Archive for the ‘Organizational Development/Strucuture’ Category

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Chunking and Time Boxing as a Middle Ground to Multitasking

Sunday, September 3rd, 2006

I’m a somewhat unrepentant multi-tasker. It just comes naturally to me. I have no flow issues with jumping from one item, conversation, project to another, then another, then another and then maybe jumping back. I find that this really disturbs the people around me that are really focused on single tasks. There is also some evidence that multi-tasking can diffuse effectiveness.

Drucker really pushes this in the Effective Executive. While that book was ahead of its time, it’s really tough in today’s environment for busy Extension Professionals to have the luxury of “checking out” and devoting long blocks of time to specific projects.

 

So what is the answer? To middle ground options that I’ve been playing around with are “chunking” and “time boxing”. I think that both can be good tools for Extension Professionals to test. Here is a quick summary of each.

Time Boxing

I found time boxing through

Dwayne Melacon’s link to this post on Dave Cheong’s blog. Time boxing refers to setting a pre-determined time frame for each project or task. Dave’s post has a good overview of the process. I like the idea because I think we in Extension tend to suffer from Parkinson’s Law , which generally states that “work expands to fit the amount of time allotted to its completion” (see interpretations applied to other uses here). I really liked Dave’s connections to doing the most important things first and his discussion of “null time”. 

 

Chunking

Related to time boxing is chunking. I found this via

Lisa Haneberg’s blog. Lisa talks about chunking your day into blocks of time as an alternative to multi-tasking. See her post here for her idea of chunking and a tool she uses.

 

Both of these tools are closely related and can benefit Extension Professionals by allowing more time for them to focus. If you’re an Outlook user, you might want to look at this post for a brief description on how to create 30 minute chunks of time in Outlook.

Posted in Organizational Development/Strucuture, What I'm reading | No Comments »

Increasing the Odds for High-Performance Teams

Friday, September 1st, 2006

This past week I was able to spend parts of three days attending various meetings and workshops on developing high impact teams. Ohio State University Extension hosted Arlen Leholm and Ray Vlasin, authors of the book Increasing the Odds for High-Performance Teams, from Sunday evening through Tuesday. Arlen is the current Dean and Director of Cooperative Extension for the University of Wisconsin and the former Director of Michigan State University Extension. Ray is University Distinguished Professor Emeritus for Michigan State University Extension, the former Director of the Natural Resource Economics Division of USDA’s Economic Research Service, and a Staff Economist for the House Public Works Committee.

It was time well spent. Given the fact that most Extension work is done via teams (and committees) we really need to focus on ways of improving our teams’ performances. As an institution that touts science-based research for decision making, we do a terrible job of actually looking at the literature for teams and applying it to our own work. Leholm and Vlasin do just that in Chapter 2 of their book. This chapter has a very good and very succinct overview of the literature about teams. It is so succinct that it is easy to miss the density of detail it contains. The book also has several case study chapters, including one discussing two Extension High Performance Teams (one at Michigan and the other in Ohio).

The book will be especially valuable for those interested in developing longer term, self-directed teams. Much time was spent discussing the differences between self-directed teams and single-leader teams. And the organizational architecture required to have true self-directed teams. And the time frame – maybe two or more years – to really get the team humming.

So without giving the book’s contents away, here are some key concepts. It is possible for organizations to “increase the odds” of developing high performance teams. But they need to truly empower them, build trust and commitment among team members, and help provide the context to develop clarified and realistic team expectations, rules and team purpose. To be truly self-directed, teams must have an infrastructure to keep them focused on performance. And that infrastructure is their own formalized (read written) purpose and operational statements.

To get a better understanding see this 2004 presentation by Arlen and Ray to. For twenty bucks, the book is a cheap investment for Extension professionals.

Posted in Extension Scholarship, General Extension, Organizational Development/Strucuture, What I'm reading | No Comments »

Networks, Relationships and Knowledge Work in Extension

Monday, August 21st, 2006

Extension work has always relied on networks and relationships. But then again, Extension workers have always been knowledge workers and knowledge workers rely heavily on networks. For a brief overview, see this Wikipedia article on knowledge workers. The first section on networks provides a good summary of the importance of networks. . Kathleen Gilroy at the Ottergroup found a good article about the increasing relative importance of networks compared to more formal HR types of training. Definitely worth the few minutes it takes to read it. Especially the last paragraph discussing how new tools like blogs and wikis can make big differences in our abilities to collaborate. Extension professionals have just started to scratch the surface of using the newer tools, but I think their use of them will increase exponentially over the next few years.

Posted in General Extension, Organizational Development/Strucuture, Technology | No Comments »

New Extension Leadership Blog

Thursday, August 17th, 2006

Blogs and other media are still growing within Extension. A newer addition from North Carolina State University is

Lead 2020 Visions on Leading. Lead 2020 focuses on leadership posts and will be of interest not only to Extension professionals that specialize in leadership, but also to any Extension professional that relies on leadership skills. So basically all of us. Dip in and look around. Most of the posting are short and easy to digest.

 

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Great List of Business Books

Monday, February 27th, 2006

After a very busy week I’ve been plowing through my aggregator and catching up on some reading. I was surprised to find this list of recommended business books at Manager Tools. I’ve posted earlier about the high quality of the Manager Tool podcasts (here, here and here). So I’m scanning the list and finding some titles I’ve read, and others that I’m adding to my list. If you are at all interested in improving your business and management skills, scan the blog and start on the podcasts. They have the most immediately useable stuff I’ve found so far.

