I recently had the opportunity to speak with Dr. Friedlander where we discussed the background and features of TPAssist 2007.
Brian has captured our conversation in his blog, Assistive Technology:
Brian S. Friedlander, Ph.D Long Valley, New Jersey, United States
Dr. Friedlander is a school psychologist with expertise in the area of assistive technology. Dr. Friedlander has a passion for using all kinds of technology in his professional work. He is very interested in the use of mind mapping, project management and Web 2.0 technologies. Dr. Friedlander readily applies these technologies in the graduate courses that he teaches at the College of St. Elizabeth in Morristown, N.J. Dr. Friedlander consults to many school districts in N.J. and is available for workshops, training and presentations. He ia a partner in Tom Caine & Associates
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
TPAssist 2007 Launch - 1st September 2007
As a MindManager® enthusiast are you looking to see your topic task information rolled-up and summarised in the a single map as well as across your multi-maps?
Do you want to easily see what you have been doing, where you are going and what you have achieved at a project or goal level?
Are you looking for effective ways to manage large collections of task maps?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then perhaps you should take a look at TPAssist 2007, an integrated solution using Mindjet® MindManager® and Microsoft® Office, that leverages the power of mind maps to give you a flexible and effective productivity management tool.
TPAssist 2007 leverages the power of Mindjet® MindManager® and Microsoft® Office to deliver you an integrated environment for capturing, tracking and acting that is both flexibility and easy to use.
TPAssist adds capabilities like automated task tree summarising, structured journal management, brainstorming to task tree creation, powerful project team tracking, plus automated integration with Microsoft Outlook® and Microsoft Excel®.
Do you want to easily see what you have been doing, where you are going and what you have achieved at a project or goal level?
Are you looking for effective ways to manage large collections of task maps?
If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then perhaps you should take a look at TPAssist 2007, an integrated solution using Mindjet® MindManager® and Microsoft® Office, that leverages the power of mind maps to give you a flexible and effective productivity management tool.
TPAssist 2007 leverages the power of Mindjet® MindManager® and Microsoft® Office to deliver you an integrated environment for capturing, tracking and acting that is both flexibility and easy to use.
TPAssist adds capabilities like automated task tree summarising, structured journal management, brainstorming to task tree creation, powerful project team tracking, plus automated integration with Microsoft Outlook® and Microsoft Excel®.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Personal Productivity Part 3 of 3: Do we need more than a task list?
Is it sufficient to be on top of what you need to do, when you need to do it and for whom it needs to be done for? Well the simple answer is "no". The reason is a little more complicated. The very nature of task lists is that they never diminish. As you complete tasks at the top, more items are added to the bottom. Further more, it is rare that any single activity is done in isolation of everything else. More often, even the simplest of activities is linked to a chain of activities or part of a group of activities. The activity may involve one or more people or teams. Those people and/or teams may appear multiple times in your list activities and you will likely want to visit activities in related blocks and not in isolation.
There is one further complication that is far more important. "Ticking" off Tasks does provide you with a list of mini-achievements, but do these "ticked" off items give you a sense of where you have come from and where you are going? The underlying and fundamental human need at play here is linked to goal recognition or having a sense of accomplishment. If we do not often reach this sense of accomplishment we slowly but surely get tired, worn-out and bored with what we are doing. The things that used to have us bouncing out of bed in the morning, do not matter any more. A sense of accomplishment comes simply by seeing in every action you take, no matter how small, your own progress against a bigger picture goal.
Whilst at the core of the challenge that confronts us is the ability to quickly and easily capture, process and dispatch or revisit requests, true success and fulfilment requires something more.
A possible answer involves a method for putting all those requests and tasks into context.
The context is the goals and desires that govern our daily life. If the task lists discussed above, were grouped and facilitated in such away that they were clearly identifiable again goals then each "tick" would be a step closer to that goal. By seeing these completed tasks as steps towards a goal we will have a better chance of achieving the sense of accomplishment on a daily, hourly or even minute-by-minute basis.
