Don’t Solve A Problem By Just Doing; Solve It By Seeing It Differently.

“If at first you don’t succeed, find out why.” Stephen Covey

There is a propensity within the police service to reinvent the wheel with unerring regularity. While not wishing to diminish the importance of the field, a good example is the Domestic Violence Unit. Certainly, in my own force it wasn’t dealt with by specialists at all. They decided it was a priority in the mid-1990s and appointed a single officer in each sub-division to deal with DV. Later, under a new Chief, they went to the other extreme and had a 50-person department, castrating general CID in the process. The Chief moved on, and DV went back to be dealt with by the appropriate level of attention based on the injuries involved. Then along came the divisional High Priority DV department, who were accepting low priority DV cases within a week as they didn’t have much on.

I’m not exaggerating to make a point, and I emphasise that I am not belittling the importance of that role, but that is pretty much how it went.

What they were doing is what organisations commonly do. They don’t like the results they are getting in a certain sector, and so they change what they do and expect it to work.

What they seemed to spend little or no time doing, is finding out why what they were doing wasn’t working as they hoped.

In The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey proposed a new approach. He called it the ‘See-Do-Get’ Paradigm. He suggested that successful change came about not when they changed WHAT they were doing, but when they changed the way they saw the problem.

(IMHO, part of the problem is/was the criminal justice system, which is a legal paradigm that has no truck with the policing system, which is about trying to stop crime. For example, charging prisoners with DV offences ‘on policy’ made no difference to the CPS, who want evidence. Usually a confession. Or the Courts, who have their own admissibility rules. You can have an arrest policy all you like, but if the other two teams ain’t playing, you’ll rarely win the game.)

 No, I don’t have the solution to the DV problem, because it really was not my forte. But looking at the purpose rather than the practice of DV investigations may have changed it from a prevention by prosecution paradigm to a prevention by other means paradigm.

But the point is that if we want to create meaningful improvements in our results (of any kind, personal, professional, whatever) then we should all stop just looking at what we did that made things go wrong, but also at what we were thinking and why we were thinking it.

No, that is not easy.

Think about a problem you have encountered in the past. Analyse what you did wrong, but then ask yourself why you did that. How did you see the problem that caused you to make the error? Was there an alternative perspective that would make you act differently, even change the whole process for dealing with a similar matter?

How else do you think policing improves? Well, the same concepts apply to you, too.

How you see the problem, can all to often be the problem.

Look at it another way. You may just find the answer.

A Challenge Issued.

“You can never really change someone. People must change themselves.” Stephen Covey

Are you willing to change – today?

Let me set you a challenge.

Instead of ignoring or speed reading this article/post and moving swiftly on in a ‘nothing for me, here’ kind of way (and assuming you aren’t already a disciplined time manager), I invite you to start exploring the art of time management in a meaningful way by either reading my posts and/or book, or exploring other writers’ and trainers’ products and offerings.

No need to splash the cash, yet. Just go on YouTube and look up David Allen on GTD, or Carl Pullein, or the Productivity Ninja, or FranklinCovey, or one of the many other providers of free input on how to manage yourself in terms of your productivity.

This is not a suggestion that you can do more than you already are doing; I know you are very, very busy.

This is a suggestion that you can do what you have to do, but in a less stressful, more organised and structured fashion. You’re productive and stressed. Wouldn’t it be nice to just be productive without the add-on?

I can’t force you – you have to decide for yourself whether what you are currently doing (or not doing) is serving you. I’m not even suggesting you spend any money – there’s enough free advice out there.

Word of warning on that front, however. When you start looking into it and find the inevitable truth that this stuff works, you may choose to invest a few quid in a book. My advice, therefore, is to find the one that you think will serve you best, and then master what is taught before thinking about the next book. You’d be surprised how you can get bogged down in different philosophies, only to discover that they all pretty much espouse the same ideas.

Me? I used Stephen Covey’s ‘First Things First’ for vision, values and self-leadership input, and I use David Allen’s ‘Getting Things Done’ for the reality of day to day productivity. I’ve never got so much done, and I’ve never been so organised and productive without stress, as I am today.

