So You’ve Made a Resolution

Posted on January 21, 2019 by Cathleen Hartnett

Are you tired of hearing about resolutions and fresh starts yet? New year, new you? Nah. I don’t know about you, but I’m not one to wait until January 1 to decide to implement a change. Don’t get me wrong; I am all for setting goals, and if the new year is your time to start, then go for it!

We’re already three weeks into 2019, so I got to thinking about how many people have already broken their resolutions. According to the NY Post, the average person drops their resolution after only a month. Roughly 80% of people fail to keep their resolution, while only 8% follow through with their goals.

Why do you think it’s so hard to keep resolutions? Maybe we set our sights too high, making it almost impossible to reach our goal. Without knowing it, we could be setting ourselves up for failure before we even start. If you’re struggling to stick to your resolution(s), this list may help.

  • Don’t wait for January 1 to make a resolution. Personally, I got tired of making resolutions for the new year, only to fail a few weeks later. I finally decided a few years ago to set a goal for whenever I wanted. In fact, I decided yesterday morning that I wanted to be more consistent with meal planning/preparation, so I spent my afternoon cooking and preparing for the week ahead. So far, so good! Granted, it’s been only a day, but baby steps!
  • Try setting small goals that will eventually add up to a large one. For example: if your goal is to run a marathon this fall and you’ve n ever run a yard, let alone a mile, maybe make a goal to first run a 5k. Then as your endurance increases, you can begin setting goals to run longer distances and be ready for that 26.2 come fall.
  • If you falter, it doesn’t mean you’ve failed. Just because you’ve done something that may cause you to miss your goal, it doesn’t mean you need to give up all hope on that goal. If you find it difficult to stay on track, maybe you should reevaluate your goals. You may have set them too high and need to adjust. That’s okay.
  • Get support from your friends. Depending on your goal, you may be able to rely on your friends to help stay on track. Maybe your goal is to save money, so your friends could help keep you on track by doing a girls night in instead of spending a night out on the town. Or, if you want to just move more, you could meet a friend at the park and catch up on gossip while you walk. I find friends always help when they know you’re working toward something.
  • Do it for you – this may be an obvious one, but make sure you’re making changes and setting goals for you and you only. Don’t do it because “everyone else is doing it”. Peer pressure can make us do a lot of things, but if you’re not doing something because you really want to, you may not stick with your resolution for long.

Hopefully these tips will help you with keeping your resolutions or goals. I wonder if any of the 8% employ some of these tactics when setting their resolutions. Do you have any tips? Please feel free to share in the comments!

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Is Your Budget Ready for the New Year?

Posted on January 9, 2019 by Suzanne Davidson

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been building an application called Budget Buddy. It’s a tool to help our staff to track and manage expenses for their respective teams. It’s been interesting to work on, and I’ve been learning a lot about the budgeting process. Yesterday, as I was knee-deep in Budget Buddy reports, I learned that two of my coworkers are creating personal budgets for themselves this year. What can I say, folks? Sometimes the blog topic finds you and not the other way around…

Why think about your budget?

“I have way more money than I can ever spend!” said no one, ever. Whether you’re at work or at home, the things we want or need sometimes exceed our available cash flow.

My parents have a simple philosophy – if you don’t have the money, don’t buy it. It’s great advice in general, but life sometimes throws you curveballs. You can’t predict these things, of course. If you can, please send me some lottery numbers! But, seriously, by understanding where and how you spend your money, you can arm yourself with the information to afford, for example, that last-minute trip to London.

How do you create a budget?

Here are some basic instructions for creating a budget. These folks say it better than I can, but essentially, it’s making a list of your income and all your planned expenses.

https://www.payoff.com/life/money/5-simple-steps-to-create-a-successful-budget/

I would be remiss in my duties as a Tools person if I didn’t suggest a tool for this. I suggest Excel. Most of us are familiar with it and it’s flexible. Best of all, a number of budget templates have already been created; you just download them and plug in your data. Here’s the link: https://templates.office.com/en-au/Budgets

I found a simple budget template that covers all the basics for personal expense tracking, and I downloaded it, here – http://pmo.dfci.harvard.edu/Budget_Template.xlsx
Feel free to save a copy and make it yours.

