by Russell Tibbits
Wednesday afternoon and the sun, like a majority of afternoons in Austin, is shining on the sand volleyball courts at Zilker Park. My friends and I are engaged in the traditional Monday and Wednesday ritual: after-work volleyball and catching up on the week’s events. As the sun begins its descent behind Mopac Expressway and the surrounding hills, hunger pains and tomorrow’s work responsibilities beckon each of us in our own direction.
Spending our last few minutes of sunlight talking and cleaning away the excess sand, our group discusses the next outing and the weekend’s future events. During our conversation, Lyssa remembered that she needs Boone to be at her house at 1PM tomorrow; her dog is being trained to behave well around men. Boone will be the male representative/ guinea pig. Lyssa asked Boone for the favor to which his response was a simple, “Email me so I don’t forget.”
I have been an observer of our Getting the EDGE class many times, but I rarely get to experience how concepts from our class are applied to others’ work or to real life situations.
Lyssa pulled what’s often referred to as the drive-by. This may be the worst type of task you can ever get. The drive-by occurs when a co-worker gives you new information verbally and typically without warning. “Hey Russ, you headed out to lunch? When you get back, be sure to send me the results for all of last year’s classes. I have a huge presentation today at 4PM and I need to share those with the CEO.”
Drive-by’s commonly occur on your way to the next meeting, pacing to the bathroom or headed home for the day. You have no way to record what the action is or when it’s due, never mind record that there is even a task required. And the worst part is that the responsibility for this task is now assumed to be yours. By asking the driver to send you an email, you have now switched the responsibility back to that person to remind you, allowed yourself to get a reminder email that you can make into a task or calendar event and freed your mind to think creatively instead of juggling all of these tasks in your head.
Boone headed home able to enjoy the last few minutes of his day and Lyssa got the help she needed through that gentle reminder of an e-mail. It’s nice when you can end the day with everyone winning.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Be Like Water
by Kirk Miller
I studied Karate and other martial arts for several years and have always been a huge admirer of Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee was widely held as the foremost expert in martial arts. I have also been intrigued and fascinated for most of my life by the Eastern philosophy and approach to life. Not only was Bruce Lee the individual who introduced Martial Arts to America, he was also an avid student of philosophy and was way ahead of his time in terms of his views and philosophies on life.
In one of his last interviews, Bruce Lee talks about his approach to martial arts and life. He says, “Be like water. Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless….like water. You put water in a cup and it becomes the cup. You put water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash. Be water my friend.” He speaks of water as the ultimate metaphor for being fluid and adaptable to whatever comes.
He also emphasizes clearing your mind. In martial arts, if you are not operating from a clear mind or you allow yourself to become distracted, you could wind up flat on your back. In our course, Getting the EDGE, we teach the daily Mind Sweep exercise and use a similar metaphor with water. Water represents stillness and peace. The daily Mind Sweep allows us to empty our minds, get everything out of our heads and onto paper, and to flow more peacefully throughout our day. It frees up our energy and creativity.
Be like water. Water is alive and sometimes flows, with a sense of power. Water cannot be held down or forced. When you see a stream with rocks put in its way, the water simply flows peacefully and quietly around it. It does not meet it with hard resistance. Over time, water will quietly wear down even the hardest of rock. Be like water. Empty your mind at least once a day with the Mind Sweep exercise and get your commitments, to-do’s, appointments and responsibilities into your Outlook Tasks. Turn them into Actions and execute, freeing your mind to flow peacefully in a state of ease and tranquility.
I studied Karate and other martial arts for several years and have always been a huge admirer of Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee was widely held as the foremost expert in martial arts. I have also been intrigued and fascinated for most of my life by the Eastern philosophy and approach to life. Not only was Bruce Lee the individual who introduced Martial Arts to America, he was also an avid student of philosophy and was way ahead of his time in terms of his views and philosophies on life.
In one of his last interviews, Bruce Lee talks about his approach to martial arts and life. He says, “Be like water. Empty your mind. Be formless, shapeless….like water. You put water in a cup and it becomes the cup. You put water in a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put water in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash. Be water my friend.” He speaks of water as the ultimate metaphor for being fluid and adaptable to whatever comes.
