Chapter 10 - Results Frame, Personas, and Pitfalls

From Getting Results | The Book

Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things. —Peter Drucker

In This Chapter

Learn about the Results Frame and how to use it as a lens for organizing and sharing information in the productivity space.
Learn key Productivity Personas.
Learn key Productivity Pitfalls.

The Results Frame provides a backdrop for organizing and sharing principles, patterns, and practices for results; think of it as a map of the territory. The frame itself is simply a set of Hot Spots. You can use the frame to organize your thinking, guide your learning, and provide a place to put new principles, patterns, and practices that you learn for productivity. This helps you evaluate new information while at the same time, reducing information overload. For example, you might find that you have plenty of techniques for task management, but you’re missing techniques for focus. By having a frame, you can evaluate your existing body of knowledge for strengths and weaknesses.

The Productivity Personas defines and names a common set of behaviors. By having a name for different personas, you can improve your self-awareness and be deliberate about which persona you choose to use for a given situation. For example, when you need to tackle a tough problem, you might choose your Thinker hat. When you need to take action, you might swap modes from Thinker to Doer. The power of personas is more than just a mental model for behaviors. You can also use the personas to improve teamwork, as well as improve your own effectiveness through more effective pairing. For example, if you’re a Starter, find yourself a good Finisher. If you’re a Maximizer, find yourself a good Simplifier.

The Productivity Pitfalls are common mistakes that get in the way of results. If you understand and recognize these pitfalls, you can respond more effectively. Awareness is the first step. You may be aware of some of the negative patterns, but this provides a robust set that you can use to identify problems you may be running into. One thing to keep in mind is that some problems may be due to the situation, while other problems may be due to your approach. It’s important that you don’t internalize situational problems. At the same time, it’s also important that you don’t think of yourself as a victim. Instead, simply recognize the problem and respond. Responding may simply be changing your expectations, or it may mean changing your approach, or even changing the situation. In any case, you’re never helpless. You always control your attitude and response, and that’s the most important point.

Results Frame—Hot Spots for Results

If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you’re not going to see it. Chunking up a problem makes it easier to tackle. You can use the following Results Frame to help you make sense of the results space:

Table 10.1 Results Frame

Hot Spot	Description
Action	How you take action and manage your activities towards results.
Efficiency and Effectiveness	How you manage the cost and speed of your results, as well as how you manage the quality of your results.
Energy Management	How you manage your energy in terms of thinking, feeling, and doing, as well as how you take care of your eating, sleeping, and working out.
Expectations	How you set and reset expectations with yourself and others.
Focus	How you focus your time, energy, and attention.
Goals and Objectives	How you set meaningful goals and objectives for your results.
Information Management	How you organize and manage information, as well as avoid information overload.
Learning	How you find the lessons, improve, and correct course.
Mindsets and Motivation	How you get your head in the game.
Planning	How you map out the work to be done.
Prioritizing	How you choose what’s more important.
Self-Awareness	How to improve your knowledge about yourself in terms of achieving results.
Self-Discipline	How you correct your behavior.
Task Management	How you manage your tasks and action items.
Time Management	How you manage and schedule your time.

The productivity space is a well-travelled path, but the problem is that some maps are better than others. You can think of the Results Frame as a map of categories or topics that are important—the Hot Spots for results. Each Hot Spot represents an actionable bucket. You can use this frame as a backdrop for finding, organizing and sharing your knowledge about getting results. By using an organizing frame, you can more effectively manage and prioritize large collections of information.

Productivity Personas

Personas are a simple way to share examples of the different types of behaviors. Anybody can be a mix of some or all of the various personas. No persona is good or bad. Some are more effective than others, depending on the situation. The key is to use the personas as a lens on behavior. You can analyze yourself, other people, and common interactions. We all have the capacity for the various behaviors. The trick is to know your preferences and the preferences of others. Here’s a set of personas relevant to the results space:

