Month: October 2010

A loved one went on vacation
with me last week.
There was free wi-fi available
with some effort
everywhere we went.

Instead of using this free wi-fi,
he told his manager
that if they wanted him
to check into work daily,
he needed the costly cruise ship package.

This wasn’t about convenience.
This was about creating friction,
about putting a value on his time.

Yesterday, I was called about a business gig.
I’m still focused on writing.
I am available at any time.
Did I tell the prospective client that?
Nope.
Because if I did,
they would assume that my time is free
and waste it with endless questions and meetings.

The inputs to what you’re doing
may be free
but your time isn’t.
It is scarce and valuable.
Adding friction can often weed out
the frivolous requests.

Jena McGregor reports that
“Researchers from Berkeley and Princeton found
that workers who know what their peers make,
especially if they earn below-median pay,
are more likely to be disgruntled
than their blissfully ignorant peers.”

My stance is that
your pay reflects your value
to the company.
That isn’t the same
as reflecting what you do.

I once worked for a company
that valued education highly.
The MBA/Designated Accountant doing my equivalent job
was paid more than BA/Designated Accountant me.
I didn’t like that
so I moved to a company with different values.

That is why paying attention
during the interview is so damn important.
If the first thing out of the interviewer’s mouth
is ‘I see you’re an MBA’
then the company puts a high value on education.
If instead the comment is
‘I see you’ve led teams on some interesting projects’
then the company could be about
leadership or accomplishment.

Align your strengths
with the company’s values
and, with negotiation,
you will do okay in the pay department.

Great Leadership has a hilarious post
on how to survive department meetings.

I especially liked
“There really are stupid questions.
The first thing you will hear
from the person in front of the room is
“We want this to be interactive
– there are no stupid questions,
so ask away”.

Don’t take the bait.
A stupid question will make you look stupid,
no matter what they tell you.
A single good question,
on the other hand,
can make a good first impression.

However, don’t overdo it.
Limit it to one
– anything more comes across as grandstanding,
or being socially clueless.”

I’ve heard some incredibly stupid questions
over my decades of attending meetings.
If you aren’t sure if your question is stupid or not,
ask a trusted coworker or manager
BEFORE you ask it in front of the room.

I am not a rule follower.
Show me a rule
and I’ve bent it.
I don’t outright break rules.
I bend them.
I have to or work doesn’t get done.

Bill Jensen and Josh Klein
talk about this bending or ‘hacking’
in their book Hacking Work.

“It’s one of the biggest workplace secrets
that most top performers
are already breaking their company’s stupid rules.
Current research shows
that about one-third of today’s workforce
use technologies not sanctioned
by their companies.
Why?
Because corporate-sanctioned tools
hold everyone back.
Those rule-breakers are
just trying to do their best.
They need the best tools available.
And if corporate won’t supply them,
they’ll hack a workaround.

Same thing with university students,
which is tomorrow’s workforce.
Studies show that almost one-third of them
have hacked around their institution’s IT structures.
When you add in non-technical hacks
—how people use their relationships
to work around processes and procedures
—between two-thirds to three-quarters
of our workforce are currently hacking their work!

So, if you’re not hacking,
you’ll be more alone.
It’s a good bet some of your best-performing buddies
are already hacking.
They just didn’t tell you about it.
We are.”

The writing world
is run almost exclusively
with virtual teams.
I’ve never met my editor
or publisher or cover designer.

With virtual teams,
more than with any other
type of team,
responsibilities have to be clear
and timelines have to be kept.

Each team member is doing
her own thing.
There is often little communication
between the team members.
All communication is flowed
through the coordinator.
So any overlap in roles
causes… well.. chaos,
duplication, angst.
The coordinator has to be clear
about who is doing what.

Timelines are also more important
because, again,
there is little communication
between team members.
Jackie doesn’t know that
the part she needs from Jill
has been delayed.
Also because Jackie has limited contact
with Jill,
any failure like missing a timeline
is magnified.
Jill is seen as unreliable and untrustworthy.

Erin Meyer points out more differences
between virtual and non-virtual teams.