Note: because this book is both heavy and complex, I am publishing the summary in two parts. Here is the second part, the first part is here.

Summary and Book Review, second part:

• Chapter 9 : Communication and relationships

For a long time during our civilization, the slowness of communications posed several problems. Many disasters and misunderstandings arose from this situation. Today, communication is still important, but two things have changed:

• Speed is no longer the main problem (what could be faster than an instant message?) Instead, it is quality and efficiency of communication that have assumed primary importance.
• Communication is not enough for complex work; you also need effective relationships between people who work together.

Even though there are often clearly defined leaders who sometimes give orders, projects depend heavily on the team’s ability to use each other’s knowledge, to share ideas and to work in a synchronized way, as opposed to being based on overly strict lines of authority, rigorous discipline and the need to follow orders without asking questions.

Because project leads spend a lot of time communicating with individuals and groups, they have more responsibilities that require them to communicate effectively with respect to the team. This does not require the extrovert personality of a TV presenter, an extraordinary sense of humor or magical powers (although they may help). Rather, it starts by admitting that communication and interpersonal skills are critical for success, and that there is room for improvement for you and your team.

Additionally:

• Projects are not accomplished by communication alone. In these modern times, speed is not the Achilles heel of communication. Quality is.
• Interpersonal relationships improve and accelerate communication.
• There are several types of communication that people use to communicate with each other. Project managers must be familiar with them in order to be able to diagnose and resolve communication problems.
• There are numerous common communication problems, like assumptions, lack of clarity, not listening, personal attacks or blame.
• Role Definition is the easiest way to improve interpersonal relationships.
• Ask people what they need to do a better job. Ways of doing so include: listening, removing barriers, teaching and reminding them of the objectives.
• Relationships between people and communication are not low priority efforts. They are essential to all individual activities that take place during a project.

Exercise :

Make two ordered lists, one with the most important people on your team, the other with those on your team with whom you have the best relationship. Find opportunities in the two lists to improve your relationships; if you could improve your relationships by 25%, what would be the biggest impact to your project?

• Chapter 10 : How not to annoy people, process, email and meetings

The bigger your team, the more likely the chances of annoyting someone. Whenever you are following someone else’s work, or making decisions that impact others, you have the potential to annoy them. If you are smart, you will find ways to minimize disagreements. People will be happier, the project will go more smoothly, and you will have fewer black looks when you pass people in the hallways.

The three activities that annoy people the most are email, meetings and team processes (like build or specification procedures).

Additionally:

• Project managers are inclined to annoy others. Some things could be avoided.
• People get annoyed for many reasons. Often it when they believe their time has been wasted, when they are treated like idiots, or when they are expected to put up with a prolonged annoyance or poor treatment.
• Good processes have many positive effects, which include accelerated progress and the prevention of problems. But they are difficult to develop.
• An email which is not annoyting is concise and actionable (it contains an action), and it quickly allows readers to figure out if they care enough to read more than the email header or the first sentence.
• Meetings are conducted well when someone runs them.
• Frustrating meetings result when the objectives are not suited to that type of meeting.

Exercise:

When was the last time you complimented someone for their clear, simple emails? Next week, every day, thank the person who sends you the clearest, most effective email.

• Chapter 11 : What to do when things go wrong

No matter what you do, no matter how hard you work, or who you work with, things will sometimes go wrong. The best team in the world, with the best leaders, workers, resources and the best morale, will find itself in difficult situations. The only way to completely avoid difficult situations is not to do anything important or to put yourself permanently into situations or projects in which you are protected from all forms of risk – two things which rarely contribute to success.

Good project managers must therefore be prepared to manage difficult situations. That requires a certain amount of wisdom to understand that when bad things happen, it is what it is. There is nothing you can do after the fact to change it. Instead, how the team reacts to adversity can be a more important factor to success than the team’s ability to prevent problems. Both are important but resilience and recovery are the abilities that give you the ability to manage the possible unknown. Without them, the best team and the best plan can spiral out of control with the slightest push in the wrong direction.

Additionally:

• If you can remain calm and break the problem into smaller pieces, you can manage many difficult situations.
• There are some actual situations that you can anticipate, like errors due to not paying attention, being forced to do stupid things, lack of resources, poor quality, a change in direction, personnel problems, and the desire to mutiny.
• Difficult times are learning opportunities. Make sure that you and your team take the time to analayze what happened and how it could have been avoided.
• Taking responsibility for situations, without worrying about who caused them, always helps to resolve them more quickly.
• In extreme situations, put yourself in “damage control mode.” Do whatever is needed to get the project back into a stable state where it is understood.
• Negotiations are not only useful in crisis situations, but also for managing. Good negotiators work towards people’s interests, not their own positions.
• Keep a clear perspective on who has what authority at all times. People need to know who has the power to make decisions before a crisis occurs.
• People react to pressure in different ways. Be observant and open in how you help your team manage different types of pressure.

Exercise:

Go into the office and find five things that could go wrong. For each one, describe how you are going to manage the problem if you are assigned the task to fix it. Who needs to be in the room to manage the problem? What will you do if you are not in a position of power?

Part 3 : Management

• Chapter 12 : Why leadership is based on trust

As far as leading your team is concerned, everything depends on the assumptions that people make about you. When you say “I will make sure that gets done tomorrow” or “I am going to speak to Carol and get her to agree,” others will silently calculate the probability that what you say is true. Over time, if you are serving your team well, the probability will be perceived as very high. They will believe your work and trust you.

Even though in the movies leaders are portrayed as having a dramatic role – such as throwing themselves into burning buildings or bravely fighting alone against a whole host of enemies – true leadership is based on very simple and practical things. Do what you say you will and say what you mean to say. Admit when you are wrong. Incorporate the opinions and ideas of others in decisions which impact them. If you can do these things, more often than not you will earn the trust of those you work with. When the time comes for you to ask them to do something unpleasant or which they don’t agree with, their trust in you will make your leadership possible.

Therefore, to be a great leader, you must learn how to find, build, earn and give trust to others – as well as learn to cultivate trust in yourself.

Additionally:

• Trust is built on effective commitments.
• Trust is lost through inconsistent behavior towards important issues.
• Use authority and trust to allow people to do a good job.
• Institutional power comes from the company organizational structure. Power of recognition comes solely from people’s response to your actions. Recognition power is the most useful institutional power, although both are necessary.
• Delegate in order to build trust in your team and to assure yourself that your team is united in the face of adversity.
• Deal with problems in a way that will keep people’s trust. Be supportive during crises so that they will tell you problems rather than hide them from you.
• Having confidence in yourself is the foundation for leadership. Self-discovery is the way to learn who you are and to develop a healthy independence.

Exercise:

Make a list of the 5 people that you work with the most. Who do you trust the most and why?

• Chapter 13 : Making things happen

The ability to make things happen is a combination of knowing how to be the catalyst in a variety of different situations, and having the courage to do so.

Additionally:

• Everything can be represented in an ordered list. Most of the work of project management is assigning the right priority to things and leading the team to get them done.
• The three basic ordered lists are: the project objectives (vision), the list of functions and the list of work items. They must always be synchronized with each other. Each work task contributes to a function and each function to an objective.
• There is a bright yellow line between the priority of what I am working on and all the rest.
• Things happen when you say no. If you don’t say no, you have not effectively prioritized.
• The project manager must make it so that the teams stays honest and close to reality.
• Knowing the path of least resistance in engineering and in team processes allows for efficiency.
• You must be both tough and smart to make things happen.

Exercise :

Who in your organization has the reputation for making things happen? How did they earn it? And who are the people with a reputation for not making things happen? Is there a relationship between their position in the organization and their ability to make things happen?

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• Chapter 14 : Middle-game strategy

Just as in the middle game when playing chess, the middle of a project is the moment when a lot of things happen at the same time, and it’s difficult to keep a clear perspective about what is going well and what is not going well. To fight this inevitable fog that surrounds the team and makes inexperienced people get easily lost, you must apply these three simple principles:

1. If things are going well at the end of the first day, the objective for the next day is to make it so that things continue to go well.
2. If on any day the project is not going well, it’s your job to figure out what the problems are and to act so that the project goes well again. This can take hours, days or weeks.
3. Repeat until the project is finished.

The problem is that you only have a limited amount of time to understand what the problems are and even less time to solve them. Not to mention the effort needed to protect the healthy parts of the project from the problems. For these reasons, and more, stress and energy levels in the middle of the game are very high. The team is moving at an ever increasing pace, and the acceptable margins of error are going down on a daily basis.

Additionally:

• Projects are complex non-linear systems and have significant inertia. If you are expecting to wait until problems are serious before acting, you will be late and might make things even worse.
• When your project is out of control, you are flying behind the plane, which is a bad place to fly. There are both tactical and strategic points to be verified.
• Think about how to act to correct a situation in the best possible way. The bigger the action, and the further along the project, the more dangerous the action can be.
• Schedules based on milestones provide opportunities to make corrections for project paths that are more certain.
• Configuration control is how you manage change acceleration from a low level and an intermediate level on the project.

Exercise:

If you are in the middle of a project now, take five people at random from your team and ask them to describe their confidence in the schedule in the form of a percentage. Do the same thing with five managers. Compare the results and present them at a team meeting. If it’s useful, do it every week. Make it so that the descriptions are anonymous so that people will be honest.

• Chapter 15: End-game strategy

When the end of the project is near, someone must find a good way to apply the brakes in order to slow down the progressive movement so that things end well.

Additionally:

• A big target is a series of little targets.
• Every milestone has three smaller targets :
  • Design complete (specifications complete)
  • Functions complete (implementation complete)
  • Milestone complete (quality assurance and refinement complete)
• Defining the exit criteria at the beginning of the milestone increases the ability of the team to finish on time.
• Being on schedule is just like landing an airplane: you need a long, wide approach. And you better be ready take off again quickly, without having to make major repairs..
• You need metrics to track the project. Common metrics include day to day work, bug management and the business charter [?].
• You need control elements to adjust the levels of a project. Common elements include review meetings, tries, and centralized decision making at the end of the project.
• The end of the game is a slow and difficult process. The challenge is to reduce the scope of the changes until you have a satisfactory finished product.
• Now is the time begin the postmortem process. Give yourself, as well as your team, the benefit of learning from what went well and what didn’t go well.
• If fortune is smiling on you, and your project works out, be happy. Very, very happy. A lot of people, even though it is not necessarily their fault, don’t get that far. Look forward to a great night out. Do something fun and extravagant (like inviting the author of the book to a party). Provide stories that will be told for years to come.

Exercise:

You are two days away from a major news release on your news site, used by millions of people. The champagne is ready and waiting. But an engineer discovers a major problem which is going to take three days to fix. The problem is the 10 million dollars spent on publicity for the launch date and the time already spent. What will you do?

• Chapter 16 : Power and Politics

Every time you try to organize people to do something, whether it is to get ready for a party or start a business, the people concerned have different attitudes, skills, and different desires. This means that it doesn’t matter how talented the leader of a project is, there will always be people who won’t get what they want. Therefore, there is a natural instinct in ambitious and motivated people to try and get what they want by influencing the people with the power to get things done.

The fuel that propels politics is power. Someone who can influence the right person at the right time, and who uses his knowledge to resolve situations to everyone’s satisfaction, can be more powerful in an organization than those who are at the top – sometimes without even knowing it.

For project managers this means two things:

1. There will be political influences that impact you, whatever your power or your personal ethic.
2. Power and politics are an inherent part of management.

You must therefore at least be conscious of how political systems work if you want to reduce their negative effects, not to mention if you want to increase their positive effects.

Additionally:

• Politics is a natural consequence of human nature. When people work together in groups there is a limited amount of authority which can be distributed amount different people with different wishes and different motives.
• All leaders have political constraints. Every executive, CEO or president has peers or superiors who limit their ability to make decisions. In general, the more power someone has, the more complicated are the constraints upon it.
• There are many different types of political power, like rewards, coercion, knowledge, references, and influence.
• Power is misused when it is applied to things that do not further the objectives of the project. A lack of clarity with respect to the objectives, loosely allocated resources, or unclear decision processes can contribute to this misuse of power.
• To resolve political problems, be clear about what you want. Identify who has it, and then evaluate hoq you can get it.
• If you are involved in project management, you lay out a political playing field around you. It’s up to you to decide up to what point it is honest or unfair.

Exercise:

Is it possible to work with other people and have nothing to do with politics? Think of a work environment with the healthiest political environment possible. What makes it possible?

