I recently read the ‘Four Destructive Myths Most Companies Still Live By‘ from the Harvard Business Review. Each of them challenges how I operate in different ways. Below are the 4 myths (in bold) and their relevance for me.
- Myth #1: Multitasking is critical in a world of infinite demand. Multitasking is stupid. It’s taken me a while to admit it. I regularly try to juggle 5 things at once.
- Myth #2: A little bit of anxiety helps us perform better. Here’s a brief blogpost I wrote 4 years ago: ‘The Dead-Line Driven Life‘. I haven’t changed. I need to “for the sake of my family, for others who rely on me; and for godly discipline.”
- Myth #3: Creativity is genetically inherited, and it’s impossible to teach. My application of this one is slightly different to the the article. I’m fairly creative, but often I don’t trust that others can also be creative! So I become a bottle neck, either by having to do the creative work or making sure the creative work is up to my standard.
- Myth #4: The best way to get more work done is to work longer hours. Guilty. Longer hours doesn’t lead to more effectiveness. Repeat.
Confession over.
Read the full blog post for more detail on each one.
Any of them resonate with you? I’d be interested to hear of any strategies you have for bringing about change.
My Dad, a former (very good) helicopter and fixed wing pilot, used to say – A superior pilot uses his superior judgement to ensure that he never needs to use his superior skill.
My brain’s working slowly today so I can’t articulate this fully at the moment, but there’s some correlation between that statement and your second point re performance. Especially for those of us who apparently function best on a lastminute.com philosophy.
Thanks for the post and the HBR link.
that’s a great quote from your dad. thanks for sharing :)