Extend your reach
Energy Ball by Jam343
One of the things that leaves me dumbfounded all the time, is the way I often let myself be slowed down by not knowing the process of the workplace in which I work.
In the beginning of a new job I am really inqusitive, and explore every aspect of the companys way to do stuff. But after a while I refrain from doing this.
This is bad. And I'm trying to fight this tendency.
1. Explore further
You ought to explore even further, because this will increase your leverage in the organization, increase your ability to get stuff done. Once in a while challenge yourself. Find out what ressource in the company you would like to be able to have access to, and then go about finding out how to influence this ressource to do work for you. Often the answer is really simple. It’s right there in front of you, but you just didn’t see it. Perhaps you we’re afraid to ask.
2. Don't get bogged down reorganizing other peoples processes
I, on the other hand, have a tendency to reengineer the way in which people around me work. While in some cases this is a good thing, it also drains a lot of energy, and takes a long time to deliver results.
It is of the outmost essence to know WHEN to reengineer, and it's a lot less often than you might think. Changing the way things work in your workspace is HARD work. Don't reach for this solution just because you don't understand what's happening.
Because... sometimes, this is exactly what's happening. You chose to reengineer a work process, not because it's wrong, but because you feel more in command when you're changing, than when you're admitting ignorance.
3. Nurse a happy, helpful and interested attitude
Most people loves to talk about what they do. If you're genuinely interested, they will be willing to share a cup of coffee and tell you about what they do. This is what we all do, when we start a new job. The key is to do this on a regular basis, even when you're firmly established in your job.
You could say this is a form of personal Kaizen. Continously furthering your ability to coorporate with people around you. Keep exploring your workspace for possibilities and gradually you will be able to perform better and better.
- Jens Poder
Begone curse of Greyface!
Just finished reading weird "Principia Discordia" lent to me by a discordian colleague from work - a slightly excentric fellow - he just got teargassed by police today!
Principia Discordia is the holy scripture of the Discordians. I can't quite figure out whether it's a religion or a happening. Perhaps it's both.
Most of the Principia is jibberish, but then there's a couple of interesting ideas in there to. Take for instance the Curse of Greyface.
The Curse of Greyface refers to, what discordians believe to be, a mythic transformation of society in which order/disorder replaced creative/destructive as the primary positive/negative polarity. This curse has created a society in which man tolerates destructive order, and frowns at creative disorder.
To choose order over disorder, or disorder over order, is to accept a trip composed of both the creative and the destructive. But to choose the creative over the destructive is an all-creative trip composed of both order and disorder. To accomplish this, one need only accept creative disorder along with, and equal to, creative order, and also willing to reject destructive order as an undesirable equal to destructive disorder. - The Curse of Greyface and the introduction of Negativism
It resonates perfectly with my blog motto "work & play creatively". The Principia Discordia is creative disorder taken to the extreme. And as such quite an amazing read.
Most of it was useless, but in the Curse of Greyface I found a wonderful concept. A beautiful mythic way to describe a grave threat to creativity and well-being that I encounter everywhere, especially in the workspace.
Now, anytime I feel the urge to be less noticeable, be more like the conformity crowd, I will recognize the influence of the curse, and counter it. Begone Curse of Greyface! :-)
- Jens Poder
Related Stuff:
- Play, your life may depend on it
How do you support intrinsic motivation?
I am often puzzled by the idea, that employees will become much more effective, if a proper reward-system is implemented. Research consistently shows, that external motivators like punishment and benefits, doesn't incent people to do their best.
There's a really nice piece in the Washington Post on this:
Rewards and punishments guide the lives of most Americans. Young children are given stars for putting away their toys, kids earn a few bucks for mowing the lawn, and teens are told they will be grounded if they get in trouble. For adults, stock options, raises, demotions and firings become different kinds of carrots and sticks. Beliefs about the utility of rewards and punishments in motivating human behavior are deeply ingrained, and most people don't know that more than 100 research studies have shown that motivating people in this manner can have the unintentional effect of undermining their internal drives.
link: Shankar Vedantam - When Play Becomes Work - washingtonpost.com
Intrinsic motivation and internal drive is the key to make something remarkable. If I purely do something for a reward, I'll most likely only the amount of work needed to reep the reward. Even worse... a rewardsystem will introduce a state of competition between me and my co-workers.
It has even been proven that introducing rewards, will dampen the internal drive to do something. If you introduce payments for work that was previously con amore, you actually dampen the original excitement.
"If I pay my kids to do their homework, I am saying, 'You will get this if you do your homework,' but I am also saying, 'Homework is not likely to have intrinsic rewards,' "
It's difficult to let people be driven by their own internal motivation. It seems easier to hand out money, than to explore and build and grow people around you.
