Tip: Setting Reminders for others

I am often asked to give reminders to others...Please remind me to 'do x' later in the week.

There was a time not so long ago, when I found this quite frustrating..especially with all the technology out there that can give your reminders...from Outlook to Yahoo and Google Calendar.

Anyway, now all I do is when someone says "Please remind me to...". I just setup a delayed message in Outlook with a 'follow-up' flag.

Example:


And that's it...Now when the specified time arrives, my outlook sends out the message to his/her INBOX, and then the reminder pops up in their calendar..

I look like I'm great at remembering things (which I'm not) and they get the reminder they requested.

7 Tips for meeting effectiveness

Probably, everyone attends meetings. Many people never find they accomplish much of anything..some might say they make things even more confusing.

Here are some thoughts on how to get the best out of a meeting: (and leave the worst behind)

1) Where applicable, it is recommended that departmental meetings be organized by the departmental head or their delegate.

2) Define the responsibilities of meeting attendees and meeting organizer in an SOP (Standard Operating Procedure). See Example

3) This SOP must be clearly communicated and understood by all employees in the company.

4) Meeting requests should be generated at least 1 working day before the meeting is to start. Where this is not possible it is important that the meeting organizer receive verbal acknowledgement from all attendees since they may not have had the chance to see the meeting request.

5) Employees should keep their electronic Calendars as up-to-date as possible. This is because meetings requests are scheduled based on employee time available which can not accurately be determined for calendars which are not current.

6) Where meetings require deliverables there must be sufficient time allocated between the meeting request and the meeting start date. This should be determined verbally by the meeting organizer and attendees before the meeting request is sent out.

7) Inability to attend a re-occurring meeting should be given to the meeting organizer at least 4 working days before the meeting date. Deliverables should be completed as much as possible in advance and delivered to the meeting organizer prior to the meeting starting.

The phrase ‘well in advance’ varies depending on the circumstances surrounding the absence. In general, for meetings generated 3 or more days in advance, communication should occur no less than 1 working day before meeting commencement. (emergency circumstances excluded). For meetings generated less than 3 days in advance communication should be as soon as possible to avoid conflicts with other personal/resources, etc.

Tips to Improve the Effectiveness Meetings:

Please consider the following checklist when setting a meeting. This items have been carefully generated to ensure that the most is made of a meeting. You may wish to print of this page for reference.

• Have a clear objective

What is the purpose of the meeting, what information to you hope to attain ?,what message to you want to convey ?, what problem are you trying to solve ?,

• Don’t have the meeting

Can it be done a better way ?, Are there alternatives to communicating the information (phone call, email, etc.) Are the right people at my meeting, Is it the right time ?, Is it the right place ?

• Have an agenda.

The agenda should include all of the items to be covered in the meeting. Try to get the agenda in the hands of the attendees at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting. The agenda should also give the attendees the ‘type of meeting’:

Is this a presentation ?, You talk others listen ?

Is this a brainstorming session ?

(Free flowing ideas, thought bubbles ?)

Is this a review meeting (project, design, work done) ?

(Information Gathering)
What ‘type of meeting is this ?’ A combination of the above items ? What combination ?

• Start & Stop on time.

Don’t reward latecomers.

• Share the meeting minutes (Sample Minutes Template )
  

At the close of the meeting all attendees or all who need to know and did not intend need a copy of the meeting minutes within 24 hours. The minutes can be recorded using a pre-defined template and placed in a common templates for easy access

Personality Types: A review of MBTI by Myers-Briggs

Personalitiy Types
Thinking vs Feeling A look at the Myers-Briggs Type Indicaticor (MBTI & the book Type Talk)

General:

In general, the book seems 2-dimensional. It speaks of preferences and draws lines between each it’s ‘opposite’ types and asks the reader to position themselves on this line. Actually personalities don’t work this way.

The Problems:

• Authors stress that the system is dynamic and not static yet the system of classification used and some of the phrases promote a static system. -

• Many of the items which the books seems to regard as opposties are not opposites in fact their definitions show them to not be opposites.

• Sensing vs Intuitive
• Thinking vs Feeling
  

Although I think understand what the author is trying to do here, the choice of terminoligy used is poor at best. In any given situation ‘X’ it is easy to choose that a person can behave in both Thinking & Feeling ways in both ‘Sensing’ and ‘iniutive’ . These ways are clearly not opposities.

A person can be more or less Thinking and more or less Feeling. In many of the items in this book I found myself coming out at 50/50.

This raises another important point. I can pick up the book at any moment in time and depending upon my current mood/feelings, I can answer differently to the questions presented.

In fact, the questions in the Workbook also differ from the questions in the Type Talk book.

The result being that I actually classify myself one way in the workbook and another way in the Type Talk book.

This appears to be because the qualities presented in the book are too broad and the conclusions reached by the answers are too specific.

For example, I may find myself classified as ISTJ but the conclusions reached about ISTJ people do not seem to apply to me much at all. Since the conclusions are drawn incorrectly to the answers to my questions.

Though I must admit in general they are pretty close, I think my mood has a big impact on my answers and on the way I relate to others.

Near the beginning of the book I think the author also makes an incorrect analogy when describing preferences. This is the analogy to being left-handed vs right-handed and say being introverted vs extroverted. The analogy seems to state that those who are left-handed will remain left-handed through-out their lives is analogous to those who are introverted will remain introverted for the rest of their lives. This analogy simply is not true. While I agree with the first part, (ie: I will always be left-handed) the second half does not seem logical at all (ie: I will always be introverted). In fact, quite the opposite. Situations requiring an extroverted nature, will cause an introverted person to become extroverted. They may never be as extroverted as an extroverted person but they will loose much of their introverted nature by necessity and may even develop an extroverted preference.

