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The Glue That Keeps High-Performance Teams Together

Culture is not the ping-pong table.Culture is not the Keurig.Culture is not the ability to hang out with the people on your team after work.

Somehow, this is what many people think.

Culture is “Do you believe what I believe?”Culture is the alignment of core values.Culture is how we treat each other when it gets hard.

This is the glue that makes great teams excel.

No team can withstand the barometric pressure at the altitude of high-performance without having the trust and support of good culture.People don’t leave bad jobs, they leave bad managers.

2 Minute Action

Who is someone you haven’t connected with deeply in a while?Who is someone that maybe is on the outskirts of your team and is waiting to be included?Take 2 minutes to say “hi,” today. Ask them about something they are interested in. Make sure you don’t walk away without them knowing you care about them.That’s culture.Recognizing others and making people around you know that you value them.

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What Is Productivity Overhead?

woman biting pencil with anxiety from productivity overhead

woman biting pencil with anxiety experiencing productivity overhead
Photo by JESHOOTS.COM on Unsplash

You already know about productivity overhead, you just have been calling it something else.

Just like a business' overhead (the costs needed to cover salaries, rent, the electric bill, etc. etc.) . . .

. . . your productivity has overhead.

You need to sleep, eat, exercise, play, be social, etc. etc.

You will almost never get a productive output during those actions--but we can agree that they're important to stay high-functioning.

But wait, I want to be at peak performance!

Stop for a second and read that last sentence again. Peak performance is a small, temporary spike on the graph. It's not feasible to sustain peak performance.

2 Types of Productivity Overhead

Sure, Hussein Bolt can run the 100m in just a few seconds--but how long would it take him to run a mile? It's not reasonable to expect that he would be able to keep up the same pace.

To make it to the finish line, we will either have to:

  1. Take breaks in between (pit stops).
  2. Move slower (pace).

Knowing this, consider the cost of your productivity overhead when you take on a new task, close out a contract, or take a vacation.

In order to set reasonable goals and objectives, you will need to consider all the pit stops you'll need to take along the way as well as the pace at which you burn energy.

It needs to be built into the profit margin, just like a product.

When you start looking at your time and energy this way, your mindset will help you create a more functional budget.

I want to challenge you for a second.

If you're like me, you're probably also having thoughts of "well, maybe that's true, but I think I could run full speed for a while."

You might be right!

But consider that stupid mistakes are easier to make when you're tired. Consider what kind of work habits you want to develop. I hear people say things like "when x happens, then I'll start doing y."

"When I have more money, then I'll start investing."

"When I have more time, then I'll start a company."

"When I retire, then I'll start traveling."

You know what I'm about to say.

This is no way to live. You're missing out on life, opportunity, and the power of compounding interest!

So, I'll say it again just to drive this home:

Consider your productivity overhead, which is the recovery time required for achieving goals in a healthy and satisfying way.

Of course, this doesn't just apply to productivity in your work. Check out this post on emotional productivity, a huge blind spot for most people.

This budget, coupled with the discipline of doing the work, will position you for high-quality output.

2 Minute Action

Here's a quick exercise to determine your current productivity overhead and start measuring what a "healthy" productivity overhead ratio looks like.

Take 2 minutes to count your day in half-hours.

You've got 48, half-hour blocks per day.

Write them out and fill in what you're currently doing during each of those chunks.

Take a ratio of "productive hours" to "non-productive" or "overhead" hours.

If you're a consultant, this is like comparing billable-hours with non-billable-hours.

Once you have your day outlined, great! How did that feel?

Everyone is different, so it's up to you to define your optimal ratio. There's no right or wrong answer to this. It's just up to you to measure where you are and know yourself enough to say "this isn't healthy" or "I need to add some overhead if I'm going to make it through this project."

The numbers don't matter, but the results do.

Today is the day. You can start right now and it only takes 2 minutes.

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Your Ping Pong Table Is Not Your Culture

Let's make something crystal clear.Company culture is NOT how many Nerf guns are in your office.It’s not about having a ping-pong table.It's not the kitchen, the snacks, the sweet standing desks, or the Keurig, either.Company culture is how you treat each other when the work gets hard, when the environment changes or when the house of cards crumbles.Company culture is putting in the emotional labor required to respect others and to keep grinding together.That said, you’re allowed to feel frustrated, angry, upset, sad, envious, all of it. You’re allowed to feel however you feel because that’s how feelings work. The next thing that happens though, is the important part. The next thing that happens after your feel something is how you react.The important part is how you choose to react to your work family when you’re operating on little sleep, a bagel, and 3 layovers.The important part is being the bad guy and calling out your teammates for not following safety protocols you all agreed on together.The important part is pulling a teammate aside to figure out why they aren’t acting like themselves.The important part is realizing you’re not acting like yourself and changing your behavior.The important part is working through the most critical problems first, even if you’d rather be working on something else.In fact, this is more than company culture. This is an Operating Religion.An Operating Religion is the world-view, values, and actions we choose to hold in order to best serve our clients, customers, teammates and the other humans on this pale, blue planet.This is the belief system we use to show up as our best selves and build something much bigger than ourselves.When we are a united front, that's when we do our best work.When we're committed to each other, that's when we get things done.When we're honest with each other, that's when we have the best output.

2 Minute Action

If you work on a team or if you fly solo, you've got culture.Culture is your religion. It's the value system you're obsessed with.Not sure what your values actually are? Run a quick Google search for Values Assessments. There are plenty that are used in high-functioning organizations.Start with this one.If you can already name your top 3-5, put them down in a list.Next to them, write one thing that you will do today that's in line with your values.Example:- Kindness - (Write a thank you letter and hand it to the mechanic who saved you $40 at your last visit)- Friendship - (Set up a skype call with a friend overseas to catch up)- Usefulness - (Donate something that you don't use or need anymore)

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