Category Archive for: ‘Business’
Too many changes
Boeing’s latest commercial airplane called Dreamliner is a great engineering achievement. This plane incorporates some of the latest most innovative technology available.
Building Dreamliner required a lot of changes some were small incremental other were gigantic. They were more shifts rather than changes. All this created risks, some were anticipated others were not possible to be foreseen. When changes are added one after another after another the probability of problems multiplies dramatically and things can go astray. It can happen to a small company and it can happen to a giants like Boeing with year of practice and experience:
Privately, Boeing officials admit that an all-new plane, a new technology and a new way of working with manufacturers (which involved risk-sharing), was too much novelty all at once.
Read on the full article on The Economist: Nightmareliner
Considering the scale and complexity of the whole project I’m sure there will be some great lessons learned.
Become Linchpin with GTD
In 2010 Seth Godin published the "Linchpin". I’ve read it few months ago and found it to be fantastic and indispensable (pun intended) resource for thinking about career, delivering results and creating value.
The key concepts of the book make a point that the jobs were you were told what to do are gone now. It’s up to you to find your best path that makes you invaluable.
Who are linchpins
They are the third team, they are not manager nor labour. They are artists providing unique value, crossing the borders and even breaking some of the rules.They hold the organisation together, they are indispensable for any company to grow, to innovate and to move forward. It’s not easy to replace them.
"Godin’s definition of a human linchpin is somebody who works outside of the established rules to achieve unexpected results. They exert emotional effort into their work and create new and innovative products and services. These innovations can be called art, and rightly so." (Seth Godin’s Linchpin: a review)
Why would you like to be a linchpin?
Why in your right mind would you like to challenge things, propose new solutions, do something against the flow? Ask yourself below questions and see what are the responses.
Do you like to work on new projects?
Do you like freedom and ability to choose where you put your attention?
Do you like to be creative and come up with new solutions?
Do you like tinker?
Do you like to push the boundaries and see what’s new?
Do you like to go an extra mile to provide great service or product?
Do you like to make your customers happy?
If you have answered yes to any of those questions than you’re on your way to becoming a linchpin whether your know that or not.
If you think yes would be your answer, where do you see yourself when this pops up in your mind? Now you know how it’s to be a linchpin and why would you like to be one.
How GTD can help you become a linchpin?
Getting Things Done methodology is about creating mind like a water. A state in which you maintain your ultimate focus and clarity about the direction you’re taking. Using various tools and techniques you keep on top of your priorities and goals.
As consequence you’re able to manage your projects, respond to incoming interruptions and requests in a way that allows you make biggest possible impact on your organisation.
Sure it will not always be easy, perhaps it will be more difficult for you than for others. This is a privilege and a consequence of being a linchpin. You venture onto a new territory and you need to create a path on your own.
With greater clarity it’s easier to focus on things that are important and bring you to the ultimate goal. Your project list allows you to define your current a future priorities. Your action list helps you maintain focus and help you make the most of your working day.
All the elements of good self management included in the GTD methodology will help you become indispensable. This is what employers want. They look for people that can work on their own, spot opportunities for improvement and deliver the results.
Where to start?
Start capturing your ideas and thoughts. Keep piece of paper, notepad or a smartphone and write things down.
Make decisions and clarify things. Look for next actions and clear outcomes so ideas can move forward.
Get into habit of tracking things projects, actions, waiting for items.
Review of your commitments. Know where you are with your projects and actions. Don’t aim for emptying lists. Simply review to know your priorities and decide where to put your attention.
Do you see your self as a linchpin? Do you have any tips for people that what to become one?
Please share those in the comments section.
Google Alerts and Productivity
Part of any business in staying on top of the changes in their niche. You need to know what’s going on, what are the developments affecting your industry. Perhaps your are interested in a specific aspects of your area.
With the advent of internet and online newspapers, newsletters, magazines, blogs, etc. it’s becoming more and more difficult to find the right information. Trawling through hundreds of different sources is not practical and effective. You will spend hours going through archives, searching the latest news for that one nugget of information. That’s not where your attention should go. Most likely activities that generate business for your should take precedence.
Enter the world of Google Alerts. This neat, little known product can provide you with great returns.
The main idea behind is to generate scheduled Google searches and deliver the results via email.Don’t worry you will not get a message with million links in it. You can tailor the results and frequency to your needs.
The process of setting up an alert i very simple. Go to Google Alerts site. You can log in using your Google account or simply start creating an alert. The advantage of logging in is that you can view all your alerts in one place and you can update them, change keywords, time interval etc.
Now start creating you alert by:
- defining your keywords and phrases,
- the number of results in the message,
- the frequency of notification,
- the type of the information that you want Google to search,
- email address to deliver the information to
That’s it, your alert is ready and will be active instantly.
One thing to remember is that Alerts will not be able to show you the information that’s behind so called "walled gardens" on Internet. Certain websites don’t allow Google to scan their content and as result no information will be delivered.
Again rather then spending many hours looking for information just have it delivered to you, it’s worth trying.
Do you use Google Alerts on regular basis to you have unique examples? Please share them in the comments
Steven Pressfield interview
Couple weeks ago I came across an interview series at Lateral Action Blog. At the time there were two interviews one with Jason Fried of 37 Signals and second with Steven Pressfield which really caught my attention.
Steven Pressfield is well known author of novels with background in WWII. He also writes about ancient strategies of waging war campaigns. In addition he is the author of “War of Art” which is one of the most popular books on dealing with creativity and resistance.
Below are quick notes form listening the audio:
Your fate is in your hands.
This sounds like an obvious thing but it’s easy to let it go. It’s easy to switch to a reactive mode where you let other people – parents, bosses, spouses - tell you what is that you need/should/ought to do. It may seem like a great option but have a think. Whose interest those people have in mind is it yours or theirs?
Be professional and approach life from the professional perspective.
There is something uplifting and encouraging when you look at yourself and world around you from the perspective of professional. Regardless of where you work and what you do keeping that attitude will always result in something positive.
Traits of Professionals (minute 20 -22)
I found this hugely insightful especially in the context of rejection. It’s not you that is being rejected it might be your offering or the person might have a bad day and say no to everybody. Separating the two gives you space, a buffer zone so you can keep sane even it things aren’t going where you wanted. Other important virtue is patience, in today’s world we expect to get instant gratification and results. Building business is not that straightforward you need to put real effort into your venture to succeed.
Power of one hour a day – devote one a day and build your success.
An old proverb says that 1000mile journey starts with one step. Sometimes it may be hard to see the progress but by putting that one hour a day over the time things will change and move in the direction you want. It’s very similar with “snowball effect” first it’s small and insignificant but over time it grows and makes difference. So putting that one hour a day may seem like nothing but over time it will yield results bigger than you thought.
Don’t need to neglect/quit that day job, just focus on what can do.
Often times pursuing our passions seems like we need to leave everything behind, quit day job etc. This may not be necessary or practical especially if you’re just starting. Simply focus on what can you do that brings you closer to your passion, spend that one hour a day doing that and see what happens.
Making important changes in life is like turning a battleship it’s slow and takes time.
Again with increasing speed of life we tend to expect the results now. We want instant gratification and if it’s not there we abandon the idea and look for some thing else. But important life changes take time and are often times slow, very slow. Although you may have impression that some people lives change in an instant just have a look closer, if you can talk to them see how it really was.
These notes are filtered through my views and interests. I picked up those things because seemed important to me. Yet I’m pretty sure you’ll find something interesting for yourself.
Please head to Lateral Action page to get the full interview there.