Once you plot out your expenses and income, then what? Next, you think about the things you want. This part can be fun. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself:

  • Are you spending too much money on something? Or, is there something you’re spending money on that you would rather not spend money on?
  • What are the things you would like to do this year that cost money? What about in the next 5 years? Do you need to make some spending adjustments to be able to do those things?
  • Do you have an emergency pool of savings in case life doesn’t go to plan?
  • Are you preparing for retirement? (I realize this is a big question, but financial planning is a sort of long-term budget.)

If your $6 latte is a non-negotiable expense, so be it. Creating a budget is not about forcing yourself to give things up. It’s about arming you with the information to manage towards your most important goals.

Anyway, hopefully this post has made you think a little bit about your budget. Whether it’s spending at work or at home I think just being a little more mindful is a good thing. Happy budgeting!

Posted in Planning, Work Life Balance | 1 Comment

Why Do People Make New Year’s Resolutions?

Posted on January 3, 2019 by Sandie Kimball

Why do people make resolutions at New Year’s? I’ve always thought it’s kind of a cliché. How effective are New Year’s resolutions anyway? Shouldn’t we just adjust our lives throughout the year? Theoretically, that sounds like a good idea. But I’m not very good at doing that. I woke up on New Year’s Day feeling blue. After taking some days off in December and enjoying all the holiday cheer, it’s back to the old grind, right?

I didn’t want to let go of the good times I had during those days off—getting together with friends, planning vacations, working in the yard during the unseasonably warm weather. I decided to shake it off by putting on my headphones and going for a long overdue run. It worked. I found myself reviewing everything I had done over the last few days and wanting to improve my life by doing more of the things I enjoy all year long.

Maybe that’s why New Year’s is a good time for resolutions. It’s not about punishing myself for things I’ve left “should have done” in the previous year. It’s about enhancing my life and making it more enjoyable.

For me, making improvements to my life doesn’t just happen. Being a good project manager, I have to plan them. I find this a lot easier to do at work than in my personal life. I set specific, measurable goals at the beginning of each fiscal year and review them regularly. I’ve managed to achieve most of them each year.

But I’m not so good at planning “good times” throughout the year. So, this year, I’ve given in to the cliché and made a few New Year’s resolutions. By the end of the year, I will:

1. Train for and run two 5Ks
2. Use my passport at least once
3. Go on two beach vacations

Do you normally make New Year’s resolutions? What resolutions will you make this year?

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

I once heard a grain of sand say….

Posted on November 28, 2018 by Meagan Turner

I once heard a grain of sand say; “time under reflection gives one the space to think about how to direct one’s anxieties- whether to have them, what to worry about, what to fear, and what to just kind of be okay with…” He was talking about his life, looking back to when he was a boulder, and what has happened along the way. “I think that by the time one becomes a grain of sand, especially a grain of sand as small as I am, there’s not really any place for anxiety. One just kind of accepts that erosion is the only law.” He inspired me. What a powerful way to attach perspective to our ongoing priorities and anxieties.

No, I haven’t lost my mind. I recently was introduced to a podcast called Everything is Alive. The host ‘interviews’ an inanimate object which is played by an actor, but the interaction is unscripted. In episode 7, they interview Chioke, Grain of sand for about 20 minutes. Yeah, I know it sounds odd, but it works.

At various points during the interview, he inspired my thinking around my current work and challenges. The art of project management requires the ability to be agile in your thinking and approach while also being able to prioritize a myriad of issues- all claiming to be high-priority. I don’t believe Chioke would say our aim is to rid ourselves of our anxieties, but rather prioritize what things deserve our attention and time. I could directly apply that to managing the tasks needed when communicating a project schedule, especially the critical path, as well as the entire risk management process. The challenge of the PM and project leadership is to prioritize and communicate the issues as they arise, in the manner needed, while also communicating the overall impact to the project.

The advice from a grain of sand is something that can be applied in all aspects of our lives. As this is a work blog, I thought I’d share a quick thought on how we could apply to projects and work life. I’m interested in your application and comments on the podcast. Let me know if you listen to the episode and what you thought of Chioke.

