March 24, 2013

Good ideas are not the secret sauce

Compelling presentations, great books, inspiring videos, great podcasts, insightful articles – you are literally surrounded by good ideas.

But that’s not the secret to making things happen.

There is no shortage of good ideas, there’s a shortage of action. Of course, the irony is that in order to apply the glitzy idea or create the compelling story or accomplish the larger visible goal, a lot of boring, tedious, and very un-glamorous work needs to be done. That’s the secret sauce.

You have the knowledge and experience to relate the good ideas to your circumstance. These ideas provide you with insight and motivation for moving forward. And you can share them and leverage them as a jumping off point for conversations and work with groups of people in order to make the larger changes happen.

But it’s all predicated on some quiet time, alone, working through the tedium. Uncovering the details that matter, struggling with the analysis, discovering lots and lots of roadblocks, wrestling with discouragement, finding hope, and mustering sheer determination to finish the thing.

It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. Big results only come from working through the details.

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March 15, 2013

Now would be a great time to subscribe by email

emailIf you are, like me, already mourning the loss of Google Reader come July 1, 2013, I’m sure you’re scrambling for new ways to keep connected to important streams of information.

I don’t buy the argument being made by some people that social media outlets like Twitter can replace RSS. Those streams offer tremendous value in curated content, and they highlight sources that I don’t otherwise frequent. That’s all good and valuable, but it’s not the same as a subscription.

A subscription is a commitment. It’s a level of engagement that plays out over time. The pace, the pattern, the steady connectedness – it’s a very different value proposition than other streams of information.

Not to mention that something like Google Reader is an important way to get and keep those streams organized. And let’s not forget the special applications like the ability to connect into Google Alerts, Twitter searches, and more.

So, I’ll be looking for a replacement. Hopefully something like Feedly will work. But it’s also a time to consider a more reliable pathway for some of the most important streams. Email subscriptions may be the way to go here. And I hope you’ll consider signing up for my email subscription list. All the posts come through and your email address is never used for another purpose or shared with anyone else.

And for those of you already subscribing by email, thank you for letting me into your inbox.

Photo credit: Simon Adriaensen

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January 31, 2013

The beauty of a deadline

clockTime constraints focus energy. More importantly, they enforce decision making. And that’s often the hardest part of any project.

People delay decisions in order to research, analyze, discuss, and debate all the virtues of one option versus the others. Often, though, we know the answer very early on; we’re just reluctant to commit to it.

And that can be a good thing – being open to listening to all the facts, to hearing out opposing views. But more often that delay is just a way to avoid putting that personal stake in the ground. Group decisions magnify the issue.

So, we make a move only when the deadline approaches, when we have no choice, when we will be compelled to move forward by factors outside of our control. The decisions and commitments finally get made.Without the deadline, sometimes, not much would happen.

A better approach might be to put more things under your control. To enforce your own self-imposed deadline, and to do it on an accelerated schedule, well ahead of the external deadline. Decide and commit early, then transfer all the worry and wasted energy of that non-committal phase into planning the best path forward. Make the deadline the starting line for implementation. Or, better yet, get a head start way before the deadline arrives.

Photo credit: Daniele Zanni

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November 11, 2012

The pen is mightier than the smartphone

No matter what smartphone you have or which clever app you’ve installed, nothing beats good old fashioned pen and paper for quickly capturing a thought, idea, or mundane to-do item.

No bootup time. No unlock screen. No scrolling.

Carrying a pen and notepad (like field notes) to jot things down will beat the smartphone every time. It’s a writer’s secret that everyone can use. Get your idea down on paper fast to ensure you capture it quickly, easily, and permanently.

Sometimes the old technology is just faster, more efficient, and more reliable than the latest wiz-bang contraption. Don’t be afraid to go “old school” where it makes sense.

Photo credit: redspotted

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September 24, 2012

The long-term starts now

Little things mean a lot. The next little thing you do contributes to the next little thing you accomplish. And those little accomplishments add up to big accomplishments. Over time, you make significant progress.

Or you don’t.

Blowing off the small things, rushing through them hastily, and lowering your quality standards for short-term goals all diminishes what you are able to accomplish over the long term.

Doing good work on the small things, even (especially) the things nobody else sees, matters. Developing skills and practicing discipline on smaller tasks pays dividends on the larger, more visible work. Big things are accomplished by those who focus on the little things.

Photo credit: Stuck in Customs

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September 14, 2012

Face to face

Facing to face discussions move us to act. The ability to look each other in the eye, and to convey and interpret emotions through body language and facial expressions, makes the exchange more personal than any other platform. Email, conference calls, or even video conferencing just isn’t the same. Our shared presence in the same place at the same time focuses our attention in a way these other medium’s just can’t.

The shared understanding that’s achieved and the personal promises that are made (explicit and implicit) organizes our efforts and compels us to follow through. Particularly if there’s a follow up meeting. And when the conversations are tied together by a clear and specific set of objectives and a tightly followed agenda.

