Archive for the 'Organizational Solutions' Category

A blast from the past: weekly status updates

Posted on July 22nd, 2010 · Posted in Organizational Solutions

Periodic status reports are one area where you would do well to look for information overload improvement opportunities. In many organizations the network hums with daily reports, weekly reports, and monthly reports, often with large amounts of redundancy. Just take a critical look around you, or in the mirror… But something reminded me the other day of an extreme example of such redundancy, going back to 1982. I had just joined Intel and relocated to Silicon Valley for some on-the-job training, and among the many wonders of the American Way I was introduced to a wonderful method of sharing status.. Read more

The decay to the rest state

Posted on July 4th, 2010 · Posted in Organizational Solutions

Happy independence day to our American friends!… Today I want to draw your attention to a phenomenon that is quite familiar to us physicists, but has a place in driving solutions to information overload as well. I refer to the decay to a rest state. In physics, this is often seen when a system is pushed up to a high energy state: it will lose energy and “decay” to its state of equilibrium. Thus, a mug of hot coffee – a critical item in a knowledge worker’s routine – will lose heat and eventually reach room temperature if you don’t.. Read more

At last – a meeting cost calculator!

Posted on May 24th, 2010 · Posted in Organizational Solutions

Meetings consume precious time like a SUV guzzles gas. I remember that Andy Grove, Intel’s legendary co-founder, once wrote that you need half a dozen approvals to buy a $5000 copier but can call a meeting of 20 managers – whose time costs far more – without anyone raising an eyebrow. The fact is, the time cost of meetings is enormous and usually overlooked. Now, time spent on a well led, interactive, lively meeting is very well spent; but all too often meetings are long, boring and useless, especially when everyone is doing email… and when they drag on, or.. Read more

Meetings: Shorter is Better

Posted on May 13th, 2010 · Posted in Organizational Solutions

Meetings consume a big portion of the knowledge worker’s week, and are notoriously unproductive (small wonder, what with everybody doing email). Improving meeting effectiveness is therefore a big deal; I’ve seen it done right with great positive impact, and the converse too. It takes some doing… but there is one way meetings can be improved immediately: by abandoning the tyranny of the one-hour slot. Most meetings in the world are set for an hour or two, simply because we all live by the clock, and it is calibrated in hours. This is also reflected in most calendars, whether paper or.. Read more

Eliminating PowerPoint altogether: a brave experiment

Posted on April 20th, 2010 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion, Organizational Solutions

I’ve discussed the shortcomings of thoughtless reliance on PowerPoint before. I was recently made aware of an audacious experiment tried out at Ashridge business school in the UK. As reported by Phil Anderson here, the purpose was “to see what the effect would be on us as learning and development professionals and more importantly how participants would find the experience, if PowerPoint was done away with all together and not a single slide was used”. The effect, it turns out, was largely beneficial, and in ways beyond my immediate expectation. Not having PowerPoint forced the teachers to think more carefully.. Read more

Altruism and Email Overload solutions

Posted on April 4th, 2010 · Posted in Analysis and Opinion, Organizational Solutions

While checking online for tidbits on Email Overload, I bumped into an article in The Advocate titled Managing E-mail Overload: Reducing Volume by Being Mindful of Others, written by Stephen M. Nipper. It shares a variety of useful tips, but its main emphasis, as the name implies, is on considering the impact of the mail one sends on others, and practicing restraint by avoiding Reply to All, writing concise messages, etc. Which makes perfect sense: if we send less mail, and it is easier to read, surely that will reduce email overload to everyone’s benefit. But it isn’t so simple… Read more

Four ways to make Information Overload solutions acceptable to employees

Posted on March 3rd, 2010 · Posted in Organizational Solutions

Solving Information Overload is one of the highest-ROI actions an enterprise can embark on. With knowledge workers losing about one day a week to this issue, anything that will reclaim them that time is bound to repay itself very rapidly for the company, while improving the victims’ quality of life. There’s just one potential pitfall: some of the organizational solutions available may seem restrictive or oppressive to at least some employees, and that may limit their success. It is important to make the solutions acceptable to the very people they are trying to help! Here are some ideas for achieving.. Read more

Leave your Blackberries at the door!

Posted on January 29th, 2010 · Posted in Organizational Solutions

Blackberries and other Smartphones have On/Off switches, and the ability to put them in Silent or Vibrate modes; yet few people have the presence of mind, or willpower, or even awareness, to use these capabilities when entering a location where the ringing and buzzing may be harmful – notably classrooms and meetings. Something stronger is required, and I saw it recently. I went to give a workshop to a management staff at a large company, and I observed a delightful act of conscious control: when going into the room, everyone left their phones on a table at the door, placing.. Read more

Clarity in TLA land

Posted on January 18th, 2010 · Posted in Organizational Solutions

Three letter acronyms (TLAs) are all over the corporate world; it would take an anthropologist (or perhaps a historical linguist) to track their evolution and speciation in the diverse niches of the organizational landscape. One could argue that they are of benefit in reducing writing and reading time (and the destruction of rainforest); on the other hand, a large company has so many acronyms that a dictionary is required (and in some companies, provided) to keep track of their meanings, which tend to be quite complex, and of their origins, which may be almost forgotten. I sometimes spend an idle.. Read more

The difference between Tips and Rules

Posted on November 17th, 2009 · Posted in Organizational Solutions

A common practice in companies that try to reduce information overload is to provide to employees guidelines promoting proper e-mail etiquette (where by etiquette I mean crafting messages to be less disruptive, and more beneficial, to others: “Write clear subject lines” is about etiquette; “only process email twice a day” is not). These guidelines, though usually not sufficient to solve the problem, are certainly a useful component in a solution program; but it’s important to be crystal clear about their classification: are they Tips or Rules? To illustrate: Tip: Make your messages as short as possible. Rule: No message in.. Read more