We’re not wired to be constantly connected.
I recently read the book Digital Minimalism by Cal Newport who’s a Computer Science Professor at Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Professor Newport is a specialist in computer science. One of the things he said in his book that resonated with me was the fact that as human beings we’re not actually wired to be wired. You’re probably thinking, what does that mean? As human beings, over the last fifteen or so years we’ve started to see technology become more ingrained in our day to day operations whilst technology delivers many benefits to streamline our processes and documentation, it has …
Unusual Times
We are in unusual times at the moment globally. A number of my clients are doing things differently in response to the changes and cancellations of face to face conferences and training. Rather than risking bringing staff together for face to face training, many are choosing virtual presentations. We’re experiencing increased demand for our virtual training offering. These types of solutions are a great way of meeting client needs, especially when they are geographically spread out. Limited access to the recording encourages teams to revisit the presentation and the training “lasts” longer than the live event, resulting in a greater …
Time to update?
Awhile ago, I was in a meeting with an executive of a company whose product requires an investment of around $100,000 per sale. I’d conducted interviews with various managers in the organisation about the productivity challenges the organisation faced and the common theme that was coming up was a compatibility issue as a result of their software being so old, they couldn’t open documentation they received from customers in a newer format. It was frustrating for them to have to ask customers to resend the documents in an older format to make it easier. The executive’s thoughts were, it wasn’t …
Communicating Change
I once worked with an organisation who had spent several million dollars implementing a new video conferencing system. They came to me to discuss training for their staff and wanted to know how much it would cost. I asked the question I always ask and that was what was their budget? You see if you don’t have some framework to work within, the options are almost unlimited. You could go from giving them a link to a website to download some free resources through to a 12 month program of providing them with tools and resources to engage, knowledge share …
I can’t read your mind!
As a child, I loved super heroes and their super powers as much as anyone my age. One of the super powers I always wanted was the ability to read minds. Unfortunately, today in business, we often make the assumption that everyone knows what we know….and reality is, we should assume they often don’t! When you have skills or knowledge one of the challenges you face is the assumption that everyone knows as much (or as little) as you do. We assume others know what we know. It’s like we expect them to read our minds and know automatically what …
Every one is NOT like you!
When I was a child, my mother used to espouse the old adage… “You can’t please all of the people all of the time.” Whilst we know that not everyone will like you, it’s important to also know not everyone is like you. What’s the difference? Often when I speak to people about sharing ideas or information with their team, all I hear is frustration. For example, a finance manager who tried to upskill one of his team members by presenting her with, what was for him a life changing book, on how to use various Excel features. A few …
Less is More
Don’t be tempted to put every single word you plan to say on the slide or a sheet of paper. When presenting to your colleagues, a board or at a conference, the audience want to hear what YOU have to say not read a screen or document. Too often because we know too much about our subject we A Overwhelm our audience with too much information so they remember very little B Sensory overload them with data or images in on screen presentations that distract or do not support what you are saying C Talk too fast Sometimes less is …
The Gift of Attention
Motivational Speaker and author Jim Rohn is quoted with saying “Give whatever you are doing and whoever you are with the gift of your attention.” In a world where a majority of people are constantly shifting from one task to another, where two minute noodles take is too long to cook, the art of presence and attention is often lost in amongst the “ticking” off of to-do items. Whilst multi-tasking may make you feel like you are getting more done without the gift of attention you may miss the one thing that could have made a difference. A difference to …
The Main Thing
One of my favourite quotes comes from Stephen Covey, author of classic productivity book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. It is to remind ourselves to keep the main thing the main thing. Which simply means when you are overwhelmed with things, noise, tasks, projects, and stuff to be done, take some time to work out the main thing you need to focus on right now. If your inbox is full of emails, your desk covered in papers and your voicemail bursting with messages, give yourself some time out and think what is the main thing you need to …
How to Communicate More Productively
Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is credited with saying “The deepest desire of the human spirit is to be acknowledged.” I’m a big believer in communication without technology. That might sound strange coming from someone whose expertise lies in productivity with technology, but the “angle” I take is that just because we have technology doesn’t mean we should use it all the time. When it comes to communication and technology, here are some ideas to help increase your communication with others without relying on technology. Stop Using Emails to Communicate Everything I’ve never heard …
