March 31, 2004
Good key to defining "projects"
An executive I coached a couple of weeks ago reminded me of a great way to help understand what we mean by a "project". As we approached the end of our two-day session, and I was assisting him in creating the all-important "Projects" list (the key control piece for the weekly review and stess-free productivity) he, like many people, had a bit of trouble getting his mind around what I call a "project". For some reason our working definition as "any outcome you're committed to finish within the next twelve months that will take more than one action step to get there", didn't do it for him. However, as we began to go through his action folders and I was asking him, "So, what's that action about? Toward what end?" he began to grok it. Then, he said, "Oh, it's like what I usually have on my 3-month action plans...." and he gave me some specifics - hire senior person, get marketing plan in place, etc. Right. Good way to frame it. So if any of you've not kept your Projects list updated, or haven't even yet created one, maybe that will help... (and most people have between 30 and 100 such "projects"). More on the value of Projects and their definition in my article on the Web site....
Posted by David at 07:41 AM | Comments (4)
March 27, 2004
The Air Force promotes GTD!
This viral world is really cool. None of us have any idea how this showed up (other than that Jason's done work with the Air Force in another facility, and I've done work with Los Alamos labs in New Mexico)... but what seems "officially" from the Kirtland Air Force Base is a nice condensed version of what GTD is about... A big part of my vision from the beginning of my involvement with this material is how important it potentially could be for, simply, how the world thinks. So, thanks to Kirtland Air Force Base, for doing your part in that regard...!
Posted by David at 07:57 AM | Comments (3)
My nephew in the blog world
Just an FYI about why I have a link to Scott Allen's blog. Yes, "Allen" is relevant - he's my nephew. We only really connected a few years ago, and I found out that he's seriously into KM (knowledge management) and had a reason to connect with GTD, in addition to me being his uncle...! Scott's a cool guy, has an interesting similarity of DNA with our Allen blood line of querky creative folks.... He and his wife Jayne are also champion swing dancers in Texas. Which puts him up there high on my charts as a productive guy!
Posted by David at 01:09 AM | Comments (1)
March 26, 2004
Martial artist becomes martial artist
I was copied today on one of the many fun kind of emails from participants in our seminars that we get - "The seminar I participated in at Deutsche Bank was very informative and Ana Maria was excellent! 20 Minutes into the training it hit me like a ton of bricks. For I'm a 3rd degree black belt, training now for 14 years, but I forgot to apply my skills to the corporate world. I want to thank you and especially Ana Maria for the rebirth of the beginners' mind. Domo Arigato!"
Posted by David at 12:29 PM
March 25, 2004
Process as a strategic process
Seems to be in the air. E-mail today I got from Scott Moehering, a major GTDer at Nationwide Insurance: "I have become increasingly aware that while context and time available certainly come first, energy available plays a major role in Processing. I can't seem to Process when I'm tired. I seem to subconsciously know that I don't have the energy to do that tiny bit of thinking, so I resist it like the plague. I can now see how much cumulative energy it takes to Process, and why I have resisted it for years. Just knowing that helps me. Too tense or tired to process? Exercise or wait until the morning, but come back to it later. I am learning I will burn through it faster, and, more importantly, not build negative associations around 'Processing'."
Posted by David at 12:41 PM
(A very short) essay on the power of positive processing
Mosquitoes ruin safaris.
Posted by David at 01:21 AM | Comments (10)
March 24, 2004
Working a decision-support checklist
I just spent two days doing our workflow coaching process with the CEO of a company that owns and runs several for-profit colleges. Several hours of those two days were simply holding a focus for him to make decisions about stuff in his piles that had accumulated around him. I have seen the decision logjam often, especially with particularly sophisticated people in fast-growth situations, wearing a lot of hats and keeping many plates concomitantly spinning in the air.