Book Review:

This book is heavy. Very heavy. 370 wide pages, full of text, with some diagrams here and there. Fortunately, the author takes his work very seriously, but he doesn’t take himself too seriously, which means that his book is sprinkled with nice, humerous sentences which lighten it all up somewhat.

In the end, I have trouble judging because, other than directing a small business, I have never managed projects of the human and technical complexity levels that the author is talking about. Furthermore, this book is clearly geared more towards people who work in large organizations, just like Results Without Authority, and even more specifically to people who work in the software development field, even though the author visibly does his best to be as general as possible – but there are so many references to the software industry that he does not achieve his objective.

I would say, therefore, that it is obvious from reading this book that Scott Berkun is someone who has a lot of experience in this subject and that he has mastered it exceedingly well. I know that one day I will have to manage more complex development projects than those in my current company, and I won’t hesitate to dive into this book to pull out the tricks and ideas or find answers to specific problems. This book therefore has a place on the bookshelf for all project managers who work in large organizations. Once again, for $39.00, if this book only gives you one good idea, it will largely pay for itself. If you are a project lead in the software industry, dig in. This book is made for you ;

Strong points:

• Very thorough
• Sprinkled with humorous phrases which lighten it up
• The author has obviously mastered his subject down to the tips of his fingernails
• Geared towards the software industry, but contains advice and methods applicable to the management of any project in a large organization.

Weak Points:

• Very, very heavy
• A little too geared towards the software industry
• A little too geared towards large organizations

Translated by www.DeansResource.com

My rating: (if you are called to lead projects in large organizations – add a star if your company is in the software industry)

(if you are called to lead projects in another field)

Have you read the book? How do you rate it?

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Read more reviews about Making Things Happen on Amazon.

PMBA Challenge:

Cost of the Book:	€ 31.24
Total cost of the project:	€ 217.77
Number of pages:	370
Total number of pages:	3061
Time to read it:	3H
Time to write this article:	8H
Total time for the project:	114H30

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One Sentence Summary : Project management is a complicated art which requires you to master a number of things such as planning, understanding what needs to be done, writing a good overall vision statement, understanding where ideas come from, understanding what to do with ideas, writing good specifications, understanding how to make good decisions, communication and interpersonal relationships, what to do when things go badly, understanding why leadership is built on trust, making things happen, managing the strategy in the middle and at the end of the project, or understanding questions of power and politics; this book describes in detail each of these components and gives us numerous methods and tricks for mastering them.

By Scott Berkun, 2008, 370 pages.

Note : Since this book is both thick and complex, I am publishing the summary in two parts. This is the first.

Summary and Book Report:

Scott Berkun is an author and speaker who has worked at Microsoft for 9 years as a project manager going from Internet Explorer (1 through 5), Windows and MSN. In 2005 he published the first version of this book, The Art of Project Management, which was centered more around project management in the area of software development and the phenomenal success of which, for a book of this type, led to this revision, in which the subject is more general and touches on general project management, for any sector.

Every chapter ends with a list of exercises – extremely relevant – to reflect on the subjects dealt with and put them into practice. I am giving you one at the end of each chapter summary.

The author begins by telling us that the idea of project management goes back a long way in human history. Everything that humanity has built, from the Egyptian pyramids or the Roman aqueducts up to a Boeing 777 or the Hubble space telescope, have been designed and then implemented. Between these two stages is found the art of leading long and complex projects to fruition.

The author wonders if there were points in common between all these projects, if he could find common denominators. He did not always find obvious answers, but each time that he returned from his quests into the past to dive into the world of software development, his own tools and processes appeared differently to him. And there were three lessons that he drew from these expeditions:

1. Project management is not a holy art. All modern engineering work is a new foray into history and things already realized. Technology and skills might change, but the central challenges remain the same. Everything is both unique and derived from something else. In order to be able to re-use past knowledge, you must be open to both.
2. The simpler your vision of what needs to be done, the greater your power of concentration to accomplish it. If we keep a simple vision for our work, we can find useful comparisons with other ways of doing things all around us. It’s a similar concept to what the Japonese call shoshin, or keeping a beginner’s mind - an open mind – which is an essential element in martial arts. Staying open and curious is what makes growth possible. In order to continue learning, we must resist the temptation to succomb to the safe and narrow visions with regard to what we are doing.
3. Simple doesn’t mean easy. The best writers, athletes, programmers, and managers tend to be people who see what they do as simple by nature and difficult at the same time. For example, it is simple to run a marathon. You begin running and you don’t stop until you have completed 40 kilometres (26 miles). What could be simpler than that? The fact is that the difficulty of it does not reduce its simplicity. Leadership and management are also difficult, but their nature – making it so that things happen in a specific way towards a specific objective – is simple.

Additionally:

• Project management might be a job, a role or an activity.
• Leadership and management require understanding and intuitive knowledge of numerous common paradoxes, such as:
  • Ego/No-ego: The ego can be a driver for managers, who often derive great personal satisfaction from their work. However, managers must avoid placing their own interests above those of the project, and must delegate important and fun tasks, and share the rewards.
  • Autocrat/Delegator: In certain situations, the most important things are strong and clear authority and a quick response time, and the manager must have the necessary confidence and the will to take control and force certain actions. However, the general objective must be to avoid these situations.
  • Oral/Written: Even though many organizations today are email-centric – notably software development companies – oral communication is still important, there are always meetings, negotiations, hallway discussions, and brainstorming sessions. In general the larger the organization or project, the more writing skills are important. But a good manager must recognize when written or oral communication will be more efficient.
  • Courage/Fear: One of the biggest misconceptions of our culture is that people who are brave don’t experience fear. That’s a lie. A brave person is one who feels fear but chooses to act anyway.
• If you are a dedicated manager, find ways to capitalize on your unique perspective of the team and the project.
• In the end, all projects use similar processes; they all allow time to plan, implement and refine.

Part 1: Plans

• Chapter 2 : The Truth About Schedules

People tend to be late. It might only be a few minutes, or from time to time during the week, but people often fall behind on their daily schedule (however, because denial is a great skill we humans have, I will understand if you refuse to admit that it applies to you). For many of us, being on time doesn’t mean at an exact moment but over a span of time. For some it is larger than for others.

So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that so many projects end up being behind schedule. We tend to base our estimates on weak assumptions, to predict results by banking on the best possible circumstances and – basing ourselves on our previous experiences – we simultaneously avoid putting our trust in the forecasts that we see or create.

In this case, if schedules are not reliable, why use them ? Because they primarily serve three purposes:

1. They allow the team to engage.
2. They encourage everyone to see their work as a contribution to the whole.
3. They allow us to measure progress.

Thus even if schedules go awry, they still have value.

Additionally:

• Big schedules must be divided into small plans in order to minimize risks and increase the frequency of adjustments.
• All estimates are probabilities. Because schedules are collections of estimations, they are also probabilities. This works against scheduling precision because probabilities are cumulative (80% x 80% = 64%).
• The more estimates you make, the less precise they are. However, rough estimates are the only way to create a point of departure for having better ones.
• Schedules must be made with skepticism, not with optimism. Invest time in the design phase to highlight the assumptions made and the confidence that has been placed in them.

 Exercise:

If you use a calendar, take a look at yesterday’s schedule. How many events happened on time. For those that fell behind schedule, how many were your fault?

• Chapter 3 : How to figure out what to do

Few people agree on how to plan projects. Often, most of the time spent during the planning stage is wasted on getting people to agree on how the plan should be done. It is therefore not surprising that many books about project planning do not agree with each other. Some focus on the commercial strategy, others on engineering, and some on understanding the customer’s needs. What is most distressing is not the different points of view; it is the fact that very often they’re written as if the other points of view didn’t exist. It’s strange since none of the perspectives – business, technology, customer – can exist without the others. Moreover, in general project planning success is arrived at in the intersection between the different points of view.

Because of this, it is important for each project to ask these questions:

• Who has responsibility for requirements definition? Someone needs to define the requirements to which the project is responding, and get them approved by all interested parties.
• Who has responsibility for the design? The design is different from the requirements definition because there are always several possible designs when responding to a requirement.
• Who has technical responsibility? Whoever that is chooses which engineering approach to use, which includes tools and architecture approach.
• Who has budget responsibility? The ability to add or remove project resources might be independent of other types of responsibility, particularly when it is a project being implemented for a customer.
• How frequently are requirements and designs reviewed, and how will adjustments be decided?  The response depends in large part on the preceding questions. What’s more there are parties involved who each have different responsibilities, so there must be effort put into keeping everyone synchronized during the project.

Additionally:

• Different projects require different planning approaches.
• How planning is done is often determined by who has the responsibility.
• There are some common deliverables for project planning:
  • Documents on marketing requirements 
  • Documents on the vision and overall approach
  • Specifications
  • Structure for breaking up the project
• The most powerful project planning method involves using the three perspectives equally: business, technology and customer. The customer perspective is often the most misunderstood and badly used.
• Asking questions forces you to think well and focus your energy efficiently.
• The requirements definition process is difficult, but there are some good reference books on how to do it.
• Researching problems and scenarios is the simplest way to define and communicate requirements. They are easily converted into design ideas without losing what is important and what is not about them.

 Exercise:

Imagine that you are the manager on a project where the engineers and marketing staff don’t like each other, and they are fighting about basic decisions. What actions could you take to improve their relationship? (Hint: What questions have not been asked? What points of view have not been represented?)

• Chapter 4: Writing the good vision

One of the challenges for a project leader is keeping people focused on the same objectives for long periods of time. Therefore the challenge in project management is not just getting things started in the right direction, but also getting things to stay on track.

To do this, a document explaining the project vision is absolutely essential. Actually, writing is undoubtedly the greatest technology man has ever invented because it decouples the abilities of our brain, of which memory is notoriously unreliable, especially when it comes to retaining complex things. Putting things on paper allows us to free our mind up which in turn can dedicate all its energy to the tasks that we have outlined (the effectiveness of GTD comes therefore directly from the entrusting all our tasks to a reliable written system.

It is not useful to write volumes. The  Declaration of the rights of man is only a page or two long. The first Constitution of the United States is only one page long. If a government has been able to define the vision for its country’s system in such a small amount of space, you can do the same thing to describe your project’s vision. Typically, the vision statement is no longer than six pages.

Additionally:

• Vision statements distill planning artifacts into a single high level plan.
• Writing things down serves both the writer and the team. It provides a basis for discussion and a point of reference that does not depend on people’s fallible memory.
• The amount of detail of a vision statement varies with the nature of the team and the project.
• Team objectives must be derived from the objectives defined in the vision. Individual objectives must be derived from team objectives.
• Good visions are simple, goal-oriented, consolidated, inspiring and memorable.
• Quantity does not mean quality. It takes more effort to be concise than the other way around.
• Keep the vision alive by asking questions about the usefulness of the vision and about the daily decisions of the project.

Exercise:

What will happen if someone’s individual objectives are in conflict with those of the team or the project? Who does the responsibility fall upon to correct that? What actions should he or she take?

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• Chapter 5: Where ideas come from

The not very surprising truth about the origin of ideas is that they come from people. That is to say there is nothing magic about ideas. We are all capable of having them – even though some of us are better than others. Never forget that it is fundamental to human nature to use our creative powers to resolve the problems that humans encounter in the world. In spite of the poor education that we have in the modern world to use our talents well, they are there.

Whatever the project is, the ability to find good ideas is important from the first day to the last day. The outcome of these ideas can vary (some impact the whole project while others a single line of code), but the process for discovering and selecting them is the same. This process serves to fill the void between requirements and solutions. Just as the fact that we know where we are going does not help us find the best path when we come to an unknown fork in the road, knowing our requirements does not tell us anything about what decisions to make when we must choose between several solutions. Intelligent travelers find ways to minimize their chances of straying down a cul-de-sac, perhaps by walking a short distance along each path and trying to find another point of view (a hill, a mountain, a geostationary spy satellite controlled from a distance) which gives them more information. The further they need to go on their journey, the more they will probably need to find time to explore.

There are two simple ways to fill the void between requirements and solutions; a high quality requirements definition, and design exploration. These two ideas are tightly coupled.

The requirements definition basically communicates the customer’s needs and/or the project objectives, with sufficient clarity to allow them to be converted into actions by those doing the work. A good requirements definition does not simply define how to solve a problem; instead it identifies the problem clearly enough that someone with good expertise can work with confidence to accomplish it. The requirements definition is critical. It serves as a point of departure to generate ideas and potential solutions. If the requirement states “there shall be a door and it shall be green,” everyone who is going to conceive how to complete the project is going to think of different kinds of green doors.

