Time Management from the Inside Out: Julie Morgenstern

Organizing time is exactly like organizing a closet: there's only so much room for things to fit comfortably and you only need three to six categories.

Julie provides the following seven tools:

Tool One

Self-Assessment (be specific in precisely what is out of balance)

Tool Two

Ask "How long will this take?" for each task. Don't just enter a task on your To-Do list, block out the amount of time that task will realistically take.

Tool Three

Apply the "Four D's":

• Delete
• Delay
• Diminsh (Julie suggests we learn the art of "selective perfectionism" where we get okay with a "down and dirty" job on 80% of what we do and really go for perfection on the 20% of tasks that really matter)
• Delegate

Tool Four

Develop a Big Picture View

• Simplify life categories (Note: Covey calls these "roles") down to three to five
• Create a few goals for each category
• Plug in the necessary activities to accomplish each goal into your schedule

Tool Five

Create a Time Map/Weekly Plan (either horizontal [traditional] or vertical [with a different emphasis for each day]).

Tool Six

Apply the SPACE formula:

• S - Sort (put incoming items into their appropriate life categories)
• P - Purge (learn to say, "no," delegate)
• A - Assign a home for everything (Julie does not like master task lists. She suggests putting each task on the date and time when you intend to do it)
• C - Containerize
• E - Equalize

This works for both organizing a physical space and organizing time (Julie's key insight, in my opinion). With time,

Tool Seven

Choose just one planner/device. She suggests what she calls "visual/tactile" people use a paper planner and "linear/digital" people use an electronic version.

Deadwood is Dead-on Agile (Part Two)

Elizabeth SarnoffProducer/Writer talking about being in the writer's trailer when David Milch is "writing" a scene (meaning he's slumpped over a pillow on the floor looking at a screen, dictating dialogue to an assistant who types the lines for display).

There's no way to know what's going on unless you're in there, because everything here changes 600 times a day. We change the actors that we need on an hourly basis, we change the scenes that we're doing, who is in the scenes, and if you're not in there with him you don't know. You're just helplessly behind.

One principle of Agile is "co-location"--meaning rather than the business sponsor staying in one office building and the developers staying in theirs and possibly the testing team and/or DBA's are in another set of cubicles on another floor, everyone moves her/his desk to a common "war room" or conference room or at least adjoining desks. It's not for everybody. But traditional barriers between silos (e.g., marketing vs. IT) come down, a team begins to form with a common purpose, symbiosis occurrs as you overhear challenges another member of the team is encountering, etc. It's very similar to the quote above--if you're not in the room, it's very difficult to grasp the complexities, the iterations, the need for changes, etc.

4 Questions to ask for any technology implementation

Taken directly from speech by the founder of the Theory of Constraints (ToC) Dr. Eliyahu Goldratt:

Dr. Goldratt based his entire speech on the premise that technology is only valuable to the extent that it eliminates or diminishes a limitation. He argued that the following four questions should be explored before any technology implementation:

1. What is the power of the technology?
2. What limitation will the technology diminish?
3. What rules, business processes, procedures, etc. have we put in place in order to accommodate the limitation?
4. What should the new rules, business processes, procedures be after the technology is in place.?

He also argued most software vendors, business sponsors, and members of the IT implementation team stop at question two.

30 Second Book Summary: Confronting Reality: Doing What Matters to Get Things Right

Success in business comes down to being able to properly adjust one's internal operations and strategy in order to meet one's financial targets within the realities and texture of one's current environment--over and over again. It all starts with being able to clearly see what's so about one's situation--to "get real" about the landscape, challenges, and opportunities one finds oneself in. There are six main reasons people can't confront reality:

1. Filtered information
   
2. Selective hearing
3. Wishful thinking
4. Fear
5. Emotional over-investment
6. Unrealistic expectations of capital markets
   

