On the Critical Path

How to Break the Gridlock in Washington and Your Own House

Posted on October 4, 2017 by Tate Forgey

Is compromise a thing of the past? Whether it is the United States Congress or your own home, perhaps you have had the feeling that compromise has become impossible. When it seems that all progress has stopped and there is a complete stalemate, you may ask, “How did we get here?”

There is a process that can inform how we might avoid these kinds of impasses in the first place. It is an approach that can be especially valuable in the workplace and can be seen in the difference between compromise and collaboration.

When you are trying to achieve a goal by brokering a compromise, you are already in a difficult position because the nature of a compromise is subtractive. It means one party needs to give up something they want so that the other party can get something they want. This can lead to people digging in their heels and can also lead to resentment afterwards.

Collaboration, on the other hand, is additive. All the parties work together towards a common goal in an iterative give and take that in the best case scenario results in everyone being able to claim they added something to the solution. If collaboration is so great, why doesn’t everyone do this all the time? Well, some conditions need to exist to make collaboration possible:

Everyone is a partner from the beginning and not a service at the end

Not everyone in a project is going to be a true collaborator. However, if you pull someone in after the goals have already been established and the plan has already been developed, they may have less of an investment than if they were there from the beginning. A collaborator is not someone you bring into a defined project to help get work done. They are someone who gets to help decide how the work gets done in the first place.

The goals and roles are very well defined and agreed upon by all

Even when all the right stakeholders are there from the beginning, the first act of collaboration is to develop a precise, shared vision of what needs to be accomplished and how each party will contribute to realizing that vision. This is the agreement that you will refer to as disagreements arise about how to best get to that goal. The more defined and achievable that goal is, the better chance you will have at a successful collaboration.

Everyone has a commitment to communication and working through issues

Because, let’s be honest, no procedural agreement can completely eliminate differences of opinion. However, if everyone makes a good faith effort that focuses on achieving an agreed upon, concrete outcome in an atmosphere of respect and collaboration, participants have a much better chance of putting aside personal motivations in order to realize a higher goal.

If a piece of legislation is written behind closed doors, bypasses all committees, and is put to the floor for a vote without debate, the only avenue for approval is through compromises and a kind of “horse-trading.” However, in our legislatures, our homes, and in our work environments, a better way may exist. A more collaborative approach may actually cause more friction while projects are being worked on, but it can also inspire more engagement, more novel thinking, and more investment in the final outcome. So, next time you are bemoaning the gridlock in Washington and elsewhere, think about how you can act more collaboratively in your own teams.

Posted in Planning, Productivity, Team | Comments Off

About July and August

Posted on September 13, 2017 by David Pesta

As summer ends, my thoughts about the months of July and August are likely different than most folks. Here is a little brain teaser to explain what I mean.

An octopus is an animal with 8 arms. An 8-sided geometric figure is called an octagon. So why is October the 10 month of the year?

A decade is 10 years. A decathlon is a sport with 10 separate events. Yet December is somehow the 12^th month of the year. Why is that? What is going on with our calendar? Who broke time as we know it?

The ancient Romans, it turns out. I only know this because I spent most of 2017 slogging my way through “SPQR” by Mary Beard, a 750 page history of ancient Rome (don’t ask why, I’m just weird like that).

When Rome ruled much of the ancient world, the calendar was originally a 10-month year. In that system, September through December were the 7^th, 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th months of the year. That makes sense, or at least the names do. They use the Latin prefixes that we recognize today as part of most modern Western languages (thus a decathlon consists of 10 events, etc.).

The trouble though with the original Roman calendar was that it was lunar in nature. A month equaled a single cycle of the moon and a year equaled 355 days. As you might expect, this caused all kinds of problems. Predicting the start and end of the seasons was almost impossible. Any task dependent on an accurate accounting of when you were in time suffered great confusion. Agricultural production, maritime commerce, and military expeditions were just a few of Rome’s vital functions often thrown out of whack by the lunar scheme.

To reset their clocks to match reality, an arcane configuration of leap months was haphazardly slapped into their calendar. Every 6-8 years, 2 additional months were added to the old calendar to bring it into alignment with the seasons. But even those corrective measures often failed when politicians, mystics, and amateur mathematicians meddled in the calculations. In modern terms, it was the equivalent of an Outlook calendar created by deranged circus clowns.

