A Story About Change

My friend Betsy Talbot and her husband Warren are forging their own path and making their own way. Two years ago, they decided that they wanted to travel the world. Life was too short, they decided, to wait for that dream life to magically create itself. They had to figure out a way to make things happen — their own way, right now. They created a plan for saving money and paring down to make room for an around-the-world trip of one to two years, and one month from now on October 1, just over two years from originally setting out their intentions, they will be embarking on an adventure of a lifetime.

What’s Their Secret? 

Betsy and Warren’s story is very inspiring, but unfortunately, the most probable initial reaction as an outsider is to think, “I could never do something like that. I have [x, y, z] obligations, and anyway, even if I wanted to do it, I wouldn’t know where to start.” The thing is, I have known Betsy for many years now, and she’s just like a lot of other people I know, myself included, and yet, somehow she and Warren have made this happen, so what’s their secret?

One thing that struck me that Betsy said recently was, “I’m becoming more comfortable with the unknown.” I don’t think it occurred to her that she and Warren had become comfortable with the unknown quite some time ago.

I’ve watched them carry out their plan over the past couple of years, and at almost every step of that journey, they were not exactly sure what to do or how things would go, and yet, they kept going and remained confident that they would figure things out along the way, and that’s exactly what they did.

When You Don’t Have the Answers 

As business owners, we have to get used to not having all the answers, knowing that if the answers were easily found, anyone and everyone could attempt to start a business, and they would all succeed at it.

I think our first instinct, anytime we don’t have the answers or when things don’t seem to be moving along as smoothly as we might have expected, is to think, “I must be doing something wrong,” when in all likelihood, it’s just that what we’re doing has never been done before in quite the same way, and maybe that’s a good thing.

Instead of immediately thinking we should change course and do things the way someone else has done them, perhaps we might step back and ask ourselves, “Is there really one answer, one right way to do this? Has this even been done before, or do I simply need to become comfortable with creating my own way?”

Working in Spite of Not Knowing

Perhaps the biggest part of it is learning to stay the course, even when the course doesn’t yet exist. There’s no path laid out ahead of you, and you’re learning to navigate as you go. Learn to keep going, in spite of not having clear directions. Create a plan you believe is most likely to succeed by studying the cues of those who have succeeded before you, but accept that you are forging a new path in many ways, so the answers may not always be immediately available.

How have you learned to become comfortable with the unknown?

Photo by Flickr user VinothChandar, licensed under CC 2.0

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When Windows 7 launched last year, Microsoft offered a discounted Windows 7 “Family Pack.” It was a boxed package that contained the Windows 7 Home Premium upgrade for both 32- and 64-bit systems and a product key that could be used on up to three machines; at $150, it was a pretty good deal for families — and workers with more than one machine to upgrade. Unfortunately, the Family Pack was only available in limited quantities, and was sold out in the U.S by December.

The good news is that, in time for Windows 7′s first anniversary on October 3rd, Microsoft is bringing back the Family Pack. It’s the same deal as before — three upgrade licenses for $150, although you’ll probably be able to find it a bit cheaper online. If you haven’t already upgraded your machines to Windows 7, it’s definitely worth considering as, once again, it’s only available “while stocks last.” The Family Pack will also be sold in Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Australia and “many other markets” on or after October 22nd to mark Windows 7′s first anniversary in those territories.

Have you upgraded to Windows 7 yet?

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Some people use their email for everything — storing files, emailing notes to themselves, etc. If you fit that description, you should check out Notes for Later. It’s a simple free service that’s useful for keeping making notes of websites to remember at a later date. Sign up, and the site generates a custom bookmarklet that, when clicked, sends an email to your inbox containing the current web page’s URL, the time and date and any text that you’ve highlighted on the page.

Of course, there are plenty of other, more powerful services that are probably more suited to this kind of task already: bookmarking tools like Delicious and note-taking tools like Evernote, for example. However, for the person who spends most of their time in their inbox, Notes for Later is simple and extremely quick to use: Just highlight your text (if required) and click the button. Then when you need to find a note, it’s just a question of searching your inbox.

Each note is stored in a separate email with the URL of the page saved as its subject line; if you’re going to be using the tool extensively, I’d recommend creating a new folder and a filter or inbox rule to keep the Notes for Later emails out of your main inbox. It should also be possible to use the tool for collaborative note-taking — if a team was doing research, for example, they could all send notes to a central email address.

What do you think of Notes for Later?