Table 10.2 Productivity Personas

Persona	Notes
Starter	Starts things but doesn’t always finish. Their energy comes from thinking up new ideas and kicking things off. Love prototyping an idea, but once they’ve figured it out, they’re ready to move on to something else.
Finisher	Brings things to closure. Effective finishers, complete things and move on. Is a fit and finish type of person. It’s finished when they say it’s finished.
Thinker	Is an “ideas” person. Thinking is what they do best. Analysis is their game, but doing is somebody else’s game. They don’t have to act on their thoughts to enjoy them.
Doer	Does their job. They tend to get their job done. They may not come up with new ideas, but they have a preference for taking action.
Simplifier	Finds the simplest path. Strips things down to the minimum. Good enough for now is OK in their book.
Maximizer	Finds the maximum impact.
Critic	Finds the faults. They’ll find ways why you can’t or why it’s wrong. They’ll critique themselves, their work, or their ideas. Anything is fair game.
Can Do	Finds a way. Where there’s a will, there’s a way, and they’ll find it. It may not be the optimal solution, but they’ll find a workaround.
Opportunist	Finds the opportunity in any situation.
Perfectionist	Treats everything like a work of art. Quality is their name, finishing isn’t their game. They’ll be done when it’s done. It will be done just as soon as it’s perfect. Whenever that is.
Details	Loves the details and will want to see things through. Dots the i’s and crosses the t’s. They’re passionate about spreadsheets.
Big Picture	Sees the forest from the trees. Likes the big ideas and doesn’t want to get lost in the minutia.
Facts and figures	Is a numbers person. They want quantifiable measurements. Like Details, they too like spreadsheets.
Controller	Likes to control things. This could be the Doers, the project, or their world.
Tinkerer	Likes to tinker. The world is their sandbox. Dabbles here, dabbles there.
Marketer	Communicates the value. Knows how to sell ideas.
Achiever	Likes to accomplish things.
Randomizer	Turns their latest priority into other people’s problems.
Daydreamer	Likes to dream up better ways for better days. They’d rather dream than do. They don’t have to act on their dreams to enjoy them.
Procrastinator	Finds way to put off to tomorrow, what they really should do today. They only send belated birthday cards since they know they’ll never send them out on time.

3 Ways to Use Productivity Personas

The personas give you a quick way to identify and label patterns of behavior. More importantly, they provide a lens. You can use this lens to help you understand the behavior and preferences of yourself and other people. Here are three ways you can use the Productivity Personas to your advantage:

Know Yourself. Use the Productivity Personas to know yourself. If you’re aware of the personas, you can use them to your advantage. For example, don’t let your inner Critic or Perfectionist get in the way of your Doer. Ask yourself, “When am I at my best? Am I more of a Starter or a Finisher? Am I more of a Maximizer or a Simplifier? Am I more of a Thinker or a Doer?”
Team Up. Use the Productivity Personas to pair up with other people and improve your own effectiveness. You can also use the Productivity Personas to create more effective teams or to optimize teamwork. Ask yourself, “Who can I team up with to get results? How can I build more effective teams? Who should be paired up on the team for best results?”
Improve the Situation. You can imagine how some behaviors work better with others and how some can create conflict. Swap out for more effective personas based on the scenario. For example, if you really need a Starter for the situation, but you can’t break out of Finisher mode, then see if you can find somebody who can play the role. Ask yourself, “What are the best behaviors for the situation?”

Remember to use the Productivity Personas as a lens. The labels are for behaviors, not for limiting or boxing in personalities. Anybody can demonstrate any of the behaviors at any time. The key is to be aware of the preferences, for yourself and others, and to choose more effective behaviors as well as to optimize yourself and others in any situation.

Productivity Pitfalls

There are lots of ways to fall off the path. It’s not whether you fall; it’s whether you get back up. You can get back up quicker when you recognize the problem. If you suffer from some of these issues and don’t know the solution, don’t worry. That’s what this guide is for. If you get knocked down, you’ll get up again, and nobody’s going to keep you down—not even you.

Top 5 Productivity Pitfalls

Here are the top five productivity pitfalls that I’ve seen time and again the limit people’s results:

Pitfall # 1. Analysis paralysis
Pitfall # 2. Do it when you feel like it
Pitfall # 3. Don’t know the work to be done
Pitfall # 4. Lack of boundaries
Pitfall # 5. Perfectionism

Pitfall # 1. Analysis Paralysis

“Analysis paralysis” can be your worst enemy, especially if you’re a heavy thinker or you really enjoy analyzing problems. You never think you have enough information to act on the problem and it always seems like there is more you can know. The problem is, that’s true and it’s a trap. There’s a world of difference between dreaming up solutions and actually implementing them. The way out is to start action on the problem, even small steps, so that you gain momentum as well as feedback on your thinking. You might find that all your analysis doesn’t actually help when you try to apply it. One way to help balance your analysis with action is to set limits on how much time or energy you’ll spend analyzing and giving yourself small time boxes for taking action. I find that either setting a minimum in terms of time that I’ll spend taking action or setting a minimum in the quantity of steps that I’ll take (e.g., take three actions on the problem today) helps me stay out of analysis paralysis, and make progress on the problem.