There is one further complication that is far more important. "Ticking" off Tasks does provide you with a list of mini-achievements, but do these "ticked" off items give you a sense of where you have come from and where you are going? The underlying and fundamental human need at play here is linked to goal recognition or having a sense of accomplishment. If we do not often reach this sense of accomplishment we slowly but surely get tired, worn-out and bored with what we are doing. The things that used to have us bouncing out of bed in the morning, do not matter any more. A sense of accomplishment comes simply by seeing in every action you take, no matter how small, your own progress against a bigger picture goal.
Whilst at the core of the challenge that confronts us is the ability to quickly and easily capture, process and dispatch or revisit requests, true success and fulfilment requires something more.
A possible answer involves a method for putting all those requests and tasks into context.
The context is the goals and desires that govern our daily life. If the task lists discussed above, were grouped and facilitated in such away that they were clearly identifiable again goals then each "tick" would be a step closer to that goal. By seeing these completed tasks as steps towards a goal we will have a better chance of achieving the sense of accomplishment on a daily, hourly or even minute-by-minute basis.
Personal Productivity Part 2 of 3: The Task List
The humble Task Lists offers a flexible way to identify things that need to be done. Even the paper version or manual art of listing things to do in the calendar page of a future date is quite effective.
Electronic equivalents like the Task capability of Microsoft Outlook® provide additional capabilities in that you can configure "Reminders" so that your computer or even hand-held diary alerts you of pending activity.
The method with regards to Task Lists is simple: As requests land at your feet, you quickly appraise the request and then generate a Task to manage the response appropriate to the request. You can also use the Task List to track items you have requested of others.
An extension to this method is the activity of blocking out future parts of your diary to "address" or "review" a request. If you are using the electronic equivalents, another little trick is the use the body or notes area of the Task Item to make comments about your activity. You also might choose to note when you received the request or what you asked of whom and by when. In this way you have a "mini-journal" of your related activities that can be reviewed later reducing the time you spend coming back up to speed. Have you ever found yourself asking "when did I send that" or "what did I say to him"? The notes inside your tasks can help elevate that problem.
Personal Productivity Part 1 of 3: The Challenge
The job of the modern knowledge professional is neither straightforward nor routine. We must capture, process and track requests and activities from any number of sources and incorporating any number of complexities.
We need a flexible method that not only records and tracks our activities but also drives our productivity in a proactive manner. If we are to perform to our maximum potential we need both skills and time. The skills are necessary to deliver something of value and the time is required in order to deliver that value.
The modern work environment places massive demands on our time. We are subject to continual bombardment from colleagues, staff, customers and bosses. It is not realistic to hide away, free from interruptions. If we are to be effective we need a powerful and rich method for capturing, tracking and acting that is both flexibility and easy to use.
We need a flexible method that not only records and tracks our activities but also drives our productivity in a proactive manner. If we are to perform to our maximum potential we need both skills and time. The skills are necessary to deliver something of value and the time is required in order to deliver that value.
The modern work environment places massive demands on our time. We are subject to continual bombardment from colleagues, staff, customers and bosses. It is not realistic to hide away, free from interruptions. If we are to be effective we need a powerful and rich method for capturing, tracking and acting that is both flexibility and easy to use.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Archive: Is there a quick answer?
In June 2006, I started to capturing my thoughts in relation to what has now become TPAssist 2007. Below is the last of three pieces I wrote on the subject:
"In my last pieces I explored two notions, firstly that ultimate productivity is possibly linked to removal of interference and secondly that it is common place and typical for us to be very poor at effectively managing an independent workload.
In this next piece I explore the practical side of managing an independent workload to ultimately increase personal efficiency and effectiveness.
Let me start by recapping in order to isolate the challenge that confronts us. It is clear that the job of the modern knowledge professional is neither straightforward nor routine. We must capture, process and track requests and activities from any number of sources and incorporating any number of complexities. We need a flexible method that not only records and tracks our activities but also drives our productivity in a proactive manner. If we are to perform to our maximum potential we need both skills and time. The skills are necessary to deliver something of value and the time is required in order to deliver that value. The modern work environment places massive demands on our time. We are subject to continual bombardment from colleagues, staff, customers and bosses. It is not realistic to hide away, free from interruptions. If we are to be effective we need a method that in addition to flexibility, also allows us to quickly and easily capture, process and dispatch or revisit requests.
