Updates from December, 2013 Toggle Comment Threads | Keyboard Shortcuts

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    Brooking 2:28 am on December 31, 2013 Permalink |  

    Hey Bootcampers! Hope you all have had a great holiday break. I’ve been catching up on some non-work to dos today and wanted to check in on the plan for the 14th. When we first talked I think we had me slated to “lead” that day, but since I missed last time I am not sure if that’s still the plan? I have an idea for a project/topic I’d love to engage the group in if it works, with the wonderful Rebecca Petzel, and I think based on Jess’ notes from Holly’s ideas shared at the last boot camp that it might be a good segue from last time & a topic of shared interest to the group – on designing for high performing networks (as opposed to meetings/organizations). Thoughts?

     
    • Eugene Eric Kim 5:00 pm on December 31, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Do-acracy, so still the “plan.” 🙂 Personally, I love the topic, and I love it even more that you’d be bringing @rapetzel in.

    • Eugene Chan 5:02 pm on December 31, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Hey @brooking: that would be great. I volunteered to organize January 14th, but didn’t have anything specific in mind and would be happy to take on February.

      You get my vote!

    • Rebecca 12:29 am on January 7, 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Woot! Excited to see many of you again and brainstorm with the changemakers. Happy 2014 team.

  • Eugene Chan 4:42 am on December 20, 2013 Permalink |  

    You need 8 hours and 36 minutes of sleep for optimal performance 

    From the Wall Street Journal:

    One of the most influential studies of human performance, conducted by professor K. Anders Ericsson, found that top performers slept 8 hours and 36 minutes per day. The average American, for comparison, gets just 6 hours and 51 minutes of sleep on weeknights.

    You are simply a different person when you operate on insufficient sleep. And it shows. If you do not get enough sleep, it can lead to a cascade of negative events. You achieve less at work, skip regular exercise, and eat poorly.

    Amen.

     
    • Eugene Eric Kim 3:43 pm on December 20, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      We used to do these exhaustive debriefs at Groupaya, where we would pick every single possible nit about our performance. One of the patterns I noticed over time was that our performance greatly suffered when one or more of us didn’t get enough sleep the night before, were sick, or skipped breakfast.

      It sounds incredibly obvious, and yet the reality was that we were prioritizing the nits over simple fundamentals like making sure we ate before a day-long meeting. (This was my biggest problem. I’m a notorious breakfast skipper.) I’m willing to bet that this translates into the average person’s work performance in general.

      The cultural shift that needs to happen is a greater emphasis on taking care of yourself (a variation of Ground Rule #1) as a means to better work performance.

    • Eugene Chan 5:40 pm on December 20, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      As i get older (and maybe wiser), I’m learning that the fundamentals are more and more about doing the right things, not just doing things right. Having run a marathon or two, the comparison is apt: recovery takes longer and is just as important as training and build up.

  • Dana 9:30 pm on December 13, 2013 Permalink |  

    Echoing Eugene, thank you @jessausinheiler for sharing your Messaging framework with us! I really enjoyed thinking through the wheel and I realized I have a message for my project. Now I want to communicate it and I am feeling clearer about how to.

     
    • Jessica 5:58 pm on December 18, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      My pleasure to facilitate and to share Holly Minch’s framework with other bootcampers. While I can’t attach an image I took of our white board, here’s a link to a post about using Holly’s framework, for our reference: http://networksguide.wikispaces.com/4-6+Creating+shared+language+and+talking+about+networks+and+network+impact

      Re: Eugene’s comment below, had we had more time I think it would have been beneficial to try crafting a message BEFORE sharing the framework (despite the urge to talk theory first). In fact, even the ORDER in which I presented the framework mattered—it influenced how both Dana and I started crafted our messaging, which was entirely different from Eugene (we started with the “ask,” he began with the “vision”). I’ll definitely take his suggestion into account next time I design a learning exercise.

