The Manager - 140 - Smooth delivery, fatigue and more
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The Manager - Edition 140 - Smooth delivery, video call fatigue and more
Hi,
I hope you are doing safe and well and all is good. It’s crazy busy as usual here.
We’re in the process of moving house and it’s pretty stressful. Our solicitors are on the useless side of the spectrum but it’s amazing how a formal complaint can spur people into action. We shouldn’t have to move people into action (to do their job) like this but sadly it seems it’s part of the process.
Anyhow, we’re all progressing now and aiming to complete before the UK stamp duty increases :)
We’re not designed for this
The more I work remotely and spend much of my day on video calls, the more I realise we’re not designed for this. It’s not in our human nature to spend our days on calls. Here’s an article that may explain why video calls are so tiring.
Whilst writing this newsletter I searched for data about returning to work. I found at least 30 surveys/studies and they all contradicted each other. Some said people didn’t want to return to work, some said they did. Some said women were less keen, some said they were keener. Some said younger workers were keener than others, some said older workers were keener. I guess it depends on who you ask, when and what.
At the end of the day, working from home can be great - but being on calls all day is not work - and I don’t think we’re designed for that.
Jobs Galore - and a chance to work with me
It seems the vacancy rate is the highest it has been for a long time (UK). Jobs galore, which will lead to a lack of jobs. Over supply typically results in under demand. But for now - it’s a good thing.
Also, if you’re an agile coach / scrum master and you are looking for either permie or contract work give me a shout. The company I work for is hiring. It’s a good place, not without its challenges but they are the right challenges. It’s safe, friendly (mostly) and they are doing some good work. And hopefully we'll be in the office for a couple of days a week, so fewer video calls :)
Send me an email if you’d like to know more. Europe based only I'm afraid.
The only downside is that you may end up in my team - I apologise in advance.
Annual Reviews
Annual reviews are often just part of the process of management. They need to be done whether we agree with them or not. The decision to conduct them is often out of our hands. It seems HR peeps are keen for mid-year reviews now too.
I get it, but let’s get to the root of performance and why mid, weekly, monthly or annual doesn’t make sense unless they lead to something…and in my experience, they’re merely a tick in a box and a way to rank employees. Don’t get me started on the dreaded bell curve nonsense.
Annual reviews should be conducted on the anniversary of the employee's start date.
Why run them for all employees at the same time and create a massive burden and cost for the company, especially as many employees may not have even been there a year at that point?
Performance reviews should be about improving performance…so what happens after them is key.
Performance reviews often hide bad management. Low performing managers push the burden of dealing with performance to HR, and they often ignore low performers all year and hide behind the scoring system.
Performance is on-going - it should happen every single day of the working year.
If someone is performing poorly they need to know in the moment.
They need coaching, they need support, they need training - and that needs to be as close to the low performance as possible.
Performance is about behaviours, yet most appraisal systems are miles away from behaviours.
Managers are often influenced by the recency effect.
They remember the most recent performance, which may not be consistent with the rest of the year. Hence, managing performance is on-going.
If you do everyone’s performance reviews in a block, I feel sorry for those whose reports you get to last.
Most managers have given up the will to live after three or four. Be mindful of this and ensure you do a due and fair process.
Ongoing performance, and note taking, will help you complete them fairly. Yet I see so many managers doing nothing and capturing nothing all year - then they fall foul of the recency effect.
Innovation
Love this article from Steve Blank on innovation and acceleration in companies and the five principles he uses.
It’s not just work though. I believe in constant innovation in our personal lives too. Here’s my core principles for personal innovation.
Read widely from every industry, not just the one you work in.
At work : Hire people from different industries. Hire for the person not the skills.
Experiment carefully and in private to start with.
At work : run careful experiments
Learn a skill. The best way to innovate is to learn a skill.
My main skills are management and communication. But the videos are a way to learn the skill of film making. The podcasts are a way to learn the skill of audio recording. Parent Brain is about learning to be a better writer. Public speaking is about learning to deal with pressure, communicate clearly and deal with large audiences. Photography is about learning the skills of observing and noticing. My HR course is about learning the skills of…..actually, not sure yet. :)
At work : Encourage skills sharing and learning
Reflect.
I find that taking time to reflect and sit quietly allows the brain to solve problems and come up with new ideas. When my week is filled with screens, calls, work, action…I feel empty of creativity and innovation.
At work : Carve out time for your team to innovate, build slack into the system for creativity and rest
Become a Product Manager
If you want to be a product owner, or learn this valuable skill, this article is pretty good.
I think all managers, by default, are product owners. They are responsible for the system and people who build products and services, so this is a skill well worth developing.
Overwhelmed
I’ve been feeling overwhelmed a lot. Overwork is stressful but overwhelm is debilitating. This article is good.
New Newsletter - Dear Manager Poem
I’m exploring my creative side and Parent Brain is where it’s happening. It’s a fortnightly newsletter with stories, poems and essays about work, life and learning. This edition was a management related one - a poem.
Dear Manager,
I’d like to leave early tomorrow
I’ve got personal stuff that is filling me with sorrow
I’ll make back the time and deliver my work
You can trust me on this – I’m not going to shirk
Regards
The Employee
–
Dear Employee,
I think not, because I know best
Don’t you think we’d all like some time to rest?
