Wisdom In All Things Special Series
You might say that it was Benjamin Franklin’s disillusionment with a sermon on Philippians 4:8 that was at least partly responsible for his conceiving of “the bold and arduous project of arriving at moral perfection” that is his 13 virtues.
A wise life is a virtuous life. There is an expectation of behavior from someone who claims to be wise. This 13-part series will seek to help us understand a life that is exemplified by the characteristics elevated by this great American statesman.
EXPOSE | Industry
“Lose no time; be always employ’d in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.” – Benjamin Franklin
EXPLORE | Not Just Productive, But Necessary
Industry.
You don’t hear that word used, the way Franklin described it, anymore. Maybe we should reinstate it. It is so much better than saying, ‘productive’. He packs so much into it.
More than the characteristic of working hard, it is laboring “for some useful purpose or the creation of something of value” as the dictionary defines it.
First consider that there must be no room for waste in being industrious. No minute is left unscrutinized or unaccounted for. If you’re going to spend any time, spend it constructively. Time is not lost or wasted, as long as we’re moving forward on what is worthwhile.
Mind you, he’s not recommending, or even suggesting, that we fill every moment–that’s just being busy. The pruning and honing and shaping of our time is specific, surgical, and life-giving. Not exhausting, but exhilarating, as it is to be purposeful, for creating value. Even relaxation and leisure are on the table.
This level of scrutiny requires a plan.
Make the most of your time, doesn’t mean do the most, but that we get the most out of it. Industry is not so much about time management, as it is about value management.
Necessary or not? That is the question.
Industry requires that we be vigilant as with a machete, whacking away at anything that resembles the unnecessary.
EXECUTE | Industry: Getting the Most Out of Our Time
Getting the most out of your time can sound a lot like the current rhetoric around productivity. But again, thanks to Benjamin, we’re focusing on finding that which is most valuable and prioritizing that.
We get the most out of our time when we do what is most important. So, what should we be doing? What is of value to others? How can we bring out the value that others offer?
At this point, I am assuming that you are able to put the right things on the list. What you need to focus on may be self-evident, or, perhaps you’ve spent time deliberating on what is most valuable to you, and those people that are important to you. So, how do we get the most out of committing our time to what we’ve identified as most important?
Ask the Fundamental Questions
Carthage Buckley, in his article How to Decide What We Should Be Doing, highlighted two questions that I think should be part of our making the determination:
First, it is a question of energy. What kind of energy do you have for what you’ve decided to do, and what amount of energy will be required of you to accomplish it?
Our energy levels ebb and flow throughout the day, and it is obvious that when your energy is low, the task at hand becomes harder, but will also most likely take longer. On the other side of that is wasting good energy: “Alternatively, if you have an abundance of energy but choose a task which requires very little energy, you are wasting time and energy which should be devoted to a more demanding task.” We want to match our level of energy to the appropriate task, which will also help us decide on the right time to accomplish it.
The second question I wanted us to consider has to do with payoff. Again, we want to refrain from only considering “what’s in it for me”, and in fact, there may be times that it is most appropriately removed as an option. So, we’ll need to first define, or understand, what we mean by payoff. But, this question does help us put into perspective the impact our effort.
Carthage says that “determining importance is easier than you think – you simply need to determine which of the remaining tasks will have the biggest impact on helping you achieve one of your key goals.”
Adjusting Our Timing of the Important
I had mentioned timing as it related to our level of energy, but there is also the need to determine the level of urgency. We have stated that Industry is about value. Value can rarely be rushed. Especially as we try to maximize quality and outcomes, and minimize waste.
You no doubt are familiar with President Eisenhower’s Matrix, but I think warrant a quick review. Having identified those things that are worthy of our time, how do we stack rank those in order of how to address the most important of the most valuable?
Here is how Eisenhower broke out the four quadrants of his matrix:
- Quadrant 1 (top left): Urgent and Important (do immediately)
- Quadrant 2 (top right): Important, but Not Urgent (schedule later)
- Quadrant 3 (bottom left): Urgent, but Not Important (delegate to someone)
- Quadrant 4 (bottom right): Neither Urgent nor Important (eliminate)
In addition to identifying the right quadrant, the real key is to understand the difference between what is urgent, and what is important.