Posted in Organizational Development/Strucuture, What I'm reading | 1 Comment »

Learning 2.0 at the Otter Group

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2006

Kathleen Gilroy at the Otter Group is doing some neat explorations on how the Web 2.0 concept impacts organizations and education. I found the site while searching for Web 2.0 information for some research on distributed workforces and have been listening to  their podcasts (see this recent post). The organizational stuff is really good and should be interesting for Extension Professionals working in teams, communities of practice or communities of interest. Even more important, I’m impressed with Kathleen’s ideas for what she calls "Learning 2.0". It focuses on how to leverage Web 2.0 resources to create more collaborative learning environments (see this related post from FutureWire about IBM’s study on TV as we know it converting to a more collaborative model). Environments that are cost effective, convenient to the learner, and focus on team building. To see an example check out this paper by Kathleen with some really cool ideas on using an aggregator as a primary tool, supported by blogs and podcasts. So use your aggregator and subscribe to their site. Here is the post that led me to the paper.

If you read only one thing this week, read Kathleen’s paper. Then think of your current and future clientele and how you could use these new tools. At least start to stretch your thinking about how can provide and access information, organizational structure and learning. 

Posted in General Extension, Organizational Development/Strucuture, Teaching/Programming, Technology, Tools | 2 Comments »

Free Drucker Tribute Webinar

Friday, January 20th, 2006

Microsoft Executive Circle is sponsoring a free webinar on January 25 in honor of Peter Drucker. Compete information may be found here. Goals for the webinar include:

  • How Peter Drucker has influenced our speakers’ lives and work
  • How you can leverage Peter Drucker’s teachings toward your own success including actionable take-aways
  • Where you can learn more about Peter Drucker’s teachings

This looks like a great opportunity to hear speakers like Tom Peters. A good way to use technology. Prior posts about Drucker may be found here, here and here.

Found through this post on Tom Peters’ blog.  

Posted in Organizational Development/Strucuture | No Comments »

Quick Information Sheets About Management Ideas

Tuesday, November 22nd, 2005

The other day I was trying to find a quick synopsis of some management concepts and stumbled across the Value Based Management site. I spent a few minutes clicking around and found some good one-page information sheets on management concepts. Future oriented folks may be interested in this description of scenario planning or this take on SWOT analysis.  Folks that like Kevin Kelly (see Cool Tools) can look at a description of his Network Economy. Fans of the late Peter Drucker can look at the SMART principles of Managing by Objectives. Each summary also has links to other summaries that might interest the reader. Good source for Extension professionals needing a quick overview of management related terms and topics.

Posted in General Extension, Organizational Development/Strucuture | No Comments »

Collaborative Writing on the Web

Tuesday, November 15th, 2005

Lifehacker as an interesting post about a site that offers collaborative writing via a website. The site, Glypho, allows a person to generate a script idea and others to write chapters. Selection is determined by voting. This focuses only on novels, but similar tools could be used by Extension professionals. For example:

  • Social software currently exists that allows for collaborative writing. Teams can write reports, factsheets, etc. in real time. See this post for more information on social software.
  • Wikis meet much of the criteria discussed here. See more on wiki’s here. See here and here for examples.
  • Educators working with communities, youth, etc. can use similar process to complete plans, needs assessments, etc. Imagine using blogs or other resources for in-class projects. Youth could create and post reports over time.

This is an example of using the web to engage users and clientele and connect with each other.

Posted in Organizational Development/Strucuture, Teaching/Programming, Technology, Tools | No Comments »

Libraries and Online Learning: Examples for Extension

Monday, November 14th, 2005

Readers of my previous posts know that I scan several library blogs. I think they are very educational for Extension professionals, as both groups are interested in outreach education. Both are also trying to figure out their roles in the digital world. LibrarianInBlack provides a link to this article by Joan Lippincott in LibraryJournal.com. A good read for those trying to figure out Exension’s role in providing online information. Here are some key points in the article that I find relevant.

  • Libraries have provided quality information, but expected people to come to their facilities to get the information.
  • "The Internet has transformed the American culture into a learning society, an anytime, anywhere cornucopia of learning activities." People can access information at anytime by simply pointing and clicking. Information has gone to the people – people do not necessarily go to a physical location to find information.
  • This involved new processes that  cause libraries and their web sites to engage peope. I think this is a key point.
  • Libraries must rely on information resources – like data bases- that they may not own.
  • Recognize that learning often takes place in community settings. Blogs and other resource provide new platforms. Be sure to check out the innovative University of Minnesota Library site discussed in the post that hosts blogs for students. Fascinating.
  • Libraries must "reach learners where they choose to look for information."

For Extension professionals, it is clear that we must continue to find ways of not just providing information, but of being able to reach clientele in ways that they choose to receive information. Lippincott gives a good example of teens wanting to access information via cell phones. Much of our clientele base still does not expect this, but now is the time to start preparing when they do. And to look really, really hard at the possiblity that we are missing people that do not even know or care that we exist.

How does Extension rely on its strength of engagement, of involving people in the process, as we move more and more items online? One possibility is to move older programs that we no longer need to serve in a teaching leadership role to self-use modules on the internet. Participants can freely choose to download and use them at their convienence. Higher level services related to the online program that involve Extension professional’s time may be a candidate for fees or other cost recovery mechanisms.

Posted in Futurism, Organizational Development/Strucuture, Technology, Tools | 1 Comment »

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