There is also some descrepancy wit the way the author believes different personality types handle differeent situations. My method of reaching a decision does not readily fit into any of the categories. I use many different methods of analysis to arrive at a decision, which include both logic and the consideration of other’s feelings.

Some Good Points:

While I belive no one falls into any of these catagories all of the time (or at least me personally). This book is valuable in it’s ability to help the reader understand the different reactions people may take to different situations and (putting terminilogy aside) correctly ascertains the rational behind the person in the given situation.

So while, a given person my be following a ‘perceiver’ function and a second person may be following a ‘judger’ function the resulting interaction does end up to be correct even though we can’t necessarily correlate this data to ‘all-the-time’ interactions.

I believe that recoginizing each of these different types in everday situations will greatly increase our ability to communicate with each other. So that when I see another person behave as the typical ‘judger’ as defined in this book, it becomes easier to undertand where they are coming from and what type of response they are expecting.

Likewise, when someone is behaving in a ‘percievier’ type manner we can then look at what is being receveived, how & why they answered the way they did and that neither is right or wrong but simply a different way of examining a situtation. This is probably the most valuable tool & lesson learned used throughout this book. It also makes me wonder a bit if some people do fit into such categories most of the time, and those who do can then expand beyond there stereotypes and prejudices and experience other personalities types and rationals.

I also find in interesting to point out the different types as defined in this book as it realates to fictional characters. It would also be interesting to expand this to the actors themselves. Do actors take on roles which complement their own personality types ? Do fictional characters alter the actors personality types ? Do the writers delibertly see these relationships on their works or is it the actors that bring them to life ? Do the writings (TV shows, movies etc) delibertly show these types at their extremes which in turn alters the audiences relation to the world, or is it the audiences relation to the world from which the movie comes. There are many other chicken-egg type similarities here which I find interesting.

Related Reading:

The EROS Equation

Wikipedia MBTI

Type Talk: The 16 Personality Types That Determine How We Live, Love, and Work

Too much job commitment ?

Can you be too committed to your job?, Can you be too loyal?...Is wanting time of to relax once in a while selfish?

I came across a recent article in "The Business Journal" titled Take a Vacation (and Go to Work) (http://www.business-journal.com/VacationMeansMoreWork.asp). The article reports that nearly half the people work on their vacation. Many do this becasue they believe this shows 'job commitment'

I suppose that if you do choose to work while you are on vacation, and you are happy with that decision then there is really no issue. But, what if you do not wish to work during your vacation..does this decision alone make you 'less committed' or 'not as good a worker'?

Let's be honest, everyone is selfish, including those with so called extra 'job commitment'. (See: The Unselfish Trap by: Harry Browne). Check out his book: How I Found Freedom in an Unfree World: A Handbook for Personal Liberty

Those who take 2 weeks off to relax do it to because they believe it will help them feel happy...Those who work during those 2 weeks also do it because they believe it will make them feel happy.

If you are in an unselfishness trap, then either decision makes you unhappy, which contradicts the state you desire. You work during your vacation but feel guilty to family or others. You 'have to work'. If you don't work during your vacation you feel guilty and worried about being considered 'less committed' or labelled 'selfish'..or continous dread of just having to go back to a pile of paperwork. The one that is now twice as large as before you left for vacation.

Taking time for yourself is no more (or less) selfish then not taking time for yourself. Either decision you make is with the belief it will make you feel happy. When you discover that you are not happy with your decision that is when you have trapped yourself.

Okay..so what do we do about this?...Again I suggest taking a tip from Mr Browne..we must realize that the situation is not a 'black/white' decision. The key is to find the mutually beneficial decision..one that ensures our happiness without us feeling 'guilty' or 'hurt' by labels of 'selfish'. The key to finding this mutual benefit starts with communication !...Think WIN - WIN !

1) What are your wants? Do you want 2 weeks off to relax and go to the Bahamas..and not have to worry about your job being there when you get back ?..Do you want to work 20 hours a week while vacationing? How much time do you want to relax? How much do you want to work?

For me, I want my 2 weeks off, I don't want to work..I don't want to think about work..I want to trust that the people who work for me are component enough to handle things while I'm away. Knowing your wants does not make you selfish...but it is important that you know them if you want to find the WIN WIN solution.

2) Armed with your wants? Ask yourself what are the wants of those around you.. Essentially this means 'talk to your supervisor'. Let him/her know your situation and that you need to find the WIN/WIN solution...This does not mean 'compromise'. If at the end of the discussion you do not feel your 'WIN'..or you feel your 'WIN" but worry that your supervisor doesn't...Keep discussing..you CAN find a point where both of you 'WIN' but it may take time and patience..but hang in there.

I hear in my head pleas of "But my supervisor isn't interested in WIN-WIN"...Then you must prepare yourself to be ready for 'WIN-WIN or NO DEAL'. WIN-WIN benefits everyone involved but not everyone can see this sometimes you may have to choose 'NO DEAL'. This may mean moving on to another job which can be VERY SCARY, I know. However, I believe most managers understand the concept of WIN-WIN or they wouldn't be where they are today...so keep trying and good luck.

PS: Beginning Friday, I will be on vacation for the next 2 weeks during which time I may not be checking my email. But please feel free to drop me any comments and I will post them as soon as I can after I am back.

..And when someone accuses you of being selfish, just remember that he's upset only because you aren't doing what he selfishly wants you to do. (Harry Browne)