Category: Organization

Boundary Intelligence: The New Smart

Leave a comment

Have you ever misplaced an important document and felt less smart because of it?

Whether it is a computer file or a piece of paper, items that we have to invest time searching for limit our ability to make effective use of that information. Contrast this to files that are readily available at our fingertips or through an easy computer search. That information can be retrieved at a moment’s notice and is therefore much more useful. This distinction forms the basis of a new approach to understanding how we process information, known as boundary intelligence.

In a recent article on his website called Boundary Intelligence: Why What You Can Access Matters More Than What You Know, Tiago explores why boundary intelligence is a vital concept to understand, especially in the age of AI. He starts by referencing another writer, Venkatesh Rao.

Rao proposes a new definition of intelligence in the age of AI: intelligence is defined by what information can be accessed under constraints of cost, availability, and time.

The reality is that storage is now cheap. Computation is even cheaper. What’s expensive is short-term memory access – the ability to keep the relevant details “in mind” for a given problem.

You might think that the amazing computational power of AI would render this a meaningless problem. However, Tiago believes even the fastest computers run into trouble with deciding what information is important to keep close at hand.

Thus, a computer’s “intelligence” is now constrained not by the power of its processor, but by its ability to keep the right fragments of the past (and the imagined future) close enough to inform the present. In other words, the bottleneck of a system’s intelligence is how cheaply it can remember.

If you look at how modern computers perform, you can see this principle at work. A CPU can perform billions of operations per second, but is often stuck waiting for the right information to arrive from memory. Storage is cheap and computing is abundant, but what remains tremendously expensive is getting the right data to the right place at the right time.

It’s not the price of knowing that limits intelligence now, but the price of remembering.

This brings Tiago to the definition of boundary intelligence.

Rao calls this “boundary intelligence” – the ability to make good decisions at the boundary about what information becomes “knowable” at any given time.

How does this end up working practice, whether it is a person or AI model? In the end, it often comes down to practicality.

They are not retrieving the ideal memory; they’re retrieving the affordable one. Intelligence in this view isn’t about optimizing across all known information, but optimizing for accessible information under constraints.

A deeper study of boundary intelligence leads Tiago to an interesting understanding. He believes intelligence is no longer about what one single person or computers knows or has in storage. Instead, it is about knowing where to get the information at in the right time, no matter if you are a person or an AI model.

This means that boundary intelligence is fundamentally social. It isn’t just about what to retrieve, but from where and from whom. You have to know who to trust, what information or resources they possess, on what terms you can acquire it, and what is expected of you in return.

How can one use the power of social intelligence to improve their boundary intelligence? Read the full article at the Forte Labs website to learn more.

Surviving vs Thriving

Leave a comment

Are you only surviving at your job or are you thriving at work?

Every year the folks at O.C. Tanner release their Global Culture Report. This is an insightful look across the world at how organizations of all types are holding up in terms of developing strong cultures. In last year’s report, one element that O.C. Tanner explored was whether employees are thriving at work or merely surviving. How do they define the difference between the two states? Below is an excerpt from the report’s introduction.

People who are merely surviving feel anxious, financially uncertain, doubtful of growth opportunities, and pessimistic about the future. Their struggles at work impact their ability to survive outside of work. As an employee in one focus group said, “Not surviving at work will affect everything to a point where it’s scary.”

Contrast that with people who are thriving. They feel their organization cares about their mental health, they work in a cooperative workplace, and they have opportunities for growth and mentorship along a clearly defined career advancement path. They have hope.

How does an organization move its employees from a survival situation to a thriving state? O.C. Tanner suggests using what it calls a Total Rewards strategy.

The modern workplace requires a Total Rewards strategy designed to help employees survive and thrive. Rather than provide an exhaustive list of offerings, organizations should prioritize meeting employees’ basic needs, and the goal of Total Rewards should be to demonstrate how the organization cares and wants everyone to thrive at work.

