Open Source Curriculum
July 27, 2009
My latest tweet: “Your vote can help fund the development of free and open curricula! Please vote here: http://tinyurl.com/m2xn5h Feel free to RT! #OER”
Productivity Habits
July 19, 2009
I wrote this article last month upon the encouragement of Jamie Ginsburg. It essentially synthesizes nearly all of my thinking on productivity. Enjoy!
1) Be insanely optimistic in the long-term.
Long-term optimism is a prerequisite for being highly productive and achieving great things. In percentage terms, assume that there is only a 1% chance that a company will grow to become the leading company in its industry. Even if the percentage chance of huge success is minimal, there is still a chance. Therefore, assuming anything except the best will only diminish the chances of the company capturing that possibility.
A long-term optimistic mindset also provides tremendous guidance in working through short-term challenges. If Harry is working in an entry-level position at a software company, then he needs to believe that he is capable of running the company. This will inspire him to work hard, persevere, develop relationships across the organization, continue self-development, learn the marketplace, and in the end – will dramatically increase his chances of achieving his insanely optimistic goal of running the company.
The same mindset can be applied to people. If I have the absolute highest expectations of my subordinates or peers, then they will feel inspired to work and achieve at their highest level. Each short-term obstacle or hurdle should always be viewed within context of the long-term insanely optimistic goals.
2) Be 100% consistent with 100% follow through.
As stated by Maren Hogan on Brazen Careerist, consistency and follow through are two of the most underrated skills. You should never drop the ball on anything! If you find yourself dropping the ball, then you may be over-complicating the issue, not listening enough, or trying to accomplish too much. It is much better to aggressively take things off your plate (habit 5), and be 100% reliable rather than trying to do too much. Being consistent and reliable helps develop the utmost trust and respect with the people around you.
3) Single task, but multi-project. Do not multitask.
Multitasking is one of the worst developments in the “blackberry” age. Numerous studies have shown that trying to do two things at once diminishes the quality of work on both activities. The brain cannot physically process two things at once, and instead rapidly switches between the two disparate activities causing under-performance on both items. It is extremely important to deeply focus on the single item in front of you, fully complete it, and then move to the next item. This does not mean to not work on multiple projects. Once you finish sending that e-mail and following through on all the action items related to that e-mail, it is appropriate to move to the next task or project. But, writing that e-mail while someone else is talking to you in a meeting is not effective. Interruptions and multitasking are only appropriate in emergency situations.
4) Be Proactive
Nobody plans to be reactive. Unfortunately, a lot of projects, people, and organizations operate in “reactive” mode where everyone is extremely busy, but nobody has the time to plan, improve processes, or coach others. If your organization or project is always working in emergency mode, then there is likely an organizational or structural problem. It is essential to take a step back, analyze the operational bottlenecks that are causing everyone to be too busy, and start reorganizing the work flow to create more slack in the organization.
5) Choose 1-3 very clear MITs (most important tasks) per day, per week, per month, and per year.
It is far too common to assume responsibility for 10-20 projects and allow each of them to drag on for months without fully completing them. This is not an effective way to productively complete work. It is much better to focus on achieving 1-3 absolutely key MITs each day, each week, each month, and each year. These MITs should be fully completed from start to finish. This methodology of choosing 1-3 goals to accomplish each day will lead to a much more satisfying and productive completion of work.
6) Outsource, delegate, delete, and aggressively take things off your plate (while still accomplishing your goals).
One of the most important characteristics of being a highly productive individual is understanding what not to do.
Do you subscribe to newsletters that you never get a chance to read? Unsubscribe! Do you get CCed on e-mail chains that clog up your inbox? Politely ask people to stop CCing you on e-mails that are not relevant to your work. Are there 3-4 e-mails being sent back and forth about a project? Pick up the phone and give the person a call to talk through the issue. If you meant to get to something, but never seem to have the time, create a “some day” list and remove that item from your “active” projects.
An office assistant or virtual assistant are also an excellent asset for doing administrative tasks such as making reservations, checking time sheets, and preparing reports. Actions that can easily be created into a process or automated, should be automated (using elance.com, rentacoder.com, or BrickWork India)!
A key tool to leading a highly productive lifestyle is learning to automate, outsource, delegate, or take things off your plate effectively.
