JaCSA Graduation Event

This past week I had the opportunity to speak to the graduates of the first Jamaica Customer Service Association Certification Programme.

It was a wonderful event, to be sure, and I was surprised to discover that I had become known for the work I had done to define what I call the "3 Levels of Service" that I had witnessed here in Jamaica.

It was a bit startling to be told that I was "the Frien' Service Guy" -- based on one of the three levels of service. They had read and assimilated the points had I made in that blog, and apparently it had become something of a mantra for them.

This was exciting, particularly as I remember when the idea hit me, and I thought it was something of a joke for me to share with my friends. I never imagined that it would be included in a class on customer service, or that students would be using the idea in such a playful, and innovative way.

I shared this with my wife, and noted how powerful it was to give away ideas. It gave proof to the idea that I have on my website that ideas are strengthened when they are shared (a concept taken from "A Course in Miracles"). There are many who think, as I used to do, that ideas are stolen when they are shared, but in this respect "I've come a long way baby!"

I was encouraged by some to turn the ideas into a book, which is something that I think I would enjoy doing. In the meantime, I'll be testing all the ideas here in this blog before fixing them up for "prime time."

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HRPS Conference 2007 and HRTrends

I thought this blog was particularly interesting, as it was a blog created specifically for a conference, as a way to share information about the HRPS Conference 2007.

I thought that this was one very quick way to connect to what's happening, especially for those who could not attend. It could be updated from session to session throughout the conference days, and allow those who are at their desks in their offices to feel like they are a part of the happenings.

This is one of those solutions that could be particularly effective for our regional conferences, given the high cost of travel from one country to another.

Also of interest on that page are the results of a survey done on HR Trends.

Hopefully, there will be a conference next year, as it seems to cover some useful information.

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Creating a Signature Experience

I recently read an article in the Harvard Business Review that spoke to the idea of "Creating a Signature Experience" for employees.

The idea is simple -- what do employees experience as they work within the company?

I have worked as a consultant to several, and can think of a few examples of companies that left me with strong impressions. A few were so "strong" I have vowed never to do business with them again -- this as a paid contractor.

For employees, some companies create the experience of chaos. Others are stingy. Some are challenging, with high standards. In others, anything goes.

I don't think that any one experience is necessarily better than another, but I do get the impression that few companies actually give much thought to the experience they are creating for their employees.

This is too bad, as a good reputation leads to good people being hired, and vice versa. Also, some business results are better achieved by certain corporate cultures than others. For example, a culture of accountability is always a good thing -- never bad.

Companies need to define the experience and its various drivers if they are serious about the destination they are headed in.

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The Cost of a Broken Promise

In an earlier post, I mentioned this idea I have of a promisphere.

To take the idea a bit further, I have been wondering: what is the cost of a promise that falls through the cracks?

In other words, what happens when a promise is broken, by virtue of it being ignored, forgotten, or misplaced?

The follow-up question is simple. If companies found a way to improve the degree to which promises were kept, what difference would that make to the bottom line?

To answer the first question:

• Cost to the the individual: I don't know about you, but I remember those people who are unable to keep promises. I don't ask them to do very much, or if I must, I replace their faulty memory with my reminder system. This costs me time and effort, but it also causes them to lose a bit of their personal brand in my eyes. I may stop doing business with them altogether if I realize, for example, that keeping the promises they make is just not important to them.

• Opportunity cost: Projects fail, and opportunity costs are incurred as the project's goals remain unmet

• Rework cost: A failed project sometimes must be restarted. Efforts are duplicated and precious resources are wasted.

These seem to be the main costs of a lack of promise management.

The way I would fix that with some magical technology is that I would have a device hanging around my neck that detects whenever a promise is made. This "promise-keeper" would record the promise, the due date and the accountable person. It would automatically remind the person at regular intervals, and also send a request for an update whenever I wondered for just a
moment what the latest update might be.

In other words, I would not have to worry about promises. This system would do all the work for me.

Of course, others might find it to be a pain, because it would offer a perfect way to remind both of us when a promise was due. I would be able to accept hundreds and thousands of promises.

Unfortunately, such a system does not exist.

But Promisystem does, and is well on its way to becoming a magical way to keep track of promises.

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Developing Trinidadian Managers

Last year Framework Consulting issued the findings of a study of Trinidadian executives in Jamaica (the report is available by sending an email to fwc-triniexec@aweber.com.)

In the study, we interviewed over 30 Trinidadian executives on their experience working in and leading companies in Jamaica, and the report distills the best practices that we found.

A new Trinidadian manager to Jamaica needs to keep in mind certain Guiding Principles, and also to learn some new habits.

Principle #1: Accord Respect
Above all, a manager must be respectful towards each and every employee. A manager is conferred with greater hierarchical power than they would normally receive in Trinidad, and when they come to Jamaica this power may not be well understood.

Practice #1: Be deferential and humble, until it starts to almost feel silly. Use Mr. and Mrs. wherever possible. Start conversations in formal language, and in a very formal manner, as if one were meeting the Queen of England. Say Good Morning, Good Evening and Good Night in a way that connects with people. Look for the moment when the formality is broken, and seize it, because at that moment the real conversation is about to start.

The manager is expected to be the most formal person in the room, until the environment becomes relaxed.

e.g. Say Mr. __________ or Mrs. ______________ even with good friends in the workplace

Practice #2: Don't tell jokes in public at other people's expense. Pecong has no place in the Jamaican workplace. It is a dangerous practice in this environment, to be used only in private, and only with the closest of friends. Never use humour to pull people down, or to give any kind of feedback, even jokingly. A Trinidadian manager is better off practicing jokes at their own expense.

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Principle #2: Stay in the Role of Manager
Jamaicans will expect a manager to always be the manager -- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They don't expect them to behave, dress, socialize or drink differently after hours, on weekends, on holidays or at parties. It is better to play ignorant, and ask for help about how to interact with people in a new social environment.

Practice #1: Dress the part of manager, even on weekends, until it becomes abundantly clear that the culture will accept any deviation from the expected.

Practice #2: Drive a clean, modern car.

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Principle #3: Demonstrate a powerful social conscience
If there were ever a "History of Jamaican Workplaces" book written, the dominant themes would be force and exploitation. The idea that a company exists primarily to enrich its shareholders is one that is simply unacceptable. A Trinidadian manager must learn that a Jamaican company exists for everyone in society and in the community.

Practice #1: Seek to give back to the community outside the company in tangible and visible ways.

Practice #2: Give gifts to employees at Christmas and Easter time, and create programmes to assist employees' families that are well publicized.

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Principle #4: Understand an Executive's Phases of Adjustment
Coming to fully appreciate Jamaican culture is a process, and the Trinidadian manager needs to understand the phases that they will go through as they adjust to the new environment. Read the section on Phases of Adjustment for Executives from the report.

