The Hat Rack

Like many, I enjoyed the dramatic look back to the 1960's, a time when cigarette smoking, drinking and sexism were the norm. Men dominated in the work force and for a woman, being pretty helped get you on the ladder. Some say times were simpler. Maybe.

One of the things I do like about the 1960's, or at least what I know about the era, is the issue of hats. A man wouldn't leave the house without his long-brim fedora. Don Draper would always wear his brown fedora with the black grosgrain ribbon low on his forehead, yet as he stepped into his office he would always doff his hat, careful to hang it up on the hat rack. Doffing one's hat was a required social norm, a sign that you were ready for business.

So what does this have to do with us and the modern workplace? The hats of yesteryear have been replaced, yet today's workers still manage to create physical obstructions, hiding behind the screens of their cell phones, laptops, iPads or other gadgets. These obstructions not only indicate a lack of readiness for business, but also spells out how we're separating our attention between the people in the room and the device in our hands. Somehow, it's become socially acceptable, yet every time I see a coworker playing around with their cell phone during a meeting, their lack of respect and attention drive me nuts. Add in the excuse of "taking notes", we let this behavior continue. 

Contrary to popular belief, numerous studies have shown that we are terrible at multitasking. Our brains can't absorb information when we aren't paying attention. Applied in meetings, our brief digital escapes take our focus away from the content of the meeting, having us rejoin after we may have missed something while we were mentally away. For fear of revealing that we were not paying attention, our participation drops, only to serve in making meetings less productive, less interesting and more boring. Conveniently, our devices safe us from this boredom and the cycle continues. 

Like an addict, the first step is to admit that we have a problem. We need to take steps to keep workers from bringing digital devices into the conference rooms. Back in the 1960's you'd hang your hat on the rack. Now, in 2014, leave your cell phone in your desk drawer. Surely there are specific exceptions, the mother with a sick kid at home or the husband who's wife is in the ninth month, but the only thing we really need in a meeting is paper and a pen. And while I don't support the idea of superfluous meetings, if a topic is important enough that it requires physical participation, let's ensure that we're there in both body and mind. It's time we gain control over our habits before we discover that they have control over us. 

A Proud Sister

I have always been the stereotypical older sister - more responsible, reliable, obedient. After the army, I got a degree and when I finished that, I found a good job. My younger brother has always been the extrovert, risk-taking revolutionary. He's been programming since he learned how to type and never took formal schooling as seriously as my mother would have liked him to. But, he's begun making a name for himself in the Israel hi-tech world and slowly racking up achievements many of us will never reach, and all of this in his early 20's.

I've always been pretty proud of him, his programming skills and his ability to fit in, learn and grow where ever he finds himself. He is highly successful at his work place, earning higher than most people his age and with his background. He maintains an interesting blog. He has time for personal projects such as WastedHumanity.com. I love the blurb he wrote about himself on WastedHumanity: 

Gilly was born over 600 years ago, but was so disappointed the internet wasn't invented yet, he decided to be unborn and come back when the world was ready for him. He's a true geek, secretly living a double life - by day he tries to make people laugh by building silly websites, by night - he doesn't.

His latest achievement is being invited to talk at Reversim Summit 2014 at Google's headquarters in Tel Aviv, Israel at the end of the month. He'll be talking about latency and client side performance on February 25th at 17:00 in the Hack Room. I am extremely proud of him and wish I could be there to hear him talk.

It Isn't About You

We've all heard that there is no I in team work and a bunch of other cliches and quotes along the same line. You can find the hidden "i" in team or the one in "win" and twist and turn things around to your heart's content, but adage that together everyone achieves more really does hold water.

I cannot stress the importance of team work. I don't code. I can pseudo code enough to get my point across, but I don't have the know-how to write actual, functional code. I could learn, but I doubt I'd be half as talented as my team's amazing development leader. In her sleep she could probably write better code than I ever could! Nor do I have the patience and thoroughness of our amazing QA team. They comb through our software finding glitches that have probably been over seen hundreds if not thousands of times, but never acknowledged or brought up by any of our clients.

Everyone wants recognition. We see it as early as during infancy - crying for recognition of needs. As we grow, so does the desire for recognition. It isn't just about getting praise for a job well done - it's about being acknowledged.

Shift the focus from yourself to the team.

In order to have people want to follow your lead, understand why they are part of the team, what they contribute and what they want to get out of it all. Find out what value each team member is looking for - be it financial, profession or intrinsic. Find ways to incorporate their own goals into the teamwork. Assign the developer who is always looking to get ahead with a task in the new technology that needs to be explored. The next time you send an email, think about additional value that can be added - information sharing, recognition, coaching. Open up the potential for deeper engagement and better alignment with the team member's own missions to reach higher performance. 

Rogaining

This weekend I went rogaining with a few friends in the sand dunes near Cesarea. For those unfamiliar with rogaining, it's a team sport where groups of 2-5 plan and navigate their route between checkpoints, using a variety of map types, trying to maximize their score in a set time limit. We went to compete in the medium+ level, consisting of 21 points over a span of over 6.4 aerial kilometers. With three hours, we knew we wouldn't be able to get all checkpoints so we had to plan our route meticulously. We had one map and more opinions than team members!

As we started the race, we had to decide between getting more of the close checkpoints, that have a lower point value, or running farther out and getting a few of the more valuable checkpoints. With time slipping through our fingers, we calculated our possible ROI, opting to go for the further, yet more valuable points. After logging our first two, we had a hard time finding the elusive #39 checkpoint. We circled around, back tracked, tried locating it again, but to no avail. Time is our most expensive asset and we decided to forget about that checkpoint and just sprint back to the finish line, picking up a few easy points around that area before finishing the race.