- Jens Poder
Work together to get further – My 4 reasons why
Nobody really wants the "1 person per project" situation. It just seems to happen. The office is filled with people. But they work alone. When they communicate, it's just talk, or a meeting where they tell each other about the lack of progress on their solo-projects.
It's not that anybody really believes, that "1 person per project" is the most efficient way of doing things. It just gravitates towards this situation, slowly, but relentlessly.
I think we need to appreciate the fruits of teamwork more in knowledgework. Although teamwork is highly praised, it's also cumbered by an air of excessiveness.In to many workplaces the model of efficiency is: Sitting at your screen frowning & typing. In such a climate teamwork will be considered wastefull... a lot of hours.
Here's my 4 power-reasons why working together will get you further:
Teamwork reduces waste from errors
I hate spending time correcting errors and doing rework on something that entered my desk already flawed. When working close together, teams will be able seek out and eradicate errors faster. Also, misunderstandings, fromwhen a project is passed on from one person to another, will be fewer if the persons working on project, sits in a team, and keep an eye on each other.
Teamwork allows for Faster Execution
When you have a bunch of people working together all day long at the same project, the project is always moving. The project isn't sitting in some mailbox waiting for the next person in line, like some poor schmuck in the airport, always standing in line to achieve even the slightest task. You probably know the situation. You need some minor job done by someone in another department. It's really just a 10 minute task. But in calendar time it ends up taking 2 weeks! A tightly lead team will be able to set a goal, and discuss how to get there fastest! Fast is good!
Teamwork leads to better Knowledge Distribution
"Ohh.. this is a system A job. It can only done by John. Because he made it." You know this situation. It sucks! Because John is always busy. He's the bright one. Everybody wants John. He is a real bottle-neck in your production flow. Everything slows down around John. Well if John worked on system A with someone else for a period, then this bottle-neck could be widened. And the value of John's coworkers would be hightened. Everybody has valuable information. In a team they get to share this with others.
Strong teams have Better Morale
This is perhaps my favourite reason to introduce more teamwork. It's good for morale. When you perform in a team you get instant appreciation from your colleagues. What you did meant something for your team. Together you build a foundation for pride in your work. I love this quote by Dennis Kinlaw:
Work and self-worth are the two factors in pride that interact with each other and that tend to increase the strong sense of pride found in superior work teams. When people do something of obvious worth, they feel a strong sense of personal worth. - Dennis Kinlaw
These are powerful reasons to start doing more together. It just takes a lot of focus. And this is perhaps the reason why it fails so often. Leadership needs to be in place. If you don't guard this way of working, it's destroyed. Lack of priorities will let your list of projects grow longer and longer forcing you to split up teams. And pretty soon you'll see the four horsemen of ineffectiveness riding through your halls.
- Suboptimization
- Knowledge Hoarding
- Priority Politics...and the final and most fearsome rider
- "Who gives a shit"
Happy teamworking!
- Jens Poder
Omnifocus for Iphone preview at 43folders
Oh boy... I'm looking forward to this. OmniFocus for the Iphone. Merlin Mann has the details
- Jens Poder
Work and Play Gallery – Creative Guys aren’t to tidy :)
I love this collection of images from the Kotaku gaming blog. He showcases the office environments of some of the most succesfull designers in the gaming industry. Most of the places looks like my bedroom, when I was teenager :) Especially the one with all the Wargames from the designers of "The Sims."
It's a strange thing really... Where I work we produce television, internet and radio. But our offices are really high tech, and strongly regulated. You don't put anything on the walls. You must use furniture chosen by the architect. And in the name of what? To look cool? I can't really figure it out.
I like the approach taken here in these pictures. It reminds me of David Kelley, the boss from Ideo design firm, showing a camera crew around the place. He pauses in front of a door, and with a smile beneath his Grouch Marx moustache and a hint of glee in his voice he says,
This is where the crazies live! This is where we do all our work.
I like it. It sends the signal to the workers, that weirdness is wanted and conformity shunted.
Check out the gallery and see the workplaces of Firaxis, the designer of "The Sims" and many more. Beware! It is different from the Unclutterer Workspace Pool at Flickr
- Jens Poder
Tags: play, work, IDEO, design, creativity
Managing Innovation fails in most organizations
BNET writes on Managers own view on innovation contra the views of their employees. Apparently most managers believe that it's easy for new ideas to travel from the cubicles to the top of the company. This of course wishfull thinking beyond the borders of saneness.
Most CEOs would like to believe theyre open to innovation its the business watchword of our age. According to management professor Bob Sutton, however, few executives actually understand what it takes to be tackle change head-on. For true innovation to happen, employees have to be able to take [a] risk and fail. They also have to feel that they are free to speak out, says Sutton. Executives may talk a lot about innovation but at the same time punish the employees who go out on a limb.
Part 2: Low Marks for Managing Innovation on BNET
Check it out!