Once the requirements definition is in place, people can explore the territory encompassed in the requirements. There is a large space, called the problem space, the potential means for resolving any problem. As far as requirements, this space might be large, for example there is an infinite variety of ways to create a house, a meal, a website, or anything you are paid to do.

Additionally:

• Many teams do not manage their time well between requirements and specifications..
• A high quality requirements definition and an exploration of the concept are the best use that you can make of your time.
• Ideas are good or bad only in relation to the objectives or other ideas.
• Constraints are useful for finding ideas, but thinking outside the box is not necessarily the answer. Sometimes the best solution is to find a better way of working with the constraints.
• Questions, perspectives and improvisation games are tools for finding new ideas.
• The best place to being with design ideas is the customer’s experience.
• Ideas morph into designs via conversations between different people with different types of expertise.

Exercise:

Find someone who you think is more creative than you. Ask him where he gets his ideas, and what habits he has that cultivate his creativity. Take one of the habits he uses and try it for a week (if you can’t think of anyone, take Picasso, Einstein or any person famous for his creativity in your field).

• Chapter 6: What to do with ideas once you have them

As hard as it is to find good ideas, it is even more difficult to manage them. Even if good design ideas are investigated, and even if people are excited about the work they are doing, the challenge of converging on the specifications remains in tact. If moving faster does not result in definitive design decisions in a timely manner and things are not well managed, disaster hits you in the face. For many reasons, that is where project failure begins.

The solution is to manage the field of possible ideas cautiously. Someone must plan and guide each step of the specification exploration.

Additionally:

• Ideas have their own inertia. It will take longer to dominate the creative process than you think.
• Create checkpoints for creative work so that you can follow it and manage it. Common checkpoints include feasibility studies, regrouping of ideas, three alternatives, two alternatives, and one design.
• Use affinity diagrams to consolidate ideas.
• Prototypes allow a project to confront problems early and learn about errors without significant risk.
• Use iterations, or the progressive refinement of a prototype, to ask questions, evaluate progress, and decide the next steps.
• Create a list of open problems to follow up with the questions that need resolution before the specifications are completed.

Exercise:

Should ideas be managed in an open or private manner? Who on your team should have access to a) view b) modify c) add or delete ideas?

Part 2: Skills

• Chapter 7: Writing good specifications

Many experienced people fall into the trap of thinking that there is only one good way to write specifications, which tends in general to be the last thing they did. They assume that because projects were not a complete disaster, that the way they wrote (or didn’t write) specifications contributed in a positive way to the result – a claim which, without investigation, may or may not be true. Even worse, if good questions about how and why the specifications were written were never asked, no-one on the team can truly understand what is a good or bad process for writing specifications, or up to what point they contributed or did not contribute to the team’s performance.

There are therefore many ways to write specifications, which could each be better tailored to the situation. But they should all do three things for the project:

• Ensure something good gets built.
• Provide a schedule of milestones that concludes the planning phase of the project.
• Allow an in-depth review and feedback from different individuals during the course of the project.

Additionally:

• Specifications only resolve certain problems. Team leads should be clear about which problems they are trying to solve with the specifications, and which problems should be solved by other means.
• Good specifications simplify. They are primarily a good form of communication.
• Specifying is very different from designing.
• The person who has control over writing the specifications should have clear authority.
• A review process is the simplest way to define and control the quality of the specifications.

Exercise:

Tale a big bucket of LEGOs and find another project manager. Divide the LEGOs into two piles, putting the same number and the same types of pieces into each pile. Sit down with your back to the other manager, until one of you creates something with the LEGOs (it doesn’t matter what it is). Once that’s done, the one who did it tells the other one, using only words, how to build the same thing. Compare results. Then repeat the exercise, changing roles.

• Chapter 8: How to make good decisions

A dozen project managers were interviewed while this book was being written. One of the questions that Scott Berkun asked is how they make good decisions. Most of their responses included weighing options, defining criteria, and finding different ways to resolve problems. But when the author asked how many decisions they made in a day, and how frequently they used these techniques, they often realized that something was wrong. Many then admitted (after looking over their shoulder to be sure no-one was listening) that it’s impossible to always follow a formal process for decision making, given the limited time that they have available and the number of things that they need to do.

Instead, they agreed that they often make decisions based on their intuition, on reasonable assumptions, and on a quick assessment of the immediate problem with regard to the overall project objectives.

Bad decisions are very often not the result of a weak or inexperienced mind, but simply a bad division of energy and time available between the decisions that need making. There is a meta-process for deciding what decisions to invest time and energy on. It’s this ability which explains why some people can manage five times the amount of work than others; they instinctively divide their work into smaller pieces, finding the decisions and actions with the most leverage – 20% which make up 80% of the results – and invest most of their energy making these decisions and actions the best possible.

Additionally:

• Anaylze decisions rather than spending too much time on them.
• Look at the indifferent zone and opportunities to use an assessment efficiently.
• Use comparative analysis for decisions that are worth the effort.
• All decisions have an emotional component, whether we admit it or not.
• Lists for and against are the most flexible method of comparative analysis. They allow us to involve others and get fresh perspectives on decisions.
• Information and facts can’t make decisions for you.
• You will improve your decision making skills by reviewing past decisions made and exploring them to find lessons and opportunities for better tactics.

Exercise :

Think about what you are going to do this weekend. Make a list for/against each of your options. Include a choice to do nothing and at least one hybrid choice (including a part with several options).

The rest in the next episode;)

Translated by www.DeansResource.com

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One Sentence Summary: Today in large organizations, it is rare that the project lead has supervisory power over all the people on his project team. He must, however, maintain enthusiasm, motivation and results from people without being able to use the power of his position and powers of coercion; this book teaches us numerous techniques to do so.

By Tom Kendrick, 245 pages, 2006.

Summary and Book Review :

Note: This book is very heavy, in a very classic academic format (translate: irritating) and very focused on large corporations, I read it using the rapid reading techniques of 10 Days to Faster Reading, notably scanning and scraping. I am giving you a quick summary, which I hope will be sufficient for you to get a good idea of the book’s contents.

Projets are everywhere. Some are successful, others are not. And many projects fail because the project lead cannot control things well enough to bring them to their final conclusion. Projects today often take place in complex environments where the project lead does not have formal authority over the members of his project team. And even those that do, there is always a part of the project that falls to someone who doesn’t have this authority. Fortunately, it is possible to control a project and make it successful by using techniques that don’t depend on your position in the organization or your formal authority. Let’s take a look at them.

• Chapter 2 : Control by Process

Most projects are difficult. Without sufficient processes there is naturally chaos and the project is certain to fail. Processes for projects are generally:

• Life Cycle and Methodology: they impose discipline on projects. Life cycles principally serve to coordinate related projects, and methodologies assure that there is consistency in the way projects are carried out.
• Project Definition: a clear and unambiguous definition is essential for the control of a project.
• Change Management:  one of the most problematic aspects of technical projects is the lack of control over change specifications. To avoid this you must: 1) freeze the overall direction when you define the project foundation and 2) adopt a style of efficiently managing change for the rest of the project.
• Risk Management: even though this phase is generally started when the project is initiated, maintaining it during its execution reinforces objectives and keeps the team’s attention focused on the work ahead.
• Quality Management: This gives structure to the project and allows requests to take effect that otherwise would have been ignored by the project lead.
• Conflict Management: conflicts are inevitable. From the project outset you should develop a process to manage conflict at the resource level, timing, priorities and other things.
• Decision-Making Process: A project requires plenty of decisions,  making them quickly and well is essential for good control of a project.
• Information Management: Archiving the data for a project is fundamental to controlling the project, and can be used on future projects.

To improve your process management on a project:

• Clearly document how you will use the different project processes.
• Analyze old projects to uncover problems caused by structure and work with your team to make decisions at the level of the infrastructure of the project to resolve them.
• Reachback to expertise within the organization and the project management skills of your company, but resist the temptation to hand over control of your project.

• Chapter 3 : Control by Influence

It is often said that management is a given, but leadership must be won. One of the aspects of a leadership role is to exert your influence both inside and outside your project team. Your management style is extremely important, and your influence over others depends on what you have to offer in exchange for what you need.

There are different types of power:

• Power of position: without doubt the most visible in an organization, since these are appointed leads in the company hierarchy.
• Power of coercion: tied to power of position, the ability to inflict sanctions.
• Power of compensation: accessible to anyone, since compensation can be simple encouragement, simple congratulations, or some other form of appreciation. But biggest material compensation (advancement, salary increases) are generally reserved for people holding positions of power.
• Power of expertise: conferred by exceptional mastery of an important subject on the project or in the organization.
• Power of personality: which comes from your investment in your communication with others and in the team’s unity, as well as in your efforts to insure mutual trust allowing frank exchanges. This power is especially important in times of trouble or stress.

Generally, projects are transversal in organizations and companies, which means that the project lead does not have the power of position or coercion. It is therefore important to use the other types of power.

To improve your influence:

• Adopt a leadership style that works for other members of your team and which will work to produce whatever matters the most to people.
• Build self awareness and your skill at influencing others.
• Work at increasing your influence by your actions and your behavior.
• Build and maintain relationships of trust and respect with every member of your team.

• Chapter 4 : Control with Project Measurement

All projects make slow progress, especially long and complex ones. Without sufficient measurements to determine whether the project is progressing, finding anomalies in time might be impossible, or worse, the project could start out in the wrong direction without you knowing.

Typical measurements for managing projects and comparing them to others include:

• Resource allocations and cost estimates
• Project benefits and value delivered
• Complexity
• Provisional production estimates
• Measures of risk and uncertainty
• Project Duration

To improve your control over project measurement:

• Rough out the performance that you need from your team to maintain control of the project.
• Identify measurements that line up with the project objectives and desired performance.
• Select a small group of measurements and get help with them  from your team.
• Test the measurements and  establish a reference baseline.
• Use the measurements to monitor and control your project. 
• Chapter 5 : Begin Control at the Project Start

Projects with problems often get off to a shaky start. Control begins at the very moment the project begins, because a good project start is vital to the success of the project. Ideally, the project team lead and the team must be completely in agreement in getting the project off to a good start. To do this you must get help from the project sponsor (often a senior executive who initiated the project concept), solid documentation and a kickoff meeting for the project.

To improve your project starts:

• Deconflict key appointments for the project sponsor for continued help and to begin to establish a good relationship with him.
• Develop a captivating vision for the project and adjust it according to your need to inspire and motivate your team.
• Understand your objectives in detail and document the project schedule with minutiae.
• Conduct an efficient kickoff meeting so that your project gets off to a healthy start.
• Put more effort into building relationships of trust with remote members of your team.

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• Chapter 6 : Increase Control with Project Planning

Creating a plan for your project forces you to figure out how you are going to meet the objective, which provides a solid foundation to follow your progress towards it. Planning, however, only gives you a simple basis for control; planning in a collaborative process allows you to create cohesion and a feeling of belonging to a project on the part of your team. Further, a credible plan shows that your project is possible, even if it is difficult.

Without a plan, forecasts for the project are based on hopes, dreams and wishes – these are rarely good foundations for building trust or efficient control.

To improve your project planning:

• Plan your project meticulously with your team, and integrate their ideas, suggestions and perspective into your planning documents.
• Use planning data to establish a realistic reference baseline, for negotiating the changes required to initial objectives, with your sponsor and his associates.
• Begin execution of the project with a credible and comrephensible plan that is available to all the members of your team.

• Chapter 7 : Maintain Control during Project Execution

Peserverance matters. All projects run into difficulties, and most undergo substantial changes. Control contributes to execution through a strong and tenacious focus through what is going on, what has been accomplished, and what is still be be done. Statistics collected on projects show that the 9th, 99th and 999th activity of the project are equally important – and they are. Holding up fact gathering on status to resolve a problem equates to loss of control.

Diagnostic measurements are the basic elements for collecting information on status. They provide the information you need to assess performance and progress, and their visibility assures you that the problem will be handled.

To improve execution of your project:

• Define diagnostic measurements for your project that strengthen your control over it, then get your team to carry them out.
• Be dogmatic and disciplined in collecting information on the status of a project.
• Use informal communication to gather facts and work at maintaining trust and a good relationship with your team.

