Karl Edwards presents Working Matters

Tag: effectiveness

  • Listen In -> Clutter: Friend or Foe? #1: Dispelling Myths About Clutter

    Would you believe I lost my notes for this blog post in all the clutter on my desk?

    I hope not. While I definitely fall into the seriously cluttered category, such poetic irony is not my lot this morning. But it did make for a fun lead-in sentence.

    Welcome to a fresh discussion on clutter.

    Instead of simply declaring war on clutter as the arch enemy of all that is good and effective in the workplace, our special guest, Jorge Rosas, web developer and producer of this podcast, and I will think out loud over the next five weeks about how to figure out what level of clutter works best for you.

    The possibilities for creating clutter seem to be growing logarithmically, and in order to stay effective we need to adjust quickly.

    Not only do we have messy desks, we have messy computer desk tops. We have technology clutter. We have communication clutter. We have relationship clutter.

    The disorienting piles in every category seem to grow out of control before we’ve even learned how to use them.

    You’re going to enjoy this series. Clutter need not be our enemy. Nor is it a benign growth.

    It’s an open question: is clutter your friend or your foe?

    Clutter: Friend or Foe?
    Week #1: Dispelling Myths About Clutter
    Week #2: All Those Social Networks
    Week #3: All Those Tech Tools
    Week #4: All Those Communication Options
    Week #5: All That Stuff On Your Desktop 

    Listen in.

    Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Listen In -> Why We Hate Meetings #2: Not Guided by an Agenda

    Don’t do it! Come back in off the ledge! Think of the kids. It’s not worth jumping.

    Leader monologues, dominating whiners, lost time to secondary issues, and meetings that go on forever make us want to kill ourselves sometimes.

    In this week’s discussion, Claudia and I look at what a waste of time most people feel meetings are.

    We’ve got a lot to do, and meetings feel like a mind-numbing and meaningless interruption. We are somehow responsible for indulging our leader’s sense of self-importance by listening to them ramble on and on.

    Or what about the complainers who take up half the meeting whining about their unfair parking spot, the stench of burnt popcorn in the lunch room, or the poor attitude in the mail room?!

    It doesn’t need to be this way. Find out what a simple agenda can do for your meeting.

    Listen in.

    Just now joining the conversation? Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Loving Monday: The Impracticality of a Toasted Bagel

    loving_mondaySome mornings can turn on whether one’s bagel was toasted or not.

    Attitude is a funny thing.

    We too often dismiss the issue with a mature, rational adult voice that tells us that we’re being silly. Regardless of whether or not our bagel was toasted, we should be able to pull it together and give 110% of ourselves to our work.

    Sounds good in principle.

    In practice, though, most of us know that to get up, so to speak, on the wrong side of the bed is not a frame of mind one can simply wish away.

    I‘d suggest it is more practical to be impractical.

    If toasting our bagel will aid in the process of helping us choose an attitude that will serve us more effectively, then pause and toast the bagel! My gosh, who cares that it seems silly or takes some extra time.

    The time invested in navigating an attitude adjustment is nothing compared to the time wasted by dragging bitterly through one’s morning.

    We can wish we were more mature, more focused, more committed, more whatever all we want. Worse, though, is to refuse to face the facts about who we actually are.

    If we are moody, foul-tempered people in the mornings, then best to face it and do what it takes to work one’s way through the experience. The sooner we get it out of our system the sooner we can get on with the business of the day. The more simple and safe the means of working through a bad mood, the more likely we won’t act out on a co-worker or a loved one.

    So let’s hear it for the impracticality of toasted bagels!

    Let’s hear it for an extra five minutes at the toaster oven waiting quietly for the slight difference that will make all the difference.

    Let’s take on this Monday morning with our attitude working for us instead of against us.

  • Listen In -> Technology… When Less is More #5: Collaborating Effectively

    Work, organization and communication all come together when we collaborate with others.

    Do our technology tools facilitate our efforts or complicate them? Propel us forward or hold us back? Enhance our effectiveness or stymie it?

    It’s easy to get the thinking process backwards when it comes to what technology will help us best collaborate with others.

    In this week’s discussion, Jorge and I turn the thinking around and and suggest that different expected outcomes require different methods of collaboration.

