"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed." -- Napoleon Hill, motivational writer. Who owns team productivity? If you're not the boss, how could you boost your teammates' productivity? This assumes you have the right to assess the quality of their work in the first place, and to interfere with their jobs. After all, it's one thing to ask for help, and something else altogether to have it thrust upon you. But team productivity truly belongs to everyone on the team, at every level. You don't need to force your help on your teammates—just make their jobs easier for them, and act as a role model for those willing to pay attention. Try these ways of helping your teammates: Adopt a pleasant attitude. I'm sick of hearing "nice … [Read more...]
Increasing Innovation in Your Organization
How do you get the creative juices flowing in your organization? … [Read more...]
Productive Technology: Five Must-Have Mobile Apps
"What new technology does is create new opportunities to do a job that customers want done." -- Tim O'Reilly, founder of O'Reilly Media. It's curious how user-friendly and simple the apps have become, especially in the hands of Android and Apple, the providers of the two most popular smartphone platforms. All the new apps require is a basic understanding of electronics—the stuff they teach in grade school these days—and a willingness to jump right in and experiment. This technology has literally revolutionized modern business, and new apps are piling on the bandwagon every day. So in this article, I’d like to share five must-face productivity apps that are shaping the user experience and face of business today. 1. Xerox Mobile Link. Xerox has a habit of making the inevitable … [Read more...]
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...]
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...]