Month: April 2021

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Productivity Software Stewardship for the World

We are going to be talking about software stewardship. And really what that means for the world of productivity, culture and society is remarkably impacted by how software today is developed, there isn't anything that isn't really run by technology, from your water plants, you know, the the treatment plants that are running water and sewage, to your cell phone. And on smartphones in your pocket. Everybody is connected to software in some way, shape, or form, even if we're not using that software directly. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/111for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing Productivity Software Stewardship for the World from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast | Productivity Software Stewardship for the World Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Francis Wade Show Notes | Productivity Software Stewardship for the World Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. Google Calendar LinkedIn Learning - Programming Foundations Raw Text Transcript | Productivity Software Stewardship for the World Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Voiceover Artist 0:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. Here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17 And Welcome back, everybody to productivity cast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity, I'm Ray Sidney Smith. Augusto Pinaud 0:24 I am Augusto Pinaud. Francis Wade 0:26I'm Francis Wade. Art Gelwicks 0:27 And I'm Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:25 Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to our listeners to this episode of productivity cast. Today, we are going to be talking about software stewardship. And really what that means for the world of productivity, culture and society is remarkably impacted by how software today is developed, there isn't anything that isn't really run by technology, from your water plants, you know, the the treatment plants that are running water and sewage, to your cell phone. And on smartphones in your pocket. Everybody is connected to software in some way, shape, or form, even if we're not using that software directly. And we thought it would be really interesting to look at that through the lens of productivity. And Francis, you brought up this topic to the ProductivityCast. Team. So I wanted to have you kind of preamble us talk to us about what you were thinking as a related to this topic, and then we will get into our discussion. Francis Wade 1:24 But I was ranting, you know that many productivity folks do when they try to use a piece of software and realize that the developer, or whoever designed the software has totally missed the mark. And what's happened is that someone came up with a very bright idea. And the bright idea seems to be interesting and useful. We either use that using the software, or we try to use it. And we hit upon a block a block, or some kind of stop. And we realize from using the software that the developer had a half of an idea, or a poorly formulated idea before developing the software. And that's why the software doesn't work. So it doesn't fit our needs. It doesn't do what we want it to do,
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The 4 Disciplines of Execution (BookCast)

We are starting a new ongoing series on ProductivityCast called BookCast. Each BookCast, we bring you a productivity book that we have read and discussed the merits and demerits. We each come at the material from different backgrounds and experiences, therefore, some of us will dislike and some of us will dislike the material, and that will make for an enlightening discussion for you. For our first BookCast, we bring you The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey and Jim Huling. I have been recommended this book so many times and so I wanted to bring this book to the ProductivityCast team to dive into its major tenets and discuss them. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/110 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing The 4 Disciplines of Execution (BookCast) from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast | The 4 Disciplines of Execution (BookCast) Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Francis Wade Show Notes | The 4 Disciplines of Execution (BookCast) Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. The 4 Disciplines of Execution: Achieving Your Wildly Important Goals by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey and Jim HulingTodoist Raw Text Transcript | The 4 Disciplines of Execution (BookCast) Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Voiceover Artist 0:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. Here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17 And Welcome back, everybody to productivity cast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity, I'm Ray Sidney Smith. Augusto Pinaud 0:24 I am Augusto Pinaud. Francis Wade 0:26I'm Francis Wade. Art Gelwicks 0:27 And I'm Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17 Welcome back, everybody to ProductivityCast the weekly show about all things personal productivity. I'm Ray Sidney-Smith. Augusto Pinaud 0:23 And I'm Augusto Pinaud. Francis Wade 0:24 I'm Francis Wade. Art Gelwicks 0:25 And I'm Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:26 Welcome, gentlemen. And welcome to our listeners. This week, we are starting a new ongoing series on ProductivityCast that we're calling book cast. And so book cast is where we're going to bring a new productivity book Well, a new to, hopefully you productivity book, but it could be an old book as well, that we're reading. And we want to discuss the merits and demerits of the material. I'm hoping that we each come at the material from different backgrounds and experiences, and therefore some of us will love and some of us will potentially not love the material, and that will make for an enlightening discussion for you. For our first book cast, we bring you the four Disciplines of Execution, achieving your wildly important goals by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim healing. I have been recommended this book so many times. And so I wanted to bring this book to productivity cast to dive into the major tenants and discuss them. So a little bit about the book First, the book is described on Amazon and pulling this from the Amazon description page. It says,
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A CEO’s dilemma: having a great idea for a new strategy

If you’re the leader of an organization, what should you do when you develop an exciting, fresh strategic direction for your company? Before you rush in, take caution – you could do more bad than good if you don’t proceed carefully.

Imagine yourself as a CEO or MD, just returning from a two-day conference in New York. As you sit in the departure lounge, you’re filled with nervous energy. Three big ideas triggered by your exposure churn in your mind: your organization needs them to secure its survival in these trying times.

However, you also heard from a consultant who cautioned against implementing any new idea from the top down. If the implementation is complex, it’s easy for you to chase up the hill, only to realize that your troops aren’t behind you. How can you ensure that your business transforms in order to survive, while engaging staff at all levels along the way?

Would a town hall announcement do the trick?

The answer is usually “No.” As the leader, you must account for several gaps inherent in your leadership that could doom your effort. These must be accounted for in the way you roll out your ideas to ensure implementation.

Gap #1 – Your strategic thinking, versus that of others

Most CEO’s forget that while they are focusing on the company’s strategy 90% of the time, their direct staff is far less concerned. In my experience, the average leader wants managers who are short-term result-producers. As such, each manager spends no more than 10% of their time thinking about long-term strategy, triggered only by the advent of the annual retreat.