Posted in Communication, Learning, Planning | 1 Comment

Fascinated by the Hoover Dam

Posted on November 20, 2018 by Ron Munroe

Sounds kind of weird, right? I thought that someday I might visit the Hoover Dam because it is such an iconic structure. But I can’t say it made it to my bucket list. Well, I finally visited. Last month, on a vacation to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon, we took a side trip to it. I was pleasantly surprised that the story of the Hoover Dam project was way more interesting than I expected. Here’s some of what I learned:

  • The Hoover Dam was built primarily to control or prevent the sometimes devasting floods that the Colorado River could cause. However, it was also was built to provide hydroelectric power to portions of Arizona, Nevada and California.
  • It took three decades to conceive of it, pick a location and get funding, but less than five years to build. It was finished 2.5 years ahead of schedule. (The contract called for stiff fines if the project finished late, so where possible work was performed 24 hours a day.)
  • The dam location was in the desert at a place called Black Canyon. Practically, the middle of nowhere. One of the earliest tasks was to build roads to get equipment and people to the site.
  • Because it was so remote, there were few local workers. Thousands of workers came from distant locations to work on the project. “Boulder City”, as it became known, was a town created on federal land to house them.
  • Four huge tunnels almost a mile long were blasted through the surrounding canyon walls to divert the Colorado River around the construction site so they could work. Then they removed the riverbed dirt all the way down to bedrock. The dam’s foundation was directly on bedrock.
  • The dam was to be made from huge amounts of concrete. To efficiently supply it, concrete processing plants were constructed near the dam site.
  • Because it would have taken over a hundred years to cool and dry if the concrete was poured all at once, it was poured in smaller sections about five feet high that could cool faster. That is what gives the dam its light gray brick-like appearance.
  • After the Pearl Harbor attack, it was feared that the Hoover Dam might be sabotaged. A machine gun bunker was built on a hill opposite the dam to defend it.
  • For some reason I thought Harrison Ford’s character in The Fugitive jumped off the Hoover Dam to avoid capture. He didn’t; it was another dam. (One of the tour guides politely confirmed that.)
  • The dam’s hydroelectric plant has 17 generators which on average produce electricity for 1.3 million people in Nevada, Arizona and California. The electricity is mostly to help meet peak demands. The plant’s capacity varies with the level of the river, which currently is low.
  • The Hoover Dam does not rely on tax dollars for funding; it sustains itself from the proceeds from its daily visitors.

I had originally envisioned our visit to be pretty short (the main tour of the power plant lasts only 20 minutes). But they also had self-guided tours which explained how the dam was built, the innovation they were forced to do, and the risks they overcame. That’s the part that hooked us unexpectedly. We ended up spending three hours. Time well spent!

Posted in Planning, Time Management | 3 Comments

Choosing the Right Task Manager

Posted on November 2, 2018 by Tate Forgey

Choosing the Right Task Manager

Part of what we do on the Collaboration and Productivity Tools Team at DFCI is help people find the right tools for their individual workflows. We are fortunate to have many applications available to us, especially for basic functionality like task management. The dilemma is how anyone can decide which application or system is best for them. Before diving into the feature sets of specific tools, it helps to identify the general needs you have as an individual or a team. Here are some questions you may want to ask yourself as you make that assessment:

How will this process reduce friction?
A central feature of any successful system is reducing the effort required to create, modify, and complete tasks. What applications do you currently use and can you create tasks there without switching applications? If so, you are more likely to create and maintain those tasks.

Will I need to use this system with others?

When using task management to collaborate, important features are the ease of communicating updates and making sure everyone has the information they need to complete a task. Consider how you will know if someone has assigned you a task or that the task you pushed to someone else is being worked on.

How will I want to access this system?

For someone who frequently accesses and modifies tasks on the go, the specific functionality of the mobile version of the app may be more important. Make sure you will be able to quickly reference your tasks in the situations you work in most frequently.

What will I want to get out of the system?

If reporting out of the system on your progress is a requirement, you may make a different decision than a simple, personal task list. However, consider carefully how those reports will be used so that you are not entering more information than you need.

Does this make sense to me and how will it help me get things done?

Whether it is a Kanban board, an Agile burndown, or a bulleted list of plain text, people have different preferences for how they want to see their tasks. The most important thing is that the system gets out of your way and helps you focus on the actual work. Like many things in life, the simplest solution is usually the best.

Posted in Planning, Productivity, Time Management | 2 Comments

The importance of face-to-face communication

Posted on October 5, 2018 by Michael Madden

In today’s fast-paced business environment, we are inundated with emails, text messages, and other forms of social media. Technology has greatly changed the way we all work. I remember when I first started working in the business setting when there were no emails and no internet. Rather, we relied on phone calls, telex, and fax machines and most importantly, face-to-face communications.

