Free, fast, easy, effective. So why don’t people do it?
Beats me. This doesn’t have the answer, but it does have some examples you can use.
Once in college I was doing a research project on the interactions between Big 5 personality traits and culture, and I could. not. figure. out. the method section of one of the studies I wanted to cite. Why had the researcher chosen this method of measuring culture? How had he chosen the experimental task? Why did he choose a method that introduced demand characteristics, and didn’t the results seem to show a “good subject” effect?
This researcher was no slouch. Shinobu Kitayama, full professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, co-author of maybe the most important paper in cross-cultural psychology, with an h-index that outstrips most Nobel laureates (although, yes, h-index is a flawed metric).
This was the guy, and I — a junior in an unrelated undergrad psych program — sent him an email with my question, not really expecting a response.
He responded in 8 minutes.
Also, his answer (in two sentences) completely clarified what I was confused about, and changed the way I looked at research methods period.
I’d heard this expression “the best respond fast,” and I had always been puzzled by it. What about deep work? What about being proactive instead of reactive?
Like many of the most interesting things, there seems to be a contradiction. I’ve come to realize that seeming contradiction is not the same as contradiction, and that “the best respond fast” (to the right things, in the right circumstances) for a particular reason.
Responding fast is free.
It’s also easy and (obviously) fast. And in the right situations, responding fast has massive upside.
This is not about responding fast. It’s about things that are free, fast, easy, effective, and uncommon.
There are some things that are easy, fast, free, and disproportionately effective. Very successful people tend to have these things in common, and part of what makes them so valuable is that they are uncommon.
Things that are free, fast, easy, and effective usually require being a shade more thoughtful than normal. Nothing actually has no cost, and when the cost is not money, time, or effort, it is thought.
Here are four examples of things that cost nothing except thoughtfulness — but can make a massive difference.
1. A promising candidate for a job you’re hiring comes across your desk via a referral. There’s no immediate urgency to respond, and you have plans to do other stuff. But you drop everything to shoot off a quick note and schedule a conversation. By doing this, you show that you take both the candidate and the referrer seriously — regardless of whether you hire the person, you’ve greased the hinges of a relationship.
As a bonus, you reach out at several points of the hiring process after the initial conversation. You don’t have to do this (no one is expecting it), but it doesn’t take long and the upside is making a great hire. Across many hiring processes and many candidate referrals, it’s likely that this extra step tips the scales in your favor. Anyone who has ever hired a top performer knows how much of an upside that is.
2. You go into every work conversation knowing your own ideal result. What, in specific, measurable terms, are you hoping to get from this conversation? The answer can be “wishy washy” or not an immediate output, like relationship building or a casual meeting to break up an intense day — as long as you are clear with yourself about that intention.
Know what you want. Then, what does everyone else in the conversation want? After the meeting, ask if you got what you want. Who got what they wanted and why?
Scribbling these things in a notebook takes 30 seconds, but it makes every conversation an opportunity to learn and improve.
3. When you run meetings or projects, use written agendas and plans that are detailed enough to be understood without context. An agenda of single-word bullet points isn’t enough. Use full sentences, describe the thinking behind the agenda item, and lay out what question will be discussed.
A live meeting is an amazing way to get things done. I am great meeting advocate in an age where meetings are the boogeyman. But dumb meetings are still dumb — using a meeting to transfer raw information from one person to another person is stupid, and a waste of time. Transfer the information first, then have a more productive discussion. Typing out a good agenda takes around 15 minutes for an intense hour-long meeting, or 5 minutes for a shorter one.
4. When you plan your own schedule, frame work in terms of things completed instead of time spent. “This week I’m going to work on the hiring plan” is different from “this week I’m going to write up two job descriptions and a set of application questions, along with 2 sets of slides to describe to internal people what the scope of the roles are.”
The person who writes the second to-do is going to get more done (odd grammar aside). It doesn’t actually take longer to write the second to-do, but it does take more thought.
Free, fast, easy, and effective things are easy to do. But because no one is expecting you to do them, they are also easy to not do.
A great meeting with a great agenda leaves people fired up with clear next steps. A shitty meeting with no agenda leads to another shitty meeting about the same topic next week. This sucks for literally everyone, and yet there are still shitty meetings.
Free, fast, easy, and effective (FFEE? EEFF? FEEF? EFFE?) things are about getting the most value out of opportunities in front of you.
If you are going to have a meeting, it might as well be a meeting you can learn from. If you are going to have a conversation, you might as well have the hard important conversation that creates change. I don’t know why Shinobu Kitayama responded to 20 year-old Benyamin in 8 minutes, but it’s not hard to imagine how the rule “prioritize responding to thoughtful questions from undergrad psych students” could lead to more opportunities for both student and professor.
When there is a right way to do things and that right way is easy, free, and fast, it is worth taking the moment of thought and making sure that you are making the most of what is in front of you.