Smarter Faster Better: Secrets of Productivity in Life & Business

Charles Duhigg wrote the book Smarter Faster Better, in which he discusses the eight secrets of being productive in life and business.

The first half of this book comprises the secrets of self-motivation, creating effective teams, focusing with mental models and setting effective goals.

Part two dives into managing others, making effective decisions, leveraging creativity and absorbing data.

In this post we’ll give a brief overview of these secrets and link to a deeper dive of each with case studies.

1. Gain Self-Motivation with the Locus of Control

Many people believe that motivation is a sort of talent that you’re born with. Recent psychology literature shows that motivation is more like a skill.

Similar to reading and writing, anyone can learn to hone the craft. All we need to do is learn to practice self-motivation correctly.

The Locus of Control

A prerequisite to motivation is believing we have authority over our actions and surroundings. In short, we need to feel like we’re in control. When we feel we’re in control, we tend to work harder and push ourselves more.

This is the locus of control. We can increase our locus of control by finding new ways to take initiative and exert control in our lives.

To motivate ourselves to reply to emails, which can otherwise feel like a menial task, we can choose to start somewhere in the middle of our unread emails. That makes it feel like we’re deciding what to do, and not being forced to do something that we can’t control.

But the locus of control doesn’t stop at the workplace. Taking control of where we go on holiday, for instance, impacts our motivation in life.

We can even help others increase their motivation by congratulating them for their initiative and self-motivation. Encouraging people to take control is the best way to help someone increase their motivation.

The locus of control is the key to increasing motivation. Increasing our sense of control is the core aspect of increasing self-motivation.

Learn more about self-motivation and the locus of control.

2. Create Effective Teams with Cultural Norms

Grouping smart individuals together does not always produce an effective team. Studies repeatedly show that the most important factor is the team’s cultural norms.

For example, having a group of high-achievers might make it easy for the group dynamic to resort to individualistic competition. But if members of the team put their own individual needs ahead of the group, the team can’t flourish.

The group needs to develop a healthy culture to unlock its full potential. And healthy team cultures come down to two core norms:

a. Equal Contributions from Team Members

Each member of the best teams contribute a similar amounts in group discussions.

When everyone has a chance to talk, the team does well, but if only a small group spoke all the time, the group intelligence suffered.

The culture, as well as the team leader, encourages everyone to contribute.

b. Social Sensitivity & Psychological Safety

The second norm of effective teams is a “high average social sensitivity”. In other words, the best groups can tell how members feel based on their tone of voice and body language.

Psychological safety means that group members feel safe to take risks. The team won’t embarrass or punish someone for speaking up. This cultural norm, which hinges on interpersonal trust and mutual respect, results in people feeling comfortable being themselves.

The most effective teams allow members to fail without repercussions. They respect differing opinions and feel free to question other people’s choices.

It’s also important that group members realise that people aren’t trying to undermine them.

In short, productive team cultures avoid harsh judgments. It involves a sense of togetherness and encourages people to take a chance.

Psychological safety is the second cultural norm that contributes to team effectiveness.

Learn more about creating effective teams with cultural norms.

3. Learn to Focus & Avoid Cognitive Tunneling with Mental Models

Another principle is the role focus and mental models play in our daily productivity. When something pops up unexpectedly, we often start thinking reactively. Without proper mental models to keep us in check, our decisions can be disastrous.

Cognitive Tunneling & Reactive Thinking

Cognitive tunneling happens when we transition suddenly from relaxed automation to panicked attention. In this state, our mind suddenly switches from proactive to reactive thinking.

Cognitive tunneling causes us to focus on whatever is directly in front of our eyes. In this state we become preoccupied with immediate, seemingly urgent tasks.

Once in a cognitive tunnel, we lose our ability to direct our focus. Instead, we focus on the easiest and most obvious stimulus. And we tend to lose our common sense along the way.

Why Are Mental Models Important?

A mental model is a representation of how something works. Rather than diving into the details and reviewing the intricacies of a complex project, we can simplify our ideas with models.

Mental models help us plan and predict the future. They allow us to think clearly, make more intelligent decisions and better understand our environment. We can also use models to optimise and strategise.

Models also allow us to dig deeper when the insights don’t match our narrative. In this sense, they’re a sort of internal fact-checker. When we start thinking reactively and our cognition starts tunneling, models helps snap us out of it.

That’s why mental models are so crucial. We can start building mental models by telling ourselves stories about the world.

Learn more about focus, cognitive tunneling and mental models.

