all.the.work.things

[corporeal blogs about corporate cogs]

I’m Flexing My “Idea Muscle” Right Now.

by 5 Comments

MMBBLT_

I treat my brain like a muscle.  I (try to) use it every day.

Some days, I make the effort to use it so much, it actually feels tired.  I have a headache. It’s a good feeling.

It’s the nerd equivalent of “runner’s high.”

I treat my brain like a muscle because it behaves like a muscle — if I don’t use it, it gets weak.  And then, when I need it for something — when I’m dependent upon it, to respond to a question from an executive in a meeting, or debug some code, or calculate a tip — if it’s not in shape, it lets me down.  I’m “winded.” I can’t “lift the weight.”

Is your brain in shape?

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When I was in my 20s I didn’t need to do brain exercises.  I was in grad school. I read engineering and science textbooks every day.  I worked in a research lab with people much smarter than I was (and am).  I was constantly exploring the limit of my intellectual ability.  Also I could do all of this while sleeping 2 hours a night.  I was a professional brain athlete.

Well, now I need to exercise to stay in shape…that applies to everything in my body that has a blood supply.  And it especially applies to my brain.

So what is a “brain exercise” anyway?

Brain exercises are easy.  They are free.  There’s only upside to doing them.  Sudoku, Crossword puzzles, Kenken (my favorite), all those things are great.  Those puzzles can help you with problem solving.  But they have one limitation: they are structured.

Structured things have guaranteed solutions.  You know this before you start.  Knowing there is a solution makes it easier to persevere.  You know, in advance, there’s a path to a clear resolution.  Is that ever true in business?  Is it ever true in life?

Structured problems won’t help you with resiliency.  They won’t help in situations where you’re unsure of what the solution is — or if there is a solution at all.  What do you do when you’ve tried everything you can think of, and you’re convinced there’s no path forward?   I’m going to tell you the one brain exercise I do that helps more than any other.

It wasn’t my idea.  I have stolen it without remorse or humility.  This exercise helps where the puzzles cannot because it greatly expands the set of things that comprise “everything you can think of” — it stretches that from 10 things, to 100, to infinity things.

The exercise is simple: Making lists.

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To start, I make a list of lists.  Some of the items in that list, inspire more lists.  So then I have a list of lists, where each thing in that list, is itself a list.  (i never was very good with recursion)

I’m always thinking of lists.  Every item in a list is an idea, and every idea has the potential to be something, or change something.

As i said: I didn’t come up with this.  Linus Pauling (very smart) said “The best way to have a good idea is to have a lot of ideas.”  (This is from a guy that had a lot of good ideas, so you can trust him)

Also, James Altucher (also very smart) advocates coming up with lists as part of his “daily practice.”  If you haven’t read James’ work, please follow that link and read everything he’s ever written.  (do that after you’re done reading this article though)

Ideas are the currency of the knowledge economy.  People may think that money is the currency, but I think it’s ideas.  Here’s why.  One dollar is worth one dollar.  But an idea has the potential to be worth infinity dollars. I would rather have infinity dollars than one dollar.

Also: pretty much every success, promotion, or good “work-thing” that’s happened to me, has been the result of good ideas (either mine, or someone else’s that I was fortunate enough to be a part of).

Also: there is nothing physical about software and business processes — they are  just ideas that are reduced to practice.  They are ephemeral.  You can’t touch them.  And yet, there are trillions of dollars (euros, pounds, lira, etc) generated annually based on these ideas.  And they’re supplanted all the time by better ones, because people like you are thinking of better ones. all. the. time.

Also: Lots of people say “ideas don’t matter, it’s execution that matters.”  Guess what execution is?  It’s a bunch of smaller ideas that, when strung together, achieve or implement some bigger idea.  Execution = ideas! So saying “ideas don’t matter, it’s execution that matters” is like saying “ideas don’t matter, it’s ideas that matter!”  What?

I think the reason that people don’t get their big ideas done is because the big idea is easy to come up with (let’s invent a time machine!, or lets standardize everything across the company!), but it’s hard to come up with the small ideas that get you there.

It’s much easier to come up with excuses.  So, that’s what people usually do.

Come up with ideas instead.

Also: It takes a lot of ideas to give something shape, form, and meaning.  A painting is the result of a million brushstrokes.  The big idea collects, organizes, and applies the smaller ones…the big idea gives the smaller ideas meaning.  A million small ideas make a “big idea,” also known as a business, or a movement, or a revolution, or a vision.

How many ideas are in this article?  I don’t know. Can you count them and tell me?

