May 6, 2016

We all know Apple wants us to “Think Different,” but a little more time spent listening to advertising reveals just how different today’s corporations want you to be. Or at least how innovative they want you to believe they are.

With slogans like 3M’s “Innovation,” Ericson’s “Taking You Forward,” and General Electric’s “Imagination at Work,” it’s easy to wonder how they get anything accomplished at all- what with all the day dreaming they engage in.

At least Hewlett-Packard wants to “Invent,” but Samsung Electronics is content to “Imagine.” IMAX likes to “Think Big,” only to be out done by Cadence’s “How Big Can You Dream?”

Still, why am I talking about the hopes and dreams of corporations? Is it because corporations really are people?

Don’t be ridiculous! We’re talking about dreams, not fantasy!

That said, there is a lot we can learn from the successful ones on how to accomplish our on goals, and successes.

Knut Haanaes, a Senior Partner of The Boston Consulting Group, says that for the continued success of a company, there must be a balance between innovation for the future, and production in the present.

He calls these “exploration,” or the looking for new idea’s, and “exploitation,” or using previously learned ideas for present production. What’s more interesting though, is that only 2% of companies are actually able to effectively do both.

Which got me thinking: How many of us effectively balance our present, and our future in our own lives?

Seems like a pretty important balance to strike. A company may prefer to to have a long life, and thrive throughout the entirety of it’s existence. However, again, they aren’t people. It should be more important 100 times over that you are able to thrive happily, and healthily throughout your lifespan!

So the question becomes “how do we enjoy today, and prepare for tomorrow, in balance?”

Ethical Exploration and Exploitation in Our Own Lives

When I first heard “exploitation,” it carried some of negative connotation for me. It left a little bit of a bad taste in my mouth. So if you too feel like you’ve been given fresh orange juice after brushing your teeth, it is important to understand what these terms mean, and what they do not. Likewise, it is important so we can apply them effectively.

Exploiting Problems Not People

Exploitation means using past ideas, and information to solve for current problems. This is mostly what we do for short term goals. I know how to clean up my house. I know how to go to work so I have income for a fancy new thinger-bopper. Exploiting means using. It means taking the resources we have, and using them in a way that solves a problem or makes our lives better.

It does not mean using other people in a dishonest, or destructive manner!

Exploring More than Expenses

Now that we have exploitation down, lets take a quick look at “exploration.” When we talk about creating a life balance between the present and the future, the first thing that comes to most people’s minds is savings. We think about how much money we are spending, and how much we can save for the future.

However, while that is important, it isn’t really what we are talking about here. Exploration is about vision, and learning. It is about vision, because this dreaming quality is what helps to move us from the lifestyle we live within to another. It is about learning because that is the tool we utilize to get there.

When a company talks about innovation, they aren’t discussing the investments they’ve made with their capital. They are talking about how they plan to do things differently than they are currently done, in order to be better in the future.

This is all extremely important for us as human beings, because we love to grow over time! Stagnation bores, and depresses us.

It is why we would rather have yearly raises in income than decreases, even if the money over time is the same or less. It is why we like to be better than we were before. It is why we can put up with failure, if there is an opportunity to be successful the next time.

Exploration is a integral part of our happiness.

Striking the Balance

Hopefully, now you can see the importance of striking a balance between exploration and exploitation in our personal lives. However, one look at those complicated lives, and it quickly becomes an overwhelming task.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

-Lao Tzu

The First Step

Our first step is to pick one project out of our lives to put this high-wire act in to practice with. Instead of immediately trying to recalculate our whole existence, lets maybe give it a whirl with one particular project or goal. Hear are a few points to keep in mind to pick the right project:

  1. It should be a project that has stagnated, or isn’t growing like you want. “If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” Pick a project that isn’t doing what you want.
  2. It should be a project you’ve been working on for a while. This isn’t the time to start something new. Let’s get something you are already working at back on track.
  3. It should be something you regularly put time into every day, or week. If you aren’t getting results on a project you work on less than once a week, you should probably look at the time constraints first.

Example: The project I’ve chosen to work on, and use as an example throughout this post is my website.

Estimating Your Time Spent

Now that you have decided on a project or goal, write down how much time you regularly spent on it. This doesn’t have to be exact. Best guesses are better than getting overly bogged down in this.

Keep in mind though, the little time you spend here and there that add up over the day or week. 5-10 minutes once every day is about a hour at the end of the week.

So take 1-2 minutes and estimate the time you spend. Write it down, or add a note in your phone.

Example: I estimated that I spend 8 hours on average in a typical week on my website.

  • 4-5 hours creative process, and fingers typing.
  • 1-2 hours proofing, photo editing, posting.
  • 1-2 hours checking back, and responding to comments. (This is a example of where 5 minutes here, and 10 minutes there add up.)

