Write It, Say It, Slap It

I recently attending a Project Management course provided by Martin Training Associates, and our instructor introduced us to a method call 'Write It, Say It, Slap It'. This method provided so many benefits that I had to share it on my blog. You can use this exercise for any project, brainstorm session, negotiation or meeting. This can also be used in your personal life, as well as your professional one. Each person is supplied with a marker and a pack of post-its. Everyone gets up from their seat, moves to the same long wall and the team is asked to answer some sort of question. "What do we need for the symposium?" "What is the most critical piece of training for new associates?" "What do we need to accomplish during spring cleaning?" Each person will proceed to write and idea/answer, then they say it aloud, and lastly, they smack that idea up on the wall. After 3 minutes, or so, have everyone return to their seats and ask that one person review the items posted with the team. The next step to this process is to start ranking priority or classing sub-groups. This will depend on the kind of project or situation the team is working on. If the team is trying to find out the most important training for new associates, you will be working on prioritizing high to low. Move the post-its around covering duplicate ideas and moving the priorities from top to bottom. If your team is working on a larger scale project, such as a symposium, you will start sub-categorizing and grouping these tasks and needs under larger groups. Travel/Lodging can be listed on a new post-it and several post-its listing things like hotel, food, bus rental, car rental, entertainment, audio/video, and air travel can be placed next to it. Eventually you will work your way up to the large project post-it 'Symposium'. If you are working on a home project like our favorite 'spring cleaning', take your family to the wall or dining table. Have fun using the write-it, say-it, slap-it method and then organize tasks under family members. No matter how large or small the project, or how mundane the subject (cleaning), utilizing every member of the team, and getting them engaged to give their perspective in 3 minutes can get you up and running. Example found on "The Centered Librarian" blog: http://centeredlibrarian.blogspot.com/2009/03/write-it-say-it-slap-it.html Flickr Photo of Post-It layout http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3239/2845921084_beb90b6f90.jpg?v=0

Take Time to Find Time

People are not born organized, organization is a learned skill. There are some simple tips and techniques that will help your professional life and home life run much more efficiently.

First, consider your obligations. List out all external entities that demand your time. For instance, work, children, spouse, finances and school. You may also be a caregiver to a family member or involved in a non-profit.

Once you have identified your external responsibilities put them aside for a moment and plan out your internal responsibilities. As a person, you are number one. Plan out your time each day for all of the responsibilities you have to yourself. What time will you allow yourself for reading, gardening, dinner with friends, doctor appointments, salon appointments, exercise, or television. In a paper planner write your personal time in with a Sharpie marker. By taking your personal time as seriously as any of your external obligations you are ensuring peace of mind and happiness. When you deprive yourself of what you want and value, resentment will edge into your other obligations.

Now that you have solidified your personal time, fill in external obligations that have defined time parameters. Your work hours are 8am to 5pm, your child has a soccer game every Saturday morning, you work on the non-profit Wednesday evenings, and you and your spouse take an art class on Tuesday nights. Box out these times with the sharpie marker.

Home Tips:

The rest of your obligations are flexible and, in most cases, can be delegated. Household chores, meal preparation, paying bills, and carpooling can be shared by many family members. Live out these obligations in 15 minute increments. Try using an inexpensive kitchen timer the next time your pay your bills. The faint ticking will quicken your pace. You would be surprised how quickly children can fold and put laundry away in 15 minutes.

Work Tips:

If you work at a desk, your computer organizer and calendar is the best tool to use. You can list your 'to do' list, your 'to call', and meetings in one place. Do not spend 5 minutes after each task to tidy up and file. Instead keep a notepad with your throughout your day. Mark down reminder notes to yourself, contact numbers, meeting notes, and ideas that may come to you. During the last 15 minutes of you workday compile all of your notes, post its, and emails. Move your daily emails to respective folders. If an email request a response or action, quickly add it into your 'to do' to 'to call' lists in your calendar. Whip through your post-its and add items to your to do lists throughout the week. Generally, any requests from supervisors and managers should be done timely. Take all of your notes from your meetings that day, make sure they are dated, and write some bullet actions and topics discussed in the meeting for quick reference later on. File them under the company, topic, or project being discussed in the meeting. Always review your schedule for the next day.

The Interview

Preparing for an interview begins when you start looking for a new position. If you are utilizing professional media, such as LinkedIn, try reaching out to some of your connections for warm leads on companies or positions you are interested in. When networking, try to bullet point your skills so that information can be quickly passed on to potential interviewers.

Once you have been invited to an interview make sure you have plenty of flex time around the appointment. There is no excuse for being late to an interview, and if your interviewer is behind schedule, you do not want to end the interview early. If offered an appointment for a phone interview, the same rules apply.

Generally phone interviews are vocal business cards. The interviewer is looking for experience, education, and skills. They usually describe the position and responsibilities and will verify if this is an interest to you. If you meet their qualifications and express interest, generally that will lead to a face to face interview.

After you have received an inviation to a face to face interview do your research. Go to the company's website and read the mission statement, any media links, the position you are interviewing for, philanthropical endeavors, and company statistics. Write down questions you have that you would like to learn more about during your interview.