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One day last week, someone asked me if we’d heard of an author with a new management book out. I hadn’t, so I downloaded the book to read on my Kindle and replied, I’ll let you know when I’ve read it. “Wow, you rock” came the reply. To be honest, I was a bit shocked, since I didn’t think I’d done anything special. (I’ve started it, by the way….).

Later Mark and I had a conversation about a phone call he’d had that day. One of our previous attendees had had a problem and emailed Mark. It wasn’t the kind of thing that could easily be discussed by email, so we set up a 15 minute phone call. The attendee was astounded that Mark would take the time to talk to him and promised to follow up.

Maybe, we thought, only 10% of executives would give someone who asked a genuine question the time of a reply. But we offer Mark’s email address at every conference, and you know, only a tiny number of people take him up on the offer. Even less follow up – and we love the people that do. We talk about them as our friends. We look forward to going to the towns where they are. There’s some people who send me an email every now and again, and I think of them as my friends – even though our friendship started as them asking me a question they thought I could help with.

If you have a question and you think someone you admire could help, ask. I’m sure you’ll be surprised at the response. And don’t forget to follow up. If someone asks you a question, try to help. And, if you want to be friends with someone, reach out. It won’t happen if you don’t.

In his book, ‘Why We Make Mistakes’, Joseph Hallinan describes an experiment whereby volunteers are given a logic problem involving cups of water. There is a solution, but it’s relatively complicated. In a second experiment, they are given more jugs and cups of water and this time the problem can be solved in two ways: a replication of the first problem’s solution and a second, far simpler, solution. The people who participated in the first experiment nearly all followed the solution they’d found previously. But 95% of a second set of volunteers who hadn’t seen the first problem found the simpler solution.

Hallinan summarizes: “People in the initial experiments had become so set in their ways that they were blinded to the newer, simpler solution. But to those who came to the problem fresh, the simpler solution was obvious.” That is one of the problems with the continuous improvement meme – in your company, you might make a 1% improvement each year. But a new company who is coming to the problem fresh may be able to come up with something completely new. Incremental improvements in laptops are nothing next to the ipad (depending on what you want to use the device for ).

One of the ways to get out of the space you’re in mentally is to explore paradigms outside of your company, industry or country. There’s an article on the BBC website today about the application of the ‘no-frills’ airline business concept to the hotel industry. How many people in the hotel industry thought, when they got on a budget airline, how does this apply to my industry? How does it apply to yours? How does Starbucks or Apple or Amazon or Dell or Expedia apply to a legal firm or a plant manufacturer or a papermill? It’s asking questions like this that allow for more than incremental improvement.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-11114802

http://www.amazon.com/Why-We-Make-Mistakes-Without/dp/0767928067/ref=sr_…

Manager Tools believes that the key to great management is knowing your people better than average, constantly talking about performance and asking for significant improvements in that performance. The Trinity (One on Ones, Feedback, Coaching and Delegation) are designed to operationalize those key behaviors.

In 2006 Gallup released a follow up to ‘First, Break All The Rules’ called ‘The 12 Elements of Great Managing’. The authors summarize their list of 12 as being the workers saying “If you do these things for us, we will do what the company needs of us”. No Manager Tools member will be surprised that the 12 elements directly and indirectly reflect the Trinity. For example: “I know what is expected of me at work” and “In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work”.

At conferences we also talk about the need for managers to professionally care about the people who work for them. Management isn’t power, or a payrise. In order to be a great manager, we’ve got to genuinely care about our team and want to see them grow and develop. The Gallup research bears this out too: “My supervisor… seems to care about me as a person”. Lucky us, that we know this, and we know what to do every day to make it happen.

http://gmj.gallup.com/content/25390/Gallup-Publishes-LongAwaited-FollowU…

For many of us, brainstorming is a lot like play: it’s something we used to do in the golden age of youth, but these days, we have serious work to do, and have no time for futzing around with different colored pens and butcher paper.

In some workplaces and industries, a strong reliance on processes can reduce the perceived need, opportunity and respect for brainstorming as a valid work process. Where brainstorming does take place, it’s often on a “corporate retreat” and adopts a cheesy, hackneyed air — the inference being that it’s not “real work.”

I find brainstorming an immensely helpful process, and I think one of the reasons it’s so commonly dismissed as a frivolity is that few people actually know how to take the outputs of brainstorming and apply them to whatever it is they’re supposed to be doing. Here, I’d like to outline some tips for getting the most out of brainstorming — including applying what you learn.

Why Brainstorm?

You don’t need to be a big-shot creative, or part of a team-building exercise, to find brainstorming useful. As an independent freelancer, I find it handy, first and foremost, for starting difficult tasks.

