Individuals who are realized in their own lives almost never criticize others. If they speak at all, it is to offer encouragement. — Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
While stopping to get a healthy sausage biscuit at a local fast food place on the way to work yesterday, I noticed some construction guys working on the roof of (yet another) new fast food place next door. These guys were obviously students of the WorkSmarterNotHarder school of thought, passing metal roof panels from the ground to the 2nd story roof using a pair of vice grips tied to a rope. No ladder, no scaffold, no up and down, no huge crew. Just two guys using simple tools in straight-forward, creative ways.
At NewSpring, we’re working on a couple of large-ish web projects right now; one of them is specifically stretching our team into areas of experimentation and non-knowledge. For a particular aspect of the live streaming video components, we’ve been told everything from “$80k to set-up the infrastructure” to “that’ll be ballpark $1.2mil.” Ouch. But as we’ve been gathering info from various (really, really) nice people, it turns out we can do most of what we want to do with open source and relatively-inexpensive hardware/software.
By doing this we save money and time, which makes us more nimble and able to change directions quickly. We opt for straight-forward accessible tools, not out-of-reach technology. We use a small team to pull off big ideas by leveraging existing knowledge, technology and friends. Sometimes I feel like our whole web strategy is built with vice grips and square knots, but I’m ok with that.
It only takes 10% as much effort to hire someone in the bottom 90% of the class. And it takes the other 90% to find and cajole and retain the top 10%. — Seth Godin
Scenario:
1. Check office voicemail
2. Write down important details (names, numbers, companies, etc.)
3. Hang up
4. Google names, companies, etc.
5. Read up a bit
6. Return call
Does anyone else do this? I do it 99% of the time, and it’s so ingrained into my workday that it feels like an unconscious process.
No management success can compensate for failure in leadership. —Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Talent hits a target no one else can hit, while genius hits a target that no one else can see. —Arthur Schopenhauer
When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt. — Henry Kaiser
Success is now the domain of people who lead. That doesn’t mean they’re in charge, it doesn’t mean they are the CEO, it merely means that…they show the way, they spread ideas, they make change. Those people are the only successful people we’ve got. — Seth Godin, being interviewed by Hugh MacLeod
While luck may be more appealing than effort, you don’t get to choose luck. Effort, on the other hand, is totally available, all the time. — Seth Godin, Is Effort a Myth?
On a whim, I applied for a designer job with PUMA a little over a year ago. Today, I received the following email (emphasis mine):
Dear Joshua,
Thank you for your interest in the No Job Title found position with PUMA
North America, Inc. Unfortunately, we have other candidates at this time
who more closely match the job requirements. Your resume will be kept on
file to be considered for future openings that meet your background and
skills.We wish you success with your employment search, and again, thank you for
your interest in PUMA!PUMA North America, Inc.
Human Resource Department
No, thank YOU, PUMA! By automating your Human Resource department with an obviously amazingly-functional (and timely!) email system, you have proven to me what a wonderful, personal company you would have been to work for.
Quote, “Hire to be the dumbest person in the room. Surround yourself with people that are smarter than you. Somebody who is of excellence and passion.” — Michael Lebowitz, founder Big Spaceship from his CLICK NY session
I LOVE THAT. As we’re rapidly expanding and experimenting with our team here (especially in web and communications) I am excited to be a part of hires that have specified knowledge far beyond mine. Our other designer Chris knows so much more about getting things printed well than I do. When it comes to web development, I have enough knowledge to get things done, but not enough to make a dent in the universe, so we’re looking for a web developer to own it and push us/me forward. For us to accomplish great things, I have to make an intentional, concerted effort to not be the smartest guy in the room.
As we grow, I will know less and less about the specifics of our team’s individual tasks so that those things can be done passionately, excellently and on a world-class level by the right people. Otherwise, we only grow as far as my knowledge capacity will let us and we never leverage the power of being a team.
I work with a gent named Jon. He is smart. He is methodical. And Jon gets things done. Currently, he’s managing multi-million dollar construction and facilities-related projects. He interacts with the client and with a multitude of subcontractors. Wouldn’t it be ridiculous if he wanted to be the architect, too? And install the electrical lines? And paint the walls? And make sure the equipment on site had enough diesel fuel? And manage all the deadlines? And do all the things on the punchlist? I wonder if one of the reasons Jon gets things done is because he doesn’t do all of it himself.
I do web design. And print design. And layout work. And creative/art direction. And copywriting. And strategy. And more and more I’m realizing I need to take cues from the way people like Jon get things done, or I’ll never get anything done. (At least nothing exceptional and universe-denting.)
What pieces can you let go so the whole is better?
Good ideas alter the power balance in relationships, that is why good ideas are always initially resisted. The older I get, the truer this…seems to be. Especially in industries that are more relationship-driven, than idea-driven. — Hugh MacLeod, ostensibly excerpted from his new book
Start being wrong and suddenly anything is possible. You’re no longer infallible. You’re in the unknown. There’s no way of knowing what can happen, but there’s more chance of it being amazing than if you try to be right. Of course, being wrong is a risk…Risks are a measure of people. People who won’t take them are trying to preserve what they have. — Paul Arden, It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be
Within a few days of starting to use Daytum to collect and display personal data I realize it’s already a part of my daily routine. It’s not a big deal; add a bookmark to my daily folder, make sure to keep a decently accurate mental picture of what I’ve done during my day, login and capture the data. It might take all of 5 minutes a day.
But one more thing? How in the world do I have time for one more thing, right? Easy, I made it. (Easy for you to say, Blankenship. You have a fairly flexible job. You don’t have kids. You work fast. Etc.) 100 years ago we didn’t have time for television. 30 years ago we didn’t have time for the internet. Did we suddenly get more hours in the day? No, we made time. We moved our schedule around to fit in something we wanted.
Next time you “don’t have time,” it’s ok to admit you just don’t want to make time because that thing obviously isn’t important enough to you to change your schedule. And if it’s not that important, you shouldn’t have been doing it in the first place.
Talk doesn’t cook rice. — Chinese proverb
Quote, “If you’re hiring for people to work online, I can’t imagine not screening people [on the social web]. This is the work, and you can watch people do it for real before you hire them.” — Seth Godin, excerpted from Learning from a summer intern program
Godin is discussing his an intern selection process, which involved creating a Facebook group and watching potential interns interact there, but it applies to any role I think. At NewSpring we’ve been interviewing for several web-centric communications roles lately, doing initial talks via Skype video, which is the perfect way to see if someone can hold your attention in that medium. When I look at a designer’s portfolio and they don’t pay attention to how users interact with the web, chances are they’re not a good fit for our team. This stuff is important.
If you don’t understand the medium, how can you possibly be effective within it?
Talent is rare. Management’s job is not to prevent risk but to build the capability to recover when failures occur. It must be safe to tell the truth. We must constantly challenge all of our assumptions and search for the flaws that could destroy our culture. — Edwin Catmull, Pixar & Disney Animation President, excerpted from How Pixar Fosters Collective Creativity
Everything I’ve ever done has taken me longer than I thought it would. — twitter.com/gruber