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Picture This

November 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

A picture is worth a thousand words. So is a drawing, sometimes.

Sketching out an idea is a really good way to get something out of your head and in a format that can be more easily communicated to others.

Sometimes it’s the only way to convey something complex or technical.

Sometimes the idea and the drawing are very simple – but sketching it out makes it more real, more concrete.

Group Discussions

The person who steps up to the whiteboard in a meeting immediately gains clout. Daring to scribble and draw in front of others (something children do constantly and without hesitation), makes it seem like you must really know what you’re talking about. It can establish you as the thought leader in the room.

Sure, there will always be those who prefer to sit back and comment. They’re in an easy position to judge or criticize, but that whiteboard setup comes with an eraser – it’s easy to make changes on the fly. And the first mover to the board always has the advantage of being seen as a leader.

In fact, you are the leader of shaping that idea when you’re doing the drawing. You decide the shape, size and flow of the diagram and how to represent everyone else’s input.

Drawing Conclusions

Whether alone or in a group, shape your ideas with a sketch every now and then. Build a habit of thinking and communicating visually. You’ll help yourself and others by making things clearer and more concrete. It’ll be easier to get feedback, make changes, and synthesize ideas.

And it’s easy. Kids do it all the time.

Photo credit: Yandle

Filed Under: Communication, Leadership Tagged With: , , ,

Taking Action: 12 Children Get A Free 20-Week Computer Programming Course

November 21, 2011 By 5 Comments

One of the challenges even great speakers face is moving people to action. Great conferences full of great speakers can provide a lot of inspiration. Attendees are happy to spend the time and money on a good conference if they can get just a few “take aways.”

Everybody wants action, but it can be frustratingly rare.

Doing something for others

Alexis Ohanian, founder of the poular web site Reddit.com, got some quick action during his keynote address at the recent Business of Software conference in Boston – by moving others to act to help others.

His challenge: Tweet how you would make the world suck less with software. The winner, chosen by event organizers, gets a MacBook Air.

The winning tweets were the un-selfish ones.

Dharmesh is the founder of another very successful company. He didn’t need or want the prize. Richard’s idea tied in nicely with Dharmesh’s goal, but he didn’t want the prize either.

Action!

Enter Noel Clarke. He stepped up to bring these generous ideas into action, with a generous move of his own.

Noel reached out to the Lincoln School in Melrose, MA and offerred to teach a programming course to 5th grade students. So the school is getting a MacBook Air – and Noel is launching an early morning computer club that he will run for 20 weeks.

Following a curriculum designed by MIT, the course will shepherd young newbie programmers through the development of games, interactive stories, music and animation applications using the Scratch platform (also developed by MIT).

Originally limited to 8 students, Noel has since decided to allow all 12 applicants into the course.

Interview

I’m fortunate enough to know Noel, and doubly fortunate that one of my daughters will be taking this course (she’s pretty excited and has downloaded and started working with the Scratch software already). When I found out about all of this, I wanted to ask him a few questions and share this story. Hopefully it will inspire others to also take action.

What inspired you to step up and offer your time and expertise?
I have been thinking about teaching my daughter Abigail (4th Grade at the Lincoln School) about computer programming… and when Alexis Ohanian challanged the audience to do something that makes the world suckless it felt like the two ideas connected.

How hard was it to get the school on board with this idea?
Getting the school to agree was practically the easiest part – The Principal of the Lincoln School Brent Conway agreed after a simple email, and we had one face-to-face meeting where we discussed the details.

How long did it take from the moment this idea was popped into your head until the flyer was printed and kids were signing up?
It took two days! I sent an email to Mr. Conway on October 28 and by October 31st we met and agreed on the details.

What is your advice to others who want to make something like this happen?
As the twitter hashtag says #JFDI – “Just F’ing Do It!”

So there you have it. From idea to action in no time. Now, 12 children learn something new and useful. And maybe they become inspired to do more.

Who do you know taking action?

What can you do?

Photo credit: Horia Valran

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: , , ,

Avoiding Best Practices

November 18, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Best practices represent the tried and true, the state of the art. Best practices are what the collective efforts of many have determined to be the best way to do something.

Best practices are solid, reliable, optimized, and valuable. But they are not innovative.

You’ll have to chart your own course if you want to be innovative.