Categorically speaking, offerings like competitive compensation and health benefits are considered basic, help provide financial stability, and meet survival needs. Offerings such as career development and skill building move beyond the required to provide long-term growth and satisfy other criteria to thrive. Interestingly, recognition is a practice that provides a bridge to help employees feel seen and valued at any stage of surviving or thriving. Keeping these distinctions top of mind helps Total Rewards leaders prioritize care at the core of their compensation and benefits mix.

To learn more about the Total Rewards strategy, please read the rest of the O.C. Tanner Culture Report Introduction.

Declutter Your Digital Life

Leave a comment

Are you digitally cluttered?

It is very easy to see when our physical items are getting too messy. Whether it is paperwork piling up on a desk, or a storeroom full of overflowing boxes, this clutter we can see with our eyes. However, the most insidious form of mess is the type made up of bits and bytes. If we are not mindful, digital clutter can get out of control very fast.

Over at the Strange & Charmed website, Alexis, also known as @MissTrenchcoat, is very much aware of the negative impact of digital clutter. In her article called, 7 Ways to Declutter Your Digital Life, Alexis starts out by addressing an important question: In an age when we have almost unlimited storage, is cleaning up our virtual mess even necessary?

You’re right, we do have nearly unlimited storage space for all our digital information, however, when was the last time you truly went back and reviewed older files? I know for me, I occasionally scroll through files looking for something I know I saved and because of all the other digital clutter, it’s hard for me to find that one single thing I’m looking for. Even when I use the search function in an app like my email to find something I know I saved, I find it hard to locate that specific email. I’ve frequently lost digital files on my devices, and so, perhaps we give that seemingly unlimited storage capacity and search functionality too much credit. 

Alexis then brings her reader’s attention to easy areas to declutter, such as our subscriptions.

I know you’ll find emails from subscription lists you no longer enjoy. So, to cut down on future email clutter, let’s just take a minute, before deleting those old emails, to locate and use the unsubscribe function to prevent future email clutter.

She moves on to electronic data we don’t normally consider being cluttered, such as apps.

As I am completely integrated into the Apple ecosystem, whenever I get a new device, like a new iPhone for instance, it automatically downloads all the apps from every other device I own. Ugh! This is such a pain because I use certain apps on my iPad and not on my iPhone, and I end up with pages of apps I need to organize or remove. Let’s save ourselves the hassle and just purge all the old apps we no longer use. So check your phone, tablet and even your computer for old apps or software you can remove to save space and processing power for other things.

To learn the other five areas to declutter, please read the full article on the Strange & Charmed website.

Do You Do Low-Value Work?

Leave a comment

Do you have more to do than you have time to do it in?

It is a common problem for knowledge workers to feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of possible tasks and projects on the table. The challenge is determining which one of the many items are priorities, which would be nice to do, and which are really not worth the time. Is there a way to make this assessment?

A few years ago, Priscilla Claman tackled this problem in the Harvard Business Review with an article called Stop Doing Low-Value Work. She believes part of the problem is that knowledge workers tend to inherit tasks from other workers, especially when those people leave the organization.

Although the jobs went away, much of the work didn’t. Teachers ended up with more children in a classroom; customer service representatives ended up with more phone calls; and managers ended up with more people to manage as teams were consolidated. No matter the job, everyone ended up with a lot more work.

Image generated with WordPress AI Image Generator

Therefore, how can a knowledge worker identify and eliminate low-value work? One way is through automation. This is especially true with the new AI tools, although the article was written before the Chat GPT revolution.

Whether you are talking about scheduling, acknowledging, or making standard arrangements, there are probably existing applications that you could use. Just figure out what you want to do and find someone to help you do it.

She also suggests simply asking around to see if there are tasks that are now unnecessary. Then with that permission drop the items from your list.

Another approach is to ask your clients if you can not do something, just the way retail store clerks now ask people if they really want their receipts. The idea is simply to stop doing something that isn’t important, but to check first so that it doesn’t get you into trouble.

To learn more about how to eliminate low-value tasks from your lists, please read the rest of the article.

Systems Over People – The Key to Productivity?

Leave a comment

I have taught personal productivity skills for over twelve years. It is personally satisfying to see people finally understand the importance of clearing their inbox and getting clear on their next action. However, even the most productive people have to interact with those of lesser skill. Therefore, what is more important, teaching people to be productive on their own, or developing the systems that they work under?