When dressing for an interview, overdressed is always better than underdressed. Men should wear a suit, freshly cleaned, preferrably in a charcoal or navy color. Conservative shirt color and tie to accompany. Men should not wear jewelry except for wedding band and watch. Women should also invest in a classic colored suit. However, ladies are encouraged to wear a current style, or color, blouse. Always wear modest necklines, conservative jewelry, and a matte finish shoe. Both men and women should always remember to go easy on cologne and perfumes and give some attention to your nails and hands.

Arrive at your interview about ten minutes early. Again, allowing some flex time can save you if you went to the wrong part of the building or if parking was difficult. Always bring a few copies of your resume. If, by chance, a member of the interviewing panel is without your resume, providing one to them exemplifies your organization and preparation.

Face to face interviews are typically 'psychological interviews'. The focus of the panel's questions will not be about your resume. Instead you will be faced with questions like 'Give me an example of a time when you encountered a problem and what did you do to fix it?' The intention is not to get information about the past or present position you are working in, but rather, how your perform under stress.

Everyone always asks me what they should say when asked this one particular question in an interview. They always ask this one too, 'Tell me your biggest strength and your biggest weakness.' The last thing you should do name a weakness that is actually a strength. I know everyone has been told to do that, but honestly, interviewers hate that. Really be honest about a weakness, and maybe mention some steps your have been taking to turn it into a strength. For instance, a weakness may be balancing work and personal life. Perhaps you have learned some new digital organizing software that has helped streamline your schedule and your life isn't as conflicted now.

Towards the end of your interview, provide a closing. Recap some of the questions you had and the answers they provided. Point out some of the requirements and needs of the position and how you are qualified to meet them. Also, thank them for the opportunity to interview and also for the information they provided to you.

I recommend writing thank you letters within a couple hours after the interview. Each member of your interviewing panel should receive one, including details specific to their questions and your answers. This reminds them of your conversations, and most importantly, you! Be honest and tell them what you found interesting and what excites you about the position.

Here are some helpful links to help your prepare for your interview!

Practice answering some questions!
http://www.jobinterviewquestions.org/questions/behavioral-questions.asp

What to wear?!
http://jobsearch.about.com/od/interviewsnetworking/a/dressforsuccess.htm

Professional thank you letters!
http://www.writeexpress.com/perfect-thank-you-letter.html
(template)
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.iticollege.edu/images/Thank_Th.gif&imgrefurl=http://www.iticollege.edu/Res_Templates.htm&usg=__2cCbU55xT2Mp9ba5Qr0h4O-h7FQ=&h=288&w=182&sz=10&hl=en&start=177&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=l0IUgNu4cEcpPM:&tbnh=115&tbnw=73&prev=/images%3Fq%3DProfessional%2BThank%2Byou%2Bletter%2Bformat%26start%3D160%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26ndsp%3D20%26tbs%3Disch:1

Social Networking

I'm sure you have all heard of some of these media networks. Sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. However, have you considered these to become an intricate part of your career development?

The first thing to identify is what kind of tool are these sites providing me? Is this a social network, a professional network, or a quick note overview?

In a nutshell, "Facebook is a social networking service that lets you connect with friends, co-workers, and others who share similar interests or who have common backgrounds." Facebook is a social networking tool, however, you can still leverage this site in your career goals. First, Facebook is a wonderful way to network with people that have the same hobbies or non-profit affiliations. If you are actively involved in a non-profit, Facebook is a perfect way to reach several members or followers quickly and at no cost. If you are using Facebook as a career tool make sure to present yourself professionally, and consider those you 'friend'. Remember that people can view friends of friends through your page, and the images of Margarita Saturdays may come back as a reflection of yourself. There are very good privacy settings that can make you virtually invisable to everyone besides your immediate friends. Check your privacy settings and have a friend tell you how your page is viewed from their end.

Twitter is a quick status update. This is searchable through Google, so watch what you write. This is not the best forum for discussing your disdain for a co-worker or a political debate. As with Facebook, keep it professional. Perhaps, tweeting about a new blog, book, company, or interest can act as leverage towards your goals. Remember the saying, 'If you don't have anything nice to say..' Chris Brogan gives this advice for business tweets. "Share the human side of your company. If you’re bothering to tweet, it means you believe social media has value for human connections. Point us to pictures and other human things."

Lastly, LinkedIn. This is a professional networking tool. Similar to Facebook, but completely focused on professional connections and acheivements. Your 'connections' on LinkedIn may be a coworker, a mentor, an employee, or superior. They could also be 'friends' from Facebook, especially those you are affiliated with in regards to non-profit memberships. The trick with LinkedIn is remembering quality in your networks. Unlike Facebook, where a subscriber will have hundreds of friends, on LinkedIn you may have 25 in your immediate circle. When accepting connections, ask yourself, what value do I provide them? What value do they provide me? Is this connection leveraging my goals? Leo Babauta makes a great point when he said, (on Linkedin) "The best way to network is to help others succeed." Try to find ways to help your connections reach their professional goals, and success will come back around to you.

Visit these sites for easy tutorials on how to use these networking sites!

Facebook:
http://oregonstate.edu/international/atosu/sites/default/files/Facebook_Tips.pdf

Twitter:
http://www.doshdosh.com/ways-you-can-use-twitter/

LinkedIn:
http://learn.linkedin.com/

References:
http://news.cnet.com/newbies-guide-to-facebook/
http://www.chrisbrogan.com/50-ideas-on-using-twitter-for-business/
http://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=4878899711100020088&postID=3508379449555936059