Shola Richards Webinar – Mon. September 16!

September 14, 2024Leave a comment

Please review this wonderful opportunity to watch one of my favorite authors, Shola Richards, be interviewed about his latest book, Civil Unity. This event is hosted by the Florida Library Association.

Shola Richards – In Conversation with Kris McGuigan

Monday, September 16, 2024, 12 PM – 1 PM EDT
Free for FLA members; $25 for non-members

REGISTER HERE!

Join us for a thought-provoking and inspiring webinar, featuring best-selling author Shola Richards as he discusses his latest book, Civil Unity: The Radical Path to Transform Our Discourse, Our Lives, and Our World. In a society where division and discord seem to be at an all-time high, Richards is leading the movement to reverse these destructive trends and bring more connectedness, respect and civility to our world.

During this one-hour session, Richards will be interviewed by FLA 2024 Annual Conference keynote presenter, Kris McGuigan. The discussion will delve into the key themes of the book, exploring how we can unite behind a new kind of civility to create safer communities, reduce toxicity in our political discourse, and build supportive environments in our workplaces and schools. Moreover, Richards will share a behind-the-scenes look at his writing process, points of inspiration, and favorite chapters.

The webinar will feature a live Q&A session, where attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions. This is a unique chance to engage directly with two authors who are passionate about transforming how we engage with one another and the world around us.

Whether you are looking to deepen your understanding of civil discourse, seeking practical tactics to implement in your library, or simply want to be inspired by a conversation that matters, this webinar is not to be missed.

Avoid Enormous Emails

September 8, 2024Leave a comment

Have you ever opened an email and found it to be the size of a short novel? Did it make you want to close it up and not read a word? Now have you ever sent one of those emails?

Sending enormous emails is not ideal. Email works best when it is brief and to the point. Earlier this year I wrote on an article on my website about email etiquette. In that piece, I shared several tips on how to craft your messages to avoid the enormous emails problem. Below is that section from the article.

Well, there is no hard and fast rule on the maximum length of an email, there are general guidelines based on purpose, content, and preferences of your audience.

Brevity is Key: Aim to be clear and concise in your communication. Most people appreciate emails that get to the point without unnecessary details. If you have multiple topics to discuss, consider breaking them into separate emails. This helps the recipient to absorb information more easily.
Use Paragraphs and Bullets: Organize your content into short paragraphs and use bullet points to make the text easy to scan for recipients to grasp the key points quickly.
Avoid Information Overload: Too much information in a single email can be overwhelming. Focus on the most important details and provide additional information or attachments if needed.
Effective Use of Hyperlinks: Instead of including lengthy information within the email, use hyperlinks to direct recipients to additional resources or details.
Closing and Call to Action: Clearly state your closing remarks and any necessary calls to action. Be specific about what you expect from the recipient if any action is required.
Proofread and Edit: Before sending, review your email for unnecessary information or repetitive content. Edit for clarity and brevity.

One final point. If you need to share large amounts of information through email, consider sending it as an attachment. Whether as a Word of PDF document, it is easier for the recipient to open the information in a more readable application and print out cleanly if needed.

To learn more about effective email etiquette, please read the rest of the article on the Efficient Librarian website.

Overcoming the Forgetting Curve

September 1, 2024Leave a comment

Take a moment to remember the last time you attended a seminar or training class. Whether it was last week or a month ago, I am guessing that unless you took extensive notes most of the information from the class is now forgotten. Does that mean you are a bad student or have a faulty memory? No, it just means you are on the downward slope of the Forgetting Curve.

Lindsey Ellefson, editor for the website Lifehacker, wrote an article that shared ways to overcome the Forgetting Curve. First, she described what is meant by this phenomenon.

It seems like common sense that the longer you go without retrieving a memory, the harder it is to retrieve—but it wasn’t always one of those things we simply knew to be true. In the 1880s, German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus studied the phenomenon and published his findings, giving the world the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve. The curve is a simple graphic demonstrating how information is lost over time, but it proved that time-related forgetting is real (and has been reaffirmed by further study since).

Is it inevitable to forget? Not entirely. There are specific practices that can be done to overcome the Forgetting Curve. The first is a simple approach called Spaced Repetition.

Basically, you need to study the material multiple times, giving yourself space between each review. The amount of time you go without studying the material depends largely on how well you’re already remembering it, which means the longer you review, the longer the periods between each review should be. Reviewing your class notes for a difficult class should be done more frequently than reviewing the notes for a class where you really get the concepts, for instance.

To learn more about ways to overcome the Forgetting Curve, please read the rest of the article on the Lifehacker website.