Practice #1: Get help. Cultivate a network of other Trinidadian executives outside the company. Get outside help if the transition is proving to be difficult.

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Principle #5: Maintain the Hierarchy for a Long Time
While Jamaican workers appreciate being included in decision-making, executives need to be seen as the decider of important decisions (until sufficient trust is built). Workers will quickly criticise a manager who delays making decisions by trying to be too participative.

This is not to say that the hierarchy should be maintained forever. Instead, it should be abandoned only slowly, and carefully, as the manager transforms his relationship with the workers. It often takes longer than the Trinidadian manager thinks it should, but once the foundation is built, he/she will frequently find that the depth of loyalty that's generated is deeper than they found in Trinidad.

Practice #1: Ask for input to decisions, but stand ready to make a command decision.

Practice #2: Break instructions down into the simplest details, and be ready to follow-up intensely. The average workers education level in Trinidad is much higher, and it shows.

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Learning Points

Learning Point #1: Individual Application

One manager's habits and style may not work for another. Each manager must develop their own style, and experiment with different approaches until they find one that works for them. This takes some willingness to feel uncomfortable as they adapt practices that might be laughed at in Trinidad.

Learning Point #2: Experimentation

Learning Point #3: Learn about oneself is the key to changing

Learning Point #4: Most practices will feel unnatural and phony

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Many of these practices will feel unnatural at first, and would fail miserably if attempted in Trinidad. The point is that they work here in Jamaica, and they are exaggerated somewhat in order to provoke a Trinidadian manager into a different mode of action. The mistake that many Trinis make is to assume "all a we is one" when in fact the workplaces in both countries are very different.

Many of the ideas in this article were developed from the Caribbean Acquisition Project and the book "Why Workers Won't Work" by Michael Carter. They are available as downloads from the Framework website (http://www.fwconsulting.com).

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Opposable Thinking

As I wrote the last post, it occurred to me that it was connected to a prior post I made on the Opposable Mind.

In that post, I made reference to another article that made the point that breakthrough thinking came from an ability to hold two opposite concepts in the mind at the same time.

Now, I wonder if success as an entrepreneur has something to do with an ability to hold multiple accountabilities within a single human being -- a little bit like the opposable mind, except there are more than two opposing concepts at play, and more like 5-10 different accountabilities.

This idea seemed to resonate with me, and may explain why so few are cut out to run their own business. One of the most difficult disciplines to learn as a new business owner is that one may move from one accountability and skill-set to another in a matter of moments.

Also, a good business owner knows that their company is only as strong as its weakest accountability. If, in the case of a solo professional, their accounting is in poor shape then that is the weakest link, and the link most likely to cause the company to fail. If the company is not run in a systematic way, then that in turn is the weakest link that will cause things to fall apart.

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Being a Multi-Disciplined Entrepreneur

Recently, a relative breakdown in a key result -- following up on sales leads -- had me ponder where I have not been managing myself properly even as a sole operator (which is the role I play most of the time in the central affairs of Framework).

It occurred to me that I had failed to manage a relationship between one part of myself and another.

In a prior post, I wrote about how the ideas of Michael Gerber transformed the way I think about running a small business. It lead me to think about the roles I play as actually divided into eight positions or accountabilities: Leadership, Management, Financial, Marketing, Lead Generation, Lead Conversion, R&D and Client Delivery.

The hard part, I am finding, once these areas have been defined, and operating manuals have been written for each, is how to manage them separately when in fact there is only a single person behind all of them

In other words, how does "Financial" relate to "Managerial"? How does one hold the other to account, when in fact behind the scenes there is only one person... me?

To start out, I began to wonder what it might be like to have a "Managerial" meeting each week to look at the different accountabilities, as if they were held by other people.

And this seemed to provide the key: to manage myself as if I were only the Manager, for at least a few minutes, and the ask the questions that a Manager would ask, with the concerns that a Manager has -- without immediately flipping into one of the other roles and enter into instant "problem solving mode".

I was shocked to find that this was different from anything I had ever done before.

I could immediately see that there were several things I had not been doing effectively in several accountabilities. For example, I could see that as the Manager I was not doing a good job apportioning time between accountabilities. I needed to put more time in Lead Generation and less time in R&D. I happen to have a natural affinity for the latter, so I was not surprised to find that I was spending more time there than I would if I could see the entire picture.

In essence, the Manager was not doing his job of directing time away from one accountability to another. That was happening because there were no regular meetings to do the kind of thinking that only the Manager could do. Also, I was not spending enough time as the Manager to clarify the questions I needed to get answers to. I started to develop the discipline of presenting the question, without immediately trying to get an answer.

When I discovered the imbalance, I saw that the Manager needed some different kind of information each week in order to manage each accountability, and in particular the ones that were not performing up to snuff. The result was a series of requests that would be directed towards each accountability for some new reports, and for a couple of new plans of action.

For example, here is an example of a conversation that I had in my meeting with myself in 2 roles:

Manager -- "I need a report that shows me how well the Lead Generation activities are working. I need this weekly, and it also needs to show me how the conversations to enter a new company are going, and which companies we are targeting. I need this in our Monday morning meetings."

Lead Generation Manager -- "OK Boss, I'll have a prototype next week."

Manager -- "Thanks. Mr. Financial Manager, I need a weekly report showing our projected cash-flow for the next 12 months. The same applies -- it's for our Monday morning meetings."

Financial Manager -- "Yes Boss, will do. That will help me to give you the information you need, no more and no less."

Then things got interesting, because then I discovered that I was essentially making myself promises that I needed to keep, from one accountability to another.

In another prior post, I mentioned the ground-breaking work by my colleague, Scott Hilton-Clarke, on a system for executives to manage projects. In a major breakthrough, he has evolved that work radically by evolving it to manage the smallest possible element in a project -- a promise. He calls the latest version of the programme "Promisystem." (It used to be called Executive Slice.)

It struck me that I could use his programme to manage myself in different accountabilities, as if I were different people. As I started to use it last week, I found it to be a good start, as I start to develop a certain "firewall" between the thinking I do in each accountability. The software helped me to stay in one accountability, without drifting into another. As I used the software, I found that I was more demanding of results, and more focused than when I bounced around.

Something similar happened when I had my first meeting in one of the accountabilities. In Promisystem, I responded to the request from the Manager, and started to come up with some new ideas. I could see that my old way of thinking -- mixing up accountabilities -- had become routine.

Now, the truth is that Promisystem is not made for this purpose. It really is built for the executive who is managing promises from different people. It really is not made for the individual business owner who is managing him or herself, but with a few tweaks it could easily be adapted by Scott and his team.

I hope he makes these changes at some point, because I could expand the way I am using Promisystem.