The first answer I wish to explore is flexible and quick. The notion of the Task Lists is not new. The advent of the FiloFax® certainly had an impact on the wider adoption of Task Lists. The humble Task Lists is a flexible way to identify things that need to be done. Even the paper version or manual art of listing things to do in the calendar page of a future date is quite effective. Electronic equivalents like the Task capability of Microsoft Outlook® provide additional capabilities in that you can configure “Reminders” so that your computer or even hand-held diary alerts you of pending activity. In this way as requests land at your feet, you can quickly appraise the request and then generate a Task to manage the response appropriate to the request. You can also use the Task List to track items you have requested of others, i.e. you can create a Task to remind you that the report is due or person X is visiting customer Y. You may choose to extend this method a little further by blocking out future parts of your diary to “address” or “review” a request. If you are using the electronic equivalents, another little trick is the use the body or notes area of the Task Item to make comments about your activity. You also might choose to note when you received the request or what you asked of whom and by when. In this way you have a “mini-journal” of your related activities that can be reviewed later reducing the time you spend coming back up to speed. Have you ever found yourself asking “when did I send that” or “what did I say to him”? The notes inside your tasks can help elevate that problem. Task Lists are quick and flexible, but are they effective?
Is it sufficient to be on top of what you need to do, when you need to do it and for whom it needs to be done for? Well the simple answer is “no”. The reason is a little more complicated. The very nature of task lists is that they never diminish. As you complete tasks at the top, more items are added to the bottom. Further more, it is rare that any single activity is done in isolation of everything else. More often, even the simplest of activities is linked to a chain of activities or part of a group of activities. The activity may involve one or more people or teams. Those people and/or teams may appear multiple times in your list activities and you will likely want to visit activities in related blocks and not in isolation.
There is one further complication that is far more important. “Ticking” off Tasks does provide you with a list of mini-achievements, but do these “ticked” off items give you a sense of where you’ve come from and where you are going? The underlying and fundamental human need at play here is linked to goal recognition or having a sense of accomplishment. If we don’t often reach this sense of accomplishment we slowly but surely get tired, worn-out and bored with what we are doing. The things that used to have us bouncing out of bed in the morning, don’t matter any more. This situation is known by the likes of Anthony Robbins as overwhelm. The essential theory behind overwhelm is that everything you do must be part of something and that “something” must be clearly identifiable and achievable. Or put another way, a sense of accomplishment comes simply by seeing in every action you take, no matter how small, your own progress against a bigger picture goal.
It should be clear now that whilst at the core of the challenge that confronts us is the ability to quickly and easily capture, process and dispatch or revisit requests, true success and fulfilment requires something more. Therefore the second answer I wish to explore involves a method for putting all those requests and tasks into context. The context is the goals and desires that govern our daily life. If the task lists discussed above, were grouped and facilitated in such away that they were clearly identifiable again goals then each “tick” would be a step closer to that goal. By seeing these completed tasks as steps towards a goal we will have a better chance of achieving the sense of accomplishment on a daily, hourly or even minute-by-minute basis.
The steps appropriate to this approach can be summarised as follows:
- Clearly identify your goals structure. For your professional life, this goal structure should contain no more than 5 top line items (7 at an absolute maximum).
- Under each goal, start to collect the projects or operational aspects that form the basis of your professional life.
- The “task” or “To-Do” items are now listed under the project or operational aspect. It is important that each “task” or “To-Do” has a short-life (typically no more than 1 week). In this way, as you complete each “Task” or “To-Do” you will immediately see progress towards your goals.
This method can be achieved with some success using Categories in the Task capability of Microsoft Outlook®: Assign every Task a category, use UPPER CASE characters to describe the top line goal and then lower case or Title Case to describe the project. Using the “Arrange By” feature of Outlook, you can quickly and easily build and manage your daily responsibilities. A further suggestion is to use the “Master Categories” list to permanent record your goals and projects.
