May he continue to keep us free from illiteracy and stupidity.
Category Archives: Miscellaneous
To Maximize Your Time, Tweak These Ten Time Management Rules
A recent headline over on the Supply & Demand Executive Site on
“the art (and business) of finding more time: 10 ways to organize your time and resources for maximum ROI” caught my attention because I thought it might have a good tip or two for improving supply chain ROI that I hadn’t covered before. It didn’t, but the 10 tips of time management it offered from it’s review of a chapter from thriving in the workplace all-in-one for dummies are still worth covering, if you give a few of them a little tweak. Here are the tips, and tweaks, that will help you achieve success in your supply chain efforts.
- Live by the 80/20 ruleGiven that 20% of your tasks produce 80% of the results, spend 80% of your time on the 20% of the tasks that produce results. Furthermore, for the 80% of tasks that don’t produce results, 80% of perfect is more than enough.
- PrioritizeActions that advance an initiative in-line with the strategy take priority. Unless it’s a true customer emergency, busy work and colorful smoke are low priority.
- Conquer the In-BoxesVirtual or Physical, there are three types of documents. Those you act on, those you delegate, and those you discard. If it’s a priority and you need to do it, you add it to the work queue according to its priority and deadline. If it’s a priority that can be done by someone else, or not a priority but still needs to get done, you delegate it. Otherwise, you discard it.
- Clear the ClutterAs the article states, a topsy-turvy desk translates into greater stress and the misleading feeling that you have all the time in the world to complete your projects. Plus, it’s distracting — and with all of the modern forms of communication, you have enough distractions as it is.
- Ask Specific QuestionsSpecificity cuts out confusion and extraneous detail. Ask for precisely what you need, and you just might escape the data overload you’re hit with on a daily basis.
- Burn the Time LeechesYou don’t have to close your door, wear headphones, or be arrogant, but when the office Wally stops by, wish him a nice day, thank him for his interest, and escort him to the door or, if you work in a cubicle, the coffee room on your way to a meeting (which might be a meeting with yourself back at your desk, but since a brisk, short, walk every hour or two keeps you alert, the 2 minutes it takes to lead him astray will be more than worth it).
- Preemptively Appreciation Strike the Busybody ClientsThere’s always that client or contact who needs to be involved with everything or always up to date on what is going on. Make brief update calls to them on a regular basis, preferably when you only have a few minutes before “an important meeting to advance the project or product”, and they’ll be less likely to call you with excessive demands for your time.
- Give Yourself a Kit-Kat, Give Yourself a Break for a Job Well DoneIf you do a great job, splurge a little on yourself. If you get the bonus you deserve, splurge a little more. (Save some, like a responsible person, but remember that the carrot always works better than the stick.) Sometimes it’s as easy as holding off on the Starbucks until the report is done.
- Track Your ProgressJust like you can’t measure the effectiveness of your supply chain initiatives without regular measurements and trend tracking, you can’t measure the effectiveness of your performance if you don’t analyze your performance on a regular basis as well. Even if you aren’t required to file a time-log or a weekly report, create a brief report that captures what you did, how long it took, how it compares to your goals for the week and performance over the previous weeks, and what you plan to get done next week. Also include a summary of any problems or distractions that cost you time, breakthroughs or inspirations that saved you time, and anything significant that should be remembered. It should never be more than a page, and often half a page will do.
- Be BrutalApply the rules consistently and when you need to, be harsh with your desk, your documents, and your doorknob cow-orkers who worship Wally as their leader.
Only Three Weeks To Go. Help Dave Reach 10 Million Views!
On July 6, 2009, Dave Carroll shared his story with the world about how United Airlines carelessly broke his guitar on March 31, 2008, when he was on the way to a week-long tour of Nebraska, and how United refused to accept any responsibility or fix it. (Full story.) As you may recall, his story, expressed in a music video on YouTube, was an overnight sensation that quickly received over Three Million views in the first week. It was such a sensation that it even inspired the Harvard Business Review to do a case study on how viral videos spread and what firms can do about them.
To date, the trilogy has garnered over 9,860,000 views!
| United Breaks Guitars | Views (June 15, 2010) |
| Song 1 | 8,676,851 |
| Song 2 | 1,025,128 |
| Song 3 | 160,662 |
| TOTAL | 9,862,641 |
Since the first video was released on July 6, 2009, this means that we’re only three weeks away from the one year anniversary! It’s time to step up and thank Dave by ensuring that his fantastic efforts receive the Ten Million Hits they deserve before the anniversary is reached … because the airlines, as a whole, still haven’t gotten the message. United Breaks Guitars, Northwest Breaks Dulcimers, and now Delta Smashes Bicycles, proving that they just don’t care whether or not you TriAndGiveaDam or whether or not the children in Africa have water.
English Lit? Or MBA?
I can’t tell! 
Five Indications of Leadership Potential
A recent article in the Harvard Business Review on “the leaders we need now” noted that Generation X will produce executives who bring a distinctive sense of realism to the modern corporation as they possess skills and attitudes that are especially suited to today’s challenges which are both new and unpredictable. Traditional leadership skills — setting direction, having the answers, controlling performance, and running a tight ship — are less relevant in an environment of constant change. These days, leadership is about creating a context for innovation and inclusion in the face of ambiguity and the unexpected. And the leaders in Generation X can bring that to your company. But how do you identify them?
The article outlined five traits that tomorrow’s leaders will need to possess to succeed. Keep them in mind when scouting for your future talent:
- Desire to Increase Collaborative CapacityWhereas baby boomers were “organizational men”, generation X are “networked people” and want to build the strong, trusting, relationships that are essential for mobilizing intelligence.
- Insight to Ask Compelling QuestionsTomorrow’s leaders need to embrace participation in the search for answers.
- Embrace Complexity Oversimplifying challenges will no longer work — true leaders need to grapple openly with complex issues. Absolutes need to be rejected with the realization that there’s often no “right” answer.
- Focus on IdentityLeaders strive to create a corporate identify that ties everyone together.
- Appreciation of DiversityIn the global marketplace, a company will have to embrace diversity to succeed as each marketplace, and each consumer, is different. An organization will only be able to succeed if it is able to capture and integrate diverse perspectives from diverse individuals.