I also discovered that my company, like any other, is as strong as the weakest accountability. The one that I am least proficient in is the place where the company tends to experience problems. In the case of the sales breakdown, I saw it as a Managerial problem more than anything else.

Within each accountability, I discovered that there happens to be a mix of routine, maintenance items and others that are strategic and novel. Of course, the new and novel tend to be more exciting, while the routine items are more likely to fall to the side.

What I am asking myself is how do I turn routine, maintenance-driven items into must-do's? Also, how do I teach myself new habits and what kinds of supports can I use to keep the habits going?

This is a question I am also asking with respect to the 2Time Management System I am developing, as it requires the self-teaching and learning of new habits over a protracted period of time.

One new one I am looking at is Joe's Goals, and other one is a plain sheet that I picked up from Productivity 501.

I am open to new ideas on this.

Read more!

Setting and Maintaining Standards

In a prior entry, I mentioned the fact that when I look for consultants and volunteers to work with here in Framework, I find myself looking for a particular standard.

In thinking about this, I realize that my standards are similar whether I am looking to hire a copy-editor to review a single article, or someone to lead programs to CEO's of critical client companies.

There are certain basics that I look for, and the best business-partners are those who are able to match my own commitments to the following cornerstones, which I would call "The Unreasonable Commitments":

1. An Unreasonable Commitment to Keeping Promises
   This is especially true for basic practices such as starting and ending events on time, keeping due dates and working as hard as possible to create an environment in which everyone keeps their promises, and acts as if their word is an important part of who they are. They are careful in what they give their word to, because they treat the act as an almost sacred one, even when it seems to be unimportant. They break their promises infrequently, and only under duress.
2. An Unreasonable Commitment to Mastery
   I like working with people who love what they do, and give 100% of themselves as often as they can. They are always looking to learn and master their craft, and are willing to practice the basics over and over again (a la Tiger Woods) for smaller and smaller gains that add up to greater expertise in whatever they might do.
3. An Unreasonable Commitment to Communication
   There are some people who can be counted on to reply to business email, and to keep channels of communication open with those who they consider to be business partners. They just don't drop off the radar of others, and work hard to stay in touch. They know that "80% of success is showing up" according to Woody Allen.
   

These are "Unreasonable Commitments" not because they are all that crazy, but just because in the Caribbean environment it may well be that no-one else is willing to keep these commitments.

Make no mistake about it -- our regional companies are (in general) operated at lower standards than the average international companies. There are a few exceptions, it is true, but they demonstrate the rule.

Individuals that insist on these three commitments will appear to be "Unreasonable" simply because they are operating very, very differently and it might be hard to understand at first why a consultant should be on time even when the client never is.

On a slightly different note, my wife insists that it is easy to make money in Jamaica. All one has to do in business is the basics -- return phone calls, answer the phone, be a little pleasant most of the time, keep the most basic promises and stay in touch in some way.

I think she has a point.

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An Opposable Mind

Reading an article today reminds me of why I love new ideas.

Usually, it’s not because the notion is absolutely foreign to me. Instead, the best feeling is when I am able to recognize some piece of thinking I have already done, taken to an entirely new level by someone obviously much smarter than I am.

In the July 2007 Harvard Business Review, an article entitled “How Successful Leaders Think” stopped me in my tracks. I realized upon reading it that the author had articulated for the first time in my understanding the way I try to think, when I do my very best thinking, or designing.

Roger Martin, the author, starts by quoting F. Scott Fitzgerald, who said that “the ability to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function” is the sign of a truly intelligent individual.

His modern day research of successful corporate leaders backs this up.

He compares the importance of this kind of intelligence with the evolution of the opposable thumb. Human beings have the most developed opposable thumbs in the animal kingdom, and have been able to create magnificently simply because of their ability to maintain a sustained and precise tension between the fingers. Without it, there would be no ability to write, build, paint and use tools.

This mechanical tension is likened to a certain mental tension – the ability to hold competing ideas in mind at the same time, without discarding one or the other prematurely. In other words, an “opposable mind,” according to Martin.

With an opposable mind all sorts of magic can be created, and the good news that he delivers at the end of the article is that it can be learned, grown and deepened through practice, just like any other skill.

We are born with this kind of mind, he says, but often become anxious because we prefer simplicity and clarity to ambiguity and complexity. This leads us to develop simplistic answers, and to cling to them as if they were gospel truth.

My grandfather did not believe that man really landed on the moon. It was just simpler to believe that it was all a hoax.

Many believe that the earth was created in 7 days, that Eve ate an apple in a garden, that Noah built a boat that saved all creatures from a flood and that Jonah was literally swallowed by a whale which somehow happened to be a fish.

Over time, mankind has progressed in many ways, but not without a fight.

Our tendency is to seek the right answer and discard the wrong – quickly and permanently. Education systems that encourage this kind of thinking even into the college years don’t help the situation.

Martin notes that what he calls “integrative thinkers” welcome complexity, and are therefore able to see the entire problem at once, without trying to break it into small pieces. They also question cause-and-effect relationships that are over-simplified e.g. “if we pay people more money then they will be more productive.”

He gives the example of Red Hat, the software manufacturer, whose CEO was able to abandon the conventional thinking of his industry to create a new revenue model for itself, allowing it to stay ahead of its competitors.

If there is one thing that I aspire to bring to my clients, it is solutions that are based on opposable thinking. At the times when we have been able to achieve these kinds of breakthroughs, it truly has been a collaborative effort that pulls the best from their direct experience, and a fresh look at their issues that I sometimes bring.

While it’s not the easiest path to take, it usually is the most fruitful.

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Study on Workplace Engagement

I found this study astounding, although not altogether surprising.

It was published in the 2003 HBR in an article entitled Fair Process: Managing in the Knowledge Economy, by authors Kim and Mauborgne.

Their central finding is that employees will commit to a manager's decision -- even one they disagree with -- if they believe that the process the manager used to make the decision was fair.

In other words, employees care as much about the process used to derive the outcome, as they do about the actual outcome themselves. This says much about how Caribbean managers need to manage, in order to gain the buy-in that is needed to change behaviour and produce a positive culture.

For example, in the case of the Jamaican workforce, the book Why Workers Won't Work as well as our project report from the Trinidadian Executive in Jamaica both describe the importance of respect in the local workplace. (A summary of the book can be downloaded by sending email to fwc-whyworkers@aweber.com, and the Trinidad report can be downloaded by sending email to fwc-triniexec@aweber.com.)

In coming to decisions in the Jamaican workplace, it is critical that managers go the extra mile to demonstrate a certain kind of respect for the workers. The following paragraph from the HBR article seems to fit in perfectly:

"Fair process responds to basic human needs. All of us, whatever our role in a company, want to be valued as human beings and not as "personnel" or "human assets." We want others to respect our intelligence. We want our ideas to be taken seriously. And we want to understand the rationale behind specific decisions. People are sensitive to the signals conveyed through a company's decision-making processes. Such processes can reveal a company's willingness to trust people and seek their ideas - or they can signal the opposite."