According to Daniel Markovitz, writing for the Harvard Business Review, what the organization does is more important than individuals. In his article, Productivity Is About Your Systems, Not Your People, he argues that working on individual worker productivity alone is not going to solve the bigger problems.

The problem isn’t with the intrinsic logic of any of these approaches. It’s that they fail to account for the simple fact that most people don’t work in isolation. They work in complex organizations defined by interdependencies among people — and it’s often these interdependencies that have the greatest effect on personal productivity. You can be an email ninja, but with the explosion of email (not to mention instant messages, Twitter, LinkedIn, Slack, and countless other communication tools), you’ll never be fast enough to deal with all the incoming communication. Similarly, your personal urgent/important Eisenhower categories fall apart when the CEO asks you to do stop what you’re doing and handle something right away.

Image generated with WordPress AI

Therefore, if it is more important to work on the systems, what can an organization do to better coordinate its workflows? Markovitz provides four strategies. The first is the tiered huddle.

Many highly productive organizations have instituted a system of tiered daily huddles, with a clear escalation sequence for all problems. The first huddle, consisting of front-line workers, begins at the start of the workday. The next huddle, consisting of supervisors, follows 30 minutes later. Managers meet 30 minutes after that, followed by directors, VPs, and finally the executive team. Problems are addressed at the lowest possible level. If a decision can’t be reached, the issue is escalated to the next level. This system improves the linkage between the C-suite and the front lines; it accelerates decision making; and perhaps most importantly, it improves productivity by reducing the number of scattershot emails about a variety of problems.

Anyhow, to learn the other three strategies for improving systems, click over to read the rest of the article.

So will I stop teaching personal productivity classes because of this article?

Not a chance, because it is still very useful for employees to have GTD skills. It is another piece of the puzzle to create a successful work environment.

The Dreaded Junk Drawer

Leave a comment

Admit it, you have one. Everyone has one!

I’m talking about the dreaded junk drawer. It’s that catch-all place where people drop items they want to keep, but don’t know a better spot to place them. Over time, the junk drawer becomes a messy area full of miscellaneous stuff that no one wants to organize.

Marie Kondo has thought deeply about how to make our homes more organized. This includes bravely tackling junk drawers! On her website she has advice on how to start clearing up this clutter-filled space which contains what she refers to as komono. The process starts with the core KonMari principle of emptying the space.

This process isn’t simply about organizing a single junk drawer. It can reunite mismatched socks, lost rolls of washi tape, leftover coins or scattered booklets of stamps, so tackling all your komono at once — rather than location by location — is key. That means emptying out every junk drawer in the house, so you can see them all at once. Putting all of your komono items in one place before starting the tidying process will reveal what (and how much) you have.

Since komono can be taxing to sort through, there is a tendency to abandon the work with a promise to return later. Kondo recommends sticking to the task and completing it in one session.

Even if you grow weary, don’t lose momentum! Conquer komono in one go, so you don’t leave it half-finished. Once everything is reviewed, either bid farewell or retain and re-home. Close the drawers, take a breath and then open them again. Congratulate yourself on your hard work and take pleasure in the space you have given new life and meaning.

Learn the rest of the tips to clear out the junk drawer by reading the rest of the article on the KonMari website. Then if you dare, go ahead and tackle that komono and see how you feel afterwards.

What is Your Clutter Personality?

Leave a comment

Take a moment to look around your room.

Are there items in your surroundings that are out of place? Are there scattered belongings that need to be tidied up? If so, how long have all these possessions been sitting there waiting to be cleared up?

No matter how diligent we are clutter seems to inevitably fill our lives. How we react to it and eventually address can be challenging. Nonetheless, are there ways to more successfully clear clutter by understanding how we interact with it?

Kat Brancato at the website Real Simple believes that each of us has a clutter personality. Understanding how each type acclimates to that clutter is a key to clearing it out. In her recent article, Kat explains six different clutter personalities, and how each one needs its own approach their mess to resolve.

