Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

 

Teams – the 'me to we' way

Kare Kare Anderson (that’s her, at right) commented on my post about teamwork the other day, and I wanted to bring that out of the comments because I think she has some great advice.

She describes some of the aspects of how Obama built teamwork in a post on “Moving From Me To We” (which, by the way is only one of her excellent blogs).  Here is an excerpt from her post, called “Build Strong Teams The Obama Way.”

1. Be specific about the top, actionable goal of the group.

2. Identify what needs to be done to reach the goal, then recruit individuals who have the specific talents or other resources to get those tasks done.

3. Approach each person by describing the goal, the specific way each one can help achieve it and why it would benefit that person; then describe the Sweet Spot of mutual benefit for all teammates to participate.

4. Review above 3 items with everyone when first meeting together; ask for improvements in the goal and if others should be recruited to accomplish it; then agree on who should facilitate the group.

5. Seek agreement on the Rules of Engagement by which your group will operate and on the timetable.

6. When the goal is met, de-brief on what worked and what didn’t, then discuss other possible goals for which some or all team mates may want to work together again. Why not start now where you face a problem or an opportunity? 

Excellent advice.  Thanks for sharing this, Kare. 

Be sure and click through and spend some time on Kare’s site – I learn a lot from her.

Does the iPhone OS v3 fix my top gripes?

Several months ago, I wrote about the top 3 things that I felt were missing from the iPhone.  This week, version 3 of the iPhone OS was released and I’m using it now.  I don’t have the new iPhone 3Gs hardware – I’m running on the “old” iPhone 3G hardware, but since that’s the bulk of the installed base right now I figured it might be useful to share my findings here.

Gripe Status
I couldn’t cut & paste. Fixed – and it works very well in iPhone OS v3.
I couldn’t invite others to appointments (i.e. initiate meeting requests). Fixed – it works fairly well.  Would like to be able to check the availability of other attendees, but at least I can invite people to meetings.
I couldn’t attach / forward contact information to others. Fixed – it is now possible to “Share” contact, which opens an email and attaches the contact as a .vcf file, which is fairly standard.

gagapeople

The v3 OS update is free for iPhone owners (iPod Touch owners must pay $10 for some reason) so it should be an automatic for you if you have an iPhone.

Killerest feature

The “killerest” new feature (my opinion) is “Spotlight Search,” which provides the ability to search for things on the device.  It was very painful to find things in old emails before – it was all manual and time-consuming.  Now you can search for items, messages, songs, appointments, etc. and find them in a jiffy.  The only limitation I’ve found is in searching email folders other than your inbox: if you haven’t opened the folder on your iPhone, or you haven’t opened it in a while, you won’t find recent emails in the search – you’ll have to open the folder so it will sync.

To make this slightly easier, each folder now has a Search field at the top of the folder so you can easily find things within that particular folder.

…And the rest(ish)

Some other improvements I’ve noticed in this version (not a complete list – there are even more):

  • Support for stereo Bluetooth (A2DP) so you can use wireless headphones
  • You can now sync Notes between Outlook and the iPhone (not wirelessly – only when you dock with iTunes)
  • Better rendering of HTML in the browser
  • Addition of a Voice Memo application (ideal for those “notes to self”, though I still prefer Jott)
  • Better support for clicking on links, phone numbers, etc. in appointments if you’re syncing with Microsoft Exchange (though for some reason, you can’t click on any of these if they are in the subject of the appointment – only in the body, and only if they aren’t inside an attachment) 
    • This capability, along with cut & paste (which also won’t work in the subject line for some reason) will save a lot of idiotic instances of needing to write down meeting phone numbers and passcodes
    • This also means you can put addresses inside the notes part of a meeting, click on the address, and it will automagically look up the address in Google Maps – again, don’t put it in the location field because it won’t be clickable there – put it in the notes
  • The podcast controls, which I mentioned in my last post
  • Lots of cosmetic/usability improvements in the recent calls, favorites, and other phone-related lists
  • The ability to rent movies from your iPhone
  • Better support for seamless password storage when using WiFi networks that require account names & passwords
  • Support for saved passwords and autocomplete on web forms
  • Improved VPN support

That’s my list off the top of my head, and I know I’m forgetting a few things.  If you’re lucky enough to be able to get an iPhone 3Gs (the new hardware) you’ll get all of that plus a compass, faster processor, and the ability to film and edit movies on the phone (and you get a higher-res camera).

Hope that helps update you on the iPhone. 

If you don’t care about iPhones: this isn’t an iPhone fanboy site but I will post something about them from time to time, particularly around big releases.

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A good book for our times

I just read my friend Rajesh Setty’s new book, “Upbeat: Cultivating the right attitude in tough times.”  I’ve been a fan of Rajesh’s work since I discovered him through his book “Beyond Code,” a couple of years ago.

This book is a perfect book for anyone who’s feeling victimized by today’s financial crises as it was prepared specifically to help people deal with today’s environment.  That said, I found a lot in this book that will help with improving your outlook on life, in general.

