The line between “user” and “developer” is blurring daily. Through participatory media, the people formerly known as “users” are effecting and developing the media they care about.
Listen to There Are No Users [3 min]
Thursday, 14 October 2004
Wednesday, 13 October 2004
Six Step Process to Motivate Others
In a highly collaborative working environment, the traditional hierarchical relationship between employees doesn’t exist. The result is peers making requests to one another to move their respective projects forward. More akin to a volunteer organization than a button-down for-profit business.
The best volunteer organizations use a 6-step process to motivate peers in assisting. This is a time-proven process for both getting things done and clearly identifying those individuals that are not at all interested in your project. Use it whenever you need to make a request of someone’s time.
- Introduce Yourself.
It’s so easy yet so frequently ignored. If you’re making the request over the phone, it is doubly important that you introduce yourself, the organizations you’re representing, the person you wish to speak with, and why you’re calling.“Hi, this is Garrick Van Buren from Working Pathways. I’m calling for Darrel Austin regarding the AcmeCo Accessibility Audit. Is now a good time to talk?”
This is very similar to my earlier Get Your Email Read post. Notice the “is now a good time…” question. Always provide an out at this point. It’s most polite to do all this upfront. Otherwise you’re wasting your peer’s valuable time and reducing the chance they’ll help you now or in the future.
- Provide an Update.
This is where you provide a quick, 2-sentence background on the project you’re working on who referred you to them. For example:“I’m working with Darrel Austin on redesigning the AcmeCo.com shopping cart process. We’re about to evaluate the new model with AcmeCo’s best customers.”
- Define the Problem.
This is why you need their assistance. Again, make it brief – 1 sentence is ideal.“We have evaluations scheduled for early next week and we do not have all the timeslots booked.”
- Define the Solution.
One sentence describing how you want to solve the previously stated problem.“The good news is store managers like yourself are helping out.”
- State the Urgency.
“It’s going great, and we have one last remaining timeslot to fill before the end of business today.”
- Ask Them.
This is where you formally request something from them. At this point, they have a clear understanding of the situation you’re in and how they can help. They’re thinking 1 of 3 things at this point.- “I’ll help by filling in that last timeslot.”
- “How can I help?”
- “I’m not interested in helping.”
This is your opportunity to make a clear, formal request to them:
“Can I put you down for the Wednesday 4pm timeslot?”
If there are multiple ways the person can assist you, start with the option requiring the greatest commitment and wait for a ‘No’ before offering the next option.
If they decline all options – I recommend re-evaluating them as a future resource.
Tuesday, 12 October 2004
First Crack 01. Debut Episode
The first First Crack. Figuring out the podcasting setup, praising WordPress, and some other things on my mind.
currently unavailable. Seriously, I don’t know where it went.
Monday, 11 October 2004
One Sheet Wonders
I’ve been reading Ricardo Semler’s fantastic book, Maverick on how he turned around SemCo in the 1980’s. Each chapter ends with a nugget of organizational wisdom concisely delivered in a sentence or two. This is exactly what I was talking about in my earlier post, Once More, In Half the Time.
In addition to also using Twain’s quote, Semler took the principle one step further.
All the documents at SemCo are kept to 1 page. Everything – memos, proposals, market surveys – one page. If you read my Once More, In Half the Time post, I’m sure you’re wondering the benefit of continued revisions when you could just finish it. Here’s Semler’s response.
This has not only reduced unnecessary paperwork, but has also helped us avoid meetings that were often needed to clarify ambiguous memos…The longer the message, the greater the chance of misinterpretation.
Boiling down important messages to as little as needed guarantees the message will be received. I’m reminded of an example I heard about during a conversation with Caterpillar. Originally, they had a multi-page print-out describing the classification of a given document on a scale of confidentiality. It was never used or misused. Obviously, this is dangerous for all involved. They were able to boil the print-out down to one sheet. One sheet – posted at every desk I walked past.
Concision is something we’re comfortable and familiar with here at Working Pathways. All our proposals are one page. Our research reports are boiled down to just the important bits. As an example, the findings from a recent, 2-week-long intensive customer research project were delivered in an easy-to-read 5-page PowerPoint deck.
The level of concision both Semler and I are talking about requires a deep understanding of what is to be communicated and the most effective means of communicating it.
