Monthly Archives: September 2009

When and When Nots of E-mail

Posted on September 30, 2009 | 1 Comment

mailWhen I get my Scout Troop to camp, sometimes they get a little distracted. Kids would rather chop wood & poke sticks into the fire than wash dishes. They’re funny that way. I’m the kind of guy that wants to get the dishes done so that I can poke sticks into the fire without worrying about bears smelling the unwashed dishes and surprising me in the dark. I’m funny that way. Maybe that’s why it’s good to have a grown-up along – to make sure the dishes get washed.

In the professional world, of course, we’re the adults. There are many distractions at work that we have to work hard not to let pull our focus away from our real work. One of the biggest distractions is e-mail.

I was going to write a long blog posting on how this works, why it’s worse than you think, and what you can do about it. But Jeff Atwood beat me to it. He describes how e-mail can act as a variable reinforcement machine (which is why slot machines make so much money for the casinos), breaking our flow, and evoking the evil gods of multi-tasking. We think we’re being effective and efficient by keeping on top of our e-mail continuously. In reality we’re making ourselves as unproductive as possible.

Because we’re adults, we need to manage our interruptions. For e-mail the best ways to do this are:

  • Shut Off Notifications – turn off all visual an auditory cues of a newly arrived e-mail. Even the little “you have mail” icon in the system tray is a distraction.
  • Schedule Time to Process – a half hour in the morning and a half hour in the afternoon works well for me. Set a time and stick to the goal of getting through everything in your in-box in that time. I use David Allen’s two-minute rule. If you can’t deal with in two minutes, schedule a separate time or set up a task to deal with it.
  • Set Up Filters – There’s a lot of mail we get that we know we can do without reading just by seeing who it’s from or what the subject line is. Set up filters to delete or file these. Some experts even suggest just filing everything that you’re cc’d (carbon copied) or bcc’d(blind carbon copied) on, on the assumption that if it’s not directly addressed to you that you’re not expected to do anything about it.
  • Stop Sending Email – It’s not necessary to reply to every e-mail. E-mail isn’t always the appropriate response to every e-mail. The phone is better for issues that need an immediate response. Face-to-face talking with a real person is better for complicated, multi-person, or emotional discussion. E-mail is not always the most effective nor efficient mode of communication.

E-mail has many drawbacks, not the least of which that it’s notoriously easy to mis-interpret. There is no tone of voice, facial expression, body language, nor gestures, which is 80% of face-to-face communications. Consider this: even people blind from birth gesture when they talk. If it’s that important, do you really want your message misinterpreted?

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Posted in communications, email, productivity

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What’s the Bottom Line?

Posted on September 28, 2009 | 1 Comment

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“Communication is what the listener does.” — Peter Drucker

I had a boss once that told me “I dread reading your e-mails.” When I asked him why he told me that it took him too long to read them. I thought I was providing the detail required for him to understand what I was thinking and why I was making a particular recommendation or decision. I was trying to communicate clearly. Instead I was confusing him by providing too much detail and burying the key points at the bottom or even the middle of the e-mail.

I’d forgotten that what I was writing wasn’t about me. It was about getting my message to him in a way that he could understand it. In this case putting the Bottom Line Up Front (BLUF) solved the problem. For complicated issues I could still at the background information and data as long as my main message was up front and clear. That way he had the choice of saying “Got it, I don’t have to read the rest of this.” Or he could skim my supporting materials to get a better understanding of what I was trying to get across.

Usually, however, he would follow-up talk face-to-face. This was his preferred method of communication. This way he could ask questions to get the clarity he needed, and go to the level of detail appropriate to him. Usually this was faster than me writing and him reading a long, drawn-out e-mail, and he was happier.

Notice that the communication to him was all about him?

By keeping the e-mail traffic short, simple, to the point, and by putting the bottom line up front, I was able to communicate more, faster, and with less back-and-forth.

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Posted in communications, email, tools

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What Goes in an E-Mail

Posted on September 25, 2009 | 3 Comments

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“Control your mind or it will control you.” — Horace

Kids like to keep secrets. I think it’s their way of testing who’s their friend and who isn’t. Sharing a secret with somebody is a fast way to show them you trust them. Betraying a secret is a quick way to end a friendship. Two friends who share a secret have a bond that others can’t share.

E-mails at work are not secret. While we might like to think work is a good place to make friends, work is not school. Part of acting professionally means keeping this in mind at all times, even when you’re out with your work friends for lunch or a Friday night drink.

Once you’ve hit the send button, you’ve lost control of your e-mail. You have no control over how and when it gets copied, forwarded, blind-copied, printed, distributed, posted on the Internet, blogged, framed, and published in a book on things to avoid when using e-mail. This is much worse than the play-ground “he said she said”. You’ve left an audit-able trail of evidence.