In 45 BC, Julius Caesar, the first true emperor of Rome, sought to end this anarchy. He converted the Roman empire to a solar calendar model, one that is nearly identical to our modern calendar. He learned of this system in Egypt where it had already been used successfully for centuries. As emperor, Caesar was unencumbered by the Senate or anything resembling the rule of law, and therefore could modify time itself. He added 2 new permanent months to the existing Roman calendar. That bumped September through December ahead causing the prefix discrepancy.

He also modified the length of each month so that a total year equaled 365 days. The convoluted leap months were eliminated. Now only a single extra day was needed every 4 years at the end of February to make human time aligned to the seasons. That’s right, Julius Caesar invented Leap Years.

Upon the death of Julius Caesar in 44 BC, the 7^th month of the calendar was renamed “July” in his honor. In 27 BC, his grand-nephew Augustus Caesar became emperor. At this point you can probably guess what happened to the original name of the 8^th month. They did not even bother to wait for his death to honor him. The name was changed to “August” in 8 BC midway through the reign of Augustus.

Julius Caesar and his calendar reforms did not break time. In fact he fixed it. In doing so, he handed down to us an air-tight timekeeping system so efficient it has lasted over 2,000 years and is the norm to this day.

I have invested a lot of free time recently in working my way through “SPQR”, for good or for ill. Ancient Rome has wormed its way into a corner of my brain and I could easily write another 10 pages on the insights I’ve gained from the book (don’t worry, I won’t). The overall impression I’m left with is how much of that world still exists today, forming the cornerstone of our reality. The concepts, systems, language, ideas, and ideals of Ancient Rome permeate our modern world, and mostly without us even knowing it.

For my part at least, I doubt I’ll ever spend another September reflecting on my summer without remembering how July and August came to be in the first place.

Posted in Learning, Time Management | 4 Comments

Sleeping on the Right Side of the Bed and Other Lessons Learned

Posted on August 21, 2017 by Deb Cote

Lessons are learned on projects throughout their lifecycle, and we encourage people to document them as they occur, otherwise they will be forgotten. Lessons are also learned in life, and in trying to capture some lessons before they’re lost, I’m noting some recent ones from vacation.

After having slept only two hours the previous night before our trip to North Carolina, I decided to call it an early night after our flight, two-hour drive to the resort, and dinner. The room had two beds. I usually sleep on the right side of the bed, so in my state of exhaustion, I looked at the bed on the right and figured – same thing. The nightstand was in the middle of the two beds and I *need* my phone and watch next to me, so I figured that the left side of the right bed was the correct spot. You would think after only two hours of sleep, I would’ve woken up just in time for our flight home Monday, four days later. But I barely slept. The next night, no better. I asked my husband, and he didn’t sleep great either. I concluded we were on the wrong sides of the bed. The third night we drove two hours back to be closer to the PGA event we were attending. I slept better in that Marriott Courtyard than I did the previous two nights at a luxe resort in the Asheville mountains.

Lesson learned: Change is good, but not always needed. Sleep on the right side of the bed.

Vacation showed me just how tied to my desk I am. I’m not a particularly active person at home except on days I run. On vacation, even on days we didn’t do much, I usually hit my move goals (which believe me, the bar is low) just by doing a few leisurely things. My job is very sedentary. Today for example, as I write this, it’s noon and I’ve only moved 2% of my goal, gotten one minute of exercise, and can only miss one more hour of standing or will miss that goal as well.

Lesson learned: Be more cognizant of moving. Stop hitting snooze or dismiss on my watch when it reminds me to stand. Walk more during the day. Team members: Anyone want to do a walking 1-on-1, a la Steve Jobs? (This offer expires when the thermometer goes below 60.)

To offset all that moving on vacation, I ate a lot more. But I ate better, because we ate meals. (Are we the only ones whose vacation revolves around food?) On workdays, I eat at odd times or skip meals altogether because of meetings or I stay way past dinner. OK I lied. I don’t skip meals if M&Ms and Hershey nuggets can be categorized as lunch or dinner.

Lesson learned: On workdays, plan meals like I plan work and meetings. (IOW, pretend I’m on vacation.)

