Self-Improvement

"It is not the critic that counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood...who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that know neither victory nor defeat." -- Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919), 26th U.S. President

I'm a bit of a complainer. I tend to think of my complaints as "helpful." I like to believe that I'm doing something just by bringing up the fact that something's wrong. It's the classic "tattletale" versus "whistleblower" issue.

Recently, I emailed the above quote to my VP and announced that my new tack was to be face-down in my work. I'm going to work on delivering the best solutions possible to the things I normally complain about from my level and from my station on the team. And if I have something that reaches above and beyond my roles and responsibilities, it won't be a complaint. It will be a fully-realized plan with the edges already shaded in.

This also comes to me because I've been reading lots of blogs' comment sections lately, and whenever someone gripes about a site or a person or whatever, it really drags LOTS of people into the, "Yeah, they REALLY suck!" conversation mode. Which is fine for what it is, but is it helpful? What's the next step? Where's the actionable participation?

I hope to make a difference via the contributions I provide. This is another foundation to my 2006 strategy:

Ask / Share / Grow / Do. 

Dan Hill over at Flying Aqua Badger (yeah... just let that sink in a bit) has a great post about his life review. What grabbed me the most was the useful (and nice-looking) spreadsheet he'd put together, complete with ratings. Check it out here.

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Technorati Tags: lifehack , goals , productivity

A swell feller by the name of Michael at PigPog has a neat article called Doing GTD without doing GTD. (GTD is "Getting Things Done," and it relates to a productivity method described by David Allen.) His take on this is: what if you're not really all that busy, but you still want to use the best of the productivity tools? I like the concept. He's got great ideas on his site, too.

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Ken Burgin's site pointed me towards a neat article on a Crash Course in Learning Theory. There's also a follow-up entry with a useful PDF file. Here's that entry.

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Joan Mas, over at GTDrawings, is doing some amazing work with using visual thinking combined with David Allen's Getting Things Done. It's a site that should appeal to both Matt and Dave.

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You want to hear something crazy? What if -- yes, this is a "what if" question -- what if you figured out what it was your company or team did, and focused ONLY on getting those things done? What if you chucked all the rules, all the pre-existing culture, all the format and formalized methods, and just "did stuff?" The basics. The stuff that needs doing. What would happen?

What does your organization do? What's the output? Does your team do software engineering? What's in place right now? Is it working amazingly well? Are you doing the best you've ever done? If you aren't, then there's a great license to try the idea.

Strip it all away!

Can you imagine throwing away EVERYTHING and getting back to the basics? Kill your processes. Kill your rituals, your routines. Delete all the software you use. Strip it right down to the bare metal. What would be left?

Think of those experimental cars, where the engineers just throw the frame, the wheels, the steering system, the engine, and the gas tank on the platform. Think about Google versus MSN Search. Think of a piece of paper instead of a scalable vector graphics program. Think face to face instead of emails. Go deeper.

What does your organization do, in three words? What is your part? In. Three. Words.

One trick for innovating is to start things over from scratch. Sometimes, in the process, we rediscover things that worked well way back when, and we abandoned them. Other times, we realize that we're relying on something as a crutch, and that we should have a back-up in place.

How Hard Can It Be?

There's a cliche in comic books when a new creative team comes on board. "We're going to take it all back to the beginning. We're going to look at Crusty Pants Man in a way he's never been considered before." Occasionally, a team delivers on this promise, and when they do, the same characters that have been running around with their underpants on the outside seem to come to life for yet another trip around New York to beat up other grown adults in tights. I love those moments, as it shows that a good creative team, especially one that doesn't rest on the laurels of other people, nor the pre-conceived constructs of the culture, can still bring about excitement and freshness to a product.

But your job is much more important than comic books, right? It's just short of life-or-death. Doctors throw away traditions and protocols all the time. They start over naked every time a researcher blows the medical field apart with a new treatment, a new process, a new way to make the world a better place. But maybe that's not rocket science.

NASA was in the business of throwing people into space and having them poke around the moon, or share powdered cocktails on the International Space Station. Can you imagine the meeting where a guy came in and said, I want to hurl a bunch of little robots all over Mars. Okay? But the guy was right, and he was a success. Robots that were built to live for (hopefully) 90 days just celebrated their two year anniversary of being fully operational.

How would you strip your business naked? How would you strip your own habits bare? What's not working, and why are you still doing it? I challenge you to strip away 3 habits today. Now. To the bone. Write them down. Try this format:

These three things aren't working for me:

________________________________________

________________________________________

________________________________________

So, I'm going to chuck them. I'm going to STOP doing them. Today.

Write down the list. Carry it with you. Stick to it. Make no excuses. Just give them the boot. (And for those of you playing at home, here are the three I'm going to kick starting today: no more soda, no bagels for breakfast, no chocolate monster). What are yours?

Jack Welch went into leading General Electric with a pretty clear message. He wanted each of the business units to be the Number One or Number Two business, or GE should get rid of it. This worked for a little while, but then he realized a snag: once a business unit hit their stride and made #1 or #2, they didn't really grow in leaps and bounds. The solution?

Jack had the business leaders go back and redefine the markets such that the business units were no longer #1 or #2. Usually, this meant broadening out the mission. Instead of being the #1 lightbulb maker, maybe GE Lighting would re-cast themselves as the #14 Office Environment company. The message, and I'll talk more about it, is this: broaden your view of yourself and the work you do.

In his great book, BUSINESS WRITING AND COMMUNICATION, Ken Davis titles Chapter 2, "Make Holes Not Drills." It relates to an old business story, where a consultant tells a tool company that they're not in the business of making tools; they're in the business of making holes. Does this click with you? It's a matter of perspective. It's a matter of better understanding what value you're bringing. It's not that you're great tool makers. You're great at helping your customers/users/clients make great holes. (The rest of the book is equally useful in helping one write more concise, useful material, and I highly recommend it).

Take Away

How do you see the purpose of what you or your team (or company) do? What is it your customers (internal or otherwise) are using you for? Is there a way to expand the value? Are there other complementary resources you could provide when you look at this differently?

A Personal Example

When I started this new role last year, I saw myself as a strong "operations" kind of guy, someone to get the logistics managed for this new line of business. As the year progressed, I realized that what I was doing MOSTLY was providing content. In this new world of voracious consumption of information, someone still has to churn out the content. It was a breakthrough. But further, I took this role out into my personal ventures. I've stepped up content production enormously. Take this site, for example. Take the work I'm doing on other sites. I'm expanding the view of my "business," such that I'm hoping to grow it into something bigger through the expansion.

2006 is the lab experiment for this specific idea. What's YOUR plan?

Lifehack.org is offering a checklist for simplifying your life. I agree with the concept. Reducing streams of information in factors heavy in having your head free to do what matters most to you.

Here's a great post for folks who are looking to break bad habits in 2006. A DMZ for bad habits.

Are you at home with the kids and thinking, "Man, this Chris Brogan NEVER has anything that pertains to my life!" ? Well, you're right. But here's who does: Parent Hacks! These guys have a great site, with lots of top-shelf ideas for making things easier for the diaper-and-minivan set. (Don't forget: a new kid is coming in 7 days).