If you’re struggling with a heavy workload, I’d suggest getting a grip first and then, when there’s a lull, start reading the self-leadership stuff. (That’s why my book Police Time Management does things that way – deal with the reality of the now first, and then plan your future second.)

You may choose to do the same, or you might find something different that suits you.

But one thing’s for certain.

If you keep doing what isn’t working for you now, you have only yourself to blame if you don’t explore a better alternative.

Trust Saves Time. Try It.

“Assume good intentions. Your deeply held beliefs about someone will create the tone for any interactions you have” Stephen Covey

Following on from yesterday’s article, where I addressed your being proactive and taking responsibility for the quality of your relationships as an ethical means of saving time lost through misunderstandings, part of that proactivity means being willing to be vulnerable and to trust the others in the relationship have the same or related intent towards the achievement of the outcomes you are looking to achieve.

How much time have you spent judging someone’s capabilities, intent, motivations and character based on a third party’s tittle tattle?

In the early 1980s, future World F1 Champion Nigel Mansell was contracted to drive for the Williams GP team, to partner ex-World Champion and Williams’ stalwart driver Keke Rosberg. Rosberg was clearly unhappy about the situation, but by the middle of their first season together Rosberg apologised to Mansell for listening to the bad-mouthing about Nigel that he had initially believed to be true. He found Nigel to be a brilliant team-mate, not the arrogant Englishman that others had professed him to be.

For many years – and I can relate the examples if called upon to do so – I suffered from such character assassination. I know this because the people I worked with and who actually witnessed what I was capable of, eventually told me the same thing. “We were told you were…… and now I know that you aren’t.” This went on when I was a ‘boy’ on a pop delivery round, when I was a uniformed police constable, and later again when I was first a divisional CID Detective and later a fraud specialist. I kept having to correct others’ misconceptions about me. And I did it by – just being me.

Now, imagine if that happened to you.

How would you feel about that?

And now ask yourself if you believe what other people are saying about someone you’ve yet to meet. How would that affect your first interaction?

And more to the point, could you start that relationship by saying to yourself, “I’m giving this person the same blank slate, respectful opportunity that I would like them to give me.”

Yes, sometimes that approach will kick you in the butt. But I am willing to bet that more often than not, the relationship will grow rather than diminish, just because you assumed positive intent and capability on the part of that new colleague.

Trust saves time. Try it.

Proactivity in Relationships – the greatest time saver of all?

“Success is always inside-out.” Stephen Covey

In that quote, Stephen Covey was not writing about ‘success’ in terms of wealth creation, awards, plaudits or promotion. He was writing about the most important successes of all – the ones we create with other people. Again, what has that to do with time management?

I cannot emphasise enough the idea that success with people is the greatest success of all. I say this because everything we do, we do with people, for people, or because of people. So success with people is a precursor to success in all of the sub-sectors outlined in the first sentence of this blog.

But where does success with other people come from? What is the source of good relationships?

Every relationship that you have has an essential ingredient within it, without which the relationship would not exists. It is ……

You.

Which means that you have to take responsibility for the way you enter into, treat, develop and ultimately grow that relationship. You have to acknowledge that for all the things that you want from the other person or persons in the relationship, they are not going to provide it willingly unless you do your part to the best of your ability.

Which includes asking in the right way, acknowledging the importance of the other person, respecting their needs as much as you do your own, and clarifying expectations so that what you get and what they get is what was expected from both parties. Take responsibility for ensuring no later misunderstandings, and in the all-too-frequent event that mistakes are made, be willing to accept your own part in that misunderstanding.

That’s what Covey meant by ‘inside-out’. He meant you do your part first, and then the external, influenceable but not controllable other party can do their part.

In the same vein, when the other party is the one making the request, the inside-out approach means taking your own responsibility for making sure that there are no misunderstandings. You do that y asking clarifying questions, and making sure that the desired outcome, the resources, the accountabilities, and the potential consequences are all firmly discussed before action is taken.

