continuous improvement

There’s been lots of talk about continuous improvement in the corporate world and allowing everyone from a machinist at Toyota, to how knowledge workers can improve process and share expertise. I have been thinking lots about how to bring that into my daily life. I am watching amazing things happen on the technology front as people work at ever increasing pace to solve problems, build software and continually iterate. Gone are the days of product cycles and v.x, it is now about getting something out there and refining. I think there are some good life lessons there. I am working to get a prototype built, but have not gotten over that initial stage of development — if I could just get x or talk to y I think to myself, but I think reorientation on how to unblock myself is also necessary. i need to put the pieces in place today and build on it tomorrow and then iterate….so that’s what I’m going to do — hope to report back with progress tomorrow!

building a prototype….measuring progress

I have been in an interesting phase of the business plan process where I’ve been trying very hard to confirm what problem I am indeed trying to solve with the tool: I think it has to solve part of the information overload problem for people, and it should serve as a ‘mirror’ or coach, and NOT a boss or punitive force; inherently, the tool needs to trust you and ultimately you need to take the action, but it’s there to support you.

Tag clouds associated to meetings that combine all the items/links and documents you need for a meeting? the reporting construct is critical here to measure progress, being able to see the motion over time and that concept, should provide some value and stickiness.

email is my downfall….

Have you ever had a productive clip of time where you really cranked? I was on a train Tuesday morning, without access to email, and I cranked on three hours of work for a couple of my consulting engagements. It was an EARLY train (605a), but I literally spent all three hours working and made a ton of progress. It was the first time in a while when I could actually spend some time thinking about a specific topic for a sizeable chunk of time. I think the interupt driven nature of email never really allows me to sink into a topic, and instead, I am so focused on responding….the blackberry is a gift and a curse — love the connectedness, but hate the interupt driven mode. I would love to be able to track how much time a week I end up spending managing my inbox….more later.

what is it?

Spending a lot of time today really trying to think through what problem(s) the tool I am trying to develop will solve. I feel like it exists at two levels: first, to provide a quick fix for users to build and use to do lists and second (later), to serve as way to take action and connect to higher quality professional opportunities, but I feel like I may have moved off my core theory of action which is: stronger self assessment leading to action can create personal continuous improvement. This can come in the form of making progress on a project, a new job search or any set of activities. The core of my idea is creating action and monitoring progress and figuring out an easy way for individuals to do those two things — I guess the question is whether building a better ‘to do’ widget will help people get there or is it more about the assessment? The other question is what problem am I solving? By encouraging folks to use the tool I am asking a lot from them in the form a questionnaire etc. I wonder if it is possible for me to pull relevant information about their ‘buckets’ from existing information, such as emails, or online files — i.e. can I solve part of the infomation overload issue they are facing as well as add value over time on how they prioritize activities and take action. I am going to noodle a bit more on this, but also am driving ahead on the prototype as their is bound to be iteration on the tools based on lots and lots of feedback as this unfolds.

the power of the portfolio

I am lucky enough to live a ‘protfolio-driven’ life — what does that mean? I get to work on mutliple, meaningful projects, some that take care of paying bills and keeping the lights on, and others that are big ideas that I am trying to implement in the form of a technology tool for others living portfolio driven lives and that need a way to manage their time and action towards their goals. I want a tool that is a mix of a task manager and a knowledge type/document and big ideas tool to be manage your portfolio and to make progress every day….

getting unblocked….

I think more and more, the key skill that differentiates success from failure is being relentless about ‘unblocking’. In summary, getting good at being on the clock and continuously problem solving to make progress on whatever the timeline or schedule or set of goals you’ve set for your self. It’s also about tuning up my mind and having the right attitude to not let the highs get too high or the lows get to low — keeping an even keel and not psyching myself out. This is REALLY HARD for me; I think 50-60% of why and when I am blocked is when my own thought process and lack of focus stall progress. I know I can’t be on 100% of the time, but I can definitely tune up my part of the equation.

To that end, I have committed to going to meditation more regularly. For me, this is the way to have complete control over my thoughts and to really be able to clear my mind and channel my energy and focus. During meditation, it’s about clearing all thought and focusing on your breathing. That is not an easy task for an ADD adult like myself. If I were born more recently, I’m sure they would have over medicated me given my ongoing ‘multi-tasking’. Recently, my fiancee gave me a strong talking to about blackberrying while crossing the street — amazing, I can’t walk and chew gum at the same time, but when I hit the crosswalk, I am a monster on the blackberry. That would make for incredible headline — Rajeev Bajaj 32, hit by taxi in crosswalk at 13th and 6th Ave witnesses saw him glued to tiny blackberry screen attempting to respond to an email…

Unblocking — getting over my mindset, pushing my boundaries of possibility and continuing to make progress — put that together and I think there is some serious horsepower!

sports metaphors…

I’m watching this amazing NCAA championship basketball game and thinking about why sports metaphors are so prevalent in corporate settings. Watching the Kansas and Memphis basketball team function as teams, I do see lots of applications in professional settings. Everyone has a role, there is a general (point guard), directing the flow of work and there is an overall strategy and rhythm that each team is trying to develop, but the goal is clear — score more points than your opponent. I like that clarity of purpose and a very clearly articulated goal. The other big key in sports and in professional life is momentum — once you have it, it is generative (I think that’s the right word), it builds on itself. Creating momentum is a bit of an exercise in secret sauce creation, but I think you can reflect on specific things that have come together to create it. I think for me, at this point, I think it’s when I make progress on multiple fronts in a day — moving a possible consulting project forward AND building some mock up screens for the LBP; one set of activities makes me think about the other and I end up making good progress on both fronts.

eating what you catch….

