Provide bandwidth…for yourself and others
Bandwidth = headspace (a very simplistic definition)
What does bandwidth mean to us as individuals and teams?
Where does it add value?
Anything that requires “real time thinking”, where to get your mug for your next coffee will take bandwidth if the coffee mugs are not in the same place. We can free up bandwidth if we have good structures in place so the situation of the mugs is short time thinking which need not be wasted if the mugs stay in the same place.
If you had to book a meeting with yourself/Manager and a client, you may use bandwidth thinking about your Manager’s preferences. However if you had a good working relationship and structures in place, then you may well know that your Manager never has a client meeting before 10.00am and he is always in the office all day Wednesday.
As organisation think about how you can provide bandwidth as a gift. If you were to have good processes and procedures in place that prevented bandwidth being wasted:-
- Guaranteed core hours – no pressure on childcare arrangements
- Meetings at the same venue – no time wasted on room booking
- Set timings for team meetings – no time wasted co-ordinating diaries
- 1:1 meetings with your team members – booked fortnightly for the next year
- Standard filing systems – consistent electronically and paper based
- Share preferences on meeting timings
- Structure your week – have a few things that happen same time/same place
- Stationery in the same cupboard – well organised
In order to use bandwidth effectively – plan for the unplanned. Book 30 minutes of time with yourself everyday, the unexpected is always the expected. The email, letter or phone call you were not expecting will arrive and you will have the headspace to deal with it if you have a “self meeting”.
We must be protective of our own bandwidth, we set alarms to wake ourselves up, yet we don’t set an alarm to tell ourselves to go to sleep. We will lose 10 IQ points the following morning if we have not slept well the night before.
Spend the week protecting your bandwidth and call nuggets to book a 90 minute workshop on the subject – 01483 898936
Sourcing for this week’s blog Radio 4 – Analysis – with Eldar Shafir – Professor Psychology and Public Affairs at Princeton University.
