Tom's blog

PowerPoint revisited...

I found this site dedicated to the use of PowerPoint from a semi-military (hence the service patch idea) view point, Jim Placke's PowerPoint Humor. Well worth a visit if you are forced to present / endure countless PowerPoint presentations.

It would be interesting if in industry, we took the dissemination of information as seriously as they do in the services where lives depend on the timely movement of current, accurate information. If those of us in industry to a similar approach to the spread of information, I imagine that the ratio of business success to failure would increase simply because people were focused at a current situational picture. Unfortunately, if these comments are true (and most humor reflects a current mindset), it seems that the military machine is coming closer to the model of the corporate world.

Some of the comments from Jim's page are pretty telling

"Using PowerPoint is like having a loaded AK-47 on the table: You can do very bad things with it." - Peter Norvig

"I must say I started to see more bad plans with good slides approved over good plans with no slides." - Robert Walsh

"You can't speak with the U.S. military without knowing PowerPoint." - Margaret Hayes, National Defense University

These are links to Really Bad PowerPoint - Seth Godin, a really useful post and e-book with some interesting ideas on the use of presentations.

And finally, here are Microsoft's recommendations on the use of PowerPoint.

Technorati Tags: business, consulting, Funny, getting things done, gtd, military, powerpoint, presentation, seth godin

Are you in the wrong job?

I happened to be browsing around the web this morning and came across this animation set to "Creep" by Radiohead. The creator of this piece writes that he was incredibly unhappy in his workplace and personal life when he made this. I watched it, I can see that.

A wise old man once told me (he was a professional recruiter by trade) that 80% of the professional workforce is in the wrong position today. I wonder if that really is the case, if it is, it really does say an awful lot about our own abilities to change our surroundings for the better. I have always been of the mind that our surrounds are an extension of our own attitudes and mindset. Have you ever heard someone say "he has an infectious sense of humor", "her confidence was reassuring"? If those are the sorts of comments that flow in your surroundings, I'll wager that you're happier there.

I recently read a book, The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell in which he describes the process of viral change. He cited the example of the New York subway system that was cleaned up in the 90's. This was completed by the authorities taking a much tougher line with toll jumpers, vandals and graffiti artists(?). The result of this cleanup effort was that the general public took much more interest in keeping the environment cleaner and reportedly felt safer using the subway.

I guess the real question is, for the 80% who are in the wrong jobs, if you were to bring the "positive / confident / witty / gtd" attitude with you to the environment, would you still be in the wrong job? In a large number of cases, I doubt it.

Technorati Tags: 43folders.com, business, collaboration, environment, getting things done, gtd, job, life, Lifestyle, offices, Politics

I hate e-messaging

I do, I really do hate e-mail. It's intrusive, attention demanding, never ending and very, very difficult to pick out what is really important from the fire hose that is my email account.

During a typical day I will receive (to 3 or 4 different mail accounts) somewhere in the region of 150 emails. These are all mostly not actionable items for me and as such only a small proportion warrant a reply. The real issue with this situation is that a huge part of my available time ends up being consumed with trying to weed out the important items from the other stuff. Inevitably, something important often slips through the net and ends up down the list, off the visible page. And as the adage goes, "Out of sight, out of mind".

Now add to this the newer messaging medium, Instant Messaging. Where people who often have something a little more urgent than would normally require an email or too small to warrant an e-mail, will ping me directly to try and spark of an interactive, albeit abbreviated dialog. Because of the nature of instant messaging, it happens at any time, wether your in meetings, on the phone, at home or in the store, this form of messaging is even more invasive than e-mail. At an ever increasing rate, people are sending me an IM to ask if its OK to call on the telephone or asking if it's OK to have a quick conversation.

I am going to try a couple of new ideas around the message handling like this

• IM hours. I wrote about this a few posts back after a post from Brian Oberkirch; . I think I am going to schedule some IM hours...probably something like 11-3. If anyone has anything important enough to need an instant answer outside of those times, they can come and find me.

• Classify email on the fly. I will create some new folders "Now", "Today" and "Later" and attempt to classify mail into these categories as it arrives. When one folder is clear, I'll move onto the next. If anyone sends me an FYI note, I will probably just delete it on the spot and consider myself FYI'd. I wonder if I will ever get the the "Later" stuff?

I will let you know how this works [or doesn't].

Update 5/28/07: So far this seems to be working for me. The only change I think I am going to make is to merge the today and later folders. If the email ends up in there, it's not a "Now" item. For "Now" items the qualifier is the true GTD qualifier, will it take less than 2 minutes? If it does it gets done. If not, it goes into the "Later" bucket.

Technorati Tags: business, collaboration, email, instant messaging, multi tasking, tag

What is "History"?

I was reading the newspaper this morning on a early morning flight and there was an article talking about George Tenet's new book covering his tenure as the director of the CIA. The reporter Douglas J. Feith was somewhat skeptical of the story contained in the book, particularly with the events that appear to have been omitted, misstated, or incorrectly documented in the chronology.

This caused me to think about the overall question of what is history? This book is simply Mr. Tenet telling his side of the story, apparently cherry-picking events and facts to support it. In doing so, trying to adjust the populous recollection of the events that lead a country into war, with the end result of future generations looking upon him on a more favorable light. At the very least, it's a tome dedicated to the statement "It was not my fault".

