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The power of tiny actions
Nov 10, 2022
'The clock is ticking...
'We are in the fight of our lives. And we are losing….We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator’. On Monday, António Guterres’ words reverberated around the world. The Secretary General of the United Nations’ opening remarks
to the COP 27 attendees are still ringing in my ears; the frustration and the heartfelt plea is visceral. Limiting earth’s temperature rise to 1.5°C seems as impossible a task as winning the many other battles going on around the world, from ending Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to dismantling the oppression of women and ethnic minorities, to resolving raging inequality and poverty even in ‘rich’ countries. It’s easy and understandable to feel discouraged and say ‘this is too hard’ or ‘I can’t change that’. All change feels hard, particularly big, complex, ambitious goals. But as individuals, we have more power than we might think.
In The Future of Time, I write about how in our world of work we are stuck in an old way of operating that isn’t benefitting us as individuals or the businesses we work for. Yes there are a few encouraging signs of progress post-pandemic, including flexible working becoming mainstream and the widespread adoption of new collaboration and communication tools. Yet overwork is still a big problem, our working hours are fragmented by constant interruptions and task-switching, we’re pulled in competing directions by multiple corporate initiatives and processes, and the boundaries of our working time continue to erode. In our non-stop, high-speed work culture, there is precious little time to linger in a conversation, to let our minds idle or even have some social time with colleagues with no other purpose than to have fun together. No wonder then that many people are feeling more depleted, lonelier and less fulfilled in their career than ever.
Tackling all of this feels hard. Change IS hard, whether we’re trying to make a change happen in our own life, in our team or organisation, or across the whole of society. This week for example, we heard about the ‘alarming lack of women in executive roles’ despite the UK reaching 40% of women on boards in FTSE 100 companies. Making positive change happen takes constant effort and resilience and this can take its toll - there is much talk currently of diversity fatigue, gender fatigue and change fatigue in businesses that catapult from one transformation to another. My podcast guest Victoria Livingstone, EMEA Chief People Officer at Densu International, shares some great advice on this from her extensive experience in leading transformational change programmes (episode airs on Monday 14th Nov).
Big actions help of course. We won’t slow down climate change without ambitious steps being agreed and implemented by every nation. Whatever the issue, high profile campaigns, publicly stated targets and influential endorsements from powerful figures all help to get the message across and create momentum. But don’t be fooled into thinking these big actions are all it takes. In my consulting career, we used to say ‘change begins and ends with me’: making change happen means we all have to do something different, however small and seemingly insignificant the action. Just look at the immensely courageous women in Iran who are making their voices heard by passing on scribbled messages to others, removing their headscarves, singing from the rooftops and joining in protests. Each person’s brave action is inspiring others and leading to a swelling chorus for freedom that is being closely watched around the world.
Going back to our world of work, there are many tiny ways in which we can influence the accepted ‘norms’ and help bring about more productive, inclusive and healthier working practices. We don’t have to publicly champion a cause, lead an initiative or network or become a social media influencer with thousands of followers. We can exert our influence through tiny actions that over time have a reinforcing, rippling effort. At a brilliant talk last week about THAT famous ‘misogyny speech’ 10 years ago (read the speech here or watch it here), the former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, now Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, talked with Mary Beard, renowned classicist and author of ‘Women and Power’, about how we can make faster progress in eliminating sexism, misogyny and other -isms in society and in our workplaces. Their advice? To take tiny actions, or ‘micro-fightbacks’ every day. The CEO of the Chartered Management Institute, Ann Francke, says something similar in her book ‘Create a gender-balanced workplace’ which I read in week #43 of my 2022 Reading Challenge #ReclaimTimeToRead: ‘if you tolerate the little incivilities then you contribute to a culture where it’s still ok to get away with the bigger things’. The power of tiny actions applies to whatever change you are looking to make happen, not just in addressing gender inequality.
So let’s start the micro-fightbacks! Here are some ways we can do this in our day-to-day working lives to make our places of work more human-centred, more supportive and more rewarding places to spend our time. Call out a biased comment when you hear it. Invite an overlooked colleague to contribute their opinion. Say no to (or reschedule) that lunchtime call that eats up your work break – and explain why. Ask your client or boss to reconsider a deadline that requires you to work at the weekend instead of enjoying your much-needed downtime. Propose a different way of delivering something if the existing way means duplicated effort, unnecessary work and re-work. Pick up the phone or invite someone for a coffee or a walk if you’re sensing they’re having a bad day or going through a difficult time – even if it means setting aside your own work for a little longer. Who knows what the ripple effects from the conversation might be over time, for you both and for others.
So what tiny action will YOU take today? And tomorrow? And the day after….? I’d love to hear.
In The Future of Time, I write about how in our world of work we are stuck in an old way of operating that isn’t benefitting us as individuals or the businesses we work for. Yes there are a few encouraging signs of progress post-pandemic, including flexible working becoming mainstream and the widespread adoption of new collaboration and communication tools. Yet overwork is still a big problem, our working hours are fragmented by constant interruptions and task-switching, we’re pulled in competing directions by multiple corporate initiatives and processes, and the boundaries of our working time continue to erode. In our non-stop, high-speed work culture, there is precious little time to linger in a conversation, to let our minds idle or even have some social time with colleagues with no other purpose than to have fun together. No wonder then that many people are feeling more depleted, lonelier and less fulfilled in their career than ever.