Pitfall # 2. Do It When You Feel Like It

“Do it when you feel like it” works against you in a few ways. You don’t always feel like doing things, even when they’re in your best interest. You can also miss out on a lot of opportunities along the way, while you’re waiting for your inspiration. Most importantly, you’re missing opportunities to practice and improve your skills. Imagine if competitive athletes only practiced when they felt like it. This pitfall holds back aspiring artists too. While they’re waiting for inspiration, they miss opportunities along the way, and then, when inspiration does come along, they don’t have the skills to make the most of it. One of the most effective ways to combat the problem is to simply make time for things and schedule your routines. Having a time for things works just like having a place for things. You can use routines to improve your performance and results. Think of it as getting more chances to get better at what you do.

Pitfall # 3. Don’t Know the Work to Be Done

“Don’t know the work to be done” is another arch-enemy of results. When you don’t know the work to be done, you can’t estimate the time or energy it will take. When you don’t know the work to be done, you don’t get the right people doing the right things. When you don’t know the work to be done, it’s very easy to get yourself in over your head. You can then compound the problem by throwing more time and energy at the problem. When you don’t know the work to be done, you can get surprised along the way by things you didn’t expect or anticipate, and without a buffer, you may find yourself overwhelmed and downtrodden. One of the best ways to counter this problem is to map out the work. If you don’t know the work, ask the people that do or who have done it before. Another countermeasure is to expect the unexpected—keep a buffer of time and energy so that you can respond instead of react.

Pitfall # 4. Lack of Boundaries

“Lack of boundaries” gets in the way of work-life balance. It can be as simple as missing things like breakfast or lunch. It can mean spilling your work over into the weekend. It can mean that your day never ends, and you bleed your work into all area of your life. It can also mean that you push yourself past your own limits. If you find yourself working well past your best energy, working to the point of diminishing returns, then you know exactly what a lack of boundaries feels like. The best countermeasure for a lack of boundaries is to put some simple boundaries in place. For example, start by making time for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Make time for working out by actually scheduling it. Find your best time for going to sleep and guard it. From there, you can add some boundaries, such as “no work on the weekend” or “no work during the week nights.” A friend of mine set a simple rule of “dinner on the table at 5:30 p.m.,” and it’s helped him stick to his boundaries for years. Setting boundaries doesn’t mean there won’t be exceptions, but at least you now have a simple framework that supports you. It’s scaffolding for sustainable results. The other thing to keep in mind is that things happen in cycles or stages, so you need to stay flexible. For example, during a project ramp up, I expect to spend more time and energy than I usually do at work. This expectation allows me to cross-check that I’m staying balanced and taking care of the basics.

Pitfall # 5. Perfectionism

“Perfectionism” often goes hand in hand with “analysis paralysis.” After all, seeking the perfect plan takes a lot of analysis. There are three main problems with “perfectionism.” First, the most crippling form of perfectionism is when you don’t start something or won’t even try because you know you won’t be perfect. Second, you never finish something on time because you’re busy perfecting it. Third, you beat yourself up over your results instead of appreciate your learning and growth. Beat “perfectionism” by thinking of results as a path, not a destination. Getting something done “good enough” for now, is better than missing the window of opportunity or over-engineering it. Simply by thinking in terms of “versioning” your results can help you balance getting it right with getting it done. Instead of trying to write perfect prose or bullet-proof code the first time through, make the first draft “good enough,” then iterate. The key is to iterate on it: create a series of smaller, manageable hurdles, rather than one giant one that you can't jump over.

30 Common Productivity Pitfalls

If you can at least recognize the common Productivity Pitfalls, you will be better prepared to defeat them or avoid them entirely.

