 00:04:54,440 --> 00:04:57,600 Speaker 2: would need to take to chat with me on Zencaster. 79 00:04:58,839 --> 00:05:01,719 Speaker 2: And once I had the answer, the process was literally 80 00:05:01,839 --> 00:05:03,800 Speaker 2: what I sent to people instead of these fifteen steps 81 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:07,320 Speaker 2: was one click on the link that I'm going to 82 00:05:07,360 --> 00:05:10,599 Speaker 2: email you before the interview too. I'll start and end 83 00:05:10,640 --> 00:05:12,800 Speaker 2: the recording, so all you need to do is chat. 84 00:05:13,279 --> 00:05:17,920 Speaker 2: That was the instruction, and so it's a very liberating 85 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:20,640 Speaker 2: question to ask, like just okay, how can we start 86 00:05:20,680 --> 00:05:22,800 Speaker 2: from zero? How can we do this at the minimum 87 00:05:22,880 --> 00:05:25,920 Speaker 2: number of steps? You start to realize all the stuff 88 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:30,680 Speaker 2: that other people think needs to happen, including yourself in 89 00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:32,240 Speaker 2: the past, don't need to happen. 90 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:37,359 Speaker 1: That is it for today. If you know someone that 91 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:40,880 Speaker 1: might benefit from this tip, maybe someone that's been told 92 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:43,640 Speaker 1: to work smarter and not harder, why not share this 93 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:46,919 Speaker 1: episode with them? And if you're looking for more tips 94 00:05:46,920 --> 00:05:49,279 Speaker 1: to improve the way that you work, I write a 95 00:05:49,400 --> 00:05:52,560 Speaker 1: short fortnightly newslet app that contains three cool things that 96 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:55,520 Speaker 1: I've discovered that helped me work better, which range from 97 00:05:55,600 --> 00:05:58,680 Speaker 1: interesting research findings through to gadgets that I'm loving. You 98 00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:01,039 Speaker 1: can sign up for that at how I Work dot co. 99 00:06:01,320 --> 00:06:04,320 Speaker 1: That's how I Work dot co. How I Work is 100 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:07,680 Speaker 1: produced by Inventing and with production support from Dead Set Studios, 101 00:06:08,040 --> 00:06:10,000 Speaker 1: and thank you to Martin Nimba, who does the audio 102 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:12,960 Speaker 1: mix for every episode. See you next time.