Thanks for the opportunity

For many months I have been reading this blog. Ok, well there was a break in posts that left me wanting more, but that was because Randy was moving across the country- so understandable. I have had the great privilege to work with Randy and I am fascinated by the way his mind works and his passion for understanding and improving process. Sometimes I am convinced he is the Yin to my Yang when it comes to working with groups- but more often than not we are aligned in thought. I can remember one of my first "real" interactions with him after a few team meetings- he looked troubled. When I asked him about this, he shared with me that he thought a lot of the meeting was a waste of time as it was not focused on specific project work. Disclaimer- I am sure that this is not exactly what he said- but this is what I heard. I believe very strongly in the power of a team and I feel that a team that shares work and personal experiences grows closer together, is more prepared to be a strong team if good and bad times, and generally creates an atmosphere where people want to work. However, I have thought many times about what I heard from Randy and use his observation to ensure that I am balancing soft meeting agenda/discussion and specific project work. To be fair- this interaction occurred very early in our working together. I cannot write about his observation of my meeting style once he lived it for a good period of time. What I can say is that I was impressed by his honesty and ability to communicate his position (which seemed opposite to mine at the time) in a way that did not make me feel like I had to go on the defensive.

I want to thank Randy for the opportunity to be a guest poster on his blog. I am currently reading the book, "Death by Meeting" by Patrick Lencioni and will have a review shortly.

Doug

Permanence

If I were an 11-year-old kid wandering around what is now Utah a century ago I could take some basic tools to a nearby rock wall and begin chipping away a picture--what we now call a petroglyph.  Let's say it took me an afternoon.  I'd do it once, and it would last for over 1,000 years.

11-year-olds today may take an afternoon to make and upload a numa-numa song to YouTube.  But how long would that last?  Back it up to an external hard drive?  Temporary.  Put it on a CD or DVD?  Temporary.  Is there anything we're doing today that will last 1,000 years?  Guess I could go grab a chisel.

The trick to amazing photos

I was listening to Robert Scoble talk about the genesis of his photowalking project on a recent podcast. He said he was at a party of about 500-600 people and there were maybe four or five people walking around taking pictures. He looked at several of the photos online afterwards and right away noticed one photographer's work clearly stood out. This intrigued Robert, so he asked to trail the photographer, Thomas Hawk, with a video camera to document his process (http://thomashawk.com--thank you Robert for the comment/clarification). One thing stood out about Thomas: he took a friggin' ton of pictures--like 2,500 per hour! Yes he was talented. Yes he had the best equipment. But it was also a numbers game. He'd load up several 8GB memory cards on any given shoot and then go back to the studio to find that literally a handful were worth keeping.

The same principle seems to apply to finding the right political candidate or pop star, picking a winning investment portfolio, or lining up a winning roster for a professional sports team. We tend to forget or diminish the work behind the talent.

Incidentally, one of the reasons Robert is so interesting to listen to is he scans/"imprints" 1,300 feeds a night (not a typo, 1-3-0-0 a night!).

Thomas and Robert remind me of a quote from Hyrum Smith--one of the founders of FranklinCovey:

"Success is the willingness to do that which unsuccessful people are not willing to do."

Hiring advice from Google

I was just listening to remarks from Google's Irene Au about her hiring philosophy on the IT Conversations podcast: hire "T" people--meaning hire individuals who demonstrate a broad interest in a variety of fields and disciplines and an intense curiosity (the top, horizontal part of the "T") and also have a demonstrable, deep competency in a given area (obviously the vertical down stroke of the "T").   

Creativity

Creativity begins when a zero is cut from your project budget.

- Maverick designer and urban planner, Jaime Lerner in a 2007 TED speech.

Objective Criteria

I've just completed the fantastic book Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher and William Ury. Within a few days of finishing the book I was listening to Stanford's Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders podcast and came across a speaker who had trained with Mr. Fisher at the Harvard Negotiation Project (which was the body of work from which the book was derived). One of the key principles that struck me was the value of using objective criteria. This hit home at about 4 AM a few nights ago when my two-year-old son had woke up for the second or third time (it was a blur) and my wife suspected he had an ear infection. She placed her hand on my son's forehead and said he had a fever. Knowing that she likes to sleep with approximately eight vertical inches of goose down comforters and is still cold I suspected any reasonable body temperature probably felt warm to her. I naturally placed my hand on his forehead and he felt fine to me (but I acknowledge I'm probably at the other end of the temperature spectrum [we've yet to find a happy medium temperature while driving in our van]).

