Archive for March, 2006
How do you know when you really understand a subject? I always find that when I can explain a subject to a relative newcomer, and make them understand the material, I have a mastery of the subject.
Train to learn is a motto of mine, because if you have holes in your knowledge it will come to light when you have to stand in front of a group and train them. The “why’s” and “how’s” and “what-for’s” will come flying at you fast and furiously from the people you’re training.
We’ve grown the IT department at the company I work for and with a new addition to the team I thought it would be a good idea to do some system training on the ERP software package our company runs.
Normally it takes about a week to go through the “official” training on how to install the system from the software vendor, so there is a lot of material to cover. Sitting in front of the department, notes in hand, was a major test of what I understood and more importantly how well I could communicate it back.
The first day I spend training made me realize where my weaknesses in understanding the system were and where I needed to brush up myself. It also meant a week of going home and doing my own homework to get ready for each new training session.
Train to learn - in this case where you’re weaknesses are.
I’ve found that throughout my life this works. If I really need to understand some new material, when I sit down and explain it to someone else it really helps cement it in my own head.
Have you ever been working through a problem - maybe you couldn’t get something to work the way you expected - you called someone over to ask for their help and as soon as you started explaining what you were hung up on you had an “Oh Duh!” moment where you instantly realized what the problem was?
When these “Oh Duh!” moments happen many people feel silly for not catching on sooner, but you really shouldn’t feel this way. In the process of organizing your thoughts to explain the issue to someone else your brain managed to drop everything into place. That one funky variable that was eluding you became instantly obvious.
There is a technique that programmers use - and I’ve heard a ton of different names for it - where they describe a complex and confusing programming problem - in excruciating detail - to an inanimate object. It helps them achieve these “Oh Duh!” moments and solve their problems.
Why an inanimate object? Would you really want to have a programmer explain - in exacting detail - the problems they’re having connecting a database to a piece of middleware to talk to the shipping software via TCP/IP? If they talk to a stuffed animal, at least they’ll have a captive audience!
But it really does work - when you’re stuck try explaining your problem. Train to learn, and experience an “Oh Duh!” moment. It works even better if you can train a person, because then you’ll get immediate feedback on whether or not they understand what you’re training them.
Give it a try the next time you’re stuck, or the next time you want to see if you really understand some new material. When you train someone else you’ll immediately find your weak areas and you may even have a breakthrough and solve a problem that’s been bothering you!
March 8th, 2006
Which of these two words is more descriptive of your life: proactive or reactive? It seems that for me the best description of my life lately has been “reactive.” I’m reacting to the circumstances around me more often than I’m keeping my eyes scanning the horizon and proactively handling situations as they arise.
My favorite definition of “proactive” comes from a paper I read years ago. I no longer know the original author, but the quote is wholly appropriate.
“In a nutshell, being proactive is the same thing as being reactive. The only difference is that you do the reacting ahead of time.”
Another person I know likes to say that he’s to busy “putting out Little Johnny’s fires” to “take away his matches” to describe why he’s often in a reactive mode rather than a proactive mode.
And let me tell you something, always being in a reactive mode will really take the starch out of your collar after a while. When I’ve let myself be at the whim of my circumstances rather than become the master of my circumstances, I’m usually exhausted at the end of the day. I stay up too late trying to get caught up, sleep poorly and then am tired the next day as I try to get caught up again while handling the fires that “Little Johnny” keeps setting.
Being reactive is no fun at all!
So how do you break out of a reactionary mode? That’s the tricky part. Usually once you’ve realized that your life is swinging from one emergency to another, you’re so deeply into a reactionary mindset that it’s very difficult to break free.
For me, when I’m finding myself this way, by the time the day is done and I’m asleep I’ve only tackled things for other people and not for myself. That’s a key - when you’re in a highly reactionary mode you’re probably largely driven by other people - external forces. When you’re in a highly proactive mode you’re likely driven by yourself and your own internal forces.
The word “no” is an amazingly powerful tool to help you break out of a reactive mode. If other people are causing you to be reactive, then you have to limit their access to your time, talent and resources. Nancy Regan had it right when she told people to, “Just say No!”