The core shift from a position with an organization to trying to start something on my own has been the daily challenge of not only completing a set of tasks, but creating and structuring opportunities and next steps on a daily basis. That means ‘laying the tracks’ on a daily basis — if I want to close consulting business, I need to search and engage for the prospective client, work with them to clearly articulate their need and where I can add value, figure out a way to keep it relevant and a priority for the potential client, figure out how to work through process steps and then execute the work. On the business planning front it is even less structured — I am currently trying to build a technology prototype. Each conversation I have on the idea helps to validate and shape the potential product, but changes the potential requirements and focus. It takes a new level of discipline from me (sometimes I show it and other times not as much), to continue to move forward, make some decisions, and focus, focus, focus on getting something out there instead of being concerned that I am closing down potential directions for a product. It is a great exercise in really defining the product and answering WHAT problem I am trying to solve and continually asking myself if what I am building is actually doing that. My goal is to get something out to a core group of users over the summer and to get LOTS and LOTS of feedback to iterate from. People are extremely busy and developing a technology tool to help them manage their time and to promote action in theory sounds useful but I want to see and listen to what would make it something they would use every single day. Laying the tracks and eating what you catch, two key skills I am learning to sharpen.

portfolio in a time of uncertainty

Today I was thinking about what it really means to have a portfolio approach to professional life and multiple projects going. Is it really possible to actually dig in and excel in one thing if I am frittering my energy? Am I just using this as a hedge because, as that great NYT article said, I don’t want to close doors, despite it very likely being against my best interests? Not sure there is an easy answer, but I think the journey will unfold as it is supposed to. I have also been thinking that the idea that everybody is either sales or operations, and you can tell based on some limited experiences with folks. I think I am sales — I do love the close, making the progress, or the hunt and adding value and solving a problem.

Game on….

I have officially been out of the DOE for 3 months and am enjoying life as a wanna-be entrepreneur, off hours subway commuter (the trains are slower), have joined the ranks of ‘consultants’, and am generally hitting the snooze button 4 times on school days. Many folks have asked me how I’m spending my time and I think it is breaking out with 20-25 hours per week of consulting work, 15 hours on business planning, 5-10 hours of real estate and 5-7 hours of wedding planning.

I am currently consulting for an education non-profit and getting to work on some interesting problem solving that keeps me connected to good people and thinking and problem solving almost daily. I am spending between 15 and 20 hours developing my business idea, which is also a lot of fun, but has days of good progress and other days of blockages. I am trying to solve the following problem: folks like us (professionals with varied set of experiences in education/reform/public/private sectors with a patched together set of strong experiences that blend our values and our ambition) don’t have easliy accessible tools to help us take action to accomplish our broad professional goals. I’m betting that we could benefit from a technology tool that makes it easy to bucket our time across our portfolio of activities and day to day to do’s, and provides some specific space for self reflection/knowledge to help us figure out how to merge our strengths and interests ….I guess this blog is my initial cut at doing that for myself and hopefully hearing from you on what you currently use to do this in your lives, whether and why you would use something like this and what a helpful tool would look like.

My Indian/Irish guilt starts to kick in when I think about how much flexibility and freedom I have to go do the things I want to do professionally and personally and that the only thing stopping me is the barriers I create, or the laziness I show in pushing forward on things. That sometimes feels like a lot pressure, but is also very empowering….in the first three months out of DOE, I think I have learned the following things about myself:

 1. I LOVE (it is a high) making progress and moving the ball up the field on projects, ideas, and oportunities feeling like I’ve created a solution to a problem (that’s why I’m titling this blog “Forward Progress”) — it could be calling the photographer back about our engagement photos (oh yes, they exist) or facilitating a discussion in my consulting engagement that helps move some important work, that is my “wheelhouse” — its where I feel most confident and happy… if I could do that every minute, of every day, that would be my zen.

2. My portfolio starts to hit its tipping point with three large activities in the air — right now, for me, consulting, business planning, and real estate are the three – beyond that, it gets really, really hard to be effective at adding the next incremental item. It really comes down to having enough hours to focus on a project/activity with quality.

3. Consulting has made me think through how I spend each hour of the day — I am either getting paid for my time, or if I’m working on the business plan, I am paying myself (opportunity cost) and so it has made me think about everything from travel time to what the cost is of me watching an additional episode of the Office. As always, I am a bit all or nothing on this stuff, but it has definitely given me a new realization for the value of time, and my time.

Alright, more tomorrow including:  a) how I have not consumed/purchased a piece of clothing in 2008 and whether that is my stand against consumerism or general frugality b) deconstruct why I’m a fair weather sportsfan