Posted by Chuck Musciano in Random Musings.
Tags: Caller ID, Communication, Phone
There are many unsung heroes in the history of technology. Today, I’d like to salute Ted Paraskevakos, the inventor of Caller ID. Ted started working on Caller ID back in 1968. I cannot believe that 40 years have passed and we still have not erected a monument to him somewhere. I would have settled for a Bud Light Real Men Of Genius salute, but even that has not come to pass.
Caller ID converted the phone from something controlled by the caller to something I control. In olden days, you pretty much had to pick up the phone; you never know what lay at the other end. Good news or bad, you took your chances, and you often got stuck with some interminable sales call.
With Caller ID, I get to choose my conversations. Whether the goal is catching that important call or avoiding a bothersome caller, Caller ID puts us all in charge of our phones. In the past, this luxury was reserved to those with full-time personal assistants. Now, we are all in control of our phones.
Best of all, I can now completely avoid calls from people who insist on blocking their Caller ID information. When the phone rings and the display shows “Unknown,” there is only one course of action: dump the call to voice mail. Who in their right mind would take a call from someone who is intentionally hiding their identity prior to the call? Most telling, the vast majority of these callers never leave a message.
Long-time readers know that I am a big fan of YouMail, the personalized voice mail service for your cell phone. Among the many marvelous features of YouMail is the ability to detect and handle blocked Caller ID separately from your other calls. In my case, callers get a message telling them that I do not accept blocked calls, and that they need to call back with the Caller ID information exposed. The call is then dropped, without even giving the caller a chance to leave a message.
So, a word of advice to potential callers: show yourself. If I have time, I’ll usually take the call. But if you block your name, I guarantee that I will never take your call, at home, or work, on on my cell.
On the other hand, if “Ted Paraskevakos” ever shows up on my phone’s display, I will definitely take the call.
Posted by Chuck Musciano in Technology.
Tags: Best Of 2009, Communication, History, Internet, Social Media
In the beginning, the internet was about sharing and collaboration. Before the web existed (imagine that!) people used the internet to share and refine ideas, collect information, and make it easy to learn about new things. The interfaces were primitive by modern standards, but the information flowed and great ideas were born.
The early internet was organized by topic. That is, there tended to be one place you could go to find out everything about that one topic. If you were interested in a particular subject, you could find a mailing list or a Usenet newsgroup devoted to just that topic. Everyone that shared your interest came to the same place; anything important regarding that topic generally found its way to that spot.
The Usenet newsgroup hierarchy was the pinnacle of this structure. Endlessly tweaked and debated, wrapped in a community-designed change protocol, the newsgroup structure neatly found a home for everything, like a Dewey decimal system for the internet. Interested in movies? Go to the rec.arts.movies group. Some obscure operating system? You’ll find it in the comp.os tree. On and on, every conceivable topic was parked somewhere.
If multiple sources arose (a competing mailing list, or a similar newsgroup) they were quickly merged and consolidated. Gateways existed to route messages between groups and lists; the Usenet social order realigned errant groups with great fervor. The focus was on accurate, consolidated information. Who provided that data, while interesting, was of secondary importance.
As the web evolved, this topic-centric model evolved with it. People developed pages that became reference points for specific topics, and everyone linked to those pages. I developed a page on creating transparent GIF images that still circulates today, although rehosted on other sites. The Internet Movie Database (which I also had a role in creating) supplanted the rec.arts.movies group.
With the advent of social networking on the web, the internet is being reorganized by person, instead of by topic. Now, people develop a central repository about themselves and what they know (or don’t, which is the real problem). It is easy to learn everything about a person, and much more difficult to learn about a single topic. For example, my recent cell phone acquisition caused me to search the web for everything I could find about a Samsung Epix phone. Long ago, there would have been a newsgroup called comp.phones.samsung.epix that provided everything I needed to know. Now, there are dozens of blogs that contain conflicting or incomplete information. Collating these sites and finding what I need is much more difficult, if not impossible.
This person-centric view eliminates the most important part of the old model: peer review. Before, a single errant posting would be immediately corrected by the collective audience, and the data that remained was usually detailed and accurate. With the experts now isolated on their own islands of information, this review and collaboration has diappeared. Except for concerted efforts like Wikipedia, we’ve lost the essence of the original internet: a collectively managed shared information resource. The new individually managed information resources are far less useful.
The ego-centric internet is just a reflection of the ego-centric, celebrity-driven world that we live in. We’ve lost something as a result, I think. But somewhere, Andy Warhol is smiling.
Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.
Tags: Communication, Leadership, Surprises
What’s the worst thing that can happen to any leader? Bad news? Terrible news? No. The worst thing that can happen is surprising news.
I can handle problems of all shapes and sizes. Personnel issues, system failures, budget concerns, project setbacks: part and parcel of the job. With any of these, the easiest way to handle any problem is when it is a small problem, before it becomes a big problem. Big problems are hard; small problems are easy.
What infuriates me is when an issue builds over time and is then dumped in my lap, full-blown. At this point, the solution is going to be complicated, expensive, and leave collateral damage. Had I known earlier, I could have intervened in some more effective way.
