Work as Binary

In the Navy we have become obsessed with numbers, metrics and the quantification/measurement of work. While not a fan of the this trend in general, I will concede that for examining huge amounts of data, or trends across an entire fleet, class or squadron, it can be useful.

We must watch out, however, that the trend does not trickle down too far. Where it may make sense for an Admiral to use metrics to make fleet-wide decisions, it has absolutely no place in the day-to-day management of personnel.

The simple reason for this is the fact that we tend to forget, work can not be measured on a scale. In fact, work is binary. A task has been completed or not. An engine which is 95% repaired won't run.

I hate to keep jumping back to the productivity philosophy of David Allen, but, he has a lot of great ideas. The applicable one in this case is that every job or project can be boiled down to a series of recognizable physical actions. Each of these actions is either complete or incomplete. Therefore, the project itself is only complete when each of the actions is complete. It's ones or zeros, nothing else.

The difficulty in applying this as a leader is that the onus for defining what makes the job complete rests with us. Only with a clearly defined end state can one determine if the work rates a one or a zero.

It is much easier as a manager to present a nebulous goal and cook up an arbitrary number on a scale attempting to define how well you think the subordinate has done.

I hear what you are thinking now. You shouldn't have to spell out every single step for each of the people who works for you. They should be able to figure out for themselves what needs to be done.

That is certainly true, but you must present them with an understandable “binary point” to determine where they are going with their efforts. You must declare what the 'one' looks like and let them know that everything else is a 'zero'.

Only when they see that clear line in the sand will your people be able to produce the results you want. But you are the only one who can show them.
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The Guru, David Allen, Shows Us His Office

Does your home office resemble David's? Lets hear in the comments.
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Guest Post: Getting the Inbox to Zero

by LT Jeff Ferguson

So the other day I noticed that the Swoter had posted a call to delete all our pending email and send flowers to our closest associates with our regrets. That started me thinking. My problem isn't that my email accounts are overwhelming, but my inbox definitely is.

What do I mean? Well David Allen of Getting Things Done fame says that your inbox is made up of as many collection devices as you need, but no more than are absolutely necessary. So let me count mine. I have my email at work. That's one. Then there's my email at home which consists of three different accounts. I have my little notebook for work (or wheelbook for you nautical types), and of course a notebook for civilian life. If I wanted to I could probably keep just a single notebook, but I really like keeping a separate one at work that I can leave AT WORK.

Then there's the physical inbox at home for letters, bills. Now, I'm a dinosaur, and I still get bills by snail mail. Plus those boxes are filled with old keys, ticket stubs and the rest of my life's detritus. I have to keep a physical inbox at work as well for things like logs to be reviewed, award inputs to mark up, etcetera, and it's in about the same shape.


My point is that when I add all of that up I have a HUGE amount of stuff that's been collecting and is threatening to take over my space. Now to be honest, most of this is my fault. I'm not quite so diligent at processing all of my crud as I should be. That said, I still need to get out from under before I can count on any system keeping up with the influx of new items. So Here's what I came up with:

1. I'm definitely implementing the Swoter's Easy Zero (SEZ) solution for my personal email accounts. The business accounts have to be processed, but anything older than two weeks is gonna' get rapidly archived. I figure anyone worried about a reply has probably pinged me again since then.

2. The SEZ solution works for those two notebooks that I carry. Those notebooks are full of telephone numbers, to-do's, addresses, stock numbers, the name of that great beer I had at the bar, you name it. Like I mentioned, I keep one for work and one for everywhere that's not work. I went back through those notebooks, and I had no idea what most of those notes referred to. So I'm going to transpose a few of the notes that I took recently into a new notebooks, and the old ones and all that old stuff is going in the bin. I'm almost certain that I wasn't really going to do anything with the older stuff as much as I'd like to tell myself different.

3. OK, now for the hard stuff. Is there a SEZ solution for snail mail? You bet! Now, given that I still get some of my bills by pony express I can't just move the mess from my desk into the rubbish bin as much as I'd like to. I mean that most of its just junk mail, but if it makes it into our space it has to be processed or it builds into a mountain like the one I'm facing, and creates that "I've got to get organized" stress. So, keeping a wary eye out for that renegade water bill, I'm making a blitz through my piles of mail to get rid of as much as I can as fast as I can.

Trash it all! That's my motto. What I can't toss, I'll process tomorrow.

So I won't quite get my inbox to zero today. I'll get there. Even if I have to delete your email, 'cause Swoter SEZ I can.
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When Yer Right, Yer Right.

My first product review ever was for Jott.com. It didn't rate too well in my estimation. Now it seems that they have dropped all their free services and only offer pay services. Pay for internet services??? What a joke. Jott.com has fallen totally out of favor.

