Workarounds That Work: How to Conquer Anything That Stands in Your Way at Work

On the work front, many of us have tasks to perform that lack the kind of clarity found in exercising, especially in terms of a defined purpose, outcome, and deliverable. If you can assign yourself these attributes for your work, you may notice that you actually start to feel the same kind of response as when you exercise.

Start by reviewing your list of tasks, projects, or to-dos, and then ask these three questions about each item you have cited: 1. Who needs this done? 2. Why do they need it? 3. What difference will it make?

There’s an old saying from the early days of the personal growth movement that applies here: 99 percent is a bitch, 100 percent is a breeze.

whenever you encounter a roadblock of any kind, look to yourself first. I suggest that in just about any situation, your ability to respond (response-ability) will be a function of your ability to control what you can, to influence what you can, and to simply respond to the rest.

What do exercise and refrigerators have to do with workarounds? In the world of work, unfinished tasks, projects, and objectives all hold a certain amount of your mental energy, attention, or focus. When you get something done, whatever energy, attention, or focus you had invested in that incomplete item is released and becomes available to you. In

Before you can accurately analyze your choices, you need a complete list of what’s on your plate right now.

Let’s back up a couple of steps and revisit the notion of control, influence, and respond, which was introduced in the first chapter. Sometimes the biggest improvement opportunities start right at your own desk. On many occasions, I have seen apparently large organizational stumbling blocks virtually dissolve as a result of the exercise of asking t

If an organization is going to efficiently change directions, adopt new strategies, or simply set new goals, a worthwhile exercise would be to ask three basic pruning questions: • Based on the new direction, strategy, or goal, what should we start doing? • Based on the new direction, strategy, or goal, what should we stop doing? • Based on the new

Accountability is simply a way of owning the outcome, recognizing what’s in front of you, and then taking the next best step you can.