Unfortunately as the complexity and volume of activities increases, the “two-dimension” approach described above becomes less effective. More sophisticated tools are required in order to manage more complex situations. These tools and the associated methodologies are the focus of TPAssist and will be presented and explored in subsequent blogs, in knowledge articles and via the downloadable tools."
Archive: Why don't I have enough time?
In June 2006, I started to capturing my thoughts in relation to what has now become TPAssist 2007. Below is the second of three pieces I wrote on the subject:
"In this piece I explore an area, which speaking honestly, has been the single most significant contributing factor to my interest and investment in TPAssist.
To illustrate this concept, let us look at the collapse of middle management knowledge workers… Over the last couple of decades, middle management and more recently upper management has seen the brunt of repeated slash and burn campaigns. Every time an industry downturn appears, in come the management consultants and out go the middle managers. Now, I am no expert on management consulting or large corporations, however I feel there is a simplistic enough explanation for this repeat disaster for anyone unfortunately enough to get caught up in this process.
The theme to my opinion is similar to the old adage “promote a good engineer to management and you loose a good engineer and get a poor manager”. The problem in my view is linked to in adequate education system, the removal of PAs and the speed at which communication is enabled in modern workplaces.
Firstly, let us firstly explore education. Traditional education, as currently employed in most institutions, teaches us to follow, to regurgitate and to conform. We come out of tertiary education with some limited knowledge of the world, little or no knowledge or real working environments, hopefully some technical capability, a little idea of how to think independently but definitely no idea about managing an independent workload. I won’t even go into team participation or leadership. So in our first job we get taught a whole lot of skills including how to follow, regurgitate and to confirm. Down the track we’ll get ourselves promoted into team leader roles and then eventually management. The lucky ones amongst us will typically receive some rudimentary team management training, but mostly it is a matter of learn by your mistakes.
Secondly, I wish to explore the absence of the Personal Assistant (PA) in a growing number of middle management situations. The manager and PA partnership provided the backbone and framework on which the industrial age was built. Acting as the communications gatekeeper and general organiser, the PA, made the manager ultimately productive, by keeping the interference down to a minimum (see earlier blog). Removal of interference allowed the manager to concentrate on activities that added the highest value to their organisations. As the technology age moves into maturity, the role of the PA is steadily diminishing. The traditional communications gatekeeper role of the PA has been replaced by tools like cell phones, email and shared calendars. Unfortunately, restructuring has failed to recognise the value the PA offered in relation to general organisation.
The third and final structural condition I will briefly touch on is the phenomena known as “Information overload” and its association to communications. There are few amongst us in the business world who can truly claim they are on top of all the possible information sources they have at their disposal. The explosion of the Internet and associated technologies make it virtually impossible to read and process everything. I’ve often heard the complaint that it is virtually impossible to read all the received email. Further more; modern communications technologies put our customers, colleagues, managers and team members directly at our finger tips. We now carry around devices which instantly and automatically keep you up to date with your email, calendars and in a growing number of cases, our corporate and business information databases. This must be good thing, right? Whilst faster and more integrated communication technology does give you more flexibility in terms of where and when you work, in reality all this new functionality delivers is quicker access to your information overload problem.
So let us know recap and bring this all together. Modern middle managers, whilst highly skilled and proficient in functional and technical disciplines are often poorly equipped in leadership, team management and managing an independent workload. As we progressed up an organisation, where as in the past we were allocated a PA, we now must be self-sufficient when it comes to managing communications and workload. And finally whilst the evolution of communication technology has put significantly greater quantities of information at our finger tips we still have the same numbers of hours in a day.
