Image via Wikipedia

spanking new MacBook Air as my work PC. This after working with nothing but Microsoft Windows since version 3.0 back in 1991.

Wow…lots of things to notice…

1. I notice how very light it is.
2. The boot time is much faster than my Windows PCs (at home, if you include all the machines in the house, I have 2 desktops and 2 laptops, all running Windows 7 flavors…).
3. I was/am a big ALT+TAB user and the COMMAND+TAB combination isn’t exactly the same.  If I have several different windows/tabs open in a browser, for example, Windows will show each window, but the Mac just shows a single browser icon.  It can make getting to a particular window a bit more of a hassle.
4. I am a GREAT FAN of Microsoft Office OneNote, but that application is not available on the Mac.  Office for Mac includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook (and none of these is the “full-meal-deal” available on Windows….just saying’…).  I have had to start relying on Evernote more heavily, especially since it is already completely cross-platform, with a web version, too.
5. I purchased a Bluetooth portable keyboard so I can more intelligently work with the Mac on my left and the second monitor slightly to my right. If I walk away and return, sit and start typing, the Mac hesitates just…..ever….so….slightly….before picking up my keystrokes.  This has led to some pretty interesting documents and URLs so far.
6. The interface is easy on the eyes, but Windows 7 isn’t exactly ugly, so I call that a tie.
7. I have relied on 20 years of keyboard shortcuts to allow me good speed….Mac has as many shortcuts….I just have to learn them.
8. I have invested in several applications for various reasons like Mind Mapping, as well as a number of utilities and services like DropBox and Roboform. Many of these have service-based licenses and web or Mac versions that allow me to continue to use them, regardless of platform. However, a couple of the most expensive, like Mindjet MindManager, do not allow me to have one license on a PC an one on a Mac (I’m allowed two licenses).  This is pretty short-sighted, and is causing me to rethink my choice of tools and look for cross platform or cloud-based alternatives that compete on price and match or exceed functionality.

And so it goes.  I will update my experiences here on how easy or hard it is to not only make the productivity transition, but maintain facility on these two platforms.

If you’ve experienced this before and have any hints, please comment and share.  This will be quite the journey, I’m sure.

Related articles

• MacBook Air – My First Week (networkingnerd.net)
• Putting Windows 7 on a MacBook Air (ask.metafilter.com)
• MacBook Air – mixed feelings (or is it just me) (ioshints.info)

Image via Wikipedia

When I sit down to write, my first instinct is to spend time noodling on a topic I might have captured previously or something that I’m confronting or working through right now. I feel that somehow whatever I could come up with in a stream-of-consciousness sessions might resemble a walk through an unsightly neighborhood and not have much coherence. I need to give myself a break and realize that there is more coherence to following a path of thought than I give credit to the desire to write.

This is just such a post.

I hit paralysis pretty quickly, it seems, when sitting to write, although I enjoy it and never fail to discover something about myself in the process.  Still, I am somewhat easily distracted (or so it seems).  I think my personal definition of “easily distracted” needs re-evaluation. I’m not trying to rewrite “War and Peace” here.  I just want to capture some thought or thoughts I feel strongly about, that are authentic to my experience and might be valuable to others, and post them.  My colleague Tac Anderson has made it clear that his blog is an experiment that we all take part it, and I like that approach.  I have many different aspects to who I am that can be expressed, and the experimental nature of his approach appeals to me.

So I will say that this is normal…..for today.

Related articles

• Creating while uninspired (thatgamegirl.wordpress.com)

Image via Wikipedia

I have been thinking about a post by Tac Anderson on his NewCommBiz blog about making mistakes, crisis-based decision making and how we learn.  It specifically got me thinking about organizations that learn and those that don’t really, or at least not very well (or easily).

Things move terribly fast in today’s marketplace and the halls of business. We blame it on the Internet, on the 24-hour news cycle, on our growing propensity for being “always on and connected” and on “everyone else.”  There have been countless barrels of ink spilled on the importance of failure for learning, both as individuals and organizations.  Even just thinking about how you learn personally will confront you with the first attempt at doing something, assessing how well that went, tweaking, trying again, etc.

So why do we not get it?  I’m not saying we drive for failure (although that seems to be the direction of some I’ve noticed….), but, short of life-and-death, why do we not accept that failing is at least as important as not failing?