7) Always work in action steps, with a single owner of a task, process, or responsibility, and with an expected completion time.
A variation of Habit 2 (be 100% consistent and reliable), is to learn how to break everything down into actionable steps.
Any time someone is assigned a task or responsibility, make sure there is a single owner. Too often, a “team” is expected to complete a project, but there is not a single project manager. It is critical to assign one person who is ultimately responsible for delivery of a project or action.
There should always be an expected timeline on completing the project or task. If a manager assigns three individuals to create a marketing plan for the business, then the project team should assign one single person responsible for delivering the overall project, assign owners to sub-tasks, and create timelines.
Finally, and possibly most importantly, before missing an expected deadline, it is critical to communicate that to the requester before the deadline passes.
These three things: owner; action; deadline – are the fundamental components of effective project management and stellar customer service.
8 ) Respect everyone’s time by facilitating good meetings.
Meetings are an extremely important vehicle to drive forward certain initiatives. At the same time, they are often one of the most wasteful, unproductive uses of time if they are not effectively facilitated.
The key to effective meeting facilitation is: assign a facilitator; do adequate preparation; do adequate debriefing; and start and end on time. In addition, the bare minimum number of people should attend a meeting.
The meeting facilitator should have a clear purpose, agenda, ground rules, and targeted goals for each meeting. If the goal of the meeting is to brainstorm, then that should be explicitly stated and attendees should be given the topic in advance so that they can bring ideas to the table. If the goal of the meeting is to reach decisions or consensus, then that should be explicitly stated.
The facilitator should also do everything possible to understand the points of view of the meeting participants before the meeting begins. This prevents the meetings from devolving into endless back and forth and unnecessary conflicts. Constructive discussion about key differences during the meeting is healthy. But repeated back and forth about minor points is a waste of time.
There should be implied or explicit ground rules for each meeting. If a discussion between two individuals is going for too long, assign a “follow up action” for a sub-committee to solely tackle the one issue that is holding people up.
Finally, clear notes and follow ups (with owners, actions, and deadlines) should be communicated to all meeting participants as part of the debrief.
9) Follow Inbox 0
Inbox 0 is a fundamental concept in e-mail productivity. The idea is to bring your inbox down to 0 each day. The is accomplished by understanding that e-mail is not something to do in between tasks. E-mail processing time needs to be focused and uninterrupted. You do not want to browse e-mails on your blackberry, send half-hearted responses saying “I will get to that tomorrow” without recording that action into a trusted system.
E-mail should typically only be touched once, and fully processed.
If there are actions or deadlines related to e-mails, then those actions should be stored in your trusted system. (My preference is: nowdothis.com and Google Calendar.)
Then, the e-mail should be filed, typically in a “done” folder. I only use one folder – “done.” I touch each e-mail once, fully process it, and move it into “done.” This way, your “inbox” should easily be able to reach 0 once / day, or minimally, once / week.
10) Have a weekly review to go over your projects, and clear your inbox, action steps, and follow ups.
Finally, the habit that ties everything together is the weekly review. In your trusted system, you should have a list of your projects, MITs, “some day” projects, inbox, personal errands, and action steps. This list should be fully reviewed once / week such that you review each of your active projects, and come up with “next action” steps at least once / week. The “some day” list should be reviewed to see if you want to move a project to an active project. The daily, weekly, monthly, and annual MITs should be reviewed to make sure your daily priorities are aligned with your monthly and annual goals. Finally, you should follow up on each of the items that you have delegated to others to ensure that other people’s projects are happening at the same level of quality and consistency as your own projects. Most importantly, your inbox must be returning to 0 at least once / week. I recommend conducting this “weekly review” each Friday afternoon. If you are unable to keep up with everything, then there is too much information coming in, and you need to aggressively take items off your plate until the amount of work coming in is manageable.
Putting It All Together.
These habits can be applied to your personal life as well as your professional life. If your home life is becoming stagnant, then try creating MITs related to your personal life and reviewing them on a weekly basis. Do not talk to your fiance on the phone while you are e-mailing a colleague. Be eternally optimistic with your friends and family no matter what the circumstances.
Also, remember that these habits are a constant struggle and challenge for anyone. Nobody can follow all of these items all the time. Trying to follow these habits is a process, and some days will be great, and some days will not. No matter what – enjoy the journey, and as Leo Babauta from Zen Habits reminds us, “smile, breath, and go slowly.”