Mayo Oshin, in his article for Ladders.com, explains that “urgent tasks are typically time sensitive and require our immediate attention. They force you to be reactive, anxious and stressed… important tasks put you in a proactive and strategic mode. They contribute to your long-term goals and give you more time to make better decisions—to avoid stupid decisions.”
I want us to key in on his main point, and the clarity that this matrix can bring, which is that “the more time you spend on activities that are important but not urgent, the more proactive and productive you will be.”
What About the Bigger Decisions?
Most of our time may be spent on those things whose importance is self-evident. But what about the bigger decisions that are a little murky? Those that take a little more time and effort to discern? I think the answer to that, or at least a helpful guide to addressing it, is something I’ve touched on before. It is the idea of becoming instinctive in our decision making. We can develop a heuristic that can help us more accurately and consistently make good decisions. Even when the decisions are larger than the day to day, or are beyond an obvious ‘yes or no’.
What may be preventing you from making a decision in order to optimize Industry, are what the authors of the HBR article Deciding How to Decide call “two fundamental questions.” Fundamental in that they are a crucial foundation to being able to process the finer details of the decision that you need to make.
The first, is whether or not you know what it will take to succeed. Before we’re able to say yes or no, we need to know if we have or will be able to acquire what is necessary to accomplish what we commit to. The second question is whether or not you can see all the way through to the finish line. When you don’t quite have the clarity you need to see both good and bad outcomes.
What Will it Take to Succeed?
The authors of Deciding How to Decide talk about having a “causal model.” Which is “a strong understanding of what critical success factors and economic conditions, in what combination, will lead to a successful outcome.”
To get there, they recommend a simple “test of strength” by asking, and then being able to confidently answer, a set of “if-then” questions about the decision you need to make. You essentially are testing the difference assumptions you might have, or the expectations you’ll have to meet, by stepping through them by first asking (and answering) “what if?” The authors provide these three questions to ask yourself when working through the “causal model”:
- “Do you understand what combination of critical success factors will determine whether your decision leads to a successful outcome?“
- “Do you know what metrics need to be met to ensure success?“
- “Do you have a precise understanding of—almost a recipe for—how to achieve success?“
To answer the second question of seeing our way through to the finish line, it helps to begin with a list of possible outcomes. It can be an extension of the previous question, really. Each action you take, or don’t take, leads to a specific outcome.
This way, you can begin to see a range of outcomes that will eventually help you determine which direction you should go with the decision you need to make that fits within the parameters of Industry, and what you have identified as being most valuable.
“Sometimes… under conditions of uncertainty, it’s common for executives not to be able to specify the range of possible outcomes or their probability of occurring with any real precision (even in instances where they understand critical success factors and the model for success).” For that situation, the authors have two specific questions we can ask to narrow down the range of possibilities, or realize the importance of specific outcomes:
- “Can you define the range of outcomes that could result from your decision, both in the aggregate and for each critical success factor?“
- “Can you gauge the probability of each outcome?“
Franklin was meticulous as he was inventive. Maybe the two are related. Could it be that his mastery of Industry led to his accomplishing not only so much, but to the degree it ultimately impacted our country and the world?
Being vigilant with our “value management” is an essential part of our being industrious. Free yourself from the unnecessary, and most everything you do will be what is most needed.
Benjamin Franklin’s Grand Plan
Franklin’s “meticulous execution” of his 13 virtues was embodied in a chart he developed in order to observe and quantify his growth toward perfection.
There are a number of examples of his chart available, but here is one for reference.
Whether you use this chart, or devise something yourself, it is certainly in your best interest to have some tool in place to not only keep you focused, but to establish the habit of intentional growth in those characteristics that make up the virtuous life.
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Further reading:
Franklin autobiography
How to decide what you should be doing
The Eisenhower Matrix – how to decide on what’s important
Deciding how to decide
Better instincts from good decision making