Tackling all of this feels hard. Change IS hard, whether we’re trying to make a change happen in our own life, in our team or organisation, or across the whole of society. This week for example, we heard about the ‘alarming lack of women in executive roles’ despite the UK reaching 40% of women on boards in FTSE 100 companies. Making positive change happen takes constant effort and resilience and this can take its toll - there is much talk currently of diversity fatigue, gender fatigue and change fatigue in businesses that catapult from one transformation to another. My podcast guest Victoria Livingstone, EMEA Chief People Officer at Densu International, shares some great advice on this from her extensive experience in leading transformational change programmes (episode airs on Monday 14th Nov).
Big actions help of course. We won’t slow down climate change without ambitious steps being agreed and implemented by every nation. Whatever the issue, high profile campaigns, publicly stated targets and influential endorsements from powerful figures all help to get the message across and create momentum. But don’t be fooled into thinking these big actions are all it takes. In my consulting career, we used to say ‘change begins and ends with me’: making change happen means we all have to do something different, however small and seemingly insignificant the action. Just look at the immensely courageous women in Iran who are making their voices heard by passing on scribbled messages to others, removing their headscarves, singing from the rooftops and joining in protests. Each person’s brave action is inspiring others and leading to a swelling chorus for freedom that is being closely watched around the world.
Going back to our world of work, there are many tiny ways in which we can influence the accepted ‘norms’ and help bring about more productive, inclusive and healthier working practices. We don’t have to publicly champion a cause, lead an initiative or network or become a social media influencer with thousands of followers. We can exert our influence through tiny actions that over time have a reinforcing, rippling effort. At a brilliant talk last week about THAT famous ‘misogyny speech’ 10 years ago (read the speech here or watch it here), the former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, now Chair of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, talked with Mary Beard, renowned classicist and author of ‘Women and Power’, about how we can make faster progress in eliminating sexism, misogyny and other -isms in society and in our workplaces. Their advice? To take tiny actions, or ‘micro-fightbacks’ every day. The CEO of the Chartered Management Institute, Ann Francke, says something similar in her book ‘Create a gender-balanced workplace’ which I read in week #43 of my 2022 Reading Challenge #ReclaimTimeToRead: ‘if you tolerate the little incivilities then you contribute to a culture where it’s still ok to get away with the bigger things’. The power of tiny actions applies to whatever change you are looking to make happen, not just in addressing gender inequality.
So let’s start the micro-fightbacks! Here are some ways we can do this in our day-to-day working lives to make our places of work more human-centred, more supportive and more rewarding places to spend our time. Call out a biased comment when you hear it. Invite an overlooked colleague to contribute their opinion. Say no to (or reschedule) that lunchtime call that eats up your work break – and explain why. Ask your client or boss to reconsider a deadline that requires you to work at the weekend instead of enjoying your much-needed downtime. Propose a different way of delivering something if the existing way means duplicated effort, unnecessary work and re-work. Pick up the phone or invite someone for a coffee or a walk if you’re sensing they’re having a bad day or going through a difficult time – even if it means setting aside your own work for a little longer. Who knows what the ripple effects from the conversation might be over time, for you both and for others.
So what tiny action will YOU take today? And tomorrow? And the day after….? I’d love to hear.
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We’re always thinking about what’s coming up next and the future that we’re working towards. (My vision of the future? Older me is effortlessly churning out bestseller books from an idyllic coastal eco-cottage, in between bouts of sea-swimming and long clifftop yomps. What’s yours?). The problem is, that future is always slightly out of grasp. So we keep on striving to get there. Hand-in-hand with tomorrow-chasing is beating ourselves up about the big things what we haven’t achieved yet or on a smaller scale, tasks we haven’t ticked off our daily or weekly to-do lists. I had a great 2023 – busy, healthy, enjoyable – but reading back over my mid-year plan was a frustrating litany of ‘not done’, ‘not done’, ‘not done’, from my updating my website to launching my new Time-Intelligence online diagnostic for teams and organisations. 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As soon as one project is over, the next one begins. We sprint from one deadline to the next without pausing for breath or taking time to reflect, appreciate, learn or reconsider. It’s a common refrain I hear people say in my Time-Intelligent Teams workshops . It’s a chronic case of organisational impatience, and it’s not a recipe for long-term, sustainable high performance. So what’s the antidote? It’s to ask ourselves ‘are we there already?’ This question is reminiscent of the dreaded ‘are we there yet?’ that every child asks, usually 10 minutes after leaving home (yep, you did it too) and that makes every driver want to scream. But ‘are we there already?’ is different. It invites us to reflect on what we’re doing today and the outcomes we’re bringing about. It helps us to see afresh the seams of richness layered through our work or home lives that we’ve been neglecting to notice and whose absence we’d sorely regret. By asking ‘are we there already?’ or ‘am I there already?’, we can look differently at what we spend our time on today and appreciate those things we do that are working well for us right here, right now. In other words, the ways in which we’re already living our future today. In my #timeintelligence workshops, I help teams identify all the positive aspects of the way they work that is enabling them to deliver on their goals, often under intense time pressure and resource constraints. In parallel with celebrating these strengths and successes, we look for changes within their control that can help them overcome the challenges or frustration and make best use of their time at work. So instead of setting some traditional resolutions, why not try setting some ‘living my future today’ resolutions? 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Cup of tea and large slice of cake in hand. 5. Saying yes to coffees and phone calls with friends even when work and life feel too busy and I’m tempted to say ‘not this week’. I never regret making the time. Why not ask the same question to colleagues in your team? Your close friends or family? It might spark a new kind of conversation. And you might well discover that your future has already arrived.
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