Proposal for Office Kittens Deployment – Asana
This is exactly why I like small companies. Kittens. It’s all about the kittens.
This is exactly why I like small companies. Kittens. It’s all about the kittens.
Productivity is a bit like a sickness with me. Actually, take away the “bit.” I have entirely too much fun thinking about being productive in a philosophical and methodological sense. (Yes, I’m one of those). I love being productive, too. It’s very satisfying to be able to organize, prioritize, and finish what you start in a reasonable time frame. Make the list, check the boxes, move on.
For a long time I’ve used Things to keep my day organized. It’s simple, slick, and unobtrusive. Unless you like obtrusive. Things can do obtrusive, too. I made it that way at the very beginning, mostly on accident. I got so buried in their tags feature that I spent more time creating the task than it took to complete the work.
But I digress. I want my team to experience the beauty of purposeful productivity. So I’m inviting them along for a tour, followed hopefully by acceptance and adoption. (If not, I’ll just resort to the usual beatings). In order to do this I need to find a tool that will work for them. I like Things, but it’s Mac/iGadget-only, and I need a tool that I can use at work, which is immersed in the World of Windows (aka WoW).
It’s right about this time that a few of my team, if they were to read this, would blurt out “Basecamp!” like it’s a four-letter word. We tried it. Or rather, I tried it. I tried it with both my team and the larger HR team. Result: failure. Most of that was not the software: It was a complete lack of interest by anyone else but me. I think I now understand why, and can use my understanding to achieve success this time around. Or I’ve forgotten why it failed and I’m just blundering back into the same issues again. Either way, I’m blissfully optimistic at the moment.
Basecamp now has a subscription fee even for it’s single project stuff, so I might go back to them if I feel it’s worth it, but I wanted to find a free option if I could. Plus, there were some things about Basecamp that were clunky and I wanted to see what else was in the market. First, I tried to use an in-house solution: SharePoint. I’ve never been a big fan of SharePoint for pretty much anything, and I wasn’t disappointed here, either. This is probably part software/part implementation issue, but when I tried to assign my name to a task and it switched to another Blackwell in the company, I decided SharePoint probably wouldn’t be my top choice. On the plus side, it’s cool to know I have a possible relative working with me. On the negative side, we would probably have a Hatfield/McCoy moment if I kept assigning him tasks from nowhere.
I discovered Asana recently, and I liked it as soon as I played with the interface. It’s kind of like Things as a web app. Simple, uncluttered, well designed. It’s not perfect, but it’s got all the features I need and many of the ones I like. So it’s my choice du jour. Or at least it was until I bumped against another WoW problem. This one is embarrassing: we’re running IE7 at work. There, I said it. Wow, huh? I know. It’s (mostly) not IT’s fault: some of the software we run still uses punch cards. Well, Asana’s a tad more 21st century than that. So now I have to find a way to either download the Chrome frame for IE7 (not happening thanks to firewalls) or download Firefox (also a no). Chrome and Firefox are way too fast, you see. And speed kills.
At this point I’ll have to either work with IT or go back to Basecamp (I can hear the groans), which I believe still works with IE7. Sort of.
Whatever happens, I’m determined to make team project and task management work. We will simply get more work done in less time and with less stress. My team should trust me, right? I mean, look at this face…
The more I do this management thing, the more I come to understand that if I respect each individual as a unique person, and if I engage on a level that assumes the individual is an adult, the better chance I have of achieving authentic engagement and adult behavior.
What I’ve noticed is that many people struggle with the practice of accepting and managing difference. They may accept or even advocate for it intellectually, and they can often speak about it in very intelligent terms, but when in the actual face-to-face interactions they fall far short of managing difference with understanding or compassion.
In the context of major change initiatives it’s in the processing and acceptance phases that people’s differences seem to be most salient, and in my experience it’s here that respect and patience is most important. I’ve had co-workers respond to the same information with acceptance, disbelief, resignation, grief, and anger. Some managers may respond to these various emotions with differing levels of discipline or disengagement themselves, but I believe that in our role of managers were are leaders and exemplars and we are responsible for setting the tone of the team.
What I have found is that if I listen to the initial reactions, respond with compassion and withhold judgment, then let the dust settle and allow each person to take his/her respective time to think through the news, I am rewarded with much less emotional behavior and a generally more positive response. Without exception I end up with more authentically engaged employees.
What I do know is that there’s a beauty in letting someone else take the reigns on occasion, and it’s actually an incredible gesture to make for someone else (and yourself). It’s how we learn something new: how to play the guitar, rock climb, race bikes, use a new computer program. Conceding control opens us up to make our lives richer.
This reminds me of the important linkage between humility and growth. I could do with practicing more humility and allowing others to succeed or fail without trying to intercede. Let’s face it, it’s not like my interceding is a recipe for success, anyway.
via The Shape of Things | Erika Napoletano is Redhead Writing
That’s why I love founder-led companies. Because you don’t see in their CEOs someone trying to negotiate their compensation package all the time. They’re trying to fulfill a mission with their organization. That ends up rewarding shareholders more than the short-term focused, profit-hungry business.
A paraphrase of note by Tom Gardner on the 9.2.11 Motley Fool Money podcast.