- Jens Poder
Dunbars Magic Number – stop at 150 people in a group!
I have been reading "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell lately... highly recommended! One of the ideas that got me interested was Gladwells mentioning of the magic number 150.
Robin Dunbar discovered that 150 was the maximum number of people in an effective group. He did it by researching the way the size of the Neo-Cortex in the brain of mammals correlates with their preferred size of group. From the size of the human Neo-Cortex he could deduce the number to be somewhere around 150. Then, as an anthropologist, he went out and found out, that this number was the same as the size of the typical settlements in primitive tribes. It was also the maximum number of personel in military units.
Beyond 150 we begin to loose the ability to have full relationships with other people. We begin to think of them in 2D. We don't know what their interests are, what they excel at. We simply don't care about them anymore.
The consequense of this is, that groups above 150 are unstable compared to sub-150 groups. These groups need more control and structure, and formalized knowledge-sharing, than sub-150 groups. Before you hit the magic number you can rely on personal trust and relationsships to solve the groups problems. Beyond this the group starts to split up into smaller clans, with their own agendas.
It is really interesting how this maximum group-size has been adopted in the way Gore International (Gore-Tex) organize the corporate culture. Every time a division grows beyond 150 it gets split up. And because of this approach they succeed in having a much simpler leadership structure, and highly cross-functional teams.
Further Reading:
- Inside the Monkeysphere - A funny rant about the implications of the number 150.
- Wikipedia Entry on Dunbars Number
- Jens Poder
4 ways to strengthen your workplace bravery
Oh man have I been punishing myself lately! I have sinned against my basic "rules of engagement" at work. I have been through a demanding period of "mid project blues". It's the worst!
For me this happens when projects are well underway and my initial passion cools. This time it happened to a couple of projects at the same time. This is when I am most vulnerable. This is when selfdoubt and anxiety sets in. My usual strength in maintaining my OWN way of working, the way that I know creates value, the way that works, this strength is weakened. For me this is a humbling experience.
In times like this, I have to remember myself of the importance of workplace bravery, if you want to create something out of the ordinary. Here are my 4 basic rules of bravery.
- Preserve and build your fire! Losing your passion is the sure killer of your projects. So it's vital to let this fire burn. Take a break. Get out and relax before you succumb to the pressure, and lose interest in what you're doing. Your project won't suffer because you take a couple of easy days. It WILL suffer if you burn out.
- Act like the rules doesn't apply to you. You can drive yourself nuts trying to navigate corporate policies, when struggling to do something new. The best tip I know is to act like there's special rule-exceptions just for you. People around you will tend to accept this if you do it with a straight face.
- Stop mirroring your colleagues. Keep doing something that stands out. Work differently. Present differently. Find information differently. It'll make you valuable because it makes you unique.
- Check to see if your work is appreciated by your main sponsor frequently. This is of course pretty important. Acting after own tune is near-impossible to keep up if your not confident in your own worth. So seek feedback regularly. You'll often be amazed how much your boss appreciates you.
- Jens Poder
Technorati Tags: bravery, burnout
Clarity and brevity IN – Corporate Vaugetalk OUT!
If you want to impress me, then speak with clarity, simplicity and humanity. I'm deeply troubled by the corporate and academic mumbo-jumbo that contages communication everywhere in workplaces. The notion seems to be, that simple talking is the mark of a simple thinker. Not so!
How easy it is to shroud your own unclarified thinking in vague general concepts borrowed from books you have read, but barely understood. If someone forced you to explain yourself in plain and specific everyday language, you would have difficulties finding the words.
Among leaders this is a fools cancer. To impress their peers and justify their specialness, some leaders end up talking in a way that alienates them from the people they were supposed to lead. They try to sell vague ideas dressed up in pompous words, and come through as snake-oil dealers.
And it isn't so surprising. Many employees have bad experiences where impressive management concepts were weaselspeak for cutbacks and layoffs. A turd by any other name...
If you want to come through as sincere... If you want to be understood... You have to speak with clarity and simplicity. And you have to be there yourself inside your message. Speak with humanity. Don't tell me "it has been decided to..." tell me "I want you to..." It's so common that the subject, the doer, disappears in these endless adorned sentences.
But simple isn't stupid. Here's a great article from Scientific American Mind. It explains the reason why George W. Bush came through so strongly right after the world trade center tragedy. He was able, in simple words, to channel and mold the feelings of a whole nation.
Or another american leader, Kennedy. He didn't talk of being at the forefront of space age technology and leveraging this position to blablabla. He wanted to put a man on the moon!
So please… Stop hiding behind vague words! It's ineffective. It's stupid! Stop talking clever. start talking clear. Then you'll impress me.
- Jens Poder
Technorati Tags: communication, clarity, brevity, leadership