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.

 

Trust and the test of relationships

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of attending a talk by Stephen M. R. Covey, author of “The Speed of Trust.”  Covey is an excellent speaker, because he has a way of crystallizing his points with stories and personalized exercises.

An Exercise in Trust

test_tubeOne such exercise was the following.  I encourage you to actually go through it right now – it won’t take long, and I think it will be enlightening.

Part 1: High Trust

Identify a person you work with whom you feel you have a “high trust relationship.”  Got them in mind?  Now, ask yourself each of the following question and take about 10-15 seconds to write down the first responses that come to mind for each question:

  1. What is it like to work with this person?
  2. What is it like to communicate with this person?
  3. How fast can you get things done?
  4. What are the results when you work together?

Part 2: Low Trust

Identify a person you work with whom you feel you have a “low trust relationship.”  Got them in mind?  Once again, ask yourself each of the following question and take about 10-15 seconds to write down the first responses that come to mind for each question:

  1. What is it like to work with this person?
  2. What is it like to communicate with this person?
  3. How fast can you get things done?
  4. What are the results when you work together?

Comparing the Results

If you’re like me, the results you see will mirror Covey’s description of the characteristics of each type of relationship:

High Trust: Open, energetic, and authentic.  Things get done quickly when working together, usually with great results.

Low Trust:  Guarded, calculating, with information hiding and “CYA” behaviors.  Working together is an energy-draining experience, and the results usually aren’t very impressive.

The Litmus Test

Covey’s point in all of this was how much trust impacts the speed and cost of getting things done, and how much more efficient & effective high trust relationships are.

But what really drove this home for me was the “litmus test” Covey offered, by which you can quickly tell the difference between high- and low-trust relationships:

  • “In a high-trust relationship, even if you say the wrong thing, the other person will still ‘get’ your intent or motive.”
  • “In a low-trust relationship, you can be very precise & measured and the other person will still misinterpret you.”

Powerful stuff, that.  I think I may go back and read his book again.

A New Option for Getting Things Done in Outlook

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been test-driving the latest version of Netcentrics’ Getting Things Done (GTD) Add-in for Microsoft Outlook.  This one is version 3.0 and, though I owned versions 1 & 2, I haven’t looked at this add-in in a couple of years.

A lot has changed in version 3 – for the better.  Here are a few highlights from the NetCentrics site:

  • provides a powerful Project Central window to consolidate Project Manager and Open Project functions
  • easily Someday/Unsomeday projects
  • provides the ability to Hide/Unhide and Complete/Uncomplete projects and individual subprojects
  • create printable summary reports for projects
  • create Reference Folder and File To Folder defaults for each project
  • implements Outlook 2007 ribbons
  • provides a 2 minute timer

    • In addition, this new version seems more stable than I recall from previous versions (I had occasional Outlook ‘hangs’ with the previous version).

    What does the add-in do?

    GTD Taskbar The GTD Add-in is designed to make it easier to implement David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology – specifically, David’s guidance for managing email, next actions, and projects.  It integrates with Outlook, and you can access most functions via the add-in’s toolbar (above) or with hotkeys.

    The add-in will allow you to quickly act on email by filing it, delegating it, converting to a task or calendar item, etc. and will handle the back-end “plumbing” for putting things in the right place within Outlook.  For example, project reference material can be automatically filed in a folder named after the project. The Add-in also does a decent job of remembering your recent choices for projects, folders, etc. so you can select them from a drop-down list of active or recent projects.

    Project Central

    ProjectCentral

    For me, the most exciting of these new changes was what I saw in the area of Project management.  For me, one of the challenges of implementing the GTD methodology in Outlook has been Projects.  This Add-in makes Project management much easier and more intuitive by creating a “Project Central” project dashboard where you can view, manage, and edit projects and their associated sub-projects and actions.

    In the past, the actions and subprojects were all tracked in my Outlook Tasks, but this was a pain because the project items all sort of jumbled together.  Maybe I was doing something wrong, but it wasn’t working for me.

    With the GTD Add-in, the top-level view looks like my always-familar, structured, hierarchical list and it’s easy for me to create a new action, add notes / thoughts for future steps, etc.

    The Bottom Line

    If you’re a GTD follower using the GTD methodology for email and you’re currently and you’re currently using a “naked” Outlook implementation, this add-in will help you.  Likewise, if you’re big into projects and want an easy way to manage your projects from within Outlook, this add-in will help you.

    Be warned that organization always has a cost.  in this case, you’ll have to change your “workflow” for filing and managing email; essentially, you’ll need to invest a couple of clicks or keystrokes on actionable email to tell the Add-in how to handle your messages.

    As many of you know (since I’ve written about it here before), I’m also a user of ClearContext and use a variant of the original GTD workflow.  The good news:  the ClearContext and GTD Add-ins coexist peacefully.  The bad news:  I’m still using them both since there are certain features I like in each of them (for example, I am using the GTD Add-in for Project Management and using ClearContext for managing long email discussions and filing entire topics in a single keystroke).

