Take a break: the importance of setting aside time to learn

5 Feb 2023

February 05, 2023

I’ve been thinking a lot about time. Let’s apply the 5 whys. Why #1. I want to ensure my team, as well as myself, have time to learn. Why #2. I believe in encouraging a “growth mindset” as Carol Dweck shares having a “growth mindset” applies to individuals as well as organizations. Why #3 and #4.

When entire companies embrace a growth mindset, their employees report feeling far more empowered and committed; they also receive greater organizational support for collaboration and innovation.

In contrast, people at primarily fixed-mindset companies report more cheating and deception among employees, presumably to gain an advantage in the talent race.

Why #5. When I recommend and display a behavior, such as setting aside time for learning, I can create an environment built on trust where my team can thrive.

Yet, when I recall the typical product manager’s day of back-to-back, 30 minute meetings with an occasional 60 minute session, there is little time to learn and grow. After hours, fitting in learning opportunities can be tricky too given friends, family and furry companions.

Acknowledging all the twists and turns, what I’ve done is put my 5 whys into action. I’ve set aside an hour and a half of focus time each day to learn and do deep work, typically after my East Coast colleagues have gone offline. When conflicts arise, I try to block out an equivalent earlier in the day to compensate. You’ll know best what works for you and where spots for learning are more likely in your day or week (which is the guidance I provide to my team).

The following articles and talks reinforce the importance, the “why”, of setting aside time for what is important to you and to your team. Before we transition, a quick plug… Have time to become a better product leader? Explore People-First Product Leadership, my cohort-based course happening in March.

Chances are you want to be successful and want your team to be top performers. The real question is, are you willing to put in the work - set aside the time - every day? Remember your university friend who put off studying until the night before the test and then received a top grade? Jeff Olson reminds us that “overnight success” in the real world takes more effort and instead is the result of hard work and daily commitment that may not be visible to all.

Here are the three lessons to take away.

  1. Every day we have the choice between success or failure. One type of person is content where they are or to live in the past. The other type takes action (nice support for a “growth mindset”) and focuses on the future.

  2. Learn to appreciate the invisible results of your work. Once you notice competitors have the edge, it is typically too late to catch up. Instead take time every day to make progress. The little steps add up and build the future.

  3. Implementing a goal-setting process can put you miles ahead of the game. Start by writing down your product goals. Then reinforce them with your team through an action plan which encourages forward motion (learning) every day.

Setting aside time by adopting small, day-to-day changes today will pay off “tomorrow”. Nice +1 for the importance of tiny habits from newsletter one.

As noted in newsletter two, your team looks to you for signals of acceptable behavior. A majority of people leaders (66%) admit they rarely to never do even an hour or two of deep, focused work each day without distraction. You have the power to break this pattern.

Setting aside time in your calendar to focus and learn helps to normalize saying “no” to conflicting meeting requests and makes it safe for employees to reach out when they are on the path to feeling overwhelmed. Let your reactions and support reward their behavior.

Other guidance includes the following:

  • Formalize focus. Perhaps the easiest way to encourage focused work is to put it on the calendar. Create a team norm of protected work time.

  • Respect boundaries. When people say they’re in focused work mode as indicated by their status on team chat tools or their calendar, honor it.

  • Enable purposeful productivity. During your weekly 1:1s, ask if they have the time and space to do the work they need or want to be doing. If the answer is no, support them in addressing that gap.

These practices will help you build a culture where your people can focus on the work that really matters. It’s vital that leaders understand these principles because they are what keeps your team efficiently engaged in a world designed to keep them distracted. Support their ability to focus, and everyone wins.

Even though training budgets are on the rise (article), the question remains whether employees are able or encouraged to take the time to learn and develop their skills. If they are, is the “encouragement” on top of their already packed schedules or is time set aside to truly focus on and apply the new knowledge?

A recording shared by Sabrina Braham MA, MFT, PCC (and my career coach) was quite fitting. In the discussion she reinforced the value of setting aside time to learn and grow. Instead of waiting for your company to give you permission, she recommends you should not wait for your company to invest in you - especially if you want to advance your career. Instead invest in yourself by taking courses, learning and doing stuff on your own to stand out from the crowd.

When I mentor individuals through ADPList, I ask questions to determine what they are passionate about. Often these are the skills which, if developed, can help the individual to stand out or find a job which aligns with their passions. For example, I spoke with a designer who enjoys data and is looking to transition into product management. I suggested leaning into her love of data and applying for a PM role at an analytics company.

Think about yourself and your product team. Where could some encouragement and investment of time enable your team (and you) to learn and develop skills to stand out from the crowd and take steps towards growth?

The article begins with a story which you have likely experienced. You are being interviewed about your usage of a product or service. Based on how the questions are framed, it’s obvious the person interviewing you wants you to say how amazing you find the product or service their company offers. Being a nice person, you agree in some manner.

If you are the one doing the interviewing, “what have you accomplished? Nothing. If you don’t come away knowing something new and actionable at the end of the interview, you’ve wasted your time and theirs.” And, as we already know from the articles above, we do not have time to waste.

The subsequent process is a written exercise and nicely compliments Teresa Torres’ continuous discovery habits. The ultimate goal being to “maximizing genuine learning”.

  1. Goals: What you’re trying to learn - Decide on your list of goals first, as they will drive the content of your interviews.

  2. Hypotheses: What you currently think the answers are - Create hypotheses for each of your goals - even the most obvious and mundane - because you’ll be surprised how often you’re wrong or adjustments are needed.

  3. Questions: What you ask during the interview - Write one open-ended question per hypothesis to test your hypotheses, and to suggest better ones.

  4. Iterate the hypotheses - If you hear anything surprising, keep going as that means you’re learning (yeah!) and it’s a signal that you should dig deeper by asking “Tell me more about that.” After each interview, consider what supported or contradicted your hypotheses. Also create new hypotheses (and associated questions) based on new learnings.

  5. Stop when it’s boring - When the surprises stop, that means learning has stopped, and you should stop the process. It’s time for a new method for making progress such as a proof-of-concept, a high-fidelity demo, an MVP, or something else.

Celebrating the wrap-up of this newsletter with a post from Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI which brought us ChatGPT.

Sam Altman shares that pretty much everyone cares about what other people think in some capacity. There are levers - (1) the people whose opinions you value and (2) the timescale you care about them. Most folks focus on the former and forget the later.

If you are exploring the fringes of technology or tackling new innovations, for example, it is likely you will be misunderstood by some in the short-term. That’s ok, because it is the long-term thinking that matters - when you turn the doubters into believers or better yet, customers. It just takes time.

You’ve made it to the end! Reflect back and evaluate your own approaches. Where are opportunities to gain more learning? Are there takeaways you can apply to your career, as a manager or as an employee? Enjoy!