Driving home, I looked at our punch card and map, thinking how much this race resembled product management. We've got a planned release at the end of the quarter and a road map a mile long. As product manager, we've got to prioritize which features will make it into the release and which won't. Then there are those features that you start to develop and end up having to trash for some reason or another... This is just the beginning of my blog and there's so much to write about - so much I want to write about. And, given the time, I will. In the meantime, for those of you who've never tried rogaining or orienteering, I highly recommend it. Aside from being a great sport, it's a wonderful team building activity. Don't forget your map!

Thursday TED - Inspiring Action

Our boss has a tradition where at the end of each week one person from the team has to post a TED for the weekend video. It's a nice tradition and while I've usually seen the video being posted ahead of time, being the TED addict that I am, it's still nice for me to see what my coworkers decided to post as it opens doors for discussion. 

The first video I posted was Shawn Achor's The Happy Secret to Better Work. It has always been one of my favorite TED lectures. Not only because of Shawn's amazing sense of humor, but because the things he says are so true. This 12 minute lecture is extremely short, as he jumps from one thing to another and leaves you wanting more. I'd love to hear his full lecture and read his books "The Happiness Advantage" and "Before Happiness". They're coming up on my Kindle reading list. 

Ask my coworkers and friends and they'll all tell you I'm a pretty happy, positive person. I am constantly striving to see the good in things that happen each day, creating ripples of positivity in my life and those around me. I hope you enjoy this TED as much as I do. 

A Stimulant More Powerful Than Coffee - Autonomy

We each have those spikes in the day when we feel our tiredness catching up with us as fight to stay awake, constantly glancing at the clock to see that it's moving slower than usual. Or days that seem to go by slower than months. Research shows that finding what you do interesting and believing it has inherent value is likely the single best way to stay motivated despite difficulty, setbacks and unexpected roadblocks. Additionally, interest in your work doesn't just keep you going despite fatigue, it actually replenishes your energy.

In a study done at California State University, participants were asked to work on a lengthy, draining task and then were given either a difficult-but-interesting task or a relatively-easy-but-dull task. Across the board, it was found that people who worked on the interesting task put in more effort and performed much better (despite being tired) than those who worked on the boring task - even thought it was actually harder than the boring task.

In another study, researchers found that working on something interesting and stimulating also resulted in better performance on subsequent task as well, having replenished energy flow into these tasks.

So, with the road map as full as it is and a looming release date ahead, how do you give your team a sense of autonomy? First and foremost, my team knows that they dictate their personal processes. The amount of time they spend on planing before tackling a project is up to them, as well as the order in which they tackle projects. They know that by if we keep lines of communication up and open between us, they are free to take things on as they see fit. And I, on the plus side, usually get my features ahead of schedule.

Second, and not less important, is sharing goals. It is extremely important that the team knows how what they are working on fits into the bigger picture and how it supports and enhances our clients' experience. I try to share with them as much client feedback as possible, along with updates from sales regarding new and recently released features. I have one team member who was surprised to hear how much we were charging for a new feature he had worked on. It was a delight to see how his eyes lit up when I told him we already had a handful of clients who've signed with us even before our release date because of that feature.

Try to take time to reflect on how you can make your team feel like they do have autonomy regarding their time and always keep them up to date with business achievements. It makes work more interesting and you'll find that your team has a lot more energy.

Morning Coffee With Milk and Emails On The Side

Many of us start our day by sitting next to our desk with a big mug of coffee or tea and open our inbox. Working 7 hours ahead of my US east coast counter parts, I know the urge to catch up on what's been happening after I left the office.

Experts agree that workers should not start their day by responding to emails. That's a pretty bombastic statement, but is there anything behind it? While there's lots of books about time management, lately, I've been reading more and more about energy management. Think about it for a minute - our energy levels aren't the same throughout the day and we need to learn our mind and body's own patterns to utilize this for maximum productivity throughout the day. I, like many others, find myself most productive in the morning. So, is this the time I want to spend reacting to emails when I can and should be prioritizing my own to do list?!

By opening my inbox, I open myself up to possible distractions. By starting my day on my own tasks, I can give them my undivided attention while I'm at my sharpest. I don't know if there are any fires, but even if there are, my coworkers have other ways of reaching me. Besides, my US coworkers, who are probably the only ones who've emailed me after I left the office the night before, won't be seeing my responses till late in my afternoon.

My inbox is not my to do list. It's filled with requests from other people. And while these requests are important, they don't necessarily reflect the things I should be doing first. Checking your inbox first thing in the morning is like asking for an excuse to lack direction.

And then there's the ever recurring, "But people expect a response as soon as possible!" First of all, this isn't usually the case. If they've sent an email, as opposed to calling, the request probably isn't as urgent as you think. Second, and more importantly, why are people expecting an immediate response from us? It's probably because we've conditioned them to know that we respond to their emails first thing in the morning and we've built the expectation. But this can and should be changed. And after the first week or two, no one will even notice.

If you absolutely must check emails in the morning, (and here I admit I do), just quickly scan the subjects to see if there's something really urgent that does need immediate attention. 98% of the time, I close my inbox in less than a minute and move onto my own tasks. The other 2% of the time when there is something that needs to be taken care of immediate, I set a time limit and get it done quickly and efficiently so that I can free myself up for my own tasks, usually starting out on my emails after lunch.