Practicing Continuous Improvement
Ensuring Remote Productivity: How to Work Effectively With People Who Aren’t Sitting Right Next to You
"Quality means doing it right even when no one is looking." -- Henry Ford, American automaker. A lot of what we used to know about working with others changes when our coworkers sit 10,000 miles away, instead of 10 feet away. Today we have to add “working with remote colleagues” to our basic skill set, whether that involves an outsourced contractor, a headquarters or field office in another country, those working in home offices, or a colleague temporarily transferred. And here's the kicker: ensuring remote productivity isn't just the responsibility of the team leader. Everyone owns responsibility for it. So what can you do to ensure you and your remote coworkers stay jointly productive? Aside from the things you'd do with any other coworker, you can try these measures: 1. … [Read more...]
Guest Post: Setting Parameters
Excerpted from Scott Halford’s new groundbreaking book on success and the brain, Activate Your Brain http://amzn.to/1GVlTbr The happiest people with the healthiest brains are leaving space in their lives to say yes to themselves. We should be saying yes to ourselves every day. In order to do this, we need to set parameters. I often ask participants in my workshops, “how many of you do email or some form of work past eight o’ clock in the evening on a regular basis?” At least half of the class raises their hand every time. It is startling, because these are often the same people who grumble about having no time to spend with their partners and children, no time to do the hobbies they like. And yet, they choose to say yes to work and no to themselves, their family, their friends, and … [Read more...]
Unexpected Consequences: Are You Ruining Your Team’s Productivity?
When it comes to poor productivity, the guiltiest party is often the last person to know—because no one tells them. Sometimes it's because their coworkers don't want to cause trouble or get in an argument. Other times they work around the unproductive teammate, because it's easier that way. What if you're the one guilty of ruining your team's productivity, and you don't realize it? It’s kind of like having broccoli in your teeth—you wish someone would tell you, before you embarrass yourself. Though other factors may contribute, as Patrick Lencioni points out in his book The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, it ultimately boils down to an absence of trust. In Lencioni's fable, the person doing this most was a brilliant marketing VP named Mikey. She rolled her eyes at her executive team's ideas, … [Read more...]
Inconsiderate Ignorance: Mindless Public Use of Technology
In a memorable scene in the movie Star Trek IV, Mr. Spock delivers the famous Vulcan neck pinch to a kid who’s blasting rock music on a boom box at obnoxious levels. As he turns off the music, his fellow bus passengers applaud. I've sometimes wished I could do the neck pinch on the drivers of those cars who think their stereo bass should rattle my bones. I shouldn't be able to feel music through steel and glass from a dozen feet away. A few weeks ago, I published a blog about how some people inconsiderately disrupt other peoples' lives through sheer mindlessness. This includes inconsiderate use of technology. I learned of an excellent example recently, when my office manager Jin shared a story about taking her family out to eat at Olive Garden one Saturday. They heard talking and music … [Read more...]
Too Much of a Good Thing: Can Teamwork Damage Productivity?
Back in the 1890s, French researcher Max Ringelmann discovered what others later called the Ringelmann effect[1]: The larger a workgroup, the more likely workers will waste time rather than get their work done. Not only do they socialize more, they also expect others to pick up the slack. This remains true today: small workgroups tend to produce more per person than larger ones. Many entrepreneurs have taken this to heart, including Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com. According to his "Two-Pizza Rule", a team or meeting should contain no more people than it would take to feed with two large pizzas. Bezos sets the number at 5-8. Why so few? Partially because the more channels of communication involved, the greater the likelihood for confusion. To answer the title question, clearly there are … [Read more...]
Avoiding Groupthink to Maintain Creativity and Innovation
Team Productivity and Digital Detox
I love technology—up to a point. There's no doubt electronic technology in particular has boosted our productivity to remarkable levels. But at the same time, electronics appeal so much to some of us that we waste time doing things we shouldn't at work. I've known Internet addicts who couldn't go an hour without checking their favorite websites, and there are legions of workers who babysit their inboxes all day long. If technology has slowed you down, why not try a “digital detox” to get you and your team back on track? You don't have to get rid of anything, just discipline yourself to use your tools as your inventors intended. Talk about ideas in your next staff meeting and see how you could support one another. For example: 1. Leave personal calls for the evening. There used to be … [Read more...]
