It’s Time to Sit Still

The mere concept of doing absolutely nothing is foreign to many (most) of us. Meditation has been around since we began walking the earth but despite ourselves, we continue to cram more into our lives than is possible and necessary.

A worse affliction than hurried lifestyles, busy work spaces, and smartphones glued to our hands, is our minds. To that end, this is definitely a book I’ll be picking up.

The Art of Stillness by Pico Iyer reveals; “How stillness can act as a creative catalyst, and advocates for a way of living that counters the frenetic design of our modern lives.”

Perhaps it's time we got a lot less busy.


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Kneale Mann | People + Priority = Profit

Pico Iyer | TED

Limited Time Offer

Often you will meet people in large cities who grew up in a rural setting. Once in awhile, after years of bustle in an urban area, someone will opt for a quieter lifestyle with a bit more elbow room. Green grass would replace concrete and climbing the corporate ladder may be your way to the hay loft.

We spend about 30% of our lives sleeping, another 30% working, about 10-20% consuming entertainment, add another 5% for eating and 5% getting ready – which includes dressing and showering and ironing and primping and pressing and let’s lob in another 5% for traffic. Feel free to adjust that number according to your situation.

Finite Time Available

So we are booked 85-90% of the time. We have 10-15% left over to follow our dreams, have uninterrupted thought, read a novel, relax, contemplate navels. That 30% chunk taken by that work thing seems pretty important, doesn’t it?

The notion of think time is completely foreign to most companies. This is where you are in your office or sitting quietly in a space and you are not in a meeting or online or answering emails or doing busy work. You are thinking, creating, solving. How better could you do your gig with time blocked off every day just to think?

Image. Create. Share. Digest. Implement. 

The idea that teams could put titles away and collaborate freely is something still rather rare. Real collaboration, not we value your opinion so we can then show you why we didn’t pick it. No passive aggressive fearful ego laden managerial yelling style – collaboration. Respectful teamwork.

Now imagine you are the manager, the owner, perhaps you are already. What does it look like? You are overseeing 30% of people’s entire lives. Sure they will move on, have several careers, but you are the curator of one third of their existence while they are working with you.

Or perhaps it's just about the bottom line. ;-)

Kneale Mann

image credit: FAQs
original post: Jun 2010

The Virtual Office Grows

Where Do You Work?

According to a report published back in February from IDC Research, one billion people will work in a virtual environment by December and 1.2 billion by 2013.

Through technology and social networking, we are creating alliances and partnerships across thought silos rather than geographical ones.

The notion of the office is changing rapidly. Companies are examining associate models and consultants are creating a home office/travel type work experience.

The adjustment continues as over a quarter of the world’s working population moves to home offices, web technologies and virtual work spaces.

Here are some details from the report:

• The United States has the highest percentage of mobile workers in its workforce. The U.S. will remain the most highly concentrated market for mobile workers with 119.7 million workers, being mobile in 2013.

• Asia/Pacific (excluding Japan) represents the largest total number of mobile workers throughout the forecast, with 546.4 million mobile workers in 2008 growing 37.4% of the total workforce in 2013. At the end of the forecast, 62% of the world's mobile workforce will be based in this region.

• Western Europe's mobile workforce will enjoy a healthy compound annual growth rate of 6% over the forecast period to reach 129.5 million mobile workers in 2013, surpassing the total number of mobile workers in the United States.

• Japan's mobile worker population will total 49.3 million in 2013, representing 74.5% of its total workforce.

• The rest of the world, which is comprised of Canada and the emerging market countries in Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa and Latin America, will see its mobile worker population grow to 153.2 million by 2013.

The World Gets A Lot Smaller

I hear people lament all the time that their boss won't let them do some work at home or entertain a flexible work schedule plan. The boss doesn't think the job will get done without employees sitting in their office during office hours.

How is this affecting your career and business?

knealemann
strategy. marketing. media.

image credit: apeasternpower

Punch The Clock

Often you will meet people in large cities who grew up in a rural setting. Once in awhile, after years of bustle in an urban area, someone will opt for a quieter lifestyle with a bit more elbow room.

Green grass would replace concrete and climbing the corporate ladder may be your way to the hay loft.

We spend about 30% of our lives sleeping, another 30% working, about 10-20% consuming entertainment, add another 5% for eating and 5% getting ready – which includes dressing and showering and ironing and primping and pressing and let’s lob in another 5% for traffic. Feel free to adjust that number according to your situation.