In order to illustrate this problem I will explorer a typical scenario. Four years in the job and several near impossible exams later, Kim Smith gets promoted and is assigned full responsibility for a number of key customer engagements. These are all delivered to the highest standard and eventually Kim gets promoted to team leader. Whilst sounding very important, the difference in being a Team leader is only in that instead of getting all the routine work, the area boss now assigns more of the high profile work to Kim and involves Kim in more pre-engagement activities. In addition, Kim is required to complete the occasional performance review forms, is required to help proof team member’s work and occasionally sits in on new recruit interviews. After another four years, Kim’s boss is promoted to manage a bigger office in another city. In addition, the competition has increases and therefore margins are decreasing, so whilst still profitable, management decide that Kim’s boss won’t be replaced. Instead, management decide to promote from with-in. On reviewing the performance of all team leaders, management conclude that the work Kim has been doing has returned the greatest margin. Further more, everyone gets on really well with Kim and therefore Kim should be promoted to the area manager. Kim is thrilled with the promotion, the big salary increase, the great benefits and the opportunity to really make a difference. A number of crucial things now happen. Firstly a couple of the other team leaders, annoyed with being overlooked, start to drag their feet on completing pre-assigned work. Secondly, just before leaving, the previous boss helped secure a couple of new high profile engagements. Interestingly it was the boss’s success in securing the new business that help with the original promotion. And finally, the previous boss has been so preoccupied with securing the new business [and working on getting the promotion] that the performance reviews for the year had been postponed. So with in weeks of the new role, Kim has mounting pressure from staff to get reviewed in order to receive pay increases, there is pressure to assign resources to the newly secured engagements and existing assignments are running behind schedule. To completely seal Kim’s fate, as management had decided not to replace the boss, the overall team headcount is down so Kim has to help out with existing assignments workload. Oh and I forgot to mention that the Boss’s PA moved to the new office as well and guess what the new company policy on Personal Assistants? Before going any further, we should look at Kim’s daily activities in a little more detail. As a high-performing young prodigy, Kim managed the daily demands of the job through “unread” email and the occasional calendar reminder. For example when someone sent through an emailed requesting information or help, Kim would read the email and if some action was required, Kim would right-click and Mark-As-Unread. This provided Kim with a list of things to follow-up on. Similarly, if someone phoned through a request, Kim would compile a new self address message and send it. In this way Kim always had a list of un-read emails which needed action. Now seeing as Kim was generally focused on only two or three projects at one time, the list of emails never got bigger than a dozen or so items. Kim’s self management technical could be best described as reactive, in that a request was made, Kim then took a decision on how the request would be answered and then Kim went about answering the request, typically in a sequential manner, i.e. first request in, first request out. Further more, being a team member responsible for delivering on project tasks, the task list generally referred to something Kim had to do. Rarely did Kim rely on someone else in the team. Now in the new role, a couple of key changes took place. Firstly, the number of requests being made of Kim has grown three fold. And secondly and most importantly, Kim is no longer just reacting to requests. Kim is now dependant on the output or input of others. Before Kim got the management promotion, work load increased and decreased. Generally speaking when there was loads of work on, Kim just worked longer hours. Even so, the hours worked weren’t really that demanding because the boss was always mindful of distributing the workload evenly. Kim never really had to choose which activity to do first because the priority was generally made clear by emphasis provided by the boss when the work was allocated. In the new role, the responsibility for prioritisation clearly rested with Kim. Now this isn’t as much a problem for client engagements, because typically the deadlines and revenue potential drove the prioritisation. However, with regards to Kim’s own tasks and activities, Kim had total accountability for getting everything done and in the right order. In summary, Kim’s own task management skills were of reactive nature with little scope for prioritisation. As Kim total immersion in the new role deepened, more and more self addressed emails were being sent and marked as un-read. The ability to track other people’s activity became more and more difficult. It became harder and harder to remember what was said and what was promised. Kim was being pulled this way and that, was working longer and longer hours and more often than not, failed to met peoples demands and deadlines. Kim’s inability to prioritise requests and track activities had a direct impact on the overall performance of the team. With wavering direction and clarity, the team members started setting their own priorities and working to their own agendas. So with-in weeks, Kim has gone from a high-performing star team leader to an overworked manager of a failing business unit. Is there a way out for Kim?
