I’ve fallen in love with Boston. No question about it. This past year has been one of the best of my life. I’ve also fallen in love with city living. And I mean real city living. No car, no traffic or parking anxiety, lots of walking, and public transit for those times when the walk would be a bit excessive, the shoes less than comfortable, or the weather uncooperative. I do not want to return to a car culture! Our wonderful “small house” urban experiment has been fabulous, but a tad on the small side. I want a deck and a grill, a kitchen that holds more than four vegetables and two people at the same time, at least one more room for my office, and a little more storage. If you have read my previous post, you also know we decided we needed a “permanent” home base from which to wander. So where should we plant ourselves?
For those of you in the northern hemisphere, I hope you are ready for a rip, roaring summer! Whether you are or not, your employees definitely are. Now’s a good time to clarify expectations so that the work gets done along with the fun. Be flexible, but firm. While work always expands to fill the available time, the opposite is true as well. When people are motivated to finish and leave early, productivity soars. I enjoyed my first paddle of the season last night. The thought of sailing tonight is great motivation for being ultra focused and swift through out the day. Harness the power of that enthusiasm! Happy summer to you!
When I work with clients on strategy, one of my greatest responsibilities is to shift their thinking so they can look at things in new ways, step up to a higher plane, and think big. Boards of Directors and staff alike are usually too mired in today’s challenges to envision a dramatically improved future, let alone a path that gets them there. Without a shift in thinking, most strategic plans are incremental at best with the biggest changes focused on internal operations that may save money, but won’t measurably increase the organization’s ability to make a difference. At the same time, I have to keep my clients grounded in reality. Blue-sky proponents lobby for lofty earth-saving missions without any concrete ideas about the specific products and services that will make a measurable difference. They shoot down dissenters and leave too many details for later. These grandiose plans are wrapped up in shiny binders and delivered with great pomp and circumstance. So how do you know a sensible and strong strategy from a bad one? Today’s list is geared toward nonprofits. Stay tuned for an equivalent list for businesses.
I’ve worked with Ann on three projects at this point, varying from several months to half a day. I’m happy to recommend her because I think so highly of her. I’ve done a lot of strategic planning, board retreats, and other facilitated activities, and I’ve never worked with anyone else who comes close to bringing the same value to the table. Troy Siebels, President & CEO, The Hanover Theatre for the Performing Arts
When I graduated from college, I was not even sort of ready for a full-time job. I saw “real jobs” as a prison sentence that would end my flexibility and steal my chances to travel. Friends proved me right by getting hired and then promptly saying no to every opportunity while they just worked every day and awaited that first week of vacation six months down the pike. So I latched on to seasonal and temporary employment for a year or so instead. I worked at a resort, drove school buses, pumped gas, sold minnows, substituted at the local high school, and tutored the truant officer’s son who refused to go to school. Between times, I moved around, mostly by bicycle. I always made enough to get by.
In “Why Is Productivity So Weak? Three Theories” from The New York Times on April 28th, the author’s “depressing scenario” suggests that innovations in technology (such as a computer on every desk) and management techniques (such as outsourcing noncore functions) have been fully implemented across corporate America and will produce no additional productivity improvements. While I don’t think this is entirely true, I suspect we are seeing diminishing returns. But what that means is that we are ready for the next big innovation in workplace productivity! Corporate America is buried in time-wasting confusion. Clarity is the answer. Here are just a few examples:
Great bosses are hard to come by. If you have one, quit taking him or her for granted! If you don’t and your boss is preventing you from doing your best, what can you do about it? 1. First, try to work things out with your boss
A number of my clients are pondering name changes for their organizations. The dread is palpable. Their concerns run the gamut: It will cause confusion. We might lose critical stakeholders: customers, members, sponsors, donors, legislative support, community leaders, popular support, … We have to uphold tradition. People won’t be able to find us. It will be expensive. We’ll need a costly market research study. The fear paralyzes and change comes slowly, if ever.
I’ve been shaking my fists and screaming at the walls lately. It seems as if my service providers have embarked on a conspiracy to drive me crazy and suck up my precious time. Here are just two recent examples:
An executive I know recently asked me for advice about what to do when colleagues just don’t get it. Then he explained to me what it was they just couldn’t get. I asked what the other two people thought should be done instead. He didn’t know and explained once again what they just couldn’t get. I asked if he respected the other two. “Very much,” he said.