Table 10.3 30 Common Productivity Pitfalls

1. Analysis paralysis 2. Big bang 3. Biting off more than you can chew 4. Blamer/victim 5. Burnout 6. Burning the candle at both ends 7. Churn 8. Crossed-expectations 9. Death by 1,000 paper cuts 10. Do it later	11. Do it when you feel like it 12. Do whatever it takes 13. Doing the same thing, expecting different results 14. Don't know the work to be done 15. Externalize instead of internalize 16. Friction 17. Getting stuck 18. It doesn't feel good 19. Lack of boundaries 20. Lack of buffer	21. Lack of demand 22. Learned helplessness 23. Limiting beliefs or assumptions 24. Limiting situation 25. Monolith 26. Watching the scoreboard 27. Not letting go 28. Perfectionism 29. Throwing time at the problem 30. Wrong approach

These pitfalls reflect the most common patterns of problems that I’ve seen across a wide variety of situations and people when it comes to getting results. The beauty is that many of these Productivity Pitfalls are directly within your control. Simply by knowing what they, recognizing them, and eliminating them from your habits and practices will go a long way toward unleashing your potential.

Summary of the 30 Common Productivity Pitfalls

Here is a brief explanation of some of the most common pitfalls when it comes to productivity and getting results:

Analysis paralysis. You think you can … you think you can … or can you?… or what about this way … or that way?… or what about …? Well, back to the drawing board …
Big bang. Rather than delivering value along the way, you wait until the very end—only to find out that you’ve missed the mark, you lost interest along the way, or worse, your supporters lost interest and trust.
Biting off more than you can chew. Maybe you think you really can boil the ocean. Maybe it’s just your aim to please people where you just can’t say no. You’ll eventually let them down, just not up front.
Blamer/victim. It’s their fault. Why does it always happen to you?
Burnout. Burnout is when you shut down. It happens when you keep trying to solve the same problem, but you don’t feel like you’re making progress.
Burning the candle at both ends. You rob Peter to pay Paul. Downtime is for wimps. All you need is some more caffeine. Any free time is more time to burn the candle.
Churn. Churn is when you spin your wheels against a problem but don’t make progress.
Crossed-expectations. This is when you let yourself down, or you let somebody else down. You either failed to reset expectations, or the expectations weren’t accurate.
Death by a thousand paper cuts. Click … scroll … click … scroll … click … scroll … click … scroll … ah, there’s that file that you use every day! It’s not a lot of overhead. It’s just a little—about a thousand times a day.
Do it later. Later never comes, or when it does, something else is more important. A little now might be better than nothing later.
Do it when you feel like it. You’ll do it when you feel the inspiration. You don’t need to make time for it; you’ll just wait and then strike when the iron is hot.
Do whatever it takes. You’ll step on whomever or whatever you have to. You’ll spend every last bit of your precious life force trying to pull it off.
Doing the same thing, expecting different results. You hit a ceiling, but you keep doing the same thing.
Don’t know the work to be done. You don’t know the work to be done. This means you don’t know how much effort or time it might take. This also means you don’t even know who whom to ask for help. When things go wrong and if you don’t know any better, you might end up thinking the world is out to get you.
Externalize instead of internalize. No satisfaction, just applause or money. Sure you used to enjoy it, but now it’s all about the rewards. Doing a good job used to be its own reward. It’s more important what other people say than how you feel about the work you do.
Friction. It’s just a little too much resistance. You barely notice it, but it adds up. Instead of creating a glide path, you ignore the friction. Gradually, the friction snowballs.
Getting stuck. Congratulations—you found your ceiling!
It doesn’t feel good. You haven’t really thought about it, but you just gradually stop doing it. You know you really should do it, but it just doesn’t feel good. You thought you could talk yourself into it, and that worked for a while, but now you’d rather do nothing than something that just doesn’t feel good.
Lack of boundaries. Work spills into the weekends. The workday spills into the night. Time for your body or for your mind gets monopolized by time on your work. When you’re playing you’re thinking about working and when you’re working you’re thinking about playing.
Lack of buffer. One more straw will break your back. Go ahead just let somebody try and ask you to do just one more thing. You’ll be fine … as long as everything goes just right, and nothing changes for the foreseeable future …
Lack of demand. You let your supply side get in the way of the demand side. There’s no demand, but you think there should be. You get mad when nobody appreciates all the hard work you did, that nobody asked you to do to begin with.
Learned helplessness. What’s the use in trying? All you get is pain. This is the worst place to be. This is when you tell yourself that no matter what you do, it won’t work. You basically shut down and stop trying. There are lots of ways to end up here, but more importantly you need to know how to get out. The keys to getting out are taking action, changing your approach, and learning from what works.
Limiting beliefs or assumptions. You limit yourself. Worse, you limit other people. You’re pretty sure you can’t do it though you never tried.
Limiting situation. Your container limits your results. Sometimes work is a limiting container. Sometimes how you think about or frame the situation becomes a self-imposed limitation. Limiting metaphors are a good example. It’s easy to put yourself in a box.
Monolith. Bigger is better!… and more complex … and a little tougher to finish … and tougher to fix … and no way are you doing it over—it’s too big and too complex!
Watching the scoreboard. You keep your eye on the scoreboard. The problem is, that’s not where you focus should be. The saying is, “Keep your eye on the ball.”
Not letting go. It’s not working, but you hold on. It’s not serving you, but it’s a habit you carry forward. The more you hold on, the tougher it is to let go, the worse the situation stays broken.
Perfectionism. It’s never good enough. If you can’t be the best, you never start … or you never finish on time … or you never finish at all. And more likely than not, you’re too busy beating yourself up to carry what you did accomplish forward.
Throwing time at the problem. It will be done when it’s done. You perpetually miss deadlines, or worse, you continually meet deadlines, at the expense of other areas of your life.
Wrong approach. You’ve got the right idea, just not the right approach. Lots of energy, lots of time, no results. You throw more motivation at it, but your hammer just won’t turn the screw.

