Tweet

Context is Everything - ideas for increased productivity - Part1

Guest post by: Eberhard Schmidt

Article Overview: How come "Context is Everything" is getting more and more attention these days? And what does it exactly mean also in the context of time management and stress management? This is exactly the question this article is going to go into - illuminating the topic with three very different examples. Enjoy the read!

Context is Everything - ideas for increased productivity - Part1

I want to start with a simple graphic illustration: Ever heard about the Ebbinghaus Illusion? Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist who discovered this optical illusion in the late nineteen hundreds. Have a look at it yourself - just punch Ebbinghaus illusion into Google and you will be taken to the Wikipedia page with the picture. It shows two orange dots surrounded by blue dots. The question is: Which one of the orange circles is bigger? Hmm, easy to determine you might think and find the right one bigger. But I encourage you to have another look. Yes, now you can see - they are exactly the same size: the right just appears to be bigger because it is encircled by small blue dots while the left one has much larger blue dots around it. See the connection? You are right: this is a simple example of what it means that context is everything!

OK, let's have a look at a second example. This is my memory of a story that Steven Covey likes to tell. I assume you all know that Steven Covey is one of the most famous American business consultants who many years ago wrote the best-seller: "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People". On a Sunday morning Covey was on the subway; it was very quiet with only a few other people travelling the subway until a man with 7 kids entered the car. He took a seat next to him and immediately put his head into his hands. The kids started running around, pulling on peoples coats and behaving - even for a more liberal standard - pretty badly. Covey started to feel angry yet also realized that he is not the father and it is not his business to take care of the kids. But at some point he just could not hold off anymore and politely addressed the man next to him: "Sir, do you think you could take care of your children? They are actually annoying many of the other passengers!" At which point the other man took his head out of his hands, and, looking up to Covey, said with a sigh: "You are right. I am sorry that the kids are behaving this way. But honestly I do not really know what to do. We have just come out of the hospital finding out that their mother and my wife just passed away..." Covey then describes how his perception of the whole situation dramatically changed in an instant. He suddenly did not see the man as an incompetent father and the kids as a bunch of brats anymore but as a family in real need after being struck hard by destiny....Did the facts change? No! What changed is the context in which Covey perceived everything that happened. Look at the impact this had on him! According to his own story he stayed in touch with the family and even supported them financially for quite a while. The new context changed everything!

Context is Everything is also what you are going to hear more than once when you meet Andrew Cohen. Cohen is an evolutionary thinker, writer and spiritual teacher born in New York City who has nearly based a whole teaching on this insight. What is the impact each one of us can have on the world these days? Well, it depends on how you look at things. If you think you are just this tiny speck of dust that was born and will have to die and is just one of a few billion living specks of dust in the universe - if that is how you think about yourself, if this is your context - then you might conclude it does not really matter what you do. If on the other hand you consider yourself to be part of a living universe - part of a universe that is - in a mysterious way - one undivided being, conscious of itself and trying to express its perfection in the material world through these specks of dust, well, guess what, then you would have to conclude that everything you do does matter and has a significant impact on the world around us! These two different viewpoints are obviously miles apart from each other. Which of the two is more true is not part of this discussion and obviously will be decided by the reader. But if you have to make a decision between action A or action B then becoming clear about your context might be of utmost importance. Why?

Because as we have seen in all previous examples your context can completely change your perception of reality....

What does that mean for your time managemntand, your stress management and your productivity? I will cover this in the next article.

Related Articles
  Helpful Ideas to help Increase Productivity
  Marketing Analytics of Online Ads
  Monitoring Productivity
  Monetize Lost Productivity
  How to Increase your Employees Productivity at the Office
  Ideas for Increased Productivity
  Developing a Cultural Hermeneutic to Conflict Resolution
  “Ten Most Significant Risks and Costs of Unethical Behavior in Business, According To Your Strategic Thinking Business Coach”
  Champions from Africa: What It Takes to Be a Global Leader
  How to Increase Your Team\'s Performance and Profitability Through Effective Meetings
  Getting Things Done and Maintaining competitiveness
  Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs
  The productivity problem...
  The Power of Productive Team Meetings
  Downturn Can-do: Think Upturn Prospects
  How To Get More Done By Sleeping
  Increase Revenue Ideas,Increasing Revenue
  Historical Productivity Gains in Industry Generally
  JumpStart Your Employee Motivation: Ten Secrets to Empower Your Team
  Importance of Entrepreneurship