Book References:
Getting Things Done by David Allen
4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss
Built to Last by Jim Collins and Jerry Poras
7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey
Art of Learning by Josh Waitzkin
The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt
Link References:
Inbox 0 Video
New York Times on Multitasking
Guy Kawasaki’s 10 Things
Ben Casnocha
Productivity Zen
Seth Godin
Brazen Careerist on Consistency and Follow Through
Aneesh Chopra, Federal CTO, Education Technology Visionary, Delights Audience at City Club in Cleveland, OH
July 12, 2009
On Friday, I watched 37-year old Aneesh Chopra, Federal Chief Technology Officer, speak at an event at The City Club (podcast). Aneesh is a rock star and his education technology ideas are precisely what we need in Ohio and the country.
There were several organizations hosting tables including: Asian Indian American Community, Case Western Reserve University, Centric Consulting Company, Hatch, Medical Mutual of Ohio, MOCA Cleveland, Morino Ventures, OneCommunity, TiE Ohio, and University Hospitals.
Aneesh is the former Secretary of Technology of Virginia, and clearly understands the role of technology in improving outcomes in health care, education, and energy. Tim O Reilly provides some specific examples of why Aneesh is such a strong technology leader.
Aneesh focused on 3 important areas of managing the country’s technology strategy:
- He aims to create game changing innovation in the fields of health care, education, energy, and economic growth.
- He wants to build a 21st century infrastructure in terms of broadband, energy, and cyber security.
- He wishes to improve the efficiency of government.
Chopra’s framework for managing innovation is to evaluate all new ideas on the formula: Innovation=function(ideas, relevance). This article does a good job of diving into his application of this model for managing innovation in Virginia.
It is somewhat easy to “talk a good game” on long-term technology plans to change the country. But Aneesh’s approach in Virginia, and his approach in Washington seem to also give a lot of attention to short-term cost-effective solutions.
He also recently gave a talk (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4) in Washington DC at the State Education Technology Directors Association (SETDA). At 1:00 in Part 4, there is a question about increasing funding for education technology.
Aneesh’s response is awesome because he was not trying to feed the audience what they wanted to hear. Instead, Aneesh describes how technology can be leveraged in ways that do not cost a lot of money:
My view has also been that there is enough funding for education technology, but schools may not be utilizing their funding efficiently. Some examples of taking education technology dollars further include utilizing a shared services approach to technology management, thin client technology, free Web 2.0 technologies, productivity habits, and leveraging E-rate funding.
Aneesh also spoke about creating a Ning space to provide rural doctors a tool for sharing best practices on reducing obesity, increasing immunization, and other state initiatives.
This sounds similar to the Ohio Education Technology Network (OETN) initiative in Ohio. Unfortunately, OETN has been given limited support by the State of Ohio or Ohio Department of Education. It would be wonderful to see Ohio or Cleveland create specific metrics and uses for leveraging existing Web 2.0 technologies in their governing. New platforms are not needed and instead, we should leverage existing online tools to accomplish our policy goals.
Aneesh is a strong advocate of government’s role for increasing open standards and data portability. I too believe that there is a need to create an “Open Mesh” in Education. As an aside, the famous technology visionary, Marc Canter, is moving to Cleveland to apply his Open Mesh principles to improving Work Force Development and creating a digital dashboard for Northeast Ohio. Aneesh and Marc Canter seem to be advocating for similar goals:
Aneesh has also expressed support for open source curriculum and broadband in rural communities. I strongly believe that open-source textbooks and curriculum could be a game-changing disruptive innovation in the education sector.
On bandwidth, I never completely understood OneCommunity and Lev Gonick’s push to increase the bandwidth in Northeast Ohio. Before this luncheon, I viewed broadband connectivity as an expensive way to push unnecessary platforms such as Second Life and Virtual Worlds through the pipe. While I am still not completely convinced that increasing connectivity in Northeast Ohio is the best use of our precious philanthropic and local government funding, I have now tempered my opinions on this topic.
Overall, I am impressed with the depth of thinking of our Federal CTO, and feel confident that he will dramatically move the country forward technologically in the upcoming years.