    It therefore becomes counter-productive to begin with choosing a technology solution.

    Confusing? Listen in.

    Joining this series mid-stream? Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Listen In -> Technology… When Less is More #4: Communicating With Purpose

    Do you find yourself sending an email, leaving a voicemail and texting your message just to make sure you get through?

    With such a wide repertoire of communication options available today, we should be communicating more effectively, not less.

    And yet.

    How do you choose which communication method or technology to use for your various purposes?

    In this week’s show, Jorge and I discuss whether we’ve got the cart in front of the horse when we assume the best way to communicate is always by using the latest technology.

    Listen in.

    Joining this series mid-stream? Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Listen In -> Technology… When Less is More #3: Getting Organized

    Are you buried underneath your own organizational system?

    Do your categories, folders, tags, and lists confuse more than direct? When do all your organizational tools merely become your next mess?

    Organizational software can become the next mess to tend. As if you didn’t have enough to do already.

    When is it more work than help to add another tool to the tool chest?

    The answer is different for each of us depending on our working styles, relative affinity for technology, and our specific practical needs.

    Join Jorge Rosas and I as we discuss how to think about the interface between technology and getting organized.

    Listen in.

    Joining this series mid-stream? Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Listen In -> Technology… When Less is More #2: Getting Work Done

    More features does not mean getting more done.

    Do you spend more time writing your report or formatting it? More time using your software or learning how to use it?

    The point is, you’re trying to get work done. You’re looking for tools that will help to that end.

    Having all the features may or may not help get you there. And should those layers and layers of features, in fact, get in the way, then they have become your sabotaging enemy instead of your facilitating friend!

    How do we think about what tools we need to best get our work done?

    Listen in.

    Joining this series mid-stream? Catch up on the entire series here.

  • Listen In -> Technology… When Less is More #1: Slave To Your Tools?

    Do you work for your tools or do they work for you?

    Imagine a hammer and a saw telling a carpenter how to build a house. Silly image?

    Not if the tools involved are your workplace technology.

    More often than not, our computers, our telephones, our word processors and databases are dictating the terms by which we can access their benefits.

    We become unwitting partners in this unfortunate role reversal by shopping for the latest, fastest, most versatile, most interconnected devices available. As if having the most features meant having the best tool.

    Not so.

    Join me and our special guest, Jorge Rosas, in a new series on Technology… When Less is More. Jorge is a passionate early adopter of all things tech, programmer, webmaster, musician, and producer of the Working Matters podcast.

    We dare to suggest that you are the carpenter, and it is the house that you want to build that determines what tools will best serve you and not the other way around.

    Technology… When Less is More
    Week #1: Slave to Your Tools?
    Week #2: Getting Work Done
    Week #3: Getting Organized
    Week #4: Communicating with Purpose
    Week #5: Collaborating Effectively

    Listen in.

  • Question of the Week

    When do you find time to pause and reflect on the effectiveness of your leadership style?

    The Question of the Week is offered to increase awareness of one’s personal leadership practices and encourage experimentation with creative alternatives.

  • Listen In -> Faking Authenticity #1: Trying to Buy Credibility Cheap

    Authenticity is the new credibility.

    More than competence. Much more than credentials. Exponentially more than position on the organizational chart.

    Those who are real. Those who shoot straight. Those whose words and actions are consistent with each other. These are the people who wield influence. These are the people who can make things happen. These are the people who earn the trust of subordinates, peers, vendors and clients alike.

    Join us for our new podcast series on Faking Authenticity. Sure enough, as soon as research demonstrates the effectiveness of any new leadership technique, onto the playing field spill all those leaders who want the results without taking seriously the means.

    Even though everyone around these pretenders can recognize intuitively and instantly that they are faking it, there is a group of us who are convinced we can pull one over on everyone and “technique” our way into results.

    Chat with us as we laugh and cry together about the benefits and pitfalls of authenticity both when genuine and when faked.

    Faking Authenticity

    Week #1: Trying to Buy Credibility Cheap

    Week #2: When Wanting to Impress

    Week #3: When Wanting to Confront

    Week #4: When Wanting to Perform

    Week #5: When Wanting Others to Respond

    Listen In.