Evomend EN - Timeless resources for personal organization.

Thoroughly honest cheating

Rolf F. Katzenberger — Mon, 19 May 2008 08:00:00 +0000

Not much is allowed in Wembley © David CurranWe're suspicious of people who don't abide by the rules.

They're no team players. It's hard to accomplish something together. They cop out when the going gets tough. They're evasive They don't address any issues. They're cheating, lying and betraying, from dusk 'till dawn.

Really?

About 2,300 years ago

…Alexander the Great was facing an intriguing challenge: the Gordian Knot. He was well aware of its history and the prophecy associated with it:

At one time the Phrygians were without a legitimate king. An oracle at Telmissus […] decreed that the next man to enter the city driving an ox-cart should become their king. This man was a poor peasant, Ahmidas son of Gordias, who drove his parents into town on his father's ox-cart. […]

In gratitude, he dedicated the ox-cart to the Phrygian god Sabazios and either tied it to a post or tied its shaft with an intricate knot of cornel (Cornus mas) bark. An oracle further prophesied that the one to untie the knot would become the king of Asia (today's Asia Minor).
(From Wikipedia)

The rules of the game seemed to be clear. Nobody was able to untie the knot, however. Except for Alexander. His solution: he sliced the knot in half with a stroke of his sword.

Wasn't that cheating, to the extreme?

Well… would twiddling the threads have convinced anybody of his leadership skills? Would it have shocked the Persian king? Or was that stroke of the sword an important, even necessary part of the solution? A clear message by a person who could tell the essential from the insignificant?

Think about it: By how many rules do you abide that don't get you anywhere? Rules that move your goals beyond reach? Rules that were designed to disorient you?

515 years ago

Columbus was dining with many Spanish nobles when one of them said: «Sir Christopher, even if your lordship had not discovered the Indies, there would have been, here in Spain which is a country abundant with great men knowledgeable in cosmography and literature, one who would have started a similar adventure with the same result.»

Columbus did not respond to these words but asked for a whole egg to be brought to him. He placed it on the table and said: «My lords, I will lay a wager with any of you that you are unable to make this egg stand on its end like I will do without any kind of help or aid.»

They all tried without success and when the egg returned to Columbus, he tapped it gently on the table breaking it slightly and, with this, the egg stood on its end. All those present were confounded and understood what he meant: that once the feat has been done, anyone knows how to do it.
(From Wikipedia)

Not a big deal? Was Columbus cheating?

Or is it rather what Mór Jókai summarized like this: «Research means to see what everybody else is seeing, but to think what no one else has been thinking before.»?

Think about it: Which rules keep your thinking in a box? Can you tell games from reality? Where would you need to take a step back, in order to see you are trapped in a game that follows certain rules?

145 years ago

Europeans don't get baseball. People in the US don't get soccer. So, just for my personal amusement, let me vex you with the soccer rule of the offside.

Actually, it is pretty simple. As a soccer player, you're not allowed to hang about directly in front of your opponent's goal, get passed the ball and score. That would be too simple. When you get passed the ball, there must be at least one field player of the other team between you and the goal. Such are the rules.

And they're pretty old as well:

As football developed in the 1860s and 1870s, the offside law proved the biggest argument between the clubs. Sheffield got rid of the «kick throughs» by amending their laws so that one member of the defending side was required between a forward player and the opponent's goal; the Football Association also compromised slightly and adopted the Cambridge idea of three. (From Wikipedia)

Now imagine you're a clever field player, paying attention to always have an opponent's field player between you and the goal, in order not to be offside when you get passed the ball.

All of a sudden, the opponent's team runs away from their own goal, as one, and you end up alone there, like a fish left dry by the low tide. It happened the very second one of your teammates was passing the ball to you. You've guessed it by now: you're now offside. This «low tide» strategy is aptly called the offside trap.

Well… that's not what the original offside rule was meant for, is it? Quite nasty exploitation of that rule, isn't it?

Think about it: Which rules have been made up against you but can be used for your benefit? Don't always look for legal loopholes only. Instead, figure out where the rules also apply, even unexpectedly.

20 years ago

In 1986, on what seemed like just another training day, Jan Bokloev was in serious trouble. He had to master a challenge within a fraction of a second, otherwise he'd stall at full speed and crash into the ground. Which is never very funny, especially when you're a ski jumper like Jan.

Bokloev said goodbye to elegance («Parallel skis! Parallel skis!») and spread wide open his skiers so they formed a V-shape. He avoided the crash. And he was dazzled to find out that he could even jump farther this way.

The experts didn't like this V-style at all. They said it looked ghastly. And as judges, they reduced Jan's style score points heavily, in every competition. But Bokloev didn't give up. After two years of practice, he could jump farther than anybody else. And since scoring was based both on style and distance, he started to win. Today, all top ski jumpers in the world rely on the V-style.

Well… Bokloev jumped so far that style simply didn't matter that much anymore, as a criterion. Did he game the system?

Think about it: Do you give in to Naysayers too much? Do you suffer from a system of beliefs like this one: «1. We have never done it that way! 2. We have always done it that way! 3. Who do you think you are!»

Last year

Do you know Tim Ferriss? He ran a bet that he could win a medal at the national Chinese kickboxing championships. And he won.

Not by kickboxing, though. Weigh-ins were the day prior to competition. By dehydration, he lost about 28 pound before that. The night before the matches, he hyperhydrated back to 193 pounds. He simply hustled his opponents off the mat.

Unsportsmanlike? At least, there is a lot of Tim-bashing, like here.

Think about it: Which traditional rules do not actually make sense? Wich ones have gigantic loopholes? «Everything popular is wrong», says Oscar Wilde. Is it really abuse of a well-aged rule or is that rule just crude, despite its age?

Today, at your place?

What do you think about bending rules creatively, for your own benefit? Tell us in a comment below!

Why we clutter

Rolf F. Katzenberger — Tue, 06 May 2008 07:41:55 +0000

VANITY TOYS charm bracelet (detail) © briserisvegliWhy is it so hard to keep a place or a room free of clutter? Why do empty surfaces fill up with clutter, instantly? Why do items start to gather at the very places we've just cleaned a moment ago, as if moved by a ghost's hand?

