Reflections from my Hiatus

It has been a long time since my fingers last visited this blog.  Ironic, really, because just before I went on a hiatus I blogged about how you have to be disciplined and "make" time.

Well, I have been making time for a lot of things.  Probably too many things.  But not blogging.

My writing energy has been devoted to a couple of other projects.  This summer, I'll be using a new textbook that a colleague and I wrote and edited, for our MBA strategy/capstone classes.  I developed a paper with another colleague about measurement systems for social ventures; it won a "distinguished" research award and is forthcoming in the Academy of Entrepreneurship Journal.  My favorite, though, is an article I wrote to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Fredrick W.Taylor's Scientific Management. The call for papers from the Journal of Management asked whether his work was still relevant in today's businesses.  You betcha!

A key insight of Taylor's was that overloading workers made them less productive.  Well, that's certainly still true today, although the overload tends to be mental rather than physical.  My paper specifically addressed the issue of information overload, why it is so detrimental, and how scientific management and lean manufacturing principles could alleviate the problem.

All this is to say that I have realized I need to take a dose of my own medicine.  I am overloaded.  And very, very tired.   So the stories I will be writing this summer will be reflections about applying scientific management and lean principles to my personal and professional lives.  Comments and suggestions are welcomed!

Help! I'm Becoming One of "Them"

With an engineering background and information technology industry experience, I have long considered myself to be self-sufficient in personal technologies. Until now.

About two years ago, I became an Apple customer -- after being an "IBM user" since 1984, when the first PC was announced by IBM. I did this to challenge myself (and because my teenage son was an Apple devotee).

Now, I have an iMac at work, an iPod at the gym, and an iPhone in my bag. None of them really came with a user manual. And I just do not find any of it intuitive. Where is the on/off switch for the iPod? How am I supposed to know that Time Machine is a backup tool? And the interface in iTunes makes no sense to me (and I have been syncing for years with a PDA).

Last night, my son and I were helping my mother with her iIssues. She wanted to move her audio book from her iPod to her iPhone. First we had to install iTunes on her new computer. Nope, that was the wrong version -- she needs the 64-bit version (who knew?). Done.

Next we File-Transfer Purchases so that her e-book is on the computer. Done. We synced her iPod. Done.

At this point, the Jets-Patriots game was getting down to the short strokes, so my son was checked out. I eject the iPod, connect the iPhone and click on its audio book tab and tell it to sync. Abort! Abort! Abort! Doing this operation will erase everything on the iPhone. Why? Because I didn't transfer purchases with the iPhone plugged in, so her apps didn't download. Argh.

Anyway, I had created about 80% of a blog with my BlogWriter app last week. It's no longer there. Where did it go? It is not in my blog. It's not in my drafts on the cloud. It's not on my phone. Double argh.

I must be getting old. Or overloaded. The rate of change in technology is faster than my rate of change in learning technology (we were talking about differential Calculus this morning, sorry). I just don't get it.

The Best Laid Plans

There are some who would say, "Why plan? Things change as soon as you step onto the proverbial battlefield." In the months since I last blogged, I have been a bit "shell shocked," to continue the military metaphor, with unexpected and conflicting demands on my time coming at me from several fronts.

So, while I agree that it is generally true that things do not work out as they are planned, I still believe that planning is valuable, for several reasons:

1. Plans help me to visualize what is to be done. According to Stephen Covey, one of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is to "begin with the end in mind." Planning forces you to define what the end is to be.
2. Plans help me to adjust to changing circumstances. Rather than simply react, I can be proactive in how I respond when things change. Do I adjust the plan? Do I put the plan on hold? Do I persist?
3. Plans help me to stay focused on my priorities. If I haven't planned, then I am likely to overlook someting that I should do. Like everyone else, I have a lot of demands on my time. I want to be intentional, and address the most important things first.
4. Plans help me to be more realistic. My eyes are bigger than my stomach, and my heart is bigger than my brain! There are so many interesting projects and possibilities and worthy pursuits -- and so little time. Planning forces me to take something off, when I take something on.
5. Plans make me a better colleague and friend. If someone asks me for help, I want to give a reliable response as to if and when I am willing and able to do what is asked.

William Ward, the inspirational writer and speaker, identified "four steps to achievement: Plan purposefully. Prepare prayerfully. Proceed positively. Pursue persistently." Proverbs 16:9 tells us, "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." I hold these thoughts close.

A New School Year

One of the things I love about my job is that I gain closure when a school year ends, and enjoy anticipation of the new year in the fall.

Tom Peters has said that knowledge workers should "projectize everything." Turn all of your work into projects, i.e., temporary endeavors to create a unique product or service (www.pmi.org). Temporary means only that the work has a start and an end; it does not necessarily mean short-term. A unique product or service is the desired result.

Besides enjoying the anticipation and closure that a school year provides, I find that projectizing myself is very helpful. It keeps me interested in what I am doing, and focused on the desired results. For example, I treat each course I teach as a project, even if I've taught the course before. I find that my classes vary greatly, depending on the engagement of the students, the current events we have for discussion, time of day, etc., so each one is unique.

Another way that projectizing is helpful is to provide a warning system for OVERLOAD. I have developed a sense of how many projects I can juggle at one time: my optimum is two classes, one writing project, two volunteer projects, one home improvement project, and one self improvement project. More than that, then my relationships and home responsibilities suffer.

Since I am teaching three different courses this fall, I know I need to cut back on volunteering (but will probably just let the home project idle!). In the same way, projectizing helped me realize that having five self-improvement projects, four home improvement projects, one class, two volunteer projects and four writing projects for the summer was probably unrealistic.

Finally, I like to projectize because it helps me to avoid becoming overwhelmed. Taking each project and breaking it into work packages or tasks (i.e., creating a work breakdown structure), helps me to better gauge how long the project will take. Then I can make realistic commitments to my students, colleagues, and family. (The dogs don't get it, though -- they are all about, "What have you done for me lately?")