The authors mention 3 basic principles of fair process:

• Engagement -- involving individuals in the decisions that affect them by asking their input and allowing them to refute the merits of one another's ideas and assumptions
• Explanation -- everyone understands why final decisions are made as they are. All inputs were considered impartially in the interests of the company. This helps people accept the decision even if it runs counter to their own opinion.
• Expectation clarity -- once a decision is made, managers state clearly the new rules of the game. What are the news standards, and how are people to be judged?

The authors also make the case for 2 psychological kinds of justice, distributive and procedural (which I will simply refer to as Model A and Model b.)

In Model A, the idea is that when people get what they deserve (compensation or promotion) they feel satisfied with that outcome. They will reciprocate by fulfilling their obligations to the company to the letter.

In Model B, trust and commitment are built, which produce voluntary cooperation, which in turn drives performance, leading people to go beyond the call of duty by sharing their knowledge and applying their creativity.

I remember a funny story told to me by a good friend of mine over 15 years ago, that illustrates the difference between the two (thank you Tom B.)

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Some kids used to pass by an old man's house that had a zinc roof on the way from school each day. It was the kind that made a very loud sound when it rained.

One day, they decided to pelt his roof just to hear the sound it made, and sure enough it was loud like gunshots!

The old man, who had a reputation for being crotchety, ran out, and shouted at them and waved his stick, looking quite upset. The kids ran away laughing.

The following day, they told their friends, and even more of them showed up to stone the old man's roof, hear the loud sounds it made, wait for him to come out, watch him wave his stick and have a good laugh.

On the third day, even more showed up, and the same thing happened, except that the following morning, the old man woke up with an idea.

Once again, the kids showed up, but this time he was there waiting outside. He called them over, and told them that he would pay each of they $1 to pelt stones on his roof that day.

They cried with glee- was was not only crotchety, he was also insane!

They pelted, he paid up and they ran off happily.

The following day, they showed up again, and this time he apologized, as he only had a quarter for each of them. They pelted his roof, and took their money and ran.

The next day they came, he again apologized and said that no he had only pennies to give.

They refused -- he couldn't expect them to pelt stones on his roof for that little money! So they left in a huff, never to return.

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In summary, the old man was able to manipulate the kids into adopting Model A, when they had in fact started out by using Model B. Once they moved to Model A, he could take control of their desires.

So it goes for many employees, who respond to their managers using Model A because their managers are using it themselves.

The authors presented the following summary in the form of a chart:

Model A

• Tools: resource allocation economic incentives, organizational structure
• Attitude: Outcome satisfaction "I got what I deserved"
• Behaviour: Compulsory cooperation "I'll do what I'm told, or else"
• Performance: Meets expectations

Model B

• Tools: Fair Process (engagement, explanation, expectation clarity)
• Attitude: Trust and commitment "I feel my opinion counts
• Behaviour: Voluntary cooperation "I'll go beyond the call of duty"
• Performance: Exceed expectations (self initiated)

The authors make the point that fair process is rare in companies. When managers are asked for evidence that they are fair, they point to equitable treatment, authority and freedom given, resources provided and rewards earned.

The authors say that these answers confuse fair outcomes/results with fair process.

Most managers are loathe to get too much into engagement, explanation and expectation clarity for reasons that I find particularly pertinent to managers in the region.

The first reason has to do with power. Some keep the rules for success and failure vague as a way to keep control. Others use memos, speeches and purely one way communication to keep away direct challenges. For these managers, fair process is a threat to their authority.

The second reason comes from an unconscious belief that people will only care about what's best for themselves in the very narrow, short- term sense. However, the research shows that people will go along with decisions they disagree with, and might impact them negatively as long as they perceive the process to be fair.

In other words, they can understand that short-term sacrifices are sometimes needed to advance long-term interests -- if they trust the process.

N.B. The authors note that fair process is not the same as consensus, compromise or democracy.

Read more!

Structuring a Game

A few months ago I read the most interesting article that is still available on the internet on how to structure software apps by "Putting the Fun in Functional".

It was one of the most insightful presentation I ever saw, and it only came to me via a friend of mine.

The presenter, Amy Jo Kim, talks about what makes video games, or any worthwhile experience, a sticky one -- in the sense that the experience is one that people want to return to time and time again. She dissected the experience to distill the principles underlying the design of good online websites.


Here are the five principles:

1. Collecting
   People like games that allow them to collect stuff, and show off their collections. Think of the attraction of baseball cards, stamps, coins, paintings, antique furniture, marathons. They particularly like the idea of completing sets, like doing a marathon in each of the 50 states, or all the stamps in a set. A complete set gains more bragging rights than individual pieces.
   
   
2. Points
   People like an opportunity to gain points. They like the idea of being able to increase a score, and love it when they can redeem points for other gifts, and also to use points to compare with other people who are also collecting.
   
   Frequent flyer programs are classic point-based games.When points are assigned, it becomes possible to assign levels, such as different levels of frequent flyers.
   
   
3. Feedback
   People like to receive feedback, and to find out whether they are on track or not. If system or a person can givem ongoing coaching on how close to they are to some target, the more they are likely to engage in it.
   
   
4. Exchanges
   Sticky systems allow the members of the community to interface with each other either to create open conversation, share information, trade content, give gifts or acknowledge success.
   
   
5. Customization
   When a user can customize their experience to suit their own tastes, they are quite likely to return to use it again and again. At times, the system does the customization for them (like telling them the time they last logged in, or by recommending books to read a la Amazon.)

I am trying to include as many of these ways of thinking into the design of the 2Time Management system.

Basically, the idea is a simple one. I believe that I can design a superstructure around 2Time that will allow a user to:

1. Collect belts as they move from one level to another, along with a certificate and some other tangible award.
   
   
2. Gain points as they add different skills, and move up from one belt level to another
   
   
3. Gain feedback from a coach as they move up from one belt level to another. Also, as part of an online community, they will be able to gain feedback and ideas from others who are also a looking to improve their time management skills
   
   
4. Exchange tips and celebrate accomplishments as users move from one belt level to another.
   
   
5. This is one part I don't know how to do. The entire 2Time Mgt system is based on the idea that each person's needs are different, and that they must continuously be customizing their time management system. Perhaps that is all that is needed - a way to be recognized for having a unique system and a way to change it on an ongoing basis in a structured way.
   
   Maybe this customization can continue in their relationship with a coach and a community who understands their idiosyncrasies, and can look at a chart of their progress to date and help them to move from one level to another.
   
   One way that they can help to customize the course itself is by contributing to the design, by adding in their own experience, perhaps through a wiki, and certainly through the 2Time blog. Perhaps in exchange for a certain quality of input and involvement in improving the system, a user can gain points that helps them to advance to the highest level.