The answer to that question, in my opinion rests clearly with effectively addressing time utilisation and productivity optimisation…. the subject of my next Blog."
"In this piece I explore an area, which speaking honestly, has been the single most significant contributing factor to my interest and investment in TPAssist.
To illustrate this concept, let us look at the collapse of middle management knowledge workers… Over the last couple of decades, middle management and more recently upper management has seen the brunt of repeated slash and burn campaigns. Every time an industry downturn appears, in come the management consultants and out go the middle managers. Now, I am no expert on management consulting or large corporations, however I feel there is a simplistic enough explanation for this repeat disaster for anyone unfortunately enough to get caught up in this process.
The theme to my opinion is similar to the old adage “promote a good engineer to management and you loose a good engineer and get a poor manager”. The problem in my view is linked to in adequate education system, the removal of PAs and the speed at which communication is enabled in modern workplaces.
Firstly, let us firstly explore education. Traditional education, as currently employed in most institutions, teaches us to follow, to regurgitate and to conform. We come out of tertiary education with some limited knowledge of the world, little or no knowledge or real working environments, hopefully some technical capability, a little idea of how to think independently but definitely no idea about managing an independent workload. I won’t even go into team participation or leadership. So in our first job we get taught a whole lot of skills including how to follow, regurgitate and to confirm. Down the track we’ll get ourselves promoted into team leader roles and then eventually management. The lucky ones amongst us will typically receive some rudimentary team management training, but mostly it is a matter of learn by your mistakes.
Secondly, I wish to explore the absence of the Personal Assistant (PA) in a growing number of middle management situations. The manager and PA partnership provided the backbone and framework on which the industrial age was built. Acting as the communications gatekeeper and general organiser, the PA, made the manager ultimately productive, by keeping the interference down to a minimum (see earlier blog). Removal of interference allowed the manager to concentrate on activities that added the highest value to their organisations. As the technology age moves into maturity, the role of the PA is steadily diminishing. The traditional communications gatekeeper role of the PA has been replaced by tools like cell phones, email and shared calendars. Unfortunately, restructuring has failed to recognise the value the PA offered in relation to general organisation.
The third and final structural condition I will briefly touch on is the phenomena known as “Information overload” and its association to communications. There are few amongst us in the business world who can truly claim they are on top of all the possible information sources they have at their disposal. The explosion of the Internet and associated technologies make it virtually impossible to read and process everything. I’ve often heard the complaint that it is virtually impossible to read all the received email. Further more; modern communications technologies put our customers, colleagues, managers and team members directly at our finger tips. We now carry around devices which instantly and automatically keep you up to date with your email, calendars and in a growing number of cases, our corporate and business information databases. This must be good thing, right? Whilst faster and more integrated communication technology does give you more flexibility in terms of where and when you work, in reality all this new functionality delivers is quicker access to your information overload problem.
So let us know recap and bring this all together. Modern middle managers, whilst highly skilled and proficient in functional and technical disciplines are often poorly equipped in leadership, team management and managing an independent workload. As we progressed up an organisation, where as in the past we were allocated a PA, we now must be self-sufficient when it comes to managing communications and workload. And finally whilst the evolution of communication technology has put significantly greater quantities of information at our finger tips we still have the same numbers of hours in a day.