If I’m not sure how to tackle a job, or what to do about a work problem, I can wind up avoiding thinking about it altogether — a very unproductive way to go about things. I find brainstorming an excellent way to get around this problem.

Similarly, brainstorming can really take the pressure off when you’re working on something important. Since brainstorming is unstructured and fun, using it to tackle different work challenges can reduce the performance anxiety I can feel when I’m facing a tough deadline, important client or career-defining project.

Finally, I find brainstorming a fantastic way to innovate, to get disparate thoughts “organized” (or at least work out roughly how they might fit together), and to relieve my thought patterns from the process-oriented tracks they usually run along.

Make Brainstorming Work

I’ve found these tactics to be especially helpful in making brainstorming a valid, valuable aspect of my work practice.

1. Know what you want.

If you want to be able to use the outputs of your brainstorming exercise, you’ll need to know what kinds of outcomes you want from the work.

Usually for me, the answer to this question is “story ideas” or “pitch angles” or something similar, but obviously it will depend on the task you’re brainstorming. In any case, I usually try to visualize what I’ll have at the end of the process — a list of bullet points, a mind map or a process flow, for example — so that I have some idea of what I’m working toward.

2. Set limits.

To get the most out of my brainstorming, I usually set limits — or, more specifically, a time limit and an output goal.

The time limit helps me avoid dwelling on any one idea for too long. If I’m only brainstorming for fifteen minutes, I know I have to keep my thoughts moving, and not get bogged down in details. An output goal supports those objectives — it provides motivation for me to keep thinking, and thinking, and thinking, rather than to stop after I get one or two ideas that I think are OK.

I find my ideas go through a bit of a lull in the middle of a brainstorming exercise: the first few ideas might be acceptable, then they head downhill, and then I break through a sort of wall, or get a second wind, and there are a few more good ones. So setting time and output expectations help me to stay on track and produce usable outputs.

3. Leave your desk.

I find that it helps me mentally distance myself from my “normal” work processes and thought patterns if I can leave my workspace and brainstorm somewhere else.

If I can’t leave my desk, I usually switch off my monitor and turn myself away from my usual working position. For purely psychological reasons, this seems to help me to clear my mind and focus on doing “something different” from the usual.

4. Use different tools.

My brainstorming is always most effective when I’m not at my desk, and I’m not using my computer. I usually brainstorm using a notepad and pencil — and if I have some, unruled paper works wonders.

I find that my thoughts move more freely when they’re not constricted by the structures applied by software or technology. The paper is really often only there to capture random thoughts and help me remember how I put them together later. In short, using different tools for brainstorming than you would ordinarily use for everyday work can signal new freedom to a tired, restricted mind.

5. Get it down, then move on.

When I’m in idea-generation mode, I try to stick to the mantra that no ideas are dumb ideas (which is definitely easier to believe when you’re brainstorming solo!) and that once they’re noted, I can move on.

This increases brainstorming productivity, but it also helps me not to get too bogged down on the issue of whether an idea is clear, appropriate, or just plain good enough. Whatever it is, I write it down, because my brainstorming philosophy says that once that’s done, I can move on to other ideas.

6. Sum up.

Once your brainstorming time is up, don’t just throw down your pen and head out for coffee. Take a moment to list your outputs, or formulate them somehow into a usable format.

Then, when you come to apply them in your work, send them to your team mates, or try to extend them further in your next brainstorming session, you’ll have concrete, pragmatic items to work with.

These are the main approaches I use to ensure that my brainstorming work is as productive as possible. What tips can you add from your brainstorming experience?

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Rereading Getting Things Done last week, I was struck by what David Allen says about ideas. He says: “If you’re waiting to have a good idea before you have any idea, you won’t have many ideas”. When Mark talks about brainstorming with conference groups he asks: “If you have a small pile of ideas, and a big pile of ideas, which pile of ideas is most likely to have most good ideas?” Both of them are saying the same thing: in order to have a good idea you need lots of ideas.

Mark also tells groups that a manager’s role is generally to reduce: to make a decision between x and y and z, and to go forward with one. That’s why brainstorming is hard. It’s the opposite of what we normally do – it’s increasing our scope instead of reducing it.

If you ask Google how many thoughts we have a day, it gives numbers from 12,000 to 60,000. However many we have, it’s many many many more than we’re conscious of. Most of them are fleeting, because our ‘reducing habit’ dismisses them. If you want to have more ideas, start writing down your random thoughts. Don’t be instantly dismissive. Follow the rabbit for a few more thoughts and see if a good idea turns up.

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