For those who might be interested in deep game mechanics, here is an excerpt from the lostgarden blog.

Game mechanics are rule based systems / simulations that facilitate and encourage a user to explore and learn the properties of their possibility space through the use of feedback mechanisms.

It is a simple definition, but it offers a good amount of insight into why games work and how we can make them better.


Feedback loops
Central to the model is the concept of feedback loops that encourage learning. Here is a diagram that should explain the concept in a more visual format:

(click to expand the diagram)

• Player performs an action.
  
• The action causes an effect within the simulated game world. The simulation contains public and private tokens and the causal rules that affect the states of the tokens. The player rarely knows all the rules and is highly unlikely to be able to instantly describe the complete possibility space described by the rules. The unknown portion of the simulation is a “black box” that the player must attempt to decipher.
  
• The player receives feedback.
  
• With new tools and information in hand, the player performs another action. Using what we’ve learned, we pursue additional pleasure.

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Time Management: The Martial Art for Working Professionals

In one of the prior blogs on Time Management, I made the point that within every time management system there lies a structure that is always present.

I compare it the bone structure that makes up the human hand.


Although hands might be different, a fully functional hand must have all the component parts. They each serve a distinct purpose. While it is possible to function without all the parts, there are a few essential bones that must be either present, or replaced, in order for the appendage to work.

In the same way, a time management system must have certain basic components, without which it does not function. These basics are Capturing, Emptying, Tossing, Storing, Scheduling, Acting now, Listing, Reviewing, Switching, Warning and Interrupting.

While no two hands are the same, functioning hands share certain basics. The same applies to time management systems.

In fact, an effective time management system in 2007 must be able to do things that a time management system in 1970 just was not designed to do. Here is why:

• between 1950 and 2000 human knowledge doubled
• scientific information doubles every 5 years
• A single Sunday New York Times has the same amount of information that a person in 1750 was exposed to in their entire lifetimes
• internet traffic doubles every 100 days
  

The sheer volume of information has increased rapidly, and is increasing more rapidly. A time management system created today will probably be a hindrance five years from now for those professionals that do not understand the basic components and how they need to work together.

The great thing about understanding the basics is that it reduces the temptation we might have to go out and buy the newest system that is advertised. Instead, we can make an intelligent choice about whether or not to include the new gizmo in our system -- does it enhance the basics, or not? Does it fit my habits or not? Will it work with my basic components?

This is not to encourage professionals from upgrading--in fact, new technology is a must if we are to continuously upgrade our time management systems. There is a simple fact behind this need for constant upgrading.

The better a professional is, the better able he is to manage his time. The better able he is to manage his time, the more that others with whom he works are willing to give him to do.

There is an old saying: "If you really want something to be done, give it to someone who is busy."

Clearly, there are a range of practices that a professional can use, some of which are more effective than others. For example, when given a task to perform in a meeting you may have noticed the following practices for Capturing:

Practice 1 -- I'll remember it without writing it down

Practice 2 -- I'll write it on a Post It note

Practice 3 -- I'll record it in a reliable place (e.g. a notebook) for later processing

These are all approaches that might work, in faithfully translating the given task into action. However, Practice 3 is clearly superior to Practice 1. Professionals who use more of Practice 1 than Practice 3 are likely to be less reliable.

It's not too different from the way in which a Black belt is different from a White belt in the Tae Kwon Do. To the unpracticed eye, they might all look like they are doing the same moves, but to those experienced in the martial arts, there is a world of difference.

Professionals that are expert in time management know the different practices that are available in each of the basic components or disciplines.

In the system that we are developing, professionals will also have a chance to use a system of belts to understand where they are in the development of their own time management system.

One major difference from Tae Kwon Do is that every professional has some system that they are using to manage their time, so the starting point need not be at the bottom of the ladder, as if they know nothing.

Instead, once they understand the basic components, they will be able to decide what level they currently are at in each of the components. Our experience tells us that very few are complete Black Belts, and almost no-one is a complete White Belt. Instead, professionals tend to be a complex mix of capabilities in each component.

Therefore, the plan for each person will be different as they integrate, and learn new practices. we plan to encourage people to plot their own path, and to phase the introduction of new techniques over time, essentially giving themselves an opportunity to adapt and change to incorporate new habits that, for most people, change slowly.

The biggest mistake that we have seen professionals make in learning new time management habits is to try to learn too many new habits too quickly. The result is frustration, stress and ultimately failure as they build too steep a learning curve for themselves, innocently underestimating what it takes to change entrenched habits.

Instead, our new system will encourage them to move themselves from one level to another slowly and comfortably, adjusting their knowledge and habits as they go along. From the little that I know of Tae Kwon Do, it takes years of practice to progress all the way up the ranks.

Professionals in the workplace would do well to think of their time management practice as their own martial art.

P.S. The follow-on posts to this discussion on Time Management have been moved to an entirely new blog: The 2Time Management Blog at http://2time.wordpress.com/

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Emotional Intelligence

I made reference to a definition of EI that I have been using:

According to Wikipedia , Daniel Goldman (the author of the book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ, 1995) defines the following components of EI.

Goleman divides emotional intelligence into the following five emotional competencies:

1. The ability to identify and name one's emotional states and to understand the link between emotions, thought and action.
2. The capacity to manage one's emotional states — to control emotions or to shift undesirable emotional states to more adequate ones.
3. The ability to enter into emotional states (at will) associated with a drive to achieve and be successful.
4. The capacity to read, be sensitive to, and influence other people's emotions.
5. The ability to enter and sustain satisfactory interpersonal relationships.

In Goleman's view, these emotional competencies build on each other in a hierarchy. At the bottom of his hierarchy "1" is the ability to identify one's emotional state. Some knowledge of "competency 1" is needed to move to the next competency. Likewise, knowledge and/or skill in the first three competencies is needed to read and influence positively other people's emotions ("competency 4"). The first four competencies lead to increased ability to enter and sustain good relationships ("competency 5".)

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Measuring the Mood

Now and again I read an article that takes my breath away. Taking the Measure of Mood by Patrick O'Connell appeared in the March 2006 issue of the Harvard Business Review and it did just that.

The idea is simple and has powerful ramifications for our region.

But first, a little background. The author is a chef at The Inn at Little Washington in Virginia. Their goal is to provide customers with nothing less than a transformative experience.

They do so by training their staff to be keenly observant and sensitive to guests' words and behaviour--especially to body language. They also developed a system for tracking and communicating this information to everyone who needs it.

They are trained to quickly evaluate the mood of a party, by using the indicators that we all use--body language, eye contact, voice tone, etc. They start off by assigning the party an initial score on a scale of 1 to 10, and logging that score into their database.