Photo credit: dutchboy

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With:

Checking References

November 17, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Before purchasing and adopting a new system, it’s a good idea to do some due diligence. Vendor-led demonstrations and even trial installations can only tell you so much.

The best information is going to come from someone else who has already adopted the system and has been actually using it for a while.

Affirmation

The trouble, of course, is that the vendor will certainly steer you toward their best and happiest customers. Those customers make the best references (for the vendor).

Another challenge is that we all like to feel that we have made the right decision. So, the references you’re speaking with who have made a commitment to adopting the system are driven to be consistent with that decision. Things get rationalized, so you need to be prepared to dig a little deeper to get a well-rounded opinion from them.

Key Questions

1. Who are your most recent customers?

One key question for the vendor is to ask for references who have most recently adopted the system. While their commitment to consistency may be strong (since they just made the purchasing decision), the experience of the transition will be fresh in their minds. It’s a different perspective and one you should actively seek out.

2. What have been your disappointments?

A key question for the reference is to ask about disappointments. Surely there are things that didn’t work as promised and things that didn’t go as planned. These things are not often offerred up immediately – not because references are trying to hide anything, but because it’s natural to de-emphasize these things in our minds as part of rationalizing our decisions. Asking directly will surface these items, and these are the things you need to hear most.

3. What would you do differently?

A great question, particularly for the reference who have most recently adopted the system, is “what would you do differently?” Learning is part of every project – particularly systems rollouts. And there are always things that could be done better, realities that were uncovered only through the experience of doing the project. This is the stuff you want to capture. It will be most useful to you should you go forward with the implementation yourself. And people are always willing to share these insights – it puts them into a consulting role, a rare opportunity to share the experience and the insights they have just learned but will likely not have an opportunity to use again.

Ask and Share

Ask the right questions and you’ll get good information from references. And remember to share the same insights – the “bad” stuff along with the good – when you’re asked to be a reference. The disappointments and things you’d do differently don’t automatically jump to mind when you’re in reference mode, but these are probably some of the most useful pieces of information you can share.

What are your reference checking strategies?

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With:

The Point of Failure

November 14, 2011 By 4 Comments

What’s the point of failure?

To test yourself. To find your limit. To use the knowledge and experience gained in order to set a new, higher limit.

An Example

In cycling there is a “ramp test.” You connect your bike to special indoor trainer equipment, strap on a heart rate monitor, and then systematically work yourself to the point of failure.

You pedal at a consistent rate throughout the entire test. And you start out pedaling at a comfortable level of power output (measured in watts – like a lightbulb – by the equipment connected to your bike).

After 60 seconds, the power output required is increased. So, it gets a little harder to keep pedaling at the same rate, but it’s manageable. Then 60 seconds later, the power output required is again increased by the same small increment.

Soon enough, these small increments to add up to something substantial. The test gets harder, and the rate at which it gets harder keeps increasing.

This continues until you literally cannot keep pedaling.

The Mental Game

There is a certain tenacity of will required to push yourself to that point of failure – to determinedly press on as your heart rate reaches a maximum, as your breathing becomes labored, as your legs burn.

You need to muster up the will and determination, prod yourself on with lots of self-talk, and soak in all the encouragement you can from the coach assisting you. You need to get yourself to physically fail before you give in and give up mentally.

You either do it, or you don’t. And you know it.

Learning and Limits

It’s all worth doing because you learn from this “failure.” Finding your limit is the whole point of the exercise.

Key measurements are used to reveal critical information about you. Information that will be used to tune subsequent workouts perfectly for you. Information that will be used to make your entire training program far more effective.

Finding your limit, it turns out, provides just exactly the information needed to best strategize on how to work to push beyond that limit to a higher level of achievement.

Photo credit: Stephen Depolo

Filed Under: Leadership, Strategy Tagged With: ,

Big Decisions

November 8, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Even a choice between “two really, really good options” is difficult, as Andrew Sutherland explained at his recent talk at MIT’s Startup Bootcamp.

Sutherland founded Quizlet, an online quiz site that attracts over 6 million unique visitors per month. Though always a part-time endeavor, the site’s growth and strong revenue stream gave him an opportunity many dream of. But it required him to make a big decision – should he leave MIT to pursue Quizlet full-time?