Type rest of the post here
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Tip of the Week: Easy Inbox Zero

I have made at least a couple mentions of the concept from David Allen, Merlin Mann and others, Inbox Zero.

If you are anything like I was though, your inbox is so full now, with an unorganized mix of unread mails, taskers and reference material, it is impossible to imagine it empty.

The solution may be easier than you thought. Declare today to be Zero Day. Erase everything from your inbox and then empty the trash to avoid the temptation to sift through it later looking for this or that.

Next, send out an apologetic email to all the folks in your contacts, explaining that their mail, tasker, etc. had been erased (it's up to you if you want to explain further as to why they were erased) and could they please send another copy.

Now you are starting with clean slate and can deal with the items as the come in anew rather than sorting through the overwhelming pile you had.

The added benefit of this method is that many of taskers will never be sent back to you as the originator often did not have an effective method for tracking what he or she sent out. Read more!

Five Rules of Delegation

In our profession (as well as any other executive or management position) the only means is survival is delegation. Even on a DIVO level it would be impossible to handle all the assigned tasks yourself. Of course, it is touted as the the most important solution for management woes from everyone from Stephen Covey to Timothy Ferris.

What does it take to be an effective delegator? The.SWO.ter has boiled down successful delegation into five easy to follow (okay, maybe not so easy, for you overbearing 'A' types out there) and vital rules of being a damn good delegator.

1. TRUST – this is the most important of all. Subordinates can sense when you honestly trust them to get the task done. You must put your faith in them. Fully. Or don't hand them the task. No trial periods; no working under supervision. Use some Jedi mind tricks and convince yourself that your instincts in delegating this particular task to this particular person are correct. Your confidence will inspire their confidence, or vice versa.

2. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT – Evaluate the final product, or in longer projects evaluate progress at pre-determined milestones. The person doing the work should also be tasked with recommending a list of these evaluation milestones to provide him or her with a sense of ownership of the total project. Don't ask about progress everyday. Don't stop by unannounced to see how things are going. In other words, don't be a nag.

3. BE FLEXIBLE – When you delegate a task, be aware that there will be some variance in the final product from what you imagined. Ask yourself; does this output accomplish the goal of the assignment? If so, move on, even if there are details which you would have preferred to see done a little differently. Don't ever, ever ask for work to be modified for nitpicky items such as changing the font or slide color. All you do is demonstrate that a) you pay more attention to valueless minutia than the big picture and b) you have psychological issues.

4. BE AVAILABLE TO SUPPORT – Just because it would be counterproductive to meddle in an ongoing delegated task doesn't mean that the person to whom you assigned the task won't need your help. Make it clear from the beginning that they can approach you with problems. But be sure to let them initiate the request for support. You don't want to go offering support all the time and violate rule number two. Also remember that support equals support and not completing parts of the task for them.

5. REWARD FAILURE – What, you scream? You heard me correctly, even failure, if it is the result of an honest mistake should be rewarded. If the person to whom you assigned the task put in his or her best effort and still came up short, they should be commended for those efforts. Let them know there is still work to be done, but give them an early day off, with the knowledge that you will be getting together the next day to discuss where there efforts fell short so that they can make the appropriate corrections.


Do you have any other ideas for great delegation? Leave them in the comments.
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Workplace Anxiety

The New York Times ran an article yesterday discussing the impact of fear, specifically the fear of losing one's job in uncertain economic times. (Fear Factor in the Workplace)

Various experts weighed in on how the anxiety prevalent in today's workplace is stifling productivity, risk-taking and creativity.

Myra White, a clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, interviewed for the article, made the following assessment:

“Anxiety affects people’s memories and ability to concentrate. They forget names of people or forget what they need to do. They often don’t process information well, and have trouble understanding and following instructions. No matter how carefully you explain what you want them to do, they can’t seem to get it right. It is easy for bosses to mistake the lapses for signs of incompetence or a lack of motivation rather than as the byproduct of high anxiety levels.”

While most of us in the Navy do not live with the day to day fear of being laid off for economic reasons, we do live in a culture that is steeped in anxiety. Hyper-competitiveness, impossible to meet deadlines (often artificially designated) and a “Zero Tolerance for Error” mindset lead to the same psychological fallout as the angst faced in the corporate workforce during the recession.

And it is pervasive. The majority of my bosses were openly fearful of repercussions from up the chain of command, seriously impacting their ability to be creative, effective leaders. Likewise, the JO conventional wisdom that one does not leave the ship before the XO, even if it means hanging around playing Xbox in their staterooms for a couple hours, is certainly not adding to the productivity of the wardroom.

Even the move to rank all Ensigns and JG's as Promotable to remove the competitiveness from period where the Officer should be concentrating on qualifications is seen as an open joke. No one works under the illusion that their DIVO fitreps are not being scrutinized for how they compared to their peers.

