Talking Story

Starting new conversations in the workplace!

Noticing. Person to person, face to face

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Liz Danzico and Frank Chimero have me thinking about noticing, and about my own observations (and what I do with them) when I do:

From Liz: The Beagle and the F Train

From Frank: Stand Clear of the Closing Doors

Please take the clicks to read both Tumblrs (they aren’t too long) and come back.

I do think about the giving of our attention quite a bit, for that act of intentional attentiveness is like the starter button to the managing-or-leading energy sequence. Thus, adding observation and noticing to the mix in the remarkable way that Liz and Frank encourage, is another kind of skills-mastery and life appreciation — it is very tantalizing.

I was fortunate enough to deliver a D5M Workshop this past weekend, and so the association is unmistakable for me with that very precious conversation in mind: Noticing is a biggie in our giving someone The Daily Five Minutes too. It’s part of lokomaika‘i — the generosity of our listening attention. It continues to be big in all of our conversing, and how we will respond.

When you think about it, our full capacity for noticing well is something we give up when we opt for digital communication over face-to-face time (like texting or emailing someone in the next room, or same building), for we cannot notice what we cannot see. We cannot notice so much of the emotion that may lurk behind those digital bytes; they simply do not give us enough to observe, and to respond to. We often will miss knowing about things we need to finish well.

I don’t know about you, but that thought, of willingly giving up on so many clues in my digital habits, doesn’t sit well with me. It makes me recommit to my own D5Ms, and to all my other opportunities for in-person communication. There’s a lot of good to notice when we talk story with each other in the person-to-person way! There’s a lot of ease to be gained in affirming others because now, we do notice.

Yes, noticing is definitely a word I need to keep front and center in my vocabulary, and thus, within my intentions. It’s good language of intention (see key 5) in the way I personally manage with Aloha.

not quite clear on the concept
Photo Credit: Not quite clear on the concept by woodleywonderworks on Flickr

Weekend Project: Qualify the Automatics

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Posting this one for the weekends we choose good work (leisure can happen on week days too!) Other than my title I ‘bury the lead’ a bit in writing the beginning of this post. Hope you’ll bear with me as I get to the point” this will introduce a new MWA3P project for me, one I am calling App Smart.

Killer Apps

The first time I heard the phrase “killer app” was back in 2002. I was in San Diego for the Fast Company RealTime Conference (no longer held, and a conference I sorely miss). A guy on stage was explaining how we could all become ‘lovecats’ and ‘share our intangibles’ and he was very convincing: I went to the conference bookstore afterwards and bought a first edition copy of his book. He was Tim Sanders, and his book, Love is the Killer App, How to Win Business and Influence Friends is a book I still keep close, and recommend constantly for every manager’s library.

I was somewhat cloistered in corporate life back then: My employer essentially defined my world, and it had taken a lot of convincing to get my boss to approve the conference at all (he said people from New York were dangerous). I was in awe of the shift taking place on the web at the time, and had a new learner’s zeal, but I was cobbled by our passwords and firewalls at work: the newly emerging technology then was still far from my reach. Anything tech we had at home we’d bought for my kids’ homework and not for me: my son taught me more about computer hardware than my employer did — I called the IT guy for all that stuff, and yeah, he was the firewall guru / censor too. I remember being shocked at the number of laptops glowing during the RealTime conference presentations, thinking, “These people are so rude!”

I met Tim and his wife Jacqueline later that same night at a wine reception on the beach, and I asked Tim what he meant by ‘killer app’— exactly what was it?

Tim was then the Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo! but ignorance was bliss for me: I had no embarrassment at my naiveté to swallow, for I’d yet to even visit yahoo.com and hadn’t a clue. My question was sincere, but it was mostly small talk at the time, and there was so much more to be shared about the other ‘intangibles’ he was passionate about (3 of them: your knowledge, your network, and your compassion). I don’t remember Tim’s answer exactly, just that he was very patient and gracious about it.

Amazing how quickly things have changed, and how dramatically.

We’ve gone from “killer app” as simply short for ‘application’ to ubiquitous smartphone apps. Today our children know both hardware and software (remember when we needed tutorials?) and they create APIs for us!

An application programming interface (API) is an interface implemented by a software program to enable interaction with other software, similar to the way a user interface facilitates interaction between humans and computers.
— the Wikipedia definition

I love most of it.

