Latest / The Action Catalyst / REMASTERED: Essentialism, with Greg McKeown | (Time Management, Productivity, Achievement, Value)

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REMASTERED: Essentialism, with Greg McKeown | (Time Management, Productivity, Achievement, Value) · The Action Catalyst

• 0:46
  Host: The man that you are about to meet is one of, I think, the premier thinkers out there on the planet today. He is a very popular journalist and blogger and writer, and his book that's called Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. Just honored and excited to introduce you to Greg Mckeown. Greg, thanks for being here.
• 1:05
  Greg Mckeown: It's my pleasure to be with you.
• 1:06
  Host: So, for those that don't know, to just jump right in, can you give us the the core premise of essentialism and and what it's all about?
• 1:15
  Greg Mckeown: I have to first talk about non essentialism. I've got to talk about what the problem is. The problem of our times is that we have been conned by an idea, and the idea is that we should be able to do it all. And if we can do it all, then we can have it all. And this is a very persuasive idea, and it's really not delivered on its promise, instead of giving us it all as it's supposed to do, it actually leaves us stretched too thin at work or at home, busy but not productive, saying yes and then resenting it afterwards, having our lives hijacked by other people's agenda, being exhausted, overworked, and underutilized. So we've been sold a bill of goods. We don't even have a name normally for what this problem is, but the name I give to it is non-essentialism. That's it. It is an idea. It's been promulgated and sold and sold in a million different ways in magazines, in conversation, and all of that. And it's not true. It has the inconvenience of being a
• 2:20
  lie, and the antidote to this disease is essentialism, or the disciplined pursuit of less but better.
• 2:31
  Host: So, why do you think we have this problem saying no, Greg? Why do you think that's such a struggle?
• 2:38
  Greg Mckeown: Well, it's a struggle because we've been conned into into believing that the way to success is to say yes to everyone and everything. In fact, there was somebody who was interviewed for the book, an executive who had done award-winning work, superbly became successful. He's capable. He's driven. He got focused on the right idea, and partially because of his success, that company was was purchased by a larger and, as it turns out, more bureaucratic firm. So they go into the new organization. He's the same level of talent as he was before, of course, but now he's keen to be a team player, a good citizen of the new regime, which means he starts saying yes to everyone and everything without really thinking about it. That's not out of bad motives. He wants to be helpful. He wants to be useful. But what happens as he applies that strategy, that idea? What happens? What happens to his stress? It goes up. What happens to the quality of his work? Goes down.
• 3:35
  He's so frustrated. He gets to the point. He thinks, "Look, maybe I should retire. Maybe I should quit. Maybe I should get out of this organization, and then somebody gives him some counterintuitive advice, which I think applies to a lot of people. He said, "He said what you should do is retire in role, which is interesting idea. What does it mean? Doesn't mean quit, stay, and don't tell anybody. So it's not that. So what does it mean? It means imagine you were going to be paid for the value you create. Employers want people who are contributing to moving the needle that actually create value, not by how busy they are. And so this is his new mindset. So he approaches it. What happens? He says, "I got my life back. Personally, he was able to go to the gym every night, eat dinner with his wife. He he he was able to negotiate a world that that allowed him to be healthy and to recuperate and be energized. Which meant that when he came to work in the morning, he was able to discern
• 4:35
  better what was essential, what was not. He got space back at work, and he said, "In that space, I found my creative freedom, and in that creative freedom, I found my ability to contribute again. What happens to his stress goes down. What happens to the quality of his work goes up. What happens by the end of the year? His performance evaluation ratings have skyrocketed, and he ends that year with one of the largest bonuses of his whole career.
• 5:00
  Host: How do you know what to negotiate? Because you got to negotiate something out of your life. Is there any sort of like process that you go through that you go, okay, these the this is what it counts as essential, and this is what does not count as essential.
• 5:14
  Greg Mckeown: Well, let me let me just address something there for a moment. I didn't write a book called Noism. I wrote a book called Essentialism, and the difference makes all the difference. The key to living life as an essentialist is not just to begin saying no to everyone and everything without thinking about it. I'm not advocating that at all. I'm advocating figure out what is essential first and foremost. You must figure out what is important now, and then you have the right and the source of courage to negotiate the non-essentials because you have a valid reason to be able to say. So, for example, if I go through a process of figuring out what is the let's say the most important contribution I can make over the next 90 days, I get really clear. This is my essential intent. This is the thing that will be most valuable to my most important customer and deliver something that is actually important that moves the needle. Okay, let's say I've done that, and then
• 6:09
  even that same customer comes to me, internal customer. Maybe it's my boss, or even my boss's boss comes to me and says, "Look, I'd like you to take on this project. Now, of course, it seems unthinkable, just unthinkable to people, laughable that I should say no to that. That's like a career-limiting move, and I'm not even really saying you say no either. But I am saying that if you have figured out something that's even more valuable, it is a perfectly reasonable response to say yes. Look, I'm very willing to do that, and I think I could do a pretty good job at that. But let me just at least discuss with you that that means taking energy and resources away from this initiative that I think helps your agenda even more. And so suddenly, what you've done is you've brought the reality of trade-offs, which are always there and are ever present, but often ignored, to the fore. Now you can have a conversation about it. And and I've had people do that. I mean, I have somebody
• 7:01
  right now who's working on a really important initiative for me, and every time I have one of these spontaneous moments of, "Hey, listen, will you? This is a good idea. Will you just do this? Because I have this event coming up, and I would love you just to. That would really help me. He always says yes, and he always adds the he always adds the trade off. Oh, I'm very happy to do that. But do you want me to push back the deadline for this big project that that I'm working on for you? And I always say no because I always want that real thing delivered. That's way more valuable to me. And so I'm just saying there is a way, of course, to respectfully and in a savvy organizational savvy way to negotiate these things, and it's really important for the organizational health that people can do this. It's really important for helping your most important internal customer, even if that's your boss's boss, like I'm saying, that you help them achieve their most important and valuable
• 8:00
  agenda. That's important to them as well. And so, learning how to figure out what their agenda is, to put in language that is relevant to them, meaning in terms of their agenda, what it is you think your highest contribution to them would be, is an essential skill if you want to be recognized as an important, valuable member of their extended team. If you want to go beyond being a an order taker and become a trusted advisor to them, you must learn how to do this. And you can also start to become really skilled at doing this. I mean, I'll tell you a story that really grabs me. And everybody knows that Steve Jobs is sort of famous for saying no to 100 things or 1000 things, you ought to say yes to one great thing, and that I don't mean to minimize that. I think that is totally true, and it's it is it is evidently was true in the way that he approached things and was important.