I’m always online. Phone, laptop, tablet, watch… work and personal. I’m always connected. Admittedly I don’t hate it. But, my husband does when I’m on vacation. We spent our first day in an incredible spa at the mountain resort. From the moment we checked in, we were instructed to turn off devices. And if the signs and staff reminders weren’t enough, the rock walls stopped my service.

Lesson learned: Work, my mother, and Groupon can live without me for 8 hours. Maybe 6.

In many other aspects of vacation, I need to be connected. Scan bar code for airline check-in. Show my car reservation code. Use GPS to get to resort. Obsessively check the weather at every location we’ll be going to a few times an hour. Take hubby’s photo in front of the cool car. Pay with PayPal. Look up amenities on the resort web site. Find the hotel reservation number. Book an OpenTable dinner reservation. Download and use the PGA app during the championship. Tell husband to stop posting photos on Facebook like a high school girl. And leaving the PGA with tens of thousands of people, follow their recommendation to use Uber. With two phone battery packs, I had just enough power to order an Uber. I was surprised at my fare, which included a tip, peak surcharge, and event fee. I’m fairly certain a traditional cab would’ve been less and I wouldn’t have had to wait in a chaotic Uber lot the PGA set up in a church parking lot.

Lesson learned: While the trend of renting out yourself, your car, your home, and your stuff continues, laws of (reality? taxes? convenience?) are reducing the cost savings. Don’t assume the cool apps are less expensive anymore; shop around.

I have so many more lessons I took away, but one work lesson I’ve learned is, keep blog posts to a readable length. Instead, please share one of your lessons learned. After all, their value is in sharing.

PGA Championship 2017, Quail Hollow

Posted in Accomplishments, Lessons Learned, Work Life Balance | 3 Comments

Nine Months Later

Posted on August 1, 2017 by Sandra Cadogan-Beebe

A few weeks ago, my colleague Michael Madden published his blog entry “Ten Years Later and Three Beautiful Daughters,” a detailing account of his ALL leukemia journey, fought right here at Dana-Farber a few years before he became an employee. Since we are team members in the Project Management Office I already knew some of his story, shared two years ago this month while his adorable daughters splashed away in the pool at an annual summer BBQ we both attended. A few weeks before Michael’s blog was posted he shared with me more details of his story, and this time I was in the position of being able to relate in the first person. I had joined the illustrious and unpopular “I have cancer” club.

I can’t recall without consulting my Outlook calendar the exact day in November when I received THE CALL from YC-9 and was given the definitive diagnosis that I was sick. But, just as I can tell you where I was on 9/11 and when the space shuttle Challenger exploded, I can tell you exactly where I was when I answered the oncologist’s call – 10BP parking garage heading up for, and now late to, a new project meeting for inpatient billing.

Much of this journey is a blur to me. Nine months seems so long ago, much less ten years! A lot has happened during this time, for a while at a rapid “we are tackling this hard” pace. My cancer chose to be aggressive so, touché cancer, so would we! More tests were performed and consults heard. Oncologists, Surgical Oncologists, Reconstructive Surgeons, Genetic Counselors, Nutritionists, Social Workers. Looking back, I’m not sure how much I really “heard” and am quite thankful for the notebook faithfully written into by my super-strong wife. The vows we spoke at sunset nearly seven years ago, in the witness of family and friends, at Beacon Hill’s Liberty Hotel have held fast and true:” for better or for worse, in sickness and in health…” Yes, we sure did invoke these vows with this unexpected life event.

Within a month of diagnosis and of affirming an eighteen-month treatment plan, I had an IV access power port inserted just below my right clavicle. No more needle sticks for me – bonus! I somehow managed to inject some humor into the process, entirely unintended. Since I was scheduled to receive chemo on the same day as surgery for the access port, I was post-procedure transported in a wheelchair from Brigham outpatient recovery to DFCI infusion via the connector bridge. I was still feeling woozy from the anesthesia and in a pretty good mood overall. So much so that, somewhere between the connector bridge and the Yawkey elevators I spotted one of DFCI’s desktop technicians with whom I had tangentially worked in the past and decided it was the perfect time to give him a high five. I only remembered this some hours later and I’m sure to this day he has no idea who that patient was or why she did that! Sorry Joellyn, that was me, I hope I didn’t rattle your tech and hope he got a laugh with the Desktop Services team over at the Galleria office space!

