productivity

4 Reasons Why the New Workstyle is Mobile

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

I just posted this on the Gist blog and thought I'd share here as well:

We put forth the concept of the New Workstyle at the beginning of the year and theten characteristics we described created quite a bit of debate and discussion.  We fundamentally believe that the way we work is transforming and that high performance organizations will embrace these changes to further empower employees, realize the benefits of new innovation, and outpace their competition.

The first characteristic we included was being “mobile” and that this meant “always on and aware.”  This does not mean being a workaholic and failing at balance in your life as some of the comments reflected.  It’s quite the contrary actually.  Being mobile and being enabled with tools to share, communicate, and collaborate regardless of location unlocks new approaches to work and life.

We see four things driving this mobile workstyle:

1.  App marketplaces – where people can search, download, and run applications on their own without the need for IT support or training.  The applications available span work related tasks like time reporting, sales pipelines, and project management to non-work ones like games and photo sharing.  The line between these two categories continues to blur as apps thought of for fun translate into new and innovative ways to market, sell and support.  Most importantly, the technical aptitude of anyone who uses a smartphone and makes app choices goes up with each new app and each new experience.

2.  ”Screening” – interacting with information through various devices be that a phone, tablet, or laptop connected to a wireless network and accessing a multitude of cloud-based applications and content regardless of location or device. You can easily create a document with Google Apps on one device, share it with others, and then access and edit it on any device connected to the Internet all with proper versioning and access controls built in.

3.  Multiple communication channels – seamlessly switching between an email, a phone call, a text message, and a Facebook wall post creates a new dynamic in communication and the ability to share and reach people in your network.  The choice between both synchronous and asynchronous channels depending on the need and urgency opens up a new and more efficient approach to communication.

4.  A true on/off switch – while it may seem counter-intuitive and requires an explicit choice on the part of the individual, being mobile and fully enabled creates more freedom to work when and where you need to most.  News, information, updates, and content are always there and available so having the discipline to structure when and how you use them is essential.

What do you think?  Are there other drivers of the mobile workstyle?  How has your work evolved as you have become more mobile?

[Cross posted from the Gist blog]

Why I write things down

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

  Moleskine

It does seem a bit peculiar to write a blog post about the reasons I still put pen to paper but as the number of electronic gadgets explodes and we spend more of our waking hours with our noses stuck in smart phones and iPads, I thought explaining why there is still a place for writing things down in my world seemed appropriate.

I have always carried a paper pad of some kind (steno, legal, etc.) around with me to take down notes or lay out my thinking on a topic or problem.  For years, I used a leather portfolio given to me when I graduated from college.  It is black, fits a legal pad, and has a pocket for papers – simple, but effective.

Always on the quest to learn new things by reading other's blogs, I saw a post from someone about using a Moleskine notebook to capture thoughts.  Paper and portable, I thought, count me in.

The Moleskine has a distinguished history hailing from Milan and used by the likes of Picasso, Hemingway, and Matisse.  More on the history here including its demise in 1986 and rebirth in 1997.  I capture nothing as distinguished but do find reviewing previous entries pretty fascinating and like the way it fits in my back pocket.

I was in Chicago last week meeting with some great folks ahead of an event and took out my Moleskine to jot down a name and phone number.  From the other side of the table, I heard "Don't you work for a technology company?"  This was all in good fun and I replied "Why yes, I do, but this is my secure and portable note taking application.  Instantly searchable (thumb pages) and encrypted because my handwriting can become undecipherable even by me."

We all laughed at the situation but it stuck with me and is the inspiration for this blog post.

I write things down because I want to remember them, reference them, and demonstrate to the other person that it is important enough to capture by hand.  A phone number, a name, a place, or a random thought…it doesn't matter.  I find it much easier to jot down a quick note when an idea comes to me or I am trying to organize tasks.  

This is part of my workstyle and I'm not saying it is for everyone or that a Moleskine is the key but it is how I capture important thoughts, detail follow up items, and organize my activities.

Hands vs. Mind

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

I had a nice chat this week with someone I had met in the past and with whom I recently reconnected.  We talked about a wide range of topics related to technology, marketing, and the types of work we do.  I did not explicitly ask if I could reference him so in the spirit of "journalistic integrity" I will not but will definitely update the post when I get the green light.

One of the more interesting parts of our discussion was about doing "hands" work vs. "mind" work.  Although it would be easy to separate this as tactics vs. strategy that is not so much the case.  It is about being in the weeds to get something done like writing copy and delivering pitches to prospects, analysts, or journalists vs. spending cycles on what needs to be said, how to position the company, and who to target as a customer or influential all the while tracking performance and making tweaks.

The challenge, at least in a startup, is to focus on getting things done (hands) no matter what it is while keeping an eye on it through a strategic framework (mind).  Although it is a bit of cliche, I never ask anyone on my team to do something that I haven't already done myself or wouldn't be willing to do.  There is no time or cycles to spend on someone who deems tasks below them – this is radioactive in a startup so if you see it, address it immediately.

Given the speed, resource constraints, and workload in a startup, it is a definite challenge to balance these two types of work so think it about it as hands vs. mind and be sure to make time for both.

Social Overload

/ Robert Pease / Leave a comment

I am definitely beginning to suffer from this. 

I'm not talking about being social with people (old school social networking), I'm talking about all the ways I can "be social" while staring at my computer or my mobile device including all the activity streams coming from multiple sources across multiple accounts flowing in many directions.

I maintain accounts both personally and for work across a variety of networks including Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn and use a variety of tools to try to keep up (Tweetdeck, Google Reader, Echofon, Twitterberry, and a few others) with what is being said to me, about me, about my company, about competitors, and about interesting things related to the previous.  This doesn't even include the effort required to share relevant and valuable content back into this swarm of status updates, likes, and shares.  I currently have 343 feeds coming into Google Reader spanning various keyword and content alerts plus blogs that span messaging, collaboration, venture capital, start ups, marketing, capital markets, personal finance, and various towns and cities that I like to keep an eye on.  Oh, and don't forget about news outlets like The Wall Street Journal and CSPAN (yes, I really do follow CSPAN on Twitter).

And I won't even begin to bore you with the email volume in four different work and personal accounts.

The challenge is to actually listen to what is being said versus just talking and, more importantly, hear the important things and be conversational.

It may seem like a shameless pitch (I work there) to mention the value Gist currently delivers to me to make sense out of this massive flow of information.  It gives me the ability to get an update on people who are important to me, companies I am interested in, and all of the associated content, status updates, and related news. I don't even need to worry about not being hip to the latest trendy micro-messaging, sharing, friending thingy because if it is available as a public feed, Gist will find it and associate it with the right person. 

More great stuff is on the roadmap to address my social overload and it can't come too soon.