He also emphasizes clearing your mind. In martial arts, if you are not operating from a clear mind or you allow yourself to become distracted, you could wind up flat on your back. In our course, Getting the EDGE, we teach the daily Mind Sweep exercise and use a similar metaphor with water. Water represents stillness and peace. The daily Mind Sweep allows us to empty our minds, get everything out of our heads and onto paper, and to flow more peacefully throughout our day. It frees up our energy and creativity.
Be like water. Water is alive and sometimes flows, with a sense of power. Water cannot be held down or forced. When you see a stream with rocks put in its way, the water simply flows peacefully and quietly around it. It does not meet it with hard resistance. Over time, water will quietly wear down even the hardest of rock. Be like water. Empty your mind at least once a day with the Mind Sweep exercise and get your commitments, to-do’s, appointments and responsibilities into your Outlook Tasks. Turn them into Actions and execute, freeing your mind to flow peacefully in a state of ease and tranquility.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Overcoming Email Addiction
by Robertt Young
I recently delivered a class to a group of program and project managers at a large international engineering and manufacturing company. This company makes valves and systems for refineries, gas producers and nuclear power plants. During the class, we had a lively and stimulating discussion around the use of email e.g. when to use it, how to use it effectively, etc. At the end of the class, I received this email from one of the directors who attended. I want to share this with all of our current users as to how one person can make a difference. He sent this to all of the stakeholders in his division.
Colleagues, my name is Mike, I am a recovering email addict. Today is my first day of being "clean."
In an effort to break my addiction to email, implement new time management skills and improve productivity, I will no longer be continuously monitoring my email as I have in the past.
I will process email at only two or three discrete times during the day. At this time, your email will be read and:
1) I will reply - time permitting
2) I will delegate it to another expert who can reply more accurately or more quickly than I can
3) I will defer your message for proper analysis and reply when my schedule permits
4) I will file or delete the message if no response is required
During this transition period, you may experience delays in response to your message. In addition, I may not have read your email by the next time we pass in the hall or you pop into my office.
When fully "leaned out" I expect response times to decrease from current levels of today.
As always, I stand by my personal guidelines for email usage:
1) Important decisions are NOT documented in emails - but in memorandums that can be transmitted by email
2) Do not email anyone if a quick phone call is sufficient - yes, the art of the phone call is back
3) Do not continue an email thread more than 3 deep
4) Highest priority on message that are sent "TO" me
5) Lowest priority on messages that are "CC'd" to me
Thank you for your patience and understanding during this time. Remember, it's a process.
As I mentioned, this is an international company and his group interfaces with others around the world, where email is the only effective way of communication. But even he is making the process work. I would be interested in hearing about any similar experiences you may have had and how you are dealing with them.
I recently delivered a class to a group of program and project managers at a large international engineering and manufacturing company. This company makes valves and systems for refineries, gas producers and nuclear power plants. During the class, we had a lively and stimulating discussion around the use of email e.g. when to use it, how to use it effectively, etc. At the end of the class, I received this email from one of the directors who attended. I want to share this with all of our current users as to how one person can make a difference. He sent this to all of the stakeholders in his division.
Colleagues, my name is Mike, I am a recovering email addict. Today is my first day of being "clean."
In an effort to break my addiction to email, implement new time management skills and improve productivity, I will no longer be continuously monitoring my email as I have in the past.
I will process email at only two or three discrete times during the day. At this time, your email will be read and:
1) I will reply - time permitting
2) I will delegate it to another expert who can reply more accurately or more quickly than I can
3) I will defer your message for proper analysis and reply when my schedule permits
4) I will file or delete the message if no response is required
During this transition period, you may experience delays in response to your message. In addition, I may not have read your email by the next time we pass in the hall or you pop into my office.
When fully "leaned out" I expect response times to decrease from current levels of today.
As always, I stand by my personal guidelines for email usage:
1) Important decisions are NOT documented in emails - but in memorandums that can be transmitted by email
2) Do not email anyone if a quick phone call is sufficient - yes, the art of the phone call is back
3) Do not continue an email thread more than 3 deep
4) Highest priority on message that are sent "TO" me
5) Lowest priority on messages that are "CC'd" to me
Thank you for your patience and understanding during this time. Remember, it's a process.
