Kevin Duncan - The Intelligent Work Book: A visual guide to sorting out life and work

PRAISE FOR

THE INTELLIGENT WORK BOOK

Visual + verbal = inspirational.

Chris Barez-Brown, Founder, Upping Your Elvis,
and author, Wake Up! Escaping A Life On Autopilot

One thing remains constant with all of Kevins books
practical advice that makes us better.
The Intelligent Work Bookis no exception.

Richard Morris, CEO UK and President EMEA, Initiative

Duncan says your audience remembers 70% of your
beginning, 20% of your middle and 100% of the end.
Let me end with this: BRILLIANT!

Marty Neumeier, author, Scramble: A business thriller

It is rare to find a book that makes you stop and
think about how you think. Simple visual wisdom from
Kevin Duncan which is well worth a look.

Helen Calcraft, Founding Partner, Lucky Generals

Transforms your doodles into powerful ways
of thinking and behaving. Doodles will
never be the same again.

Richard Swaab, Deputy Chairman, BBDO EMEA

One of the secrets of a successful career well,
a successful anything is to adopt the winning
techniques. This book has an abundance of them.
It will get you ahead.

Sue Unerman, Chief Transformation Officer, MediaCom,
author, The Glass Wall, providing success strategies for
women at work and businesses that mean business

Kevin has written a Tardis of a book.
It packs an awful lot of ideas and insights into
a small and accessible package.

Richard Shotton, author, The Choice Factory

FOR OTHER TITLES
IN THE SERIES...

CLEVER CONTENT, DYNAMIC IDEAS, PRACTICAL
SOLUTIONS AND ENGAGING VISUALS
A CATALYST TO INSPIRE NEW WAYS OF THINKING
AND PROBLEM-SOLVING IN A COMPLEX WORLD

conciseadvicelab.com

Published by

LID Publishing Limited

The Record Hall, Studio 304,

16-16a Baldwins Gardens,

London EC1N 7RJ, UK

www.lidpublishing.com

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owners and the publisher of this book.

Kevin Duncan, 2020

LID Publishing Limited, 2020

Printed in Latvia by Jelgavas Tipogrfija

ISBN: 978-1-912555-70-3

Cover and page design: Caroline Li

THE
INTELLIGENT
WORK
BOOK

A VISUAL GUIDE TO SORTING OUT LIFE AND WORK

KEVIN DUNCAN

CONTENTS

WORK YOU VS NORMAL YOU

THREE GOOD, THREE BAD

MOTIVATIONAL DIPS

ZOOM IN, ZOOM OUT

DIRECTIONAL PERSPECTIVES

FICTIONAL PLANS

THE YEAR THAT NEVER IS

PROCRASTINATION AND PANICKING

LIVELINES AND DEADLINES

FINDING NEMO

LETS NOT DO THIS

DESTINATIONS AND MOVEMENT

MENTAL MAGPIES

TEAMS AND SILOS

TAMING TECHNOLOGY

WHAT AM I DOING?

TASK TRIAGE

RECOGNIZING RELEVANCE

MAKING DECISIONS

WHY AM I DOING THIS?

IS THIS WORTH IT?

ESSENTIALISM

PRIORITY, NOT PRIORITIES

GROWING PANES

BEATING INTERRUPTIONS

THE HAMMOCK AND BED OF NAILS

GO FOR A GRABBER

SHOW YOUR WORKINGS

OVERCOMING OBJECTIONS

A CRITICAL QUESTION

INTROVERTS, EXTRAVERTS, AMBIVERTS

THE SELLING PYRAMID

RATIONAL DROWNING

THE TEN-STEP CASE

FOUR CORNER WALKABOUT

INTO THE ARENA

ONLY THREE THINGS

EIGHT STEPS

NEVER SPLIT THE DIFFERENCE

STYLE GUIDE

MANAGING: UP, DOWN, SIDEWAYS

INTERRELATIONSHIPS

PAY RISE PLEASE

RADICAL CANDOUR

20-MILE MARCHES

PARTHENONS AND ONIONS

CULTURAL DIFFERENCES

ONE THING LEADS TO ANOTHER

PREACHERS AND TEACHERS

YOU AND YOUR LIFE

INTRODUCTION

Seven years ago I noticed that many of my attendees in training were taking notes in a new way drawing shapes instead of writing old-fashioned longhand lecture notes.

So I wondered how many diagrams there were in my training materials. The answer was 46, so I added four more and wrote The Diagrams Book.

I had no idea at the time that there was an entire world market in visual thinking. Over time I seem to have become the diagrams guy.

Editions of the book have now come in from Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Sweden, China, Poland and Hungary, and there is more to come from Russia and Thailand.

All over the world, it is clear that many find it hard to express themselves and solve problems purely with words. Diagrams and visuals are superb for organizing your thinking in so many ways.

My next challenge was to try to combine the two. Would it be possible to interweave narrative and visuals to create a guide to sorting stuff out? This is my attempt to do just that: The Intelligent Work Book.

In my opinion, balanced intelligence comes from combining the power of the visual and the verbal, and the result becomes a practical workbook that anyone can use. From thinking, doing, working, planning and prioritizing, through to presenting, selling, negotiating, progressing in your career or just joking around, its all covered here.

It can be done, so heres to intelligent work.

Good luck, and keep me posted on how you get on.

Kevin Duncan
Westminster, 2020

A WORD ON THINKING

Too many people blunder straight into doing things before they have thought them through properly.

Thinking is free and we should all do it more often.

It pays to ponder before you take action.

Start by working out your style, and consider how you come across at home and in work. It is important to be yourself wherever you are.

Develop a knack for addressing the issues head on, and not burying the tough stuff or pretending it isnt there. That will always come back to haunt you.

Think about motivation and how it affects the energy and effort that goes into the things that you feel matter most.

Adopt the ability both to look at the big picture and be able to look at detail. Too much of one or the other leads to an imbalanced approach.

And dont be fooled by dead ends masquerading as opportunities.

As Barbara Castle once said: Think, think, think again.

It will hurt at first, but youll get used to it.

PART ONE

THINKING

1.PERSONALITY

WORK YOU VS NORMAL YOU

Some people behave quite differently at work than they do in their personal lives. This may be okay, but it can also lead to stress. A person who is totally different in each context has a life that looks like this: