Walnut Works

Grace Chen has recently published is a great summary of something I've certainly noticed: that the "Zoom Room" is so much more egalitarian! With everyone reduced to an equal sized box, often only visible in T-shirts, and you sitting in surroundings that you control, many of us are feeling a confidence to say the things we've always wanted to but have felt unable to. Or, to be heard saying the things we've been saying all along! https://qz.com/work/1852971/video-conferencing-is-a-secret-equalizer-for-women/ I think this is more than simply a male v female thing - in my experience, Alphas have tended to rule meetings, often through gravity of their physical presence. Without physicality, it's like that weight being lifted from other participants who now feel they can contribute equally. The main beneficiaries of this new "lightness" are people (admittedly often women) who are still fairly assertive and outgoing. They are experiencing a boon in getti...

You've got lots of your staff furloughed but you've kept working along. Soon, you'll bring your furloughed staff back, but they've been off work for weeks. What can you expect? Let's leave aside what the world of work will look like. Assume a mix of videoconferencing and in person working for the purposes of this disquisition. At the core, your short term mission as a manager/ director is to make all of your staff feel appreciated, either for what they have done in the crisis, or for the gap they left. How may your staff feel about being furloughed? Make no bones about it -- you have chosen to tell these people they are not useful or relevant. If your organization has had to close almost completely, the pill will be less bitter because there will be an obvious reason that there was no work to be done. However, if you have furloughed some people in your team, but not others (and not swapped them in), and broadly kept working, you may have some explaining to do...

How to figure out your ideal times? Productive and Focus times Think about when you feel "in the mood" to do something, when you want to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in? What is that activity?  Is it active (creating, playing) or passive (watching movies)? If you have such a sedentary lifestyle that you might say you never feel like doing anything, think about the moments you actually recognize that you should be doing something productive (even if you don't), or the moments when you decide to get up at all!   If you're a gamer, consider what type of games you decide to play when - active games or design games or puzzle games (and be aware of when you play games simply because you can't think of anything better to do - those are probably not your productive times).  That active decision is an active point! Think also about when you do the bigger jobs you don't want to do at all, such as taxes, or replacing the fence, or doing the dishes.  When do ...

So you're working from home all the time now.  No soul-sapping commutes, office air conditioning, or random birthday sugar-rushes. Have you noticed when you are better at getting things done?  When you're better at absorbing information and thinking critically?  Or when your mind is all over the place and you can just about manage to clear some emails? I have.  And now, without back-to-back conference calls, I can do what I feel like doing, when I feel like it! So: I've noticed I'm ready to settle in and produce a big piece of work in the morning.  But not first thing!  So first thing, I clear some emails, do some tick-list admin.   By 9 or 9:30, I'm ready to Do. And it doesn't matter when I get up, which explains now why getting up at 6 especially to do productive thought work always seemed so much harder than it should have!  I was really only ready to do little bitty things. By about 11:30/ noon, I've got the fidgets again, and ...