4. How to Set SMART & Effective Stretch Goals

Setting goals is central to productivity. Without meaningful goals, our daily actions become meaningless. That’s why we need to pick goals that are important and ambitious.

But they also have to be SMART.

What are SMART Goals?

SMART Goals align with five criteria. They are:

Specific, focusing on one idea.
Measurable, to track its progress.
Actionable, so there are clear next steps.
Relevant, because they should align with your personal goals.
Timely, to know how long it will take.

Goals that align with this framework are easier to achieve. These goals are, by definition, actionable. They’re also measurable, so we can track our progress against the expected timeline.

What’s The Problem with SMART Goals?

While SMART goals help us focus on achieving goals, they often veer toward the short-term. After all, short-term goals are more achievable.

At the same time, short-term goals focus on immediate profit over a long-term system or purpose. No one ever changed the world by starting with a SMART goal.

These more ground-breaking goals are called stretch goals.

How Can We Set Stretch Goals?

Setting and achieving audacious goals really comes down to 2 steps.

First, identify the ambition.
Then, figure out the plan.

It’s as simple as that.

We should focus on our boldest ambitions before trying to figure out how to get there. Once we know where we need to go, we can find a way to apply the SMART criteria.

That’s how we make our ambitious long-term goals achievable.

Learn more about setting SMART and effective stretch goals.

5. Managing Others with Lean Manufacturing & A Culture of Trust

Toyota engineered a production system in the 1930’s that revolutionised business. The system deferred decision-making to the lowest possible level in the company hierarchy.

The Toyota Production System contributed to the fields of lean manufacturing, agile methodology and cultivating a culture of trust.

Lean Manufacturing

At Toyota, any employee could stop the assembly line at any time to fix a problem. And managers’ primary job was to support their workers.

If an employee had an idea to improve efficiency, the manager would help prototype. Following successful innovations, each team would have their own version of the prototype by the next day.

This concept is today widely known as lean manufacturing.

Agile Methodology

In 2001, a group of computer programmers drafted a set of principles called the “Manifesto for Agile Software Development”.

Inspired by Toyota and lean manufacturing, this Agile methodology emphasised collaboration, frequent testing and rapid iteration. It would also give decision-making authority to whoever was closest to the problem.

Agile is now the standard methodology among many of the world’s largest tech firms.

How to Cultivate a Culture of Trust?

The central tenet of Toyota’s system was that people want to be good at their jobs. If you put them in a position to succeed, they will. The key is creating a culture of trust, where people feel empowered to make the right decisions.

Lean methodologies make it easy for employees to make decisions and contribute their expertise to the company.

To cultivate a culture of trust, companies also need to commit to employees’ well-being. When Toyota and GM started a joint factory in 1984, employee well-being was their prime concern. They protected workers from the recession that hit in 1988.

Consumers were buying fewer cars and the factory had to reduce production by 40%. Rather than resort to layoffs, they decreased 65 executives’ salaries. Assembly line workers were reassigned to janitorial or landscaping roles.

The factory refused to lay anyone off between 1984 and 2010. Because of this dedication to their employees, workers were willing to do anything for the company.

When production picked back up, workers came back more motivated than ever.

Learn more about managing others with lean manufacturing and a trust culture.

6. Effective Decision-making with Forecasting & Probabilistic Thinking

Making optimal decisions often relies on having accurate predictions of the future. We can learn to make better predictions with forecasting, probabilistic thinking and Bayesian thinking.

What Is Forecasting?

Forecasting is an imprecise science that forces us to confront how much we don’t know. Recent studies have produced key insights into factors that enhance forecasting accuracy.

Firstly, research and statistical techniques training helps people make more accurate predictions about the future. Even simple training that teaches people to think about the future helps improve their prediction accuracy.

The most valuable training was learning to think probabilistically.

How to Think Probabilistically

Probabilistic thinking teaches us to not focus on the future as something that is going to happen. Instead, we can learn to see the future as a series of possibilities that might happen.

Probabilistic thinking forces us to confront multiple, conflicting outcomes. It involves looking at the full range of possibilities and assigning the likelihood of each outcome.

In that way, we can combine contradictory futures into a single prediction. By averaging out a broad spectrum, we’re left with a better forecast than if we’d only had one data point to start with.

What Is Bayesian Thinking?

Bayesian thinking involves using our existing data points to predict the future. Bayes’ theorem is useful because we can start right away. We usually already have useful existing data. And we can update our predictions when more data becomes available to us.