Leaders get surprised when their people fail to keep them informed. There is only so much information we can gather on our own. Everything else comes to us from people who feel that they can tell us things, especially bad news, without fear of repercussions. These people are crucial to our success; they form our early-warning system that eliminate surprises.
We must cultivate trust in our team to ensure that we maintain that open channel of communication. When that trust is missing, people will stop communicating, either passively or actively.
In the passive mode, people just stop telling you things. They don’t misrepresent things or try to sugarcoat bad news. You lose a valuable source of information, so you are flying blind with respect to some aspect of your organization.
Far worse is the active mode. In this mode, people stop bringing you bad news by replacing it with good news. Projects are said to be on track when they really aren’t. Systems are said to be stable when they really aren’t. People are said to be happy when they really aren’t. At best, these people think they are pleasing you by bringing you good news while frantically trying to fix the underlying problems. At worst, they are being openly insubordinate and undermining your ability to lead.
You can cure both of these problems. The passive folks can be won over by regaining their trust. You must work to keep lines of communication open, as I’ve noted in previous posts. These people will help you succeed, but only if you work hard to allow them.
Even with open communication, the active group can be difficult to change. You have to actively solicit bad news and drill into data to make sure it represents the truth. For those who always want to bring good news, active coaching can help change their behavior. For those who are being intentionally duplicitous, I suggest providing them an opportunity to find success in a different organization.
Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.
Tags: Communication, Leadership, Listening, Management Skills, Relationships
Like almost every other executive I have ever met, I have an open-door policy. I look forward to talking to my team and appreciate those that take time to stop by and chat, on matters large and small. I try to wander about as well, keeping in touch with people whenever possible. In spite of this policy and my efforts, though, I still don’t get enough contact with my co-workers. In short, being accessible is easier said than done.
A big part of the problem is that I have a hectic schedule. I am often out of the office and hard to find. When I’m in the office, I am often in meetings and unavailable. Even if people wanted to talk to me, I can be hard to find and pin down. For those who might be a bit reluctant to stop by, I am essentially unreachable.
To make myself more accessible, I started scheduling “Office Hours.” Simply put, I promise my people that I will be in my office, otherwise unoccupied, for a set period of time each week. Anyone who wants to see me can stop by and know that I will be available and ready to listen. If no one shows up, I’ll certainly find other things to do; when they do, I set aside what I’m doing and focus on them.
When I started office hours, I laid out the rules so that people would know what to expect. Here are the rules:
- I will be in my office every Thursday, 1:30-3:30, except when I am on vacation or a serious emergency has occurred
- Anyone can stop by to talk about anything they want
- First come, first served. If I am talking to someone else, put your name on a Post-It and stick it on the door. I’ll call you back when I am available.
- Except in rare circumstances, you cannot “book” time during office hours. Just show up!
- Except in rare circumstances, you can’t shut the door while we are talking. I don’t want others to be put off by a closed door. If you have a sensitive topic, we’ll set up a separate time where we can have some privacy and adequate time to discuss it.
- Topics should be relatively brief (less than 15 minutes) to give time for others
Office hours have been a big success! Many times, I am the pacing item on some project, for a signature, approval, or recommendation. People know I will be available for these kind of “quick hit” items during office hours, so they stop by and get things moving forward. Beyond these kind of items, people stop by for almost every imaginable topic: advice, personnel issues, venting, bouncing around ideas, and just saying hello.
Communication is crucial to our success as leaders and to our teams. Office hours have had a big positive impact on communication within my team. What started as a quick experiment has turned into an important part of my weekly schedule. I couldn’t imagine removing office hours from my schedule. Give it a try; I hope you find it as useful as I have.
Posted by Chuck Musciano in Leadership.
Tags: Best Of 2009, Communication, Listening
I recently overheard an exceptionally useful observation: “Some people listen. Other people just wait to talk.”
Waiting to talk is easy. While the other person rambles on, you can politely gather your thoughts and prepare your next statement. When the noise level drops off for a moment, you can jump and and take your turn, sharing your very important thoughts and views. At that point, the other person begins listening, of course, and you can hold the floor until you run our of ideas or breath.
Listening is hard. To begin with, you have to pay attention. You have to absorb what is being said and think about the ideas being presented. There may not be enough time to come up with a response right away, and you may have to think and work a bit before you know what to say. Some silence might occur as a result, which can be awkward.
The effort of listening is rewarded with valuable conversations. Ideally, you’ll actually share ideas with someone else, and you might occasionally learn something. Everyone wins when people truly listen, even if you cannot agree on the topic at hand.
As leaders, communication is perhaps our most important tool. It is easy to view communication as a stream of information from us to our teams: coaching, advising, cajoling, and directing. But don’t forget: as soon as we stop listening, as soon as we start just waiting to talk, we lose a crucial connection with our people. Listening builds respect and trust, something that can never happen if you are just waiting to talk. And without respect and trust, true leadership can never occur.
So, what do you think? I’m listening…
The Effective CIO 