Genuine Curiosity

Author Dwayne Melancon is always on the lookout for new things to learn. An ecclectic collection of postings on personal productivity, travel, good books, gadgets, leadership & management, and many other things.

A New Option for Getting Things Done in Outlook

July 20, 2009

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been test-driving the latest version of Netcentrics’ Getting Things Done (GTD) Add-in for Microsoft Outlook. This one is version 3.0 and, though I owned versions 1 & 2, I haven’t looked at this add-in in a couple of years.

A lot has changed in version 3 – for the better. Here are a few highlights from the NetCentrics site:

provides a powerful Project Central window to consolidate Project Manager and Open Project functions

easily Someday/Unsomeday projects

provides the ability to Hide/Unhide and Complete/Uncomplete projects and individual subprojects

create printable summary reports for projects

create Reference Folder and File To Folder defaults for each project

implements Outlook 2007 ribbons

provides a 2 minute timer

In addition, this new version seems more stable than I recall from previous versions (I had occasional Outlook ‘hangs’ with the previous version).

What does the add-in do?

The GTD Add-in is designed to make it easier to implement David Allen’s Getting Things Done methodology – specifically, David’s guidance for managing email, next actions, and projects. It integrates with Outlook, and you can access most functions via the add-in’s toolbar (above) or with hotkeys.

The add-in will allow you to quickly act on email by filing it, delegating it, converting to a task or calendar item, etc. and will handle the back-end “plumbing” for putting things in the right place within Outlook. For example, project reference material can be automatically filed in a folder named after the project. The Add-in also does a decent job of remembering your recent choices for projects, folders, etc. so you can select them from a drop-down list of active or recent projects.

Project Central

ProjectCentral

For me, the most exciting of these new changes was what I saw in the area of Project management. For me, one of the challenges of implementing the GTD methodology in Outlook has been Projects. This Add-in makes Project management much easier and more intuitive by creating a “Project Central” project dashboard where you can view, manage, and edit projects and their associated sub-projects and actions.

In the past, the actions and subprojects were all tracked in my Outlook Tasks, but this was a pain because the project items all sort of jumbled together. Maybe I was doing something wrong, but it wasn’t working for me.

With the GTD Add-in, the top-level view looks like my always-familar, structured, hierarchical list and it’s easy for me to create a new action, add notes / thoughts for future steps, etc.

The Bottom Line

If you’re a GTD follower using the GTD methodology for email and you’re currently and you’re currently using a “naked” Outlook implementation, this add-in will help you. Likewise, if you’re big into projects and want an easy way to manage your projects from within Outlook, this add-in will help you.

Be warned that organization always has a cost. in this case, you’ll have to change your “workflow” for filing and managing email; essentially, you’ll need to invest a couple of clicks or keystrokes on actionable email to tell the Add-in how to handle your messages.

As many of you know (since I’ve written about it here before), I’m also a user of ClearContext and use a variant of the original GTD workflow. The good news: the ClearContext and GTD Add-ins coexist peacefully. The bad news: I’m still using them both since there are certain features I like in each of them (for example, I am using the GTD Add-in for Project Management and using ClearContext for managing long email discussions and filing entire topics in a single keystroke).

I’d love to hear from you how you are managing your inbox within Outlook – are you using one of these tools, or another? If you’re a Mac user, what tools are available for you? Feel free to chime in with comments, questions, alternate points of view, etc.

And may your inbox frequently get to zero.

If you love something, set it free. If it comes back…

July 15, 2009

hourglass I’ve been heads-down at a conference these past several days, so I’ve been quiet here on the blog (though I’ve been active on Twitter, as some of you may have seen). I have some pent-up posts that I’ll be writing up in the next few days. My nice, long plane ride ahead tomorrow would be ideal for that, wouldn’t it? Some of the items in the hopper:

Interesting thoughts after attending a talk by Stephen M. R. Covey on “The Speed of Trust” – not just the book, but the awesome concepts underlying the book.
A review of a radically improved version of the Netcentrics “Getting Things Done” add-in for Outlook.
A couple of gadget-related reviews, and a couple of other books.