The truth is everyone thinks in this way everyday, whether we realise it or not. When we notice new information in our environment, we connect new dots. This improved understanding allows us to make better predictions.

Bayes’ rule states that even with very little data, we can make surprisingly accurate predictions. Bayesian thinking also allows us to skew existing data to our observations about the world.

Sometimes though, we make mistakes using the Bayes model. The risk comes down to not having enough information. We need to fully understand the context to make better predictions. Having more data will improve the accuracy of our forecasts.

Learn more about making effective decisions with forecasting and probabilistic thinking.

7. Leverage The Creative Process & Become An Idea Broker

When you think about it, most creative things are not completely new or unique. Creativity boils down to a mix of two or more existing ideas. We can be creative by taking proven conventional ideas from different settings and combining them in new ways.

Behavioural economics applied psychology theory to economics. By combining these two separate fields of study, behavioural economics gives us a new lens to anticipate human behaviour.

And modern bike helmets exist because a designer wanted to make a hat out of a boat’s hull. This material can withstand nearly any collision, which makes it well-suited as protective headgear.

The simple act of combining ideas from different disciplines is the secret that has sparked countless creative successes.

Idea & Innovation Brokers

When we think of the most creative people, we might use words like genius and ahead of their time. But oftentimes, these people simply made a new connection between two existing ideas.

In this sense, most creative people are just intellectual middlemen. These middlemen, known as idea or innovation brokers, transfer ideas between industries and groups of people.

People connected with various groups are more familiar with different ways of thinking. They’re more flexible in how they approach problems. And they’re aware of more solutions that have been used for different problems.

Compared to other workers, idea brokers are more likely to share ideas and less likely to be dismissed by their peers. The reason is that innovation brokers tend to have more valuable ideas.

The secret is noticing the ideas that have solved problems in different fields in the past.

These ideas are valuable fodder for creativity and innovation.

The Creative Process

The creative process, on the other hand, is different. We can optimise our processes for creativity. The defining factor is mixing old ideas in new ways. That’s where we take the inspiration that can cause a little disturbance and jolt us out of a rut.

We can boil down the creative process to three steps.

Be sensitive to your own experiences. Notice how things make you feel. Figure out what problems are important and worth solving. That’s where we should direct our creative energy.
Recognise that panic and stress isn’t a sign that everything is falling apart. Instead, it’s a sign that a creative break-through might be underway. Panic and stress help us stay flexible and try new things.
The relief from solving a creative breakthrough can blind us to seeing alternatives. One idea can quickly crowd out competitors. We should regain creative distance with occasional disturbances to make better choices.

Innovation becomes simpler with some guidance. We can follow the three steps above and mix old ideas in new ways to optimise our creative processes.

Learn more about innovation, creativity and the creative process.

8. Absorb Data with Scaffolding, Disfluency & Systems

Humans are good at absorbing information when we break data into series of smaller pieces. Most data can be broken down into countless categories and subcategories.

Wine connoisseurs use this technique to quickly choose wine from a long list at a restaurant. Whereas an amateur may have trouble considering each wine, connoisseurs might simply start with a good year.

Having clear structures in our minds makes it easier to absorb new information. The new data fits neatly within our existing structure.

Create Disfluency

The key to absorbing data is creating disfluency. Disfluency is a disruption in our communication.

We need to manipulate the information to absorb it fully. And we do so by taking a mass of information and forcing it through a procedure that makes it easier to digest.

To create disfluency and absorb data we need to manually grapple with the information.

A great way to create disfluency and absorb data is to ask yourself questions about the data and test new hypotheses regularly.

The Engineering Design Process

The engineering design process is a methodical approach to problem solving that comes down to five steps.

First, define the dilemma.
Then, start collecting data.
Using the data, brainstorm solutions.
With a list of potential solutions, debate the best approach.
Finally, experiment to find the best solution.

This system helps us slow down and think before we make decisions. We can use it to learn from our experience and see alternatives from different perspectives. After all, every choice we’ve ever made is a data point.

Formal decision-making systems teach us to make questions look unfamiliar. By forcing us to see alternatives, they allow us to take control of our mind’s decision-making process.

Learn more about absorbing data with scaffolding, disfluency and systems.

Smarter Faster Better in a Nutshell

Charles Duhigg wrote the book Smarter Faster Better to discuss the eight secrets of being productive in life and business.

The first half of this book comprises the secrets of self-motivation, creating effective teams, focusing with mental models, setting effective goals.