Therefore, managers develop strategic skills slowly, if at all. Consequently, many who are promoted to top positions end up floundering as they simply are not used to the long-term thinking needed to guide the enterprise.

This means that your bright, strategic idea might not be readily understood by your colleagues. While you came to these “sudden” insights based on your foreign exposure, it might take them much longer to arrive at the same conclusion. Therefore, you need to give them time to come up to speed, just to appreciate the nuances of your proposal. Don’t be impatient.

Gap #2 – Your executive’s engagement

While your top executives are used to managing their departments for quick results, they are probably not used to putting the hours into projects that have a long-term payoff. This can doom your strategy.

Most important strategic initiatives impact several departments at once. Also, the people who must implement them are usually far away from the CEO’s office. Therefore, top managers must have more than an abstract understanding; they need to show an emotional connection with the new project. That’s the only way to inspire those who need to set aside old behaviours and implement new ones.

Such executive bonds aren’t crafted via a town-hall speech, or by sending out messages on the importance of creating shareholder value. Instead, you must hold a commitment event – an occasion specifically intended to bring your top managers together in a public show of solidarity.

This usually takes place in a strategic planning retreat. By the time it concludes, each attendee has been asked to craft and engage with the new strategic plan. But it’s not a majority vote in which the losers are forced to sign up to something they don’t believe in.

Instead, there needs to be a sense that your three big ideas are self-evident: conclusions that any team of smart people would arrive at. As this happens, as the CEO, you must release any authorship of the original insights and allow others to build their own commitment, in their own words, for their own reasons.

Gap #3 – Their visible support

But this can’t be window dressing. Having everyone nod together is a start – the rubber hits the road when the plans hit the lower tiers of the organization. Now, leaders must engage staff so that they develop their own commitments as well, which cannot happen in an ordinary meeting.

The point of taking this circuitous route rather than just “issuing a directive” is that complex changes need the buy-in of many people who often don’t work together. The energy required to bring them to a single vision is considerable and doesn’t happen in an instant.

Don’t be fooled by those who offer instant assent. Instead, realize that success occurs only when staff members are applying private, discretionary time and effort.

This approach may not do much for the ego-driven CEO who is a magnet for credit and attention, but it’s the right one for the organization. In the long term, the best way to implement a new idea is through others.

Francis Wade is the author of Perfect Time-Based Productivity, a keynote speaker and a management consultant. To search prior columns on productivity, strategy, engagement and business processes, send email to columns@fwconsulting.com

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Making Templates in Your Productivity Software

Templates can be a clever time-saving tool in your productivity tool belt, if you know where they are in your productivity system, as well as create and use them wisely. Today, we’re discussing what a template is (or, rather, how you should use them to their best advantage), what types of templates we use in our own productivity system, and how to overcome some common obstacles in making templates in your productivity software work for you. (If you’re reading this in a podcast directory/app, please visit https://productivitycast.net/109 for clickable links and the full show notes and transcript of this cast.) Enjoy! Give us feedback! And, thanks for listening! If you'd like to continue discussing Making Templates in Your Productivity Software from this episode, please click here to leave a comment down below (this jumps you to the bottom of the post). In this Cast | Making Templates in Your Productivity Software Ray Sidney-Smith Augusto Pinaud Art Gelwicks Francis Wade Show Notes | Making Templates in Your Productivity Software Resources we mention, including links to them, will be provided here. Please listen to the episode for context. EvernoteTrelloAsanaRemember the MilkMicrosoft Word (Normal.dot, Normal.dotx; you can create your own DOTX file templates), Google Calendar (duplicate events)Android personal dictionaryTasker (Android)OneNoteNotionSharePointIFTTTZapierPower AutomateActiveWordsTextExpanderApple Text ReplacementsApple ShortcutsWhat Got You Here Won't Get You There: How Successful People Become Even More Successful by Marshall Goldsmith, PhDSkedPal Calendar Heat Map Raw Text Transcript | Making Templates in Your Productivity Software Raw, unedited and machine-produced text transcript so there may be substantial errors, but you can search for specific points in the episode to jump to, or to reference back to at a later date and time, by keywords or key phrases. The time coding is mm:ss (e.g., 0:04 starts at 4 seconds into the cast’s audio). Read More Voiceover Artist 0:00 Are you ready to manage your work and personal world better to live a fulfilling productive life, then you've come to the right place productivity cast, the weekly show about all things productivity. Here, your host Ray Sidney-Smith and Augusto Pinaud with Francis Wade and Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:17 And Welcome back, everybody to productivity cast, the weekly show about all things personal productivity, I'm Ray Sidney Smith. Augusto Pinaud 0:24 I am Augusto Pinaud. Francis Wade 0:26I'm Francis Wade. Art Gelwicks 0:27 And I'm Art Gelwicks. Raymond Sidney-Smith 0:25 Welcome, gentlemen, and welcome to our listeners to this episode of ProductivityCast. templates can be a clever time saving tool in your productivity tool belt, if you know where they are in your productivity system, as well as how to create and use them wisely. Today, we're going to discuss what a template is, or rather how you should use them to their best advantage in your own world. We're going to talk about what types of templates we use in our own productivity systems, and how to overcome some of the obstacles and making templates in your productivity software work for you. And with that, let's start off with defining templates. What are templates in your world? How do you how do you define the template? And ultimately, how do they How does your definition of a template benefit you, in your own outputs, Augusto Pinaud 1:14 I use template for a couple of things and or more than a couple of things. So template for me is basically something that you write Finally, in the past, so you can use multiple times towards the future. So I use them in many applications, and for many purposes, you know, respond to emails and respond, things that can be really speed up and allow me instead of thinking, the response, or the same response every time allow me to look at the issue and work with the answ...