1 00:00:04,360 --> 00:00:06,720 Speaker 1: Welcome to How I Work, a show about the technics 2 00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:09,119 Speaker 1: used by the world's most successful people to get so 3 00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:12,440 Speaker 1: much out of their day. I'm your host, doctor Amantha Imba. 4 00:00:12,720 --> 00:00:17,239 Speaker 1: I'm an organizational psychologist, the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium, 5 00:00:17,480 --> 00:00:20,480 Speaker 1: and I'm obsessed with finding ways to optimize my work day. 6 00:00:21,160 --> 00:00:25,320 Speaker 1: This episode is another my favorite tip episode. The titles 7 00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:28,360 Speaker 1: probably pretty self explanatory. It's about my favorite tip from 8 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:31,760 Speaker 1: each of the interviews I conduct. So the extract I 9 00:00:31,800 --> 00:00:35,040 Speaker 1: have for you today is from my interview with Rita McGrath, 10 00:00:35,360 --> 00:00:39,160 Speaker 1: who is a world renowned professor at Columbia Business School, 11 00:00:39,400 --> 00:00:42,800 Speaker 1: where she directs a popular Leading Strategic Growth and Change program. 12 00:00:43,440 --> 00:00:47,200 Speaker 1: She is widely recognized as a premiere expert on leading 13 00:00:47,200 --> 00:00:51,120 Speaker 1: innovation and growth during times of uncertainty, and she's received 14 00:00:51,400 --> 00:00:55,400 Speaker 1: the number one Achievement Award for Strategy from the prestigious 15 00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:59,040 Speaker 1: Thinkers fifty and has been consistently named one of the 16 00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:02,680 Speaker 1: world's top ten management thinkers and it's by annual ranking. 17 00:01:03,520 --> 00:01:05,319 Speaker 1: Reader is the author of the best selling The End 18 00:01:05,319 --> 00:01:08,760 Speaker 1: of Competitive Advantage, and her new book is Seeing Around 19 00:01:08,800 --> 00:01:13,119 Speaker 1: Corners How to spot inflection points in business before they happen. 20 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:16,480 Speaker 1: Reader's been rerated one of the twenty five smartest women 21 00:01:16,520 --> 00:01:19,040 Speaker 1: to Follow on Twitter by Fast Company and was voted 22 00:01:19,480 --> 00:01:25,200 Speaker 1: HR Magazine's most Influential International Thinker. So in this extract 23 00:01:25,319 --> 00:01:29,440 Speaker 1: with Reader, I talked to her about how she decides 24 00:01:29,840 --> 00:01:33,080 Speaker 1: what projects to take on, particularly after she'd finished her 25 00:01:33,120 --> 00:01:36,720 Speaker 1: most recent book project and was hunting around for something new. 26 00:01:36,800 --> 00:01:40,280 Speaker 1: So on that note, let's hear about how Rita makes 27 00:01:40,319 --> 00:01:41,800 Speaker 1: these kinds of decisions. 28 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:45,840 Speaker 2: Last year was mainly about getting the book out. You know, 29 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:49,240 Speaker 2: I've just written a book called Seeing Around Corners, and 30 00:01:49,320 --> 00:01:53,320 Speaker 2: so for last year that was really the dominant activity 31 00:01:53,360 --> 00:01:55,760 Speaker 2: and everything really had to do with that. So I 32 00:01:55,840 --> 00:01:58,200 Speaker 2: now that that's in the rearview mirror, we're getting ready 33 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:01,040 Speaker 2: to look at what the next the next set of 34 00:02:01,080 --> 00:02:01,840 Speaker 2: things should be. 35 00:02:02,600 --> 00:02:04,840 Speaker 1: And how do you land on that? What's what's your 36 00:02:04,880 --> 00:02:09,120 Speaker 1: process for prioritization and thinking about what what is the 37 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:09,600 Speaker 1: next thing? 38 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:14,080 Speaker 2: Well, I think, like most people, you know, it has 39 00:02:14,120 --> 00:02:19,080 Speaker 2: several different areas of activity. So there's economic you know, 40 00:02:19,080 --> 00:02:20,359 Speaker 2: how we're going to pay the bills and keep the 41 00:02:20,440 --> 00:02:23,760 Speaker 2: lights on. There's what am I really passionately interested in? 42 00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:28,240 Speaker 2: And then there's you know, what are the things that 43 00:02:28,480 --> 00:02:31,680 Speaker 2: I'm uniquely able to do that other people can't do, 44 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:36,079 Speaker 2: and it's usually that ven diagram that leads to things 45 00:02:36,160 --> 00:02:37,280 Speaker 2: rising to the top of the heap. 46 00:02:38,200 --> 00:02:41,160 Speaker 1: That's very sensible. I think that, you know, we find 47 00:02:41,200 --> 00:02:43,400 Speaker 1: that with the work that we do, people really struggle 48 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:47,680 Speaker 1: with with prioritizing, and I guess having having those different 49 00:02:47,760 --> 00:02:50,880 Speaker 1: lenses and looking for that crossover in the Venn diagram, 50 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:52,959 Speaker 1: and I think is a really practical way of approaching 51 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:55,440 Speaker 1: that is, is that how you've always done it, either 52 00:02:55,440 --> 00:02:58,440 Speaker 1: consciously or unconsciously, or is that something that's evolved for you. 53 00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:02,480 Speaker 2: It's evolved for years what I've been doing, and of course, 54 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:04,520 