They go to work on those parties that enter the establishment with low scores to increase this subjective assessment to at least a 9.

They use common facilitation skills -- asking questions, paraphrasing, clarifying, asserting, etc. Actually, they use ALL the means at their disposal to increase the score, including the choice of waiter, speed of service, taste of entrees, seating, music, etc.

They consider the job done when the customer volunteers their personal story, which for the staff is the proof that an emotional connection has occurred.

While I have tackled the issue of customer experience creation at different points in this this blog -- click here to see a page of past Chronicles entries on the topic -- this takes things to another level.

Something about this article brings me home to our region. In the past year, I have spent nights at hotels in a variety of countries, and there is truly something distinct about the service we render here in the Caribbean.

In other posts, I have referred to it as "Friend Service." This is the closest I can come to describing the feeling that happens when an emotional connection is made, and the switch is turned ON with a Caribbean customer service provider.

(When the switch is OFF, by contrast, the experience is positively painful.)

This article has led me to think that a service provider who is emotionally intelligent, is better able to read the mood of a person or group of people However, if I use the definition of Emotional Intelligence that I have been using lately, that explanation seems inadequate.

How to define the skill is the next problem I'll be tackling, but my instincts tell me that we have an advantage over service providers in other cultures, for whatever reason, in detecting the unspoken experience that other people are having. I am guessing that this advantage carries over into the customer service profession.

I have my theories regarding slavery, our education system or our parenting styles that are my best guesses, but I will be exploring the subject further in future posts, and in my work.

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Turnover Documents and Small Biz Owners

As a former President of my high school's student council (Wolmers) I remember reading the organization's constitution -- with all the awe that a 16 year-old can muster. Part of my job (as
defined in the document) was to amend it and make it current -- it was my first attempt to write a "turnover document."

When I was appointed to a different position -- Head-Boy -- the following year, I was acutely aware that there was no document whatsoever that described the job, and all I had was the imperfect memory of my predecessors to try to follow. When I was about to graduate I panicked -- and only made up for it by taking a very long walk with my successor around the school. In
an hour or so I did my best to pass on the experience of some 255+ Head-Boys that the school had had up until that point.

I suspect that my 18 year old mind did more to scare my 17 year old successor than anything else.

Yet, I am sure that my experience is close to what happens when executives turn accountabilities over to managers without doing the tedious work of systematizing their functions, and undergoing the painstaking coaching required to turn them over in phases. The result is a sharp loss of trust that is rarely replaced, because few executives realize that the source of the managers failure (and success) is actually in themselves, and not in the manager.

What does all this talk about turnover documents have to do with small business owners?

Simply put, even small business owners must work ON their companies, as well as IN them. In other words, they must work on the structure of their companies as much as those professionals who work in the largest multinationals.

Why so?

For example, I am having a challenge converting this issue of FirstCuts into html, and placing it on my blog. I do not know html very well, yet each month I have to determine why the html in Blogger (the blog host) works differently than every other place.

While I may or may not ever hire an IT specialist, I am suffering because I didn't capture the procedures I used back in February, and now that I need them in March I am having to reinvent the wheel.

Secondly, in my opinion, the difference between a small, casual company and a small, serious company is the degree of infrastructure the owner has created to run the company on a consistent basis, whether there are ten people or just one person on the payroll. Only hobbyists can afford to run their company casually, and without infrastructure -- and even hobbyists can make money.

However, at the end of their careers, hobbyists have little to show for their efforts other than a company that supported them at a casual level. Their company cannot be bought, sold or merged because its success is reliant on the personality of the owner, rather than the infrastructure they created to keep the entity viable.

These are the two reasons I can think of -- if you'd like to add your own, please do so in the comments below.

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When to Sleep On It

This is just a brilliant article -- one of those that deeply resonated with me from the moment I read it and it goes well with that brilliant management/productivity tool so abhorred by corporations -- "napping."

Apparently, recent research is showing that sleeping on a problem is better than trying to consciously solve it.

In other words, when faced with a complex issue, if time allows, the best method to use is to spend a night to sleep on it, and then make a decision the following day.

Why does this work?

Apparently, the processes that the conscious mind uses are quite limited, and likely to introduce irrelevant information that produces poor decision-making. The unconscious mind, however, is a much better instrument and if given the chance, will do a better job.

According to the author, Ap Dijksterhuis, "The moral? Use your unconscious mind to acquire all the information you need for making a decision -- but don't try to analyze the information. Instead, go on holiday while your unconscious mind digests it for a day or two. Whatever your intuitions then tell you is almost certainly going to be the best choice."

As someone who majored in Operations Research (and got 2 degrees in the subject) it seems to throw a huge spanner in the works of the profession... after all, we studied things like "decision theory" and "non-linear optimization" in order to bring more rational, WIDE -AWAKE thinking into the process.

I cannot remember a single thing from any of those hi-falutin' courses.

I think it's just much easier to sleep on it, and maybe while I'm sleeping my subconscious mind can run around and access the algorithms and heuristics I spent years mastering... that way, perhaps I can justify the thousands of dollars spent on an Ivy-League education, while still making good decisions.

I just might not make a good corporate employee, however, given the high importance I appear to give to sleeping (see my prior post on Nigger-itis.)

The relevant article from the Harvard Business Review List of Breakthrough Ideas for 2007 can be found here (as Idea #9).

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Ways to Use a Calendar

In a prior post, I talked about how the most powerful time management system is one that a user designs for themselves. When users know the principles behind a good system they are much better equipped to design a unique approach that works for them.

One area that is often misunderstood is the use of a calendar in an overall time management system.

I have observed that people use calendars in ways that are unproductive, because they are stuck in an old paradigm of The Appointment Calendar.

The Appointment Calendar probably originated with the kind of calendar used in a Doctor's office. It was a tool the receptionist used to ensure that different patients were not being scheduled at the same time. The doctor would glance at it from time to time, but he/she did not actually use it themselves. Instead, they would advise the receptionist when they would be in surgery, when they needed extra time with a patient and they were taking an afternoon off to play golf.

With the invention of different paper-based time management tools, and an increasing onslaught of time demands, professionals gradually began to use calendars themselves. First, there were filofaxes and DayRunners, then along came Microsoft Outlook and Lotus Notes, followed by PDA's and even phones that can carry schedules.

Many professionals, however, and most those here in the Caribbean still use their calendar as an appointment book -- a tool to schedule meetings.

This is the most basic of uses, and the advent of electronic tools (and the best paper tools) means that their calendars are probably being under-utilized.

How so?

The technology of calendaring is changing -- making it easier for us to imagine a time when the rule will be that most of the time in a day is scheduled, rather than than less.

Starting with the idea of a Paper Appointment-book this is rather hard to imagine. Many of them only allow weekday scheduling, with one line each from 9-5pm. Even a nice pencil with a good rubber (OK, eraser for Americans) would not do the job.