• Chapter 8 : Monitoring and Surveillance for Controlling your Project

Most project cycles lead to a least some bad news. Treating problems as mild inconveniences is the first step in good control. Finding a way to adapt or change the plan so that it accommodates the bad news means accepting the problems, not succumbing to them. To do this you need a good toolbox full of appropriate tools to control schedule, costs, quality and other potential problems.

To improve monitoring and surveillance:

• Manage changes from the perspective of disciplined process which only accepts necessary changes that can be professionally justified.
• Develop and implement rapid change actions when a problem arises.
• Use reports and other formal forms of communication to keep people informed of your project and up to date with its progress.
• Motivate your team by thanking them and recognizing their merits and compensate them when appropriate.
• Periodically re-examine long projects to validate objectives and plans, and to revitalize the project vision.
• Take care of obstacles to progress and rapidly resolve conflicts.

• Chapter 9 : Improve Overall Control at Project Close

Good project closure requires time and work, but it is important for controlling future projects. Obtaining the acceptance of your sponsor and his partners for the fact that your work is done appropriately is necessary before you can transition to a new project. Retrospective measurements contribute to long term control by indicating the improvement process necessary and validating the predictive measurements of the project. Finishing and archiving final document for your project provides necessary information to define and plan similar projects in the future..

And speaking of future projects: it’s a small world, therefore it is almost certain that you will work with some of the people on your current project again. Therefore you must absolutely do things to strengthen your relationship with your team. Celebrate the fact that you have finished, and recognize and reward the contributions of your team by thanking people for the work they have done.

To improve your project closure:

• Finish your work and get formal acceptance for its termination from those you deliver it to.
• Complete final documentation for the project.
• Thank your team and celebrate the fact that you are finished.
• Be aware of what you have learned and use it.

• Conclusion

If you are asked to run a project, it’s because someone believes in you and your ability. If you do too, you are probably both right.

However there is a list that the author calls Full Strength Projecticide, which sums up everything you need to do to fail on a project:

• Always choose a project based on just your “feelings.”
• Never share project selection criteria with your team: it’s none of their business.
• Avoid responsibility for the project by claiming that you are not the sole decision-maker.
• Always ask for “long term objectives” that are not attainable.
• Enlist additional sponsors that will give you conflicting objectives.
• Keep allocated resources for more important things until the project reaches a crisis.
• Never waste time discussing things with project leads; you have more important things to do.
• Ignore changes in your environment and focus entirely on your daily activities.
• Make changes to the project at least every week to keep everyone on the ball.
• Never make decisions, even small ones, without asking for more information and a detailed investigation.
• Discourage in-depth analysis of lessons learned on a project, because everything will be different next time anyway.

The author finishes with ten pages of questions that are relevant to multiple aspects of a project.

Book Critique:

As I indicated above, this book suffers from being somewhat dry, heavy and irritating, which is real torture after the excellent format of The Simplicity Survival Handbook. It is like a classic academic book.

Fortunately, it is quality content and you can sense Tom Kendrick’s great experience in managing projects.  The techniques, tricks and methods that he provides throughout the book are relevant and appropriate, even though sometimes they seem a little too complex and theoretic.

The huge amount of information and its excellent organization by chapter – and within each chapter – make it easy for you to find the information you need to deal with a particular problem if you have to manage a project. This book is therefore an excellent toolbox that every project lead can put in his library without any problem, to make use of whenever he needs to, and extract knowledge to no doubt avoid countless problems and time wasting.

The main advantage, and major take away of this book, is that it is strictly focused on large corporations and their internal workings. If you work in a small business, a medium business or for yourself, you will find ideas here and there on how to manage complex projects with suppliers and external providers but the most important points in the book will not be for you. If you are regularly called on to lead projects for large corporations, dig in.

Strong  Points:

• Detailed
• Good internal organization
• The author is experienced which comes through in every paragraph.
• Focused on large corporations

Weak Points:

• Heavy format, dry and irritating
• Sometimes a bit too theoretical and conceptual
• Very focused on large corporations
• Not translated into French

Translated by http://www.DeansResource.com

My rating: (if you lead projects in a large corporation)

(if you lead projects in another sector)

Have you read this book? How would you rate it?

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Read more reviews on Results Without Authority on Amazon.

PMBA Challenge :

Cost of book:	€ 14,35
Totla cost of the project:	€ 186,53
Number of pages :	245
Total Number of pages:	2691
Time to read it:	1H
Time to write this article:	3H30
Total Project Time:	103H30

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 Note: Because this is a thick, very detailed book full of “how-tos” and designed not to be read from cover to cover, coming up with a useful summary is long and takes time. I am therefore publishing it in two parts, of which this is the second. The first is here .

Summary and Book Report, Part Two:

Ressources :

• Simpler Work, site de l’auteur

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One Sentence Summary: In life there is theory and practice, and there are things that “usually” work a certain way, that in actual practice work differently; discover how things really work in the professional world by exploring these 32 Ways To Do Less and Accomplish More and have a more productive and calmer life.

By Bill Jensen, 300 pages, 2003.

Note: Because this is a thick, very detailed book full of “how-tos” and designed not to be read from cover to cover, coming up with a useful summary is long and takes time. I am therefore publishing it in two parts, of which this is the first

Summary and Book Critique:

In my recent critique of  Cut to The Chase, I asked myself about the relevance of collections of rules, given that most of the rules in these books are certainly interesting, but are of the “in one ear and out the other” variety and that this type of book has difficulties getting into the subject deeply. I wondered if the best way to use them was rather to put them on your desk, choose one rule a day, and try to apply it that day – you could also do one rule a week.

Well, apparently Bill Jensen asked himself that question before writing his book because this is designed to be put into practice after spending a minimal amount of time reading it. Firstly, the author begins by strongly recommending 3 rules to use his book in the simplest and most efficient manner possible.

It’s the first time that I have ever seen a book begin by advising you to absolutely not read all of it!

What’s more this book has an unusually interesting and original format that uses highlighting for the contents (at the moment only  The Creative Habit and 45 Effective Ways for Hiring Smart can claim as much among the books in my challenge). Actually, every chapter begins with a “Less-O-Meter”, a “Doing Less Counter” which gauges the courage required, the difficulty of the task and the amount that applying this tip/method will yield on a scale of 1 to 10:   

The author did not guess at the values. He asked 260 people over the course of 6 months to evaluate, test and change everything in the book, then he asked them to rate each rule on the three criteria. The rating provided is the average of the ratings for all 260 people.

Moreover, the book uses pleasantly different fonts and font sizes, it is also filled with drawings – often funny – and explanatory diagrams of all kinds:

And finally each rule is presented in the same format:

1. The “Less-O-Meter”
2. Why you should do less
3. How to do less 
4. Optional : To get more out of it, often accounts and real-life situations of people who have lived this in a company setting.   
5. Optional: , additional resources for those who want more. 

The format is therefore brilliant, absolutely brilliant, there is no other word. Because of it, everyone can make their own “mini-book,” read what interests them and begin to apply it. But what’s inside? Let’s take a look:

1 : How to Ignore Most Corporate Communications

• Courage: 4
• Difficulty: 2
• Yield: 4.5

You get too many messages from outside of your team and your department. Therefore you can’t pay attention to all the information about your company that you are supposed to know, there simply is not enough time.

To fix it:

1. Find these two essential points in your messages:
   • Any actions that you must take 
   • The deadlines for these actions, if they are within two or three weeks at a maximum.  
2. If the message contains neither actions nor short term dates, ignore it. Delete it.

2 : How to Delete 75% of Your Emails

• Courage : 4
• Difficulty: 2
• Yield: 5

Emails and the myriad of other ways to stay connected with the world is both a blessing and a curse: if they bring the world to us, they bring the whole world to us, including jokers, slackers, scammers, people who are the most unorganized, confused, boring, etc. You must then develop discipline when it comes to closing your virtual door.

To do this:

1. Let’s say this together:
   • Hello,
   • My name is [your name], and I am an information-aholic.
   • My first step towards being cured is admitting it.

     Good, you are on the right path!

2. Becoming good at sorting information quickly is difficult and takes years. While you are waiting:
   • Look at each piece of unread email. Are the subject and the sender both telling you: I must read this email?
   • IF the answer is no, delete it without reading it.

     At this point your inbox should be 50% emptied.

3. Search the remaining email for two basic things:
   • Actions that you must take.
   • Deadlines for the actions, if they are within two or three weeks maximum.

     If email does not contain these points, delete it. By this point your inbox should be 75% emptied.

4. Examine the remaining messages using the CLEAR model. The information contained in the message should give or be:
   • Connected to your projects and your current work. 
   • The List of ensuing actions: Things you should do after reading this email. 
   • Expectations (anticipated results): What success looks like 
   • Ability: How things will be done, the list of tools and available support 
   • Return: WIIFM “What’s In It For Me?”

     If it’s not, delete the message. After this step, your inbox should be 90% empty. This step is difficult and requires a lot of discipline. You might be content at number 3. A 75% empty inbox is not at all bad!

5. Install an antispam filter… Now! 

3 : How To Quickly Prepare for Any Communication

• Courage : 2
• Difficulty: 3
• Yield: 8

Your standard day operates under the authority – and even the tyranny – of urgency. You only have a few seconds – on good days, a few minutes – to organize your thoughts, write your email and make it clear, you must therefore take the shortest route between what is in your head and what others will see or understand.

For that reason, always remember these three words and the questions associated with them:

1. Know: “What is the thing I want people to know, understand, learn, or ask themselves about?”
2. Feel: “How do I want people to feel about what I have done?”
3. Do: “What do I want people to do as a direct result of my communication?”

Time necessary for all these steps: in the beginning 1 to 10 minutes, with practice, less than 45 seconds.

4 : How to Leave Shorter Voicemails for Betters Results

• Courage : 1
• Difficulty: 3
• Yield: 4

99.999% of voicemail messages should not be longer than 30 seconds, ideally, 20 seconds. The key is to know how to use this time. This is how it is done by those whose messages are listened to, replied to, and actions triggered.

To do this:

1. Always start with the idea that no-one will answer the phone and you will automatically be sent to voicemail.
2. Always remember these three words:
   • Know: “Hello Frank. Here is what I need you to know: [the purpose for the message]. You don’t have to say it that way, but get to the message quickly. Don’t state more than two important points in the message.
   • Feel: your tone of voice will have an impact on whether the message is answered. Try 1) a voice full of energy, 2) full of joy (smile when you talk) and 3) a frustrated or bland voice explaining your problem, firmly but politely.
   • Do: “Frank, here is what I need you to do: [action]”
3. Leave your telephone number. Speak at the speed that people write, not at the speed people talk.

5 : How to Write Shorter Emails for Better Results

• Courage : 1
• Difficulty: 5
• Yield: 7

Voice messages are constrained by time, emails by space. You must capture someone’s attention, connect with them, and help them to act, all that in 7×12 cm or 3 x 5 ins (height x width). Otherwise, you will become part of their 75% of deleted messages.

To do this:

1. Everything worth doing MUST be kept to 7×12 cm. Why 7×12 cm? Because that is the size most commonly used by people for their email window. Also, staying disciplined with regard to this size accommodates the space constraints for Blackberries and cell phones.
2. You are writing a billboard. Not a letter. Write to be read easily: not more than 75 to 110 words within the 7×12, that’s about 8 or 12 sentences. The shorter the better.
3. Always use the CLEAR model (see point number 2).
4. Use common sense. Obviously there are many exceptions to these rules. The point of the advice is not to give you a magic formula but to keep you disciplined.

6 : How to Do Less and Still Deliver an Awesome Presentation

• Courage : 5
• Difficulty: 5
• Yield: 7

Powerpoint – or equivalent software is – 1) one of man’s worst inventions because its the biggest source in the world of uninteresting information in companies, 2) a great presentation tool that is as good as you are and 3) points 1 and 2 at the same time.

To get the best out of it, prepare your work with Know, Feel, Do (see point number 3), then:

1. Change the basic point that everyone wants to KNOW into a QUESTION. Change the question into an interactive exercise with the audience. By doing this, you will have less work, both in preparing the presentation, and in getting a better reaction from your audience, who will be happy to avoid a long, meaningless speech and get straight to the point.
2. Did you understand the radical idea behind step 1? Never present. Always stimulate conversation. Actually, your real success is measured by the changes that you incite in conversations.
3. If you vous must use Powerpoint: use more video clips and animated graphics than text ,and:
   • Create a one page summary.
   • Use a ration of 1:3 to determine the number of slides. If your slides include mostly text, numbers and charts, you should present a maximum of one slide very three minutes.
   • Insist on the fact that everyone takes notes. Ideally before beginning, not after.