It's about more than just clearing and cleaning.

When we clean places up, we want to believe we're creating free space. However, we're just creating a vacuum. What's the difference?

Horror Vacui

A vacuum is free space minus meaning. This makes a vacuum suck in, instantly, the meanings and the hodgepodge of others - we simply can't stand any vacuum for a prolonged time, because the horror vacui would seize our minds, refusing to let go. Wikipedia defines it like this:

In philosophy the horror vacui stands for a theory initially proposed by Aristotle stating that nature «fears» empty space. Therefore empty space would always be trying to suck in gas or liquids to avoid being empty.

Well, how do you give meaning to a vacuum, then? How can we turn it into free space? Alternatively: how do we discover the meaning that we couldn't spot so far?

Downsize it

The smaller a free space is, the less likely we mistake it for a vacuum. Unfortunately, our Lilliputian view of the world is colliding here with John Maeda's Sixth Law of Simplicity:

«What lies in the periphery of simplicity is deﬁnitely not peripheral.»

Consider this law, for a moment. The free space around the buttons of an iPod actually belongs to those buttons. Only Paris Hilton would demand that some Swarovski crystals be glued to it.

That window sill under the vase holding a single flower actually belongs to that flower, and most of the time, we leave it empty. That wall holding a simple painting belongs to that painting - however, we can rarely stand to attribute this meaning to it and to leave it completely free. The bigger a free space is, the more peripheral and unused it looks, to us.

It's easier to preserve several small free spaces than a single, big one.

Live in Abundance 2.0

The shorter free space stays free, the less likely it is mistaken for a vacuum. For human beings, the longest piece of free space is their lives, which makes us vulnerable to the biggest of all vacuums, the existential one:

there is more and more evidence that our feeling of meaninglessness is spreading further and further. (…) When I get asked to explain the origin of this existential vacuum, I'm always offering the following abstract: Opposed to animals, man can't count on instincts to tell him what he must do. And opposed to his ancestors, he lacks the traditions to tell him what he should do. Knowing neither what he must do nor what he should do, he seems to become insecure about what he really wants.
Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), Man's Search for Meaning

We're trying to fill this existential vacuum with sense and meaning. Objects lend themselves readily here because when they're big and expensive they seem to be, quite literally, larger than life:

I'm on my way I'm making it, huh!
I've got to make it show yeah, hey!
So much larger than life
I'm gonna watch it growing
Hey hey hey hey
The place where I come from is a small town
They think so small, they use small words
But not me, I'm smarter than that,
I worked it out
I'll be stretching my mouth to let those big words come right out

I've had enough, I'm getting out
to the city, the big big city
I'll be a big noise with all the big boys, so much stuff I will own
And I will pray to a big god, as I kneel in the big church

Peter Gabriel, Big Time

Of course, we don't have that much space at home, so our expensive errands end up being not even status symbols - they lack the free space around them that could turn them into something special.

Focus on your dreams of doing something and being (learning) something, not on having something. Learn to cherish the free space in your home as a means to help you do more and be more of what you want, because there is less ballast that could stop you. Specialize on Abundance 2.0, as Clay Collins over at The Growing Life called it:

Abundance 2.0 means that you live a radically authentic life, be radically true to yourself, get paid for being you, quit the things you need to quit, and still have enough materials possessions to be happy and make your family happy. Abundance 2.0 is what happens when your life is so great that the private jet just isn’t necessary.

Look closer. From farer away.

Aniu, qanikcaq, qanisqineq, nutaryuk, qetrar, muruaneq.

Got it?

These are 6 Inuit words for what we call snow. It all depends on whether the snow is on the floor, drifting on the water, just fell, has a snow crust or still looks like a powder pond.

The more intense our mind investigates a vacuum, the more often it finally recognizes a free space it couldn't see before. By observing more closely, we learn to spot patterns, to create meaning by applying them and to find words for them so we can talk to others about them.

A plain is not just a plain is not just a plain. Not every square inch is just an available square inch, an evidence of poor use of available space. Free space can have a meaning that only your intuition may be able to discover.

Consider, for example, dead courtyard surrounded by walls on all sides, with no porch or halfway space between the indoors and the outdoors, and with no more than one path leading into it.
In this place, the forces are in conflict. People want to go out, but their timidity, which makes them seek a place halfway to the outdoors, prevents them.

They want to stay out, but the claustrophobic quality, and the enclosure, sends them back inside again. They hope to be there, but the lack of paths across the courtyard make it a dead and rarely visited place, which does not beckon them, and which instead tends to be filled with dead leaves, and forgotten plants. This does not help them come to life - instead it only causes tension, and frustrates them, and perpetuates their conflicts.

Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building

Make it come alive

What's the difference between a bottom covering and a carpet? A bottom covering is a futile attempt to hide a vacuum. Because it is just a covering, it does not provide meaning. It is the continuation of vacuum by other means, a plastic tarp covering a dead body, not actually hiding anything but rather screaming Crime Scene! Crime Scene! out of every fold.

The more alive free space looks like, the less likely it is mistaken for a vacuum.

A carpet is a flushing meadow amidst the desert sands. It does not form a real barrier, but still creates a garden. It is strange: the closer the carpet extends to all walls, the less lively this garden feels like, no matter what imagery the carpet contains.

Don't hide something, but change it. Turn a vacuum into a flushing meadow. Replace a bottom covering by a carpet. Turn your sanitary facility into a bathroom. Instead of just preparing food in a kitchenette learn to say, practice and live cuisine.

My home is not a place, it is people.
Lois McMaster Bujold

More reasons why people clutter?

Do you know more reasons why people clutter? Add a comment, below!

Mentioned here…

Why projects fail

Rolf F. Katzenberger — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 07:09:50 +0000

Brick wall © Les ChatfieldWhy are Projects so hard? Why do we fail here so often, even in workplaces featuring thorough planning and highly disciplined execution?

We do not fail despite, but because of these. We believe that turning a project into a success is like baking a pizza, while in fact, it resembles much more creating a pizza recipe.

Why? In our projects, we're not into producing identical results from identical ingredients. Every project is unique - it is like research & development, not like production. In R & D, diversity of results is what we strive for. In production, diversity is our worst enemy. We should be aware of this, however, we're making the same 4 mistakes, over and over again:

Mistake #1: We favor processes and tools over individuals and interaction

Hey, something that is both expensive and complicated can't be wrong, can it? Plus, it is comfortable and reassuring to use and do in projects what everybody else uses and does. Projects are as simple as having an input being transformed by a process into an output, case closed.

However, pizza, perfumes and beer share a common trait: ingredients and production are specified in painstaking detail. Customers expect the very same results having the very same level of quality, all the time. That's why processes may be a company secret, but never creative.

We're stunned and dazzled whenever we witness such frictionless operations. If this thinking works like a charm for the assembly line, it can't be wrong for our project, can it? So, lets define our processes and have our work certified according to ISO 9000 standards. It'll make our day.

Wrong. There are no work instructions that can guarantee creativity, competence and team spirit. Even a streamlined pizza factory would grind to a halt if it weren't for the human «lubricant» covering its process chain. As a matter of fact, work to rule is a guaranteed way to bring everything down.

Have you noticed how many rules and regulations are just fears that have become manifest in paper? Fears like: They won't be able to do their job well without instructions. Our results will not meet our quality standards without this. When they lack a handbook, newbies may not be able to become productive quickly enough….

Face your fears. Establish a project culture where fears can and will be discussed and made obsolete by everyday, low-tech behavior, instead of erecting monuments of regulations in their honor. Start small and «infect» others, turn team spirit into an epidemic!

You're on the right path when you feel your team is starting to morph from a partnership of convenience into The Three Musketeers. When you encounter problems, resist the impulse of raising your «defensive shields». You're not Captain Kirk on the Enterprise, offering just a meager «communication channel» to a Klingon opponent.

Mistake #2: We behave as if comprehensive documentation trumped a working, fit-for-use result

Analyze! Analyze! Analyze! Only after all requirements have been captured and fully understood we can start to implement the result. Every document is a milestone, isn't it?

Wrong. analysis.doc never crashes. A prototype may, on the other hand.

Consider the meaning of good enough in the course of your project. Documents defined as milestones can become millstones tied to your feet. It is an utter waste of money and time to give more attention to documentation than to the results that you want to achieve. Documentation exists to enable people to go ahead. Once long chapters and impressive diagrams have become more important than communication in your team, you're in trouble.

Try early what may harbor hidden risks. Learn faster by failing earlier. If your documents and diagrams look battered after their contact with reality, make that contact more often. If it hurts, do it more often.

Mistake #3: We prefer contract poker to customer collaboration

As a customer, are you familiar with the following situation? On every minor change request, the project manager starts to re-calculate costs. Better bring a lawyer to the table if you depend on any type of guarantee, you need a painstakingly precise contract for work and materials. Once you've signed it, you're sitting in a golden cage, being entitled to exactly what you needed - half a year ago. Any change request must pass the arid lands of the Change Board; in the meantime, stuff gets implemented and billed that you don't need anymore. Since you probably can't justify this in front of your boss, you start covering your a… and archive every single tiny email - you never know…

As a member of a project team, are you familiar with the following situation? Customers never know what they want. However, you can never get them to pay just for your services. Contracts for time and materials are a no-no, they want work and materials, to be able to tell you, afterwards: «Oh, by the way: you've already accounted for some minor favors when you calculated your offer, for sure.» Say NO to any request and they'll escalate it up to a level where the hourly rates of the people involved exceed what you're making in a whole month. In the end, the customer gets his will, anyway. A huge part of your day is eaten up by maintenance of the infamous Excel sheet listing all requirement changes. In any given situation, whether it's analysis.doc or changes.xls that you need to follow, well, only god knows. Of course, every little change stresses your budget and puts all deadlines at a growing risk, but the customer doesn't (want to) see it…

Why isn't the customer part of your team?

Mistake #4: We rather follow a plan than respond to change

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
(Dwight D. Eisenhower)

What can you do to keep a project on track? Four classical levers are time, money, quality and scope. If you want to adjust them all at your will, you're going to fail. The longer you consider the issue, the more you'll realize that talking about scope is the only way to go. Using the scope lever turns change into your friend, for customers and project teams alike.

Why, then, do people talk so obsessively about time, money and quality, instead? Because a compromise about any of these can only be achieved at the expense of one of the parties involved. That's why people like plans so much: everybody gave their best and found a so-called agreement in the shape of a plan - alas, plans, you know…

As a matter of fact, it wasn't their best when every change results in an avalanche of follow-up changes, vexing everybody and turning «change» into a synonym for «root canal treatment».

Embrace change! Embrace it. It's not about change containment, it's about welcoming it. Change isn't the problem, but ritual belief in invariable plans is.

Stay agile!

It is hard not to believe in the common wisdom about what works for project management. Especially when it's expensive, clumsy and slow (rather perverted criteria for pro work environments at the state of the art, if you ask me).

Instead, stay agile! Focus on individuals and interaction, fit-to-use results over extensive documentation, customer collaboration and on responding to change. Everything else is an optional means.

What's your opinion? Please write a comment, below!

I highly recommend these helpful books if this posting made you curious:

Destiny or Self-Determination? Square of Quotations No. 1

Rolf F. Katzenberger — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 07:07:26 +0000

This is the start of a new series: Squares of Quotations. Every posting will focus on the balance between two good things and on their respective exaggerations (see info box below).

Today's topic: Destiny or Self-Determination?

Lots of attitudes we find annoying (in others as well as in ourselves) are maybe just exaggerations of an element of truth. When we give such an attitude a closer look, we feel that there is simply a need for a counterbalancing attitude.

