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  • Eugene Chan 12:13 am on October 2, 2014 Permalink |  

    BTW, Hello Everyone. I miss you.

     
  • Eugene Chan 11:59 pm on October 1, 2014 Permalink |  

    Technical Assistance Software? 

    Hi Everyone:

    Policylink is the technical assistance provider for US Federal Program called Promise Neighborhoods/Promise Zones.

    We’re exploring how we can better collaborate internally around requests for technical assistance from the cohort of local sites, each are planning or implementing a Promise Neighborhood in the United States

    Here’s a rough list of requirements:
    • We want to be able to track technical assistance/help requests by site
    • Each request would be a case
    • There are multiple sites. Each site has a lead agency and its own partners
    • We want to track solutions or responses
    • The lead agency is responsible for a set of outcomes that are based on a set of overall competencies (fundraising, early learning, health, et.). We’d like to tag requests by the competency areas.
    • At this point, it is just PolicyLink staff that has access so no permissions and security is not an issue. We may decide that we want to have sites have access to their own TA Hub section in the future so that is a consideration.

    Does this match any existing software or web application that you are aware of?

    We are familiar with Salesforce, Zendesk, Wiki’s and Basecamp and like aspects of all three. But maybe there’s another software that you might have come across that might be something for us to consider.

     
  • Eugene Chan 3:15 am on March 11, 2014 Permalink |  

    In the spirit of today’s discussion–being alive can mean doing something that’s very scary and then succeeding!

     
    • Eugene Eric Kim 5:41 am on March 12, 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      This was kind of an extraordinary video. Go Pro making the world a better place! Do you know this person?

  • Eugene Chan 1:12 am on February 25, 2014 Permalink |  

    Updated Bootcamp Page with Content for Cohort III 

    @eugene: in the spirit of learning and reuse, will you be posting up the exercises for our cohort to the bootcamp site? Thanks in advance.

     
    • Eugene Eric Kim 2:24 am on February 25, 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Definitely have been planning to, just haven’t gotten around to it yet. Is it time-sensitive for you and @marie’s upcoming bootcamp session? If so, I’ll bump it up on my priority list.

    • Eugene Chan 2:26 am on February 25, 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Not time sensitive, just a +1 vote that it would be useful for some PolicyLink work I have going on. We have what we need from you for the bootcamp.

      • Eugene Eric Kim 6:37 am on February 28, 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        Will get stuff up next week! Super excited that you’re finding this stuff useful and applicable to your work. Motivates me to share more!

  • Eugene Chan 1:40 am on February 13, 2014 Permalink |  

    What Questions should I ask my direct reports in giving me feedback? 

    I’ve been at my job for exactly one year and I’ve asked for one-on-one meetings with my team (there are three members) to give me feedback on how I can be a better manager.

    I’m looking for ways to improve, whether I’m addressing things that they need or that the team needs. All the team members were in place when I joined and from my point of view, I’ve worked pretty well with them. I do feel like I’ve built a level of trust with each of them.

    I’ve specifically asked for it to be outside of the performance review process (not that I have anything against it, I just don’t usually find them very helpful), this is more informal, hopefully honest, and in the spirit of taking in feedback and improving my role as their manager.

    So with that: do you have suggestions for questions or framing for my meetings?

     
    • Dana 1:50 am on February 13, 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      This is the question I’d want my bosses to ask me:

      1.What’s the one thing I could be doing to make your life/ job easier?

      I could go on a tangent about all the different areas I need more support and clearer communication in but this makes you focus on the thing that’s most prominent in your mind. And it sounds nice – like you are taking ownership of your piece to the puzzle and you want to help them.

    • Avatar photo

      Natalie 2:46 am on February 13, 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Dana beat me to it. I think she nailed it. I like “one thing” questions because they almost force the person to come up with something. And if there’s a list, it gives them the opening to begin the diatribe. You could also ask for input on what they consider to be the most effective management approach for them personally, or to think back on the best supervisor they ever had, and what made that person so great.

    • Eugene Chan 6:48 pm on February 13, 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Great suggestions! I had a question along the same line, but not for 1 thing, That is a better question. So thanks @dana and @natalie!

  • Eugene Chan 1:27 am on February 12, 2014 Permalink |  

    Sorry, it took so long! Next SOB (Self Organized Bootcamp) is on Thursday 2/27 from 4 to 6 at Hub SF. I will send an email out shortly, but wanted to post here.

     
    • marie 1:28 am on February 12, 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      I went to post this on the watercooler and you had beat me to it. Efficiency!

    • Eugene Eric Kim 1:33 am on February 12, 2014 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Excellent! Glad that you two are doing this. And on my birthday, no less!

      Sadly, I won’t be able to attend. I’m facilitating my own big meeting that same day — my first in almost two years! But as much as I hate the idea of missing this, I love knowing that you all will be working out with or without me!

      Looking forward to hearing how it goes. Thanks again, @marie and @eugenechan!

  • 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.

  • Eugene Chan 2:00 am on October 30, 2013 Permalink |  

    Job Descriptions as Pie Charts 

    This comes from Steve Blank: http://steveblank.com/2011/08/22/hiring-easy-as-pie/

    He uses it for reviewing candidates, but I thought that it would be useful for job reviews and for visualization of current and ideal job roles.

    eugene

     
    • Jessica 4:32 am on October 30, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Eugene, this is such an elegant way of thinking about our own and others’ skills; simple yet takes into account a portfolio of expertise, strengths & weaknesses. Thanks for sharing!

  • Eugene Chan 5:29 am on October 26, 2013 Permalink |
    Tags:   

    I’m the biggest tag in the tagcloud.

     
    • Eugene Eric Kim 2:50 am on October 27, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Yes. 🙂 No need to tag yourself (unless you really want to). If you click on anyone’s names, you will see their posts.

  • Eugene Chan 4:18 pm on October 24, 2013 Permalink |
    Tags:   

    @brooking blew my mind with this.

    http://theactiongame.herokuapp.com/dashboard

     
    • Eugene Eric Kim 6:51 pm on October 24, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

      Cool concept. Basically taking Pomodoro and turning it into a game by adding a notion of levels. I like it. Let us know how it goes!

      • Eugene Chan 3:53 am on October 25, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

        It’s a little rough around the edges, but I had a similar reaction.

        • Avatar photo

          Brooking 5:43 pm on October 25, 2013 Permalink | Log in to Reply

          Yea the developer is a friend of mine and is SUPER open to feedback and really passionate about it. He’s a productivity coach and has been living and breathing this game for the last 6 months, and is in that classic developer mode of building it out with the budget he can and looking for investors/ways to have the time to build it out more and still provide for himself materially in the mean time 😉 I find it really helpful for those days when it’s hard to get myself focused – the action game is a great way to get started. It’s also fun to do ACTION PARTIES which are co-work days based in actions (just did one Wednesday in Oakland), which are great because you work and then get to chat with friends/dance etc for 5 minutes every half hr….

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