This atmosphere ends up reducing productivity severely. As Dr. White puts it, “Anxiety can also elicit strong emotional reactions....(People) engage in endless checking behavior — like checking several times to make sure they turned off a piece of equipment or proofreading a report over and over to confirm they have completed it correctly. This behavior increases the time it takes to do something. What took 10 minutes becomes 20 minutes.”

But all experts agree that certain amount of stress is good for productivity. So how can we fine tune that balance so that we are getting better, more creative work done?

In my opinion, we must continue to work with high standards and reasonable, well thought-out and well-planned deadlines and clearly defined goals that have been created well in advance.

But be flexible. Have tolerance for situations where the goals either cannot be met, or cannot be satisfied to the degree that was originally planned. Be open to having your subordinates tell you “No” once in a while. Perhaps most important of all, protect your Officers and Sailors from those above you who are still trapped in an atmosphere of fear and want to transmit it downstream.

Let's hear your ideas in the comments!
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The Swoter Goes Hi-tech

In my effort to stay on the bleeding edge of productivity technology, I have now started using a program (Blogwriter Lite) which allows me to update the website from my iPhone. No longer will I have lengthy meetings and other work related items keep me from productive blogging. Now I can sit in the back of the room, nodding my head, quietly tapping out articles on my new tool. It is possibly the closest I will ever come to multitasking. Read more!

GTD Guru David Allen presents his ideas at the Googleplex.



What did you think of David's GTD seminar? Leave a comment.
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Tip of the Week: Backup Your Data!

The crash and burn of moderately popular blogging site Journalspace.com reminds us once again that regular, thorough backups of your data is the only way to stave off disaster.

Journalspace had been in business for five years and because they never made offsite backups (instead relying solely on a type of physical redundancy (RAID) system) lost all of their customers' data last week. The owners then threw in the towel and closed shop, leaving their bloggers scratching their heads.

For your home computer, you are foolish if you do not have automated backup software running. They are plentiful and cheap (if not free;) just Google "backup software" for your platform.

At work, the inability to install extra software, and the current ban on USB sticks in NIPR computers makes it more challenging.

If you are not interesting in relying fully on the Navy's IT solutions to ensure your data is safe, you are going to have do it yourself.

A simple method, for UNCLASS items, is to save your important data to a single folder, and once a week make a .zip file of the folder. The .zip file can then be emailed to your off-ship email account. Gmail, for example allows attachments of up to 20MB and unlimited storage space.
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Navy Tests Work from Home Program

This is some of the best, most forward thinking news I have seen in a while....

From Navy Personnel Command Public Affairs

MILLINGTON, Tenn. (NNS) -- The Navy announced the Virtual Command Pilot Program, allowing a select group of officers to work from home, even if their new assignment would normally require a permanent change of station.

"This program will allow officers to fill career-enhancing billets without necessarily having to transfer to do so," said Capt. James Oakes, in the office of the chief of naval personnel (CNP) where the jobs will be located. "The pilot offers the opportunity to reduce permanent change-of-station costs for the Navy while providing stability for Navy families. It's a win, win."

The test program will initially be open to eight officer billets. The officers selected for these billets should be self-starters, capable of working independently and maintaining open lines of communication with their supervisors via phone and e-mail. They must be able to travel periodically to their parent commands.

The parent command furnishes the Navy Marine Corps Intranet seat to include: laptop, docking station, monitor, keyboard and mouse and government cell phone for the officer's daily work. The command closest to where the officer is geographically assigned will assist with administrative requirements like fitness reports, physical readiness tests and physical health assessments.

"My geographic command is Navy Recruiting District (NRD) Pittsburgh. That is what my BAH is based on, but my duty station is Washington D.C.-based. It saves the Navy a lot of money, and I'm not a geographic bachelor," said Oakes, "If you call my Washington D.C. office number, it rings on my government cell phone here in Pittsburgh."

In announcing the virtual command pilot, Vice Adm. Mark Ferguson, the chief of naval personnel, said the pilot will test whether physical assignment away from the parent command is feasible.

"It offers individuals the opportunity to work in high-impact positions while maintaining geo-stability to support personal and family needs," said Ferguson.

The initial eight billets, all within OPNAV N1, are:
* Deputy, Manpower Requirement Branch
* Center for Career Development Assistant Liaison Officer
* Navy Personnel Command Planner/Strategic Roadmaps – Production Management Detachment
* N131 Head Professional Development
* Staff Ops and Plans
* IRR Force Management Head Planner
* ADP Program/IT/Web Products Support
* Director AED/AMD Career Management

Only officers eligible for shore duty as part of their normal sea/shore rotation may apply. Interested officers must request a chain of command recommendation be sent to their detailers via an e-mail nomination by either their commanding officer or executive officer. The nominating e-mail should state that the officer is a volunteer and provide justification on why the officer is suitable for this pilot.

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