As soon as we feel annoyed by how another person behaves, we might as well look for the element of truth in it and show our appreciation for it. That will make it easier to suggest a counterbalancing behavior, in order to highlight a path of improvement.

Of course one can also exaggerate the counterbalancing element of truth, possibly in an attempt to compensate for what was found to be too extreme, in the first place. Obviously, such an overcompensation isn't helpful either.

Two elements of truth plus their respective exaggerations form a square of values, describing paths of positive development. The concept of a Square of Values was first described by Paul Helwig (unfortunately, link in German only). Later, Friedemann Schulz von Thun extended it to include paths of positive developments, too. Only the form of a Square of Quotations is my own invention.

Self-Determination versus Destiny

«If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right.»

Henry Ford
(1863-1947)

«God, give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other.»

Reinhold Niebuhr
(1892-1971)

«What the mind of man can conceive and believe, It can achieve.»

Napoleon Hill
(1883-1970)

«Fate rules the affairs of mankind with no recognizable order.»

Seneca
(5 v. Chr. - 65 n. Chr.)

What are your thoughts on this? Please leave a comment!

Ask the reader: what is your most timeless self-development problem?

Rolf F. Katzenberger — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 07:12:37 +0000

Cyril the squirrel up for a challenge © Brian SnelsonYou've been there, I bet! There's a problem that just refuses to be solved. As a matter of fact, your workarounds didn't really «work around» that problem. Sometimes, you're able to find a solution like a service or a product that will do the job. Alas, all of a sudden, the service or the product gets discontinued. Even worse: vendors and providers decide to split it up, into Scylla and Charybdis, oops: Classic and Premium. You've experienced the consequences: endless footnotes attached to suspiciously low prices, imposing limitation after limitation on you. All of that fine print tortures first your eyesight and in the second place your patience. Say goodbye to comparing offers and prices…

On this blog, I'm into discovering and describing timeless solutions for self-development problems. I've got some questions for you:

What are your timeless self-development and organization problems?
Did some solutions turn out to be Pyrrhic victories?
What is your toughest nut to crack, that obnoxious problem you'd like to see covered by a blog posting, here?

Please answer in a comment - I'll pick the toughest challenges and turn them into postings on this blog!

3 steps to your Personal Mission Statement

Rolf F. Katzenberger — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:32:59 +0000

Lipstick © Simon EvansDo you need what Stephen R. Covey calls a «Personal Mission Statement»? What for?

Let's leave aside what companies or political parties want to tell you about their so-called mission. Compared to these, drafting a Personal Mission Statement (and updating it from time to time) can be real fun. If you do it well, the statement will give you

Orientation: What are the values that guide your life?
Identity: How can you unfold your personality in a world that gets more chaotic, every day?
Decision support: What should you stick with when you find yourself in a complicated situation?
Sound relationships: What can other people expect of you?

How do you draft a great Personal Mission Statement? After some thinking, I arrived at a simple set of criteria. My statement shall be

relevant and positive. My statement must have meaning now and here for me, not in a perfect but distant future or for mankind (whoever that may be) in general. I want inspiration for today and tomorrow instead of control after the event. My statement shall foster my independent thinking, it must not block it or drown it in clichés.
universal. I just don't need separate statements for work, at home, relatives, neighborhood, dog, etc.. In addition, my statement should be attractive for others, too, not just because I like Kant's categorical imperative, but also because it's a simple lesson to be learned by everybody that you can't always have your will at the expense of others without tying up resources (and ultimately wasting them and the time you could have invested more productively).
suitable for daily use. I want a personal mission statement that both allows for making compromises and establishing constraints for them. I'm not a slave to fundamentalisms, looking forward to flagellate myself for not being able to satisfy inhuman demands. On the other hand, I'm not looking for fluffy paragraphs that will never ever provoke any conflict.
short. My statement must fit onto a single page. I'm not going to change it every week, but it must lend itself to be changed at any time, anywhere. You can't do this with a novel.

Well, what does that mean, in practice? How do I arrive at such a personal mission statement? Let's consider three steps:

Determine the structure
Finding your values
Determine principles from your values

Step 1: Determine the structure

There is no standard template for mission statements, but some proven approaches. Unfortunately, they mostly deal with issues that only companies are facing.

I'm quite sure that two sections are enough:

Values - your individual, written decisions about your criteria on what is good and what is bad for you and the culture you live in (I said bad, not evil).
There is no place here for any «if» or «but». Conflicts about trade offs and clashes among values will be inevitable, but they shall not become part of your list of values.
Principles - guidelines you will follow when you choose your behavior for various domains of your life, according to your values.
In general, «principle» is defined rather as a rule you think you can't violate without making your values suffer. To me, this view is too lopsided - principles that only forbid things aren't sufficient.
Nor is a principle a strategy, a «long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal», as Wikipedia defines strategy. Principles are meant to establish values in your daily life and to protect them. This is an ongoing mode of living, not a goal.

These two sections ought to be sufficient for giving your actions a stable base. Of course, there are mission statements that include visions, goals, roles or even desirable behavior, too. In my view, however, such items wouldn't fit my criteria for a universal and short statement - I'd need to modify it more often and it would hardly fit onto a single page.

Step 2: Finding your values

I've already written about direct and indirect pathways to your values, so I'm just listing them here:

Consider admiration
Consider roles
Consider dreams
Consider moments of flow
Consider moments of happiness
Consider confrontations
Consider sarcasm
Consider paranoia
Consider manias
Consider pain

As an example, when I do that, values like simplicity, respect and learning come to my mind, among others. Let's do a quick check: yes, they're all relevant, positive, universal, suitable for daily use and short. Which values come to your mind?

Step 3: Determine principles from your values

Principles aren't platitudes. A platitude is a statement nobody having a little common sense would deny. Principles, on the other hand, are debatable, I guess precisely because they must already be applicable to a concrete domain of living.

«Those are my principles, and if you don't like them… well, I have others.»
Groucho Marx

Assuming the values simplicity, respect and learning: how can you obtain principles that guide your choice of actions and means in life?

