The Point

The books-on-the-nightstand syndrome

Well, I should know better. Multi-tasking is not productive. We should avoid it.

After all, the protagonist of my most recent book “Be Fast Or Be Gone”, Mike Knight, explains to a group of scientists why it is better to focus on the task at hand instead of multitasking. He uses the books-on-the-nightstand syndrome as an example. Here is how he expresses his view, “Say I have ten books to read, each with two hundred pages. If I read twenty pages per day and I multitask, I’ll have read twenty pages of each book after ten days of reading. And I probably don’t have a clue what’s happening in any of them. After twenty days, I’ll be forty pages into each book, and I’ll finish them all somewhere between days ninety-one and one-hundred. And since I don’t have a perfect memory, in all likelihood, I will have to go back and remind myself of what I’ve read. Going back over material I’ve already read is what I call switching costs. Switching costs in the real world can be even higher. They can easily make up twenty to thirty percent of the whole task. But, if I read in a focused way, I will have read all of my first book by day ten, I will finish my second book on day twenty. At the end of day ninety I will have read nine out of ten books and be ready to start my tenth. I won’t have any redundant reading to do. I won’t have any switching costs.”

There you have it. In the book, the group of scientists were convinced to apply focus on their own tasks going forward. The story goes on from there. And no, I won’t reveal more :)

I got called out on the books-on-the-nightstand example. A friend of mine asked me how I handle this for myself. I had to admit that I didn’t have fewer books on my personal nightstand during or even after I wrote the book. A quick inventory check resulted in a couple of Grisham thrillers, the project management handbook PMBOK (I read that when I really cannot find sleep), a training guide on taekwondo, the Heath brother’s “Made to stick”, Sarah Skwire’s “Writing with a Thesis”  and there is the iPad with its endless possibilities. In other words – I am guilty. 

And, I am not alone.  I stumbled upon a dialog on “Library Thing“. One of the members asked the question of how many books people were reading in parallel. The result is unsurprisingly clear. Most people read more than one book at a time. Some have as many as ten books in parallel “in the works”. Clearly, the book reading multitasker were in the majority. So, is single tasking for book reading impossible in the real life?

Well, not so fast. A blog  from Matthew Cornell suggests a system for reading lots of books in a short period time. Here is how the system goes:

“In a nutshell, he says he reads the book four times:

1. Table of contents, glossary, index.
2. Anything in bold, titles, and subtitles.
3. First line of every paragraph.
4. Entire book

Here’s the twist: Steps 1-3 should only take about 10 minutes. To capture relevant information he uses a note-taking scheme involving putting dots in margins, and cross-referencing them in an index in the book’s front. When done, he transfers them to a text file.”

Mike Knight would have been happy to meet Matthew Cornell. I am sure that they would get along  just fine. Having that said, my personal nightstand never will be much smaller than it is right now. That’s because the books on there are for fun. For job-related reading I am recommend-ing Mike’s/Matthew’s approach. In short: multitasking book reading like zapping through TV channels is for fun. If professional efficiency is called for we are better off  relentlessly applying single focus.

Interview with Clarke Ching from TOC Thinkers

Over many years Clarke Ching – founder of TOC Thinkers - has developed a valuable series of interviews by talking to authors and practitioners in the field of “Theory of Constraints” and “Critical Chain. He is interested in the story behind the story. I consider myself very honored to be included in Clarke’s circle of interview partners. Here you find the entire interview.

Be Fast Or Be Gone

The idea of my newest book “Be Fast Or Be gone” came to me while working on a contribution for my blog “The Point”. I have posted a number of contributions talking about the reasons why Critical Chain is a very effective approach. I explained how it works. I elaborated on the impact that I have seen in varous industries such as large Fortune 500 pharmaceuticals.  I thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice to tell the entire story of a Critical Chain rollout?”

Up to this point I used various methods to educate people on Critical Chain: presentations, group exercises, case studies and blogs – just to name a few. Still, at the end of the day, it is not simple for people to fully grasp the Critical Chain concepts and their impact, if they haven’t seen them at work first hand. People need to experience the power of planning, the relentless focus on project execution to understand what is possible. Typically it takes eight to twelve months observing an implemenation to fully understand what I had talked about in all the discussions leading up to an engagement. Very often, executives come to me a year into a rollout and tell me that now they understand what I was talking about when we started our relationship.

Hence, this book.

With “Be Fast Or Be Gone” I wanted to give an insight into the dynamics of a Critical Chain rollout. I wanted to tell the story about the road blocks that typically need to be overcome. I wanted to talk about the possibilities that are opening up. I wanted to talk about the behaviors that are changing. In short, I wanted to talk about everything that goes on beyond the technicalities of the scheduling software.

This book is about a father, Mike Knight, who learns that his eight-year-old son Tim has a rare form of brain cancer. He makes the agonizing decision to quit his job and go to work for Altus Labs, a pharmaceutical company developing a possible treatment. Mike is in for the challenge of his life as he races against time to implement Critical Chain Project Management at Altus Labs. Critical Chain Project Management is an enterprise solution that incorporates methodology and software tools to help organizations move to a relay-race “faster and better” paradigm. Companies that implement the Critical Chain approach routinely experience off-the-chart returns on investment.

A few of my peers and colleagues were so kind to publicly comment on the book. I am humbled by their testimony.

Be Fast or Be Gone is a fascinating treatment of the power of focus, applied to the often complex world of project and strategy management. The answers to increased productivity, though simple, are often subtle and hidden beneath old and accepted practices, requiring an incisive and radically rational viewpoint. Scherer’s book (and the ProChain process it reflects) beautifully illumines such a process.
— David Allen, Author, Getting Things Done: the Art of Stress-Free Productivity

Andreas Scherer provides a highly engaging explanation of Critical Chain and describes its application to development projects. Every R&D director should read this book and every project manager should become a Critical Chain expert. Be Fast or Be Gone will open your eyes to the possibilities of realistic schedules and on-time project completion.
— Dr. Steven D. Eppinger, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management

Using the principles espoused in Andreas Scherer’s book Be Fast or Be Gone, pharmaceutical companies can substantially shorten their research and development timelines, allowing drugs to be available to patients much more quickly.
— Dr. Hugh Davis, Vice President, Centocor – a Johnson and Johnson company

I found this heartfelt tale to be a grabber. What a powerful way to illuminate that racing the clock is of vital import, not only to a company’s leadership posture, but ultimately to the huge impact it can have on customers’ and patients’ well-being!
— Dr. Fred Wiersema, Customer Strategist and Author, The Discipline of Market Leaders

Be Fast or Be Gone puts “meaning” into accelerating projects. Better yet, it puts METHOD into achieving Dramatic, Reliable improvements in speed and quality content in any project management environment. A gripping , understandable, helpful novel for every person wanting to get things done!
— Professor James R. Holt, Engineering & Technology Management, Washington State University

Riveting. Finally, a book that shows us in a practical and engaging way the real impact project management and Critical Chain concepts can have. This story of a father’s quest to save his little boy is extremely real; you will easily identify with the book’s characters. A must read.
— Eric Morfin, Ph.D., PMP; Founder, BioPharmaPM; Partner, Critical Skills Inc.

I hope you enjoy reading the book as much as I enjoyed writing it. You can read a sample chapter here. The book is available at an internet book store near you.