Is your IT department your savior, your enemy or something in between? It might be all those things, but have you ever compared your Head of Technology to Sauron, the bad guy from Lord of the Rings? I was talking to a client the other day about the challenges remote workers face and the subject of IT came up. The client made an observation that I hadn’t heard, but it struck a … [Read more...]
Team Collaboration Tools Prove We Don’t Deserve Nice Things
When you were a kid and you broke something, or treated your parents’ property with disrespect, were you told, “This is why we can’t have nice things”? It’s the same idea with technology and team collaboration tools. The tools are (mostly) fine. People are the problem. When we talk to our clients about the challenges to team productivity, there are a lot of complaints about … [Read more...]
Welcome to Productivity Theater
How much time do you spend proving to others that you’re working when you’re not in the office? This sounds silly, but my long-time colleague, Jessica Stillman wrote an article for INC.com recently that gave a name to that behavior: Productivity Theater. Productivity Theater is engaging in behaviors that aren’t terribly productive but give the appearance of working hard. A … [Read more...]
A Curmudgeon Looks Back on Email
When people complain about email, I get it. You’re working from home and the barrage of pinging, flashing icons and messages piling up never seems to stop. We hear all kinds of moaning about the volume, lack of clarity, and just plain rudeness in people’s inboxes. Those are all legitimate complaints. But I am old enough to remember the “before times.” I was around before … [Read more...]
Emojis, GIFs, and Avoiding Confrontation
Do you find yourself using emojis, GIFs and other electronic symbols in your writing more than you used to? Do you love them or hate them? Have you ever sent an emoji or GIF and it didn’t mean what you thought it meant? (Eggplants mean what?) Like it or not, the way we communicate is undergoing a change. Pros and cons of written communication You are part of an evolution in … [Read more...]