Article Tags: american business, best seller, blue dots, br, business consultants, circles, coats, ebbinghaus illusion, german psychologist, google, graphic illustration, memory, optical illusion, orange dots, seven habits of highly effective people, steven covey, subway, sunday morning, wikipedia



Related Forum Posts
The Celebrity Apprentice - Episode 4 - I've enjoyed watching the show. Kevin, you mentioned something that I've been thinking, too. You said, 'it's always using the quiet "nice girl" as the scapegoat.' Perhaps the nice girl could step up to the plate more, but I see value in that she doesn't try to usurp the leader, she supports her. I've been thinking something similar. Actually, Gene Simmons brought it up last week when he brought Amarosa back. His explanation was that you want to surround yourself with people you trust. It's great to have women who are assertive, but must business be so hard and cold to be effective? No wonder Donald Trump suggested the corporate world is not a nice world. As an ambitious person, I love being around other ambitious people. I find it fun to bargain, debate or bounce ideas off one another. I see no reason to be mean about it though. In fact, I believe we are far MORE productive when we are enjoying what we do and inviting others to enjoy it with us. I also want to have people on my team that I can trust. I'm curious if others really feel you have to be mean to be effective. Would you hire the person with a cold edge that you really can't trust? This type of behavior is creating incredible stress and costing big corporations more money due to low productivity (caused by fatigue and less job satisfaction); more sick days; increased usage of health care dollars; breakdown in the employee's home life which then affects the office life even more negatively; and loss of great employees who are looking elsewhere for a better place to work. It's a pretty high price to pay.
Re: How do you critique a small business? - There are so many great comments here. One thing that is missing is alignment of the business with the owner's values and the employees' values. We all have values and if there is a disconnect with our personal and business values, the business could be exposed to serious trouble. It might sound like fluffy talk, but I'm actually referring to the bottom line: Money! Consumers will not continue to buy products that don't align with their values, employees will be unhappy (read less productivity and increased sick time and maybe even quit), and the owner will not be fully satisfied either. I could go on and on, but you get the picture. Every dollar saved translates into dollars earned. Here's the power of values... there is a certain clothing designer that myself and others I know simply will not support because that person is openly racist. I can tell you I like their stuff, but I will not buy it! I could provide values tests for the potential winners to fill out and make the comparison. The great thing is that whoever fills it out will also be appraised of an area in their business which could be strengthened. That in itself is a huge reward!
Re: 40 cents per dollar is spent in a franchised business - Hey Ringo, You quoted this information: "The average initial franchise investment is $250,000" Here is your statement/question: "While I understand that you are paying for someone else's success in development, marketing and business model, with such a big upfront investment, why not make something of your own?" The part I would like to comment on is where you say "with such a big upfront investment". On an average initial franchise investment of $250k, the buyer is only fronting 20-30% of that. So their initial cash investment is actually only $50k to $75k. Although that is nothing to sneeze at, if you have a good system that you are buying into and you have the drive and ability to be a good business owner, statistically speaking you stand a higher chance of success with a proven franchise than an independent business. Of course we have all heard the numbers that are thrown around by various folks about what the increased success rates are, I don't know what they are exactly, only what I have been told by "others". I always always recommend performing the proper due diligence when reviewing franchises. From what I understand the increased expenses of owning a franchise are more than offset by the increased revenues & increased profit dollars at the end of the day. There might be a few businesses though that are not conducive to franchising, for example a web based business is hard to franchise because of competition and low cost of entry. I review independent businesses and franchises every day. The thing that stands out more often than not is that the independent businesses are not doing as well as the franchises overall. Remember though, I might be a bit biased because I am a franchise consultant, so for full disclosure, I make money when people buy franchises. I think with the proper due diligence most people will make the right decision. Reducing risk, increased profits and financing options continue to make franchises popular to the average Joe. .
Server speed issues? Help with Plesk - I'm working on getting the speed increased for the forums as some have brought it to my attention that it loads slowly. When looking at the server it appears that the memory usage is consistently in the 80-90% usage range. My server guy tells me not to worry about it and that since the swap is at 0% there isn't a need to upgrade the server. Any ideas from our technically inclined readers as to how to reduce the memory usage and if it's a problem that it's in the 80-90% range consistently? I have a dedicated server and use Plesk to manage it. Thank you in advance!
Re: The Top 50 Productivity Blogs Of The Year - Just what I needed since my productivity has been very bad this summer!


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

What is Give Back Marketing?

Why We MUST Reinvent The Wheel

Emotional Energy is Our Engine

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.