How does that affect time management?

By preventing you having to do the ‘thing’ all over again; from having to take the time to correct mistakes; from having to explain to the Judge why you did/didn’t do what you did; or from explaining yourself at a disciplinary hearing.

Take responsibility in all your relationships, personal AND professional.

You know, in your heart, that it is the only way to make them great and productive.

The Time Saved Through Congruence

“The responses of others reflect not only how they see us, but also how well they feel we do those things that are important to them.” Stephen Covey

This is an interesting quote, one which initially looks as though (again) it has no time management connotation. But it makes me think of all those criminals I dealt with, the ones who went from hating the police to actually liking me. A few come to mind, including the repeat juvenile offender who I arrested numerous times, who one day said to a colleague, “I like that PC Palmer – but don’t you tell him I said.”

Build a relationship with others that is based on congruence.

Charles R Hobbs, author or the original ‘TimePower’, proposed that when our behaviours are totally in keeping with our personal and professional values, we are congruent – which is another worked for integrity. We can be relied upon to act in a certain way, and thus we are seen to be trustworthy. Worthy of being trusted.

Within the confines of the police station it means colleagues and managers can rely upon us to do things in a way that they have come to expect – in a personal example my supervisors knew I was willing to question things, but they also knew that my questioning was always backed up with evidence. They knew I was ‘good’ with using computers to find out ‘stuff’ and they knew that when they asked me to do something I got it done (even if they had to get past my moaning about it, first).

The criminals also knew I was firm, but fair. I never lashed out, I always treated them by the book and if I promised something, they got it.

In both internal and external examples, the trusting nature of the relationships that developed saved immense amounts of ‘will he, won’t he’ thinking time. In light of Covey’s quote, their being treated consistently by me was as much the bedrock of the relationship as were the actual mechanics of the situation in which we were involved.

When someone knows they can ask you to do a certain thing, knowing you will do it well, then there is a lot of time saved in detailing the rules applicable to that request. And in the case of the suspects, there was a whole lot of interview time saved, as well.

My advice, therefore, is to be consistent in the way you behave towards people. Eventually – and trustworthiness takes time to be noticed – people will know you well enough to call upon you when they need something, and at the same time know what part they need to play in the relationship.

You see, I also noticed that being reliable and trustworthy towards others meant that they would give me the things I wanted and need, as well. Not because I was manipulative – that is something I never wished to develop – but because they wanted to provide me with what they felt I had earned.

Being congruent is rewarding.

Believe me.

Feedback is NOT breakfast. But it’s just as important.

“Because of its value, some people have called feedback ‘the breakfast of champions’. But it isn’t the breakfast; it’s the lunch. Vision is the breakfast. Self-correction is the dinner.  Without the vision we have no context for feedback; we’re just responding to what someone else values or wants. (-) With a clear sense of vision and mission, we can use feedback to help us achieve a greater integrity.” Stephen Covey.

I have been a Public Speaker since 2006. I have mentored other speakers. I have won and judged local speech and evaluation competitions, I have won and lost competitions at local and national level. I have spoken at large and small gatherings, and I have taught Leadership to 104 13-year-olds in one go.

However, I was recently humbled by some ‘feedback’.

Having just completed the requirements of one particular speaking Award I was on a roll, so I decided that the next thing to do was to start working on the next qualification. I tried an ‘Impromptu Speech’, where I was given three alternative subjects to choose from, then ten minutes to prepare a 5-minute speech on the subject I selected. Easy peasy, done it before.

But I bombed. The feedback was not quite the glowing reference I expected.

My evaluator ripped me a new one. To say my flabber was ghasted, and my crest fell, would be an understatement. I listened to the critique, thinking, “I thought you were my friend!” as he tore apart my structure (there was one, I swear) and nearly everything else I’d done. To be clear, advice was given, to which I listened with a steely, blameworthy gaze that I pretended was my poker-face. I was, to say the least, abashed.

For about three minutes.

My abashment only lasted that long because – he was right.

