Displaying All Posts by Peter

How Helpful is Blue Sky Thinking?

The blue sky view. Not a cloud in sight. Perfect conditions, endless opportunity, unlimited potential.

People often formulate ideas using the “blue sky view,” a hypothetical landscape where challenges are nonexistent, success is straightforward, and every lucky break seems to go your way.

Advocates of blue sky thinking say that brainstorming in an idealized, setback-free setting allows you to focus solely on the idea, not the related obstacles or logistics. You develop the idea in a perfect, immaculate universe, and then approach the potential challenges separately.

But, even a bad idea can look good if you picture it within an idealized, utopian scenario. The blue sky view could distort your expectations and affect your judgment. Under the blue sky, a risky move can look like a safe bet.

Undeniably, the road to success will seem clearer if you wish away the obstacles. The question is: Does the blue sky view truly help you formulate viable plans, or does it leave you unprepared for the inevitable challenges of reality? Click Here to Read Article …

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Are You Sent on Solo Runs with Mission Critical Objectives?

Peter North 3rd August General 1 Comment

Pilots are often sent on long solo missions with no guidance or assistance along the way. They are given an objective and a “blue sky” plan; anything unexpected is the problem of the pilot alone. Despite the importance of the mission, there is nobody on board to share the stress that comes with “mission critical” tasks. Sometimes it’s hard to stay in the air with the gravity of heavy responsibility pulling at your wings, but the faith that’s been placed in your abilities can be very uplifting.

Solo pilots must be as vigilant of their resources – fuel, oxygen, time – as they are of potential obstacles. Stormy weather, reroutes or faulty equipment can instantly turn dealing with a straightforward mission into dealing with the impossible.

Does your work ever send you on a long, solo run with “mission critical” objectives? Does the lack of colleague camaraderie ever make the air feel thin? Would you welcome a solo flight as a testament to your skills and reliability, or would you find yourself reaching for the ejection handle? Click Here to Read Article …

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How to Get Promoted: Break The Rules

Peter North 30th July Career 6 Comments

Being “good at what you do” is an asset to your career, and it fosters a great attitude and a solid self-esteem boost.

But, unfortunately it’s not enough to get you a promotion. In fact, if you’re excelling at your current position, it might be a good reason to keep you where you are instead of promoting you. It’s quite the conundrum; if you’re great at your job, your company might never dream of putting you anywhere else.

So, if it isn’t excelling at your work, then what makes someone “promotable”?

Quite a bit of research has been done on promotability. We’ve also discussed different strategies to move your way up. Although it’s difficult to conduct fact-based research on it, they have come to a few general conclusions on how to get promoted:

An employee can develop skills for higher-level jobs if they are regularly faced with “challenging” work. “Challenging” work is defined as work where the current rules and routines won’t suffice in getting the job done, forcing the employee to innovate new routines.
An employee who does non-challenging work (mundane work where the current rules and routines are sufficient) never develops higher-level job skills, and thus may be less “promotable.”

So, how do we get promoted? Ironically, it sounds like we have to break a few rules. Click Here to Read Article …

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Does Your Power Lunch Have Lasting Energy?

Peter North 27th July Office Life 3 Comments

Picking your lunch can seem like an inconsequential choice in your workday that has no bearing on your productivity. In actuality, it could be the most important daily decision you make. Choosing proper fuel can sustain a strong work ethic to the end of your workday and beyond. On the other hand. Picking the wrong food can sap your strength and leave you struggling against exhaustion for hours. A nutritious power lunch can give you sustained energy for the rest of the workday.

“Glycemic index” is a measure of how fast your food is digested for energy. Sugary foods like danishes, candy and soda have sky-high glycemic indexes. Proteins and complex carbohydrates like yogurt, apples or peanuts are much slower-burning fuels, and thus have much lower glycemic indexes. At first, high glycemic indexes might seem like the sign of ideal fuel, but they can leave you exhausted when they burn out too quickly. Quick-burning fuel is great for a rocketship doing a 30-second burst, but you’re dealing with an 8-hour workday it just won’t work.