It’s true that technology has been a great help in allowing us to be more productive and communicate faster and to places on the globe that was never possible before. Today, we can send an instant message to our family who might be on the other side of the world. Family and friends can FaceTime or Skype each other in real time. Similarly, businesses can have video conference calls with international colleagues.

But, with all of this comes some disadvantages. I believe we have lost that human element of building relationships and communications have become sterile and impersonal. Texting is a great example. Texting has become a tool in our society to appease our instant gratification for a quick answer without having to talk to someone. When we text someone, we do not know what they are doing, where they are, what mood they are in, what else they might be doing at the time, etc.

Face-to-face communication can build better working relationships. We get to see each other’s body language and we can build upon our collective energy and passion. This can allow us to boost efficiency and productivity. Countless times, I have seen several emails back and forth to a distribution list that could have been resolved by someone walking over to someone’s desk and asking them the question or even just picking up the phone. I believe face-to-face communications can build trust and team dynamics.

The next time you send an email or text message, ask yourself, “Should I use this opportunity to stop by and talk to this person or pick up the phone and talk to them?” See how they are doing and maybe how you can help. Do you rely on emails and texts for quick answers or do you think there is benefit for face-to-face communications?

Posted in Communication, Productivity, Team, Work Life Balance | Comments Off on The importance of face-to-face communication

The French Paradox

Posted on September 28, 2018 by David Pesta

It starts with the baguette. Everywhere you go in France you will see someone walking down the street with a baguette. Or two or three. Women and men, young and old, everyone, every day. Purchased from their neighborhood boulangerie (bakery), baguettes come in a little paper sack with about a third of it sticking out for all the world to see.

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These are big pieces of bread. And they get a fresh one every day. Why do they need that much bread? It’s great bread, don’t get me wrong. But what are they doing with it? I came to learn that in the morning they eat their baguette with jam or Nutella, and in the afternoon or evening with cheese or pate. Though I did also see children just gnawing on them plain as they walked down the street.

Witnessing the omnipresent baguette was just the first of many observations of food in France. Earlier this month my wife and I spent 12 days visiting France for the first time. French cuisine, like the country itself, is a non-stop deluge of the senses. That is of course one of the main selling points of a vacation in France; you go for the food and wine as much as you go for the Eiffel Tower or the fancy Renaissance castles or the fields of lavender.

The reputation of French cuisine for sublime enjoyment is well-deserved. Everything we ate and drank in France was rich and overwhelmingly delicious. No matter how sophisticated or simple, expensive or modest, each bite of each meal left us in awe.

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French food is excellent, it made me delirious, no wonder Joan of Arc had visions.

After eating this way for a few days, the thought dawned on me, as it inevitably must for all first-time visitors to France: how are all these French people not fat? Everything is butter, wine, cheese, flaky pastry with creme, wild boar with garlicky mushrooms and red wine reduction, chocolate-drizzled chocolate. They eat this way every day. Not only are they not fat, the French are quite fit. Yet very few go to the gym. How is this possible?

This is the very definition of the French Paradox.

The term “the French Paradox” was first coined in the 1980’s in a series of medical studies on the French diet. Rates of coronary disease in France were drastically lower than in many other countries with comparable foods like Finland and the US. That was the paradox. For 30 plus years researchers went back and forth trying to find out why. Red wine is good one year, red wine is bad the next. Cow cheese is bad, but sheep cheese is ok, but only if it comes from Alsace. Honestly the clinical data ping-pong is rather tedious and does not tell the real story of the French Paradox.

Armchair philosophers, chefs, and all-around Francophiles also entered the fray to debate the French Paradox. Myths and merits of French eating habits are frequently discussed now as a matter of culture. And after spending two weeks in France, I can tell you the French have very definite opinions about their culture. The way they see it, these aspects of French culture are reasons why French people are not fat:

eating clean: The French have superior access to fresh produce markets, small-scale natural meat and dairy production, home-cooking, almost no processed chemically-treated foods, and strict food production laws.

alternating meal size: If you eat a heavy meal, you make your next meal a light one.

four meals: The French have a mid-afternoon meal called “le goûter”. It is a light snack but still a sit-down meal, not just a donut at your desk. Knowing you will always have this meal means your other meals do not have to be as heavy.

dense flavor experience: French food is so rich and flavorful that you are thoroughly satisfied by a smaller portion (by American standards). This seems to be the most important aspect of the French diet and the prevailing theory.

