Do you want to be Smarter, Faster, Better?

As some of you may already know, this month I had the book Smarter, Faster, Better by Charles Duhigg on my reading list. I picked up this book via Audible as soon as I heard it has been released on audiobook because I was such a fan of Duhigg’s first book, The Power of Habit. For his second book, Duhigg aimed his focus on the topic of productivity and like his first book, used a selection of case studies to illustrate situations where following or ignoring certain essential productivity principles lead to triumph or disaster. The interesting this about this book, however, is that the productivity principles discussed aren’t exactly the topics you normally think of when you think productivity like list making and setting timers, they are much more scientific and psychological, and like in The Power of Habit, speak to the essence of human nature and how we can learn to control it. There were a number of principles covered in the book, some that pertained to personal productivity and others that were relevant for businesses and teams, but there were three major productivity concepts that really spoke to me and I want to share those with you now.

1. Locus of Control

Reading through the chapter on motivation, Duhigg discussed the concept of the locus of control and how to stimulate your own internal locus of control to inspire you to get things done. What I had remembered of this concept from college psych that Duhigg illustrated via a story of how the U.S. Army trains new recruits was that the locus of control is the degree to which people believe they have control over their own lives. If you have a strong internal locus of control, you see the correlation between your actions and your life and are probably naturally a more productive person. People who have an external locus of control, on the other hand, do not see how their day to day actions affect their lives and often believe that a greater power dictates there situation. If something good happens to them, it was a gift from God, if something bad happens, it was a streak of bad luck- is how the thinking goes for example. The jist is, if you feel like you have power over your life, you are more likely to achieve more than someone who feels powerless or as though someone else has the wheel in their life. Now, to get back the internal locus of control, you need to take power back and motivate yourself into action, and Duhigg explains that you can do this two ways. First, you can frame the actions of your life as choices that put you in control of the outcome. Need to work on an important presentation at work, but keep getting distracted? Give yourself a choice to make like “Work on the reports first or design the slides?” By giving yourself a specific choice to make towards the option, you are taking back the internal locus of control to motivate yourself to act. The second way you can motivate yourself is to explain to yourself why you need to do something and tie it to something you value. For example “I need to work on this presentation now because if I do a good job and win the client, I can ask my boss for a raise!” So the next time you need to motivate yourself, try stimulating your locus of control with one or both of these methods.

2. Cognitive Closure

The need for cognitive closure was a new concept to me, but one I could recognize in my own life. Essentially, to varying degrees, humans experience a need for firm answers and decision making, and some people experience this need more so than others- hello type-A over here must always have cognitive closure or she goes nuts! So, essentially, the need for cognitive closure isn’t a bad or good thing, it’s just a human thing, and what can tend to happen is that those who have a high desire for it, tend to be better workers because they get things done and finish tasks. However, and this is a big however, sometimes the need for closure can cause people to avoid taking the right path or making the right decisions because those paths or decisions may create ambiguity. Now, the way I interpreted this whole discussion for my own personal productivity is that sometimes I avoid doing things that I don’t know how to do, or close myself off to opportunities because I’m not sure I see where they are going. I’d prefer to stay on a firm path and because of that, I may make decisions that make sense but are too safe. Now, in order to get yourself out of this mindset, the best thing to do is to find a mental model.  Mental models are examples that you can use to evaluate how you should be doing something. I’ve said this many times before here on my blog, but until you try something you don’t know how to do it. This is why experience is so highly valued in the workplace, not just because it means you have been in a specific situation before, but because you have a breadth of other experiences to help you model different situations that may be new to you. So, if you are setting yourself goals or trying to accomplish something new and your sense of reason is holding you back, find a mental model, an example, an anecdote, anything that will help guide you so know if you are on the right track!

3. Idea Brokering

I think by far this is my favorite concept from the book, and although I see this as more of a problem-solving technique than a true productivity strategy, I think more people need to understand and utilize it. Duhigg introduced the concept of idea brokering with a story about how West Side Story was developed into one of the best known and highly celebrated musicals of all time by some of the best minds across the genres of opera, ballet and musical theater. Essentially, idea brokering is a way of solving problems and creating innovation by taking inspiration from solutions in one area of study and applying them to a different area. We see examples of this all the time. Engineers who design vehicles that mimic the aerodynamics of birds, scientists who use viruses to create new living tissue, and designers who develop new faucet systems based off automotive valves. Idea brokers use an interdisciplinary knowledge to find creative solutions, and the way that you achieve this is by disrupting your own thought patterns and forcing yourself to look a problem from another angle. Now, most of you reading this probably aren’t worried about innovative design ideas, but you can apply this to issues in your own life when you have a problem, by forcing yourself into another perspective. Ask yourself how someone else might approach the problem, like a  friend or family member. Ask someone else to look at your problem and give you feedback. Or ask yourself if you know of any situation that your current problem reminds you of. Then, compare and contrast the situations to see if you can approach solving your new problem based on how you overcame a slightly different situation.

Overall, Smarter, Faster, Better definitely lived up to high standard set by Duhigg in The Power of Habit. In both books, he approached a common subject by illustrating uncommon strategies through compelling story telling and interesting case studies. If you haven’t read either book yet, I would suggest picking them up for an eye opening experience!

xoxo,