So if you can’t seem to find a full workday’s worth of energy and focus in your food, consider different fuel sources. And think twice before picking “hi-octane” fuel – it just won’t go the distance. Click Here to Read Article …

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Struggling with Project Scope Creep

Peter North 23rd July Management 3 Comments

Scope creep is every project manager’s biggest challenge.

When a project’s scope gets expanded to include ambitious work that was never planned for, it can disrupt the original project plan, stretch the timeline and blow away the budget. Some call it featuritis, as in “We’d like to add these features that weren’t included in the initial project.” When software developers are asked to haphazardly include strange, orphaned features, their software becomes bloated with additions that seem out of place. Hence the term “software bloat.”

Are you feeling bloated? You might be due for a surprise addition at any moment. Scope creep can make you the babysitter of someone else’s unplanned brainchild. As a project manager with a new, unexpected addition to the family, all of its needs, complaints, kicking and screaming becomes your problem.

Some try to prevent project scope creep by explicitly defining the plan, timeline and budget of a project on paper. It’s a good strategy, but those set-in-stone documents can often get ignored if someone has a sudden brilliant epiphany that must go into the project. After all, “big picture” people can’t be bothered with silly trivialities like budget, resources and project scope, right?

Have you suffered from scope creep at work? Have you defeated it? How? Click Here to Read Article …

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Dealing with Coworkers: Are They Colleagues or Competitors?

Peter North 19th July Office Life 5 Comments

In a typical organization, employees are separated (or self-separate) into groups with similar skills. Whether you’re crunching numbers, reaching out to customers, or designing the next big product, you’re likely working alongside people with similar skills to your own.

Businesses seek a good bit of overlap in skills. Shared proficiencies increase collaboration and help us communicate with our peers. In areas ripe with arcane terminology like marketing or I.T., shared backgrounds are an absolute necessity for proper teamwork.

Similar skills and experiences are great for camaraderie, communication, and getting things done in general. But, they can also blur the line between colleagues and competitors, especially when someone asks you this:

“Hey, you’re the only one who knows how to run that system, right? Would you mind showing me how to use it? You know… just in case you get hit by the proverbial bus…”

Some don’t give a comment like this another thought, but others might wonder if the “proverbial bus” is really a “proverbial pink slip.”

Are you dealing with coworkers who are colleagues or competitors? Click Here to Read Article …

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Do You Have Low Frustration Tolerance?

Peter North 16th July Office Life 4 Comments

Psychologist Albert Ellis developed the concept of “Low Frustration Tolerance” (LFT) as part of a greater theory on procrastination as it relates to cognitive behavior.

LFT is a peculiar form of self-defeating behavior. By habitually avoiding short-term frustrations, unaddressed issues and unfinished work grow into much bigger, much more stressful problems. As a sufferer of LFT continues to dodge small, tedious tasks, they inadvertently grow them into large, dreadful problems. Once the problems are bigger, the aversion to the work is greater, building an ever-growing mountain of work to be done (and an ever-growing mountain of stress to match).

Low Frustration Tolerance (LFT)

Seeking immediate pleasure or avoidance of pain at the cost of long-term stress and defeatism.

Short-term psychological hedonism.

(Albert Ellis also jokingly called it “can’t-stand-it-itis,” as in “I just can’t stand it!”)

High Frustration Tolerance (HFT), on the other hand, is a much better trait for productivity, not to mention mental health. Those with HFT can tolerate the frustration-filled tasks required to do their work and meet their long-term goals. While they’re not delighted with the short-term tedium, they have much bigger things to be happy about in the end.

What is your frustration tolerance? Have you run into “can’t-stand-it-itis” at work? Click Here to Read Article …

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Lack of Employee Communication: Why Managers Can’t Listen

Peter North 13th July Communication 5 Comments

A good manager is understanding of setbacks and receptive to new ideas. Their job isn’t just about overseeing the work of others, it’s about removing roadblocks, rethinking problematic parts of the job, and most importantly, listening to their employees.

Although being “open to suggestions” is part of every good manager’s persona, many employees feel that they’re not being heard. This is often voiced as one of the most common work-related complaints of all time:

“My boss just doesn’t listen.”

