The deficiency of efficiency
It's a draft of TM speech #9
Number 9... Number 9... Number 9...
Fellow ToastMasters! It took me 9 speeches to realize I only have one speech to give. I was talking about cooking, negotiations, technology, motivation, weight loss, growth mindset, but I was just beating around the bush. This is the speech I wanted to give forever. This is the city where I need to tell my story. In a speech number 9 I am supposed to persuade my audience. Well I must be suicidal, because I'm trying to convince a bunch of new yorkers in a middle of New York to stop being efficient. But hey, all I have is 5 minutes of your time and an urge to tell a story so I'd better get to it. First, we'll go back in time to see what's wrong with efficiency. Then we'll try to find some alternatives for it, and finally, I'll show you how the decision to stop being efficient changed my life.
Nimrod was leading a high profile real estate development project in ancient Babylonia. He motivated the personnel with a catchy slogan: "let's make a name for ourselves". People usually have names, so by "ourselves" he must have meant his Ego. The name of the project was "The tower of Babel", and it's a classic business case, every MBA knows about it. They say when one of the builders would accidentally fall from the tower of Babel and die, people would keep on working, paying no attention. But if a brick would fall down and shatter, everyone would sit down and cry : "What a brick did we lose! When could we possible get another one like it!"
Nimrod wanted his headcount to be efficient. He cared about project timeline and bricks. The project failed by the way.
Now look outside: there are many towers out there big and small, and many managers, big and small urge you to "make a name for 'ourselves' " by being more efficient. Would they sit down and cry if you burn out? And if you missed a deadline?
Efficiency is concerned with getting the job done on time and on budget. And it's a useful tool. Take a car for example. There are gages on the dashboard and you should not ignore them: there's a clock: Do I have time?
There's fuel efficiency: how much gas am I spending? There's speed: how fast am I going? There's engine RPMs: is the engine used efficiently?
But there's no gage for: Is this where I want to go? There's no gage for: you're tired. You need to get more sleep. There's no gage for: get out of the car and walk into the woods.
Some things are easier to measure. Others are hard to measure , hard to predict, hard to do.
Growing is hard. Building things that matter is hard. Choosing is hard.
So when you attempt to do those hard things just forget about efficiency.
Think about effectiveness: am I doing the right things? Is this where I want to go?
Think about integrity: am I doing things right? Do I want to win or do I want to play nice?
Think about presence: Your Presence is your Profession. There are people around you. They are complex and interesting. They are hard to measure and hard to predict. But if you stay present, and stay honest, they'll keep you straight.
Before I decided to join Toast Masters I was an efficient speaker: I was dumping a lot of data on my audience, I did not like speaking, but when I did speak I was talking about everything at the same time, and would loose my audience in the middle of the first sentence.
I did not change much. I don't know how much can I change. It's hard to measure. It's hard to do. It's hard to choose what goes into a speech and what stays out. It's hard to stop and breathe when you deliver a speech.
But I don't worry about being efficient any more. I work on my effectiveness, I try to maintain my integrity, and well, I'm present here so keep me straight.
Number 9... Number 9... Number 9...
Fellow ToastMasters! It took me 9 speeches to realize I only have one speech to give. I was talking about cooking, negotiations, technology, motivation, weight loss, growth mindset, but I was just beating around the bush. This is the speech I wanted to give forever. This is the city where I need to tell my story. In a speech number 9 I am supposed to persuade my audience. Well I must be suicidal, because I'm trying to convince a bunch of new yorkers in a middle of New York to stop being efficient. But hey, all I have is 5 minutes of your time and an urge to tell a story so I'd better get to it. First, we'll go back in time to see what's wrong with efficiency. Then we'll try to find some alternatives for it, and finally, I'll show you how the decision to stop being efficient changed my life.
Nimrod was leading a high profile real estate development project in ancient Babylonia. He motivated the personnel with a catchy slogan: "let's make a name for ourselves". People usually have names, so by "ourselves" he must have meant his Ego. The name of the project was "The tower of Babel", and it's a classic business case, every MBA knows about it. They say when one of the builders would accidentally fall from the tower of Babel and die, people would keep on working, paying no attention. But if a brick would fall down and shatter, everyone would sit down and cry : "What a brick did we lose! When could we possible get another one like it!"
Nimrod wanted his headcount to be efficient. He cared about project timeline and bricks. The project failed by the way.
Now look outside: there are many towers out there big and small, and many managers, big and small urge you to "make a name for 'ourselves' " by being more efficient. Would they sit down and cry if you burn out? And if you missed a deadline?
Efficiency is concerned with getting the job done on time and on budget. And it's a useful tool. Take a car for example. There are gages on the dashboard and you should not ignore them: there's a clock: Do I have time?
There's fuel efficiency: how much gas am I spending? There's speed: how fast am I going? There's engine RPMs: is the engine used efficiently?
But there's no gage for: Is this where I want to go? There's no gage for: you're tired. You need to get more sleep. There's no gage for: get out of the car and walk into the woods.
Some things are easier to measure. Others are hard to measure , hard to predict, hard to do.
Growing is hard. Building things that matter is hard. Choosing is hard.
So when you attempt to do those hard things just forget about efficiency.
Think about effectiveness: am I doing the right things? Is this where I want to go?
Think about integrity: am I doing things right? Do I want to win or do I want to play nice?
Think about presence: Your Presence is your Profession. There are people around you. They are complex and interesting. They are hard to measure and hard to predict. But if you stay present, and stay honest, they'll keep you straight.
Before I decided to join Toast Masters I was an efficient speaker: I was dumping a lot of data on my audience, I did not like speaking, but when I did speak I was talking about everything at the same time, and would loose my audience in the middle of the first sentence.
I did not change much. I don't know how much can I change. It's hard to measure. It's hard to do. It's hard to choose what goes into a speech and what stays out. It's hard to stop and breathe when you deliver a speech.
But I don't worry about being efficient any more. I work on my effectiveness, I try to maintain my integrity, and well, I'm present here so keep me straight.