After the meeting I went to my evaluator and told it like it was – that it was refreshing, for once, to hear a blunt, frank, critical evaluation that wasn’t tinged with an unwillingness to say what needed to be said.

That was the point of the evaluation. And it was also a sobering yet appropriate reminder that for all our experience and wonderfully ego-feeding successes, we all still have things to learn.

I still hate feedback. The same guy gave me feedback again, last night. And again, he provided some considered criticism. But (again) the dismay only lasted until I got over the emotion of being nagged because he was right, again, and I can take the information provided and use it to get better.

So I am better off. I learned something about speaking and about myself, as do we all when we listen to criticism without the filter of self-defence.

What has this got to do with time management? When we get better because we listen to feedback, we save the time needed to correct mistakes. We develop improved systems for dealing with inputs. We reduce the need for the same criticisms to be made and defended a second, third or fourth time. We get better so we get faster, and we get more productive without the stress. And we use less time to achieve the same desired outcomes.

As a result of the feedback, I now know that that every cloud has a silver lining. Which was, ironically, the subject I had to choose from the three. If only I’d had this story to put in the speech…………

For more on time management and stress-free productivity, read Police Time Management.

Why People Sometimes Hate Good News

In the past couple of weeks, two events raised my awareness about why people occasionally resist what to others may appear to be an awesome opportunity. See if you can relate to this.

For many years, I was complaining to a colleague that I was bored. I’d written all the books I could think of at that point, I could only exercise ‘so much’, and while I was willing to work I was reluctant to apply for jobs for reasons which I won’t dwell upon, here. Basically, I was waiting for some event to come to me rather than making it happen. I know – not quite the personal development advice I give others, but I have my reasons and I’m not exactly on the breadline – I can be a little bit choosy.

Eventually, comes the call from the same colleague – would I like six weeks work, starting the following Monday?

My response dismayed him – “Yes, but I have things arranged so I have to sort those out and (so on).” We later chatted and he opined that after all this time of moaning about boredom, he was surprised and a tad irked that I hadn’t bitten his hand off in quite the anticipated fashion. Pause there.

This week, my son and his partner finally managed to find and rent a house. The original set moving in date was at the end of the month, but she got the call saying the landlord was eager to move them in (i.e. start earning, fair enough) and brought the moving date forward 10 days. Overjoyed, she rang my son who had just ‘passed out’ in his new job and was enjoying the shift-based work, which had a bit of a commute, and he’s still in his probationary period. I only caught her end of the conversation, but her response to whatever he said was much the same as my friend’s response was to what I had said. Lack of immediate and unrestrained joy.

That’s when it hit me. The reason for our reluctance and, I believe, the reason why people resist new impositions, and why they aren’t fond of even great change the moment it is announced.

We haven’t had time to make a plan and all we can see – in the moment – is that our commitments to ourselves and to others need to be rebalanced and that may involve disappointing people, altering appointments, changing personal plans, and other changes.

All of which we can actually do, but we need to time to think about how to do them.

In my case, I had to work out how to fit commitments I had made to family members into the proposed working week. It was do-able, and given time I could have done it. (As it was, the job was delayed two weeks and no changes were necessary.) In my son’s case, he had to take time to look at this shift pattern, see when he was available, and if leave was required, to ask for it. Again, in the event, no leave was needed. But between ‘here’s good news’ and ‘I’m all set, let’s go’ , there’s the momentary ‘oh-oh, I need to change my plans’ to be addressed.

When we make a commitment, either to ourselves or more importantly to others, we are putting our integrity on the line, even if only a little bit, and only if viewed subjectively. (Other people don’t care about our integrity if our lack of congruence suits their plans. As long as we don’t disappoint them, we are expected to disappoint others.)

We HATE doing that, and the sudden imposition or opportunity, and most specifically our ‘reluctant response’ to it, should be seen in that light. Yes, I have ‘objections’ but all they are, in the light of day, is us thinking out loud while we start to plan how to deal with the change. You can’t make that plan until you’ve identified the proble, which is all we are doing when outlining our ‘resistance’.

