Knowledge workers can change the game. Knowledge can be used as an asset to improve the effectiveness of your business. Exponentially. You can use knowledge to improve your process or product. You can gain efficiencies or create differentiates. It’s not about having people just spend time in their jobs during the week. It’s about creating enough space where knowledge workers can think of new ways to do things. It’s about harvesting those ideas and turning them into results.

Four Dimensional Thinking is a technique to help you figure out who you are and what you want. It’s a way to reflect on your life to help you get from where you are to where you want to be. Reflecting can be structured or unstructured thinking. Thinking is just asking and answering questions. If you want better answers, you need to start by asking better questions. Four Dimensional Thinking is a way to start asking better questions about your life. When you know who you are and what you want, you gain confidence and clarity in how you live your life.

If you have to compete for resources or budget or sell an idea, one of the keys is a business case. One way to think of a business case is “how big is the pie” and “what’s your slice.” You use the business case either to argue for your project or in argument against other projects competing for the same resources and budget.

How do you figure out what your organization or business is really about? It’s one thing to know it intuitively. It’s another to be able to share it or have meaningful dialogue. This is extremely important in an economy that’s contracting. Obviously, it’s important when the economy is expanding too, but when the economy is contracting, it forces you to take a really good look at why the business exists. Why do people fund you? What’s the value? What’s the intrinsic value of what you do versus what’s the market value? Have you found the right efficiencies or does it cost you a $5 to produce that item that nobody will pay you more than $1 for? Here’s the tests I use to quickly know what a team, organization, or business is really about

When you find yourself in a situation that isn’t working for you, analyze it. You can use a simple frame for analysis: adapt, adjust or avoid. This frame can help you improve your effectiveness for any situation. For any situation that isn’t working, determine whether to adapt, adjust or avoid that situation. When you analyze, also look for the patterns. Chances are, you’ll find that you behave similarly in similar situations. Once you know the pattern and what to look for, you can spot these situations faster and improve your effectiveness.

Can you reconfigure your brain for empathy, competitiveness, or strategic thinking? Maybe. You might be fighting an uphill battle though. Your brain shrinks as you get older. As it shrinks, you get smarter. Your brain shapes around your key strengths. By the time you reach your mid-teens, your brain is mostly shaped. I think what this means is that you gain more by focusing on your strengths and playing to your strengths, than trying to improve your weaknesses. If you’ve got it, flaunt it.

You can’t be an expert in all things. However, you can improve your overall effectiveness by rounding out your skills. While it’s good to specialize, knowing the basics in some key areas will help you put your knowledge to work. I’ve found that while it’s important to specialize in some areas, that I get more results by adding other areas to my belt. For example, focusing on business helps me invest my time better. Learning marketing fundamentals helps me get more impact from the work I do.

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The Boostrappers Bible by Seth Godin is one of the best compilations of actionable, business insight I’ve seen.  It took me a while to go through it and each time I go through, I find another nugget of insight or a new lens.  I’ve been recommending it to friends, family, and colleagues.  The price is right – free – and it’s one of the best consolidations of insight and action I’ve seen in a while.

What I especially like about the Bootstrapper’s Bible is that …

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One of the ways you can transform your ordinary day into extraordinary is to master your craft.  By thinking of yourself as a craftsman, you can think of your work as your art.  By immersing yourself in your work, you become fully engaged.   When you’re fully engaged, you find your flow.   As you improve your art, you grow your ability.  As you grow yourself you grow your job.  The opposite is to disconnect from your work and just do your time.  This not only wastes …

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It’s been a few years since I met with Loren Kohnfelder. Every now and then Loren and I play catch up. Loren is former Microsoft. If you don’t know Loren, he’s famous for designing the CLR security model and IE security zones several years ago. He created a model for more fine-grained control over security decisions and he’s a constant advocate for simplifying security.
The last time we met we had some pretty interesting discussions.  You might think two guys that do security stuff would talk about …

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I got some relevant training for today’s world.  The training was “Influencing without Authority” and it was based on the book, Influence Without Authority (2nd Edition).   The focus was how to succeed when you don’t have authority and control over execution.  This is a common scenario in cross-team, cross-group scenarios.  At Microsoft, you don’t get rewarded by saying, “…if only I had control over authority and execution … I would be successful.”  
This training is actually useful beyond just the work scenarios.  You can …

One of the interesting people I got to meet this year is Ken Blanchard.  He

spoke at Microsoft earlier this year.  He’s all about empowering people, growing people, and helping everybody get an A.  This post is my notes from the session.