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Note : This week I am testing a new way of publishing: I will post this article in 4 sections, published throughout the week. What do you think? Do you like this better or would you prefer a complete report every time? Let me know through your comments . The first part is here, the second there and the third here.

Summary and Book Report Part 4 :

• Chapter 10 : Naming Files

Whatever file format you create, it needs a name. The choice of name is important, because a good name lets you find the file easily, and you will save time later because it will let you know what’s in the file without having to open it up.

Bit Literacy practitioners should therefore name files using the following convention: initials_date_subject.extension.

For example, a file by John Smith about plans for a Mars project should be called js-032008-plansproject.doc.

Dashes (-) should be your default separation character, because it is the only universal one; a file named with dashes separating the words can keep its name on all platforms – Windows, MacOS, Linux, etc – and even on the Internet (spaces on the Internet are changed to %20, so a file named js 032008 plansproject.doc would be changed to js%20032008%20plansproject.doc, not terribly readable…).

Even though this convention should be used for the vast majority of files, there are some notable exceptions:

• The most used files. If you have a directory with files that you use regularly, put a space at the beginning of their name. That allows you to find them at first glance when you open the directory because the operating system sorts the files alphabetically and will list them first. If you use Windows or Linux, you can use the underscore (_). Also, it is useless to put a date on these files because they are modified regularly.
• Templates. These are folders that are used continuously to create new ones based on the same structure, like quotes, for example, form letters, etc. Once again, no point in putting a date on them.

• Chapter 11 : Storing Files

Appropriately named files are not enough: you must arrange them in well organized folders. Organizing the folders efficiently requires a little discipline, even though only a few are necessary to do the job well. Bit Literacy thus follows the Occam rule [translator’s note: probably better known to English speakers as the “KISS” principle (Keep It Short and Simple)]: you should take things as far as necessary, but no further.

In fact, most files trees can be kept to a hierarchy of two levels, similar to that used for storing photos. It’s easy to put in place. You need:

• The Parent Folder

This is the folder at the highest level in the hierarchy, which contains all the files that are not managed by other tools, like iTunes or your email management program. In Windows, the My Documents directory (or Documents in Vista) is a good choice, and so is the Home directory on the Mac. You can also use another Parent folder for your personal files so that you can separate them from your professional files.

• The Projet Folder 

The Parent directory should contain as many Project folders as necessary. Each Project folder should contain the name of a client (Tartempion Company) or of a general project (Bit Literacy Book) and should have files that relate to the project. It can also contain sub-folders. Sub-folders should be avoided in general, but can be used for special tasks. For example, you could create an “archive” folder for storing files that are older and no longer used, or a sub-folder “press cuttings” to place any press articles relating to the project, etc.

• The Category Folder

Unlike the Project folder, a Category folder contains a single type of file. This could be an expenses folder, or invoices, or quotes or taxes…

Also, pay attention to keeping your desktop organized; it’s the first thing you see on the computer and it’s from where you launch most of your applications, so don’t confuse it with the Home or the My Documents folder.

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• Chapter 12 : Other Essentials

- Typing Speed

It’s easy to get excited about technology, tools, functions, and gadgets and forget the simplest and most basic things. Like how fast you type. In as much as most of our occupations today include typing as a general rule, lots of typing, typing speed is integral to our productivity for many of us.

It is therefore unacceptable that someone needs to look at their keyboard because they don’t remember where the keys are, or they only use 20% of their fingers, the famous “hunt and peck” method using the two index fingers while the rest of their fingers are completely idle. It’s like a driver who only drives his sports car in first gear because he never bothered to learn how to shift gears correctly.

You must therefore learn how to type. Sixty words a minute is a good average, but with concentration, and a little practice, it’s not hard to exceed 100 words a minute.

Note : I think this advice is absolutely excellent. I would add that is it absolutely necessary to follow a typing class with a real teacher or some software – to be truly effective because typing with all ten fingers doesn’t come by itself; it’s been about 15 years since I have been typing on the computer regularly, and I started several years earlier on a typewriter, and I type with 4 fingers (index and middle). According to this test, my speed is about 55 words a minute, after being weighted for typing errors I encourage you to take it for one minute, using text "Zebra – Africa’s striped horse", choose “>PM” as a unit of measure and post your results on the form at the end of the article to compare our results.. You can then use free software like Keybr (on line) , Sense-lang (on line), Rapid Typing (for Windows), etc. to improve.

- The Dvorak Keyboard

Attention, this is for users who are not prepared to shrink from any sacrifice to increase their productivity Actually, did you know that the QUERTY keyboard layout (AZERTY for our Gallic friends) is inherited from old typewriters at the end of the 19th century, that needed neither processor nor hard disk or even electricity in order to work?

Now the placement was designed to slow down typing, for a simple reason. Let’s take a look at a  picture of an old mechanical typewriter:

As you can see, there is a black and red ribbon near the paper. The way the machine works is simple: when you hit a key, it raises up one of the metal letters that are located between the keyboard and the paper. If two letters side by side are hit too quickly one after the other, they both get stuck, quite simply because no matter what letter it is, they all strike in the same place, in the center of the ribbon. Thus the QWERTY layout (which in France became the AZERTY keyboard) was designed by Remington to slow down keystrokes in order to avoid them sticking. It is therefore a deliberate sub-optimization which we have sadly inherited on our computers due to force of habit.

Fortunately, since then other keyboard layouts have been invented that are much more efficient and designed to optimize input speed. The most well known, and most used, is the Dvorak. I invite you to go to this site and read some of the articles and download some pilots. You can also read this article or this one. Apparently you can improve your typing speed about 40% with this keyboard, and learning to type – with all ten fingers – is twice as fast. If one of you embarks on this adventure, let me know, I will write an article on this topic in the future

- The Lever Effect

It is possible to use software that acts as a lever to make you more productive with digital information: software that will let you register abbreviations that are then automatically converted into words or actions. You can, for example, assign "co" for the name of your company, "add" for its address: whenever you type these two or three letters, the software picks up on it and replaces it with the word or sentence that you have previously defined.

Examples of such software:

• Active Words for Windows
• Typinator for Mac

- Back Ups

There are two types of users in the world: those who already back up, and those who will do it some day, usually after having lost weeks or months or years of work.

Note : I can only confirm this: having worked for more than 8 years in the field of information technology services, I can confirm that backing up is one of the most frequently neglected subjects, especially by smaller businesses and individuals. It always amazes me that someone who has spent maybe 20 hours writing a report or a document won’t take one minute to back it up… Back up frequently, back up a lot, back up too much even; it is better to have too many backups than not enough. See Carbonite, an excellent automatic online backup and inexpensive.

Book Critique:

This book clearly stands out among the technology books that come out every year. It’s a far cry in every way from the screen captures, detailed tutorials on this or that aspect of software, or weighty assessments of useless functionality. You get the feeling that Mark Hurst wanted to write a timeless book about digital information (understand by that: something that can still be read 3 years after publication) by focusing not on digital information but on managing the information, not on the tools but on the methods, not on the details but on the overarching approach. I think that he pulls it off remarkably well and I take my hat off to him.

This book is packed with excellent advice, tricks and methods to improve everyone’s productivity with digital information. I have been an information technology professional for more than 8 years and my job leads me often to the analysis of methods and tools for small and medium sized companies, and I can tell you that the under-utilization of tools and bad methods are rampant in companies. There really is an illiteracy about information technology and digital information among a large part of the population, it this fact above all that motivated me to launch my Techno Smart French blog a year ago, which, sadly, I have not promoted enough. This illiteracy is taking its toll on productivity in our country and the rest of the world; obviously a weaker place with respect to where it could have been after several years. People who master these two domains are the scribes of today and have the same advantages that those who mastered reading and writing enjoyed when more than 90% of people didn’t know how to read or write.

I buy-in completely to the general message delivered by Mark Hurst, a message delivered with ideas, methods, and tips which are absolutely clear and concise most of the time – I have even learned a few tricks myself. But certain passages made me raise my eyebrows, being a technology expert. First of all, Mark Hurst is resolutely anti-Microsoft and resolutely pro-Apple, and even though he justifies it, but in such an unobjective manner that it is nothing more than a cliché. I claim that some Microsoft software is totally efficient, if you know how to use it. In particular, I find that Outlook and OneNote are extremely practical applications, especially the 2007 versions. Most 2007 version software are furthermore exceptionally ergonomic and practical thanks to the new interface that Microsoft developed, incontestably their best invention for years.

However, I am absolutely not in agreement on certain points; for example, I use an email management system that is entirely different from Mark Hurst’s, a method which he would snub for sure because it’s based on Outlook, automatic filtering rules, use "read" and "non-read" markings on emails, some deletions but also plenty of archiving in the inbox. In fact, I was applying GTD to my emails without realizing it for years, as I explain in my article on Implementing GTD. The author seems to have overlooked the progress that has been made in the subject of file indexing, which almost makes it antiquated to worry about where emails go. It is also astonishing that he doesn’t mention technologies such as voice recognition which seems to me an excellent means for productivity, perhaps that’s an idea for another edition of the book?

Overall, this book is good and even a must-have for everyone from the unskilled to those who are "good" at Bit Literacy. Sadly, I’m afraid that few people will make the effort to read this book because just look at the number of people who have to get started with digital information, as though it were an insurmountable problem, somewhat optional and somewhat forced on by by circumstances that we don’t like. Perhaps illiterate peasants in the 19th century also said that they had to get started with reading, I don’t know. For those among you who know that it’s necessary to get educated in this area and are not opposed to reading a book about it, jump right in. If, what’s more, you are pro-Mac and anti-Microsoft, you will be in heaven .

If you are an information technology professional or other expert user, my faith in reading this book is still justified, but the odds are you that you are already using work methods that are not easily replaced by those suggested by the author. But there are good ideas to be had here and there.

In any case this book made me more conscious that I have a lot to say on this subject myself. Enough to write a whole book, I think. I will think about it

Strong Points:

• Overall approach original and intelligent
• Contents relatively timeless (by comparison to the average information technology book) 
• Numerous ideas and interesting methods, even for expert digital information users
• Revolutionary for everyone who is not an expert in digital information

Weak Points:

• Anti-Microsoft and pro-Apple absolutely not in an objective way 
• Doesn’t talk about certain technologies like file indexing and voice recognition
• Methods that make a digital information professional like myself raise his eyebrows; there are certain points on which I absolutely disagree with the author; I will write an article about this soon

This article translated from the French by www.DeansResource.com

My rating : (if you are not an experienced digital user)

(if you are a seasoned expert with your own methods)

Add half a star if you have a Mac and another half star if you are anti-Microsoft.

Have you read the book? How do you rate it?

Note: There is a rating embedded within this post, please visit this post to rate it.

Read more reviews about Bit Literacy on Amazon.

PMBA Challenge:

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• Chapter 7: Managing Photos

Everyone who was born before 1990 will remember how we handled photos before digital photography: each step in the photo cycle was defined by a single thing – cost. Film was expensive to purchase, and even more expensive to develop. Errors were costly. Often, at the moment of the photo, everyone posed, and you counted to three before taking the photo hoping that everything would turn out all right. It was only in special circumstances, like a wedding, that you took more than one photo of something. Once the photos were developed you kept them forever, even not very good ones.

Polaroids allowed us to use instant photos at a higher cost,  and poorer quality, and it was impossible to make copies.

Digital photography has completely changed that by offering photos instantly, of higher quality, and at a lower cost. Currently, taking one or 10 photos of the same subject costs the same price – zero – at least as long as you don’t print them. But ironically, this new era brings with it a new problem, common to all other digital information; you must manage the abundance of it. It’s not unusual for digital photo owners to have several thousand photos on their hard drive.

How do we recover from this? Information technology companies offer us tools that allow us to add notes to our photos  or to assign "tags" to them – descriptive keywords – so that we can find them easily. These tools are not complete, locking the user into a proprietary system and are not as efficient a real Bit Literacy method that can be applied to photos. Here is one, in three simple steps:

1 – Maximize the bits

The "film" for a digital camera is free, so make the most of it. Take several photos of the same subject, or at one, two or several second intervals. Try to vary the angles. Don’t hesitate to take one more photo "just in case."

2 – Filter

With several photos of the same subject you can separate the wheat from the chaff. Filtering means deleting all the photos that you don’t want to keep, including good photos that are almost the same as photos that you are going to keep. Certain users have difficulty doing that, especially when Aunt Marge smiles every time she looks at them on the computer screen. Try. It gets easier with practice. The "delete" button will become your best friend.