So, next time you announce something to somebody and their reaction isn’t quite the joyous whoop of delight you expected, just give them time to adjust. People invariably do – because they don’t want to disappoint you, either.

Just accept that their surprising reaction really isn’t that surprising at all. It’s just thinking out loud.

Stop Complaining That You’re Busy If You Aren’t Willing To Do Anything About It

I’m curious.

Why?

Why do I get the impression that you aren’t doing what you know you should, but are resisting?

In his book “The Success Principles”, author Jack Canfield defines complaining as ‘seeing a better way but being unwilling to do anything about it.’ I know that’s true because I do it, too. He adds that we don’t complain about things we know we can do nothing about, because we ain’t daft. We only complain about things we could affect – but won’t/don’t.

(I was about to add can’t to that short list, but that would be a lie. We just use can’t as an excuse.)

Canfield suggests that our resistance to acting on our complaint is essentially a case of our being risk averse (ironically something we ALL complain is the case with the police service!). the risk is that we may have to commit and, in some cases, be open to criticism, have to change our firmly-set minds, put on a sweat, or experience some other discomfort.

In a lot of cases, we avoid all those things even when what is on their other side is something we know is better.

Question: At any time in the past month, in a personal or professional sense, have you said, “I don’t have time for…..” in the firm knowledge that you really DO have time – but simply aren’t willing to find it?

And yet….

If I followed that question up with, “What training or study into the management of time, or personal productivity, have you undertaken, been provided (and not implemented), or even considered?”

I was on a coaching call the other day, and someone mentioned how they had a goal of better managing their time. I asked, “What books or methods have you studied on time management, up until now?”

None. Not one. No wonder they couldn’t manage their time, they hadn’t taken the time to read even one of the many books on the subject. I recommended my current favourite, an immensely practical book (not mine).

So I ask another question: Are you complaining that you have too much to do and no time to do it – but haven’t done anything about your own ‘time management’, other than make that ever-expanding To Do List on a sheet of A4 or your smartphone?

That’s the ‘you’ equivalent of an administration saying that the new method WILL WORK even though they haven’t actually asked you – the expert – if it will work in your own situation. As once happened to me when, in a room full of desk-focused workers we were told that hot-desking would work. No it wouldn’t, no it didn’t. They hadn’t even assessed our working practices to see if that was so. So they pretended we were doing it, and left us alone.

So here’s a thought. If you are busy and complaining about it, consider doing something about it, even if it’s only spending a couple of quid on learning a better way.

There is no physical, reputational or organisational threat to doing so. I promise.

A book on time management specifically directed towards police officers and staff is available HERE at Amazon, only £12.99, as big as a Blackstone’s, with website support.

Will you do something about how busy you are - apart from complaining?

Step Out To Be More Present

The open office is a blessing – and a curse.

As a means of socialising the workplace so that teams can bond, support each other and solve problems as a cohesive unit, an open plan workspace is second to none. People laugh together, hold each other accountable while being constantly on hand to help with advice and a spare pair of hands, and they can see when a colleague needs more than just presence, and needs to be provided with emotional support. Perfection!

As a means of engendering constant interruptions, enabling people to pass you telephone calls when you really don’t want one, and ensuring that you can hear the snorting of a cold-ridden colleague who swallows rather than blows his nose, it’s equally perfect.

I think it would be fair to say, as well, that it is front line staff who work in those environments, while the higher up the ladder you go, and the less ‘interruption-prone’ your work, the more likely that you will have a ‘door’ and ‘walls’ to help you avoid the aforementioned challenges. *  

I can’t change that. Hierarchies will always exist, and perhaps they exist for good reason.

The answer?

Your circumstances may hamper application of this idea, but if you can utilise it I guarantee a less stressful environment, albeit temporary.

Get out. Wherever I have worked, I have always been able to find and occupy an ‘empty room’. Consider where you work. Are there rooms you could use when their normal occupant/s are away?