Sounds so simple, right? The pre-France vacation version of me might have been skeptical. But when I got home from vacation I discovered something amazing. I had lost 4 pounds while in France. Granted, that’s not much for a mammal my size. But I fully expected to have gained 10 or 12 pounds. I did not hold back when I was there. I indulged whole-heartedly in pastries and wine and crepes and charcuterie (French cold cuts) and cheese (sheep cheese from Alsace truly is a transcendent experience). I should have gained weight. I lost weight. I lived the French Paradox first hand.

After some time contemplating the French Paradox, I have decided the possible answers to the mystery are not even all that important. What is more interesting to me is our reaction to the French Paradox. Because it’s only a paradox if we continue to insist it’s counter-intuitive. We assume a disconnect, we assume a mystery. But when our non-French assumptions conflict with actual French reality, the true problem is those assumptions. All those skinny French people eating baguettes prove it.

To sum up then, I say:

  • keep an open mind, especially about other cultures
  • scrutinize and even distrust your assumptions
  • get yourself some nice French wine and fancy cheese

And you might just lose 4 pounds too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Posted in Lessons Learned, Motivation | 5 Comments

Survivorship Is Not How I Expected It to Be

Posted on September 20, 2018 by Sandra Cadogan-Beebe

I don’t often think about it, but I realized today that this week marks 6 months since I completed the full shebang of cancer treatment here at Dana-Farber. I should have put two and two together when checking in last week for the first of probably many semi-annual blood draws and follow-up visits. I’d like to invoke chemo brain for this oversight, but I think we’re passed that point (file moving past this medical phenomenon in the “great things” bullets below).

Death, taxes, and oncology check-ups – not necessarily in that order!

There are many great things that have happened since I’ve entered this post-treatment survivor phase:

• My hair is back. I missed it. A lot, more than I had realized.

• I work out at the gym more. Okay, you caught me. I never went to the gym pre-cancer but the LiveStrong program at the YMCA got me moving and I’m wearing out sneaks faster than ever now.

• I am making plans for, and participating in, activities I took for granted before. Tomorrow never ever came. For example, I always wanted to attend a concert and more Sox games at Fenway but always procrastinated and begged off opportunities. This month we rocked out with Pearl Jam and then last week suffered through a miserable and lackadaisical loss to the Mets. I always talked about wanting to snowboard but never made the time. Now it’s the goal that drives me to wake up extra early to work out during the week and to get core strong, hoping that the inevitable face plants of a new snowboarder will be just a bit fewer this winter when hitting the slopes for the first time in 23 years.

• I made friends who I hope to know forever and a day more. I LOVE randomly running into my treatment team members at the elevators, hallways, sidewalks, connector bridges, and cafeterias located across the DFCI campuses. During active treatment I met one patient who became a friend with whom I regularly keep in touch. We shared the good and bad along the way, but I do hold the Mets game against Maureen since she gave me her extra ticket and brought me along! I also met a group of seven women one weekend back in December at Mary’s Place by the Sea in Ocean Grove, NJ. It’s a respite house for women with cancer, whether you’re still in treatment or recently finished for whatever reason, good or bad. That group is now only 6. Onto the not so great…

This weekend, to within one day of 6 months post-treatment and to within 3 days of 23 months post-diagnosis, I will travel to NJ to officially say goodbye to the one in the group we lost. She died only 3½ months after the respite weekend. The group is holding a seaside memorial back in Ocean Grove. We’ve been planning Saturday evening’s activities since Michelle earned her angel wings and completed her arduous 3-year brawl with Stage IV pancreatic cancer. Not a day goes by that I can imagine her not physically there with us. She was the magnet that drew our group together and the person whose absence you’d notice first. This is not the reunion we all envisioned when the retreat weekend ended, and we brushed new dusty snow off our cars, hugged goodbye, and proclaimed to see each other again soon.

That’s the hard part of survivorship. For me, it’s not about guilt or the question of, “Why not me?” It’s more the fear of making friends and creating meaningful relationships with people who might not be around longer than I. As I considered registering for the retreat, and then again when I arrived at the retreat house just as lunch was being prepared, I hesitated. I was warmly welcomed by several kind, smiling women. Some outwardly displayed the badges of lengthy cancer fights, others looked healthy and intact. My knee-jerk thought was, “Why am I putting myself in the position of meeting people who might die??!!” In that moment I wanted to run the other way and head back to Massachusetts. Thankfully I was able to pause, take an invisible deep breath, smile, step forward, and introduce myself.

