dispatches from the new world of work

Procrastination?

Were my poor planning habits the reason I was up two-thirds of Thursday night reworking (re-inventing!) my speech?

No. (I swear to that.) I had in fact prepped like hell for the RLG seminar mentioned immediately above. I had a "good speech" ready to rock-and-roll ... or so I thought.

But then the "10-hours to H-hour Factor" kicked in ... with a vengeance. Fact is (for me), there is an "eleventh hour" "connection with the audience" factor that kicks in. It isn't possible earlier—for me.

That is, as the opening bell approaches, my mind & soul enter an incredible, inexplicable zone. I am transported to the speech site. The plight of the audience stirs deeply within me in excruciating detail—more or less in High-definition Technicolor and with Dolby sound.

I feel myself in the conference room. I can "see," with remarkable clarity, individual audience members. I get inside their skins and feel their issues-plight with stunning, almost breath-taking intensity.

And that's when I madly start re-doing my speech ... regardless of the time of day or (usually) night. My "disease" is hardly one-of-a-kind. I've talked to dozens of "performers" in a wide variety of professions. Almost without fail they describe a like process of "getting [deeply!] in the zone"—which often leads to dramatic last-minute course corrections (or more).

I remain amazed at what goes on inside me, and surely can't explain it. But I know I'll hang up my spikes the moment it ceases to occur.

Tom Peters posted this on 11/21/05.

Comments

Well, that certainly sounds like me.. whether it was a college paper, some software I had to code, a consulting report, or a presentation, I end up spending the 11th hour editing, cutting and rewriting.

And I feel awful if I don't think that I did my best.

hmm .... Maybe that tendency isn't so bad after all?

Thanks Tom!

Posted by Arun Sadhashivan at November 21, 2005 11:02 AM

Prep and planning time get you ready for the actions you take when things become Technicolor clear.

The most brilliant military leaders, all the way back to Sun Tzu used planning and training time to get you ready for the "moment of truth" when course corrections and drastic changes were often needed.

It's the greatest feeling in the world when it happens and like you, I'll hang 'em up when I no longer have those moments of clarity!

Posted by Brian at November 21, 2005 12:07 PM

Absolutely!

"Senior" actors rant and rave about my tendency to change my script a day before the show - not drastically, but perhaps an addition here, a deletion there, and always in the lines of those I KNOW can handle the change. However, I'm convinced it's those changes that make the play. Never had a bad review yet.

I can still remember how I gave two long speeches (a day before the performance) to the principal actors in "Who Let The Dogs Out?" and the audience went wild when they delivered them. Even crazier, I had them deliver their speeches simultaneously. People told me I was crazy. Members of the audience would be able to concentrate only on one speech at a time. That's logical. However, logic doesn't work in the zone and the zone was right. The audience loved it.

There's just something about entering that zone, isn't there?

I live for it.

Deepak

Posted by Deepak Morris at November 21, 2005 1:39 PM

Tom:

You are, of course, describing the feelings associated with "Flow" ... Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's famed theory ... that is quite literally a spontaneous and effortless experience that is achieved when an individual accomplishes a close (perfect? ... near perfect?) match between a high level of challenge and the skills needed to meet that challenge ... Does that fit the TP M-O?

Posted by Lee H. Igel at November 21, 2005 8:48 PM

Forgive some 'rambling' thoughts about this â€¦..

I remember many years ago going to a counselor armed with my list - because I am a pragmatist who needs lists. She explained I donâ€™t need a list and the important stuff will come out naturally. The pragmatist in me didnâ€™t believe her. I stuck to my list. The following session I took my list but memorized it in the car on the way to the session. But I still had the list written down on a piece of paper in my pocket. After three or four session I didnâ€™t take a list and sure enough the stuff I wanted to talk about came out. As it happens the counseling was not as effective as I had hoped â€“ probably more to do with me than the counselor - but I was forced to a realization that the stuff in oneâ€™s heart and oneâ€™s head will always come out with or without a list. Spontaneous is wonderful.

I still use lists but probably less these days â€“ I realize now they are a safety net â€“ and for me an important safety net. Nothing beats â€˜doing your homeworkâ€™ and I research meticulously beforehand when doing talks and I spend hours perfecting stuff in my head.

Oddly enough I two weeks ago I gave my â€˜fathers speechâ€™ at my daughters wedding armed with nothing more three bullet points IN MY HEAD and 25 years of memories. I had no list â€“ in fact I had nothing written down. It worked.

Once more please forgive the ramblings.

Posted by Trevor Gay at November 22, 2005 7:21 AM

Lee: Amen re Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Posted by tom peters at November 22, 2005 12:20 PM

...and, of course, the fact that you're loving what you're doing!

Posted by Susan at November 22, 2005 12:39 PM

Susan: if you don't love what you are doing--why are you doing it?

Posted by Mike at November 23, 2005 8:38 AM