Estimating Your Current Balance

Next it is time to take this information, and identify each piece as either “exploration,” or “exploitation.” It may be helpful to break down your time into smaller pieces to correctly categorize each. Refer back to our definitions, or listen to Haanaes talk about their application to corporations, to help determine which is which. Here are a few guidelines to help you decide:

Exploitation:

  • This work enables me to continue my current level of production or success.
  • This work utilizes what I already know.
  • This work produces consistent, but not increasing results.

Exploration:

  • This work may enable future production or success.
  • This work requires learning.
  • This work produces increases in results.

Example: First I listed my balance, and a staggering 100% exploitation, and 0% exploration. However, perhaps out of pity, I settled on 90% – 10% due to the time I spend thinking about new plans. (Not a very fruitful activity if they don’t get done, but not for nothin’.)

Take 5-10 minutes and categorize your work. Don’t get too bogged down here either. Estimate. We’re going to work with better tools later to get more accurate results of future progress.

Choosing Your Desired Balance

You may be looking at your numbers now wondering, what is the perfect balance for success, and personal growth. While it depends some on the scope, and time line of your goals (be they 1 month, 1 year, 5 years, or 10), there isn’t a golden ratio here.

For some people, and projects it may be 70/30, or 50/50. Looking far into the future? Maybe its 30% exploitation to 70% exploration.

Keep in mind that longer term goals may take more exploration. However, too much exploration not enough exploitation has serious issues as well. It’s basically the opposite side of my issue. Without ever exploiting or utilizing the ideas you come up with, you aren’t maximizing the results you could get with what you already have.

Think about it like this: You have 1 thick rubber balloon, and 2 lungs. You blow up your balloon as big as you can. It becomes very difficult. This is exploitation.

Now, you buy a second balloon. This is exploration.

You can buy all the balloons you want, but if you don’t use your lungs to blow them up you’ll have less total balloon volume. Likewise you can blow and blow and blow into one, but if you down get more it becomes so difficult to put more air into it that it isn’t worth it.

Keep this in mind when you look for your ratio.

Example: I’ve decided on a balance of 50/50. This maybe a bit aggressive, but what the heck, I want to give it a try.

Look at where you are, and decide on a balance to try out.

Planning Your Strategy

There are only two ways to change your balance.

  1. Put additional time into your project in the area you need to.
  2. Spend less time on one side, and more on the other.

Sounds simple. However, by the end of planning you are likely to be groaning for another option, because both can be painful.

If you have more time to give, option one is great. Just spend more free time in the area you need to. Easy peasy. However most of us would already be spending more time if we had it to spend, so if you replied, “Free time? What’s that?” time to move one to option number two.

This one hurts.

The first thing to start with is identifying the work you do that you don’t really need to. Cutting that out is the easiest thing to do, unless of coarse it’s part of the project that you enjoy.

Second look to see if there is any way to be more efficient or quick with your time.

However, often there is just not enough time to be found in either of these. Those options were exhausted long ago. What’s left?

And here’s why it hurts, because the only think left it to take time and resources from the activities that we know get us current result. Work that is actually doing what it is meant to do.

It’s not a pleasant prospect. However, be honest with yourself. Don’t run back to option one screaming, “I’ll spend more time- I promise I will!” if it isn’t going to happen. Make the hard choices.

Remember, you can blow on that balloon till your lungs give out, but sometimes it’s better to get a second balloon.

Example: I’ve tried to put more time in, and it just isn’t regularly feasible. Oh sure I have weeks I can and do put lots more time in. But regularly? Hasn’t been happening. So onto option two, where I’ve decided to shift time from an every week posting schedule to every other week. This will allow me to spend time writing for other websites, working on site design, and other goodies for everyone.

Recording Your Actual Time and Balance

We are almost finished, but not quiet yet. Those estimates we made were great, but to monitor progress I’d rather have something a little less subjective. It’s important to record in some way how much time we are actually spending, as well as what we are actually spending it on.

I’ve started using Toggl for android, and so far so good. I haven’t gotten into the reports too much yet though, and I’m sure there are 100 similar apps, so choose one that helps you monitor your time without spending too much time on the monitoring.

For this app I turn it on when I start working, mark the project as “website,” and tag it either exploration, or exploitation. Turn it off again when I’m done, and we’re all set.

This is crucial step so don’t skip it. Download something, or title a notebook now.

The 2% That Matters

If only  2% of companies are able to effectively balance exploitation, and exploration to manage their present, and their future, I’m guessing we’re not far off. Living a balanced life is an enormous challenge, but the payoffs are bigger.

My plan is scary to me. Last time I failed to post every week, the floor fell out from under me.

And it’s exciting. Growth takes risk.

Plan a strategy, and take a chance.

-Michael Speck

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5 Comments

  1. Ms Wanderlust
    July 28, 2016

    I just loved this!!! And it was exactly what I needed in my ever busy and complex life. Thank you for your insights.

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