How a booth at Panera changed my life
I can still feel the creased leather on the left side of the booth cushion. I can smell the aroma of freshly brewed hazelnut coffee. I can hear the regular ladies group to my left discussing the latest political drama. I can taste my slightly burnt french toast bagel with honey almond cream cheese.
But above all of that? I can recall the rush of creative juices as I opened my laptop, turned my phone on airplane mode and began to deeply focus on the work that would truly drive my organization forward.
That booth at Panera radically changed the course of my business (and really, my life). Over the course of a year, my weekly morning in that same, solitary booth saw me:
Plan the transition to a more powerful sales CRM (customer relationship management) tool that dramatically enhanced our company’s ability to market to, communicate with and target our most critical leads
Brainstorm ways to create more meaningful connection points with my team members (which led, in part, to the Meeting Rhythm we prescribe at Seven Marches)
Meet with a CFO who helped create breakthrough profit models
Write the 38-page CIM (Confidential Information Memorandum) that was used to market – and ultimately sell – my business
Where is your “focus space?”
So here's my question: where is your Panera booth? Where do you go to systematically work on your organization, and not IN your organization? Where do you go to tune out the "grind" of the day-to-day and focus on what we call your "Golden Goal," that single thing that will move your organization closer to its long-term destination?
So many organizations – as many as 90 percent, according to one study – fail to meet their goals.
But how often do they really analyze the "why?" (In the Seven Marches Quarterly Reset meeting template, we teach churches, schools and Christian non-profit organizations to audit their goal setting and assess possible reasons for missed goals so they can improve the goal-setting process going forward.) In many cases, it boils down to the quality and quantity of time team members devote to focusing on the work needed to achieve the goal.
If you're like me, you've found that trying to think and focus for extended periods of time in the same place where "normal business" occurs is often a lost cause. You’re almost constantly disrupted by chimes for incoming e-mails, office chatter about last night's game or ... simply the Internet.
Are you one of the 53 percent of people who wastes at least an hour a day to distractions like these?
In his book, Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, Cal Newport emphasizes the concept of "place" for what he calls "deep work," the ability to work for long periods of time in deep concentration. The rewards for those who master the concept, Newport says, are twofold: 1) they're able to learn complex things more quickly than their counterparts, and 2) they're able to produce at an elite level.
For me (and others), the sounds of a busy cafe are just the recipe for deep work. And research shows that’s not crazy. One scientific study concluded that a moderate amount of ambient background noise can actually lead to enhanced creativity. And, in this day and age of ultimate convenience (and COVID-19), if you can’t get to the coffee shop, you can even bring the coffee shop to you.
Maybe your preference is a quiet library or bookstore. Maybe it’s a picnic table at a quiet park. Maybe it's even a seat on a bus or subway. The place itself is less consequential than the simple act of identifying that space to focus on "goal work."
As Newport says, “By leveraging a radical change to your normal environment, coupled perhaps with a significant investment of effort or money, all dedicated toward supporting a deep work task, you increase the perceived importance of the task. This boost in importance reduces your mind’s instinct to procrastinate and delivers an injection of motivation and energy.”
In other words, change the environment to change your focus.
Finding your focus place is half the battle; you also need to consistently dedicate time to this kind of focus. We call it "20 percent time." Google is famous for initiating a policy that allows their employees to spend 20 percent of their time on anything they think will most benefit Google.
Our approach is slightly different – we encourage ministry leaders and team members to spend 20 percent of their time on the goals that have already been defined and documented. A thoughtful strategic design process (such as our mPower Model) will provide every team member with a clear understanding of their role in driving the organization to the Golden Goal.
Using the 20 percent rule, if you generally work 40 hours a week, at least eight of those should be committed to focusing on work that's dedicated to the Golden Goal. Maybe you're launching a fledgling ministry and you can only devote 10 hours a week to the cause; then, at least two hours should be spent proactively on goal initiatives, and not simply day-to-day activities.
“To produce at your peak level you need to work for extended periods with full concentration on a single task free from distraction," says Newport. He advises blocks of at least two hours at a time, but generally not more than four hours.
Get it on your calendar
Here's the key – schedule your focus time! It's not enough to mentally block out the time. Put it on your calendar! I previously wrote about sharing your calendar with your team – they should see “20 percent time” on your calendar each week. And this time should be sacred. Don’t let an impromptu meeting or a project deadline derail your intentions to honor that time.
One app even automatically blocks distracting web sites, puts your phone into "do not disturb mode" and lets your colleagues know you're in “20 percent time" and another actually optimizes your calendar to identify blocks of uninterrupted time.
Wherever and whenever it is, the more consistently you retreat to your “Focus Place" and block out your “20 percent time,” the more likely the Pavlovian effect will kick into place – your mind will conditionally respond to the sensory environment around you. Coffee and ambient noise? Monday at 1 p.m.? Must be time to work on my goals....