It’s difficult to tell someone you can’t help them - it’s more difficult to tell them you won’t help them. The trick is to tell them why you’re telling them “no.” People generally want to help each other out - so often explaining why you’re saying “no” will be understood by others. Be firm, stand your ground, and just say, “no.”
You have to triage your time, and learning the art of “no” is the first step to taking your time back. Once you have your time back, you have to figure out what is coming at you so you can begin to move from a reactive mode to a proactive mode - so you can do your reacting ahead of time.
You have to try to see the “big picture” and understand what is happening around you. It’s easy to know what is happening to you, but if you don’t have a context of things around you, you can’t become proactive because you’ll never know what’s coming next.
Start by outlining your major projects, get clear and get it written down. Make sure you can see it in a context that makes sense to you.
Then start adding names of everyone who will have input to your project. These are the people you have to connect with to find out what else is coming. Remember that they’re having an input on your projects, but someone else is having an input on their projects. It’s possible the people who input on their projects will cause crises for you, so get to know what’s happening with those around you.
I once worked with a manager who liked to talk about “socializing” his projects. I always thought it was silly “management-speak” but really what he was doing was keeping his projects visible to those he was counting on, and keeping an eye the projects of those he was counting on at the same time.
If you don’t know a storm is coming you can’t prepare for it. Once you know a storm is coming you can prepare and be proactive.
You should also know that you will fail at this from time to time. It takes energy to keep yourself “in the loop” with all of the contributors of your projects. It takes energy to cope with the emergencies and burning fires on your plate while you begin to make changes to be more proactive.
It serves no purpose to beat yourself up when you do notice you’re working in a reactive manner. You should realize that your reactivity is a symptom that you need to deal with, not a failure you should feel bad about.
You should instead praise yourself for catching the slip into reactionary mode and use it as an indicator that you need to put the breaks on, evaluate your projects and take corrective action to stop reacting to your circumstances.
Remember, you should be the master of your circumstances. Take a break, just say no, “socialize” your projects and get back in control!
March 2nd, 2006
I slept very badly last night. I don’t understand why, I even went to bed earlier than usual, but when the alarm clock rang I was dead to the world. And as a result I drug through most of the day.
I wasn’t planning on stopping to fit a power nap into my schedule because my time today was rather pressed with some issues I needed to resolve on projects that are almost finished. So I decided early today I would put off my power nap today in favor of trying to wrap up some lose ends.
This afternoon I hit a wall like I haven’t hit in a long time. I was pooped and could barely keep my eyes open. Not only did I have the afternoon in front of me, I also had a 3.5 hour long night class with which to contend when the “working” day was done!
After struggling this afternoon with some problems I couldn’t find the solution to, a pending night class and running into the wall and being unable to keep my eyes open, I opted to take my power nap after all.
During my nap, I found that I almost immediately started dreaming. I must have been seriously tired to actually fall all the way asleep - that hasn’t happened before. In the dream I remember sitting down and writing on a piece of paper. I was watching from behind myself - so I didn’t see what I was writing. It was an odd perspective - to watch myself write as I tried to look over my own shoulder.
After some time passed - I don’t have any idea how long but only likely a few minutes - I got up and walked away. Once “I” was gone, I zoomed in to try to get a look at the paper. The words and drawing on the page swam and changed as I tried to look at what it said, but I noticed what appeared to be a few key words that remained steady.
Almost with a jolt I awoke. I looked at my PC and the timer said I officially had 2 minutes and 3 seconds left on my nap. What I remembered though were the key words from my dream. They gave me an idea about one of the problems I had been trying to solve before my nap - so I started fresh trying to solve my problem and within 10 minutes I had taken a new approach that I was so very close to before my nap and I had solved the issue.
I think if I hadn’t taken the time to squeeze my nap in I would still be fighting with that problem and I would be having a hard time keeping my eyes open to boot. It also provided the added benefit of allowing my brain the time it needed to digest the problems I’d been facing and provide me with a solution. Hooray for power napping!
March 1st, 2006