To me, situations are key. Each one is unique. Most of them, and this is the strange part, are also familiar. This is why I can walk two paths to my principles: the path of the unknown and the path of the familiar.

The Unknown, or: the power of If I had only…

Review a couple of situations when you were really caught off guard. Situations when you did not behave according to your values. Situations that made you think (afterwards) «If I had only…»

Under unexpected circumstances, what did you do that violated, e.g., simplicity, respect or learning?

Did a brand new gadget offer drown out your desire for simplicity, even though you knew you already own a similar device that serves your needs quite well?
Have you been serviced so badly in your favorite restaurant that you felt you couldn't help but fire disrespectful remarks at the waitress?
Knowing you were wrong, did you still feel the need to force your will upon a colleague, instead of acknowledging your mistake and learning from her?

Which principles could have helped you to avoid this? Thinking about the situations I just described, the following examples of principles come to my mind:

One in, one out.
I'm adopting the principle of buying something new only as a replacement for something old. I shall either donate, sell or throw away the older thing, immediately.
Attack the problem, not the person.
I'm adopting the principle of thinking clearly about what exactly is the problem that is disturbing me. I shall communicate precisely the problem, and only the problem.
Be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
I'm adopting the principle of placing trust in my colleagues, by default, to make sure I will learn rather than judge.

The Known, or: principles in context

There are a lot of intersections of people, places, situations, resources etc. that keep repeating throughout our lives. I call them contexts, precisely of the type David Allen describes in his method of Getting Things Done (GTD). By convention, Allen designates contexts by a prefixed @ symbol. I've written extensively about what is (not) a context before, so I'll just repeat the list here:

People. Examples: @Joe, @Mom and dad.
Roles and service providers. Examples: @Boss, @M.D., @Delivery/FedEx/UPS.
Locations. Examples: @Desk, @Home, @Office, @Club, @San Diego Office.
Errands. Examples: @Walmart.
Recurring event agendas. Examples: @Weekly sales meeting.
Recurring idle time spans. Examples: @Morning coffee, @Gym, @Jogging, @Commuting.
Allocated time spans. Examples: @Reading, @Creative.
Required resources or tools. Examples: @Online/Web, @PC-Offline/Mac anywhere, @Phone/Calls, @Email.
Habits. Example: @Home.2Minutes.

Contexts are wonderful opportunities for deducing principles, since they repeat, by definition. What are the principles that come to your mind when you consider your contexts from the perspectives of simplicity, respect and learning? For instance, I can think of the these:

Avoid multitasking.
I'm adopting the principle of batching my tasks with respect to contexts, so their completion becomes simpler by avoiding task switching.
Respect good work.
I'm adopting the principle of noticing good work done by others and letting them know I cherish their performance. Especially with respect to services or professions I haven't chosen for my own career path.
«First empty your cup.»
I'm adopting the principle of focusing completely on my current task, so I can learn the most from it instead of framing new situations in my old views.

Start now!

It is obvious that it takes a while until you're satisfied with your Personal Mission Statement. I keep collecting new thoughts and insights that make me change my statement about twice a year. If the text doesn't fit onto a single page anymore, I force myself to shorten it.

How did you draft your Personal Mission Statement? Let us know in a comment, below!

Discover your values

Rolf F. Katzenberger — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 11:58:09 +0000

Search of Amber © Maciek PelcWhat are the values you live by? If such a question catches you off guard - welcome to the club! A few years ago, I would not even consider writing down a list of my values or even figuring out a personal mission statement, as recommended by Steven R. Covey.

How can we become aware of our values? It doesn't look like a great idea to pick them from a list of all potential values ever uttered by mankind. Use simple triggers instead - events in your life that make you think. There are direct pathways to discovering your values, like:

Think about admiration
Whom do you wish good luck, from the bottom of your heart? Even if you don't tell them? And was that person really famous? Whom do you like to listen to, and why?
Be less awestruck - remember most role models never intended to be like that. They're rather forced to behave as they do, by their very values.
Think about roles
Which ones are the roles in my life that I enjoy playing? Daughter, son, father, potter, team lead, coach, club president, singer, member of the town council …? Why? What exactly makes me enjoy playing a specific role? On the other hand, which roles are manifestations of values and principles that I don't like? What would be an alternative to playing them?
Think about dreams
Honestly, I never wanted to become an astronaut or an engine / race driver. This stuff sounded way too kitschy already when I was young. Did you ever think about something less spectacular that would be worth while pursuing? What did you want to be or do and why? What are your most non-perishable dreams? What are the values that acted as «dream preserving agents»?
Think about moments of flow
When was the last time you were so immersed in what you were doing that you completely forgot about time and place? What was so enchanting about that work?
Think about moments of happiness
When was the last time you were so happy that your stomach went crazy? What made these moments possible?

Of course, there are also indirect pathways to your values. If you choose them, be sure to employ Toyota's technique of 5 whys: never be satisfied with the very first value candidate that comes to your mind. Instead, question each candidate: why? Repeating this cycle five times should lead you closer to the real value behind the ostensible answers.

Here are the indirect pathways that come to my mind:

Think about confrontations
What is freedom, for instance? There's a saying: «Those who don't move don't feel their chains». It seems some people believe that freedom was the obligation, then, to do what others try to ban. Freedom is interpreted as a simple rule - multiply it by -1: «So, your parents are extremely religious people? Great, so you'll dress pitch black, keep out of the sunlight and turn all religious symbols in your room upside down.»
Doesn't sound like sovereign decision making, does it? In the end, we become what we fight. Just look at anybody corrupted by power.
Freedom means that we can do the right thing and we do it confidently, even if our parents, the pope or society like it. What is the right thing to do, in your opinion?
Think about sarcasm
Sarcasm is always (always!) an indicator of values somebody has seen violated. If you happen to know House, MD you know what I mean. Dare to live through your most sarcastic moments again - nobody (I know of) can read your thoughts. Whether you've actually made sarcastic remarks or not, just apply the 5 Whys to track down the values that weren't honored although you thought they should have been.
Think about paranoia
Yes, the truth is out there. Sometimes good friends of mine make me smile when they comment on my sensitivity to privacy issues versus compared to my blogging.
Meanwhile, I think it has become absolutely impossible for anybody to stay invisible on the Internet, or more precisely: to stay un-googleable. It just doesn't work. Here's one of the stories that convinced me: my grandfather spent some time as a worker in Argentina, some 80 years ago. Nobody remembers anymore when he left and when he came back. Nobody? Not quite, the Passenger lists of the harbor of Bremen 1920 - 1939 do: they know his age, occupation, marital state, his companions, the name of the ship and the date of departure, accurate to the day. All that stuff is available online. Do you need to be paranoid to be puzzled by this persistent data trace, reaching back into a whole generation before the advent of computers?
What's behind that paranoia, then? To be honest, I want to be in control of what part of my data is visible to the public. In control of who can see it. Wouldn't we even like to control how the facts are to be interpreted? And so on…
However, «control» doesn't sound so positive. Instead, we prefer to call it «privacy». As soon as we can't control anymore who's seeing our data, we might even resort to our last stance, «reputation management». You can find out a lot about your values as soon as you consider how you would not like to be seen by others.
Think about manias
Do you have arguments with people about the very same issues, over and over again? Do people keep accusing you of being fanatical about a seemingly tiny aspect of life, while ignoring bigger and much more important ones?
That's no problem as long as you get mixed feedback from different groups of people. However, get wary of your thinking when you can't find any supporters outside obscure Internet discussion boards.
Maybe (it's safe to play with this thought, nobody can read your mind) some aspects of life make you feel helpless, anxious or just plain irate? Maybe a mania is but a substitute for a real, but unattainable thing?
I start to be suspicious about myself whenever I feel the urge to stop asking the second or third Why in the game of the 5 Whys. Maybe I'm feeling as if somebody puts me under pressure of justification. To me, my reluctance to ask further questions means that I'm no longer exploring my motives but rather looking for ways to persuade others or to distract from an issue. Sometimes, there's a hidden value that begs to be uncovered. Could it be it is buried under a mania because committing to it feels so demanding?
Think about pain
Is there something you weren't able to tell somebody who has passed away? Something you would have liked to experience, together? There is nothing as painful as losing a love, a friend, a significant person. What was life's present to you, via this person? Could it be it's now up to you to give this present to somebody else?

Do you remember such moments of enlightenment? Please tell us about it in a comment below!

Options you can see from 50,000 feet

Rolf F. Katzenberger — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 08:03:27 +0000

Goodbye © woodley wonderworksEach time you travel by plane, you are bound to experience a miracle. As the plane takes off, the busy throng of life is gradually scaling down, as houses melt into cities and cities sink into the patchwork of the earth.

Your spirit is unclamped. That sensation is so overwhelming that I wonder what astronauts (cosmonauts and taikonauts as well, of course) feel when they talk about the moment they saw the earth from space for the first time. You simply want to transcend your individual existence and do something (anything!) of lasting value.

Well, you are made to be great! Master productivity authors like David Allen (of «Getting Things Done» fame) encourage you to take on that 50,000 feet perspective; Stephen R. Covey, author of «The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People» even suggests that you write a mission statement as your personal guideline. Why, then, do intentions fade away as soon as our feet touch the ground again?

I think because transcending your individual existence is not what many people think it is. Rather:

It requires that you accept roles and responsibilities, not clichés. You need to fully understand what you are committing to. You need to meet expectations. You need to signal to others that they can trust you and depend on you. For lifetime, if necessary. You need to understand that you are dealing with other human beings who have equal dignity and equal rights, even if they don't have equal options in life.
It requires that you do what it takes, not what you want. You need to fully understand what altruism means. Altruism is what you do, not a fuzzy fantasy about how thankful others may be for what you do.
It requires that you do what it takes, not what yields publicity or fame. In the words of Harry S. Truman: «It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.» Or, if you prefer Cato the Elder, who lived from 234 BC - 149 BC: «After I'm dead I'd rather have people ask why I have no monument than why I have one.»

In my country, there is a saying that goes like this: Accomplish at least three things in your lifetime: Build a house. Plant a tree. Have a child. This is probably a personal vision that is shared by many people around the world. Astonishingly, it mentions three achievements that transcend the individual.

Here is what you can do if you think you can't accomplish any of the three.

Building a house when you can't

Medina of Zabid, Jemen © Aiace TelamonioSo you think you'll never have enough money to build or buy a house. It saddens you.

Do you know the famous UNESCO world heritage list of monuments, groups of buildings and sites? Today, it includes 851 outstanding properties located throughout the world, like the Chinese Great Wall, the Taj Mahal in India or the Yosemite National Park in the US.

But did you know that there's also a list of the World Heritage in Danger? It tracks «the property appearing in the World Heritage List for the conservation of which major operations are necessary and for which assistance has been requested», to quote the UNESCO World Heritage Convention. It is shocking how much of our universal heritage is facing obliteration and collapse.

It may happen in your neighborhood, too, where UNESCO is not likely to show up that soon. If you know a local piece of cultural heritage that it really unique, help protect and preserve it. There is a multitude of things you can do and not all of them require funding. To name just three:

Commit to keeping a piece your local heritage tidy. No fame to gain here. Maybe just laughter, when you're the only one cleaning up after hordes of people who were carelessly dumping their waste. Some visitors, however, may notice that somebody takes care of that special place.
Instead of a donation, offer your skills to help preserve a property. Whether it is a national park or a monument, you could offer help with repair or maintenance; you could collect and summarize information for visitors and residents alike; you could write to your local government representative and ask for support.
Become member of or even found a local society for the preservation of a property. Engage in fund raising. Write articles in magazines. Offer regular, guided tours in or around the property. Collect and publish historical information about it. Help others see what fascinates you about it.