After many weeks of chemotherapy, surgery, radiation, and infusion for another eight months to come I can say I’ve managed to insert a little humor here and there, usually when more awake than during that unfortunate wheelchair incident. The humor is more likely in response to treatment-related fears and dislikes, an attempt to minimize the impact of some of the temporary changes I’ve experienced.

1. Unfortunately, for now I am pretty much bald. My hair follicles are randomly pugnacious and many have refused Taxol’s and Adriamycin’s one-two punch. Not to the extent that the change is unnoticed. It’s significant. I figured out quickly that the wig for which I searched high and low, that I HAD to have, was not for me. Nor are 99% of the head-coverings available. They are just not me. Why I think it’s better to just call out my baldness and refer to it as having a Charlie Brown head is beyond me. It’s not even that round. In short, NO ONE thinks this is funny.

2. Adriamycin chemotherapy is…HORRIBLE. There is no way else to say it. I had no preconceived notions going into that phase of treatment. Taxol was not great, nor was Perjeta, but we got through it mostly unscathed and emotionally intact. The nurses assured me everyone was different with how they tolerate each drug and to this day I believe them and would believe them again. I went into Adriamycin day one confident and ready to roll. I’ll repeat: Adriamycin chemotherapy is…VERY HORRIBLE. Not only did it make me feel horrible, worse after each dose, but even how it looks is…what is the word I’m looking for? Yes…HORRIBLE. In five months, nothing impacted my mostly great attitude except this wonderfully effective yet gnarly drug. It’s a viscous red. It looks like Kool Aid. You want me to put that where? In my body?! It doesn’t hang from a bag and drip into your IV line like everything else I’d seen so far. The nurse sits and manually delivers it via syringes – in my case, three big syringes – into your line, it’s that serious. Seeing my attitude waiver after dose #1, the nurse hid the syringes under an opaque towel but I had already seen them. I wasn’t going to forget! I joked to the nurse, “it looks like hummingbird food.” She laughed and the cute hummingbird description made me feel better for about five seconds. Who was I kidding? I was emotionally traumatized, this drug should have PTSD listed as a side effect! Only after my Adriamycin treatments were complete, forever complete, did I learn that it’s referred to as Red Devil Chemo. You can even Google it. Glad I didn’t know. I think going forward someone somewhere will use my hummingbird food description again. I hope it makes someone somewhere laugh.

3. My last regularly used attempt at humor gets a laugh but isn’t funny at all, I’m being dead serious. I came to DFCI as an employee in early 2014, ending a nearly 15-year consulting career that tallied close to a million miles flown and tens of thousands of business miles driven. I could have professionally ended up anywhere. Now I like to (half) joke, “thank God I didn’t go work at Starbucks!” I’ve been grateful to DFCI for the work I get to do each day these last few years; I’m now grateful to DFCI for taking care of me during this very strange journey!

Only half of my treatment plan is complete so I’m not yet done with the radiation, infusions, doctor’s appointments, making bad jokes, and pondering what lies ahead. Some things have changed for me because of this diagnosis and I don’t quite like all the changes. Some are permanent and some will continue to recede over time. Well, except for my hair. Recede would be a bad word. My hair is starting to grown back in! But, the changes, they’re ok. I know what the alternative is. Thankfully, not a lot has been taken from me, nothing I can’t live without, anyway.

Michael Madden sent a warm and compassionate note upon my return from medical leave back in June. It’s not necessary to share its contents. Michael had closed his blog entry with “…stay positive, enjoy every day as a gift…” For me, these words suffice.

Back in the saddle, two months’ post-surgery

Posted in Accomplishments, Motivation, Uncategorized, Work Life Balance | 5 Comments

It Takes Chutzpah

Posted on July 24, 2017 by Sandie Kimball

A friend was recently telling me about the unexpected twists and turns she encountered on a weekend trip she had been planning for months. A last-minute, unexpected event delayed her departure date. I said: “So you had to pay a change fee?”, and she said: “I called the airline and told them it was a hardship. They waived the change fee and found another flight.”

When she arrived at her hotel, she presented her hotel-chain loyalty card. I said: “I never think about doing that. It seems like too much trouble,” and she said: “The front desk clerk announced that I had been chosen VIP loyalty customer of the day and I received a free upgrade to a fabulous suite.”