However, a good time management system takes advantage of the power that is resident in the new technologies, and even the paper-based professionals could learn a thing or two here.

If the calendar could feasibly hold other things, what could it include?

In a prior post that really should have come after this one (as it uses these ideas) I wrote about the power of using the calendar as a tool to schedule three different kinds of actions: recurring tasks, actions needed to move projects forward and also an adequate amount of "goof-off" time.

The underlying principle here is simple: the mind is a terrible thing to waste, and one way we waste it is to try to get it to remember too much. Over the past five years, courtesy of hard practice, I have tired to get to the point where my time management system does all the remembering for me.

Caveat -- I am an extreme case -- most designers of their own time management systems will not necessarily want to start at the place I have ended after years of refining.

They may, however, want to start by using an electronic time management system to schedule the following weekly, monthly and annual repetitive activities, for example:

• exercise
• pay bills
• buying Christmas presents and cards
• remembering birthdays a week ahead of time
• starting to plan for vacations
• paying taxes and completing returns

This is just a sample, and probably way more than someone who is just starting would schedule. I have discovered that an amazing amount of the actions I take are repetitive, and that I help myself if I use my calendar to remember them rather than my memory.

In this way, a calendar is much more than something used to plan appointments and meetings. Instead, it becomes a powerful memory assistant -- a place where commitments are translated into actual, planned hours and minutes.

The logic here is obvious -- by actually using real, planned time, the user is less likely to make unrealistic commitments, because each new activity that one says "Yes" to, must co-exist with every other commitment that is already in place.

This is a long, long way from just having a schedule of appointments.

However, today's tools are simply imperfect "memory assistants," given that they were designed to replace appointment-books. They are not easy to use, and many professionals in the region are just getting used to the idea of "doing email" themselves.

Given the tricky nature of the electronic tools, it is important that a user customize the way in which they use their calendars. There are several dimensions that they need to consider when deciding what combination of paper and electronic tools they include in the design of their time management system, and what kind of calendar choices they have.

• what tools are available to them? Which ones are they comfortable using right now?
• does their job involve travel? Being away from their desk?
• are they knowledge workers?
• do they need to be on call at all times (e.g. most receptionist positions)
• does their daily schedule change a great deal from moment to moment?

With respect to how they actually use their calendar, there are different approaches that a user can elect to follow. Of course, they all follow the basic rule of not scheduling mutually-exclusive tasks at the same time.

• an Activity-Based Calendar allows completely free movement of individual activities
• a Responsibility-Based Calendar only allows activities to be scheduled that match with the hats that one wears e.g. 6-8am Father, 8-830am Individual, 830-11130am Project Leader, 113o-1230 Individual, 1230-430 Counselor to staff, 4:30-10pm Father. Each slot would be designed to accomplish only a limited range of activities.
• a Location-Based Calendar would recognize that between different times, the physical location would determine what would, or would not, be scheduled e.g. for someone who drives an ambulance: 6-9am Home 9-12 In the Ambulance 12-1 At Lunch 1-4 At Office Desk 4-8 At Home
• a Project-Based Calendar would split the work day into different projects, allowing the user to focus on a single project at any given time
• an Energy-Based Calendar would guide a user in designing the day around something like a biorhythm, perhaps using research that shows that there are two spurts of energy the average person experiences -- early morning and early evening. More routine time demands would be scheduled during the other available time
• an Interruption-Based Calendar would scheduled the most important work at the times when interruptions are less likely. Many professionals get their best work done very early in the morning, late at night and on weekends, when most people are away from their work and unlikely to interrupt them
• an Appointment-Only calendar limits the calendar to meetings that are scheduled with other people that are difficult to change once they are agreed upon.

There is no right or wrong way to use a calendar, but the user must be educated as to the rules they must follow to make the system work. There is a delicate balance that is being created that they must monitor over time as their habits change, their responsibilities expand, and the amount of time demands increase.

The general rule is that, over time, the user should be using less and less of their memory to manage their time demands. As far as I can see, that means using more technology, not less.

This may seem daunting to some.

However, it is a fact of life -- professionals that can use more computer and internet based tools are more effective than those who are not willing or able to learn.

At the moment, my observation is that time management is so poorly taught, and so rarely formalized that few professionals stand out in terms of their productivity, and if they do stand out their success is not ascribed to a system they are using. More often than not, they and others, use life and daily circumstances to explain the difference.

I believe that this will change: much in the way that athletic success has changed. Today, professional athletes use the best tools, inputs and assists that are available and leave little to chance. Not too many years ago, athletes are whatever they wanted whenever they were hungry. Today, nutrition is seen as a critical factor in performance.

The rise of the Australian Test team and the demise of the West Indian cricket team is perhaps a good example of systematic success.

In the future , the most productive professionals will be the ones who learned very early on how to take their time management system seriously, with a commitment to continuously improving it. After all, it is one of the few tools that EVERY professional shares, bar none.

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Time Management and Using Lists

In a prior blog, I made the point that one of the inescapable elements of time management was a step that comes after Emptying, called Listing.

Listing: placing a time demand on a list for later use.

There are many ways in which lists can be used to temporarily store information related to time demands. All of the ones that I can think of are valid, yet all cannot be used by a user that wants to retain some semblance of sanity.

To quickly review, a time demand is born when it is "captured" in memory, on paper, in an inbox or some or other location. It is "emptied" at some moment in time when it is either stored, discarded, put into a calendar, acted on immediately or put into a list.

The purpose of Listing is to place the time demand in some location from which it can be reliably retrieved at a time that satisfies the user.

There are many ways to organize lists, and there are only a few that are required because they serve a particular and unique functions:

• Next Activity List: a list of all items that are ready to be executed immediately, and are on the list waiting for an appropriate time-slot
• Someday List: a list of all items for which there is an interest in executing someday, but not immediately
• Waiting For List: a list of all items that are awaiting some critical input before being executed
• Thinking About List: a list of all items that are being worked on in the background from time to time

The user must develop a strategy for reviewing these items -- some more frequently than others. Each person's approach to these lists will be different, but their importance lies in the fact that they each play a different but important role in managing time demands.

Other kinds of lists that are variations of the Next Activity List can also be arranged according to different criteria:

• a Meeting List -- items to be discussed in various meetings
• a Conversation List -- items to be brought up in the next conversation with an individual
• a Location List -- items to be looked at when in the Office, At Home, At Church etc.
• a Daily List -- items to be scheduled on particular dates in the future
• a Browse List -- items to be browsed on the internet
• a Shopping List -- items to be purchased
• a Call List -- people to call
• a Vacation List -- stuff to do on vacation
• a Project List -- a list of activities to be done on a project

The list of Lists is an endless one.