• 11:48
  Host: So, is there any sort of scoring system or diagnostic tool or any process that you go through to determine what is the thing that matters? Like, what is the thing that is important. Do you have a process for determining what is the thing that is the thing you should do?
• 12:07
  Greg Mckeown: We have to start with a metaphor. I want you to think about your closet. Yeah, what happens to our closets if you don't have some system in place, a way of doing it? If you if you if you live your if you manage your closet in a default way, what happens to it? Too many clothes, messy. There's stuff in it. There's just loads of stuff in it, right? And then people stand there. Oh, I got nothing to wear. The whole closet full of stuff. And sometimes they think, oh, I need a larger closet. And if I had a larger closet, that would solve the problem. And until they get a larger closet, and then they realize that was not the problem. They themselves were at both scenes of this crime. Them, there's something going on inside of them. So, in fact, let's go a little further with that metaphor. So, eventually, somebody says, "I've had enough. I'm going to tidy up my closet, and they take an item off the shelf and they look at it, and in that moment, something
• 13:05
  mysterious seems to happen as they're looking at that item of clothing. Something, and you think, well, it might come back into fashion at some point. It might, it might fit me again at some point. I might have an event that calls forth for just this such a thing. I've not worn it in a year, but maybe there'll be a moment, and then I'll wish I had it. And so, what happens to that item? It goes back on the shelf. Let's just pause and think about what criteria is being used in this scenario in order to decide whether we keep it or not. It's the world's broadest criteria, which is this: Could I ever possibly use this in the future? Maybe. Well, the answer to that question, no matter what the item of clothing is, almost certainly yes. Now, what if we shifted? What if we used extreme criteria? What if we said, like Marie Kondo suggests in her book, of each item, does it spark joy? And if it doesn't spark joy, then we get rid of it. That is the short. I mean, we're not talking
• 14:05
  about closets. We're talking about the closet of our lives, and that is one key idea for how we figure out what's essential in the first place. Is we have to, we've got to shift from broad criteria like, well, someone asked me to do it. I mean, we do stuff because somebody asked us to do it. That's our criteria. Well, they ask us, so I do it. Or even like, hey, I just thought about it, so I do it. Or a, it's a good thing, so I do it. Those are all the criteria of non-essentialism. How about this? Can I do it? Yeah, sure, I can do it. Is it possible that I could fit this in if I tried to wiggle it enough? Could I figure it? Yeah, you probably could. So then we say yes to way, way too many things, but let's take an extreme criteria. Not does it spark joy? Although it's not a bad question, but what if we ask this question? Is this the very best use of me? Is this my highest contribution? Is this the best thing that I could be doing with my time? Is this the most important
• 15:04
  thing? These are more extreme. Criteria questions, and the answer to these questions starts to immediately. We start to say, "Oh no, that is not. This is not the best use of me. What what's important now? This is another question. So by changing these questions from very broad questions that will provide us with yes to almost everything, we start to get answers that will say no to almost everything. I mean, it's no more yes. It's either hell yeah or no, and that's the idea. No more yes, no more. Well, sure. I call it in the book. I call it the 90% rule, which is often we're saying yeah. Of course, if something's like a terrible thing, right? It would only get a 5% Actually, sometimes people still saying yes, but but maybe that's easier to say no to, or easier to realize we don't want to be doing it. But when something becomes a 50% or 60% yes, then we we go, well, I suppose I should do it. It's good. It's good. 70% yes. What about an 80% yes? I mean that's
• 16:03
  hard to say no to. An 80% yes might be something that we really wanted to do a year ago, but now we realize is not actually so valuable to us, or shouldn't we shouldn't commit to it anymore? So so that's an 80% yes, and I'm suggesting we say no to everything, but 90% or above. If we can elect to, if it's something within our control, we should be saying, "Look, I only have a very limited, little amount of time, energy, and resources available for me to select to use or not to use this day. Therefore, I want to use it on the things that I know really matter most. That's what I want to achieve, and so that's the 90% rule.
• 16:41
  Host: I love it, Greg. I just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you for this important message and for deciding to spend some of your time with us. We appreciate it so much.
• 16:52
  Greg Mckeown: It's been my pleasure. Thank you so much.