If you are writing an e-mail that you don’t want a particular person inside or outside your company to see, then you should seriously consider not sending it. You should seriously consider not writing it at all. There are many examples of the wrong e-mail being sent to the wrong person by accident. Writing a note about how the latest company policy is wrong-headed or short-sighted might feel good, but only until you hit the send button as you realize the CEO is on the distribution list. You’ve just labelled yourself as untrustworthy and lacking good judgement.

If you really feel the need to write your thoughts out, to get them ordered and out of your system, then do it in Word or another word-processing program instead. That way there’s less risk of it leaking out. Then go talk the issue out face-to-face if you can. Having thought the problem out so thoroughly, you are ready to come up a solution. Bosses appreciate people who solve problems for them. It shows loyalty and good judgement.

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Posted in email, leadership, your career

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Career Gotchas – Email

Posted on September 24, 2009 | 2 Comments

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“When two people know a secret, it’s not a secret” — Unknown

As a Scout leader I’ve taken a lot of kids to camp. On the first night they’re excited and have a hard time getting to sleep. They’re with their friends, away from home, some for the first time. They get to stay up late and poke sticks into the fire, and there’s a big day of outdoor fun planned for tomorrow. So they sit up and talk. Usually this is means nothing more than they’ll have a hard time getting up in the morning.

They talk about friends, and school, and eventually drift off to sleep. Sometimes, however, things drift into inappropriate topics. This is when they learn that tent walls are thin. They also learn that Scouter Bernie can still slither out of an 18 inch gap in his tent door and silently stalk through woods in the dark, not turning on his flashlight until he’s standing beside their tent.

A mistake that some people make is using their work e-mail account as their personal e-mail. If you think your company can’t or won’t check your e-mails you’re wrong. It is perfectly within your employer’s rights. It’s their equipment, their network, and presumably you’re doing it on their time. This goes for your web-browsing habits as well. Being up for promotion increases the chance that you’ll come under increased scrutiny.

Many of us have learnt not to do this. With e-mail enabled smart-phones, texting, and other personal means of communications there’s no reason to use the company controlled equipment.

Nobody will turn on the flash-light for you when you get busted either. When the next round of lay-offs, re-organization, or business rationalization comes, you’ll already be on the list.

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Posted in email, your career

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Don’t Piss Off the Quartermaster

Posted on September 23, 2009 | Leave a comment

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“There are two people in the unit you never want to piss off: the quartermaster and the pay-clerk. No beans, no bullets, and no cash for the bar.” — Sergeant B. L.

What my sergeant told me when I was a wet-behind-the-ears first Lieutenant can also be told as: “A person who is nice to you but rude to the waiter, isn’t nice.” This is true in a corporate environment as well. So-called “little people” have power. Yes, I’ve heard them called that by senior managers in a corporate environment, and it made me wonder what kind of person they really were. Administrators can book rooms, order supplies, know where to get coffee for your client after hours. They get things done.

Piss them off, and you’ll be wondering instead why you can’t seem to get anything done.

If your boss has an executive administrator or secretary this is one relationship you want to sincerely nurture and foster. He is your boss’s gatekeeper. He can make your life miserable if you give him reason to. Like, for example, mocking him for being a guy secretary.

Things you might want to consider when interacting with any administrator:

  • Respect their desk and supplies. Don’t borrow their stapler without asking. It’s their desk, treat it with the respect you would for anybody else’s. Their office supplies are not public property. Do you go through your boss’s desk looking for a three-hole punch? No? Don’t do it to her admin either.
  • Respect their personal space. Don’t lean on their desk and tower over them. At best it’s an obnoxious power play. That’s how they’ll perceive it, even if that wasn’t your intention. Remember that communication is what the listener does: if somebody thinks you’re being creepy, it’s because you’re doing something creepy.
  • Look them in the eye, not at their cleavage. This one is so obvious, but there are still men who do this. Yes, they can tell. Even when you think they’re not looking. If you’re lucky they’re just laughing at you behind your back because you think they can’t tell.
  • Be nice to them all the time, not only when you need something from them. You know when people are sucking up to you just because they need something from you. That means other people can tell when you’re doing it to them.
  • The best and fastest way to build a relationship with somebody is to learn their name. If it’s your first day, learn the boss’s secretary’s name, and as many of the other administrators as you’ll be dealing with. If it’s not your first day, get on it now.
  • Be nice to all of them, they talk to each other. I’m not condoning gossip here but they do compare notes. Who’s good to work for, who isn’t, who’s an asshole. If you’re polite to one and not the other, you’re not polite.