Is AI Overrated?

August 25, 2024November 16, 2024Leave a comment

Are you concerned about AI taking over the world?

Once ChatGPT hit the scene, along with hyper-realistic image generators, it seemed to the world that there was no limit to AI. Does this mean computers will take over most jobs or render thinking itself obsolete?

In a fascinating counter-point exercise, Greg Rosalsky from Planet Money on NPR listed several reasons why AI may be overrated. He starts off with a number of quick hits:

There are just so many reasons to believe AI is overrated. I could talk about the fact that productivity growth remains super disappointing. If AI were revolutionizing the economy, we would see it in the data. We’re not seeing it. I could talk about the fact that AI companies have yet to find a killer app and that perhaps the biggest application of AI could be, like, scams, misinformation and threatening democracy. I could talk about the ungodly amount of electricity it takes to power AI and how it’s raising serious concerns about its contribution to climate change.

Photo by ThisIsEngineering on Pexels.com

Rosalsky goes on to flush out three specific reasons to doubt that AI is all it’s cracked up to be. One reason is that despite its name artificial intelligence is not really that intelligent.

When you first use something like ChatGPT, it might seem like magic. Wow, a thinking machine able to answer questions or write or generate anything in an instant. But when you look under the hood, it’s more like a magic trick. These chatbots are a fancy way of aggregating the internet and then spitting out a mishmash of what it finds.

Later, Rosalsky points out a serious legal issue with AI that needs to be resolved before it can grow further.

It’s a copycat. And perhaps the worst part of it is a good chunk of the stuff AI is copying is copyrighted, which is why there are at least 15 high-profile lawsuits against AI companies asserting copyright infringement.

To learn the other reasons by AI may be overrated, please read the rest of the article on the Planet Money website.

The Doing Dance

August 18, 2024Leave a comment

Do you ever have days where it seems impossible to get things done?

Most knowledge workers become frustrated at various points with an inability to focus on their work. Sometimes it is due to a heavy workload, other times from too many unexpected interruptions, or on occasion emergency situations. However, it can often come down to a matter of getting out of one’s head and bringing the work under control.

In a recent article on his website, David Allen reminded his readers of the three-fold nature of work. This is a concept that he outlined in his original book. David views it as a way to think about this nebulous thing known as knowledge work. The first aspect to focus on is doing pre-defined work.

This is what you would be doing all day if you got no input or interruptions of any sort. You would probably be working off the inventory of actions and projects that you came in with—work that you have already determined needs doing. The phone calls you need to make, the documents you need to draft, the ideas you need to outline on the project, etc.

The second aspect is dealing with work as it appears, much like a conveyor belt bringing more items down the line.

The phone rings, you take the call, and spend twenty minutes talking to a customer or a business colleague. Your boss calls a half-hour meeting to update you on a new development and get your input on it. You are doing the work as it shows up to be done. You are actually defining your work rapidly in this case, and choosing to do the new stuff instead of any of the pre-determined activity.

The third aspect is defining the work that needs to be done. In a way it involves taking control of the immediate environment.

This is processing your in-tray, your email, your meeting notes, etc.—taking in input and making decisions about what needs to be done about it. You may do some quick actions as you define them, and you will probably be adding some more to your inventory of defined work.

Want to learn more about how to best deal with each of the three types of work? Click through to read the entire posting to discover David’s advice.

The Top 20 Leadership Challenges

August 14, 2024Leave a comment

Leadership is like a constantly changing game. To be successful a leader must take into account factors such as personalities, environment, politics, demographics and trends. This is especially true for a leaders who wants to stay strong over time as they promote up through an organization.

The Center for Creative Leadership was founded to study effective strategies and tactics for leaderships in a scientific approach. A decade ago, I had the opportunity to attend their weeklong signature Leadership Development Program. It gave me valuable insights into my leadership style that have stayed with me to this day.

Recently, they released an article on their website titled The Top 20 Leadership Challenges. The article broke down leadership across four levels: frontline, middle, senior, and executive. Five challenges were identified for each level. At the frontline level, the first challenge was around frustrations with people and time.

Many frontline managers reported that their top leadership issue is feeling overwhelmed with inefficiencies and frustrated with others. This includes challenges with offering guidance to direct reports, overcoming resistance to change, dealing with difficult employees, and adjusting communication and feedback styles to collaborate more effectively with different people. And again, this appears to have become an even bigger concern for leaders at this level since the pandemic.

Moving up to the middle manager level, the first challenge had to do with personal limitations.