  • CID offices during major incidents will have empty desks.
  • Administrators offices at weekends will invariably be empty.
  • Inspectors and other senior officers rooms are empty when they are on Rest days.
  • There’s probably a car that isn’t being used that you could take to a quiet car park and use the time productively.

(And yes, when you’re really overwhelmed, taking that car on a patrol specifically to have some self-serving quiet time is a perfectly valid use of that kit. Just don’t abuse the privilege.)

“But what if I am needed?” I hear you ask.

You have probably been equipped with a radio or smartphone that makes you available if something comes up that truly requires your input. But it’s amazing how your absence reduces the number of times you are ‘needed’ by other people. Suddenly, they take messages when people call. They seek help elsewhere. And you get more done so that when you do have time, it is time you can use to help others, too.

Yes, quiet time out of the office enables you to be more present when you have to be in the office.

It is actually a good thing to be elsewhere when you need to get things done.

Why else would WFH have been a (temporary) good thing?

*That said, I am equally amazed at how many office-dwellers complain about constant walk-ins. I once suggested to a Detective Sergeant that he close his office door to avoid ad-hoc visitors and he later told me it was the best time management advice he’d ever been given.

For more stress management idea, buy Police Time Management, available HERE at Amazon.

There is a simple answer to open-office challenges.

It’s NOT Just A Phone

The smartphone age is still in its relative infancy, yet Gen Z police officers and staff are pretty much well up on how to use these infernal devices. But if I were to stereotype their use it would primarily be to suggest that their focus is on the communications capabilities and their use to research and pay for all the things that millennials want, like the coffee that they like to take for walks.

Anyway, just like the dinosaurs among us, what they don’t use them for is organising and planning. Or they don’t use them optimally. Now I can’t be all holier-than-thou because I’m only just getting better at that, myself, because I have been a paper planner for thirty years. But it is clear that smartphones are a very good, albeit expensive way to manage the four elements of time management – tasks, appointments, notes and contacts.

In my book Police Time Management, I cover how to run (weaponise?) your TANC utilising your smartphone. I learned by experimentation. Many policing organisations rely on you to do the same: I know my last laptop course included mention and promotion of, but absolutely no actual input on, Microsoft OneNote. ‘Learn that yourself’, seemed to be the idea, just as it was the training approach (at least for ‘my generation’) for MS Word, Excel, PowerPoint and other extremely valuable tools.

I suspect you will have to learn how to better use your phone the same way – hit, miss, adjust aim, try again. So my book will save you some of the heartache and stress that the DIY approach entails.

But just to provide you with a heads-up on how you might not be using your phone to its maximum (and remember that this advice applies to your personal as well as your work devices), I wonder how many of you use the Calendar app to its fullest.

Do you use, or even disable the alarm notification each time you make an appointment? Some need alarms, some don’t, but many users have a default position either way that causes stress, like a loud bonging in Crown Court Number 1, right in the middle of the Judge’s summing-up.

Do you add critical files to appointments as you make them, when you know you’ll need those documents at the appointment? Failing that, do you keep such files in OneNote or Evernote and create a link between the appointment and that entry (app permitting)? Do you add contact details relating to the appointment in the appointment entry – all suggestions which can result in a one-app approach to managing the calendar related activity.

And, from a data protection perspective, do you delete all ‘used’ information from an appointment – and the appointment itself – on completion of the work at hand? (I cover why that is Disclosure-compliant in the book, too.)

Finally, do/can you use an app that is available across platforms? I’m using Google Calendar (because I have an Android phone and Outlook just doesn’t quite cut it) and it means I can access that (and MS To-Do) on my desktop, laptop, tablet and phone, and all synch automatically so that what I need is always where I need it – in other words, wherever I happen to be, and therefore whenever something arises that needs recording, organising, executing or otherwise acting upon.

I might be preaching to the choir, I know. But seeing colleagues typing with their thumbs at infinity MPH would be impressive if they could manage their TANCs with as much dexterity. It’s not the fault of the individual (in the main), it’s the failure of the organisation to teach time management properly. But, as that individual, you can take responsibility for improving your self-management capabilities.

That’s entirely up to you.