The next bit in this consideration of learning is, when we fail, why do we not learn from it?  Or at least document it for the purpose of remembering both the effort and the particular circumstance of the effort?  I’ve quoted Ricardo Semler before and this applies, “No two things are as different as two of the same mistakes.”  I interpret that to mean that an event that resolves into a mistake at one particular moment in time in a project may not resolve into a mistake the next time, but you want to be careful anyway.  Some things are relatively immutable (like gravity or fruit on pizza) and can be relied upon to have pretty much the same kind of effect all the time.  Others have variable effects given a different set of circumstances (like, frankly, fruit on pizza…you might actually like it this time).  The argument of “we tried that before and it crashed horribly” may not hold this time.  Or it might.  But learning and not being afraid of failure while simultaneously seeking the most creative answer or solution to a problem give us the chance to show the best we are capable of.

Ask yourself: how successful could we be if we just failed more often?

Related articles

• Why You Need To Fail to Succeed (bloggingot.com)
• Why Success Always Starts with Failure (newscci.wordpress.com)
• I Came, I Saw, I Failed Completely …. (strategiclearner.wordpress.com)

Image by Edwård via Flickr

I’ve begun teaching my fall class in social media in business and have led the group in a collective moan about the sheer volume of data and information available, some of it valuable, but much of it ancillary at best and junk/noise at the far end of personal/professional value.  It’s pretty easy to sell a good set of filters to allow the really good stuff onto our desktops and ignore the rest.

But at what cost?

A super strong set of information filters will likely only reinforce the “echo chamber” of what I think and believe.  Critical thinking requires a broader set of information, allowing for my assumptions to be challenged and gray matter stretched. Creative cross-pollination can also follow serendipitous discovery of something that ties to something else that requires a different viewpoint from the one I normally take.  A strong data filter may not allow this.

One method I used to have to take advantage of serendipity involved the public library.  I would just head down an aisle and see which part of the “stacks” I’d end up in.  Grab a title from the shelf and thumb through it….maybe read a bit.  Then I’d put it back and (a) change aisles, or (b) keep going, or (c) try another title right where I was. I’ve discovered several new authors I became enamored of this way, and stumbled into some areas I had no interest in at all.  But I WAS exposed to the opportunity to experience this process of finding, sampling and playing with curiosity.

I realize that I was at the mercy of whatever physical organization the layout of the library had.  Trying to be random with this kind of activity on the web has the same kinds of vague limitations and guidance (the “Feeling Lucky” button on Google or following Reddit or StumbleUpon recommendations).  Still, intentional stretching, searching and reaching for a more random, potentially creative (or at least something a little different) is a valuable exercise.  Don’t allow yourself to be categorized or placed in a small intellectual room of your own (or someone else’s) design.

Image by wayne’s eye view via Flickr

My Dad had two primary refuges from work and my brother and me.  In the winter it was his shop in the garage and in the summer it was the yard and the garden.  He had apparently inherited the ability to grow almost anything from my grandmother.  She could take a fallen, brown leaf from a plant and nurture it into full health in the space of a year or two…..amazing.

One of the things I used to kid him about was his penchant for regularly moving shrubs, bushes and sometimes trees from one spot to another around our yard.  We used to joke that he was never happy with where God put them and was trying to improve the arrangement.  The moved item always seemed to thrive anew, regardless of where he planted it.  Now I see what he was doing in a different light.

It is very possible to “bloom where you are planted” and for some, that is absolutely the right thing to do.  Using the garden metaphor, the dirt is rich, the drainage just right and the sunlight perfect.  You can thrive there forever.  Sweet!

However, it may be that things have changed over time.  The nutrition in the soil has leeched away, or the drainage is not what it really should be….you can grow, but not healthily.  You produce little to no fruit compared to earlier when things were newer and fresher.  Well, if you were a shrub, you’d be on my Dad’s “mobile green” list.

Only you can know if you’re really thriving where you are today in your profession.  You may need some additional education to bring deeper understanding or new skills to the group you’re with.  You may need to help a new team by opening your eyes and experience to a completely different kind of project, product or process, bringing your unique viewpoint.  Sometimes you may have to just move to a new place and grow there.