Planting a tree when you can't

Leaf © Scott RobinsonAre you aware that actually trees are people huggers? They hold on the the soil so winds can't erode it. Forests work like huge sponges, absorbing water that would otherwise flood your streets, or releasing water into arid lands that would otherwise desiccate. When you're hiking in your local hills and mountains, their roots prevent rock slides. Avalanches hit the trees first, not you.

What do you have to offer to the trees? You may quite literally want plant a try. I'm not covering this topic here, there is plenty of advice available online and my only suggestion would be that you talk to a gardener and choose a local species. If you can't plant a tree in any place close to you, for whatever reason, there is still a myriad of things you can do. Let me mention just three of them:

Participate in the Arbor Day in your country . Learn about the encouraging history of this day and find like-minded people. In many countries, Arbor Day is celebrated by planting trees, sometimes even by reforesting whole areas. Help in the preparation of that day. Learn to tell local species apart. Offer guided tours, to make others familiar with rare trees you've found in your town.
Learn how you are affected by forest desctruction in countries you didn't know existed. Help stop that destruction by conscious consuming: not buying wood or furniture of unknown or disguised origin, for instance.
If you can afford it, join director David Attenbrough and buy a piece of the rain forest to save it from being destroyed . He says: «I have been immensely lucky in that my professional work has taken me to all corners of the world where I have been able to see first hand some of the rarest and most spectacular wildlife on earth. But the fate of the creatures which share our planet lies entirely at the hand of mankind - it is within our power to protect them or watch them become extinct. Let us choose the first route.»

Having a child when you can't

Children in Cambodia © Adam Hinton / Plan International Deutschland e.V.Maybe you were dreaming of having a child. There are so many ways that dream can become annihilated (a harsh word, but appropriate here, I think). Medical reasons, maybe. Maybe you were considering adoption, too, only to learn that thousands and thousands share the same dream, so your chances are tiny.

I hesitate to say «having a child» here, because my suggestions include to respect the fact that you can never have a child, even when you're the biological parent.

There are so many ways, so many organizations that support children in your country and all over the globe that I'll just mention one, below. Whatever path you will follow, I suggest if you choose to support a humanitarian organization, verify that in fulfills the following criteria:

They demonstrate a proven track history, both in terms of years and successful projects. There should be nothing to hide here.
They grant everybody open access to their financial information, not shying away from putting their combined accounts information on the internet, for download.
They let you sponsor a child you get to know, even if it's only a photograph and one-page status you receive, from time to time.
They contribute to the well-being of the family and of the place the child lives in. Remember the african proverb: «It takes a whole village to raise a child.»
If they work in a foreign place, they maintain good connections with local residents and send you first-hand, up-to-date information about the region, on a regular base.
They make you let go. While this may be the hardest part for you, the goal is the well-being and growth of a child and of its environment, not to keep a human in perpetual dependency.

My wife and me chose to become member of our local branch of Plan International. We were sponsoring a funny little boy in Kenya; the project to improve life conditions in his village was successful and our sponsorship had to end. Since then, we support a little girl in Sudan.

Plan fulfills all of the criteria I've listed above in a way that is more than excellent. They even contact local residents who help out and translate letters into the local languages and dialects. I asked them for a nice photograph to help me support their cause in a blog posting, and within a few hours, their PR staff responded, the lovely picture attached that you see above. They really walk the extra mile.

You were made to be great - so what will you choose to do?

Are you a killer?

Rolf F. Katzenberger — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:30:00 +0000

Xavier Borges, World of Warcraft orphan © miguelbHave you ever asked yourself why that K-word is used so pervasively? It's because destroying something is easier than building something.

Killing is the choice of the clueless and uninspired. Wit may not be at one's command, but killing always is:

Did you know your reliable GTD system is worthless, unless it is blessed with a killer setup? By the way: Whom or what exactly is your system going to kill, and why? Will it annihilate your coworkers' Moleskines in a sea of flames or what?

Blogs need killer headlines - allegedly; I dare say that they rather need inspiring, motivating, charming, fascinating, seductive, provocative, thrilling, suggestive, enchanting, intriguing, challenging or even just plain interesting headlines.
What does a website and a domain name like Killer Startups tell you? Don't those startups have any USP? Great idea to bet my provisions for old age on them, it seems.
Apropos Wall Street: are you looking for investors or new customers? By now, you've already guessed it: As a well-trained cubicle warrior, prepare yourself a killer elevator pitch. Please don't forget to clean up that elevator afterwards, will you?
Sometimes, you shouldn't stop at a killer elevator pitch. Don't get a life, though. Leading a creative life is so old school. You need opportunities to kill, so declare war on procrastination and start your warfare by dropping a killer presentation onto your customers.
Finally, when you come home in the evening, don't talk to your spouse or your kids. Reading excellent books is so old-fashioned, too! Guess what you need instead? Yes, it's the killer media center - enabling you to obliterate your family life and to blast all of the gadgets of the Joneses (no, I don't know how it kills those devices, technically speaking).

Tired from all that killing? Well, have others work for you and rent a killer, then.

Or get one of these all-time classics for less money than a pack of bullets and expand your vocabulary beyond the realm of death and destruction.

22 ways to say No

Rolf F. Katzenberger — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:47:44 +0000

No Entry sign 1 © Melodi TSaying No isn't as destructive as you may think. Actually, saying No means you've already said Yes to something else. By saying No, we're setting limits, to protect that something. But even when you're willing to protect your interests: for many people, No (not Sorry) seems to be the hardest word.