So we are booked 85-90% of the time. We have 10-15% left over to follow our dreams, have uninterrupted thought, read a novel, relax, contemplate navels.

That 30% chunk taken by that work thing seems pretty important, doesn’t it?

The notion of think time is completely foreign to most companies. This is where you are in your office or sitting quietly in a space and you are not in a meeting or online or answering emails or doing busy work. You are thinking, creating, solving. How better could you do your gig with time blocked off every day just to think?

The idea that teams could put titles away and collaborate freely is something still rather rare. Real collaboration, not we value your opinion so we can then show you why we didn’t pick it. No passive aggressive fearful ego laden managerial yelling style – collaboration. Respectful teamwork.

Now imagine you are the manager, the owner, perhaps you are already. What does it look like? You are overseeing 30% of people’s entire lives. Sure they will move on, have several careers, but you are the curator of one third of their existence while they are working with you. Or is it just about the bottom line?

Do you think we could take some of that time for dreams and thought – as part of our work experience – with each other?

@knealemann
Helping you integrate all you do with all you do.

photo credit:

It's Not About The Tools? | Meet iPad

Standing Ovation, Mr. Jobs. Not for bringing out another new gadget but for giving us the desire to promote it. Nice work.

• Will iPad change the way we use computers? Who knows.

• Will we get to a point when we're all walking around with handheld computers rather than being teathered to a desk? Absolutely

• Will more business owners finally discover that creativity and collaboration is not linked to rooms and cubicles and work spaces? They will if they want to succeed.

If it's not about the tools, then why are we losing our minds giving Apple all this free publicity?



@knealemann
strategy. marketing. social media. communications.

Free Beer and Pool Tables

The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.
Winston Churchill

You can improve productivity exponentially if you create an encouraging environment. There are some important points to heed if you feel it’s time to fix that aspect of your business.

Homework

First, watch several episodes of “The Office”. We see a boss trying so hard to be liked and respected you can see footprints on his face. No one likes this guy and no one particularly enjoys working there. It's dysfunction personified.

Flip Flops and Pez

I have been in media and marketing a long time so I have worked in environments where the concept of dress code is merely a suggestion and it’s a badge of honor to fill your office with Pez dispensers and music is requisite.

I certainly would never suggest if you are consulting a government agency you show up in topsiders and a NiN tshirt - though that may shake things up for a change. But this isn’t about dress code – it’s about mind space and attitude.

Fun Does Not Equal Lawless

You want to strike the balance between democracy and no deadlines. You can have too much opinion – I’ve been there, it ain’t pretty. Suddenly no one wants to listen to anyone and the exact environment you wanted to fix has been recreated on the other side of the axis curve.

And important to note that the best evidence of future behavior is past behavior, so if you suddenly switch gears and become co-creative helping person, that may not go well. Baby steps may be required.

It Won't Happen Overnight

This process cannot be taken lightly and it will not happen with a couple of emails and the dismantling of the cubicles. We still respect leadership, we still want meetings to start and end on time, we still want people to show up to work ready to work, but think of the ways to create a place where everyone actually wants to be five day a week.

And if you haven't seen the cult classic Office Space, do that too.
That'd be great.

@knealemann
knealemann at gmail dot com

Helping clients better utilize all media.
How to make it, use it and profit from it.

photo credits: wikipedia | bbc

Content. Context. Community. (cont'd)

Money, That's What I Want

If you’ve been in the workforce long enough, you have probably been asked – formerly or informally – about your reasons for wanting to work in a certain industry or at a particular company. You may think that the number one reason most people cite is compensation but that is virtually never the case.

Clearly you want to make a good living but it must come with more than a good deposit in the bank account every two weeks. Don'cha think?

Ask a former Wall Street rockstar if it was worth it.

Guess What Happened To Me Today?

Think back to the last ten business conversations you’ve had. Now count up how much time was spent by anyone on work environment, coworkers in a negative light or lack of respect in the workplace verses real actual business chat.

What Will Make Us Happy

More widgets? More efficiency? Quicker turnarounds?

Or a co-creative environment of encouragement, strong internal customer service and personal/professional growth where your strengths and abilities are valued?

Nah, dumb idea, let's go with the widgets.

@knealemann

photo credit: djibnet.com