Finally, on the day she was returning home, she had a couple of hours to spare before leaving for the airport. She thought she could use the time to take in one of the local attractions, but the time for obtaining tickets had passed. I said: “Oh, that’s too bad,” and she said: “No. I saw a park ranger standing there and told her I’d really like to see this attraction before returning home. Was there anything she could do for me? She handed me a ticket for the next tour group.”

“How in the world did you get so lucky?” I exclaimed. “It never hurts to ask,” she said.

My mother used to say, “Boy, that person really has chutzpah” when they asked for something above and beyond what was offered. She was big on following the rules as they were laid out, and this apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

How often have I missed out on something because I think it does hurt to ask? I’m a risk-averse person, and my strategy for addressing the risk of being rejected is AVOID. If I’m not sure a business offers a AAA discount, I’d rather pay full price than to ask and be turned down. I avoid yard sales that don’t have tags on the merchandise because I hate to haggle over price. And car shopping . . . don’t get me started.

But could my lack of chutzpah be holding me back?

I looked up some synonyms for the word and found it has both positive (boldness, self-confidence, self-assurance) and negative (impudence, rudeness, pushiness) connotations. I think it’s weird that one word can be seen in two such different ways. Why not just choose to see it in the positive rather than the negative light?

For instance, as a project manager, I frequently have to learn new aspects of the organization or software because I’m not an expert in the product of the project. I will often hesitate to suggest a new way of looking at something, because I think I don’t know enough about the subject to offer an opinion. But at times I have chosen to do it anyway, and the worst that happened was that people rejected the idea. Who’s to say that people didn’t appreciate my boldness rather than judge me for my pushiness?

I’m going to promise myself that the next time I feel afraid of being pushy, rude, or impudent, I’ll picture myself as self-confident, self-assured, and bold instead. I’m hoping to uncover some unexpected opportunities in the process.

