Torture is absolutely not acceptable

I don't typically use this forum to address current events, but I just want to be clear: The United States government is not acting in my name, nor in the name of my family. We believe that torture is never acceptable, and we're ashamed of the recent pro-torture legislation (summarized in Senate Passes Dangerous Bush Military Commissions Bill).

As shown by a long series of events, including the war in Iraq, I feel this country is rapidly slipping down a slope in which our actions are in clear contradiction with our proclaimed values. The rest of the world knows it, but apparently my government and many of my fellow Americans don't see it.

I am ashamed of our actions, and feel powerless in our direction.


Related Links

• Torture is Simply NOT OK
  
• Why torture is OK
  
• The Torture Myth
  
• Amnesty International

Additionally, ThrowAwayYourTV.com has a bunch of voices speaking out against torture, including:

• Maher Panel on Torture
  
• Hillary Takes a Stand
  
• This Bill Permits Torture
  
• Stewart on legalized torture
  

A simple and useful networking gift that anyone can give for free

As I've written elsewhere [1], networking has proven to be a crucial new focus (and set of skills) as I develop my personal productivity practice. One issue that often comes up when starting out is that of finding something to give to the folks you'd like to connect with. As Keith Ferrazzi says in Never Eat Alone:

"I learned that real networking was about finding ways to make other people more successful. It was about working hard to give more than you get."

However, I sometimes felt that, as someone new to the field, I didn't have much to offer. As I said in my interview with Josh Hinds, one gift is that of good, honest listening, but I've come up with something more concrete that almost anyone can give.

It's simple: I noticed when doing my research on people that their web sites often had typos, grammar errors [2], and broken links and pictures. So I decided to turn them into little gifts. In fact, they can be openers when you have no other obvious introduction to someone. I've shared a dozen or so of these, and recipients are usually quite grateful. (They're often too busy to stay on top of web site changes, or they haven't looked at their own pages in a while.)

The only advice I'd give about the approach is to keep it short, and be respectful, e.g., "your site was great; thought you'd like to know..." My main point is usually that the errors might be diminishing her message.

So if your personality runs into the detailed side of things, keep track of those errors - they can be valuable!

References

• [1] See A geek "gets" networking: The strange magic of connecting with others and On the goal of meeting three new people a week - A ten week retrospective.
  
• [2] I've found Paul Brians' Common Errors in English site to be tremendously useful. It covers classics like ITS/IT’S and THEY’RE/THEIR/THERE.
  

My Business Networking Advice article is up, FYI

I've been very busy these last few weeks with one-on-one coaching and preparing for some workshops I'm putting on, so the posting's been delayed.

But out of the (relative) blue, some great timing! My email interview with Josh Hinds is up at his Business Networking Advice blog. The article is Interview with Matthew Cornell of Matt's Idea Blog, and I was quite delighted to be invited. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks very much, Josh!

(Note: From a blogging and networking perspective, I think Josh's approach is very smart. First, his interviews are done via email, and there are just two questions, so it's easy to say yes. Second, the idea of interviewing experts is great because, first, you can learn a lot, second, they help draw readers, and third, you get to form a connection with them and hopefully give them something. Neat!)

Use Gmail's "star" to highlight your good news

As both a Gmail user and a practitioner of David Allen's Getting Things Done methodology for personal productivity, I wondered what to do with the star feature. After all, because GTD doesn't have you assign priorities, it doesn't make sense to differentiate between "important" and "other" messages - they all need to be considered, decided on, and then moved out of "IN." [1]. Thus the star is freed up for something else [2]. But what?

I decided to take a cue from Susan Jeffers' book Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway, in which she describes the idea of a "Book of Abundance" (briefly, a notebook of positive experiences in your life, both large and small, that you update daily). The point is the book helps us focus on the wonderful things that do happen to us, not just the "gloom and doom, wish and want."

Given that perspective, I decided to use stars to highlight good news that comes in. I currently have about 50 of them, including:

• Testimonials from happy clients [3],
• Support, praise, and encouragement from readers,
• Feedback on things I've done that have helped others,
• Requests for consulting,
• Nice introductions from new friends [4],
• ...

I've found that this practice helps me counteract bad news, and encourages an active focus on the positive. Plus, the act of clicking the star is pleasing, somewhat like that feeling of checking off a next action or finishing a project. So next time you get some good email, click the star!

References

• [1] For more on how processing of email works, you might enjoy Matt's Idea Blog: How to process stuff - A comparison of TRAF, the "Four Ds", and GTD's workflow diagram.
• [2] I use a paper planner for my GTD implementation (more at Fare thee well Hipster PDA - I barely knew ye), pulling out actions from Gmail as needed. There are, however, a number of ways to use GTD within Gmail, including Bryan Murdaugh's GTD with Gmail Whitepaper, the GTDGmail Firefox extension, as well as many great tips in the comments of Gmail for GTD Implementation.
• [3] More on my consulting practice at Building a Personal Productivity practice from thin air: An update.
• [4] See A geek "gets" networking: The strange magic of connecting with others and On the goal of meeting three new people a week - A ten week retrospective.