The dictionary says: History

1. the branch of knowledge dealing with past events.
2. a continuous, systematic narrative of past events as relating to a particular people, country, period, person, etc., usually written as a chronological account; chronicle: a history of France; a medical history of the patient.
3. the aggregate of past events.
4. the record of past events and times, esp. in connection with the human race.

But there is another aspect here. I read about this particular historical account in the newspaper and because of that got a fairly detailed (even if edited and biased) understanding, with reasoning, as to why Mr. Feith thought this particular historical entry, is not such a good one. Today, most people, won't get that understanding. At best they will get a very carefully worded, 30 second sound bite from a media conglomerate that may or may not capture the essence of the entry (or indeed be factual), but will undoubtedly cast an opinion.

I took a look at possibly the oldest statements of history around and the newest. The Bible. This book comes in a huge number of different versions, all subtly different variations on the same theme. This book in all of its variations is actually a very carefully edited selection from the writings of mass of authors, with only a very small, carefully chosen, carefully edited selection of the actual writings were considered "suitable" for inclusion. The other more modern example, Wikipedia. This modern collection of knowledge is amassed and edited so quickly (and should someone post an unpopular edit, be corrected with blistering speed), that it has very quickly become the de-facto statement of the populous knowledge for the latest generation.

It seems that our recorded history has always been a very carefully edited accounting of events, where in fact, the most popular, or the most marketed and controlled version will ultimately win the prize of longevity and thus becoming the accepted version of events.

Some supposed "historical facts" to illustrate:

Al Gore "invented" the internet.
Saddam Hussein was responsible for the 9/11 attacks.
George Bush "won" to 2000 elections.
Bill Clinton "did not" have sex with Monica Lewinsky
The [7 fired] US Attorneys were doing a sub-standard job

See what I mean?

TC.

Technorati Tags: al gore, business, collaboration, Conservation, ecology, global warming, life, Marketing, Politics

Who knew?

Apparently the most misspelled word on the internet is "D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y". Who Knew...

Technorati Tags: Funny

Don Imus and an interesting double standard

Don Imus was fired. NBC decided to gently exit stage left and put a little space between the organization and the now radioactive, long time broadcast personality as advertisers started dropping like flies.

Now, Don really did make some pretty ignorant comments that shouldn't really have a place in any conversation and in all honesty, he probably should have been released many years ago by NBC, but this whole situation does expose a pretty interesting double standard.

First, if Howard Stern had made those same comments, not only would it have not made the news, but it would have been almost expected by the majority of his listeners. Second, if you have ever been exposed to a rap video on cable, the artists [if you would describe them as such] are using this kind of language and intent to support the multi-billion dollar industry. Why should we be surprised when it is almost considered a normal colloquialism?

Yet, Don Imus got fired. Perhaps every broadcaster or provider of entertainment should be taking a similar viewpoint to that of NBC, and make a bold statement to show that stereotyping, racism, sexism etc is unacceptable in public media by not carrying it or promoting it. But that would also mean turning away piles of cash...so I doubt it will ever happen.

TC.

When the conversation stops (or didn't start...)

I really will never understand why people are surprised when bad things occur because the conversation stops, or in some cases didn't start.

This can be seen everywhere, in politics, the work place or even at home. Here is the perfect example, Nancy Pelosi and some other folks went to the Middle East and met with a number of people from other countries to discuss many of the huge issues that face the world today, most of whom have a very different viewpoint from that of the US.

On their return, that group of politicians came under a lot of fire for even starting the conversation and are now being criticized for reputedly screwing the conversation up...but here a thing...no one else is having any conversation with these folks about any of the issues. So which is the bigger screw up?

I believe it would be much better for everyone if more conversations were happening, particularly if within those conversations, everyone was listening and really trying to understand. Then there might be less wars, less tension, fewer frustrated employees or fewer broken marriages etc.

Just a thought.

TC.

Technorati Tags: business, collaboration, life, Politics

I just got back from a trip.

I
offer this to the Bush administration; If you want to get information
out of one of your terrorist suspects quickly, do this:

1. Put them in a mini van with a three year old and a six year old
2. Send them on an eight hour road trip.

If the suspect is a particularly hardened individual;

3. Send them on another 8 hour road trip with the same kids
3.1 Add a dose of explosive diarrhea (the three year old) and a cold (the six year old).

They will crack.

On a different note, check these out:

Jott:
You can call a number and dictate a message to someone or a group of
people, the message will be automagically transcribed and emailed to
them. Cool!

Micheal Kaufman Designs:
These guys make pre-fabricated eco-freindly homes. They look pretty
neat and apparently they are all made from renewable resources.

This Gal: Came up with an interesting way to present a web site and promote her book. Very raw, but pretty creative in concept

Earthday is coming up on April 22nd, visit this site and see how you can take part. There is an interesting section here called Project Switch. The aim is to promote incandescent light bulbs over the regular filament bulbs.

Happy Earthday!

TC.

Technorati Tags: Conservation, ecology, Lifestyle, Marketing, Politics, self-service