3 – Store in two levels 

Even photos that have been carefully filtered are of no use if users can’t find them. Without an appropriate storage method, they will fall into the same lack of order as the previous photos or get lost somewhere on the computer.

Here is a simple method for Bit Literacy:

Sort the photos in folders [year] -> [month-event]

That way sorting begins with the year. For example, if you started taking digital photos in 2004, then you will have folders named 2004, 2005, 2006, etc. up to the present year.

Within these folders you would create 12 sub-folders named for the months – using either numbers or letters.  To find things more easily, you could also add a short description to the folder if you had done something special at that time, for example [2006] -> 12-Trip to Sweden].

This system has several advantages; it’s simple, easy to maintain, and allows you to file all your photos year by year, once and for all, and find the photos you are looking for in no time – and all without using a single software application.

Note: I have been using a similar system for years – without describing events – to manage my more than 5,000 digital photos and I completely agree with the author on this point; there is no simpler or more efficient system.

Additionally, you can use a photo management software application which supports two level storage, like Google Picasa, but don’t get dependent on it. 

Important note: Backup your photos regularly using an external device such as a hard disk or a thumb drive. And backing up means that your data should be stored on at least two different devices – the internal hard drive on your computer and a thumb drive, for example .

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• Chapter 8 : Creating Bits

If you have something to say, do it in a concise manner. Every time you send an email, take a photo or create a web page, you are adding a droplet to an ocean that is already deep.

Digital information today is powerful and in abundance. The resource that is scarce is the time available to people receiving your messages. Becoming Bit Literate implies that you respect this scarce resource.

That means:

• When you write an email, be concise and to the point.
• When you show photos, only show the best ones, never show copies of similar photos or bad photos.
• When you create a web site, ensure that the goal for your site is clear on your home page at first glance.

No matter what, the second question to ask yourself is "Is it really necessary?" Apply Occam’s Rule to everything you create.

Two ideas are useful for this: important things first, and structure.

- Important Things First 

Always communicate the objective of the message as quickly as possible. When an email arrives in your inbox, the first thing that the user sees is the header (the subject line or the purpose of the email). Write relevant and concise titles if you want your correspondents to read them.

The most important idea or the purpose of the message is called the hook. So applying this method requires talking about the hook as quickly as possible, then end the message as quickly as you can afterwards. But what is between the hook and the end of the message? The support, which includes any necessary information to explain or support the hook.

- Structure

Therefore a Bit Literacy compatible email should use the following structure:

1. Subject, which includes the hook
2. Greetings
3. Hook (repeated)
4. Support
5. End

Of course, some emails don’t need greetings or support, but this general structure can be applied to most emails.

But emails are not enough, all digital messages, whatever they are – web sites, Powerpoint presentations, Word documents – should adopt a Bit Literacy compatible structure by following these steps:

1. Context: document title, author’s name, date, introduction (optional)
2. Hook
3. Support
4. Appendix (optional): a collection of resources for those who wish to go further

Some additional advice:

- State the obvious. Avoid ambiguities; the reader should be able to understand the message without asking for clarification.

- Avoid relative dates. Tomorrow or today loose all meaning really quickly.

- Remember that bits are everywhere and forever. Never write an email that you wouldn’t want to send to the whole planet.

- Never send emails while you are mad. Rather than write an email while you are feeling angry, let it wait for at least a day before clicking irrevocably on the Send button.

- Emails are a poor mechanism for conveying emotions and subtle signals. That’s why we invented and . Avoid using this means for sending this type of message and use the phone instead, or even better, do it in person.

• Chapter 9: File Format

It’s very easy to forget how important file format is, and truthfully, it’s not necessary to be an expert in the field, but Bit Literacy practitioners should understand the basics.

Every Windows file uses 3 letters after its name to indicate its file format (but it is hidden by default in Windows). Thus a Word document has the suffix .doc (or .docx for the latest 2007 version), a picture can have different suffixes like .jpg, .bmp, .png, etc., PDF files have the suffix .pdf. In general, most applications have their own file format and can also work with other formats whether they are universal, like JPG and XML or proprietary like .doc.

The extension tells Windows which program to use to open the file. So if you rename your file rapport.doc to rapport.pdf, then Acrobat Reader will try to open a Word file, and obviously…

Extensions are meaningless on Macs unless they are networked with PCs. 

Note: I won’t expand on this subject, others have talked about it sufficiently well on the web, for example, see this excellent Wikipedia article.

To be continued…

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Summary and Book Report, Part 2 :

Part II : The Method

• Chapter 4: Managing Incoming E-mail

There is a solution for coping with the email avalanche: don’t bury yourself in it.

Actually, the email avalanche makes users less productive in many different ways:

• It takes more time for an overloaded user to reply to an incoming email because every new email is in competition with all the others to attract the user’s attention.
• Setting priorities is more difficult.
• It takes time to find messages in a full inbox.
• It’s hard to remember which email says what.
• An overloaded user reduces everyone’s productivity because others must send new emails to remind him to deal with what he hasn’t done.
• In some software, like Microsoft Outlook, very large inboxes can make the program crash.

What’s more, this loss of productivity, and a full inbox, also have psychological costs:

• Overloaded users are never sure if they have forgotten something and live in fear of being “discovered” or punished for what they have forgotten.
• A full inbox which contains weeks and months of old work constantly reminds the user how far they are from being “finished.”

An email workload is measured by the number of emails that are in the inbox. Inboxes with one or two thousand messages are common in the professional world (Note: My professional inbox right now contains 5,183 emails, but I work in a different way from Mark Hurst, as I will explain later.)

The most common reason for overloaded inboxes is because users use them for things that email wasn’t designed for:

• To-do lists
• Filing systems
• A calendar
• A list of book marks
• An address book

It’s a mistake to rely on your inbox for getting things done. The inbox is only meant to be used as a temporary holding place for receiving emails, briefly, before they are deleted or moved elsewhere.

The Solution

Empty your inbox at least once a day.

And it’s not enough to leave it almost empty. Emptying it means the count goes down to zero – exactly zero – at least once a day.

For that all you have to do is follow the three steps in this method:

1. Read all your personal emails, then delete them.
2. Delete all spam messages.
3. Take care of all the emails that are for your information and all those that need action, then delete them. In particular:
   • Delete or file all emails that are for your information, after first reading them.
   • Finish all the little to-do items that take less than two minutes.
   • Move all the big to-do items onto an efficient to-do list, then delete them.

By using this method, you will eventually have an empty list every day which will give you a deep feeling of satisfaction and the sense of having “finished.”

Be careful, sometimes you must manage the problem upstream. Don’t hesitate to educate your coworkers, employees and partners by asking them to reduce emails as much as possible and only to send them to people who really need to be involved. At the same time, drastically reduce or stop using instant messaging applications, which truly kill productivity.

• Chapter 5: Managing Todos

Users with empty inboxes must know what to do next, and that means managing your to-do lists properly. Bit Literacy is essential because it allows you to spend less time organizing to-do lists and more time doing them.

Once again, the problem is overload. Every day can bring a new volley of things to do, that accumulate rapidly if you don’t accomplish them quickly enough. Because to-do lists are different from emails in one way: you must do them. To-do lists are work in themselves.

Users need to use a robust tool, that is not part of the email manager, and that assigns priorities to to-do items in a way that is compatible with Bit Literacy. And it should be a single tool so that all users can find their to-do lists in a single place.

What tool should users choose? Again, many people use paper to manage their to-dos. Often a depressingly large number. Little square sticky notes stuck all around your monitor, notes scattered around the desk, messing up your work space, scribbles on the back of cash receipts or paper napkins, stuffed into your pocket or stuck on the refrigerator door. Paper. Piles, stacks, mountains of paper. Managing it all sometimes takes more time than the tasks themselves! In any amount, except very tiny amounts, paper is a curse on productivity. 

The information overload of our era is caused by bits, and therefore the tool we use to manage this overload should know how to work with bits.

To find out what tool we need, we must understand the life-cycle of the to-do list item:

1. Creation. The user must create his to-do immediately, as soon as he understands that he needs to do it.
2. Inactivity is the period of hibernation between the creation and the activation of the task.
3. Activation is the moment when the to-do item is ready to be done, and when it reminds the user that is it time to get to work.
4. Achievement is when the to-do item is finished and scratched off the list.

A good management tool for to-do lists must therefore offer the following functionality:

1. Every to-do item should be tied to a particular day.
2. Users can create new to-do items by email, whether it is for today or a day in the future.
3. Every to-do item has a priority on a given day.
4. Every to-do item must contain a “details” field so you can summarize it, just like an email has a body of text and a header.

You must be careful not to choose a tool that is too simple (that offers only one header, for example) or too complicated (the author mentions Microsoft Outlook, but once again I don’t agree with him).

You therefore need a tool that is tailored for the task. Choose wisely. But the truth is that many users simply don’t want to do their work. If they have the choice between finishing the task or spending a few minutes deciding what color it should be, most people, engineers in particular, who love to play with software, would choose the latter. Colors are fun, pretty, and don’t require too much thought. Doing the real work requires time and energy, the chance of failure and is, perhaps, no fun at all.

Note: I skipped most of the chapter where the author explains in detail how Gootodo works – a program – not free – which he developed. It is, according to him, the quintessential program for effectively managing to-do lists. You can form your own opinion by subscribing to a free 30-day trial. 

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• Chapter 6: The Media Diet

At Mark Hurst’s university they often say that having an MIT education is like drinking from a fire hose. You can say the same thing today about the fact of wanting to stay informed in an environment saturated with information.

There is a similar situation with offline information sources (magazines, journals, TV broadcasts, radio broadcasts, etc) and online (newsletters, mailing lists and forums, web sites – including blogs, new types of content such as podcasts, Youtube, etc.) that it could lead to stress and anxiety, as with the email avalanche and the to-do lists.

There are three ways of managing the mass of media, as well as the mass of bits:

• Live in reaction and feel more and more stressed and confused while still more information appears and demands our attention.
• Disengage: avoid the problem entirely by avoiding reading or watching whatever it is.
• Practice Bit Literacy: accept a little information – the good information – and don’t try to have it all.

This last point involves practicing a media diet – this is a subversive practice because it allows us to live independently from how the advertisers want us to – and it is not very different from a food diet. An effective media diet:

• is based on what is important to you, not on what is important to other people, companies or advertisers;
• uses a small minority of resources that are useful to you for reaching your goals;
• ignores the vast ocean of redundant and irrelevant sources;
• is an active portfolio that you can change any time in order to keep it as long as possible, and
• is as small as possible.

Your media diet must therefore allow you to stay completely informed with the minimum of possible source and the least amount of time necessary. For this you will need to build a portfolio of difference sources in two categories:

- The lineup 

These are the most important sources, the ones that give you the most relevant information with respect to the time spent, and you should know exactly why you read them. They are divided into three sub-categories:

• Stars. Valuable sources that constantly provide you with useful and relevant information. They require a little time because you consult them the most often, so only choose a few.
• Scans. Most of the sources in your lineup that regularly give you some amount of useful information. Quickly look them over and find information that interests you.
• Targets. Good sources for targeted use. For example, you can subscribe to a competitor’s newsletter so you can know for sure what he is saying.

- Tryouts

These are sources that are not in the lineup, but are kept where you can easily find them. They should, however, go through a trial period, and since a media diet must be as small as possible, it is likely that the majority of these sources will not pass the trial. You can try new publications, new sites, that are not your usual ones, that you would not have thought of consulting, etc.

In addition to these two categories, there is an additional dimension to keep in mind, especially for online resource: credibility.

How many emails do you see going from inbox to inbox forever, wasting millions of people’s time, telling you that “false real” stories ? You have probably sent some yourself, in good faith.

Just because something is in writing doesn’t make it true. This is especially true for online material. Next time you receive an email of this type, take a tour of Snopes et paste the message in the “Search” box on the top right.

To be continued…

Translated by www.DeansResource.com

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One Sentence Summary : Many people are as unprepared for the onslaught of information in this new era as illiterates would be in a library, even the younger generation, as familiar as they are with computers, are not so with the massive amounts of information that come their way; this book teaches us to manage it via various diverse methods, tools, tips and software.

By Mark Hurst, 180 pages, 2007.

Note : This week I am testing a new way of publishing: I will post this article in 4 sections, published throughout the week. What do you think? Do you like this better or would you prefer a complete report every time? Let me know through your comments .