In order to illustrate this problem I will explorer a typical scenario. Four years in the job and several near impossible exams later, Kim Smith gets promoted and is assigned full responsibility for a number of key customer engagements. These are all delivered to the highest standard and eventually Kim gets promoted to team leader. Whilst sounding very important, the difference in being a Team leader is only in that instead of getting all the routine work, the area boss now assigns more of the high profile work to Kim and involves Kim in more pre-engagement activities. In addition, Kim is required to complete the occasional performance review forms, is required to help proof team member’s work and occasionally sits in on new recruit interviews. After another four years, Kim’s boss is promoted to manage a bigger office in another city. In addition, the competition has increases and therefore margins are decreasing, so whilst still profitable, management decide that Kim’s boss won’t be replaced. Instead, management decide to promote from with-in. On reviewing the performance of all team leaders, management conclude that the work Kim has been doing has returned the greatest margin. Further more, everyone gets on really well with Kim and therefore Kim should be promoted to the area manager. Kim is thrilled with the promotion, the big salary increase, the great benefits and the opportunity to really make a difference. A number of crucial things now happen. Firstly a couple of the other team leaders, annoyed with being overlooked, start to drag their feet on completing pre-assigned work. Secondly, just before leaving, the previous boss helped secure a couple of new high profile engagements. Interestingly it was the boss’s success in securing the new business that help with the original promotion. And finally, the previous boss has been so preoccupied with securing the new business [and working on getting the promotion] that the performance reviews for the year had been postponed. So with in weeks of the new role, Kim has mounting pressure from staff to get reviewed in order to receive pay increases, there is pressure to assign resources to the newly secured engagements and existing assignments are running behind schedule. To completely seal Kim’s fate, as management had decided not to replace the boss, the overall team headcount is down so Kim has to help out with existing assignments workload. Oh and I forgot to mention that the Boss’s PA moved to the new office as well and guess what the new company policy on Personal Assistants? Before going any further, we should look at Kim’s daily activities in a little more detail. As a high-performing young prodigy, Kim managed the daily demands of the job through “unread” email and the occasional calendar reminder. For example when someone sent through an emailed requesting information or help, Kim would read the email and if some action was required, Kim would right-click and Mark-As-Unread. This provided Kim with a list of things to follow-up on. Similarly, if someone phoned through a request, Kim would compile a new self address message and send it. In this way Kim always had a list of un-read emails which needed action. Now seeing as Kim was generally focused on only two or three projects at one time, the list of emails never got bigger than a dozen or so items. Kim’s self management technical could be best described as reactive, in that a request was made, Kim then took a decision on how the request would be answered and then Kim went about answering the request, typically in a sequential manner, i.e. first request in, first request out. Further more, being a team member responsible for delivering on project tasks, the task list generally referred to something Kim had to do. Rarely did Kim rely on someone else in the team. Now in the new role, a couple of key changes took place. Firstly, the number of requests being made of Kim has grown three fold. And secondly and most importantly, Kim is no longer just reacting to requests. Kim is now dependant on the output or input of others. Before Kim got the management promotion, work load increased and decreased. Generally speaking when there was loads of work on, Kim just worked longer hours. Even so, the hours worked weren’t really that demanding because the boss was always mindful of distributing the workload evenly. Kim never really had to choose which activity to do first because the priority was generally made clear by emphasis provided by the boss when the work was allocated. In the new role, the responsibility for prioritisation clearly rested with Kim. Now this isn’t as much a problem for client engagements, because typically the deadlines and revenue potential drove the prioritisation. However, with regards to Kim’s own tasks and activities, Kim had total accountability for getting everything done and in the right order. In summary, Kim’s own task management skills were of reactive nature with little scope for prioritisation. As Kim total immersion in the new role deepened, more and more self addressed emails were being sent and marked as un-read. The ability to track other people’s activity became more and more difficult. It became harder and harder to remember what was said and what was promised. Kim was being pulled this way and that, was working longer and longer hours and more often than not, failed to met peoples demands and deadlines. Kim’s inability to prioritise requests and track activities had a direct impact on the overall performance of the team. With wavering direction and clarity, the team members started setting their own priorities and working to their own agendas. So with-in weeks, Kim has gone from a high-performing star team leader to an overworked manager of a failing business unit. Is there a way out for Kim?
The answer to that question, in my opinion rests clearly with effectively addressing time utilisation and productivity optimisation…. the subject of my next Blog."
Archive: Ultimate Productivity = Remove the interference
In June 2006, I started to capturing my thoughts in relation to what has now become TPAssist 2007. Below is the first of three pieces I wrote on the subject:
"Welcome to TPAassist, a project of personal interest to me in that I use the methodology and tools in every aspect of my life from work to play.
In this opening blog, I am going to capture a few ideas and explore the notion of productivity. In time I hope to add insights into my methodology and provide general details of where and how to learn more.