As we were processing the fifteen foot-high piles we had spent a couple of hours collecting, this fellow kept coming across things he had looked at many times before, but because of the complexity of the issue and his lack of experience with it, he was hung up in his mind deciding what to do. He expressed his frustration with not knowing what to do about it and when I asked, "How could you find out?" he would say, "I have no idea." Basically at an impasse. As it became evident that this was fairly common occurrence in his stacks, he said "David, I need some help in terms of what to ask myself about these things so I can get past the log jam." (Obviously "What's the next action?" wasn't sufficient).
So we created a little checklist that he wrote and kept right on his desk as we were processing. Question No. 1: What IS this? He found that answering that out loud helped a bunch, and he would go into some detail. "This is a memo from a staff person about a certain situation that was not handled appropriately etc. etc." Then the next question that he wrote on the checklist was, (2) What is the purpose of this? In other words, why is this on my desk? He would then talk that out loud. "This is here because they sent it to me because of this, that, or the other." At that point it became a lot easier to address the third question, which is, of course, so (3) What's the next action about this?
I was surprised how many times he actually pulled out the checklist and used it to unstick something. (He added to the checklist as the first thing: Stop! Take some time. Take a breath!) Over several hours I watched him train himself in this thinking process.This guy is no dummy, being the owner and chairman of a very successful organization This guy is one of the brightest around, but it was often his inability to know how exactly and perfectly to deal with some issue with which he was not familiar that had him hung up. It was particularly acute in his case because he has to be handling areas of responsibility that he was unfamiliar with. His organization and enterprise has doubled in size in the last two years and there were several senior management positions on his executive team that he has not been able to fill with people yet, so he was chief marketing officer as well as controller as well as all the jobs and functions of being the Chairman and CEO, with lots of new growth opportunities in front of him. I got to experience again for myself how the simple thinking process of GTD has profound implications in the real world for some of the already most productive people around...
Posted by David at 05:01 AM | Comments (6)
March 23, 2004
I just killed one of my best friends
Well, I have several very interesting things to share about the last 72 hours of coaching with a CEO on the shore of Lake Tahoe, but I have to just insert a very personal update to keep the deck clear. Early this afternoon I had to put down Nika, our sublimely-connected-to-us German shepherd. As I returned from a flight to LAX from Reno, a very complicated and intense 24 hours with our dog (that Kathryn had to manage) turned into the necessity for me to drive to our animal hospital in Ventura (as soon as I drove in) and OK euthanasia for one of the best friends of my life (and probably many others).
So, forgive a pause in the conceptual/intellectual/results-oriented side of my existence, while I allow myself the luxury of falling apart emotionally... to dedicate my personal grief of this transition to the fabulous human qualities that Nika represented for me: freedom, elegance, power, sensitivity, loyalty, intelligence, and trust. May her Spirit expand and continue on its course, and may I garner the fruits of our experience together.... Kathryn and I have been wallowing tonight in the delicious pain of this loss and gain from such a life-reminding event... Please send your best wishes to her spirit, as it rests and moves on to the next chapter... Thanks.
Posted by David at 09:05 AM | Comments (17)
March 20, 2004
Interested in Japan...?
We had a fun dinner last night with an old friend, Steve Beimel, and his lovely wife Ritsuko. Steve runs the most amazing tours of Japan through Esprit Travel, and, as he mentioned, they're a "12-year overnight success". His tours are receiving top ratings from the Smithsonian, and have now come onto the radar of some of the major tour operators in the U.S. I can say from personal experience (Kathryn and I spent two weeks last October in zen temples, gardens, and visiting artists and potters with Steve) they are in a class by themselves. A most unlikely-looking tour guide for Japan (a funny, tall, New York Jewish guy), Steve's not only totally bilingual but lives and breathes Japanese history and culture. If you've ever had a hankering to do the Japanese thing... I highly recommend you take advantage of Steve and company before they get as popular as they're going to become. Lovely preamble to our dinner was an ikebana lesson I got from Ritsuko (see my "masterpiece" below!)
