Not long ago, I had the fortune of listing to a recorded conversation 
between David Allen and Tiago Forte. While I am deeply familiar with the former, the latter was a new voice whose ideas on productivity caught my attention. Tiago is the founder of Forte Labs, a productivity training firm and consultancy based in San Francisco. He helps people envision and prepare for the future of work using a design-centric approach to productivity. He is definitely at the forefront of efficiency thinking and someone who I intend to follow more closely. I strongly suggest checking out his blog at: https://medium.com/forte-labs In particular, I recommend reading his posting:
Category: Efficiency & Productivity
Dynamics of an Effective Team
In his latest book, Smarter, Faster, Better, Charles Duhigg studies the question of what 
traits are common to effective and efficient teams. He found that Google was asking this same question and had a research team study their employees to find the answer. Based on their research, the Google team identified these five key aspects of an effective team.
- Teams need to believe their work is important.
- Teams need to feel their work is personally meaningful.
- Teams need clear goals and defined roles.
- Team members need to know they can depend on one another.
- Teams need psychological safety.
Of these five items, psychological safety may be the most important. What is meant by this term is that the team is open to new ideas and respects all the members when they share their thoughts. Team members in psychologically safe groups provide honest feedback in a constructive and caring manner that allows members to build and develop ideas. Read Smarter, Faster, Better to learn more.
Time for a Good Sweep
When was the last time you did a good sweep? No, not of your house or apartment floors, but of your mind! The Mind Sweep is a fundamental productivity technique designed to get ideas out of your head and into your system. If you want to achieve a state of “Mind Like Water” where the only thing on your mind is the present moment, keeping your mental space clean is a must. The Mind Sweep is a valuable tool to accomplish this goal.
The rules are simple. Start by grabbing a stack of sticky notes or small note paper pads along with a good pen or pencil. As items come to mind, write them down on paper, following the rule of one thought per page. Put every thought down in writing no matter how big or small it seems. Work on it for enough time to clear your mind, whether that is ten minutes or an hour. Finally, put all those notes into your inbox to process and organize.
David Allen often says that the only way you can feel good about what you are not doing is to know what you are not doing. So shake off those mental cobwebs and do a good mind sweep this week. It is worth the effort.