My newest, and current fave app toy. Click the photo to learn more about it.

I write this blog, publish ebooks, flickr linkin kindle tumble and tweet (interesting” to me they’re all verbs now), and I have several websites of my own. I’ve become a white-cords-only Apple Girl and mostly work “in the cloud” hiring web designers who live and work in different time zones. Friends give me links to png files as art they created for me (best.gifts.ever). I said goodbye to my IT guy when I became a small business owner working for myself, and an empty nest causes other shift… my son has gone the Android route, sticking with Windows.

Now I’m often the one on stage presenting, and open laptops no longer offend me. I can even cruise the ‘back channel’ of social media later if I want to.

Wrote this a little over a year ago:

The evidence is overwhelmingly clear to me that being more tech savvy helps you in three significant ways:

1. Tech tools CAN boost your productivity significantly when you choose the right tool for the right job, and not as a new “toy.”
2. Tech has enhanced the way we communicate, making every workplace a more mobile, and thus more nimble one.
3. Tech tools and their updates foster lifelong learning, making learning much more cool and sexy in today’s world.

So managers, don’t snub your nose at tech tools. Get with the program, and improve the quality and efficiency of your life and your work. Bring advances and progress to the workplace as a means of culture turbo-boosting.
~ The Tech Life of a Manager, 2010 and Beyond

Automatic however, may not mean Tech Savvy

One thing you’ve heard me rail about here every so often, is automatic pilot. As with habits, automatic pilot can be both good and bad. Good: How our chosen values can put our behavior on auto-pilot with value-mapping. Bad: If we’re not careful, shortcuts, old conventions and the mindlessness of mediocrity can lead us down a path where our actions aren’t synced up or value-aligned with our intentions. Automatic pilot can allow complacency to set in, and it often does.

What I’ve become more and more aware of, is how those seemingly cool and time saving APIs can deliver results that are convenient, but not fully intentional. They are sort of like an automated version of my old IT guy. He was a smart guy and good person: I admired his skills, and understood his work, but he had to get it done in a way that served him well by keeping me contained and manageable.

Well, call me the untamed beast! I wanted to learn more, understand more, and do more for myself. I wanted to decide on the wisdom of my own filters and never be censored.

This process has repeated itself in several ways over the years since. There’s a balance to achieve, and a decision to be made: Okay, now that I’ve learned more about the inner workings of this, do I still want to do it myself, use an automatic techno-whiz shortcut, or hire someone? I may get delayed on my learning curve, but at least I’ve gone far enough with my own knowledge to understand exactly what I need to apply or hire for if I call it quits. Ignorance is NOT my bliss.

The App Smart Weekend Project

Thus the weekend project I have started is this:

Once my Weekly Review is done, I’m picking one of the apps I currently use to newly qualify and re-certify it for The Fabulous Utility of my Rosa Say Productivity. One app a week, until I’ve reviewed them all, a project which also syncs up with my declaration of having 2011 be devoted to much better habits.

If you like the idea, as a potential habit to build for yourself, you can do it any day of the week. Cobbling this project onto my Weekly Review works best for me because I’m already in the best context for it — tweaking my own productivity strategically, within the mindset of strengths management (MWA Key 7).

For instance: Twitter. Truly an example of open source API nirvana for developers if there ever was one. As part of my App Smart Project I dumped @Hootsuite (sorry guys, we had a good run), only use my iPhone Twitter app for reading, sharing sightings or replying to DMs, and returned to using the web client (and only one Twitter account, retiring the others I had played around with). I got rid of most of the lists I once had on Twitter, in favor of a single private list where I narrow down my public follows to a mere handful rotated every week so I can focus on their streams better, learn from them, and better connect to their current interests and most passionate conversations. This is something an app like @formulists could do for me (supposedly), but I want to make those decisions for myself very purposefully, selecting individually and not automatically — and as a carefully crafted habit, not early-adopter testing that creates more forgotten about rubble that I will have to clean up later, again.

Now don’t get me wrong: This is not about going manual, for I love the automated wizardry which saves us from tedious effort. Back to my Twitter example, I still use a bit.ly bookmarklet in my browser for url shortening, and I’ve strung my Twitter, Tumblr and LinkedIn accounts together with APIs so they complement each other in the way I use them. But again, I’m doing it for my purposes, and I’ve intercepted the sequencing a bit: The API developer was probably thinking syndication, whereas I’m thinking sharing and aggregation.

