Focus, Situational Awareness & Office Politics
©GC Diaries

I received a new laptop and had started using it two days earlier. My day started off with a meeting to discuss a particular case which was on-going. In this meeting, I was quite impressed to see one of my colleagues swiping and zooming the slides from his touch screen laptop as he took us through the presentation.

"That's really cool, I wish I had one like that," I remarked silently. I told myself to focus and quickly ignored the distraction of the side show.

Later in the afternoon, my boss came over to my desk to discuss some things. As I tried to explain a particular figure on the spreadsheet infront of me, I accidentally touched my laptop's screen....the stuff on the screen moved!

We looked at each other and he asked, "Is your laptop touch screen?"

"It looks like it, I had no idea," I said.

"Oh man, how long have you been using this laptop? You need to improve on your situational awareness." He said and we laughed.

As I reflected on this incident, I wondered if he was actually right?

This took me through an interesting journey that has to taught me a few things about myself and life.

I am that guy who can walk in the office, seat on my desk and only stand up when I leave at the end of the day.

I can talk to someone, a few people or no one at all - I am fine and confident in my own skin.

I am generally not in the habit of "loitering", joining conversations I am not invited into nor looking to be the guy that win the silent popularity contest.

I can visit a new town for a few days and spent the entire weekend in my hotel room...at peace with myself - reading a book, writing or catching up with family on the phone.

I can use the same road to go to work everyday throughout the year....infact, make that 7yrs.

If you pass through my desk and invite me to join you for coffee downstairs; I was "busy."

Yes, boring but I believe in habits.

My effectiveness and success (or lack of it) to this day has largely been grounded in identifying the key drivers of success and breaking them down into daily habits.

So in many ways, I believe I am focused - it has been a tool for my effectiveness but also a shield against many hazards.

Through this incident though, I actually realised that my strength was also my weakness.

The pursuit of focus had some unintended consequences and came at the expense of my situational awareness.

When I opened my laptop that day, all I wanted to do was work...I had no time fooling around touching the screen and starring at each blinking light.

I was not going to get caught up in distractions...or were they?

I was self-aware but hardly as situationally aware as I ought to have been.

It seems like the more focused I was, the less situationally aware I became.

Perhaps, it is worth it to fool around and touch the screen sometimes.

Perhaps, it is worth it to take a different route once in a while.

Perhaps, it is worth it to leave the house without knowing where you are going.

Perhaps, it is worth it to walk into a bookshop saying I am going to buy the 7th book on the top row of the 3rd shelf under the second section - whatever it is about.

Perhaps, it is worth it to seek and strike a conversation with someone we have never spoken to every 3 days.

Perhaps, it is worth it to have coffee, a drink or lunch "downstairs".

Don't gossip, but it may be woth it to occassionlly say good morning to the gossiper.

All these things are not distractions as such, but opportunities to improve our situational awareness. They can enrich our world view and help us to effectively focus on the one thing we must do.

Over time, I was forgetting what my basketball coach taught me:

In defense, we must focus on making sure the opponents don't score.

We do that by making sure that at any point, you know where the ball is, where your man is, where the ring is and you are between the ring and your man》situational awareness.

Most of us hate politics at work, but maybe because we perceive it to be politics and a distraction.

Indeed, it can certainly be toxic.

However, changing our perceptions can change our attitudes.

I have learnt that some of what I thought was office politics, were just opportunities to raise my self-awareness and improve my effectiveness on the task I needed to focus on.

I need not play politics but situational awareness was a pre-requisite for my effectiveness - I needed to master the difference.

Minding my own business took a different meaning....it also means keeping an eye on anyone's business that might affect mine.

©GC Diaries