Maybe the next trillion dollar idea is buried in one of the lists of ideas you haven’t written yet…?

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OK, time to start coming up with ideas.  It’s exercise.  That means it’s hard to get started. But, it becomes much easier very quickly (I promise). If you need a seed then take a look at the twenty list ideas below.  Steal these, make these lists.  Start with one list.  Then make two, then four.  At some point you will be a fountain of ideas — a “brain athlete,” or an “idea marathoner.”  And I promise this will result in goodness for you.

10 productive ways to spend the morning commute
10 dinner topics with a difficult relative / friend / coworker
10 nice things to do for my wife / husband / partner that are free
10 people whose careers I could help somehow
10 games to play with my son/daughter in the bathrub
10 side businesses I could start that would take less than 10 hrs a week
10 skills I could aquire in 1 year or less
10 ways competitors could establish or take market share from my company
10 online courses I could teach
10 productive ways to spend the 2 hours right before bed
10 stocks I would invest $1000 in (and why)
10 podcasts I should start listening to
10 ways to shave 10 minutes off of my morning routine (free time!)
10 meals that taste good, are good for people, and take 10 minutes or less to prepare, and cost $10 or less
10 ways I could improve my house that would take 1 hr or less
10 macroeconomic and cultural phenomena that are driving the economy
10 areas I have a basic understanding of that I wish I had a deeper understanding of
10 personality traits I have that I would like to change, and how to change them
10 things that happen to me every day that I should be grateful for
10 ways that we could turn competitors into partners
10 things that are illegal right now that will not be illegal in 10 years
10 things that were illegal 25 years ago that are legal now
10 things that are illegal that people do anyway

OK! that was 23 (no extra charge).

Your turn.

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Standardization Is Not An Objective.

by 2 Comments

173H

Lots of work is done in corporate America in the name of standardization. We have to standardize!

Really?  Why? Why do we have to?

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Here’s the thing: standardizing can be bad. It’s often bad. (It can also be good but usually if it is, its luck)

Where does this insatiable desire to standardize come from? I don’t know (I’ll guess though). I believe it comes from people trying to simplify something complex.

That’s not an objective either.

Sometimes complex things are complex.  The best you can do is just manage them. You can’t simplify the currents in the Pacific ocean, so we manage that complexity with systems and engineering (GPS, autopilot, etc.)

There’s another reason people like standards.  And that’s because we enjoy their benefits — mostly without even realizing it — every single day.

Think about it: right at this second, you’re surrounded by standards.

Why does your electrical plug fit into that outlet? Standards.  Why does your WiFi work everywhere? Standards.  Why do staples fit into your stapler? Standards.  Why does gas make your car run? Why can I type on any keyboard in north america? Why do I know what shoe size to buy (sort of)?

Standards! (OK, maybe some other reasons too, but standards are a major reason.)

But those standards weren’t developed to … “have standards developed.” Standards cost time and money to make, deploy, and maintain.

Why were they made?

They were developed to accomplish something (usually something = make more money,  or reduce waste and effort, which is another way of saying make more money).

At some point lots of people figured out they were all going to use electricity, so they thought hey, if we all want to use a common resource, we should have a common way to interface with it.  So there was a clear objective for the “electricity standards.”

Were there other ways to achieve that objective? Maybe, but they chose to develop and implement standards.  It worked (and still does).

OK.  That’s the good side of standards.

So when are standards bad? When they make you do useless activity, for no benefit. (Useless activity by definition has no benefit)

Useless activity means wasted time which means you (slash, the company) make less money.  That’s the opposite of what you (slash, the company) want (unless your business model is to somehow benefit from someone else wasting their time).

Lets take an example of something a company might want to standardize.  Think about projects at big companies.  Someone may think “We do a lot of projects.  We should do every project the same way! Let’s standardize…because…standards!”

So they make a standard and it works great (maybe) really big projects.  But then a guy who wants to replace the shelves in a laboratory has to follow the standard, which involves filling out 5 forms and getting the signature of the CEO.  The gal who wants to change to a new software suite because it will make 100 people’s lives easier, she gives up, because it’s less work to use the old junk than to go through the pain of upgrading.

Not good.

What problem are you solving with the standard? Are projects too slow? Are they too expensive?  Are they not giving any benefit to the company? Do people not understand what’s going on with projects?

Start with that — the problem.

Come up with ways to solve it.

Maybe a standard helps, maybe it’s a terrible idea. But at least you know the point of putting that standard in place, so when people ask “why are putting this standard in place?” You will have a better answer than “because…standards! Next question please.”

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