Monday, 4 October 2004
Gate 3 Work Club Opens
The Gate 3 Work Club officially opens this week in Emeryville, CA.
The culture of work in the US is dramatically changing. No longer segregated to the industrial parks and office buildings, knowledge workers and other members of the Creative Class are more mobile, more collaborative, and more flexible with their work.
This cultural change creates an opportunity ripe for the picking. Gate 3 Work Club is the first to pluck.
Gate 3 WorkClub is a flexible, “out of the office” workspace, designed to meet your needs – whether you work for a corporation or for yourself….Gate 3 WorkClub members discover an alternative to noisy cafes and the isolation of home offices.
All the amenities of a “real” office are there:
…WiFi, conference rooms, copiers, printers, phone, mail service.
My initial reaction is that the overhead could be lower. A place like this doesn’t need to be furnished by Herman Miller, IKEA would be fine. I also say nix the workstations and wired internet – those in need of a place like this already have laptops with wifi and mobile phones.
In all, best of luck to Gate 3 Work Club on their opening. I expect to see more competitors and locations soon.
Sunday, 3 October 2004
Once More, In Half the Time
I apologize for the length of this letter, but I didn’t have time to make it shorter. – Mark Twain
Twain was referring to the fact that refining something down to it’s essence takes iteration. Each iteration abbreviates the time necessary to produce and consume the item. I offer the Van Buren Law of Iteration:
t^n = (t^(n-1)) / 2
Where;
t = time for a given task
n = the iteration
I’ve written about the similarity between collaborative work and Improvisational Comedy before (Stop Asking Questions, Yes, and – not But, Want Better Collaboration Improvise). In this installment, I’d like to discuss the the Improv training game Scene Replay.
- Start a scene.
- Improvise for about 3 minutes.
- Replay entire the scene in half the previous time.
With each successive repetition, more of the uninteresting bits are automatically edited out and the scene becomes more engaging and entertaining. The first attempt takes the longest because those involved are discovering what needs to happen. After the third and fourth attempts, everyone knows what works, where the engaging parts are and the transitions between them. The same procedure works for any type of knowledge work.
Think of a small work-related disaster, an unsaved file getting corrupted – and becoming unsuable, for example. Revising the document again, will take far less time than originally because you know exactly which changes to make. You can cut out all the unsuccessful bits – getting to the good stuff, making it better, and getting done more quickly. The thinking parts are done – it’s all about execution now.
How do you implement the Van Buren Law of Iteration?
A quick way is the following exercise:
- Take 5 minutes to tell a good – patient – friend a story.
- After you’ve completed the story – tell it to them in 2.5 minutes.
- Repeat until you can tell the entire story in a single sentence.
Yes, and – not But
Improvisational comedy, like all team sports is about effective, high-energy, spontaneous collaboration. One of the seven major tenets of Improv is building off each person’s comment and suggestion with “Yes, and…” rather than dismissing it with a “but…”.
“Yes, and…” extends, explores, and enhances the previous suggestion – building trust among all the team members, moving the entire team closer to a successful solution. “But…” stalls the conversation. Cold. Even worse than dismissing the initial suggestion, team members are now second-guessing their solutions to the problems for fear it will be destroyed by the next “but..” This provides a disincentive to solving to the current problem. Turning the team and project into the stagnant, stereotypical office meeting blah. On a related note, questions frequently have a similar effect on teams – see Stop Asking Questions.
In working with different teams, I’ve heard “but..” used in 3 major ways. Though each usage may not contradict the preceding statement, it does stall the conversation and turns a peer-to-peer collaborative opportunity into a unequal power play.
- The 5 Breeds of ‘But’:
- “I have information you, the ignorant peon, didn’t consider.”
- “A different team tried that under different circumstances, so it won’t ever work.”
- “I don’t want to do and don’t actually want to be involved in this project.”
- “I have something off-topic to say, and don’t know how else to make my opinion heard.”
- “I completely agree with you and want to take credit for your suggestion.”
and my own personal favorite:
- Here are 3 tips for transforming a serial “but” into a ‘yes, and’:
- Firmly focus on starting a solution.
The final solution is rarely needed immediately. An initial starting point and direction will go far in gaining forward momentum. This means any solution is viable, and the objection raised in the ‘but’ can be addressed when it arises. - Question specifically how the ‘but’ affects the situation at hand.