Building a Personal Productivity practice from thin air: An update

In The crucible of teaching: Want to learn in a hurry? Teach! I wrote about using teaching as a means to learn a field of study, in my case creating an unofficial Master's degree in Personal Productivity. Because this idea appealed to readers, I wanted to give an update on my efforts to build a practice, put together workshops, do one-on-one coaching, and continue my professional development.


Content

I've lately been calling my process "WorkFlow 101" (which stems from my appreciation for higher education), because it addresses the idea that few of us, regardless of levels of expertise or education, are taught how to effectively manage ourselves.

In the past, ad hoc or "grab bag" techniques may have been adequate, but no longer - today's exponentially increasing rates of commitments, communication, and information have out-stripped many traditional time management ideas. As Kerry Gleeson puts it in The Personal Efficiency Program:

Although most of us have been formally educated to work in our professions, few of us, especially white-collar workers, have been taught how to work efficiently and effectively. Too many [...] have no idea how to organize themselves or how best to process their work. They may understand how to draw an architectural plan, write a clever ad, or negotiate a deal, but they can't effectively organize their week or cope well with interruptions and unexpected new opportunities and priorities.

One-on-one coaching

I've now coached over a dozen desk-side clients, which on average takes two days back-to-back (with no interruptions). The coaching process is fascinating, can be exhausting, and always provides learning opportunities for me. As I said earlier, if you want to learn, teach! There's a lot to talk about here, but a few observations:

First, while the methodology may be "simple, but not easy," the concepts themselves are a lot for people to take in, even over a two day period. Of course each initial "intensive" is just the beginning to forming the permanent habit changes required, but I've found even very smart people can have trouble putting all the pieces together.

Second, it takes an interesting combination of skills and personality to take an individual through the entire process. I've found I alternately need to be consultant, coach, confidant, cheerleader, and more. In addition, I believe having a positive non-judgemental attitude is absolutely crucial, as is treating a client's trust respectfully. (Hopefully while still having some fun!)

Finally, I have to say that seeing someone "get it" [1] (i.e., seeing how all the moving parts fit together, specific to their lives) is an awesome experience. It's such a pleasure and honor to see the light go on in their eyes.

(If you are interested, you can read some testimonials on my recently-updated site: matthewcornell.org.)


Workshops: Designing and facilitating

I've now designed workshops ranging from ninety minutes to six hours, and they've all been both a significant challenge to put together, and fun to facilitate. The good news is they seem to help people, and I've been asked to continue putting them on (you can see the details on my events page).

One thing that's common, though, is designing a good one is a tremendous amount of work, in some ways far more difficult than actually leading it in front of clients. I can definitely appreciate those who get to start with an existing set of well put together materials. That said, the act of creating one is a great experience, opens a whole new world of learning [2], and helps me understand the material more deeply. (More on this in future posts.)


Marketing, networking, and sales

I continue my networking effort [3], and I continue trying to see people from the perspective of what I can do for them. (The concepts from Never Eat Alone are still useful; as a quick refresher, you might enjoy Mark Goulston's post Never Eat Alone made Simple.)

Interestingly, I'm about to test the idea of "build it before you need it:" I'm putting on a workshop in October in which I'm responsible for getting attendees (no participants, no pay), and I've reached out to my local network for help. My goal is to get 25 participants, and I'm looking at this as a test of how effective my network (and my skills) are at reaching this it. Of course I want overflowing interest, but I'm trying to treat it as an interesting experiment. We'll see!


Professional development - reading, reading, reading!

Finally, I continue to push on the concepts by studying every book I can find on the topic [4], taking competing workshops (e.g., Mission Control [5]), and writing to integrate the results. And the more I see others' work, the more I'm convinced that personal productivity methods like those by David Allen and Sally McGhee contain some tight, clean "modern" best practices.


References

• [1] You might enjoy my post The thrill of witnessing an "Aha!".
  
• [2] I've added a short training book list to the Training Games wiki.
  
• [3] See A geek "gets" networking: The strange magic of connecting with others and On the goal of meeting three new people a week - A ten week retrospective.
  
• [4] Some of the recent books I've read include The Office Clutter Cure: How to Get Out from Under It All! by Don Aslett, File...Don't Pile: A proven filing system for personal and professional use by Pat Dorff, Time Management Made Easy by Patty Marler, Jan Bailey Mattia, and Never Check E-Mail In the Morning: And Other Unexpected Strategies for Making Your Work Life Work by Julie Morgenstern.
  
• [5] See A GTD-er's perspective on Mission Control's "Productivity and Accomplishment" workshop.