How can you discern whether you really need these kinds of changes or whether you just need to refocus on your current situation and get past this unsettled or stagnant feeling?  Here are a few things that may help:

• Ask yourself, “How long has this been going on?”  Everyone has dry spells in their career, but if this has gone on over a long period of time, say a year or two, this may actually be a desert and not a dry spell.  If the time has been shorter, give it some time. Droughts usually end and your professional life may come back to life.  If it really is a desert, it may be time to start looking seriously beyond your present situation.  Life is too valuable and your strengths and expertise too valuable to be left to expire in a lifeless place.
• Ask yourself, “Have I really gone as far as my current skills and education can take me?” Given the fluidity of the world of work today, this can happen, even if you read voraciously, absorbing all you can.  There are a number of ways to grow into new areas of interest that can directly impact your professional life.  Going back to school is one of them. An independently structured plan of growth and study can work, too, based on the learning style you have (I benefit strongly from the interaction of the classroom, so that was one of the key components for me). You can find a mentor that would be willing to spend time with you and guide you along the journey. One note – grow in a direction that excites you.  I tried a couple of areas that might have moved my career along, but the passion that the MCDM program at the University of Washington helped me discover and cultivate absolutely changed the way I think and what I can do in my work.
• Can you see something, right where you are, that you can take part in and feeds into your passion, but it’s not really part of your team, part of your job commitments or in your area of responsibility?  Talk to your manager and the lead in the other area.  See about getting in there and contributing.  It can only help the business if they have new eyes on a problem or project….just don’t neglect your “day job”, although it may be tempting!
• Talk it over with trusted friends and colleagues. Sometimes they can see things about you that you cannot see.  Listen to them openly and always assume positive intent with them.  They will have much to say that will help you.

The path and decision is yours.  The thing with life is that it moves and grows….and it’s messy.  Don’t be afraid of moving to another place in the garden.

Image by Bohman via Flickr

Earlier this week I was fortunate enough to sit in on a quarterly meeting of some of the hardest working folks I know. My company calls them Product Planners.  The difficulty of what they do is hidden by the simplicity of their title…if you’ve never worked in an enterprise that is tracking released products, fixing them as needed, and then planning new ones with the added uncertainty of forecasting their popularity, then you aren’t aware of the tricky dance these folks do.  Years ago while watching one of my favorite Mystery Science Theater 3000 movies, I remember Crow T. Robot remarking, upon seeing a credit for someone tasked with Planning, “Oh, that’s what I want to do….I’ve always wanted to Plaaaaaan!”

I thought it was a bit odd too, at the time.  Now I know better.

When I first started in my current business group, it was as a Product Planner.  I wasn’t entirely clear on what that meant at the time, but the hiring manager was willing to take a chance on me, based upon my record elsewhere. I had a couple of great mentors once I came on board, but I remember asking my manager if there was any supplementary training I could look into to hone my skills more quickly.  Apparently there wasn’t, so I just dug in and learned the old-fashioned way: I made a lot of mistakes, learned from them and spent as much time as I could with particularly talented planners on my team.  And I planned…..

One of the stranger aspects of the job for me was forecasting the growth, popularity and sales of new products, but basing it all on previous products.  Sometimes that looked like it might work, but there were several other times when we were planning on a significantly different kind of product.  I really didn’t get how we could predict (that’s really what forecasting seemed like to me….I always used to associate the word “forecast” with the weather, and suspected the likelihood of correct outcomes were about the same…) the future of the product correctly.  Yet the pressure was on to not only arrive at “solid forecasts”, but back them up with enormous amounts of data.

Seriously….how do you do that?

How do you come up with solid, reliable, “bet-your-job” data on something that hasn’t happened yet, and over which you have almost no control?  I feel like I never really understood that.  There were others in my team who would stand before the larger business group decision makers and go through their data-filled presentations.  They were confident.  Occasionally they were even close to what eventually happened.  The years would prove them, one way or the other….that’s why they spent so much time on revised forecasts.  The revisions take place as the future becomes the present and you find out how much the customers really like your product.

I’ve quoted Ricardo Semler before on this blog and one of his quotes that is on my white-board is, “Nothing is as different as two of the same mistakes.“  Perhaps the opposite is something to consider: Nothing is as different as two of the same successes.  I have taken his quote to mean that something that proved to be a mistake at an earlier time and in a different context may not be a mistake at a different time, in a different context.  So, just because Product One was successful, there is no guarantee that Product Two will be, even if it is almost exactly the same.  If there is any truth in that, how in the world can someone possibly forecast its success accurately?!  Or perhaps I’m just confused…..

Regardless of this, my regard for those folks who are tasked with this part of the product cycle have my respect and appreciation, even as I wonder what kind of crystal ball they use for their work.