Focus takes a lot of work! Mastering one’s productivity takes intentional diligence. But you know what? I feel better already having a plan with tackling it. Planning curates your attentions, and delivers something I much prefer: Intention.

Put that thing down!

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This post goes with the value we call Ho‘ohanohano in Managing with Aloha; to conduct ourselves with dignity, honor and distinction. It’s a story leading to a New Year’s resolution I’m hoping more people will adopt.

I had a boss who was very anti-desk, and I learned a lot about the quality of attention from him. Attention isn’t just about getting into focus; it’s about hospitality, and always being ready to receive well.

His anti-desk feelings went beyond wanting ‘management by walking around’ from all of us, though that certainly was part of his coaching. They extended to the customer most of all.

I remember getting my first sense of how passionate he was about this in a construction design meeting. He wanted our builders to redo the counters of our spa’s reception desk so that all the registration computers would be dropped well below eye and shoulder levels: He insisted that arriving customers should never be greeted by the back of some computer terminal, and he simply wouldn’t listen to their cautions about the expense we’d incur destroying what they’d just built and doing it all over again. Nor did he care about the domino effect they described, and how the entire construction project might get delayed. He wanted it right, or not at all — he had a more critical domino effect in mind.

The urge for good design

It wasn’t about the time, the desk or the money.

— It was about them doing a worthy job, so that every job following theirs would be done well too.
— It was about the customer knowing they were Job One with us, and that no barrier would ever be tolerated between us.
— It was about every Spa employee knowing people always trumped systems and processes, no matter what. Not just the customer, but with each other too.

There are lots of ‘service desks’ who get this wrong. They made it about the desk and the money, or a process other than service. And the time? Well, they’ve been stuck in years of keeping it wrong and not even noticing it anymore.

By the way, another interesting thing about this story is that the construction specs were right. This wasn’t a last-minute change my boss sprung on them. The construction foreman had made a correction during the build because “nobody else does it this way” it must be wrong.”

But you know what’s worse to me? Smart phones, and the other screens we look at instead of talking story with the people surrounding us. For goodness sake, put that thing down. You don’t have to rebuild an entire reception desk, you just have to drop your arm and lift your eyes.

Put down the techie gadgets, lift your eyes from the screens, and pick up the dignity and quality of your days. To borrow from the jargon of the day, keep your IRL channel open, your “in real life.”

The Next Truman

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A hard job, the presidency. Of this, our country, and of this time. It is difficult to lead in any country in this time.

Harder still, it seems, when so much attention is paid to your efforts (and your non-efforts). So I wonder what we are doing about nurturing and fostering leadership that still grows somewhere within our chaotic system of governing, waiting for its own time to bloom in the sunshine of attention.

Thought about this when reading a short summary of the “late blooming” of Harry S. Truman (1884 – 1972). This was written by Brendan Gill:

“It is a commonplace to say of Harry S. Truman that few men have ever been less prepared to assume the duties of president of the United States. No vice president under Franklin Delano Roosevelt would have been encouraged to share official responsibilities with him, but Truman had a further disadvantage: He was a comparative stranger to FDR, who had discarded Truman’s immediate predecessor in office, Henry A. Wallace, because his political advisers had said Wallace was too radical and would prove a handicap when FDR ran for an unprecedented fourth term.”

“Senator Truman of Missouri was the product of the Democratic party machine in Kansas City, and his early life had been marked by a series of failures, from farming to selling haberdashery. Little was expected of him when, at the age of sixty, he succeeded FDR. To the general surprise, Truman proved to be a tough-minded executive, who quickly made his weight felt in foreign affairs: He approved the dropping of the atmoic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; he sponsored the Marshall Plan in Europe; and he dismissed General MacArthur at the height of the Korean War. He ran for president in his own right in 1948, against the seemingly more popular Republican candidate, Thomas E. Dewey, and defeated him. Two of his favorite remarks were ‘The buck stops here’ and ‘If you can’t stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen.’ He declined to run in 1952, retiring to his home in Independence, Missouri, and becoming in his seventies and eighties one of the most respected and best-loved public figures of his time.”

When you consider your own workplace, or even your own family, or the community of public service closest to your home, who might the next Harry S. Truman be? What is he or she doing now?

Might our next Truman be you?