In the mean time, you might enjoy my latest post on the newly re-designed “Joyful Jubilant Learning” site about “Early Abandonment and Boomerangs” (hint – it’s sort of about social media, sort of about gadgets, and may strike a nerve with you).

So what does the title of this post mean? It’s an obscure connection to the “Early Abandonment and Boomerangs” metaphor. At least they connect in my mind. If they don’t connect for you, forget I said that, and just enjoy the other post…

Adjacent chaos

July 10, 2009

Sitting in the airport as I write this, and I see someone intently writing a document on their laptop, in spite of a huge amount of noise and commotion about a foot away. This ability to focus on a specific task is powerful, and most of us experience it fairly regularly ("tuning out the world" and focusing on a task).

But what we can all do on a task basis is much harder to achieve on a day's basis. How many times do you get sucked into the chaos around you at home or at work?

In both situations (laser focus on a task, and getting caught up in adjacent chaos), time can fly by. I suppose the difference is how you feel at the end.

Goals, action lists, and priorities are your best friends in staying focused but the real challenge is self-discipline: do you have the force of will to stick to your plans?

I find it helps to have a "workout buddy" to help monitor progress against the goals you are trying to keep in the foreground. What about you? What techniques have you developed to keep yourself from being sucked into the chaos around you at work?

-- Post From My iPhone

Oops!

July 7, 2009

In spite of the title, reading this book was not a mistake: “OOPS! 13 Management Practices That Waste Time & Money (and what to do instead),” by Aubrey C. Daniels is well worth your time. With “Oops!” Daniels takes us through a well-articulated analysis of a bunch of management practices that are commonplace in today’s corporate world, including:

Performance Appraisals
“Stretch Goals”
Employee of the Month programs
Hourly vs. Salaried pay schemes (including a discussion of bonuses and annual raises)
Downsizing
And 8 more management practices

In each of the 13 chapters devoted to the flawed management practices, Daniels provides examples of how the practices are used, a discussion of what outcomes they are supposed to achieve, and a view on what undesirable effects they actually create in the organization.

A lot of the flaws Daniels points out may seem like common sense, but organizations often do something that seems counterproductive. For example, I’m familiar with a lot of organizations that have a “forced ranking” process in which they try to lop off the bottom x% of performers (10%, 25%, 1/3, or some such target). So, what do you do as a hiring manager? Do you set out to hire some bad apples so you have someone to cut? Or do you hire the best team you can, only to get rid of one of your strong performers just because they aren’t the “most A” player? This can be especially challenging in smaller teams.

What should you do instead?

The great thing about this book it goes beyond analyzing the flaws in these practices, and suggests better ways to manage. For example, he has some great suggestions for better ways to motivate people than the “forced ranking” approach.

One of my favorite chapters, “Promoting People Nobody Likes,” includes an illuminating analysis of the differences in results achieved by “tough managers” like Bobby Knight, and “softer” managers like John Wooden. Both of these guys are legendary basketball coaches – one (Knight) is legendary for being loud, abusive, and intimidating; while the other (Wooden) is legendary for being a calm, supportive, and inspiring coach.

In many organizations, the “tough managers” are promoted while the “softer” managers may be passed over because they are not aggressive enough to get ‘real’ results. However, we all know tough managers who’ve left a trail of bodies and resignations in their wake – and we know that hiring and training new employees is costly and disruptive to the organization, not to mention the impact on morale. So how much more effective can you be if your organization considers not just the results a manager achieves, but how they get those results?

Daniels provides some sage advice on this topic and all the others in this book. By the way - if you’re downsizing, you should definitely check out Daniels’ ideas on how to deal with that (it’s Practice #12).