As I mentioned, this is an international company and his group interfaces with others around the world, where email is the only effective way of communication. But even he is making the process work. I would be interested in hearing about any similar experiences you may have had and how you are dealing with them.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Getting Punched By a Girl
by Russell Tibbits
Experiencing a euphoric sense of accomplishment after a physical feat like a marathon or triathlon is not unusual for me. Regardless of my time or rank, completing a grueling task is worthy of a few moments of self praise. On September 1st, however, the feeling of confidence and superiority lingered longer than most. Not only had I just completed The Austin Tri, my second triathlon, but I pulverized the time from my previous outing.
Indeed, as I drove home, my car floated under the sun that felt warm and bright. My dingy, aged floral- print couch enveloped me and comforted me more so than normal. I savored every bite of my lunch, which only that day tasted fresher than normal. I must have exuded a confidence when ordering it that shouted, “I have just moved mountains (essentially). Make my burrito with care today.”
Waking from my extended nap that afternoon and still feeling anything but modest, I logged on to the Austin Tri website to view my overall time and calculate the improvements in each event. I searched for my age group and, as I suspected, I surpassed last month’s times, in each event, by a sizable margin. Shaving time from each event while competing in a longer distance triathlon clearly left me with a high sense of self worth. And if my search of the Austin Tri website had stopped there, my sense of self would have continued to pat its own back for the great work I had done over the past three hours.
But my search didn’t end there. And while scrolling back to the top of the page, I realized that I had been beaten (more like trounced) severely…by 16 minutes…by a 14 year old girl. Being beaten by 16 minutes, in no way, signifies that, had I not tripped or dove in front of a car to stop the poor girl from getting hit, we would have been neck and neck at the finish line. To give you an idea of the extent of her domination, while I was finishing the bike portion of the race and sucking in gasps of air to wrap up the first mile of my run, she was most likely getting a free massage or eating complimentary pizza and ice cream. Who knows, she might have even watched me cross the finish line.
Regardless of how it actually happened, it is sometimes tough to swallow the idea that there will ALWAYS be someone who can do what you do better, smarter or faster than you; and yes, that includes 14 year old girls. It’s probably the better mentality to stay humble, appreciate the opportunities you get and appreciate the gifts you have.
Experiencing a euphoric sense of accomplishment after a physical feat like a marathon or triathlon is not unusual for me. Regardless of my time or rank, completing a grueling task is worthy of a few moments of self praise. On September 1st, however, the feeling of confidence and superiority lingered longer than most. Not only had I just completed The Austin Tri, my second triathlon, but I pulverized the time from my previous outing.
Indeed, as I drove home, my car floated under the sun that felt warm and bright. My dingy, aged floral- print couch enveloped me and comforted me more so than normal. I savored every bite of my lunch, which only that day tasted fresher than normal. I must have exuded a confidence when ordering it that shouted, “I have just moved mountains (essentially). Make my burrito with care today.”
Waking from my extended nap that afternoon and still feeling anything but modest, I logged on to the Austin Tri website to view my overall time and calculate the improvements in each event. I searched for my age group and, as I suspected, I surpassed last month’s times, in each event, by a sizable margin. Shaving time from each event while competing in a longer distance triathlon clearly left me with a high sense of self worth. And if my search of the Austin Tri website had stopped there, my sense of self would have continued to pat its own back for the great work I had done over the past three hours.
But my search didn’t end there. And while scrolling back to the top of the page, I realized that I had been beaten (more like trounced) severely…by 16 minutes…by a 14 year old girl. Being beaten by 16 minutes, in no way, signifies that, had I not tripped or dove in front of a car to stop the poor girl from getting hit, we would have been neck and neck at the finish line. To give you an idea of the extent of her domination, while I was finishing the bike portion of the race and sucking in gasps of air to wrap up the first mile of my run, she was most likely getting a free massage or eating complimentary pizza and ice cream. Who knows, she might have even watched me cross the finish line.
Regardless of how it actually happened, it is sometimes tough to swallow the idea that there will ALWAYS be someone who can do what you do better, smarter or faster than you; and yes, that includes 14 year old girls. It’s probably the better mentality to stay humble, appreciate the opportunities you get and appreciate the gifts you have.
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