I am borrowing unashamedly from the impressive Ronan Harrington with this title and metaphor, impressive not least because of his hair (which rivals mine in terms of wilfulness), but also because of his ability to introduce concepts of real value to we worker bees.
I had the benefit of listening to Ronan back in October, helping us understand how to achieve peak performance personally and within teams. The premise is that to work better, we need to switch off in a very definite way. The research he quoted lists nine “burnout risk factors” and that anyone evidencing three or more is in the danger zone. I won’t write them here as you are all capable of researching these yourselves (see also the external quiz link at the foot of this note), but most people I know easily rack up four or more…
(I can’t help but hum ‘Danger Zone’ whilst writing this; any of you Top Gun fans out there, will know many of us are on the highway to the danger zone).
So, back to the title. When we are assailed from all sides by emails, Teams meetings, calls, social media, chats, etc etc, the best we can do with our workload is akin to mowing the lawn, keeping the growth down but not particularly revelling in the exercise, nor even particularly committing to it mentally and certainly not being creative. We are surviving not thriving.
Our own research at Remit Consulting, into productivity, has confirmed the pretty obvious fact that more effort/time does not equal more productivity/benefit, and this is supported by others’ research indicating there is a tipping point, beyond which time and effort become inversely proportional to performance.
In a previous blog, I ranted about too many meetings (FOBIA) and, so far as I can tell, this remains the status quo. Come on guys, there is empirical evidence to support the benefit of periods of deep rest to renew not only yourself but your creative output. The philosophy of switching off is not a socks-and-sandals mantra, it’s real, it’s necessary, it’s the only way of putting the fire out.
Go have a cuppa and reboot.
Take the (external) quiz to assess your risk and get strategies to stay resilient: https://lnkd.in/eZ5iUHEk.