Posted in Lessons Learned, Motivation, Productivity | 2 Comments

Ten years later and three beautiful daughters

Posted on July 17, 2017 by Michael Madden

Ten years ago, on July 6, 2007, I should have been happy when I heard these words: “Hi Michael, yeahhhhh, is it a boy or a girl”? These were the words from my family who along with everyone else were thrilled to be welcoming the birth of our first child. “Actually, that’s not why we are calling you. We are calling to let you know some bad news – that I have just been diagnosed with cancer, ALL leukemia.”. After announcing these words, there was silence on the other end of the phone, and then crying. Friends and family could not believe the news, especially with my wife being nine months pregnant.
The doctors emphasized that this was an acute disease and that I would have to be admitted into the hospital immediately for at least 30 days. They outlined their suggested treatment plan: a new, two-year clinical trial that was showing some promising early results. They also made it very clear that the next two years would not be easy. I would endure chemotherapy at times on a daily basis, radiation, bone marrow biopsies, lumbar punctures, blood transfusions, endless medications, 60 lbs. of weight loss, etc., and would be out of work for an extended period of time. This was a complete shock to us and I wondered how we would cope with my wife nine months pregnant, me being out of work for a long time, and getting chemo and radiation treatments for the next two years. In addition, we were also informed that we would probably never be able to have children again due to the high doses and frequency of chemotherapy treatments.
Our first daughter Charlotte was born exactly a week later on July 13, 2007. I was in surgery that day getting a Hickman line installed. That’s the line used to administer chemotherapy and to draw blood. I still have my scar to remind me of the day. Because of that surgery, I was almost not allowed to leave the hospital that day to be with my wife when she was giving birth in a different hospital almost 25 miles away. After some lengthy negotiations, I was granted a temporary leave but had to be back to Brigham and Women’s Hospital by midnight at the latest or else I would be in jeopardy of being removed from the clinical trial. So, at around 10 p.m. that night with my wife in labor, I had to apologize and leave her. When I got the chemotherapy around 11 p.m., I made my way back to Beverly Hospital and missed the birth of our first child by about 15 minutes. I stayed there for the next several hours cherishing everything we had but knew that I would have to leave and be re-admitted into hospital for the next several weeks.
The next two years were tough, very tough. The low point was the following July when I was admitted into the intensive care unit with PCP pneumonia. I can honestly say that was the longest night of my life and the doctors even told my family to go in and say goodbye because there is nothing else we can do for him. When I heard this, I thought of my wife Sara and daughter Charlotte and said there is no way this is happening to me tonight. The physical and mental stress of those two years is nothing that words will ever describe.
My wife Sara was amazing and if not for her too, I would not be here today. She made the one-hour trip into Boston to see me in the hospital every day and always made sure to bring Charlotte along. This gave me the strength and energy that I needed to keep fighting. My parents sold their house in Vermont and moved closer to us, and my family was always close by to help out. My brother John even camped out in the room with me for a month! Everyone at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Brigham and Women’s Hospital were amazing. A huge thank you to Dr. Sirulnik and Dr. Wadleigh, PA Adrianna, and the best nurses anywhere – Kristin, Marsha, and Heather.
Now, ten years later, we have three daughters: Charlotte, Margaret, and Brigid. I also have the privilege to work at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as a project manager. Last winter was one of the happiest of my life as Charlotte, Margaret, and I spent almost every weekend skiing and snowboarding in New Hampshire and Maine. I watched them begin as novices to grow into skiing/snowboarding black diamond runs by the end of the season. Charlotte skis and Margaret of course does the opposite, snowboarding. 🙂 Sara continues to be an amazing wife and is still busy with our one-year-old daughter, Brigid. Life is good again.
I promised myself that if I am still here in ten years that I would ride the Pan Mass Challenge to raise funds for Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Thankfully I am still here and am planning to ride the Pan Mass Challenge bike ride in August to support the excellent work of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The ride is 192 miles over two days. I am undertaking this bike ride and fundraising so that others can get a second chance as I have to enjoy their life with friends and family. If it were not for previous riders and other contributors to Dana-Farber, I would not be here today writing this story. Please, consider contributing, even a small contribution helps.
To view my profile page on the Pan Mass Challenge website please visit: http://profile.pmc.org/MM0758
Thank you all again, stay positive, enjoy every day as a gift, and go raibh mile maith agat (thank you in Gaelic).
Michael, Sara, Charlotte, Margaret, and Brigid

Posted in Accomplishments, Motivation, Planning, Team, Training, Work Life Balance | 4 Comments

Politics in the Workplace

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Cathleen Hartnett

Growing up, my parents told me there are two topics you should avoid discussing at work: religion and politics. While I encourage open and honest discussion among colleagues, I almost always try to steer clear of topics which can cause such polarizing opinions – mainly politics.

With the recent election, however, it was almost impossible not to have some sort of conversation about politics while standing around the water cooler. A comment here and there is fine; I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t guilty of making remarks about a candidate. However, if you’re like me, you become uncomfortable when your colleagues begin discussing a candidate’s antics during last night’s debate or their stance on border patrol – whether or not you agree with their comments.

While political conversations seem to be less frequent now than during the past six months, I thought I’d share a few guidelines I like to follow when it comes to discussing politics in the workplace:

Be respectful. This seems obvious, but I often find politics can cause tempers to flare, which can lead to people behaving in a way they wouldn’t normally. Just be sure to have respectful, courteous conversations; speak in a manner you would expect to be spoken to.
Ask permission. Sounds simple, right? Between the news and Facebook, I tend to feel inundated by political talk. Just a quick “Do you mind chatting about __________?” shows you respect your colleagues’ time as well as their boundaries.
Keep it light. Like I said, I’m guilty of making political comments in the office, but I always try to keep them on the lighter side. I mean, there were quite a few hilarious jokes this past election, so it was hard not to repeat a few of them! I don’t think many of your colleagues want to have a lengthy, heated discussion about renewable energy resources, but if they do, maybe you should consider going out to lunch to discuss.
It’s okay to disagree. Another obvious one, but I am sure there will be times when you and your colleague just won’t come to an agreement about politics. That’s completely okay; just agree to disagree.

I think if we keep these guidelines in mind, then we may be able to forget the old “don’t discuss religion and politics at work” mindset and have honest, open, and respectful conversations about politics.

What are your thoughts on discussing politics in the workplace? Yeah or nay? Any guidelines you’d recommend?

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Should we have cell phone etiquette at work?