Knowing Is More Than Half the Battle

Chances are that as you read the Productivity Personas and the Productivity Pitfalls, you identify with some of them. Once you recognize something, it’s easier to change it if it’s not working for you. You can change different things about you. For example, you can change your thinking, feeling or doing. For the situation, you can choose to adapt yourself to the situation, adjust the situation to better suit you, or you can try and avoid those situations all together.

Principles, Patterns, and Practices for Results

One of the most effective ways I’ve found for finding, sharing, and mapping out large bodies of knowledge is to use principles, patterns, and practices. You can think of a principle simply as a guideline or as a fundamental law or how something works. For example, a principle might be “fix time, flex scope” which means set up time for things and bite off less to fit within the chunk of time that you have. As an underlying principle, this simple guideline might serve as the foundation for many other guidelines. You can think of patterns in a couple ways. A pattern might simply be a tendency or set of acts that you observe (i.e., a behavior pattern). You can also think of a pattern as a problem and solution pair, where the pattern itself is the name of the solution. For example, “flow” is a pattern where you are fully engaged in an activity. The power of patterns is that by naming them, you can share solutions more effectively. You can think of practices as simply methods or techniques. It’s a “how” or a “way” to do something. For example, scheduling results is an effective practice. It’s a way to make sure you have time for things you need to do, versus just hoping they get done.

Collectively, by thinking about results in terms of principles, patterns, and practices, you can create and grow your personal knowledge base for getting results.

Putting It All Together

When it comes to getting results, you want to consider both your system and your knowledge. The system side is your approach or process (such as Agile Results); it’s your habits and practices that you use to get the results you’re getting in your life. Ideally, you enjoy the process of getting the results you want, in addition to the results themselves. On the knowledge side, the Results Frame is a simple way to map out and organize how you think about getting results. It’s also a way to organize your principles, patterns, and practices for getting results. The Productivity Personas help you understand behaviors, which can limit or amplify your impact and results. The Productivity Pitfalls give you a lens for looking at common sticking points or bottlenecks to your best results.

By improving your knowledge of principles, patterns, and practices for getting results and by continuously improving your system for getting results, you unleash your best results.

In Summary

The Results Frame is a set of Hot Spots to help you analyze and learn information in the productivity space.
Use the Results Frame to find actionable principles, patterns, and practices for improving results.
Know the Productivity Personas to help you understand and improve your own effectiveness whether alone or on a team or in any situation.
Know the most common Productivity Pitfalls and which ones, if any, apply to you.