A top challenge for leaders at this level is their own personal limitations and feelings of inadequacy, as they often must overcome their own doubts about their abilities and readiness to lead — as well as the doubts of their peers or supervisors. Dealing with the challenge of personal limitations requires overcoming impostor syndrome, humility to seek the input of others, courage to do the right thing, and projecting confidence while communicating effectively.

Since the pandemic, mid-level managers have reported this as an issue even more frequently. With new cultures brought on by remote and hybrid workplaces, overcoming common limitations in order to make an impact as a leader has become even more challenging.

To learn about the other 18 leadership challenges, please read the entire article on the Center for Creative Leadership’s website.

The “Didn’t Know” Rule

August 5, 2024Leave a comment

Have you ever opened up a drawer and marveled at the discovery of something you didn’t even know you owned?

Given how much stuff we accumulate it is easy to pick up items without consciously remembering it! For me this happens at a conference when vendors hand out bookmarks, pens, and other items like candy at Halloween. While it is easy to acquire stuff, for most of us the challenge is getting rid of things we don’t want anymore.

The Minimalists have a simple approach to clearing out unneeded belongings. It’s called the “Didn’t Know” rule. Basically, it means that if you find something you didn’t know you owned, you can permit yourself to let it go.

Barbara Bellesi Zito writing for the website Apartment Therapy, experimented with this approach. She tried it out on three boxes and soon discovered a surprise.

Taking up an entire box was a pile of TilePix I had purchased around three years ago when I snagged a sale. These photos from my phone didn’t render well at all, so I had no desire to hang them in our home. They went right into the garbage pile; I have the originals on my phone anyway, and I had completely forgotten I even had these in storage.

After completing the task of organizing the boxes, she wrote down three insights.

If you don’t know you have something, you can’t truly be missing it.
If it’s sentimental or something you need to hold on to, by all means, keep it.
Unless the storage in question holds seasonal clothing or items, check on it every few months or so to make sure you still want what’s in it.

I challenge you to take 10 minutes in the next 24 hours to practice this simple decluttering technique. For me, I’m eyeing that middle desk draw. I know it has long forgotten stuff waiting to be rediscovered …

Preparing for a Speech

July 29, 2024Leave a comment

There is an old joke based on the idea that people are more afraid of public speaking than they are of dying. Therefore, at a funeral they would rather be in the coffin than delivering the eulogy!

In all seriousness, public speaking gives many people anxiety. Thankfully there are ways to overcome a fear of speaking in public. One way is knowing how to prepare for a speech.

Prepared speeches happen when a person has time to get organized before speaking, whether it be an hour, a day, or a week. This preparation time can be very useful to ensure a successful speech. Toastmasters International has wonderful resources to help people become better speakers, including tips on preparing for a speech. One key suggestion is to get plenty of intentional practice:

Practice and rehearse a speech frequently prior to delivering it. Ask friends to be your audience, or practice in front of a mirror. Be sure to use a timer to help you pace your speech.

Another tip for prepared speeches is knowing the environment where it will be delivered. If at all possible, it is suggested to visit the site and practice in the environment.

Become familiar with the stage or the setting where the speech will take place. Get a sense of the size of the stage, where any steps or obstacles might be, and where to enter and exit.

Find more great tips on the prepared speeches and all types of public speaking, please visit the Toastmasters International website.

David Allen – Principles that Make Teams Work

July 14, 2024Leave a comment

How do highly productive teams come about? Are there underlying ideas that make them successful?

In their new book, Team, David Allen and cowriter Edward Lamont explore how GTD can be used to improve teamwork. They start with looking at the underlying principles, which they consider akin to fundamental laws, that allow for productive work amongst team members. (pg. 66) David and Edward identify five specific principles (pg. 67):

Clarity
Sufficient Trust
Open Communication
Learning
Diversity

To understand these principles, it is helpful to explore one in more detail. Starting with clarity, David and Edward break down why it this principle is important.

A team needs clarity on purpose and direction. A team is defined by its purpose and most effectively operates using well-defined standards and processes. … without it, there is confusion about who’s responsible for what and who needs to be informed about it, as well as the risk of double work and eating up the attention of people who don’t need to know. Implicit here is clarity of ownership. There always needs to be one person to go to, inside or outside the organization, when clarity is needed on a problem or situation that involves the team. (pg. 68)

David and Edward also believe that clarity is important for the psychological health of the team. For them, clarity provides clear knowledge of the team’s current situation.

One of the big wins in terms of clarity is knowing – and accepting – how much the team is already trying to do, and having some view on whether it is humanly possible to achieve it. (pg. 69)

Pick up a copy of Team to learn more about clarity and the other four principles of teamwork.