Finding what's forgotten.
To create a to-do list reflecting your ultimate goal, we highly recommend taking the advice descibed in Recipes Instead of Lists from Nerdherding for Beginners:
“A recipe will include infrastructure work and ‘planned re-work’ that might otherwise be forgotten the alternative is simpliy a list of ingredients.”
We’re working with a number of clients to make their days more effective. One of the smallest, yet most profound changes is making each meeting a working meeting. Though powerful and effective, this technique does go against more than 96 years of conventional wisdom
This technique works especially well for document review meetings – have an attendee, you?, make the changes discussed as they’re decided upon. At the end of the meeting, the document is updated – no longer hanging over anyone’s head.
Another tip – before scheduling an in-person meeting, ask yourself what the quickest, easiest way to accomplish the purpose of the meeting. Can the 1o-member project kick-off meeting be handled through email? Probably. Can a decision be reached by a couple of phone calls? Probably.
Over at Worthwhile Magazine, Anita Sharpe highlights a couple other tips for getting time back on your side.
If it takes you or your collegues longer than 30 seconds to find a piece of information, then your workplace organization needs drastic improvement.
I recently attended Minnesota Technology’s overview on Lean for the Office. The 30 second rule is a great yardstick to measure your day against.
Extend the principal a bit..if no one but yourself can find the information needed to conduct business, the office is being held hostage, and you can’t take a vacation. Two points that wear down the morale of the workplace.
This weekend, we worked on the home renovation – continuously – tiling until we ran out of tile, tweaking the bathroom sink until it stopped leaking. There were no phones, no radios, no email, no meetings pulling us away. We were able to focus on the task at hand until it was complete….really focus. I’m reminded of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s research on the subject of work – where he finds that it takes 2 _uninterupted_ hours to get into any given task.
Two hours of not glancing at the clock or checking email or answering the phone.
Compare your daily routine against these 2 hour blocks – does your schedule support you getting into your work? Or is it more about managing distractions?
Over breakfast this Saturday, my wife and I discussed various home improvement projects for our new place. Very early into the conversation, we realized how little we knew about the house. What’s under the carpet? Can the toilet be moved easily? How long will it take to remove the wallpaper?
Answers that can only be found inside the space – and tearing up the carpet.
One of the principles of Kaizen is to be in the environment you’re attempting to improve.
Yet, many conversations I have with clients, especially early-stage meetings, take place outside of the environment in question. Many teams feel pressure to nail down times, processes, and schedules before their first step into the space.
In my experience observing organizational behavior, especially start-ups, what happens at lunch is a key indicator of an org’s health. If people go out, for a walk, and talk about non-work stuff – Congrats.
If they brown-bag it and eat alone at their desks – something is very, very wrong
Laurent Bossavit agrees with me (courtesy bBlog). Formally expecting regular lunches with the team is great way to say you care about your org’s health.
I remember one “lunch” I had with a creative director – when I arrived to his darkened, barren office, he was in the corner eating a Hot Pocket off a paper plate. No…he didn’t share. Unhealthy in so many ways.