So you finally said No… and … oh my, somebody becomes manipulative and tries to undermine your decision. It's time to act in self-defense. Below, you'll find a toolbox for self assertion (not a weapons' arsenal, though): If you learn to set limits, how to stay polite and still get respect, you'll not just feel better but actually develop your self further. Plus, you'll gain more time for your interests. Let's have a look at 22 proven strategies how to say No:

Straightforward honesty: Just tell the reason why you can't or don't want to do something. You can train this first with friends and family. Whenever you want to say No, overcome your desire to please everybody and tell the truth. Stay polite but also assertive.
Try some humor: Say, for instance: «I want to spend more time with my blender.» or choose another of 100 potential reasons why. Of course, this only works with friends who appreciate tongue-in-cheek talking, understanding that it's impossible right now for you to present your reasons.
The principled approach: You say «I don't do such things, as a matter of principle», maybe followed by «According to my experience, this kind of things never pays» or more aggressively, «I think it's just plain immoral». If life taught you a bitter lesson already, why make the same mistake again? However, don't refer to principles you don't stand for.
Encouragement: Say «I feel you can do this on your own. As a matter of fact, last time you did it your results were a lot better than mine. I'm looking forward to your solution!» Encouragement is suitable when talking to Mr or Mrs Indecision. A lack of self confidence in others requires a lot of patience on your side, though.
The Magic of the First Name. Don't just say «No» - say «No, Michael.» It's a good opening move to deal with masters of the interruptive «But…» - the kind of people who never let you finish any statement (except for «Yes!», of course). Using the first name pushes the discussion onto a more personal level. It's also a clear signal that you're having serious reservations.
The preemptive strike: You say «Before we begin let me say that I'm not going to have a single spare minute next week, so basically I'm just a lurker here.» oder «Thanks for the invitation! I'm sorry but during the next few weeks I won't have time to attend these meetings anymore, my job yields a lot of stress right now, you know?». This is an emergency brake to be used e.g. at the beginning of a meeting - if you know that somebody will try to take control of your time in front of others, where you're not likely to object.
The High Standards (TM): Just say: «I can't take on new commitments right now, otherwise my existing ones would suffer.» It's an excellent escape from the competence trap: because you perform well, you get more and more things to do which in turn leads to a disappointing performance on your part.
The Flyer Evasion Maneuver: You don't say anything and just walk by. It's the only way to deal with inner city flyer cordons - you've lost as soon as they can make you stop and discuss. It's similar with email spam: never ever answer it, especially when they tell you that by answering you can unsubscribe from a mailing list you've never subscribed to in the first place. You'd only confirm that you'll be answering this kind of emails. That's wonderful - for the spammer who can sell one more responsive email address to his customers.
Queue up (please…): Say «Sure! It's already on my list, I'll take care of it immediately after establishing our subsidiary in Shanghai». If you don't happen to have any business in Shanghai, choose something that is about as tedious. The idea is to name something so important that it's not to be questioned by anybody - not even by suggesting you should do both things in parallel. Assuming everybody is familiar with your pending problems, it may also be sufficient to say «Let's talk about it again as soon as things start to work out a little better here.»
The infinite loop: Just repeat «I know what you're aiming at, but I'm not interested, really.» Again and again, until the other person resigns. Part of the fun is that you never explain what exactly the other person is aiming at, in your opinion. Excellent defense against telemarketers.
Put them on the spot: Keep replying «I understand… What other alternatives do you see?» until she or he runs out of suggestions. Then, you launch a blanket statement: «I'm not sure whether one of these is really suitable. Let's meet again as soon as you've got a little more options.» Useful in dealing with really bad «ideas» that were born before any related problem showed up.
Visitor's No: Just say «A little later maybe, thanks!» or «It's so delicious! I need a small break from eating». Sounds a lot friendlier than «Thanks, no, I'm not hungry anymore», doesn't it?
The Catch-22 tactics: You place the ball in their court by saying «I already promised my son we'd attend this football match together. I can't disappoint him, can I?» or «Sounds a lot more fascinating than what I need to do at the moment. I'm sad I can't join you!»
Partner with their laziness: Simply say «Sure! Please send me an email reminder, I'll reply with the attachments you required.» A great anti-hoarding tactics against human hamsters who just love to impose more work on others, hoarding the results for the day they may become useful. Some day. Maybe…
The Horror Alternative: «I don't feel like watching one more Tom Cruise movie, so how about going through the whole Doris Day DVD box today?». Wonderful cure against that special pest that is perseveringly ignoring all of your real interests, trying to educate you for the better. Instead of Doris Day, choose a topic that is of interest to you - your suggestion might be accepted, after all.
The Cheap Alternative: Your reply is «Frank, I'm terribly sorry I can't assist you during that meeting. However, I could review your presentation slides in advance.» Sometimes, grown-ups constantly asking you to look after them are just tiresome.
The Spanish Inquisition: Become inquisitive and say «I can't make it to our weekly business dinner this evening. Anything else to talk about besides the annual report?», «I got your invitation to an hour-long meeting. Couldn't spot an agenda inside - what do we need an hour for?» oder «Do we really need to spend more time on this subject? Or is there something else we need to talk about?» If somebody is on the verge of wasting your time again, it's time for a reminder - even in Outlook, it's possible to modify the default duration of a meeting…
Time to think it over: Just say «I need to think it over» oder «That's a bit short-notice. I need more time.». Even better: «I need to talk to my spouse first, as soon as we find the time for it.» Of course you haven't got the faintest idea when that may be. By the way: it's never a mistake to think important things over and to discuss them with your loved ones. Never say Yes in impulse when it doesn't feel right.
Applied risk management: «During the last 2 years, I was the only person who did this. I fell ill twice already and nobody could cover for me. Let's delegate this to Michael, otherwise we'll run into the same kind of trouble over and over again.» Choose a proficient nominee here, otherwise you'll suffer from a higher workload than before.
Fatal Incompetence: You say «I haven't got the necessary skills.», «That's not my area of expertise.» or «I'm not really familiar with this, but Frank is.» Excellent for dealing with freeloaders thinking you exist for the sole purpose of assisting them with things they could cope with perfectly on their own.
The sympathy-scam dead end: Just say «I'm very sorry for you.» when somebody specializes on giving you «the look», hemming and hawing like in «I wanted to rent a van like yours, but that's soooo expensive…»
The Verbal Closeline: «What part of NO didn't you understand?». Well, sometimes confrontation is the only language that obtrusive PITAs will understand. Limit this to occasions where NO hasn't been understood twice in a row already, please.

Got any NO story to share?

What are your experiences with saying No? Please tell us in the comment section below about your strategies. What worked? What didn't work?.