Common threads

There are common threads running through these topics:

Providing timely feedback (positive and negative)
Creating clarity around expectations, roles, and behaviors
Thinking about whether your “system” really promotes the outcomes you’re seeking
Creating a culture that makes it easy to do the right things, and hard to do the wrong things

In my opinion, if you follow Daniels’ advice, you’re on your way to higher organizational performance. I also love the “Performance Matrix” he provides in the appendix as a tool to help focus on performance (and replace the traditional approach to performance appraisals).

In summary, I recommend this to anyone who wants to up their game on management, or who has influence on management practices in organizations of any size. [I’ve even caught myself changing how I deliver praise and criticism to my kids since I’ve read this book.]

Bravo to Daniels for “Oops!” – and don’t make the mistake of not reading this one.

Hip & Sage – it’s a journey, not a destination

July 1, 2009

I just finished reading an awesome book: “Hip & Sage: Staying Smart, Cool, and Competitive in the Workplace,” by Lisa Haneberg. As you may know from my prior posts (linked at the end of this review), I’m a huge fan of Lisa’s books and her Management Craft blog (which is 5 years old this month, by the way)."...if you need unlimited minutes on your cell phone more than you need unlimited texting, this book is for you."

This book is aimed at Baby Boomers & others from generations with more mileage on the tires than Gen-Xers and Millenials. You can think of Hip & Sage as part “New Technologies 101” and part “how to find tech savvy tour guides,” and it’s designed to help you become conversant, proficient, and comfortable with social media and other new media technologies.

But I think this book could be relevant to lots of folks. Regardless of your age, if you feel like a poser talking with people about Twitter, Facebook, RSS, LinkedIn – or even blogs – then this book can help you. In short, if you need unlimited minutes on your cell phone more than you need unlimited texting, this book is for you.

What does it mean to be Hip?

According to Lisa, Hipness is is about engagement an energy:

“Our ability to communicate, connect, and collaborate with younger generations. In business, our hipness determines how effectively we work with, inspire, and influence younger workers. Hip entrepreneurs are able to enroll, engage, and exicte younger customers and business partners.”

If you work with younger people, being Hip can be a game changer (and becoming Hip can be fun). Lisa provides a set of techniques and philosophies to help you enlist the help of younger mentors in a way that will tap into their knowledge and excitement, and (I believe) make them want to help you get up to speed.

One of the fastest paths to Hipness is to practice genuine curiosity about the things hip people care about, and ask someone who’s already hip to feed your thirst for learning.

If you can find a social media-savvy “workout buddy” that will help, too (@MattHixson is one of mine, for example)

What does it mean to be Sage?

In contrast, Sageness is about sharing hard-won lessons:

“Our natural strengths and characteristics, goals and priorities, and experiences – manifested as skills, drive, judgment, and knowledge – that have been honed, carved, seasoned, and polished through the years. Our sageness is unique; it may or may not be visible to others or in use contributing to the world.”

Lisa’s section on “Cultivating Our Sageness” is all about tapping into your experiences, but not just so you can be the guru on the mountain that others seek out. Her guidance is to actively inject your sageness into the business so that the business can benefit from your experience.

Her advice on goal setting and becoming more self-aware can dramatically improve your effectiveness – you should check it out, for sure.

Putting it all together

The magic all happens in the third section of the book, where Lisa discusses how to become both Hip and Sage, including a discussion of how to challenge your beliefs and leverage new knowledge & skills to achieve non-linear success.

The third section also includes some worksheets to help you achieve greater clarity and document your thinking in a useful way.

The bottom line

This book is so rich with useful information I can’t begin to do it justice in this short review, but the bottom line is this: pick up a copy of Hip & Sage. On their own, the two chapters on “Job Seeking and Hiring for the Hip & Sage,” and “A Primer on the Generations” are worth the price of the book, particularly if you’re on the wrong side of this economy.

Lisa provides other resources, as well, including the awesome Hip & Sage blog and a voluminous list of resources at the end of the book.