The danger of lists is that they can easily grow to be unmanageable, and when they get to that point, they are impossible to work with. At this point, the user can start feeling guilty, overwhelmed or tired from the contents on the list.

Each list is best managed with a limit -- a number of items beyond which it should not grow. The only exception to this rule is the Someday List, which some users are comfortable growing as large as their imagination will permit.

These lists must be used on conjunction with the Calendar in a careful balance. When the lists get so large that they are not being used, there is a problem, and where they are not being used at all, that creates a different problem also.

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The Inescapable Elements of Time Management

In our development of a new, Caribbean-based approach to Time Management, I have stumbled across what I think is an irreducible framework lying behind all efforts to improve productivity. It may well provide the basis for a flexible kind of system that anyone can create for themselves.

In the same way that ALL bicycles are designed in a particular way in keeping with certain physical laws,
all time management systems must account for certain basic facts of how time is used and experienced by humans. For example, not being able to be in 2 different places at the same time is a simple law that many of us try to break, but are not able to, despite our crazy efforts. Also, it is impossible to leave Diego Martin to get to Arima, or from Barbican to get to Spanish Town for a 3:00pm appointment by leaving at 3:00pm.

While the system may be customized and enhanced and tailored and even automated, it still must make a certain kind of basic sense to each and every user, regardless of profession.

(For the purposes of this discussion, all the stuff that flies at us each day in the form of requests, appointments, email, voicemail, new ideas that pop into our heads, bills, etc. are called "time demands.")

A functional Time Management system needs to be reliable in:

1. Capturing: temporarily storing information related to new time demands in a reliable place or places. Possible candidates for "reliable" places include our memory, email inbox or Post-It notes. For example, our daughter tells us to call her cell at 890-6543 at 3pm on March 16 (2 weeks from today) to give her directions. We could use any of the three places listed above to temporarily store the critical information.
   
   
2. Emptying: moving information on new time demands from the place of capture, to another place where it can more reliably help us to act at the right time. The act of emptying is a decision point -- when do we empty the "reliable place of capture" and what do we do with the information?
   
   To continue the example above, do we trust ourselves to remember to call at the right time, and just memorize the information and create a mental reminder? Or do we sit down at our computers and convert the email into a reminder with an alarm on the morning of the call? Or do we take the Post-It Note with the information and stick in on the fridge or on the screen of our computer? These are just a few of the choices that we have.
   
   The following steps all come after the decisions based on Emptying.
   
   2a) Tossing: throwing away information we don't need. In our example, it could mean taking the Post-It note off the fridge after the appointment, and tossing it in the garbage.
   
   2b) Storing: putting away useful data for later use, in a safe place that we can later find. Some bad examples include putting a Post-It note in a drawer with 100 other bits of random paper, leaving an email in an inbox of 4000 other un-read emails or just hoping that we can remember the numbers she told us. A much better example would be to place her cell number under her name in Outlook Contacts. A good storage place allows us to find the right information at the right time.
   
   2c) Scheduling: allotting time in our calendar to make the call. This is a way to help ourselves to plan our time properly. This personal appointment could help us to to plan the afternoon of that day. For example, our boss might come to us after lunch on the 14th to set up a 2:45pm meeting. To prevent a problem, we would check our calendar before committing to a meeting longer than 15 minutes. Having a calendar is one way to deal with it -- another is to hope that we remember.
   
   2d) Acting Now: taking immediate action. We might decide to take an immediate action so that we can forget about the issue altogether. In the example above one option would be to spend 5 minutes sending her an email with the directions. Another option would be to call her brother and ask him to go with her instead. another would be to call her voicemail on her cell, and leave her detailed directions that she can use on the 16th. In any of these cases, we could forget about this particular time demand.
   
   2e) Listing: placing a time demand on a list for later use. We could add the information to a list of items. we might add it to a list of things to do that day, a list with her name on it or a list of phone calls to make that week. Of course, we could just try to remember it, and hope that our memory kicks in at the right moment in time, with the right information.
   
   Not only would a functional time Management System need to do all these things, it would also need to be able to monitor itself to ensure that it doesn't break. The way to do that is ensure that it can do the following functions, and also be reliable in:
   
   
3. Reviewing: setting up appointments to look over the system to make sure that it is working well. An example would be to look over the week's appointments to ensure that there is sufficient time to travel from one to another.
   
   
4. Switching: moving from one appointment to another, ensuring that the prior activity is complete, and wisely choosing the next activity subject to factors such as interest level, available energy, time of day, etc. One practice that some users have is to schedule meetings at least 15 minutes apart to allow themselves to mentally and physically regroup.
   
   
5. Warning: sending a signal to the user that a piece of the system is near the breaking point. At any time, the system could break from a variety of causes -- sometimes just due to user oversight. For example, the system could be set up to warn the user when the list of items to be done on a particular day exceeds 50. if the warning came early enough, the user could decide to re-schedule the items on the list for that day.
   
   
6. Interrupting: creating an audible or physical interruption that cannot be ignored, advising the user that they must stop what they are doing or else they might create a problem with their appointments. The simplest alarm that many people use is one to interrupt their sleep in the morning. Other examples include alarms built into the Outlook Calendar, an egg-timer with a loud ring or even a scheduled cell-phone reminder.

These elements are the basic capabilities of any Time Management system. Any system that does not account for one or more of these distinct elements, fails to meet one of the requirements of the busy professional.

Most people's systems (developed during their late teens and early twenties)are well beyond the breaking point, as the number of items that they need to capture and put into their system has overwhelmed their habits. To put it simply, their "systems" were not designed to deal with the level of complexity their lives have attained. The result is an increase in stress.

A good system must be flexible enough to deal with not only increases in volume, but also changes in technology. As new tools are created and introduced, they can help professionals to be more efficient if applied wisely. For many people, however, their email inboxes have just become another burden.

Once the basic requirements have been understood, a user can design a system using as much technology as they want to meet their needs.

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Nigger-itis

In Jamaica, we have a name for the post-meal laziness that supposedly afflicts Black people: "niggeritis." The truth is, it has nothing to do with race because as far as I can tell, it afflicts everyone.

It looks like researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health agree, and they think that we should pay attention to it because we ignore the mid-day urge to take a nap at our own peril.

The report starts with the following:

Like to kick back for an afternoon siesta? Good news: a new study shows that regular napping may cut your risk of dying from a heart attack or other heart problems.

In the largest study to date on the effects of midday snoozing, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the University of Athens Medical School in Greece, tracked 23,681 apparently healthy men and women, ages 20 to 86, for more than six years.

I like the part that says Of course, that's easier said than done, especially in the United States, where employers are not exactly known to encourage workers to nap.

Now that's what I call a good reason to move back to work in the Caribbean.

If I ever work for someone else again, I plan to tell them right up front that I have a congenital heart condition that requires occasional naps to prevent it from one day killing me.

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