Summary and Book Report :

Mark Hurst begins by telling us that bits (basic unit of every data file) do not have physical weight – you can fit a 25-volume encyclopedia on a single DVD – but the information that it conveys has weight: the amount of information in a 25-volume encyclopedia is the same whether it is on DVD or on paper. Bits weight down the people who receive them, mentally and emotionally, by calling repeatedly on their attention and occupying them.

Bits appear everywhere today, traveling at the speed of light from one end of the planet to the other, and carrying vast amounts of information that is more and more important, more and more diverse, and on a significantly increasing number of peripherals – computers, phones, PDAs, MP3 players, cars and even refrigerators. The number of emails is exploding, new acronyms and new technologies appear every day and millions of people, from students to doctors, from teachers to CEOs, from graphic artists to computer experts, are stunned by the amount of information that they receive every day and which they must deal with.

There is a solution to this worldwide problem: learn to manage this massive amount of information with good methods and tools, using a process similar to how literacy allows us to understand the symbols that form written language. This skill is so important in our computer age where information and communication are pushed at us that those who possess it can overcome the problem of overload, climb to the top of their profession and enjoy a life with less stress, better health, and more time for family and friends,

Knowing how to manage the amount of bit information should not be confused with knowing how to use a computer – clicking on mouse buttons, selecting from menus, opening and closing files: this 80s skill is not enough in the information age.

The world has changed a lot, very quickly, but many people haven’t realized it yet. However, even people whose jobs are far removed from technology generally can barely escape the avalanche of information that threatens to engulf them at every moment.

Most people manage this overload in two ways:

• By trying to manage all the bits at the same time, with a lifestyle in which they are "always connected." The archetype is the busy business man who you see moving around quickly at airports, with the latest gadget in his hand, in the middle of checking his messages or barking into his cell phone without any consideration for the outside world – the living image of stress and anxiety. The more the Busy Man manages his bits, the more important he feels.
• By reacting passively to the influx of bits in their life, perhaps even unconsciously, until they have to solve a problem. But passivity is not the answer. As long as the bits are building up, the user feels the situation slowly slipping away, to the point of no return.

Bits are heavy, you either absorb them or ignore them. Their predominance today is due to their unique properties that make them so desirable, they are so little, so fast, easily acquired and created and copied and shared in an almost infinite quantity, protected by the ravages of time, and free from limitations of distance and space. Bits are, however, paradoxical: they don’t weigh anything, but they always seem to weigh us down, they don’t take up any room, but they seem to accumulate all the time, they are created in an instant, but they stay around forever, they move at the speed of light, but they take up all our time.

Avoiding or ignoring these paradoxes will only lead to being buried in the avalanche, fortunately Bit Literacy can teach us how to avoid that. Let’s learn how.

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Part 1 : The Context

• Chapter 2: Users 

The Busy Man and the passive user have something in common: they live in reaction, and don’t take an active role in managing the bits.

Information Technology companies, aware of the problem, promise the earth with hardware and software that will "increase productivity," but people’s long term interests are rarely compatible with the short term interests of companies.

To manage information efficiently, you must adopt a proactive attitude and decide to take it in hand, by choosing to control these bits rather than giving responsibility for them over to these tools. The only ones who will not find this applicable are those who love technology for its own sake – the Busy Man whose gadgets are the outward sign of his success, for example.

• Chapter 3: The Solution

The solution must come out of these two strategies, and work on any scale. It’s simple:

You must let the bits go.

That doesn’t mean that you must get rid of all of them, or not use bits at all – in our world, anyone who does that, who needs to work with digital technology, is condemned to being ostracized and unproductive – or even to manage fewer bits. That means that you must learn to manage bits in the appropriate manner – by doing the right thing at the right time.

Today it is becoming harder and harder to finish things. We have barely replied to an email when another one arrives, hardly finished a project when we remember that there is another one. We partially listen to music or watch videos that we have just downloaded, because we are too busy downloading more to put in our queue. Bit Literacy gives us the possibility of finishing – not occasionally but regularly – so that we can be more productive and enjoy a full life outside of work.

To be continued…

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And 99 Other Rules to Liberate Yourself and Gain Back the Gift of Time

One Sentence Summary: Our time is the most precious thing we have; to look after it, it is important to know how to get straight to the point by understanding a number of rules; this book presents 100 of them.

By Stuart R. Levine, 206 pages, 2006.

Summary and Book Report:

Much like  The unwritten laws of Business, this book is a small collection of 100 concise rules, the goal of which is to make gains in efficiency by saving our time and the time of others. Here they are without further introduction; I have summarized them, providing more detail for those which seemed the most relevant to me:

Part 1 : Start Now !

1. Cut to the Chase 

We let time slip through our fingers every day due to emotions that don’t benefit us in any way, people who don’t value our time, and inefficient habits. We can fix that by concentrating on 3 principles, which are the foundations of this rule as well as the other 99:

1. Define your goal. A well-defined goal is the compass you navigate by through changing conditions.
2. Understand your environment. Continue to learn and understand the world around you. And yourself.
3. Concentrate. Put an end to distractions and focus.

 2. Just Start

Whatever you can do or dream that you can do, begin. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!

Goethe

3. Get in early and go home on time

Too many people arrive at work quarter of an hour late, thinking that they will make up for lost time later, then they go get a cup of coffee, discuss the latest news with their co-workers, surf a few web sites and, if they are lucky, get about one hour of “real work” done before lunch.

Don’t be like them and don’t confuse time spent at the office with time spent being productive.

 4. I got it

As soon as you understand exactly what someone is in the middle of explaining to you, tell him simply one way or another “I understand.” This invites him to move on to something else. This simple phrase can save you precious time.

5. The first twenty minutes

As soon as you get to work, before checking your emails or your phone messages, take 20 minutes to plan your day: determine your most important priorities for the day, update your list of things to do, review your calendar, etc. Good preparation makes all the difference.

 6. You’re killing me

What if you say “I understand” to someone and they continue to go on in more detail, and everyone is starting to get frustrated and impatient? Instead of getting mad or walking off, look at the person, laugh and say “You’re killing me. I understand completely. Let’s move on to the next point.” By being funny and direct, you break the tension that is building and allow the conversation to progress without offending anyone.

 7. Get over it

When someone cuts us off while we are driving, we might feel mad, and that can quickly become road rage if we are not careful. When someone “cuts us off” at work, that can induce the same feelings. But staying mad costs us a lot of time, energy and concentration. Let it go.

8. It’s not always about you

It’s not necessarily about you when someone is impatient, annoyed or busy. Take a deep breath and step back.

 9. What’s keeping you up at night ?

This matter goes right to the heart of critical problems that affect your company or your life. Ask yourself the question. And keep a paper or pencil next to your bed: as soon as your thoughts start to torment you, write them down. Often, that will calm you and you will be able to sleep soundly.

 10. Don’t hide your passion

If you are enthusiastic and passionate about your work, show it, and do your part.

Part 2 : Think Clearly

11. Start with the end in mind 

Know what you want to achieve before you begin.

 12. Focus on one thing at a time

When you are constantly moving from task to task without finishing them, you are not being efficient because you always need a little time to “unadapt” from your old task and “adapt” to your new one.

 13. Organize yourself first

Efficiency begins with a work environment that is clear and orderly.

 14. Assumptions kill

Don’t assume that the people around you know what you want or how you spend your time. Communicate and dissipate any misunderstandings that might arise.

 15. Think in bullets

We like bullets.

• They give punch to a presentation
• They are easy to read
• They get right to the point

Do the same thing when you think and when you speak.

16. Trust your gut

Sometimes, intuition is your best counselor. Listen to it.

 17. Predict how long things will take

You can’t control time, but you can control how you plan and budget time by predicting accurately how much time you will spend on something. When you review your weekly to-do list, make a note of how much time you think it should take to do things, taking interruptions into account.

 18. Tailor your message to your audience

Whether you are writing a report, a letter or a presentation, ask yourself:

1. Who is the audience?
2. What are they looking for?
3. What level of detail do they need?
4. How can the information I give them help them?
5. How much information regarding context do they need?
6. Is someone likely to take what I said the wrong way?
7. Are they familiar with the jargon I am using?
8. What kinds of examples and analogies will be most useful to them?

 19. What’s been going better lately – and why ?

In general, most people take time to analyze their mistakes. Do the same thing with your successes.

Part 3 : Speed Up

20. Explode out of the blocks 

A great start will help you gain momentum and set you on a winning path. Get up early and give yourself energy in the early morning before you get to work.

 21. Every second counts

In order to better appreciate how much the time allotted to you is precious and limited, carve out one hour next weekend and find a quiet corner where you can work without being interrupted. Write down this question: What is my goal for my life? Then write. The answer will come sooner or later, but don’t stop until you have several sentences describing the goal for your life.

 22. Know how things really get done

Don’t trust procedures and other reports to know what is going on in your area. Often, practice is different from theory. Go and see for yourself.

 23. Build momentum

Divide a project into mini-objectives that allow you to create momentum for you and your team while keeping your enthusiasm in tact by lining the path with regular victories.

 24. Make sure your handoffs are clean

In a relay race, if the baton is released at the moment that a runner passes his teammate, it is almost impossible to make up the lost time and the rest of the runners must fight hard to try and make up a few seconds. It’s the same thing in projects with multiple stakeholders. Check your relays.

25. Bag consensus

It is useless to try and please everybody when you have to make a decision. But ask others their opinion and tell them how and when you will make your decision. That way you don’t have to report your choice to them if they don’t reply in time.

 26. Break through silos

Stovepipe operations, where every important part of the company operates in an independent manner without worrying about others, or about the whole company – are an enormous waste of time and energy. Break out of them and open the lines of communications between people.

 27. Appeal to their enlightened self-interest

When you are trying to sell something – a product, a service, an idea, don’t talk only about that. Tell them how it will improve their life.

 28. Measure twice, cut once

That old carpenter’s adage is not only about cutting wood. Actually, quite the contrary to wood, it is impossible to make up lost time. Before getting started on a project or task, analyze the pros and cons, and decide if it is worth cutting the wood or not.

 29. Close the loop

Have you already done business with someone you tells you “Can we call you back if there are any problems?” Two weeks go by and still no call you and begin to wonder if everything is really going all right.

When people can’t close the loop, they leave others waiting, which is distracting and can subtlely change the relationship.

Don’t be like them. Keep others up to date.

 30. Call an audible 

Often in business, in order to stay ahead of the competition, it is important to anticipate changes before they arrive. Envision all the possibilities, then be on the lookout for signs signaling these possibilities – and act.

31. Beat change to the punch 

Anticipate changes and go along with them. Nothing can hurt you more than resisting inevitable change.

32. To speed up, slow down

Sometimes when you go too fast, you don’t do things well enough and that can cost time or money. Pay attention to everything that seems like a redundancy – often it is there to salvage a process that was quickly and badly done.

Part 4: Be Direct

33. Teach people how to use your time 

Tell your team exactly how you expect them to spend their time – and yours.

 34. Treat other’s time as you would your own

Think of this as the golden rule for getting straight to the point. Prepare every meeting with your co-workers as if you were having a meeting with your CEO. And if you have a meeting with the CEO, prepare it twice more

 35. Know what’s being asked of you

Before beginning a project, find out exactly who is attending. It’s an enormous waste of time to go forward without a clear sense of where you are going.

 36. If you want something, ask for it

Don’t beat around the bush, and don’t think that people will know what you want. Ask.

 37. Tell them if the baby is ugly

When someone asks your opinion, give it honestly. First state what you find positive about the idea before saying what you think won’t work about it, that allows people to be more open to your suggestions.

 38. Cut to the chase without drawing blood

If you steamroll past your coworkers you will alienate them. You might think you are getting straight to the point when you are simply cutting them out. Be careful.

39. Make sure everyone has the map

Every company should have a general plan laying out its primary objectives.

 40. Tell them what’s on the test

There are two types of teachers: those who tell their pupils what topics are on the exam, allowing them to concentrate on the important elements, and those who don’t tell them anything, so that they will review everything. In the world of business, the first way is definitely better: telling people how their performance will be evaluated allows them to focus on the most important things.

 41. Know your work style – and theirs

Ask yourself “How do I like to work?” Observe yourself. The next time that you are very productive, make a note of the circumstances. Then ask your coworkers or your employees the question.

