Nicholas Assef ‐ Q4 2015

What This Note Covers :

I. Understanding Task Saturation

II. Compressing Time

III. Keeping Fresh

IV. Regular Quiet Periods

V. Focussing On Quality

Productivity In The Modern Professional

Service Firms

The pace at which professional service firms need to operate their practices in a highly competitive, connected world, has also given rise to management challenges. These range from staff burnout and higher staff turnover, to lower quality of productivity. And this trend is likely to continue

Managers need to consider how they can mentor professional & support staff to balance the Firm’s financial metrics with the needs of the individual professional and the clients they service

Executive Summary

The pressure to perform in the modern professional services firm (PSF) has a habit of manifesting itself in negative, as well as positive, ways. This note examines a number of issues and techniques that might be applied by professionals and their managers to overcome predictable drops in produc-tivity & quality - that their clients quickly notice

When professionals become overwhelmed they often display similar behaviours to jet pilots who become “task saturated”. Management techniques & disciplines can assist in preventing this. Un-derstanding how to get in the zone, “compress time” and be highly productive can help one break through flat periods. Realising the benefits of developing activities that are different to daily task that help professionals “keep fresh” and creative. There is nothing wrong with being professionally self-ish, and having regular “quiet periods”. Finally, appreciating that speed of document production is not everything. “Focussing on quality work” is all that should really matter

In order to have a long, enjoyable and productive career it is important to figure out techniques that will help you to stay on top of your game. Detailed in this note are a sample of techniques that the author has both picked up and independently developed to help Firms maintain maximum impact in business performance

I. Understanding Task Saturation : A Modern Business Dilemma

We all go through periods when it is difficult to be productive. Many reasons can be attributable for this problem, and there can also be feelings of despair and being overwhelmed in seeing your way clear

Many years ago I read an interesting text by a number of ex Navy pilots who had post their air force career embarked upon applying their disciplined military learnings to the business world. An important term that they used repeatedly was “task saturation”, which was attribut-ed for a number of accidents in fighter jets

Task saturation is basically a loss of special awareness that results from too many conflicting pieces of information attempting to be di-gested at the same time. The result can be catastrophic—including high speed crashes where jets have crash

In the professional services firm too many conflicting pressures at the same time do not speed up productivity—it slows it down. That burned out feeling is today all too common. Professionals themselves need to be “self aware”, as do their managers, and at times “changing gears” to slow down for even a few days can have significant benefits

Nicholas Assef ‐ Q4 2015

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II. Lifting Productivity : “Compressing Time”

To Do Lists go only so far. We have all arrived at the end of a 12 hour day and that wonderful tool of organisational bliss has not been shortened at all. Things start to bank back and productivity falls. Task saturation rears its ugly head

Authors often know these periods as “writers block”. The crea-tive and productive thinking just won’t flow

One technique that you can apply to break through is what I refer to as “compressing time”. This is literally trying to lock all things out for a short period of time, even 10 minutes or so, and getting things done

This is not an uncommon approach amongst highly competitive athletes that often describe it as “being in the zone”. That peri-od where things just happen. What tends to then follow, howev-er, is that confidence and enjoyment return and the “compressed time” period can kick start a more sustained effort

For all professional there are periods during the day of excep-tionally high productivity, and the technique here is to try and kick start productivity by absolutely focussing on a task for a very short period of time. One technique is to use the stopwatch function on your smart phone and set yourself a goal of how much creative thinking can be accomplished in a 10 minute period (for example)

III. Maintaining Creativity : “Keeping Fresh”

I often use the analogy that going through one’s professional life can be a bit like the Colorado River at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The river cuts deeper into the terrain as time goes on, like it profes-sionals can become less flexible and more rigid

For many professionals continuing the passion and creativity for their career is difficult. Staying motivated falls into second place, behind generating fees. The sad reality is, however, that a lack of creativity and passion can in turn directly limit the fee earning potential

