Is my work handed to me or do I pick it up?

I once saw a manager who recently lost their administrator to a company layoff go inside the person's abandoned cubicle and start picking up sticky notes that she had provided the admin with and then saying, 'i have no idea if any of this work got done'. In this situation, the manager was handing work to the admin; the admin was not empowered to collect or pick up their work.

Have you ever hand someone hand you something at an inopportune time? It can be awkward and annoying. When you travel to see family or friends and someone gives you an awkward gift or returns something they borrowed and says, 'it's time for me to give you back the weight bench and car stands I borrowed from you'. You think to yourself, I flew out here with carry on luggage - this is kind of annoying.

Whatever the different cases maybe, there is an element of efficiency and empowerment when you let people pick up their own work. Particularly if you're using a system or process that can establish some sort of ownership during the pick up process. If people are allowed to have two queues, you can learn a lot about the work load and the work day without bothering them. One queue being these are the items that I've 'picked up' and I'm working on them. The initial pile being these are items that are waiting for me to get to them. In either case, an element of aging can be leveraged in your working with any process or work flow that would allow for tracking of how old something might be.

When you have two queues, colleagues can jump in and help with items in the first queue that you haven't touched yet. If you don't have two queues, a well intentioned person trying to help could easily do more harm than good.

Going back to the empowerment or lack of empowerment of the different options. If I have to go to work everyday and know that I'll be working on whatever is handed to me that day, the uncertainty could be someone unsettling. Even at the most basic levels of work in any company if you can give someone a 24 window to execute their work with some independence to plan and prioritize I would suggest that the job satisfaction would go up significantly.

steve jobs - stanford commencement

http://www.43folders.com/2011/01/17/permission-to-be-awesome?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+43Folders+%2843+Folders%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

Put stars in their eyes...

I'm listening to Just Jack, Starz in Their Eyes song on the Overtunes album. The chorus line repeats, 'why would you want to go and put stars in their eyes?'...

As the father of 2 boys (soon to be 3), I take this question seriously. I want my boys to dream and reach... Dangers and risk is in everything. If you don't dream the risk and potential damage of doing nothing with your life is very real.

My mind jumps to Chris Farley (RIP) and his Saturday life skit as the motivational speaker. His anticlimatic speach when he tells kids that they're not going to amount to jack squat and they're going to end up smoking pot, living in a van down by the river.

Ohh... mmm... We miss you Chris!

Fixtures

Fixtures in manufacturing hold things in place to perform their intended purpose / functions.
Fixtures are a key element of the product or systems and while they don't get much credit directly, without them our systems and products would be more likely to fail.

Think about how you might create fixtures in your own life to help you perform to your intended functions and to do your best and be your best.

Not my words but I like them...

act until you acheive

Commit

“I believe life is constantly testing us for our level of commitment, and life's greatest rewards are reserved for those who demonstrate a never-ending commitment to act until they achieve. This level of resolve can move mountains, but it must be constant and consistent. As simplistic as this may sound, it is still the common denominator separating those who live their dreams from those who live in regret.”

Congruence

If you want a team to perform in the top percentile would you train and practice like the average team? No, I don't think so...

If you want to do the best, you need to give the best and strive in all aspects of your endeavor to be far from average. Average efforts should produce average results.

Congruence would dictate that someone who wanted to be the best would give their best.