Speaker 2: as you know, with are the kind of work that 55 00:03:04,560 --> 00:03:06,919 Speaker 2: we do, there's always the question of should you accept 56 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:10,960 Speaker 2: a specific engagement or not. And what I actually developed 57 00:03:11,120 --> 00:03:15,520 Speaker 2: was a scoring system that what it basically does is 58 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:19,280 Speaker 2: it takes each of those dimensions of strategy and gives 59 00:03:19,280 --> 00:03:22,040 Speaker 2: it one of three possible scores. So it gets a 60 00:03:22,160 --> 00:03:25,240 Speaker 2: nine if it's absolutely perfect, it gets a three if 61 00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:27,480 Speaker 2: it's you know, could go when we're another and it 62 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:30,440 Speaker 2: gets a one or even a negative score if it's 63 00:03:31,560 --> 00:03:34,360 Speaker 2: negative on that dimension. And so what I did some 64 00:03:34,480 --> 00:03:39,800 Speaker 2: years back. Was I took the previous year's engagements and 65 00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:43,000 Speaker 2: ran them through that set of lenses. And it was 66 00:03:43,160 --> 00:03:45,720 Speaker 2: very interesting because all the things that in retrospect I 67 00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:47,440 Speaker 2: really wish I hadn't spent a lot of time on 68 00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:51,400 Speaker 2: fell below a definite threshold. And so I started to 69 00:03:51,480 --> 00:03:54,640 Speaker 2: use that now going forward prospectively to make those kinds 70 00:03:54,680 --> 00:03:56,360 Speaker 2: of time allocation decisions. 71 00:03:56,920 --> 00:04:00,280 Speaker 1: Oh wow, I love that. That's very systematic. So what 72 00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:03,400 Speaker 1: sort of projects would you apply to that? Because your 73 00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:06,880 Speaker 1: life is very very dear obviously a professor at Columbia, 74 00:04:06,960 --> 00:04:11,320 Speaker 1: you do consulting work, you do speaking work, you're a writer. 75 00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:15,520 Speaker 1: Can you take me through an example engagement maybe that's 76 00:04:15,640 --> 00:04:19,280 Speaker 1: come across your desk, and just how you applied that criteria? 77 00:04:20,120 --> 00:04:23,400 Speaker 2: Sure? So we had one just a little bit earlier 78 00:04:23,760 --> 00:04:28,400 Speaker 2: from a for profit retailer who wanted me to come 79 00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:34,680 Speaker 2: and facilitate a major management retreat. And when I looked 80 00:04:34,680 --> 00:04:36,599 Speaker 2: at it through the lens of this scoring, you know, 81 00:04:36,839 --> 00:04:39,320 Speaker 2: they weren't really willing to pay normal rates, it was 82 00:04:39,360 --> 00:04:42,840 Speaker 2: going to involve a fair amount of travel. I didn't 83 00:04:42,880 --> 00:04:48,360 Speaker 2: see it really as being spectacularly something that onally I 84 00:04:48,400 --> 00:04:50,200 Speaker 2: could do. You know, I think anyone who was fairly 85 00:04:50,200 --> 00:04:52,680 Speaker 2: competent at facility retreats could help them out with that. 86 00:04:53,240 --> 00:04:55,800 Speaker 2: So it sort of fell short on those dimensions. And 87 00:04:55,839 --> 00:04:59,600 Speaker 2: if I were to contrast that with something where I'd say, absolutely, 88 00:04:59,640 --> 00:05:02,440 Speaker 2: I really want to be part of that, it would 89 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:05,240 Speaker 2: be just recently, I was, in fact at CEB Insights 90 00:05:06,120 --> 00:05:09,839 Speaker 2: Collective Conference, and so this was a conference dedicated to 91 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:13,720 Speaker 2: corporate innovation, and the people at the conference would all 92 00:05:13,720 --> 00:05:19,200 Speaker 2: be you know, innovators, entrepreneurs, technologists, and you know, even 93 00:05:19,240 --> 00:05:22,040 Speaker 2: though it wasn't really a paid engagement, the fact that 94 00:05:22,120 --> 00:05:25,359 Speaker 2: the group was so attractive and that the topic was 95 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:28,520 Speaker 2: so right on what I do, really got it on 96 00:05:28,520 --> 00:05:32,040 Speaker 2: my calendar. So you know, it's not always about the money, right, 97 00:05:32,080 --> 00:05:35,120 Speaker 2: It's it's often about what's the audience, like are they 98 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:38,320 Speaker 2: good contacts for the future, that kind of thing. And 99 00:05:38,360 --> 00:05:39,840 Speaker 2: then of course you do get I'm sure you get 100 00:05:39,839 --> 00:05:41,680 Speaker 2: this too, all those people who say, oh, oh we 101 00:05:41,720 --> 00:05:43,440 Speaker 2: should come to my conference and do it for free 102 00:05:43,480 --> 00:05:44,799 Speaker 2: because it'll be great exposure. 103 00:05:47,520 --> 00:05:48,479 Speaker 1: Yes. 104 00:05:48,160 --> 00:05:50,200 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like all the people that ask you to 105 00:05:50,200 --> 00:05:52,640 Speaker 2: write articles for them for nothing, you know, and it's well, 106 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:56,280 Speaker 2: you know, it's some of sometimes they're right and then 107 00:05:56,320 --> 00:05:58,520 Speaker 2: I would I would agree, but a lot of times 108 00:05:58,560 --> 00:05:58,880 Speaker 2: they're not. 109 00:06:00,080 --> 00:06:03,080 Speaker 1: That is it for today's show. 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