Your boss’s administrator has tremendous influence. A good receptionist/administrator is worth their weight in gold. If you’ve ever worked with a bad one you know what I mean. If you treat them with contempt your boss is going to know, and so are all the other administrators and their bosses.

If you get an administrator on your side, learn their name, do them favours, and generally treat them with respect then you’ll be in their network. When you need a favour from him (and you will eventually), they will go to their network to help you. Isn’t it be good to have all the administrators in a company on your side?

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Posted in influencing, relationships, your career

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Checklists

Posted on September 21, 2009 | 1 Comment
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I’m a big fan of checklists. Pilots use them, as do surgeons and home inspectors. We all hope nobody forgets to do something they’re supposed to in these jobs. Especially if we’re the passenger, patient, or home-buyer.

When I was a wet-behind-the-years newly-minted lieutenant in the Canadian Signals, I had the privilege of being mentored by an experienced Sergeant. One of the things she showed me was her two backpacks. She had two complete sets of personal equipment. One was for winter deployments, and one for summer weather. If you’ve ever been to Saskatchewan in February (at -40ºC and arctic winds) or July (at +40ºC and mosquitoes) you’ll understand that packing for these two different seasons are two very different tasks.

A laminated card was zip-tied to each pack. It listed what each pack contained. When she returned from an exercise she would re-pack it using the checklist and stow it in her closet ready to go for next time. Her gear was now packed and ready to go if there was an emergency and she was called-out on short notice.

If anything was missing or needed to be packed at the last minute (like energy bars or fresh batteries for her flash-light) she wrote them on the card using a grease-pencil. Developed over several years of experience, they contained everything she needed and nothing more. I wasn’t as connected with the Quartermaster as she was, so I never had two packs, but I did steal the idea of checklists from her.

I have many checklists for my different recurring tasks in my life. I have checklists for a weekend in the trailer, going to the rifle range, packing for Scout camp, starting my motorcycle, doing family computer maintenance (we have five), or going kayaking. Over the years I’ve kept them in notebooks, in spreadsheets, and now I keep them on my iPhone. When I forget something I add it to the checklist for next time. When I find I didn’t use or need something I drop it to the bottom in the “optional” section of the list or off the list. These lists are living, evolving tools that change over time.

At work or in the office I have checklists for running a meeting, going on a business trip, writing a monthly report, and making a presentation. That way I can focus on the content of the meeting, report, or presentation instead of what I might have forgotten. Like did I book the meeting room or not? I can make changes and incorporate lessons learned into each afterward, so I don’t forget the same thing twice. For example, on the presentation and report lists my last item is always spell-checking and proof-reading.

Over time I’ve learned what things I absolutely have to do, what I could do (the “optional” part of the list), and just as importantly what I can do without. Who wants to carry stuff around on a back-packing trip that you never use? There are exceptions like the first aid kit. I hope I don’t have to use it, but I take it along anyway. It has its own checklist.

I suspect everybody has some recurring tasks in their life. If you don’t already you may want to consider starting a set of checklists for yourself.

That’s what college is for – getting as many bad decisions as possible out of the way before you’re forced into the real world. I keep a checklist of ‘em on the wall in my room.
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Jeph Jacques,

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Posted in checklists, effeciency, productivity, tools

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“Predictably Irrational” — Book Review

Posted on September 18, 2009 | Leave a comment

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“Nothing defines humans better than their willingness to do irrational things in the pursuit of phenomenally unlikely payoffs” — Scott Adams

In principle I will usually attempt to refrain from re-posting others’ blogs. However there are occasions when I trip across something interesting and/or well written enough to make it worthy of  re-blogging. For example, the blog Coding Horror recently posted a review of “Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions” by Dan Ariely.

The book is interesting enough on its own. It describes how marketers (marketeers? – no, that makes them sound like they belong on TV) encourage false comparisons, exploit social norms, and engender unreasonable expectations to sell stuff. It’s definitely going on my reading list.

Here’s the interesting bit: somebody has already turned the book upside down and explained how to apply these techniques to your own advantage. Not that I’m advising this, but it strikes me as an engaging exercise. Enjoy!

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“The 100 Greatest Leadership Principles of all Time” — Review

Posted on September 16, 2009 | Leave a comment

book_open-3

Knowledge is Power — Sir Francis Bacon

I love books. I love their smell, their feel, the touch. A comfy chair, a tasty beverage, and a good book will keep me calm and happy for hours. Our main home library holds at least 300 or more linear feet of bookshelves. I just don’t have room to put new book anymore. These days I try to limit my casual reading to stuff I can get through my local library.

