Tom Cruise taught me a powerful lesson about productivity that still shapes how I work today.
Here’s the story
In the 90s I worked as a VP Operations of Call Center & Distribution operations
Customers would phone in or mail in their orders to us and we’d package them up and ship them out.
All in the days before e-commerce was even a term.
We’d fulfill everything from compact discs through to gardening tools and children’s toys.
One outsourcing company I worked for in Los Angeles had a big Client base across the entertainment industry.
Our facililties in Burbank – sited near many of the big studios – included multiple warehouses, a fifty seat Contact Center and adminstrative offices.
Before any big new movie was released, the film studios would design and then arrange for us to send out promotional materials to movie theaters around the country.
We would store, assemble, package and ship off materials like posters, standees – life sized cut-outs and backdrops – and lots of different promotional items for VIP receptions and movie-goer contests and giveaways.
I remember for one movie about kids who became spies, we had to assemble a complete ‘Spy Briefcase’ with binoculars, a fingerprint dusting kit and a play along game that followed the plot of the movie.
In the 90s Tom Cruise was everywhere
And our company won the Tom Cruise Fan Club account which was a big deal.
So when Tom Cruise fans would write or call in to our Customer Care Center and ask for memorabilia, our Warehouse Employees would ‘pick and pack’ all the necessary items for a Fan Club kit and mail it out.
And our Distribution Employees all wore white gloves.
Our CEO was had a fanatical attention to detail – and expected that no Fan would ever receive an autographed Tom Cruise photo with a big oily smudge on it.
If that happened – for example through a call to the Contact Center – we would all hear about it.
That level of focus on even the smallest of details was an important part of our working culture.
And I’m grateful for having been grounded in a culture where even the smallest of details mattered in creating a better experience.
Because – as our CEO regularly reminded us – that was why Clients like Disney, HBO and Paramount had chosen us as their provider.
Despite a marketplace that included less expensive providers.
I was put in charge of the Tom Cruise Fan Club account – and its productivity
The Tom Cruise Fan Club project was the first Distribution Center programs I was assigned to lead shortly after I joined the company.
So I was grateful when another VP in the company, Sandra, took the time to teach me the ropes on how to set up and run an efficient ‘pick and pack’ operation.
A pick and pack operation involves deciding how to formally stage all the required items that were picked and then packed into any particular kit.
With an obvious eye to efficiency as well.
Working with three of our top Distribution Employees we studied where to position the materials, how people moved in and around the staging area and – using stopwatches – estimated how much time was spent ‘per kit’.
And as we were designing the Tom Cruise pick and pack process, Sandra gave me a useful piece of advice.
She said –
“Dan – what I tell you now might seem obvious.
But one of the keys to success in the pick and pack process is to avoid touching the same thing twice if and when you don’t have to.
Because if you have to touch the same thing twice, it typically means that process isn’t as efficent as it could be.”
What I learned about working in Distribution Centres applies to my work today
Sandra’s advice that day improved my ability to design an efficient warehouse process. It helped me in that job role.
But her advice on avoiding touching the same thing twice has taken on a different context for the work I do today. Which is this –
If I can do something at one go then I do it at one go.
And when that ‘something ‘is done, I move on to the next thing.
Because multi-tasking is not productive
I still meet people who tell me how proud they are of their multi-tasking skills.
But when human beings split their focus between or across unrelated tasks, productivity drops. We’re not computers.
If you’re trying to watch a Ted Talk and read a LinkedIn article at the same time – you’re really doing two different things at the same time.
They don’t go together.
And as you switch back and forth between the Ted Talk and the article, you’ll lose your focus and concentration on both of those things.
You’ve ‘touched’ both the Ted Talk and the article multiple times – but unnecessarily.
You didn’t have to do that. You chose to do that.
And in a digital world, with phones buzzing and chats popping up, it can be easy to fall into unproductive multitasking.
Because there really is value in doing one thing at a time. And my concentration and thus my output or outcome is better.
Of course there are times where you may need to touch the same thing twice.
For example, if a Client calls to speak to me, I will put the report I am working on aside.
After I am done, I return to working on the report.
Yes – I have now touched the report twice. But I classify this as a necessary interruption.
In closing, I don’t touch the same thing twice if I don’t have to. And I think of Sandra often and the lesson that she taught me.
It has definitely done wonders for my level of productivity. And I hope it can helpful for you too.
https://www.omnitouchinternational.com/why-manners-will-always-matter/
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Daniel Ord
[email protected] / www.omnitouchinternational.com