Image via Wikipedia

I had lunch today with a close friend and colleague.  Among other things (children, pets, home improvements, unusual heat in Seattle [which was about 86 degrees or so]…) we talked about getting bored.  She’s has been with the same business unit doing much the same kind of job for nearly 7 years.  She likes her work well enough, but feels, as she put it, “too comfortable”.  It’s not that good things aren’t happening with her particular product or that there isn’t enough to keep her busy.  It’s just that the challenges she faces now fill a kind of “Top 25 Things You Do In This Job” place in her mind.

We started talking about opportunities to move to other business groups or even to other companies.  The conversation got very animated and the creative juices started to flow a little more quickly.  It’s obvious that she’s got tons of creativity to spare and aims it, as she can, at the problems in front of her.  But there’s more there…the workflow that she has for her current role has well-worn grooves (often called ruts…) and it works best when following the grooves.

I believe that taking a bright, creative person from one place and placing them in another “takes the blanket” off of their creativity, and the business can benefit mightily in the move.

Take this same intelligent, creative, bubbly person and place her in a position where she needs to work hard to corral problems, identify potential issues different than any she’s ever had before, work with different personalities who have different, and use the depth of other experiences and knowledge to arrive at solutions that amaze the business and you’ve revived a professional life AND driven creativity into a different team that wasn’t available before.

The big challenge, of course, is when you have no opportunity to move from your team or company, but you are confronted with creating new solutions, even if there are ruts…..excuse me, grooves.  I think there are a couple of things you can try:

• Change the order – when you start your official work day, you probably have a routine.  I do.  Change it. Move things around in your personal/professional workflow. Sometimes arriving at work items in a different order triggers a different way of looking at them, and therefore the eye of your creativity can see them in that different light and maybe arrive at a better answer….or not.  Trying doesn’t cost anything but your comfort, and if it means that your creativity gets a little work out, that’s a good thing.
• Heads down – The modern workplace can seem like the very definition of organizational ADD (or, as I like to call it, “Life in a Blender“).  To the degree that it is possible, do your best to block uninterrupted time for a single project.  This is a pretty well know time management technique, well worth affirming.  I have a category for appointments called “Heads Down”. If I have a “Heads Down” appointment, that means that I’ve closed my e-mail program, set my internal instant messaging to “Do Not Disturb”, and set a small alarm to go off 5 minutes before that hour (or half hour, or other larger block of time) so I have time to wrap up. To be able to dig in and truly focus on a tough, knotty problem, or crank on an enormous amount of data and make it digestible for analysis, or map out, design and build out that management presentation coherently is a way to get to what Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls “Flow“. You get a hunk of THAT in your day and you will really feel like you’ve accomplished something!

Those are just a couple of ideas.  There are more.  Look for ways to change things up and take the blanket off.

Image via Wikipedia

I was recently discussing the pros and cons of various personnel review and commitment systems/styles with a close colleague of mine. She was saying something like, “It’s just like a horse race.  One year you put your all into the race and win.  The next year you put just as much effort and work into the race as the year before, if not more, and nine others finish ahead of you.”  The implication is that this gives the folks putting on the race the impetus to……what? Give last year’s horse sugar for running a great race? Trying the horse at different races? Retiring the horse to pasture?

It seems that the climate in many organizations implies a future involving a glue factory.  Why is this?

First of all, people are not horses (to call out the obvious first…).  I think some organizations miss this.

Those who have groomed and trained the horse put up any number of earlier races where perhaps the horse didn’t do so well, but showed potential…..say, finishing fifth.  They continue to invest in the horse with training, care, better jockeys (I don’t want to think about jockeys in this analogy, but needed to mention it at least once…) and so on.  They keep running the horse in any number of more races, different venues, different odds and work to identify what might help the horse to do well. This takes time and nurture.

Still, in a race there is only one #1.  Does that make all other horses in the race immediate glue candidates?  I think not.  The owners have invested WAY too much into them to just drop them into a vat.  Their value lies beyond whether or not they top out at #1, despite the structure of a race where only one horse can actually win.

So, what does this look like when you get past the analogy and into the world of work?