      A couple more things I learned about messaging in the course of the bootcamp: it’s totally an iterative process; the channel matters (email vs. in-person), especially for me because I have little patience for crafting (or reading) long email messages; and having a narrowly defined audience and ask is very important.

      • Eugene Eric Kim 4:23 pm on December 20, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        I “liked” your comment already @jessausinheiler, but I just had to add how much I love these insights. Thanks for sharing!

  • Eugene Eric Kim 4:22 pm on December 13, 2013 Permalink |  

    Many thanks again to @jessausinheiler for organizing and facilitating a bootcamp this past Tuesday! So great to see everyone there! @brooking, sorry you couldn’t make it, and hoping you’re feeling better!

    Some quick thoughts on the session:

    • I loved being a participant! 🙂
    • I think Jess’s choice to do an hour-long checkin exercise up-front was a good one. It’s been over a month since we’ve all seen each other, and it was a great way to check in on our respective projects. It also shows the value of doing these things regularly. An hour-long checkin doesn’t leave much time for workouts, and I’ve found that my more involved workouts tend to require at least 90 minutes. Regular meetings mean shorter checkins.
    • I liked the messaging exercise. Jess chose to do it in a more classic explain-the-framework-first approach, which worked fine. I happen to like that framework a lot. And, I’d love to challenge any of you to redesign the exercise more bootcamp-style: practice first, then framework (if at all).

    Finally, this was another great reminder for me about the value of practice. I’ve been doing variations of these same exercises for my projects, but repeating them — especially with a community of peers — provided new value and helped me move forward in concrete ways. So thank you again!

     
    • Eugene Chan 4:28 pm on December 13, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Agreed on all points!

      And an open invitation to all Bootcampers (any cohort): we are looking at January 14th 3 to 5 as the next date/time for our community of practice. Location to be determined, but you are invited to join.

      @eekim: if there are bootcamp exercise patterns, it would be good to see them listed somewhere on the site.

      • Eugene Eric Kim 4:32 pm on December 13, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        Thanks for posting about January 14! I am definitely planning on documenting patterns. And, I would be delighted if all of you shared patterns you’ve observed as well. 🙂

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      Brooking 2:20 am on December 18, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Hey all sorry I missed it, I am still recovering a bit it’s been an epic lil sickness… was really bummed to miss the chance to re-convene. I’ve got Jan 14th on my calendar! -Brooking

      • Eugene Eric Kim 2:44 pm on December 18, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        No worries, @brooking. Ugh — sorry to hear you’re still sick. Glad you’ll be able to join on January 14, especially since I think you’ll be running the workout. 😉

  • Eugene Eric Kim 4:36 pm on December 9, 2013 Permalink |  

    Last week, our very own @dana facilitated her very first retreat, a two-day strategy workshop for Code for America! Here are some pictures from the event:

    Growth Toward Scale: Regionalization

    Dana, hope you’ll post some thoughts from that experiment here, or at least will talk about the experience tomorrow at the self-organized bootcamp (which I’m looking forward to)!

    Also, this morning, I published a blog post on collective intelligence, which folks here might find interesting:

    Maximizing Collective Intelligence Means Giving Up Control

    As always, feedback encouraged! If you have thoughts to share on the blog post, please post it in the comments section there. Thanks!

     
  • Eugene Eric Kim 6:00 pm on December 3, 2013 Permalink |  

    Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Two quick notes:

    First, I’m looking forward to next week’s self-organized bootcamp. Let us know where and when we’ll meet, and let me know if there’s anything I can do to help. I plan on being a participant!

    Second, I soft-launched my new work-focused website yesterday:

    Introducing Faster Than 20

    I’m planning on being very intentional about sharing useful stories about collaboration, and I want this to be a forum for my community as well. That includes all of you!

    Some of you have said you want to hear more from me. If there’s specific stuff you’d like me to share, let me know, and I’ll post it there. (For example, I might take my super long response to @brooking’s question about online engagement and turn that into a blog post.)

    I hope to see many of you there as well, either engaging in the comments or writing guest posts.

     
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