Thanks again, New York, for the opportunity to share this information with you over a few hours last Wednesday. I remember earlier in the morning, about 20 minutes before we started, someone asked me, "Jason, do we really need an entire day for this seminar?"
Here was (and is) my question back when someone asks me that: "When was the last time your manager and/or team gave you an ENTIRE day to go off to another room and think about how you work ... instead of think about what you need to think about when you're working?"
I did promise I'd get anyone a copy of my previously published book for their iPad/iPhone. Just let me know, I'll email it to you right away!
Ok, so here's a bit of an overview of the information I presented. Of course, your workbook will have all of your notes and a lot of ideas that I discussed. Also, I'm you can see the SlideShow presentation I made for the day over at www.slideshare.net/JasonWomack.
I started off by sharing my perspective of the productive process, and what you can do to improve workplace performance habits and practices. Among some of the things we talked about was this "four-phase" approach to productivity:
1. Identify:
2. Define:
3. experiment:
4: Assess:
Again, we start by identifying something as possible. You set a goal, see an email, get invited to a meeting, buy a book...the list goes on. In a typical day, it might be interesting to keep track of just how many "options" present themselves; just how much do you have to consider doing (and not doing) to get all the work done you have to do?
Defining your work, your projects and the expected results you're aiming to achieve "may" be a full time job! I talked about the importance of Deep Thinking, the ability to get lost in a project, or to discuss around the periphery of an idea to see what you have not seen before. For those of you doing research as a part of your job, it's important to be able to see things from different angles, and to do that it helps to have some idea of the direction AND destination you think you're heading in so that you DO wind up seeing as much as possible.
I always write the word "experiment" with a little e. Why? It just takes a little experimentation to find out whether or not something is worth doing!
Did you consider signing up for reQall? Take just a few minutes and do that now. Then, when you're out and about this week, use it just 5 times. See if that service "might" help you out; I know it has helped me!
Finally, Assess what you're doing, what you've done, and what that is leading to. The last couple of pages in the workbook outline a very specific (and easy-to-implement) weekly debrief process. A "less formal" way to do this would be to stop for a minute or two each Thursday or Friday, and add a few thoughts to an ongoing list of things you've finished/worked on/been a part of lately. Just having this to look back on at the end of the month/year will go a long way in helping you Identify (back to step one!) what to take on next.
The first "group" activity was to discuss practices of effective and ineffective coworkers. Consider going back to your notes to reflect on the habits and behaviors of the people you know you can count on. Can people count on you to do those things? Also, review the way you're ending meetings, preparing for conversations and leaving your workspace at the end of the day. Are you capturing all the ideas, getting ready for tomorrow, leaving the office to head in to your life?
During the seminar, we looked at the different ways that people work. Some people think in terms of nouns and verbs, and we all work according to our Auditory/Visual/Kinesthetic preferences. Several activities throughout the seminar are designed to give you the insight and information you can use to change the way you work, and ask to work with others, so that you're as effective as possible. One of those activities was over on page 6 of the workbook.
Check out slide #61 on the slideshare.net site...
There were THREE workplace performance inventories you created during the course.
1. What do you do by about 10am?
2. What tools/systems do you count on daily?
3. What could you do about once a month to reset/refresh?
Each of these inventories was built up to give you "more objective" information about what you need to do, and how you need to be in order to do better work. remember the activity of coming up with your own "recipe" describing when you are "at your best?" That was also designed to give you ample information and plenty of time to think about how you think, so you can think about what you have to think about.
Make sense?
THEN, we dove deep into systems-thinking. I presented many ways you can maximize such tools as Microsoft Outlook and your BlackBerry. Of course, I'll always be researching different gear, so that I can always give you the most "up to date" material. If you'd like to see a lot of videos on some of the ways you can save time WITH your tools - often even getting MORE work done, faster - just email me. I'll send you some specific links. Or, of course, you can check out the YouTube channel dedicated to this topic: www.youtube.com/jasonwomack.
My question to you: "What did you implement?" What did you go back to your desk to try right away, and...how's that going? I look forward to hearing all about it. Please do let me know in the comments area below!
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