My wife thinks my son has a fever and wants to take a logical course of action based upon that assumption: give him some Motrin. I think he's fine and that we should all just go back to bed. The solution? Appeal to an objective standard: take his temperature. Turns out he did have a minor fever and so I was able to adopt my wife's course of action without losing face.

I know this is a trivial example, but the principle is powerful and nuanced. The obvious take away is to attempt to have a meta-conversation about the structure of the negotiations before actually beginning to discuss particular issues. One point to attempt to find agreement on is that both parties would acknowledge and abide by objective criteria and standards. Then you could engage in a conversation on what those might be.

A more subtle take away is that we often are guilty of criticizing someone's intended course of action--assuming that they see the situation the same as we do and are recommending something that just doesn't make sense. We are sometimes even guilty of thinking that by suggesting something so illogical the other party is revealing a flaw in or limits to their intelligence. For instance, it would be illogical for me to suggest we give my son Motrin if I think he does not have a fever. It is much safer to presume that the course of action, or position the other party is taking is, in fact, a logical conclusion to draw from how they see the situation. If their position doesn't make sense, it's a red flag that you need to dig deeper to understand their paradigm.

Deadwood is Dead-on Agile (Part One)

Quotes on the making of the Emmy award winning HBO series Deadwood:

We often start filming and don't have a script.

Stephen Tobolowsky who plays "Hugo Jerry"

The story doesn't get written in advance...past what you show the network executives. They say okay and then you start filming. It grows as one thing happens as a result of another. In fact, an episode may start with one single scene. How that scene plays out then suggests what's going to happen to the writers.

Jeffrey Jones who plays "A.W. Merrick"

Agile projects often start with "one scene" or a bite-sized deliverable to be produced in a short period of time: a week or a month. Then the team comes back to the table with a demo of a workable, tested, piece of business value. The landscape could have changed for the business sponsor in that time (and often has). Priorities could have shifted. Budgets could have been adjusted. An emergency could have emerged. A key person could have left. So the business stands back, takes into account the current topology and constraints, and decides what's the most important thing to work on right now for the next increment of time--the next "scene." Maybe that means stopping on this project and moving to another. Perhaps 80 percent of the potential business value is met within the first two increments and the opportunity costs associated with pushing for that last 20 percent just don't add up.

I'm working with a potential client right now that has as its top two priorities items that were not even on its radar three months ago. I venture to say that is not uncommon. Some say how can an Agile approach possibly work? Others say how could it work any other way?

30 Second Book Summary: We Don't Make Widgets

The essence of the book is in this paragraph from page six:

The three myths--we don't make widgets, we don't have customers, and we're not here to make a profit--prevent us from seeing the reality of our organizations. Simply put: organizations, both public and private, are collections of systems. Systems are processes (including the inputs, suppliers, and employees who work in the processes) that produce widgets for customers in order to achieve some desired result or outcome. The way we improve an organization is to improve its systems.

(My comment: it would be interesting to contrast this thesis with that from the book Systemantics--maybe another time).

On page 13 Mr. Miller phrases this another way which I believe is telling of the rest of the book's approach:

You can't improve government by looking at it from 30,000 feet. The problems with government aren't visible at that level. It's only when you open up the roof and see the factories inside that you can find the opportunities. Improving government is a battle that is won on the ground, not through the air.

On page 30 Mr. Miller quotes Robin Lawton from the book Creating a Customer-Centered Culture: Leadership in Quality, Innovation, and Speed when he describes a widget as:

something created by work, which can be given to someone else to achieve a desired outcome.

On page 35 Mr. Miller further summarizes what he sees as our only options on how to improve:

If you want better results (outcomes), your options are actually very few: change what you produce (the widget), or change how you produce it (the process).