Of course, we are all going to die. Don’t know when, where, how, or why. I read the book When Breath Becomes Air early on in treatment – coincidentally, it was already on my nightstand just collecting dust before I was diagnosed, and I was looking forward to the read. One of the things that still stands out today (chemo brain was in full effect at that point so I’m sure there would have been other standout points to share) was the author asking himself regarding his terminal diagnosis, “Why me?” He came immediately to, “Why not me?” Strangely, remembering this piece from the book served me well as I wended my way through treatment and onto getting back to real life.

Michelle and I kept in touch for the 3½ months post-retreat and had developed a strong bond. She was the first or second person to donate to my DFCI 5K fundraiser back in March, a mere week or two before she suddenly died. Treatment had become ineffective and she was starting to worry that the end was nearing. We texted over Easter and made plans to see each other soon. She texted that she was proud to donate to the BAA 5K in honor of me (this blew me away, she’s dying and I should be running in honor of her fight), ending with, “Beebe, you are clearly Boston Strong, and that [she] would get through this, it’s just another big bump in the road…” Of course, I replied that, “No, dear Michelle, you are Jersey Strong.” She died of complications less than a week later from new metastases to the stomach.

Michelle is a great example of the best and worst part of survivorship for me. I am so grateful I walked through the retreat’s front door in NJ, stayed for those three days, and met these women in the same boat as me. Michelle and I knew quickly we’d be friends for life. I want to say “lifelong” but that sounds wrong to me, it wasn’t long enough.

Survivorship is funny that way. I went through cancer treatment never doubting a positive outcome (we’ll see, I suppose). I had not thought about the joys of survivorship and the renewed opportunities it brings, nor had I thought about the burden of out-surviving those I would meet along the way.

Posted in Accomplishments, Learning, Lessons Learned, Uncategorized | 6 Comments

Pouvons-nous tous parler la même langue?

Posted on August 31, 2018 by Deb Cote

How are your French language skills? I thought mine were fair until a trip to France this month. In the city, mixing English and French was easier with local hospitality workers. In the country, communicating was MUCH more difficult.

BTW, the above translates to, “Can we all speak the same language?”

In Paris, I ordered a glass of wine that my husband translated from metric to a 5-6 ounce glass. The waiter brought me a carafe with the equivalent of a whole bottle. No wonder he asked me how many glasses to bring with it! It would have been fine if we didn’t have an early AM flight.

What happened to the US plan to convert to the metric system in the 1970s? Do you remember the Schoolhouse Rock-like public service announcement? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUXutV6Vk6k
The change was too hard, not required, and was abandoned. In our global world, wouldn’t it be much easier if we all used the same measurements?

On a previous trip to Sorrento, Italy, I tried to mime slipping in the bathtub to the front desk clerk after I nearly bought myself a trip to the emergency room. Charades are not my strong suit. I subsequently downloaded a language translation app, realizing we were too far into Italy for my English (or acting) to be understood. An animated head nod and the appearance of a rubber bath mat showed I bridged the gap.

The classes I teach at Harvard are filled with international students. While they are impressively bilingual and some even trilingual, I still need to avoid clichés, slang, and US-specific references. “Thinking outside the box”, “coming full circle”, and “herding cats” leave many staring at you with blank expressions.

Within our own country and English language, we still don’t speak the same language. The generational differences increase enough that I’ve had to consult the urban dictionary. Did you know that cheddar is money? Rides are now sneakers or shoes? And to hit a lick means to steal something? And slang often changes across regions in the US.

Communicating in a foreign country when two people speak different tongues, or the chasm between generational conversations, isn’t that different than in business when two individuals don’t have the same technical or industry background.

We all use a lot of acronyms (especially millennials because of texting). When working across departments, don’t assume everyone knows what SWOT, VAT, API, SEO, or BTW (see above) means, especially since they could mean different things to different people. Does everyone define digital health the same way? Does bimonthly mean twice a month or every other month?

Bottom line: Terminology, left undefined even in the same language, can lead to confusion, frustration, and errors. Take the time to define and explain any potential slang or industry terms to make a project, work, or just your day go more smoothly. Now THAT’S money.

Posted in Communication, Documentation, Lessons Learned, Team | Comments Off on Pouvons-nous tous parler la même langue?