I believe that a company hires people for the benefit of the company, but a company is made up of people, so there is always a human, personal element in what we do….or there should be.  In his book “The Seven Day Weekend: Changing the Way Work Works“, Ricardo Semler relates numerous stories of employees at his company, Semco, that are encouraged to move from business unit to business unit if it helps them find the Semco team or project that they really click with and are allowed to deliver on that passion. The company takes ownership for the hiring decision they made in bringing the person on-board, and works with that person to “find them a home”.  By all accounts, it works pretty well.  It’s more difficult and undoubtedly harder to manage than a simple “keep/toss” structure, but the company benefits as does the person in question.  Semler and his company seem very aware of the human facet of who they are as a company and the impact of what they do as a business on other businesses, as well as upon the people of Semco.

So what is the point here?

It is one I mention repeatedly because it is lost sight of constantly: Be responsible. Treat others with respect and civility. Do not shoot or whip the horse.  Sugar and an opportunity at a fruitful retirement, along with support, guidance, investment and encouragement will take us to the end of the journey much more profitably than shooting every horse that doesn’t finish at #1.

Image via Wikipedia

You’ve heard it before…

You’re in a meeting and someone is presenting an idea or proposal that they’ve placed an enormous amount of time and effort into.  This is their BABY. It’s obvious they’ve done some research, talked to some experts and influencers.  They got the data, did the analysis and did all the right things.  There are some gaps, maybe…..perhaps a blind sport or two.  Then it happens:

“What about XXX!?” (XXX = name of gap or blind spot goes here)

“That’s just obvious!” “How could you miss that?!” “Well, that’s no good…” “You’ll have to do better than that to convince me!” “We just need smarter people on this, apparently!” [Yes, I've heard that in meetings...]

“Don’t take it personally….it’s just business.”

I’m sorry, no.  It’s never just business.

These are people you’re talking to…fellow human beings and partners in the journey of life.  Having done so much to achieve something spectacular only to be “ripped a new one”….yeah, they’ll be motivated to stick their necks out again for the company real soon.

The same can be said of professional relationships, whether across businesses, between managers and direct reports, or among peers.  You may be inhabiting a business or working within a professional framework in some way, but it is never just business. Our culture sets us up to identify our very being (rightly or wrongly…) and internal value with what we do.  Attacking that is a often perceived as a personal attack, and I know of no one who reacts rationally to a personal attack….so, if that’s true, how can any reaction to an attack in a business or professional context be rational?

What if the approach in the first case was something like this:

“Wow, Sarah, it’s obvious you and your team have put an enormous amount of work and thought into this.  I really appreciate your research into the numbers in that third area on slide 5.  However, I note that you’re missing some data from a critical customer channel.  Have you thought how that might impact your numbers in Q4?  Is there anyplace you can get more channel data to help you fine tune this proposal?  I think maybe Lakshmi’s team might have a line on that, if you check with them.”

…and so on.  See? How about being civil?  How about considering what it would look like to work together toward this common goal being proposed?  It must be of value, or it probably wouldn’t have occurred to the smart people you have in the company to research it and work this hard to show it as an opportunity to be pursued, so why try to stomp it out in order to be the loudest one in the room or some other ego-based reason?

At any rate, treating others as you wish to be treated in a similar scenario (sound familiar?) is bound to drive better value and greater collaboration across the company and through other professional relationships.  We need each other. Disrupting relationships between teams and individuals does nothing positive, and the economic landscape is such that we cannot afford to blow up instead of work together.

Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Image by César HZ via Flickr

A few nights back I was fortunate enough to attend a performance of the group Spyro Gyra at Jazz Alley in Seattle.  I’ve been listening to their work since their first album (remember those? ) in 1975, but this is the first time I have seen them perform.  First I want to say I thoroughly enjoyed the show.  Their music and style have evolved quite a ways from their early work in the 70’s.  Their maturity as artists and desire to stretch what they can do together was evident.

While I was awash in the music and watching the band I became aware of a level of collaboration and team-focused performance that I began to mull over concerning how this looks in the world of other teams, businesses and organizations.  A lot can be learned from this group.

My first impression is that this is truly a group.  It isn’t “Jay Beckenstein and Spyro Gyra”, or anything like that….it is Spyro Gyra.  They have an identity as a group that was evident throughout the show.  This identity showed itself in a number of ways.  For me the signifier was that each member was as absorbed in the work of the rest of the band as they were in contributing themselves.  There were definitely five talented individuals on stage, but the individuality was clothed in the vision of the music.  It reminds me of something I have written on my whiteboard in my office which says, “It’s not about you. It’s not about me.  It’s about the music.”  This helps remind me of the vision and the goal as I work to accomplish all the things I do while working to keep ego out of it.  It’s not easy, but it is worth it.