Staying Productive When Not Much Is Happening at Work

May 28, 2019

Staying Productive When Not Much Is Happening at Work

It’s hard to stay productive when work is slow. If deadlines aren’t looming, it doesn’t take much to drift away from your to-do list and start reading the internet. There are a few ways you can keep getting things done. One is to turn a boring day into a series of mini sprints. Write down the three tasks you definitely want to get done today, and plan how much time you need for each. For example, by 11 AM you’ll finish writing that memo, by 12 you’ll file the expense report, and by 2 you’ll send next week’s meeting agenda to your boss. Slow days are also great times to catch up with colleagues. Schedule lunch with someone you haven’t talked to for a while, or get coffee with a coworker you want to know better. Another option is to use the time for professional development: Update your résumé and LinkedIn page, take an online class, or attend a conference. And don’t forget that taking a vacation is really good for you — maybe now’s the time.

Adapted from “What to Do When Work Is Slow,” by Elizabeth Grace Saunders

3 Things to Do Before Running a Business Experiment

Business Strategy 
3 Things to Do Before Running a Business Experiment

Experiments are a great way to test your assumptions and make smart decisions, whether you’re launching a product or optimizing a marketing campaign. But without a thoughtful plan of execution, you may not learn anything truly useful. 

Before you invest in an experiment, make sure you have three basic ingredients. 

First, be able to collect the data you need - to answer the experiment’s underlying question. 
For example, if you can’t measure attribution from a digital ad to a sale, you can’t run an experiment to figure out which ads are effective.

 Second, involve a statistical expert who has both the knowledge to design the experiment and the communication skills to explain the results to stakeholders. 
Leaders need to understand your findings before they can act on them. 

Third, do a test run of the experiment in a low-stakes environment. 
If your goal is to send an email survey to customers, send it to a large group of colleagues first. This will ensure that the experiment is set up correctly and that you’re gathering the data you need.
Courtesy : Harvard Business Review 

May 22, 2019

Give Employees Flexible Options for Flexible Work

Flexibility at work means different things to different people. One person might need to leave early to pick up their kids, while someone else may want to work remotely on Fridays. That’s why managers looking to create a flexible work culture should avoid a one-size-fits-all approach; dictating exactly how these policies may be used can make them less effective. Talk with your team about your expectations, so there are no surprises later on. 

For example, if you set a policy that employees may arrive late or leave early when they need to, do you want them to give you advance notice? Get their work done early? 

Make sure everyone knows what’s required of them — and then let them use the policy as they see fit. Of course, trust is going to be a big factor. But if you trusted your employees enough to hire them, you should also trust them to get the work done when and where they prefer.

Adapted from “What PwC Learned from Its Policy of Flexible Work for Everyone,” by Anne Donovan

Enlist Your Team in Solving an Intractable Problem

February 16, 2018

Enlist Your Team in Solving an Intractable Problem

If you and your team are facing a chronic challenge, you might be tempted to take control and vehemently argue for the solution you think will work, or to offer ideas indirectly and let your team take ownership of the issue. Neither of these extremes is optimal. 

Instead, try an approach that combines conviction and openness — that way others can come up with solutions that build on your best thinking. 

With your team, talk about the persistence of the issue, what solutions have failed, and why. Explain that you want them to choose the solution with you. 
Make it clear that you are looking for new ideas, not a defense of failed solutions or rehashed versions of what you’ve already tried. Build a set of measurable criteria with which you can evaluate options. Admit any biases you have for particular solutions, and ask the team to treat those ideas no differently than their own. Rate all ideas, including yours, against the established criteria — and most important, be open about the assumptions underlying your views.

Adapted from “Stress Leads to Bad Decisions. Here’s How to Avoid Them,” by Ron Carucci

Instead of Surveying Your Customers, Interview Them

May 21, 2019

Instead of Surveying Your Customers, Interview Them

Many companies use surveys to get customer feedback, but often surveys are a pain to complete and people don’t put much thought into filling them out. A better way to learn what your customers want (or don’t) is to interview them. Real conversations can unearth more-detailed insights than tick-the-box questions can — and they don’t have to be time-consuming or expensive. Whether in person or over the phone, ask open-ended questions that will help you learn how the customer thinks and makes decisions. For example, something like “How did you decide to buy our product instead of our competitor’s?” will probably reveal more than “How satisfied are you with our product?” You’ll likely hear a variety of responses, so keep interviewing customers until their answers start to repeat each other; 12 to 16 interviews is a good place to start. Remember, you’re after quality of information, not quantity. It may take fewer conversations than you expect to find out what you need to know.

Adapted from “Customer Surveys Are No Substitute for Actually Talking to Customers,” by Graham Kenny