Memorable Quotes:

The best way to get meaningful measures is not to ask for measures, but to ask for answers--answers to questions that everyone wants to know.

-Page 43

Aggressive measuring changes the learning and behavior of a human being to the same extent that meteorology can change the weather.

- Peter Block, "Someone to Watch Over Me," News for a Change, March 2001

Vision is not enough, it much be combined with venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps, we must step up the stairs."

-Va'clav Havel, Communist reformer in the Czech Republic

Lessons in Agile Project Management from Big Wave Surfing

I just finished watching a great surf film called Riding Giants by Director Stacy Peralta. I had to stop the film a few times and transcribe some of the quotes because I thought they captured a few principles of Agile project management beautifully:

Big Wave Surfing Legend Micky Munoz on the first rides of Waimea:

Everything is moving. Everything is in flux. Nothing is constant. It's so dynamic that you can't pre-plan it.

Director Stacy Peralta on using a film printer to print hundreds of photos of archival film footage:

We wallpaper our offices with all these photographs. When I'm putting together a sequence I can go all over the office and say, "I need that photograph, I need this photograph, I need that photograph" and also by coming into the office and looking around these walls your constantly getting input from these photographs and it starts to get into your subconscious head. You know you kind of start to drink this stuff and it's really helpful in the making of the film.

Editor on using drawings to depict events for which there was no footage:

When you have a great story that you want to tell, but you don't have the coverage for it, was a lot of the things that we came across--especially with Macaha in 1969--and so, we use drawings; that's when we went to story boards.

Director on same topic:

One of the shots that we wanted to get in the film is we wanted to figure out--we wanted to see what it looks like--wiping out at Mavericks. Of cource we couldn't afford to get a camera down there, and even if we did get a camera down there we'd probably need a lot of light because the water's so murky and then I don't even know if we'd get the shot so we just thought, "Why don't we draw pictures? Have somebody draw pictures of what it might look like down there. Shoot the pictures on a motion mat camera, and cut it together. Just pure experimentation. Let's see if it works. If it works we'll use it, if it doesn't we'll throw it out. "

So I had an artist draw pictures like this. And he sketched them out at first, and these are all different pictures of what it might look like of a guy wiping out at Mavericks, and that led to more ideas of more drawings of, you know, sketches of guys holding onto leashes and
things like that. There was a process of experimentation--let's see what we can do--if it works, great, if it doesn't work it didn't cost us that much money to experiment.

Agile and Spaghetti Sauce

I recently discovered TED. I have no idea how it's not hit my radar until now, but I can't listen to and watch the talks fast enough. I was watching Malcolm Gladwell talk about a personal hero of his, Howard Moskowitz, and the role he had in discovering the value of providing calculated varieties of a product versus trying to find the one, "perfect" product that will meet the needs of the majority of the market. With Seth Godin's work and The Long Tail we tend to take this idea for granted today, but Malcolm does a wonderful job of taking us back in time to a point where this paradigm was uncommon and even revolutionary.

One of the many anecdotes that impressed me was when Mr. Moskowitz concocted nearly endless varieties of spaghetti sauce using variations on sauce thickness, amounts of various spices, introducing bits of vegetable chunks, etc. and then fed 10 bowls of various varieties to a number of subjects. When he worked through the data of people's preferences he found they fell into three groups: plain, spicy, and chunky. He concluded this latter category represented the preferences of about a third of the population--and there was no sauce on the shelves with chunks of juicy vegetables at that time. Prego went on to release such a product and make a fortune, but the lesson I want to focus on is one observation Malcolm makes in his narrative: no one had mentioned they would like a chunky spaghetti sauce in any prior focus groups. The lesson Malcolm draws from this is that people don't really know what they want until you give it to them.

This conclusion is reinforced in protracted software development projects that follow a rigid waterfall approach. The requirements analyst asks the business users what they want and their answers are often within an implicit and many times unconscious context or menu of what they've already got in an existing system or think would be possible based upon a limited understanding of possible system features. In other words, they say they want a good tasting sauce.