Photo credit: voka

 

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February 3, 2012

Personal Automation, with “If This Then That” – ifttt.com

With so many handy sites and utilities on the social web, it’s easier than ever to keep organized. But it’s also harder than ever because there is so much information and so many ways to organize it.

A little automation can go a long way. And that’s where ifttt.com comes in.

This handy site is very straight-forward and easy to use, yet extremely powerful. It’s can glue together many of the most popular utilties on the web to help you do all sorts of helpful things.

The basic construct, as the name implies, is to have the site process certain tasks based on certain triggers. Some examples might explain this better.

Examples

Here’s an example: If I favorite a tweet, email it to me. This helps when checking twitter on the run. Maybe I’m on the train or in line for a sandwich and see a tweet that links to an article I’d like to read. If I “favorite” that tweet, ifttt sees that and emails me a copy. I could also have it posted to delicious or diigo and tagged “read later” – there are many options.

Another example: I read a lot of stuff on Google Reader. It’s great for reading bunches of RSS feeds, and many times I’ll come across something that I want to share on Twitter. Unfortunately, that’s not easy to do from Google Reader. Enter ifttt. I setup a simple rule to tweet anything that I mark with a star in Google Reader. Problem solved.

The possibilities are endless

The possibilities are endless, it seems. There are dozens of services that ifttt integrates with and many tasks you can create. Also, the ifttt community shares many “recipes” that you can browse to get ideas. Recipes are tasks others have created for one purpose or another and shared with the community.

Check out ifttt.com and explore the possibilities. You’ll likely find some simple automation ideas and capabilities that can go a long way in helping you to automate tasks to save time and keep organized.

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January 17, 2012

Solitude and Collaboration

This recent New York Times article is worth a read: The Rise of the New Groupthink. There’s a lot packed into it, and a few good takeaways:

  1. Creative work is best done in solitude
  2. Committees are not creative (beware ‘brainstorming’ sessions)
  3. The way you layout your office matters
  4. Interruptions are not harmless (more on that here)
  5. Be strategic and deliberate about collaboration
  6. Neither (collaboration or solitude) is good in extreme

Photo credit: Andy Roberts

 

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January 11, 2012

Sharpening (and broadening) your skills

Ignorance is not likely to lead to bliss much in the field of social media, marketing, or technology. The days of compartmentalizing functions and expertise are quickly slipping into a new era where really smart people need to know a little (or a lot) about a lot of different things.

An obvious example

The classic example is the need for technology workers to improve their communication skills. Your job is not just about technology. You run a technology function within a business, and everyone in that business uses technology to get their job done. You need to be able to communicate – effectively – with them, and you need to understand the business context for everything you do.

Get comfortable engaging people in conversation, speaking up in meetings, writing out your thoughts and plans. Ask questions, learn. And figure out ways to convey your thoughts in a straight-forward, jargon-free manner. Sometimes things don’t seem as logical as we’d like in IT – until we take the time to understand the context and motives. Sometimes we feel like order takers, until we make the effort to consult with others and influence decisions.

While this is a classic example, it’s now not a nice-to-have, but a requirement.

Marketing

The same thing is happening in marketing. You can’t be good at marketing and ignore the technology. You need to understand all the major components and how they fit together. And in some (many) areas, you need to have sharp skills. You need to know how to work the tools, coordinate and integrate them.

Getting more technical is no longer an option. If you’re going to run social media, a blog, manage the email newsletter or any other digital function, you need to have some savvy about how the tools work. Getting comfortable with a little HTML, manipulating graphics, converting audio and video file formats and similar techie skills is necessary. You don’t need to be an expert in everything, but it’s far less effective (and worse – slower!) if you can’t get some basic tasks done yourself.

Specialization

Work is becoming more integrated in areas like marketing and technology, both due to the times we live in (a doing-more-with-less economy) and due to the evolution of technology. So, while you don’t need to necessarily be a jack of all trades, you do need to know a little about a lot of things, things that surround your core area of expertise, in order to be successful now. We don’t need more generalists, but we do need specialists with a broader skill set and more direct capability to simply get things done (done well, and done right the first time).

Photo credit: D’Arcy Norman

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December 29, 2011

How often do you update your toolbox?

Like a good plumber, electrician, or carpenter, we all have our tools of the trade. For knowledge workers the tools are the set of approaches, techniques, strategies, and tactics we use to meet common challenges. These are shaped by our experiences and knowledge, and by our past successes and failures.

Certain approaches work very well for certain circumstances. We learn this and leverage this knowledge again and again to save time, energy, and focus. These tools are invaluable. The work every time.

Until they don’t.

But sometimes, we grow attached to our tools. We have so much faith in them, based on so many years of experience of success, that we might become blinded to their shortcomings. We may not notices as they slowly (or quickly) become ineffective.

It’s good to check once in a while, and to remain open minded to the fact that our tools need to be changed more frequently than in other trades.

Photo credit: ktow

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