Posted by David at 07:29 AM | Comments (1)
March 18, 2004
My Paperback in China
Hey, got back tonight and in my in-basket was the new Chinese paperback edition of Getting Things Done.
Maybe it'll have something to do with the future of the world...
Posted by David at 08:57 AM | Comments (9)
Welcome to my salon...
Hmmm. As I just came up for air from a blitz in the last 24 hours, Eric let me know that 3500 people have hit this blog, hundreds have signed up RSS. Wicked cool.
So let me see if I can make a little more of at least a 40,000-ft comment about why I think I'm going to like this format, at least as best I can, late here in my office behind my house. As Eric has mentioned to some of you already, we did a version of blogging seven years ago when he and Greg Fisk (my webmaster) collaborated in setting up my site to begin with. I wanted an arena to share my schtick, connect with others of like (and unlike but complimentary) DNA, and, basically have my own salon, my own breakfast club. I think people are basically a pain in the ass except for three things: emergencies (keep to a minimum, please), option development and brainstorming, and warm human contact.
Of course, a great portion of my definition of a successful life is how much I get to do the latter two. things. Hanging out with engaged and engaging people, sharing about cool stuff, is my idea of a really good time! So with space and time compressed to almost virtual, I figure this is a great way to play.
I's another reason I started publishing my newsletter five years ago. With an initial send to 2000 people, this last one (that went out today) went to over 50,000. So there seems to be at least a modicum of interest in the world according to DA. But volume is not required - I just like sharing stuff that might add value to others and myself in the process.
I want to make it clear from the start, however, that I'm not making any commitments how frequently this may show up or how deep (or shallow) the content might be. I guess we'll see, and I'm already hearing my own self-awareness sharpen to the fact that the more I don't care that people are listening, the freer I'll be and the more fun I can have. I suppose everyone reading this has some experience already with whatever the organic viral process is that's spinning out through the blogging form, and I look forward to learning from all of you. Thanks already, and in advance.
David
Posted by David at 08:51 AM | Comments (13)
March 17, 2004
Ainīt technology grand?
Reality show time. I'm just checked into the Huntington Beach Hyatt. Plugged into hi-speed connect, saw urgent email from Eric that somehow our bloggitherings were actually OUT THERE... he's not at a phone, he's at some location North of L.A., we're on Lotus Sametime, we do emergency chatting, fix the biggest warts, dust ourselves off, and smile at the audience (since the curtain has opened anyway.) And I have a speech for 350 Wells Fargo people in the morning, as well as a one-hour teleconference with Hobbs-Herder advertising before that. Don't you just love it!
Posted by David at 09:11 AM | Comments (7)
Wow! Off and Running!
Well, what an exciting initiation into blogging! Eric Mack, (my technology cohort/partner) and I were playing around with some test stuff, and sure enough, our links somehow got out there into the blog-viral world! How cool.... Great tip from my friends Robert and Buzz - "be careful what you write - as soon as you do, it's OUT THERE!" I'll be doing a little more formal (ahem) introducing of myself and how I intend to play in this arena, but for now, just know I'm in the water...!
Thanks for your patience and interest...
David
Posted by David at 08:43 AM | Comments (8)
Kicking Back
Getting ready to head to Tahoe to work with the CEO of several universities, then on to London to work with the great folks at Deutsche Bank, then on to Dallas for a one-day event with a high-level financial services firm, and on to our sold-out public seminar in Chicago. Life in the usual fast lane...
Posted by David at 06:00 AM
March 16, 2004
Feeling Relaxed
Just had a fabulous massage with Alex at the Ojai Valley Inn, where Kathryn and I have a membership. Can't believe it's been many months since I've had one - I always swear it's my best preventive maintenance, healthwise. Even though I do my best at stress-free productivity, just the random karma of being on the planet creates noise in the system and at least subliminal stress that lodges in those kinks that Alex knows how to find! Yumm. Time to build those into my schedule a little more frequently.
Posted by David at 03:30 AM