In Agile or more iterative, prototype-rich methodologies, the user would be presented with rough drawings of user interfaces, story boards, and HTML and/or PowerPoint mock-ups, over and over again throughout the very initial stages of the process. In other words, the developers spend a fair amount of time up front cooking up a ton of varieties and keeping the business users taste-testing. Now the possibilities are open and we're getting several quick cycles of real-time, visceral feedback. Now we can get from the 40-50% approval ratings Malcolm mentioned are the usual result of a homogenized solution to the 75%+ delight ratings of people who get what they didn't know they really wanted.

Tom Peters mentions how Ritz Carlton aims to "fulfill the unexpressed wishes of its guests" in a few of his books. The Japanese have a common practice of insisting on finding seven viable solutions to a problem or challenge before they select their approach.

It is incumbent upon those of us in the IT solutions field to translate what is really a collection of abstract ideas in the beginning of a project into tangible value and options in the minds and senses of end users as quickly as we can.

A Lesson in Project Management from Automatic Sprinkler Systems

I recently moved into a new home that has an automatic sprinkler system. I broke down one day and read the manual (well, most of the manual) to try to understand how to program the thing. After I felt confident I understood the various zones of the yard, how long the water would be on in each zone, and the sequence of which zones were watered in what order and for how long, I stood gazing out my front window at 8:59 PM to admire my handy work and watch the sprinklers in zone four (a portion of my front yard) come on at 9:00 PM. I waited...checked the time on my BlackBerry...9:02...nothing...hmm...9:10 and still nothing...

I went to the garage to check the settings and sure enough it was supposed to start with zone four at 9:00 PM sharp on this day of the week.

It wasn't until I unpacked my atomic wall clock a few days later and decided to mount it next to the sprinkler control box in the garage that I thought to check the internal clock of said control box with the atomic clock. I found the times were not synchronized--not even close. Then I remembered how I'd unplugged the power cord for the control box in order to use that wall socket for another tool while doing yard work. The internal clock lost power during this time and when I plugged it back in again it simply picked up where it left off--but now a good chunk of time off track.

Then I thought about how that's like project management in a way. Let's say you're the PM and you've given a directive for a particular task to a project resource. You feel like you've spent the time to understand the big picture, you've worked through task precedence and resource leveling issues, and now you're going to sit back and watch the project begin to unfold according to plan. But it doesn't. You scratch your head. You go to the resource and they're shocked you think something is wrong. In their mind they are doing exactly what you asked them to do. But you forgot you "unplugged" at some point--you failed to keep in sync for a period of time. The resource begins working precisely at 9:00 PM (by his watch). But in reality, it's 10:17 PM.

Frequent check-ins with team members and status updates/real-time dashboards for stakeholders make sure everyone's watches stay synchronized and we're not all doing the right things at the wrong time or visa versa.

30 Second Book Summary: How to Remember Names and Faces

We don't forgot people's names--we never really hear and remember them in the first place!

Five Rules When Being Introduced:

1. Be sure to clearly hear their name

2. Try to spell the name

3. Make some comment about the name, when appropriate (e.g., I had a friend in college with that name...)

4. Use their name during the initial conversation

5. Use their name when saying goodbye

Remembering Names

There Are Three Types of Names:

1. Names that already have meaning (e.g., Carpenter, Rivers, Cook)
2. Names that sound like something (e.g., Woodruff [think of rough wood])
3. Names that just seem like a collection of sounds (e.g., Petrocelli, [visualize a pet rolling in jelly] Mangalaro, [visualize yourself mangling an arrow)

Create Standard Visualizations:

• Smith = black smith (visualize a hammer or anvil)
• Jones = picture yourself owning something (Jones/owns)
• Gordon = Garden
• Bill = Dollar bill
• Carson = Picture a car with a little car (it's son) next to it
• ...berg = Picture an iceberg
• ...stein = Picture a beer stein
• Mc... = Mack truck
• ...witz = Brains (for wits)
• ...auer = Clock (for hour)
• ...ger = Lion (growling)