Sutherland explained that it was probably the “hardest decision” he’s ever made, and how he was “very deliberate” in the process. He didn’t rush it, he explained, but thought about it over the course of “like two weeks.”

Here the audience laughs, and Sutherland is surprised by that response.

For some reason we tend to associate the gravity of decisions with the length of time it takes to make them. Making a “big decision” in short order doesn’t mean it was short-circuited or taken any less seriously. In fact, compressing the time to make decisions likely increases the intensity of the process – and commitment level for the outcome.

Spending a lot of time on something doesn’t mean we’ll get a proportionately better result. In most cases, even with big decisions, it’s probably better to press on guided by larger principles and committments than it is to wait for more data points to trickle in. Details that may even cloud the decision or end up carrying a disproportionate influence over the final outcome.

Photo credit: Wolfgang Staudt

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With:

How to get buy-in for your project

November 2, 2011 By 4 Comments

Instant baking mixes were introduced in the late 1940s. This made creation simple for many meals. Suddenly, pie crusts, biscuits, and cakes were super easy to make.

In fact, the cake mixes were too easy to make. All you had to do was add water and bake.

Why was this a problem?

Psychologist Ernest Dichter thought the problem of a “too easy” cake recipe left the bakers with no pride of ownership over the end result. They simply could not be proud of the cake – often a featured component of a meal, particularly on special occassionns – if they had done so little to create it.

When the recipe was re-engineered so that the cake mix required the addition of fresh eggs, milk and oil, sales took off.

A harder to make instant cake mix was more popular than the easier one because the ownership bakers felt over the harder option.

What can we learn from this as project managers?

Finding ways for team members to crack some eggs is critical for buy-in. Team members won’t feel the pride of ownership of something they don’t have enough say in creating. But, they don’t need more instructions and steps in the recipe. They need more say in the creation of the recipe – the design of the project, the process, and the strategies. More co-creation will lead to more buy-in, and probably a much better end result too.

Photo credit: lizzardo

 

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With:

Ideas are easy, making them happen is hard

November 1, 2011 By 3 Comments

Good ideas aren’t as scarce as they seem. People can generate them pretty readily, create some excitement and get others “on board” quickly.

The next step, though, is a lot trickier than it seems – taking an idea and making it happen.

People, even those who are “on board,” need to be led. They need to be motivated. So, a direction must be set and progress must be made. This doesn’t happen on a white board or in a speech. It happens, quite often, in solitude with time and energy devoted to small, tedious tasks.

It’s not fun and exciting. But it is necessary if you want to get to the exciting stuff. If you want to see the big, exciting idea actually happen, then you’ve got to get started with the small, tedious work. And follow through.

Photo credit: Cushing Memorial Library

 

Filed Under: Leadership

Answering the why

October 27, 2011 By Leave a Comment

People know what to do, most of the time. That part is usually pretty clear. We spend a lot of time deciding what needs to be done, who is best suited to doing it, and how fast it needs to get done (usually very fast).

Taking time to explain why it needs to be done is sometimes skipped or not fully explained and discussed. But this part is always crucial.

Context matters. Knowing the end game and how things are progressing is important for the team to understand.

Working alone on an individual component without the context and sense of progress is isolating, probably frustrating, and de-motivating. Working together, communicating about context and goals, and seeing progress builds momentum.

Context and progress should be discussed up front. And during the project. And most importantly, after the project. Once we know what to do and why we’re doing it, we always want to know how we did.

Photo credit: Alex Barth

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: , ,

Threat or opportunity?

October 25, 2011 By Leave a Comment

How you choose to view things makes a difference.

In Springfield, New Jersey, for instance, Halloween is seen as a threat to learning.

Viewed this way, dressing up “detracts from the learning process.” Halloween has become, after all, a “social holiday” and not an educational one.

Viewed another way, Halloween is an opportunity to corral enthusiasm and leverage it for learning within and across disciplines.

Rather than suppressing the enthusiasm around the holiday, it’s leveraged. Halloween themes are worked into lessons on History, Math, Science, English, and more. They day is filled with lessons that tie together a bit more. And maybe the learning is a bit more fun and engaging.

Photo credit: Bee Free

Filed Under: Leadership Tagged With: , , ,
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