Which is where I tripped across this little appetizer. Leslie Pockell’s “The 100 Greatest Leadership Principles of all Time”. I wouldn’t call collection of quotes on leadership the 100 greatest leadership principles of all time. I don’t think I’d even call them leadership principles. It is a collection of thoughts on intelligence, trustworthiness, humaneness, courage, and discipline with a well thought out and well written introduction. Many are well-known homilies from well know figures, with a few more obscure and thought-provoking ones thrown in for good measure.

A perfect little book for bed-time reading. Just keep a pen and paper handy, because you’re want to remember some of them, and you shouldn’t fold down the corners on a library book. Shame on whoever did it to the copy I read.

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Posted in book reviews, self improvement

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Your Voice – Mail Greeting

Posted on September 14, 2009 | 2 Comments

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TELESCOPE, n. A device having a relation to the eye similar to that of the telephone to the ear, enabling distant objects to plague us with a multitude of needless details. Luckily it is unprovided with a bell summoning us to the sacrifice. — The Devil’s Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce

I was stranded in voice-mail hell the other day, navigating the ninth circle of my telephone company’s special torture they reserve only for their best paying customers. “Choose one to be further irritated. Press two if you enjoy having your time wasted. Press three if your want to enter your account information for the fourth time.”

Many voice-mail systems have an escape, including personal systems. Many companies, especially the large ones, have discovered that customers don’t like talking to machines and have disabled this feature. So banging on the zero key multiple times isn’t guaranteed to get you a live person anymore, but it’s still often worth the effort.

Some voice carriers who especially love their customers and the people trying to call them will then add more gibberish to the end of your personal voice-mail greeting, giving you further instructions on how to leave a message. This is usually unnecessary, redundant, and irritating. Most people who know how to use a phone know what voice mail is. I remember when it was a big deal back in the 70′s when our house got its first answering machine. It had little cassette tapes an everything. It was very cool and mechanical. Just like my dad’s teletype machine. Yes, we had a teletype in our house. It was an interesting childhood.

You can short-cut greetings by pressing a certain key to take you straight to the beep. What that key is will depend on your carrier. You’re going to have to do some research on your own to figure out what the magic button is for you. For Rogers in Canada, it’s “*” or star. The “#” (called hash or pound) will get you into your voice mail.  If you’re not with Rogers in Canada,  use Google to search for “skip [carrier name] voicemail greeting” and you you’ll find yours.

Tell your callers up front what it in your own voice-mail greeting, like this: “Hi, you’ve reached Bernie’s voice-mail. Please press star to skip over this greeting. [pause] I can’t answer the phone right now, etc.”

Easy, right? I’ll appreciate you even more the next time I get your voice-mail and you tell me how to get to the beep.

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Posted in phone, productivity

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Leaving Voice Mail – Advance the Conversation

Posted on September 11, 2009 | 2 Comments

rotary-cell-phone

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” — Theodore Roosevelt

I was talking to a friend the other day, and she told me that she doesn’t leave voice mails. When I asked her why not, she assumed that when I saw her number on the missed calls list I’d call her back. I told her I don’t do that. She was surprised.

“I won’t call you back unless you leave me a message that requires me to call you back. If you just hang up without leaving me a message, I’m going to assume you just wanted to talk to me directly, maybe because something is time-sensitive, but you don’t need me to call you.” And I won’t.

The only thing I find more annoying is a voice-mail message that simply says “Call me!” *click*

Please don’t assume that anybody can recognize your voice. I won’t unless you’re my wife or one of my kids, and I’ve taught them better. The kids that is. My wife is perfect the way she is.

In order to return this call, you have to go back through your caller ID list and figure out who called when, match that up to the call time, and then guess why they calling. Maybe they want an update on some project. You don’t know. You’ll be unprepared when you do return the call. Now you’ll have to call back with the information after talking to them, assuming you didn’t get their voice mail anyway . . . or maybe you just won’t bother because you’ve got better things to do, and another little piece of your soul dies.

Compare this to the scenario where you get the following message: “Hey Alex, this is Cathie. Could you give me a quick update on your meeting with client x yesterday – did we make the sale? My number is (403)555-1212. Thanks.”

When you return her call, even if you get Cathie’s voice mail, you can update her on what happened. Two phone calls. Done. Instead of the at least three or more phone calls that do nothing but waste time. Much more effective and efficient. Each voice mail advances the conversation, and the number of calls is kept to the minimum needed to communicate.

If you’re going to leave a voice message, advance the conversation. Like e-mail, voice-mail is an asynchronous communication. You’re still conversing, just spread out over time and from different locations. Leaving a message that doesn’t add anything to the conversation is a waste of time and an annoyance.

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Posted in etiquette, phone, productivity

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