Volleyball Court Drive-By

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.