    I’d love to hear from you how you are managing your inbox within Outlook – are you using one of these tools, or another?  If you’re a Mac user, what tools are available for you? Feel free to chime in with comments, questions, alternate points of view, etc.

    And may your inbox frequently get to zero.

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    If you love something, set it free. If it comes back…

    hourglass I’ve been heads-down at a conference these past several days, so I’ve been quiet here on the blog (though I’ve been active on Twitter, as some of you may have seen).  I have some pent-up posts that I’ll be writing up in the next few days.  My nice, long plane ride ahead tomorrow would be ideal for that, wouldn’t it?  Some of the items in the hopper:

    • Interesting thoughts after attending a talk by Stephen M. R. Covey on “The Speed of Trust” – not just the book, but the awesome concepts underlying the book.
    • A review of a radically improved version of the Netcentrics “Getting Things Done” add-in for Outlook.
    • A couple of gadget-related reviews, and a couple of other books.

    In the mean time, you might enjoy my latest post on the newly re-designed “Joyful Jubilant Learning” site about “Early Abandonment and Boomerangs” (hint – it’s sort of about social media, sort of about gadgets, and may strike a nerve with you).

    So what does the title of this post mean?  It’s an obscure connection to the “Early Abandonment and Boomerangs” metaphor.  At least they connect in my mind.  If they don’t connect for you, forget I said that, and just enjoy the other post…

    Hip & Sage – it’s a journey, not a destination

    I just finished reading an awesome book: “Hip & Sage: Staying Smart, Cool, and Competitive in the Workplace,” by Lisa Haneberg.  As you may know from my prior posts (linked at the end of this review), I’m a huge fan of Lisa’s books and her Management Craft blog (which is 5 years old this month, by the way)."...if you need unlimited minutes on your cell phone more than you need unlimited texting, this book is for you."

    This book is aimed at Baby Boomers & others from generations with more mileage on the tires than Gen-Xers and Millenials.  You can think of Hip & Sage as part “New Technologies 101” and part “how to find tech savvy tour guides,” and it’s designed to help you become conversant, proficient, and comfortable with social media and other new media technologies. 

    But I think this book could be relevant to lots of folks.  Regardless of your age, if you feel like a poser talking with people about Twitter, Facebook, RSS, LinkedIn – or even blogs – then this book can help you.  In short, if you need unlimited minutes on your cell phone more than you need unlimited texting, this book is for you.

    What does it mean to be Hip?

    According to Lisa, Hipness is is about engagement an energy:

    “Our ability to communicate, connect, and collaborate with younger generations.  In business, our hipness determines how effectively we work with, inspire, and influence younger workers.  Hip entrepreneurs are able to enroll, engage, and exicte younger customers and business partners.”

    If you work with younger people, being Hip can be a game changer (and becoming Hip can be fun).  Lisa provides a set of techniques and philosophies to help you enlist the help of younger mentors in a way that will tap into their knowledge and excitement, and (I believe) make them want to help you get up to speed.

    One of the fastest paths to Hipness is to practice genuine curiosity about the things hip people care about, and ask someone who’s already hip to feed your thirst for learning.

    If you can find a social media-savvy “workout buddy” that will help, too (@MattHixson is one of mine, for example)

    What does it mean to be Sage?

    Hip_Sage_Cover In contrast, Sageness is about sharing hard-won lessons:

    “Our natural strengths and characteristics, goals and priorities, and experiences – manifested as skills, drive, judgment, and knowledge – that have been honed, carved, seasoned, and polished through the years.  Our sageness is unique; it may or may not be visible to others or in use contributing to the world.”

    Lisa’s section on “Cultivating Our Sageness” is all about tapping into your experiences, but not just so you can be the guru on the mountain that others seek out.  Her guidance is to actively inject your sageness into the business so that the business can benefit from your experience.

    Her advice on goal setting and becoming more self-aware can dramatically improve your effectiveness – you should check it out, for sure.

    Putting it all together

    The magic all happens in the third section of the book, where Lisa discusses how to become both Hip and Sage, including a discussion of how to challenge your beliefs and leverage new knowledge & skills to achieve non-linear success.

    The third section also includes some worksheets to help you achieve greater clarity and document your thinking in a useful way.

    The bottom line

    This book is so rich with useful information I can’t begin to do it justice in this short review, but the bottom line is this:  pick up a copy of Hip & Sage.  On their own, the two chapters on “Job Seeking and Hiring for the Hip & Sage,” and “A Primer on the Generations” are worth the price of the book, particularly if you’re on the wrong side of this economy.

    Lisa provides other resources, as well, including the awesome Hip & Sage blog and a voluminous list of resources at the end of the book.

    Related items:

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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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