Organizing methods are like diets—what works for one person may not work for you. Diane N. Quintana, certified professional organizer and founder of DNQ Solutions, LLC, says that organizing anything is a very personal journey.

“Each one of us is unique, so while there are organizing tendencies, you may find that parts of one or more of the organizing personalities resonate with you,” she informs.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

Kat then explores the clutter personalities, starting with the “Out of Sight, Out of Mind” type.

Do you tend to keep your counters riddled with items so you know where they are? Quintana says that the “out of sight, out of mind” personality likes to see what they have. “If something is stored away, it may as well not exist,” she says. “These individuals leave things out to remember them, which often leads to cluttered countertops, desks, or floors. It also results in things being misplaced or lost amongst the clutter.”

Since this personality type needs visual reminders, Quintana suggests using clear containers, labeled baskets, or open shelving to keep important items visible and tidy. “A photo inventory of contents attached to the outside of the clear containers can also be helpful,” she adds.

To read about the remaining five types, please read the rest of her article.

Who Should Attend?

Leave a comment

Have you ever attended a meeting and wondered why you are there?

Sometimes people send out meeting invites across the entire organization on the assumption that many heads are best. However, more attendees often make a meeting less productive. An article from Flowtrace indicated that 35% of survey respondents believed that limited the number of people in the room was important for meeting success.

When participants start to believe the meeting is a waste of time, their engagement slips. This can lead to mildly disruptive behavior, such as looking at phones or side-conversations. At worst, it can rise to active disruption in the form of pointless argumentation or snide comments.

Image generated through WordPress AI Tool.

A cardinal rule of meetings is to invite as few people as possible, but enough to make the meeting effective. How should a meeting planner determine whom to invite? Here are a few parameters:

  • Does the meeting topic directly affect a potential attendee’s core job functions?
  • Are they directly responsible, or part of the team responsible, for the item discussed?
  • Will they carry out actions resulting from decisions made at the meeting?
  • Do they have specific expertise relating to the topic of the meeting?
  • Could a team leader attend in place of the whole team and report back?

For example, an early high level meeting to discuss the allocation of the materials selection budget could be attended by the division leaders, including collections, finance, and administration. A future meeting where the discussion reaches branch level allocations could be expanded to include the branch division head and specific managers who oversee special collections.

In addition, keep in mind that not all participants need to stay for the entire meeting. When someone is done with their portion of the meeting, allow them to exit if feasible. To that end, it is helpful to organize the meeting agenda to enable participants with limited roles to have their items discussed early so they can leave to resume their regular duties.

Remember, employees work time is valuable. Don’t waste their contributions by obligating them to attend unnecessary meetings. They will appreciate it.

Do You Measure Your Wealth in Money or Time?

Leave a comment

When people consider the idea of success, often they equate dollar signs as the measure. The belief is that having more money in the bank account equals greater satisfaction. However, one can have an abundance of dollars, but it is worthless when there is no time to enjoy it. Therefore, is it more accurate to say that a person should be measured by how much time freedom they have?

In a recent article on Lifehacker, writer Jeff Somers explores how control over one’s time rather than monetary wealth may be the best sign of success. He writes:

Time affluence—the feeling that you have enough time to accomplish everything you want to get done—is a crucial aspect of our happiness and sense of personal satisfaction. Time poverty is the opposite—that stressful feeling you get when there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. Between commuting to and from our jobs, the time spent working, then the chores at home, many of us barely have time to eat some dinner and maybe stream a show before collapsing into bed—and starting the process over again the next day.

Photo by Black ice on Pexels.com

Later in the article he offers some time hacks that can free up valuable space in the day. The first method he discusses is organizing and prioritizing.

Since your time is limited, stop treating it like an amorphous, infinite resource you always have more of. Make lists of things you need or want to do and prioritize them. Then use time blocking to break each of those priorities into a fixed amount of time needed to accomplish them or at least move them toward completion. This avoids letting tasks pile up, which increases stress and that sense of not being in control of your time, and provides a visual guide to how your day will play out. And having clear times for specific activities to end will increase your efficiency.

Learn his other techniques for building up time affluence by reading the rest of the article.