Catch People Doing Something Right, Accentuate the Positive I’m putting this right up front because Ken said if there was only one thing he could be remembered for, he would want it to be:
“Catch People Doing Something Right, Accentuate the Positive.”

Random Highlights Here’s a sampling of some of the …

One of the interesting people I met this year is Jack Canfield.  He came to speak at Microsoft.  He holds the Guinness Book World Record for having seven books simultaneously on the New York Times Bestseller List, beating out Stephen King.  I didn’t realize who he was until somebody mentioned Chicken Soup for the Soul.  I later realized he’s also the author of The Power of Focus: What the Worlds Greatest Achievers Know about The Secret of Financial Freedom and Success, which I’ve had on my bookshelf for years.  …

How do you improve your results? How do you consistently increase your success? Have you ever wondered why somebody’s *advice* was useless for you at the time? Maybe, they were giving you ideas to change your thinking when what you really needed was better techniques. Have you ever spun your wheels and churned all your energy, only to realize later that you needed to think differently about the problem and change your approach? The first thing to figure out is where you need to change. Here’s a simple frame I’ve been using to help my mentees at Microsoft understand where to change, so they play their best game.

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Should you escalate an issue up the hierarchy if you can’t resolve?  While that might seem like the fast path, the issue is that you’ll be seen as ineffective.  You also might not get the support.  A test of your potential is whether you can get things done without authority.  Instead of escalating, consider asking for advice, not action.  Use the advice for your own learning to improve your effectiveness.  In Influence Without Authority (2nd Edition), Allan Cohen and David Bradford write about avoiding escalating up …

How can you systematically chart out your professional development?  It’s not just functional experience that matters.  The types of business situations you’ve been in matter too.  For example, serving a marketing role during a Start-up is very different than the same role during a Sustaining Success situation.  You can use the STARS model to help you map out your professional experience as well as to chart your course.  In The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, Michael Watkins writes about using the STARS model …

How do you build a productive relationship with your new boss? You need to first focus on the fundamentals. In The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, Michael Watkins writes about how to start off on the right foot with your new boss.
Fundamental Don’ts
Watkins provides some fundamental don’ts to build a productive relationship with your boss:

Don’t trash the past.
Don’t stay away.
Don’t surprise your boss.
Don’t approach your boss only with problems.
Don’t run down your checklist.
Don’t try to change your boss.

Fundamental Do’s
Watkins provides some fundamental do’s …

Are you focused on the right things and balancing the right priorities? How do you gauge your progress towards your targets for success? As a new leader, how do you know whether you’re trending in the right direction? In The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, Michael Watkins writes about questions you can use to determine whether you’re building momentum or losing your balance.
Assessment of Core Challenges 
Watkins provides the following questions to serve as your gyroscope for keeping your balance and orientation.

Core Challenge
Diagnostic Questions

Promote …

How do you build an effective support network for getting results? To be an effective leader, you need a combination of technical advisers, cultural interpreters and political counselors.
In The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, Michael Watkins writes about how you can build an effective support network.
Key Take AwaysI think this is a particularly important post. Too many people with great ideas, can’t get results because they don’t have an effective network. The other scenario is a great person with a great idea, …

Are you working harder but producing less?  While stress can initially help your personal performance, sustained stress at too high a level can  decrease your performance.  As you try to compensate for your decreasing performance, this creates more stress, further decreasing your performance.  It’s a vicious cycle.  In The First 90 Days: Critical Success Strategies for New Leaders at All Levels, Michael Watkins writes about the Yerkes-Dodson Human Performance Curve and how it explains the relationship of levels of stress to your performance.
Yerkes-Dodson Human Performance Curve
Here’s an example of the …