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.

 

Spreadsheet to help decision-making

Back in the late 20th century, my team and I needed to do a lot of hiring as I staffed up a call center. We needed to fill about 80 slots, so we had to interview a lot of people. This brought many challenges to the fore, such as:

  • How do you keep track of all of them?
  • How do you know which ones are the best fit for the job according to your selection criteria?
  • How do multiple people apply consistent evaluation criteria to the candidates?
  • How do you compare the relative strengths and weaknesses of candidates in an objective fashion?

...and so forth.

Recently, I had another multi-dimensional decision to make and (thanks to MSN Desktop Search) I was able to dig up an ancient copy of some Excel-based selection tools I developed over ten years ago. After some minor tweaking, they worked perfectly for my 21st century selection task. I decided to share the tools here in case they come in handy when you have multi-factor, multiple choice decisions to make.

The spreadsheet contains tabs with three different styles of selection matrices. Each one has different "features" so figure out which one fits your purpose and tweak from there. Basically, you decide the key factors or attributes you're evaluating, and the relative weighting of each factor. Input that stuff into whichever matrix you decide to use, and save it to a meaningful name.

Then, as you go through the selection process, score each person after you've interviewed them according to how well they compared to your ideal for each factor. At the end of the process, you can quickly and easily rank them based on the factors, or on an overall score based on the composite score from all factors.

These matrices can be used to help evaluate just about any multi-choice, multi-factor decision - not just hiring decisions.

You can download the spreadsheet here. (28.5K) (right click the link and select "Save target as..." or "Save link as...")

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A Quest for Genius

I've been reading interacting with Dick Richards' book "Is Your Genius At Work?" for weeks now. This book is not long and is very easy to read and understand. But man, is it deep.

When I say I've been interacting with the book, I mean that I've been doing (and repeating...and revisiting....) the simple exercises Dick provides in the book. The exercises approach the challenge of finding your genius from a lot of different angles, to enable you to get a glimpse of the essence of your power. I feel like I'm getting closer, but I haven't gotten the "buzz" that others in the book describe when they finally name their genius (I'm looking for that "tongue on 9-volt batttery" kind of buzz - I know it's out there).

Provisions for the journey

The book provides you with the tools to go through a personal discovery process to discover and name your "genius." Dick goes into lots of detail about genius, but I describe genius as: that special capability that you have that makes you special, and flavors all the other parts of who you are and how you interact with the world.

The whole concept was very intriguing, and Dick provides some vivid examples of how others have found and named their genius. If you want to see what the book is like, head on over to OnGenius.com and you can check out a sample chapter and sample exercises.

Here is a brief overview of what you'll find in this book.

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Stuck in a rut? Why not make a breakthrough?

Just heard from my friend Lisa Haneberg that she's rolling out an all new version of her "2 Weeks To A Breakthrough" program. As you may recall, I was involved in the first round of this program earlier this year. I loved it and recommend it to you if you want to achieve a breakthrough performance on any big challenges, hopes, and dreams. Or, if you just want to stop doing the "same old same old," this will do it for you.

The new program features improvements like:

  • A better, more complete preparation workbook
  • Daily worksheets with more examples
  • More personalized attention - each person will receive a minimum of 3 one-on-one sessions with Lisa, and she will email personalized ideas to each person

To me, that last bullet is the best part. Lisa rocks.

The course description and details are up on the breakthrough blog now - check it out here where you'll find details about the process, the benefits, and how to get started.

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What should you do with your life?

This week, I saw a documentary on "The Happiness Manifesto" which is being tested in Slough in the UK. This is an interesting "technique" to help you become happier by engaging in activities that will help increase the joy and satisfaction in your life. It's kind of like daily affirmations, but they are actions - not just self-talk. I loved the concept, so I thought I'd share the 10-item list with you.

  1. Get physical. Engage in half an hour of exercise three times a week
  2. Count your blessings. At the end of each day, reflect on at least five things you are grateful for.
  3. Talk time. Have an hour-long - uninterrupted - conversation with your partner or closest friend each week.
  4. Plant something. Even if it's a window box or pot. And, you must keep it alive!
  5. Cut your TV viewing by half.
  6. Smile at and/or say hello to someone you don't know. At least once each day.
  7. Phone a friend. Make contact with a friend or relation you have not talked to for a while and arrange to meet up.
  8. Have a good laugh at least once a day.
  9. Every day make sure you give yourself a treat. Take time to really enjoy this.
  10. Daily kindness. Do an extra good turn for someone each day.

Phenomenal list, even more phenomenal if we all put it into practice. Enjoy - really!

Related posts: Pretend you create everything that happens to you

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Everything happens for a reason

I often say that "Everything happens for a reason," and that it's up to us to find out the reason. Recent reflection on this topic has caused me to alter this philosophy just a bit.

I am still convinced that everything happens for a reason, however, I am also convinced that it is up to us to define that reason within our own lives. Events have meaning because we assign meaning to them. Events only have significance when we choose to do significant things because of them.Events only have significance when we choose to do significant things because of them

In my recent post about feeling "stuck" in my action lists, I realize that a big factor in that "stuckness" is that I haven't been doing enough to create significance out of the opportunities before me. I'm not talking about earth-shattering things; more along the lines of less time focusing on things that don't matter in the grand scheme of things, and more time focusing on the things that make a difference.

A bunch of recent events and "nudges" came together to get me to this point. In no small part, I owe a lot of the credit to the blogging community where I've found a gold mine of ideas, great advice, and a lot of inspiration - thank you. Ironically, the final piece clicked into place as my wife and I were watching the movie "Envy," in which the main characters (played by Ben Stiller and Jack Black) each go through a period where their effectiveness ratings at their jobs were good for most of the year, but their performances went down the tubes when their "focus score" was poor..

So, now that I've seen the spark, what will I do differently? On the personal side, I spent a refreshing few days with the family doing fun family things the last couple of days (had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, saw Nemo On Ice, saw the new Harry Potter movie, got my 12-year-old son signed up for our local health club and took him to work out a couple of times, and stuff like that). And, as Lisa suggested in her comments, I stayed off of email. I intend to do plan more stuff like this.

On Monday, I am going to take a "clean slate" look at everything I'm doing at work and decide what significant things I want to achieve there. My goal is to stop sailing on the prevailing winds of urgency, stop putting off "hard stuff," and chart a course that feeds my passions and plays to my strengths as fully as possible..

This realization is simultaneously a very liberating and frightening to me, but I think that only good can come from it. And it's up to me to make that true, isn't it?

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