Examples:

• Macmillan = Picture a bunch of Mack trucks milling around
• Capatenakis = Imagine giving the captain a kiss
• Zackavich = Visualize putting a witch in a sack (sack a witch)
• Carrothers = Think of a car with udders (like a cow)
• Jeffries = A chef freezing

Remembering Faces

1. Make eye contact (not the left chest area looking for a name badge) and look at their face
2. Select one outstanding feature of the person's face (e.g., an unusually large nose, puffy eyebrows, etc.).
3. Tie the visualization from above to the outstanding feature (e.g., if Mr. Petrocelli has a large nose, picture your dog rolling in jelly on his nose).

Suppose you meet two Mr. Smith's--one has large ears and one has large lips. You may picture taking your blacksmith hammer out to pound down the ears closer to the man's head for one, and giving the other a fat lip with the same hammer for the other.

Remembering comes down to paying attention; the above tips are just tools to pause, focus, and anchor.

30 Second Book Summary: The Dip

In the beginning, starting something new is fun. Then it gets hard (what Seth calls "the dip"). Then eventually it gets better. Lots of people quit when they hit the dip. That makes it somewhat rare to find folks who've made it through to the other side. That scarcity creates value. We should "lean into the dip" and go for it when we have a chance at being the best. Otherwise, quit as fast as you can and move on to something where you can be number one because in today's micro-fractured markets, being less than the best is basically worthless. Quit all cul de sac's (dead ends) as well. They sometimes feel like dips but in the end they just waste resources that could be thrown at getting through a promising dip.

And being the best in the world is subjective and defined by the consumer. "The world" to them, can mean who has the best bakery within a three block radius of their home (the distance they are willing to walk to on a Saturday morning).

In Tom Peters' book Design, Seth puts it this way:

Think of the smallest conceivable market and describe a product that overwhelms it with its remarkability. Go from there.

Book Summary: How to Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds or Less

Mr. Frank says there are three main elements to any good message:

1. 1. Have one clearly defined objective.
2. 2. Make sure you're talking to the right person who can help you accomplish your objective. Know all you can about them and what they want.
3. 3. Use one clear approach.

He makes several other points that help to reinforce and make the above three elements more effective:

Start your message with a one sentence hook. This is a statement or question (he prefers questions) specifically designed to grab the attention of your audience.

The body of the message should answer the who, what, where, why, when and how questions. Use the following tools to make it more interesting:

• Imagery
• Clear, simple language
• Personalized stories and anecdotes that help demonstrate your point
• Emotional appeals

You should end with a strong close where you ask the audience to do something:

• Ask them to take action
• Ask them for a reaction
• Use a "hidden close" if appropriate
• A combination of the above.

From Piano Practice to Self Expression

My 11 year old has turned a corner on the piano. Instead of having to remind him multiple times a day to practice and setting up job charts as reminders with rewards for doing it, he stumbles downstairs first thing in the morning and begins playing before he's even spoken to anyone. He sits down and plays when he gets home from school. He plays a few times throughout the evening. The difference seems to be that he's finally hit a tipping point in his skill level where he can play a handful of songs well from memory and he's beginning to feel the release of self expression through his music (I can't think of many motivators more powerful than self expression).

The next time you notice resistance to some new business processes, instead of reiterating the "why we did this and why it's best for the company" speech, try helping the individuals in question gain more skill at using them. Help them to become more proficient.

Big Waves: Drown or Drop-In?

What goes through your mind when you look at this picture?

Are you thinking, "How insane must those people be to be out there?" or are you wishing you were one of them so you could drop in on the next one?

What would mean certain death for one looks like fun to another. It's a matter of perspective.

Trained professionals look for the big challenges to test their skills. Small shorebreak would be boring for these surfers.

So what do you think of when you hear of a really large project coming down the pipeline? Are you hoping secretly your boss doesn't tap you as the PM or are you dropping hints you'd love to take that one on?