The most important business decision you have to make

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The most important business decision you have to make

Sheryl Sandberg said, “The most important career choice you'll make is who you marry”. This was back in 2011 at The Ignition Conference held in New York. Sandberg served as the COO of Facebook (now Meta) at the time, and as one of the most powerful and successful women in tech, her advice is worth its weight in gold. It also brings our attention back to a topic that has become a cliche among ambitious individuals in careers or business. That is Work-Life Balance - “splitting one’s time and focus between work and personal life with the hope of achieving a balance”.

Like most noteworthy pursuits, achieving work-life balance is easier said than done for several reasons. One of the reasons is the Spillover Effect, which is the tendency of one’s jobs to spill into their personal life. Think back to the last time you bounced an idea off your partner or asked his or her input before making an important business decision. Such encounters likely occur during dinner or bedtime.

Although Work-life balance is difficult to measure, its effect is not so much. Eager to know how to improve work-life balance, scientists have studied the various factors that affect it. One of these is the relationship with a partner or spouse.

Here are three things research has revealed;

1. High levels of spousal support lead to higher levels of job satisfaction

2. High levels of spousal support reduced job stress for both men and women

3. The level of spousal impact differs between men and women with men showing lower job stress compared to women.

So how do you build strong spousal support?

1. Adequate communication

2. Create more “family time” by delegating tasks at work when possible. To help with this, you need to surround yourself with a reliable team.

3. Allocate time for “work-related” conversations and discipline yourself not to bring up such conversations outside the allocated time.

4. If possible, adhere to the principle of not bringing work home. This won’t be easy especially when building a new business. But it does get easier with practice and discipline.

5. Planning.

Next: The Law of Triviality - The Bikeshed Effect

Cyril Northcote Parkinson, a British Naval historian is famous for the Parkinson Law which states that a task expands to fill the time allocated to it. However, he also stated a lesser known law, The Law of Triviality.

To illustrate this phenomenon, Parkinson imagined a committee set up to discuss three three-point agenda.

1. A proposal for a £10 million nuclear power plant

2. A proposal for a £350 bike shed

3. A proposal for a £21 annual coffee budget

The observation is that the first agenda which is much more complex tends to be rushed over while more time is given to the second and even third agenda. The Law of Triviality became known as the Bikeshed Effect after the experiment.

Why does this happen?

it all boils down to information. The more complex a topic is, the lesser the number of people who are knowledgeable enough to talk about it. Looking at Parkinson’s illustration, one can easily see that a nuclear power plant is a topic that requires specialized knowledge which is easily outside the circle of competence of most people. This means very few people have anything important to say, ergo, less time deliberating on the topic. Whereas, anyone can contribute to the idea of building a bike shed.

There are a few lessons to glean from this;

first is the fact that a successful brainstorming session or meeting is not the product of getting more people involved. But getting people who are adequately qualified to deliberate on the topic. The former will result in a brief and less insightful outcome while the latter will produce a more in-depth and well-thought-out outcome. Secondly, the fewer the number of people involved, the more efficient and controlled a session/meeting can be. Jeff Bezos ‘ Two Pizza rule might be unorthodox but it helps in keeping the number of people involved in a meeting to the barest minimum. Another idea that one can steal from him is providing a memo on the topic to be discussed in the meeting. This way, everyone is well-informed and has something reasonable to contribute.

That’s all for now folks.

Until next time, stay inspired and keep chasing your dreams!!!

Cheers,

ALEX