You may think it’s ironic that I am writing about energy management the very day that I left the office before noon because … I was a bit low on energy. It’s my way of learning: when the student is ready, the master appears.
As I was flipping through my notebook, I came across the notes I made at the latest Human Capital Summit, where Tony Schwarz presented the Energy Project. The Energy Project offers organizations a detailed blueprint for fueling a fully engaged workforce.
Schwarz has a very simple and effective model for assessing how we deal with our energy. His insights are based on the common sense that a Porsche without fuel is no longer a high performing vehicle. Likewise, we can be high performing human beings, leaders, evangelists, managers, etc. But without the proper fuel we won’t be going very far.
It turns out that we can become wiser about managing our energy when we map it on two dimensions: quantity and quality. Have a look at the notes (including typos) that I made during his speech.
Obviously, as in all two-dimensional diagrams, the goal is to achieve the Nirvana of the top righthand quadrant. This diagram is no different, so the question becomes: how do we get and stay into the quadrant of the Performance zone?
The first thing you can do is taking an energy audit (and get really depressed :-)) because it can give you the starting point on the energy map. The energy audit is full of tips and sobering insights on how we are treating our own levels of energy and be more conscious about what it takes to sustain high performance.
Finally, Schwarz revealed some myths that are worth talking about.
Myth: We can run like computers 24/7
Reality: human beings are rhythmic. We have an energy ebb and flow. Therefore we need to pay attention to the pit-stops, because high performance racing requires regular pit-stops. In terms of the above diagram, this means that we need to move to the lower righthand quadrant of the Recovery zone intentionally and regularly.
Myth: Multitasking increases productivity.
Reality: The human brain is not capable of multitasking. It would be much healthier for us to work and live like sprinters who are focussed on one single sprint at a time. Therefore we need to chunk our work into sprints which all have a clear and visible finish-line, because this is what focusses performance.
Maybe you are an energy zombie like me, running on emergency fuel most of the time. In that case I’d recommend to check out the work of the Energy project. At least it will create some awareness about our condition and you can even analyze how serious your condition is.