This is a simple and effective way to specifically identify which one of the 5 breeds of ‘but’ you’re dealing with. - Force the ‘but’ into a solution
For often entertaining results, have the offender, repeat the statement back substituting ‘yes, and’ for the offending ‘but’. - Completely ignore the ‘but’.
There’s a fair chance, the objection is a defensive reaction to a fleeting situation. This is especially true for a #1’but’.
The Smoke in Need of a Fire-Breathing Dragon
“This sounds like part of an idea. It’s the smoke, and we still need a fire-breathing dragon.”
This statement was exclaimed by one of the students I’m working with in my involvement with MCAD‘s Visualization program.
I was leading the team through a ideation evaluation exercise – culling down their large number of brainstormed concepts down to a smaller, more defined, more viable, more actionable list. Some of the concepts in the more than 70 item list were thrown out immediately. Others we pondered for awhile to determining if something was there we could use later.
Many ideas are just that – smoke in need of a dragon. Smaller ideas that compliment and polish larger more powerful ideas – though they aren’t strong enough to support themselves. Just like the smoke without the fire-breathing dragon.
The stereotypical dot-com example of this is selling pet food online. Selling pet food is the smoke to selling food online which is the smoke to selling anything online. As we’ve seen, to survive and succeed businesses and the workers they employ need big Fire-breathing Dragon ideas. Smoke ideas can only augment and compliment – they can’t sustain.
UPDATE 24 March 2006: J Wynia is on a similar track with Searching for Werewolves
Get Your Email Read with Specific, Compelling Subject Lines
One of my biggest pet peeves is vague email subject lines. This is for two reasons;
- Sometimes I only have time to read the subject lines – anything urgent needs to jump out.
- If I need to file and revisit the email, a clear specific subject line is easiest to re-find.
My experience analyzing open rates and click-through behavior tells me if you want your opt-in marketing email to be read – the subject lines need to be specific, descriptive, and compelling. I’m sure Curt at ExactTarget would agree. The same goes for messages to your colleagues, friends, and family.
Clear, compelling subject lines not only set more accurate expectations for your recipient, they also have a better chance of surviving the numerous SPAM and virus filters between you and your recipient.
We’re all familiar with the vague subject lines of virus carrying emails:
- “the information you requested”
- “your resume”
- “Here is it”
- “hi, it’s me”
- “something for you”
Compare these against the subject lines currently in my inbox:
- “Please Call Me”
- “your comments appreciated”
- “Tuesday”
- “update”
- “See attached”
Without checking the ‘From’ line, I’m hard pressed to separate the personal, legitimate messages from the hazardous, virus-laden mail.
At the most basic level, subject lines are more like headlines than book titles. Like all compelling headlines – and proper sentences – they need a subject, verb, and predicate. An easy way to guarantee this is by pushing the message details into the subject line. Think of the short text messaging service – SMS – the mobile phone providers are promoting. The brief, one-line messages these services support are like an email without the body.
By making better use of your email’s subject line, you’ll spend less time writing your email and it will be better received.
Tuesday, 24 August 2004
Stop Doing Dumb Stuff
When I need a quick kick in the pants, I reach for Tom Peters’ Brand You 50.
Each one of his 50 tips are tow trucks pulling me out of what ever rut I find myself in.
This is why I’m so excited about his new manifesto from Seth Godin’s ChangeThis project.
This I Believe! – Tom’s 60 TIBs
Yes, that’s 60 perspective changing points to reposition your work, and more importantly, your life.
- 22. Screw-ups are the mark of excellence; I’ve seen many teams so afraid of making a mistake that the project falls victim of Analysis Paralysis. It’s not pretty. Often, the paralysis could have been avoided by the creation of a few prototypes and being comfortable with learning from failure.
- 40. Stop doing dumb stuff; Systems become ingrained, systems that were created to solve one problem are repurposed to solve a different problem. They start to get in the way. They start being counter-productive.
- 43. Take charge of your destiny. Or as Seth Godin says – The Time (to take action) is NOW. Things are constantly in flux, and ironically, that change you’re waiting for to make the big move won’t. That first step is up to you.
The remaining 57 are great and just as thought-provoking.
Thanks Tom.