A simple way to improve work performance or relationships …

Personal performance and productivity can be enhanced — sometimes dramatically — by putting to use a simple skill anyone can apply to whatever they do.

That simple skill which is consistently overlooked is anticipation.

Let me give you just one example of how applying anticipation can make a significant difference in what you do or within your relationships.

A few years ago, I served as Area Director in Hawaii for a national company. Upon my arrival, I was met by a team of frustrated administrative personnel who struggled with daily operations and who were burning out in their jobs. A simple factor was at the heart of their daily stress: a lack of anticipation.

The customer service reps (CSRs) who handled all of the incoming requests from referral sources, and who scheduled all of the field employees, faced challenges that occurred routinely, even daily. Yet they reacted with a high level of stress and frustration every time they faced these recurring events.

By teaching the administrative personnel to apply anticipation to their work, they were able to prepare for these recurring challenges, which resulted in better outcomes, greater productivity, improved performance, and much less stress.

For example, a CSR could anticipate they would have at least one field staff member call out sick on a scheduled assignment. By anticipating this, the CSR could make sure they had a few field staff available on-call to meet any staffing needs due to call-outs. By doing this, the service provided to our clients was seamless since the CSR didn’t have to scramble at the last minute to find a field staffer to fill in for the employee who called out sick.

Not only can anticipation be applied to the tasks of our work, but also to our relationships as well. We can anticipate certain known needs or desires of the people who are consistently a part of our lives. By anticipating these things, we can prepare ourselves with responses that best meet the situation (for example, the basketball players in the photo above are in a state of anticipation, and their reaction will be based on what they’re anticipating; the bear in the photo to the right is anticipating the jump of the fish for his next meal).

Anticipation can be something we do simply, by taking time at the start or end of a day to prepare ourselves for work. Or we can make time to look more deeply at the relationships, work, and activities of our lives and, through anticipation, build better attitudes and actions to bring to each of these areas.

The quality and level of anticipation we bring to what we do, and to our relationships, directly impacts our personal performance, productivity, stress levels, and the actual outcomes of our work and interactions. Yet it’s something we often give little attention to. However, look at the possibilities:

• • If you developed a list of the things you could anticipate about your job, how could you use that information to develop better attitudes and actions to apply to those situations when they occur?
  • If you developed a list of the things you could anticipate about your spouse or children, how could you use that information to enhance your relationships?
  • If you wanted to learn to surf, what difficulties could you anticipate, and thus prepare for? If you wanted to write a novel, what challenges could you anticipate and prepare for? For the various things you want to accomplish, what can you first anticipate, and then how can you use that information to generate desired outcomes?

How do you apply the concept of anticipation to what you do and who you interact with? How could you improve your work or relationships by better anticipating the demands placed on you in any aspect of life?

Scotty