Posted on June 13, 2017 by Suzanne Davidson

I love my cell phone. It’s rarely out of my reach and I’ve come to rely on it for practically everything. I’m not the only one with these codependency issues. I know this because I see and hear cell phones everywhere at work now.

But just because we have them, and we love them, does it mean anything goes? Can it go too far? I believe it can, and sadly, that it does.

So, I’d like to submit a few guidelines for consideration:

Keep your ringer on silent.
You may love “Everything is AWESOME!!!,” but I don’t need to hear it playing loudly, over and over, when you step away from your desk. Not awesome.
Remember that you’re not in a sound-proof bubble.
If you’re concentrating on a call, it’s probably all you are focused on. But over in the next cube, it’s all I can hear, even if I’m not trying to listen. I’m glad your kitty cat has a clean bill of health, really. But if you have a private matter to discuss, you might want to find an empty conference room.
Moderate your phone use in a meeting.
We’ve all been guilty of taking a quick peek. But if you are drafting the Magna Carta on your phone, I’m pretty sure you aren’t listening to me.
Don’t make phone calls from the rest room.
Why do people do this? I first think that they are talking to me, which is awkward, and then when I realize that they aren’t, I’m afraid of interrupting. Do I flush? Just, please, don’t put me or anyone else in this position.
Be careful what you share.
Just because you have everything at your fingertips doesn’t mean that it’s all appropriate to show your coworkers. For example – I’d love to see your vacation photos. Unless you are wearing a lampshade and swim trunks. Maybe don’t show me that one.

What do you readers think? Anyone disagree? Any pet peeves to add to the list?

Posted in Communication, Lessons Learned, Productivity, Work Life Balance | 5 Comments

Cheesy

Posted on June 6, 2017 by Meagan Turner

I was thinking and talking about cheese with my sister, as we often do. Recently, we discovered this delicious cheddar cheese wheel that had crystals in it. The tiny delicious crystals give the cheese a delightfully sharp crunch. The crystals form over the 15-year shelf life. My sister’s reply, “What willpower…”. I agree. Those first fifteen years of making that cheese must be the hardest. Building something over a number years isn’t easy. It takes work, sacrifice, and arduous tasks. There will be great years, terrible ones, and every shade between. During that time, there is learning, growth, and improvement. That first year that the cheese is ready, you get to reap the benefits of all that work and sacrifice. It’s a life’s work- it takes passion and drive. It takes a love for cheese and the need to share that cheese with others.

Does passion grow from the work? Would you still have the same level of passion for the cheese without having put in the 15 years to age it? What if you were handed said cheese business into year 30? Its growth and experience are now seen in the products. Can you still truly appreciate and have a passion for the cheese if you didn’t work to learn, build and/or improve it yourself? Or do you take for granted the time that went into it??

I must admit that I don’t know the first thing about opening a cheese shop. I am glad, however, that there are those that do and care enough to share the cheesy results. Now, on to finding a passion of my own… maybe it can involve eating cheese.

Posted in Accomplishments, Learning | Comments Off

Does It Really Take 21 Days to Form a Habit?

Posted on May 22, 2017 by Ron Munroe

Years ago, an executive at my previous employer said that he read that it takes 21 days to establish a habit. I thought that was interesting and, while I didn’t look into it, the memory stuck with me. Recently, I saw a best-selling book on Amazon called The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business, by Charles Duhigg. That stoked my interest in the subject of habits and prompted me to explore it further this time around. So I bought the book, but first did some web reading to check whether the 21-day factoid has any merit.

I found explanations of the 21-day habit phenomenon that the executive cited. It turns out that a cosmetic surgeon named Dr. Maxwell Maltz, who practiced in the 1950s, observed a pattern among his patients. It took them at least 21 days to get used to their changed appearance after plastic surgery. He also found, in his own personal experience outside of work, that it took him a minimum of 21 days to establish a new habit.

In 1960, Maltz published that observation and other thoughts on behavior-change in a book called Psycho-Cybernetics. The book sold more than 30 million copies. The 21-day phenomenon was further popularized in other books in subsequent decades. Self-help authors, including Zig Ziglar and Anthony Robbins, misinterpreted Maltz’s quote as simply: “It takes just 21 days to form a new habit.” And the 21-day myth was born.

