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Your Office at 34,000 Feet – Why You Should Wi-Fi While You Fly

Monday, March 21, 2011

I’m on my way to Boston to speak at a CEO breakfast.  According to the captain, we’re cruising at 34,000 feet – over six miles up.  And the most amazing part is that I’m connected to the office, friends and family via the Gogo Inflight wi-fi system now available on most airline flights. 

Like all new technologies, many people recoil from the notion of being connected while flying.  “Just another sanctuary compromised” is the opinion of these nay-sayers.  I’m confident that their ancestors scoffed at those odd looking jalopies sporting internal combustion engines some 100 years ago.  Now, before everyone rushes to the Comment section to lambast me with rebuttals to what may appear to be a technology-hugging predisposition, let me point out two things:

  • Technology is never the problem.  The problems with technology arise from its use, which is purely an individual issue.
  • I whole-heartedly advocate disconnecting and spending time away from all the craziness that modern-day technology can deliver.  Need I remind y’all that I’m an avid fly fisherman?  Rarely can even a cellular signal be found in the places I prefer to frequent!

That said, there is some new neurological science and some great common sense that supports the idea of working while in-flight

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Spend Now, Receive Later – The Ongoing Value of Documented Processes

Saturday, March 12, 2011

I own two businesses – my consultancy and an e-tailer of kayaking gear. The latter, Outdoorplay, migrated to a cloud-based software package called NetSuite in early 2010. From the very beginning we required everyone to document the various business processes they learned about the NetSuite system. Google Docs was used to share the process sheets amongst ourselves. Now, one year later, we have a complete library of How-Tos on almost every feature we use in NetSuite.

When we hired a new employee recently, we had her review the applicable process sheets before digging into the software. Then, while she was coming up to speed, she referred to the process sheets to guide her way. The net results were faster learning by her and fewer questions to be answered by others = 2x productivity! 

Here are the basic steps to getting this right the first time and keeping it right over time.

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Three Small Steps to Greater Control of Your Day

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Change is easy; deciding to is hard.  That’s because we all know that we need to make changes to improve our lives.  However, the inertia of the status quo is a very powerful force to overcome when the moment to effect those changes arrives.  My personal and professional experience is that small change is, indeed, the most effective strategy for accomplishing all types of goals.

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Three Simple Ways to Direct Conversations in Multiple-Recipient E-mails

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

One of the greatest benefits to using e-mail is the ability to converse with a group of people asynchronously over a large geographic area.  Just add any number of e-mail addresses into the To:, CC: and BCC: fields, write your e-mail and hit Send.  Off goes your message to be read and responded to by everyone everywhere at any time. And that’s when the trouble begins.

Spaghetti on a Plate

Unlike real-time environments such as conference calls or meetings where the directionality of a statement can be implied by the circumstances – “She’s asking me that question because she’s looking at me.” or “That’s a question for the entire group.” - e-mail messages rarely queue the directionality of comments or questions.  Consequently, any and/or many of the people on the thread begin weighing in … via ”Reply All” of course.  Now, instead of a communication that was intended to keep a group informed while also directing certain comments to some and seeking specific answers from others, you have spaghetti on a plate.  A whole bunch of unorganized information is being delivered to a large group of people with no one directing traffic.  Think Tokyo train platforms at rush hour.

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