 42. Clear the air

When you think a coworker is mad at you, set things straight. Even though it is tempting to avoid uncomfortable conversations, these situations never resolve themselves. Even if the relationship appears to be normal, the frustration caused by problems that are not laid out on the carpet will affect your work.

 43. Cut the bull

Too many conversations in the world of business don’t go anywhere because someone has offended someone else. But it’s no use beating around the bush. Stop the chit-chat.

 44. Create a “no loitering” zone

We all know people who prevent us from working by taking up our precious time with their chatter. To prevent it, make your work are a “no loitering zone” and start by putting up a poster.

 45. You can’t please everyone

When someone makes an unreasonable request, it is okay to tell them no. You can’t please everyone.

Part 5 : Meet Smarter 

46. People hate meetings for a reason

People don’t like to waste their time in useless discussions that are often the case in meetings. To make meetings productive work times you must 1) begin by announcing the subject and a specific time to end, 2) summarize the situation and 3) ask for ideas.

 47. Every conversation should have a purpose

Don’t let your time be eaten up by prolonged business meals or conversations that have no place there. Ask yourself 1) what you mean to accomplish; 2) what you need from this person; 3)what information do you want to share with this person and 4) what do you want to do to add value to this person?

 48. 120 seconds and out

A lot of people think that is it not very polite to just ask a quick question that is to the point and go off on long conversations out of courtesy. Ironically, the person before you expects you to get to the point quickly. Do so.

 49. Know when you’re not needed

Before participating in anything, ask yourself if it is really important for you to be involved.

 50. Master the ten-minutes meeting

Whenever possible, have 10 minute meetings. Prepare them.

 51. Count noses

When you are about to make a significant offer, understand the position of each person that has a voice in the matter and how many you can count on.

 52. Stay on course

Nothing is more frustrating than reaching the finish line of a project and discovering that at some point, you have turned left instead of turning right. To avoid this, make sure that everyone involved stays on the same page.

 53. Don’t grandstand

We know that everyone loves to hear themselves talk. Don’t be that way. It’s a waste of everyone’s time, including yours.

 54. Have a meeting before the meeting

In less than 10 or 15 minutes, have a pre-meeting before an important meeting, to be sure that your whole team is in synch and prepared.

 55. Debrief

After every significant presentation or meeting, hold a debrief with your team to discuss what happened. Ask yourself “Have we accomplished everything we set out to? Does everyone clearly understand what the next steps are?”

 56. Stay in touch

Whether you are a CEO or an assistant manager, if you don’t regularly talk with your customers, you are on the sidelines. Stay in touch with those on the playing field.

 57. Master the graceful exit

Avoid falling into the trap of meaningless discussions at the end of a meeting with a customer. Ask them if there anything else needed and, if not, summarize what you have talked about and tell them when they can expect to talk with you again.

 58. Recognize when it’s all been said

Part 6 : Move Forward

59. Look at the big picture

Before defining any important objectives, it helps to look at the big picture. Determine your Strengths, your Weaknesses, your Opportunites and your Threats with SWOT Analysis.

60. Know your weaknesses, but play to your strenghts

Concentrating on your weaknesses in order to try and improve them is a waste of time. Be aware of them, try to keep them to an acceptable minimum, and concentrate on your strengths. And know how to identify them: don’t think that because something is really easy for you that is has no value in other people’s eyes.

 61. Think three moves ahead

Plan for your successor. This lets you know whether you can quit or progress easily and to identify rising stars in your company and help them reach great heights.

 62. Know when your career is stuck

Pay attention to roles and positions that can burn up years of your career without helping you grow or advance.

 63. Make opportunity happen

A opportunity, seized wisely, can take you further in a few minutes than several months of planning and working. Line yourself up with opportunities. Stay close to people to whom good things happen. Learn from them. If you see a problem, be part of the solution.

 64. Delegate

Don’t be in a vicious circle where you don’t have time to hire new recruits or to train them or delegate tasks to them. If you see that you are in such a circle, break out of it. Look at repetitive tasks in particular than can give you a return on your investment in the long run if you take time to train someone how to do them.

65. Life is negociation

If you are breathing, you are negotiating. We negotiate all the time on an incredible number of things. Make every one of these negotiations easier by limiting your wishes to the two or three elements that count the most.

 66. Know when to wait

If the timing is not right, it doesn’t matter whether your ideas are clever or whether you present them well. Know how to identify a good — and a bad  — moment.

 67. Know when not to wait

Waiting for someone’s approval is unnecessary and a waste of everybody’s time. Be autonomous and let your team members be the same.

68. If you need a drummer, hire a drummer

If you try to build a music group and you have everyone, except the drummer, don’t hire a pianist who can play a little drums. If you need a marketing representative to boost sales, hire a real one, with experience and a track record, not a sociology student with brilliant ideas about everything.

69. Don’t be afraid to hire people you’re going to lose

Don’t hire someone mediocre just so you can keep them for the long term. Hire someone you are sure will leave some day or someone else because they are ambitious and talented. If you develop real synergy with them, they can do a lot more for you in the time they are there than decades of work from someone less talented.

Part 7 : Cut Back

70. Decide what not to do 

Don’t hesitate to scratch things off your list of things to do. For every task, ask yourself :

• Will this bring something of value to the organization?
• Is this directly connected to a strategic objective?
• Is this a critical thing that me or my team can work on efficiently?
• Does this directly affect my customers?
• Will this teach me something new and significant?

If the response to all these questions is no, then either eliminate it or delegate it.

71. Addition by subtraction

We all have people who take more than they give, whether they are a friend, a coworker or someone else. Avoid them as much as possible. Friends should enrich your life, not do the opposite.

72. Rip it in half

I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.

Truman Capote

Whatever the task, you are probably doing too much. Reduce it by cutting out all the unimportant parts.

73. The highlighter is mightier than the sword

Underline the important points in what you say, whether oral or written, so that you can get your message across better.

74. A picture is worth a thousand words

75. Tell a story

Numbers can help you build a house but stories convey the message in the house. Men are fond of stories, pictures and metaphors. Use them.

76. On it. Pending. Done.

Create shortcuts with your coworkers. For example, you can agree on the code “On it, Pending, Done.” When you ask them something, they can send you an email “On it,” to tell you that they are working on it. If they meet an obstacle and the task is going to take longer than expected, they can send you an email “Pending” to explain the problem succinctly and eventually ask your help. Once they have finished they can send you an email “Done.”

77. … To get to the other side

In school we learned the bad habit of providing the conclusion after a long argument. This wastes everyone’s time. Present your conclusion immediately and argue afterwards.

78. Weed out your reading pile

You can’t read everything, but you can stay up with what is going on in your area. Choose what you read carefully and don’t hesitate to eliminate unimportant items in your current pile.

79. TMI (Too Much information)

Sometimes you can drown in information that comes from all parts of the company and which are all considered important. For every report that you receive regularly, ask yourself 1) what is the purpose and whether the report is relevant with respect to that; 2) how much time does it take to write and be read; and 3) will you be able to reach your goal with less information and what sort of information is vital.

80. Good enough is good enough

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with wanting to do your best. But you should know when to stop so that you don’t get bogged down in sterile perfectionism. Know when to stop when you can be generally satisfied with the result.

Part 8 : Watch Out

81. Your time is your life

Value your time and don’t let it be eaten up with whatever comes along. Don’t refuse to help people but set standards from which you will not deviate. Favor people who want to learn, those who clearly want to advance and those who respect your time.

 82. Don’t let your Blackberry become a Crackberry

You would not give a hammer or a wrench the power to decide when it should be used. Don’t give that power to your telephone or your PDA. Set times and limits for their use.

83. Avoid toxic people

You find toxic people in every organization – those who have some need or other that distracts everyone around them. Avoid them. These are counter-productive traps.

84. Don’t let distractions derail you

Concentrate on what you have to do. Nothing is more damaging to productivity than all these distractions – often voluntary – that prevent you from concentrating on what you are doing.

85. Don’t hang in the door and chat

Be respectful of other people’s time. The next time you go to a coworker’s office, be aware that, if his hands are on his keyboard, or if he has a phone in his hand, or if he is in the middle of reading a document, you are interrupting him. If he did not specifically invite you, go away and come back later or send him an email.

86. Cut down on the fire drills

If everything is urgent, nothing is. Respect yourself and respect those around you by planning and eliminating all alarms or unnecessary fires.

87. Know when you’re stuck

When you are blocked, you are blocked. There is no point in spinning your wheels. Ask yourself: Do I have enough information? Can someone help me make progress more quickly? Do I have enough authority to move forward? Can I do it a different way? Am I simply afraid of making a decision?

88. When you hear something once, pay attention. When you hear something twice, act

We lose a lot of time by ignoring red flags and alerts because they make us uncomfortable. But if you receive the same complaint twice for the same thing, lend an ear and act. It is often a sign of a real problem that needs fixing.

 89. If you sense trouble, do something

Even the little misunderstandings can snowball and become conflicts. It’s up to you to decide if you leave a snowball to become an avalanche. At the very moment that you notice the confusion or a growing conflict, act to nip it in the bud.

90. Procrastination takes years off your life

In a recent televised intervention, doctors specializing in anti-aging, Michael Roizen and Mehmet Oz – co-authors of the best seller YOU: The Owner’s Manual, showed that certain kinds of stress were much more likely to cause premature ageing than others. Notably, the act of putting things off till tomorrow and leaving things unfinished, that is to say  procrastination.

91. Don’t confuse activity with accomplishment

If you and your team spend the day pushing the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower, hoping to move it, you will have been very busy but not very productive. Don’t confuse the two.

92. Don’t make the same mistake twice

If you make a lot of mistakes, learn from them. If you make the same mistake twice, you are wasting time.

93. Sweat the small stuff

When you get to the point, don’t forget the small details. When you ignore the “little things,” they have a have habit of becoming big problems.

Part 8 : Find Balance

94. Don’t let a difficult coworker dominate your life

Hell is other people

Jean-Paul Sartre

95. Manage your personal life as well as your personal life

What is the point in keeping a detailed account of your expenses at the office if you must go home just to look for your bank statement? Why bother to plan your meetings all week long if you forget to buy tickets to the theater where your daughters are playing on Saturday? Why work so hard during the week if you are ignoring everyone you are working for?

96. Renew yourself every day

A person must listen to a little music, read a little poetry, and look at a beautiful picture every day so that the daily necessities don’t obscure the sense of beauty that God has planted in the human soul.

Goethe

 97. Tacke back the weekend

Don’t take work home with you on Friday. Finish all the little things that are pending so that your mind is not cluttered with them and so that you can completely enjoy your weekend.

98. Turn the page

At the end of the day, take 5 or 10 minutes to tidy your office and put things in order for the next day, then leave your work behind you. Turn the page for the evening.

99. Know when to put the book down

When you are irritable, whether you are tired and can’t concentrate, or whether you get up in the middle of the night, take a step back. It is time to more than simply “turn the page” on a day’s work. Whether it is a long weekend or a real vacation, you need a break. Take one

100. A bottle of wine, a cut flower.

The intense discipline necessary to stay focused on your goals for your life and for your career result in more time for you, your family, and the things you appreciate. It’s the reward of getting to what’s important. Be aware of those moments. Cherish them. They invigorate you and help you maintain that intense discipline necessary to develop your career – and yourself.

Book Critique:

I will get straight to the point and tell you that this book is an excellent collection of rules, some of which seemed to me to be absolutely excellent and made me think. As with the  The Unwritten Laws of Business, I think however that many of them will be in one ear and out the other.

I am beginning to ask myself about the relevance of collections of rules. They are more than anything collections of short texts related to each other by a common theme, and this format often prevents books from really getting in depth on the subject. I think almost every day about the contents of The Path of Least Resistance , that book was so profound, but honestly, hardly at all about the The Unwritten Laws of Business since I read it. I think the best use that you can get from collections is to put them on your desk and read one rule a day, then try to apply it during that day. That way, we can begin to get a handle on the rules and tricks that are the most useful. These books are also relevant if we encounter a problem specifically dealt with by one of these rules – as long as you can remember it when the time comes.

The book itself is good. Full of pictures, humor, and even a little poetry. The author is clearly a football fan and uses sports for several of his images, which might put some readers off – and not others. The rules waver for the most part between good and excellent.

Strong Points:

• Short and concise
• Lots of excellent rules, most of them good 
• Lots of pictures, with a sense of humor and a penchant for poetry.

Weak Points:

• Does not deal with the subject in depth 
• Lots of sports imagery and notably football, which might put some readers off – or not

My rating:

Translated by www.DeansResource.com

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