It is so tempting to want to believe it though – 21 days seems like a modest amount of time to make a change in one’s life. New Year’s resolutions would be much more successful if it was possible to cement new habits by just focusing on them every day for 21 days into the new year. But the sobering news is that the subject of habits has by now been formally studied and the more recent research shows that it takes a minimum of 66 days for a new behavior to become automatic and, depending on the behavior, the person and the circumstances, it could take much longer – up to 254 days for some cases.

That curiosity satisfied, I moved onto the book. I had heard over the years that a substantial number of our behaviors are unconscious, driven by habits. A Duke researcher in 2006 had accumulated data to back that up. He found that more than 40 percent of the actions people do each day weren’t decisions, but habits. Habits are choices that all of us make deliberately at first, but then over time we stop thinking about them, and keep doing them. We stopped making a choice and they became automatic.

The habit process is a three-step loop. First there is a cue, a trigger that tells your brain to go in automatic mode and which habit to use. The second step is the routine, which is the action or behavior, which can be physical or mental or emotional. Finally, there is a reward, which helps your brain figure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future. Over time the loop becomes more automatic. The cue and reward can become combined into a powerful anticipation. The more the cue triggers the craving of the reward, then the more likely that the routine becomes a habit.

For example, say someone wants to develop the habit of running every morning. The cue could simply be that upon waking up, the first thing that the person thinks of is running. The routine in this case is to do the run. The third step is the reward, which could be the sense of accomplishment or just feeling good – the runners high. The craving might involve already anticipating the sense of accomplishment before even starting the run, thus reinforcing the regularity of the habit.

Positive habits can be the basis for the success of a world class athlete, like Michael Phelps, who used visualization as a powerful daily tool to both relax and rehearse successful races in his head in moment-by-moment detail. In one Olympic race, his goggles filled with water and he was blinded, but he won the race anyway because he had rehearsed how he would handle this situation many times in his head.

Some habits tend to have a ripple effect that yield more positive changes. Studies have looked at the impacts of exercise on daily routines. When people start regularly exercising, they start changing other, unrelated patterns in their lives. Typically, people who exercise start eating better and becoming more productive at work. They also tend to be more patient with others and less stressed. For many, exercise is a foundational habit that triggers wider change. Another example, making your bed every morning, is correlated with greater productivity and a greater sense of well-being. (Retired Navy Seal William McRaven agrees. He just released a book called Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life… And Maybe the World.) These core good habits can start a chain reaction that help other good habits take hold.

Finally, while the book was great for learning about habits and how they form, it also had some great anecdotes which I had not heard before. Here are a few:

Cinnabon positions their mall stores away from the food courts where most of the food vendors are. The reason is the scent of their cinnamon rolls is a powerful attraction; they want their store isolated so that the cinnamon roll smell is prominent and people are drawn to it from a distance.
Pepsodent became the first successful toothpaste, but almost by accident. The inventor added some ingredients to make it taste fresh, but they had another unintended effect. They were also irritants that happened to create a cool, tingling sensation on the tongue and gums. Customers came to associate that tingling with clean teeth. If it wasn’t there, their mouths didn’t feel clean. Competitors copied them and to this day most toothpastes contain additives that make your mouth tingle.
Foaming is important for users of shampoos, toothpaste and laundry detergents. It does not add to their cleaning ability, but customers feel better if they see suds during cleaning. If it’s not there, they assume the product is not working.
NFL Coach Tony Dungy turned around a losing football team, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, using a philosophy focused on changing players’ habits so that they would respond automatically and therefore more quickly to cues on the field. To implement this approach, the team had a relatively small selection of plays in their playlist compared to other NFL teams. But they practiced them so many times that the players could respond on the field without thinking, giving them a speed advantage over competitors.
Retail stores are designed around our habits. Most grocery stores have the produce section right inside the front door. This is because once we load our carts with healthy food, we feel freer to spend more money on the less healthy food in the rest of the store. Also, it is well known among retailers that most shoppers entering a store will turn right. Because of this stores will position some of the more profitable products to the right of the entrance.

It was satisfying to learn more about habits. Like many, I’ve found it very hard to try to stop bad habits or form new positive ones. But the book was reassuring that it can be a little easier if you are more aware of the cues and rewards that control them.

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