Going to seminars or “content” meetings on the same thing does every day does not always help. Bill Gates is renowned as an avid reader, and I recall an article where he discussed periods where he literally locked himself away with a wide variety of magazines from all spheres of interest. Sports. Business. Hobbies/Interests. Technology. Aca-demia. Reading such a wide variety of content assisted him in main-taining an open mind and looking at things differently. It kept him fresh and creative

It is an easy technique to adopt, and also an easy one to implement. Whilst I hear of professional service firms that cut back on things such as media subscriptions because of the “cost” I have always encour-aged the opposite. Take a break. Read something different. Get the creative juices flowing again. Stay fresh. And get a Twitter feed and share interesting stuff. I do & and its quite fun: @NicholasAssef

IV. Professional Luxury : “Regular Quiet Periods”

In order to produce high quality work professionals require something that is all too difficult to maintain these days. Quiet times. With direct accessibility never being higher, the ability for a professional to have unbroken periods to themselves is difficult. Add to this the pressure of internal & external meetings, travel and “deadlines” and it is pretty easy to see how relevant Task Saturation is today

A partner in a law firm taught me about “quiet periods” that align with when one is most productive during a day. Understanding your daily productivity cycle is very important. I am an early starter and so try and achieve this period before the business day really gets underway. You may find that late morning or early afternoon is best for you. Whatever period it is I am also sure that you will know that “in the zone” feeling all to well, and so build around that

During those times to turn off email (the number one menace), and ask only to be disturbed if it is critically important. These periods might be every few days. Short bursts of an hour or two are achievable—and the discipline will allow much to be achieved

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V. Core Priority : “Focus On Quality”

Speed of production of work is not nearly as crucial as the quality of what is produced. Many professionals in the modern firm suffer from what I refer to as the “Tennis Match Syndrome”. That is they are intent on producing content / document as quickly as possible and “hitting it over the net” to the audience to comment, or return shot. I have been reminded just how crazy this can get in a recent deal where one law firm circulated multiple drafts of a document, at times so rapidly that it was quite difficult to keep up with what version was actually being worked on. Both unnecessary and for the client highly irritating

The speed to circulate had taken on a life of its own. The quality of the drafting on even simple issues plummeting in the process. The convenience of email needs to be recognised for what it is, a potential risk to quality

Whilst there are market shift theories such as “Lean Start-up” that promote fast development of business models with a “shake out the bugs as one progresses approach”, those are not applicable to PSFs. Quality should be the primary focus

Integral to this is the maintenance of peer review processes which assist in quality control, and not “playing tennis”

Nicholas Assef LLB (Hons) LLM MBA

Execu ve Director

Lincoln Crowne & Company

Tel : + 61 2 9262 2121

E: naa@lcc.asia

W: www.lcc.asia

Nicholas’ career has spanned the legal profession, academia and the corporate world for over 25 years. Formerly an a orney with Allen Allen &

Hemsley’s corporate prac ce in Sydney, Australia his career evolved to investment banking a er comple on of his MBA at the world ranked

Simon Business School at the University of Rochester (New York). Whilst in the USA Nicholas also had the opportunity to undertake study at

Harvard Business School

In academia Nicholas has been on staff at both Macquarie University’s Applied Finance Centre (lecturing in the Masters programme across Aus-

tralia and Asia) and Bond University’s Law School. Nicholas speaks regularly on topics including strategy, leadership, shareholder value and busi‐

ness performance

Nicholas works across the Australian and South East Asian markets, specializing in M & A, shareholder value driven corporate finance transac‐

ons and complex commercial nego a ons. He regularly refers significant assignments to other PSFs

Key Take Away For Professionals & Their Executive Managers

Productivity is not something that is taught at university nor in the vast majority of professional services firms. Firms should not have the ambition of being simple “billing machines”. The daily “WIP” number conveys no detail on actual productivity nor value for money for a client. Perform the 1 minute “self diagnosis” on page 2 of this Note (checkbox)

How would you rate your Firm objectively in its passion to innovate and evolve to develop productive work practices amongst professionals ?

The operation of the PSF is a marathon and not a sprint. Both professionals and their executive managers should invest in un-derstanding issues of productivity that exist today in their Firms, and how best to introduce mechanisms that will assist to develop