“Productivity” - so what is all the fuss? I guess the term productivity is generally found in the work or business context, where owners, bosses and strategy consultants use it liberally in relation to any new technology, system, solution, tool or process they are trying to adopt. So what does it mean? I like the definition found at the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics web site: “Productivity is a measure of economic efficiency which shows how effectively economic inputs are converted into output.” And in plain English, “less in, more out”.
Ok, so what does “less in, more out” translate into for you and I? It could be as easily as saying, “productivity = job and promotion”, because these days, if you can’t manage to do more with less you are likely to be shown the door. Now that is well and good, but of what use is this ramble? I like to think of productivity in terms of your ability to perform. If you are performing well, you are more likely to be able to achieve more with less.
So what is performance? To answer that question, you should look at the work by Timothy Gallwey, called the Inner Game. The Inner Game as developed by Gallwey in 1974 builds on the notion of “Potential” and “Performance”. There is a gap between potential and performance which Gallwey describes as the thoughts which you have when going about an activity. These thoughts can be better described as “Interference”. Interference then is the self doubting thoughts you have that get in the way of your potential and reduce your resulting performance. In his 2003 book on effective coaching, Myles Downey in addition to explaining the Inner Game in more details, expands this notion in order to conclude that performance therefore, is equal to “potential” subtract “interference”.
So if performance is linked to your ability to be productive, and performance is a function of your potential and the interference you create, then perhaps ultimately productivity is about removing the interference. Ok, that was a long winded way to say that in order to be productive, you need to offload all the distractions. In a practical sense, distractions include the volumes of email, phone calls and basically the numerous requests we are subject to every day due to increasingly complexity in working life and often vague job descriptions.
REFERENCES:
Myles Downey, 2003; Effective Coaching, Lessons From the Coach’s Coach, Thomson Texere
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics web site:
http://www.bls.gov/lpc/peoplebox.htm "
"Welcome to TPAassist, a project of personal interest to me in that I use the methodology and tools in every aspect of my life from work to play.
In this opening blog, I am going to capture a few ideas and explore the notion of productivity. In time I hope to add insights into my methodology and provide general details of where and how to learn more.
“Productivity” - so what is all the fuss? I guess the term productivity is generally found in the work or business context, where owners, bosses and strategy consultants use it liberally in relation to any new technology, system, solution, tool or process they are trying to adopt. So what does it mean? I like the definition found at the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics web site: “Productivity is a measure of economic efficiency which shows how effectively economic inputs are converted into output.” And in plain English, “less in, more out”.
Ok, so what does “less in, more out” translate into for you and I? It could be as easily as saying, “productivity = job and promotion”, because these days, if you can’t manage to do more with less you are likely to be shown the door. Now that is well and good, but of what use is this ramble? I like to think of productivity in terms of your ability to perform. If you are performing well, you are more likely to be able to achieve more with less.
So what is performance? To answer that question, you should look at the work by Timothy Gallwey, called the Inner Game. The Inner Game as developed by Gallwey in 1974 builds on the notion of “Potential” and “Performance”. There is a gap between potential and performance which Gallwey describes as the thoughts which you have when going about an activity. These thoughts can be better described as “Interference”. Interference then is the self doubting thoughts you have that get in the way of your potential and reduce your resulting performance. In his 2003 book on effective coaching, Myles Downey in addition to explaining the Inner Game in more details, expands this notion in order to conclude that performance therefore, is equal to “potential” subtract “interference”.
So if performance is linked to your ability to be productive, and performance is a function of your potential and the interference you create, then perhaps ultimately productivity is about removing the interference. Ok, that was a long winded way to say that in order to be productive, you need to offload all the distractions. In a practical sense, distractions include the volumes of email, phone calls and basically the numerous requests we are subject to every day due to increasingly complexity in working life and often vague job descriptions.
REFERENCES:
Myles Downey, 2003; Effective Coaching, Lessons From the Coach’s Coach, Thomson Texere
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics web site:
http://www.bls.gov/lpc/peoplebox.htm "
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