The approach Rajesh takes in this book upbeat coverwill help you decide whether you’ll be a victim of circumstance, or whether you’ll take responsibility for your own well being and try to improve your lot in life.  From there, he provides a number of examples and insightful observations to help you figure out how to overcome obstacles and anxiety.

Not just a “feel good” book

Don’t worry – this is not just a “feel good and good things will happen to you” kind of book.  Rajesh is a serial entrepreneur and has had lots of experience with both setbacks and successes, and he rolls all that experience into this short book.

The book is organized around 5 key areas:

  1. The Trap – this is how to keep the “gloom and doom” of everyday conversation from eroding your spirit, as well as how to look for the opportunities that will take you to the next level.
  2. The Discipline – this is about rituals and habits, as well as becoming a “lean and mean” player in the world.
  3. The Network – this is the traditional “help and be helped” networking approach, but also about how not to misuse networking tools (i.e. when Facebook becomes Fakebook).
  4. The Strategy – this is all about honing your focus and taking deliberate action.
  5. The Action – this deals with a notion I think of as “do the things you want to be known for” which will increase your chances of success when people are looking for a new member of their team.

The “Upbeat DIY Helpbook”

While the first part of the book focuses a lot on attitude, persistence, and commitment, the appendix is kind of like a set of mini-workshops.  Rajesh calls it the “Upbeat DIY Helpbook” and it creates short, introspective exercises to help move you along the right path.  I found that it put a fine point on many of the abstract concepts introduced in the beginning of the book and made it all seem more real.

In summary, this is a short book and an easy read, but don’t let it’s diminutive size fool you – there is a lot of power in these pages.  Oh – and I think Upbeat would be a great gift for you to give someone who finds themselves on the wrong side of this economy.

For more on Rajesh, be sure and check out his blog at http://www.lifebeyondcode.com.

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Show me the money debacle

Though I've been a bit quiet on the blog due to some time-consuming projects lately, I've had a bit of travel time to get caught up on podcasts. One of them was very illuminating, as it has to do with the economy and does a great job of explaining how the current financial chaos happened. The explanation was on a program called "This American Life," and the episode was number 355, "The Giant Pool of Money." You can download a transcript, or buy the audio podcast for 95 cents (I think the podcast is much more captivating, but the written transcript is pretty good).

The story gets into some of the "behind the scenes" machinations of the credit crisis, and clearly shows the value of business controls. If better controls had been in place, we'd have been able to avoid this crisis. And by "controls" I'm not necessarily talking about regulations - just added business scrutiny and business rules to detect and manage risk.

The root of the problem

In plowing through all the data about what led to this problem, it seems the culprit is something I have written about before: lack of "Tone at the Top." If you're unfamiliar with this notion, "tone at the top" is the tone set by the leadership of any entity. Tone at the top is communicated through policies, principles and, most importantly, actions taken by management. As you might imagine, it also has a huge influence on how the organization will behave - people will often get away with inappropriate actions if they can do it without any negative consequences.

Many of these financial organizations seemed willing to suspend business rigor and accept things that, in retrospect, should have set of lots of common sense alarm bells. They often felt they were doing things "in the name of competition," or for other rationales that (on the surface) seem reasonable. But the bottom line is their management allowed significant business changes without demanding a thorough analysis of the risk involved. And now we're all paying the price for weak tone at the top.

Check out the piece by This American Life, and see if you agree. And by the way - some of the things you'll hear will astonish you at how insane and irresponsible they seem.

Note: You can subscribe to "This American Life" for free on iTunes, but they only keep the most recent episode up there at any given time.

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The future of work awaits you

If you're interested in the future of collaboration, location-independent productivity, and how technology will make life better, you should take a look at what's going on at the Office 2.0 conference, which is coming up September 3-5 in San Franciso.

The conference is the brainchild of Ismael Ghalimi, who already uses all sorts of online tools to be productive no matter where he is in the world, as long as he's connected. I recently heard David Allen interview Ismael, and I think he really has an excellent grasp of the direction of collaboratoin and productivity.

The Office 2.0 conference sounds excellent - you can check out the agenda, speakers, etc. at the Office 2.0 site at the link above, or just click the logo to the right.

Good news and some savings

If you are interested in attending, I have some good news - I was trading email with Ismael this weekend and he sent me a link that will get you a discount on conference registration! Click this link to get a 10% discount on Office 2.0. Maybe I'll see you there...

Other cool things about this conference

  1. They are using an awesome collaboration tool from some friends of mine here in Portland: Jive Software's clearspace. If your business wants to increase collaboration inside your company, Jive's worth a look.
  2. They have a novel approach to making the conference more interactive, and providing course materials. Every year they give out a "gadget" that you get to keep. Last year it was an iPod Nano with all the materials pre-loaded on it. This year, it is an HP 2133 MiniNote PC - way cool.
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