Just Seven Things

Exploring why and how we do what we do, and how we can do it better

Archive for the category “Focus”

27 Apr 2010

How Rework Works: Review and Observations

A hooky bag of snippets. A simple collage of truths. Or a sophisticated framework for success communicated well?

Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson’s Rework – Change the Way You Work Forever, has left me with the above thoughts since starting. It has more momentum and flow than similar books that stick together ideas in short 2-page essays.

Some more direct quotes:

It’s the stuff you leave out that matters. So constantly look for things to remove, simplify and streamline. Be a curator. Stick to what’s truly essential. Pare things down until you’re left with only the most important stuff. Then do it again. You can always add stuff back in later if you need it.

Throw less at the problem. When things aren’t working… The right way to go is the opposite reaction: cut back. You’ll be forced to make tough calls and sort out why truly matters.

The core of your business should be built around things that won’t change. Things that people are going to want today and ten years from now. Those are the things you should invest in.

Sell your by-products. When you make something, you always make something else. Observant and creative businesses spot these by-products an see opportunities.

If you had to launch your business in two weeks, what would you cut out? The best way to get there is through iterations. Stop imagining what’s going to work. Find out for real.

Do everything you can to remove layers of abstraction. Get to something real right away. Reports, diagrams and specs take forever to make but only seconds to forget. They create illusions of agreement: a hundred people can read the same words, but in their heads, they’re imagining a hundred different things. When you get to something real right away…. That’s when you get true understanding. Get the chisel out and start making something real. Anything else is just a distraction.

Posted in Business, Change, Communication, Creativity, Focus, Leadership, Management, Reviews and tagged , | Leave a comment
19 Apr 2010
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The Change Planning Toolbox: 10 Initial Steps

This is intended as a checklist to start any personal or corporate change project. Just take a blank sheet/ screen and start answering the following:

Initial planning questions:
1. What are you trying to change?

2. Who is involved in the change?
2.1. Do they want to change?
2.2. What do they need to change?

3. What does the changed future look like?

4. What are the top 3 blockers to change that require specific strategies to overcome them?

Detailed Planning Steps:
5. Clearly articulate objective: what does the changed vision/ goal/ future look like?:
5.1. Write down in technicolour detail.
5.2. Use this as an initial engagement step with those involved in the change (i.e. facilitated brainstorm/ meeting away day)
5.3. Create a clear list of benefits that will be enjoyed when change is achieved

6. Go public with the change vision: be clear on how those affected by the change will be kept engaged and informed

7. Create a clear and detailed timebound plan with detailed sub-projects, tasks and next actions needed to achieve the vision in 5. above, whilst ensuring the blockers in 4. above are addressed:
7.1. The actions all need to be concrete and measurable.
7.2. They must include clear accountabilities and ‘sprint’ milestones that effectively breakdown the overall change project into manageable chunks capable of completion and celebration (see 8.)
7.3. You must also create specific sub-projects for overcoming blockers and resistance to change as well as communication and engagement steps included in this list

8. Communicate and celebrate successful achievement of change chunks.
8.1. Ensure these are timed to maximise the positive internal (and any relevant external) PR impact: you’re aiming to create change momentum here.
8.2. Ensure that real small rewards are earned/ enjoyed – even if it’s just a round of drinks with the people involved in achieving the sub-goal or giving yourself a small treat

9. Keep on reminding all involved (those identified in 2, 5.2 and 7.2 above) about the clear list of benefits that will be enjoyed when change is achieved (you created this list in 5.3. above). You need to treat this step as a communication sub-project in its own right

Starting:
10. Take a planned action
10.1. Repeat 10.

Posted in Action Orientation, Change, Focus, Strategy, Time Management, Vision and Goal Setting and tagged , ,
11 Oct 2009

Pay Attention to Your Attention

The Hawthorne effect refers to a study in 1924 on the effects of the changes in working conditions (lighting/ cleanliness etc.) on the productivity of a set of factory workers. One potential conclusion from the study was that the biggest impact on productivity was the act of being studied. Productivity slumped whenever the studies concluded.

Joe Griffin and Ivan Tyrrell in Human Givens argue that the giving and receiving of ‘attention’ is a basic human need. They refer to Idries Shah and his studies when they note that ‘many social and commercial transactions are in fact disguised attention situations’. Shah suggested that humanity could benefit enormously by ‘studying the attracting, extending and reception, as well as the interchange, of attention’:

‘If individuals are unaware that what is driving them in certain circumstances is the demanding, extending or exchange of attention, believing they are engaged in something else – such as learning, informing, helping, buying or selling – they are likely to be less efficient in achieving their ends’

So by remaining mindful of the currency of attention in your interactions with others, you can achieve your goals more effectively. Since I read this, it’s had a big impact. Rather than necessarily re-interpreting all situations – I think we are well developed in understanding clear attention needs and giving – it has made me more aware of how to respond better to the clear ‘needy’ situations (mine and others). I have tried not to interpret the interaction as being anything other than need driven. I have found that subtlety unlocks  a much better response in me to both my own needs and others. The act of focusing on the ‘attention transaction’ has also has enabled me to better understand what’s really driving my needs. And then do something about them.

Where the whole area gets really exciting is when you consider it within this context of learning. Griffin & Tyrrell argue that it is clear in the attention exchange that we suspend our critical faculty. It is something we have to do if we are consider and absorb new patterns of information:

‘When attention is focused and we grasp what someone is telling us in an uncritical way, we have absorbed a pattern at an unconscious level. Its full meaning and ramifications may not become apparent at once but, once the pattern is in the brain, it will affect future actions and add to the sum total of our knowledge. Knowledge only becomes real in action, when it is experienced. This is how we learn’

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Posted in Communication, Focus, Learning, Mindfulness, Successful Outcomes and tagged , , | Leave a comment

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