Welcome to Orcmid's Lair, the playground for family connections, pastimes, and scholarly vocation -- the collected professional and recreational work of Dennis E. Hamilton

Recent Items
 
Dreaming in Code: The Long Tail to My Little Ecco
 
The Unbearable Overwhelm of Technical Debt
 
Public Availability of Standards
 
On the Giving Away
 
Interoperability Principles, I: IE8 Rising
 
Document Interchange: OOXML without Macros
 
To Sir, with Respect
 
Some Legacies Are More Legacy than Others
 
Interoperability by Design
 
DMware: Documents as Evidence

Unburdening Overwhelm: Covey and Peace of Conscience

I'm a big fan of J.D. Meier's blog on Software Engineering, Project Management, and Effectiveness.  Meier's posts often address aspects of empowerment, development of personal effectiveness, and approaches to team effort and management.

Today's post is on the presentation of Dr. Stephen Covey at a Microsoft internal appearance.  Meier's copious notes are of the comprehensive sort that suggest the vivid reach of Covey's presentation.  I'm sure that it doesn't match being there, but there is a great deal to mull over.  I forwarded it to Vicki and she is already enthralled and passing it along to many of her contacts.

There are three small selections that I want to focus on.  I recommend the entire post.

"Beating the Big C"

Well, John Wayne didn't beat it all that well.  But this big C is about the cancerous elements that suck life and soil the soul.  Covey lists them:

• Criticizing
• Complaining
• Comparing
• Competing
• Contending
• Cynicism

Meier notices that the consequence of these behaviors and the related attitudes is that we make ourselves into victims.  We are killing our own power to contribute and make a difference in life.  It reminds me of recent events where mean-spiritedness over the OOXML standardization progress became so poisonous and debilitating to those holding Microsoft's contribution as evil.  This cynicism and the accompanying behaviors would be a great thing to give up.  I will be on guard for my own.

Communication Means Actively Listening

Encouragement of Indian Talking Stick Communication struck home.  I must listen better and that means listening until the speaker gets that they are understood.  Not necessarily agreed with, but understood.  I usually carry around a $1 coin.  I am going to remember to use one as an Indian Talking Stick:

• I'll give it to the other person first.
• They won't return it to me until they are satisfied that they have been understood.  The conversation will only be about understanding.  My job is to understand.

I may go through a few of those dollars until I become successful at hearing what others want understood.

Peace of Conscience

I don't like the introduction of "duplicity" in Covey's observation about finding peace of conscience, not merely peace of mind.  That's my signal that I need to pay attention.  I fancy the Mormon sermon's notion that an unsettled conscience is a gift.

When I lamented about "The Unbearable Overwhelm of Technical Debt," I was also facing into the consequences of procrastination and failing to keep my promises.  I didn't even carry out the task identified there until a few hours ago.  Once I began, I felt immediate relief.  The tangible reality in a simple list on a notebook page showed how much is accomplished already.  The unfinished items are simple and I have identified the steps for completing them all: there are four web-site articles to customize and clean up.  I can easily wrap up one per day without detracting from other commitments.  I now have certainty rather than a cloud of dread around what is missing and what is needed to complete the effort.

I also notice that I had restful sleep last night.  That is not ordinary these days, and I wonder if cleaning up a lack of integrity is all that it took.  My thinking is that the initial post about Dreaming in Code provided that relief.  I also took the book to bed with me, along with a pen and a stack of sticky notes, and my thoughts were on my current impressions as I drifted off.  That was different than the kind of overwhelming churning that has been more common.

Of course, as I was completing one inventory of unfinished work, I was rewarded by noticing other places where I am out of integrity.  There are two big ones hovering there in my mind's eye.  Each of them appears to be amenable to the procedure I have already identified but need to practice consistently:

1. Create a realistic inventory of the work that is required and put it in existence outside of my memory, whether in a notebook or a computer work-item document.
     
2. Find the one definite next action that, when taken, will remove the experience of overwhelm and restore my integrity.

OK, now for action, not discussion.

posted by orcmid at 4/04/2008 03:00:00 PM