While this may be true in some cases, the problem isn’t always that “the boss doesn’t listen,” frequently it can be that the employee doesn’t talk. A recent employee communication study based on the Cornell National Social Survey identified exactly what makes employees hold their tongue:

Many fear exactly what you’d expect; that speaking out about a work-related problem can have consequences that threaten their standing and job security. But a significant amount (over 25%) keep their mouth shut not because they fear retaliation, but because they’d rather just save their breath. In other words, no matter how valid their complaint may be, they just don’t think that anyone would listen or care.

As a result, employees don’t just avoid blowing the whistle on serious scandals; they also steer clear of smaller, easily resolvable problems, many of which would benefit both the individual and the group if addressed.

Clearly an environment that isn’t open to suggestions is missing many chances for improvement. But, whose fault is it that these opportunities aren’t being seized? Is it the manager who is not listening, or the employee who is not talking?

Before you think “my boss doesn’t listen,” make sure that you’ve given them the chance to hear you. Click Here to Read Article …

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Giving Dressing Up a Dressing Down

Peter North 11th July Career 3 Comments

WorkAwesome has offered quite a few articles about dressing professionally. Some suggest that helps you to get promoted and gain respect in the workplace. It’s certainly good advice; dressing well is a positive statement about your attitude and preparedness. But, how big of a statement is it? Should we be taking such care to “look sharp,” or have the effects been embellished?

There’s an obvious correlation between higher-level jobs and better dress, but perhaps it’s a classic “chicken or the egg” conundrum: Which comes first? Are people promoted or hired due – in part – to their professional appearance, or do their high-level jobs enable (or require) them to dress better? Maybe the only reason that executives dress well is because they have to. Click Here to Read Article …

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Problem Solvers vs. Opportunity Creators

Peter North 9th July General 2 Comments

We all have different professions and titles, but ultimately we can be separated into two categories: problem solvers and opportunity creators. Those who work in areas like “operations” or “technical support” are quintessentially problem solvers. On the other hand, positions in “sales,” “sponsorship” or “marketing” are intrinsically opportunity creating efforts.

The two have a symbiotic relationship – neither can survive without the other. Either a plethora of problems or a lack of opportunities could sink a business.

The main difference between these two is one of visibility. A great team of problem solvers is rarely recognized, as a lack of problems can seem “normal” and even make those who solved all the problems seem unnecessary.

In contrast, opportunity creators are celebrated at every possible juncture. A successful sponsorship, contract or campaign is good news for everyone, so of course it should be celebrated. However, this can cause opportunity creators to appear more appreciated (or more valuable) than problems solvers.

They’re not.

Don’t get me wrong. As a purebred problem solver, I don’t want the spotlight. What am I going to say that warrants it? I mean, this isn’t exactly going to set the world on fire:

“Today, our systems are working as expected. We’ve enabled you all to do you work.”

Although new opportunities “sound better” than solved problems, neither one is more valuable than the other. Problem solvers and opportunity creators are joined at the hip; they’ll sink or swim together. Click Here to Read Article …

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Job Titles and Descriptions: Less is More?

Peter North 7th July Your Job 8 Comments

Job titles were originally meant to succinctly describe a person’s basic duties in a few words. When you looked at someone’s business card or shook their hand in a meeting, their job title would give a general (but clear) idea of their role within their organization.

Some titles have stayed true to this purpose, remaining concise and unpretentious, like “Software Developer,” or “Account Manager.” But others have grown more vague and grandiose, like “Senior Vice President of Partnerships and Marketing,” or “Solutions Architect and Change Management Lead.”

Indistinct job titles and descriptions may impress some people, but they also risk giving the impression that your organization is overstaffed and that you are one of the nonessential fringe-workers. If you can’t answer the question, “What do you do?” without resorting to intentional ambiguities, you’re going to sound more like a cornered, dodgy politician than a competent worker.

The truth is, any job can sound impressive and important if you craft a little complexity into the title. You could call a window washer a “Transparency-Enhancement Facilitator,” or give the title of “Media Distribution Specialist” to a paperboy, but it doesn’t change the nature of the work. After a short conversation, their roles will be clear – regardless of their job title.

Is a long, vague job title a sign of ordinary, mundane work being embellished? Is it a sign of “bloat” in an organization? Or is it just part of the game? Click Here to Read Article …

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