We’ve got deadlines to meet and I’m in meetings back to back
We’ve all got too much to do for you to slack
Regards
The Manager
Don't leave people out
This is an interesting case of a part-time employee left out of social events. This, plus some other stuff, resulted in a tribunal hearing.
Don’t leave people out. It could be a case of discrimination
Indexing to find things
I enjoyed this article by Austin Kleon about being able to find things again. It reminds me of some articles/videos I published on retrieving notes; Personal Knowledge Management System, Note taking and Commonplace system
Spencer Silver
Sad to hear of Spencer Silver passing away. If you don’t recognise the name you’ll know the product he created - post it notes.
Conflict is expensive
There are many leaders and managers who promote and engage in conflict at work. I think it’s nuts. Sure. they say "healthy conflict", but how do we measure healthy conflict? And who is it healthy for? After all, some people can deal better with conflict than others.
Conflict is not good - but considered, careful and safe discussions about work should be welcomed. After all, conflict at work is costing £30bn a year.
Slow is smooth, Smooth is fast (mini essay)
I’m always looking for ways to get smoother and faster in all that I do. But it starts first by being effective, even if that is clunky.
It’s also the same at work - be effective first, then efficient. Sometimes, in being effective, the process is slow and clunky. That’s fine. It’s then time to make it more efficient.
By repeating the same effective process (no matter how clunky) you get to spot areas for improvement. It’s the essence behind stapling yourself to work.
Underneath it all though is the measure of cycle time and appropriate choice of methods and tooling.
When I first started this newsletter, it would take me about 7 hours to write, edit, schedule and promote. I was using slow tooling and methods, but I was also going slow to ensure effectiveness first. Once I was effective I could increase my efficiency. I tried new tools and new methods to get their quicker.
Same with blogging. It would take me about 4 days to create a blog post 10 years ago. Now I can get one done in less than an hour, including images and SEO.
My videos are still a work in progress experiment. It takes me about 5 hours to record, another 5 hours to edit, another hour or so to upload and tag etc, then it takes me about 2 hours to create the social media for it. But I have an effective process - so now it’s time to smooth that out and make it efficient.
The Stationery Freaks podcast used to take 1 hour to record, 2 hours to edit and 1.5 hours to upload and socialise. It now takes 25 minutes to record, 1 hour to edit (because I must listen to the episode back - although I do that at 2x speed) and 20 minutes to socialise.
It all starts with effectiveness and measuring the cycle time (how long it takes from two points - start to finish). I measure it all - and then look at ways to make that cycle time shorter. Sometimes, I get it as short as it will go - no point in labouring on if it’s as efficient as it can be. This is the same at work - there are always marginal gains to explore, but not if there are massive effectiveness and efficiency gains somewhere else in the system.
But effectiveness should never be compromised for efficiency.
Side note : I get asked on LinkedIn a lot about the processes and tooling that I use. Please consider though, that by copying me you won't find what works for you. It could inspire you, it could help you but creating work, value and other things is personal. It's the same at work too - don't copy or use standard frameworks, study and find what works for you.
Not sure the following will be helpful for you - there are no more ditties or articles after this point. If this is dull as dishwater - escape now :)
Video and blog
I use a Sony ZV1 camera powered by external batteries and Panasonic G7 powered by mains battery. I bought the ZV1 for the auto-focus after having to re-record so many shots. (effectiveness)
The reason for powering with external batteries is to increase the run time and reduce the need to stop recording to switch batteries. (efficiency).
It took me a while to get to a camera setup that helps me be effective, now I leave the rig setup where possible (efficiency)
I have checklists for each video that allow a smooth process and known start/stop points (effectiveness and efficiency)
I use preset menus for different recording situations so I can quickly move between shots. (efficiency)
I use a Rode video mic for audio in the Sony and a lapel microphone in the G7 (two sources of sound in case one stops working or is poor quality). (effectiveness)
I edit in Final Cut Pro X. I was using iMovie but I use a lot of text and text message plugins that were a pain to get working in iMovie. (efficiency)
I use license free music from Epidemic sound so I never have to worry about copyright issues on YouTube and social media (effectiveness)
I use Ulysses for all script and blog writing. The blog is proofed in MS word, then copied back into Ulysses, then copied into WordPress. (MS word copy/paste formatting is a nightmare to undo in Wordpress - Ulysses strips it back) (efficiency)
Newsletter
First draft is written in Ulysses. Then edited in MS Word. Then copied to Mailchimp where I "clear formatting" to get rid of MS Word rubbish. I use templates and scheduling tools.
Podcast
We record using Zencastr, which records stereo and drops both files straight into Dropbox (efficiency).
They are edited in Garage Band, hosted using Transistor.fm and the website is on Squarespace.
All blurb is written un Ulysses.
Writing
All writing done in Ulysses for first draft. (effectiveness and efficiency)
Second draft done in MS Word. (efficiency)
Photography
My main camera is the Ricoh GR, sometimes the Panasonic G7.
I edit the photos in Affinity Photo for proper work (desktop), or Snapseed and Polarr for Instagram (mobile).
Backups
Everything is automatically backed up to Dropbox and external HDs using Chronosync which runs every day.
It didn’t start this way and I'm still hacking away to make it as smooth as possible. I've had to slow down to make it smooth bringing to light the classic Zen idea of "slow is smooth, smooth is fast". Couldn't agree more. The same applies to work.
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If you've read this far - thank you - and have a cracking week.
Rob..
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Rob..