“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” — Chinese Proverb
I thought it would be good to share the momentum of Getting Results so far. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind and I’m seeing some great trajectory. I didn’t really know what to expect, but folks in the know are telling me the trajectory is strong and contagious.
I’ve decided to make March a focus on Getting Results so I’ll continue to post on simple ways to get results in work and life.
By the Numbers
I’m not driving by the numbers but they’re helping me see what’s working and what’s not. I keep my eye on the ball and focus a pitch at a time, but I periodically check the scoreboard to see where I’m at. In terms of raw numbers, it’s pretty good so far:
- 8,000+ visits to Getting Results.com this first week
- ~90 Facebook Fans within 3 days of making it available.
- Getting Results.com hit the 1st page of Google search results for the search “getting results” on Friday (bouncing between 1st and second page of search results)
Back at Work
Getting Results is gradually spreading around Microsoft. It’s mostly word of mouth. The people I mentor end up telling their managers, teams, and other team, and then it spreads. I see people like to share their success and success has a beautiful way of snowballing. Any way, here are the highlights from this past week at work:
- I saw a spike in the number of Microsoft colleagues asking me to mentor them
- I got asked to do a brownbag for ~90 folks in our Microsoft Consulting Services this month to talk about the book.
- I got asked to teach my scenario-driven approach to train 500+ Microsoft PMs, developers, and testers (10 sessions of 50+)
- A few companies asked that I would do a Webinar to share the Agile Results system (after all, who doesn’t want their teams getting great results.)
This means I need to streamline my training material and train some more trainers. I never want to be the bottleneck (which is why I’m a big believer in creating platforms, tools, books, job aids and self-paced training so people can run with it on their own.)
What’s Success Look Like?
For me, it’s all about impact … a person at a time, a team a time, an organization at a time, a company at a time … etc. I’m less concerned about the numbers, and more concerned that I see the right things happening
- Individuals are sharing stories how life just got a whole lot better
- Work environments and organizations are shifting to better places to be
- Individuals are finding ways to unleash their best
My real test is people all around me follow their passion, kick arse and take names, and get more out of life.
My simple goal for now is to help more people drive their day, their week, their month, and their year with 3 compelling stories at a time.
Photo by mistycabal.
Keep rockin’ it J.D.!!!
Holy correlated wait stats! I don’t know what your expectations were, but I’m thrilled to see the impact in only a single week. If only more people knew that success was just a click away. The Agile Way has certainly given my life & career a whole new perspective–an optimistic outlook which includes balance & a rhythm of results that ROCKS! It’s great to hear that others are learning the secret sauce. Good luck!
J.D. you contine to inspire and amaze!!
Success does snowball.
I just knew when I first came here you were a winner!!! You keep on pushing ahead with positive insights and action. So exciting!
Hi JD .. what excellent news – and it’s just so good to be along the ride with you.
May I ask a question .. how do you cope with the blog (& comments) & answers .. & twitter, fb, work, etc etc .. do you have a formula for the cross-line work? I guess it goes back to your using Evernote and being very well organised. But the timing element is interesting .. I see from your Agile Results sheet you allocate time .. somehow I feel most of us are missing something!! Me too – I’m sure!
Do you set time boundaries, and do some this time and some next time? ..in the blogosphere .. presumably your posts and themes are set – you’ve done that homework as such .. ?
Thanks .. and so pleased to be around and learning .. Hilary
Incredible momentum!
Go Agile, Go Agile, Go Agile!
@ Lance
Will do!
@ Jimmy
You’re right — it’s a great trajectory and it’s onward and updward from here!
@ Jannie
Thank you!
Positive insight and action really are the name of the game.
@ Hilary
I think the heart of it is:
– structured time (have a time for things)
– free time by design
– best energy on the right things (including lots of down time)
– one place to look (fast to find stuff and act on it)
Here are some more keys
– batch and focus – I do things in a batch, which helps me optimize.
– timeboxes – I set limits for activities that can expand if there’s no limit.
– boundaries and buffers – I do simple things to keep energy strong and stress low (for example, weekends are off, Sun is my creative think time, … etc.)
– power hours and creative hours – I found my best power hours for the week and my best creative hours and I plug the right work into those buckets.
I think another practice I have that might be different is I constantly perculate ideas. My mentor pointed this out to me. I make it simple to work on something in the background in short-bursts of inspiration.
The metaphor is, I think of a personal catalog or portfolio of results. I focus on one thing at a time, but as ideas come up, I have a place to store them, and when I’m in the zone, I dump a lot of things quickly.
@ Alik
Hang on for the ride!
wo,I believe you are a man who do plans and take actions, and it would be always motivated when people talk and work with you
@ oceanlu
Thank you.
Hi JD – thanks for your comprehensive answer .. all useful, the points I noted (all actually!) .. one place to look for things – fast and then act ..
– batch and focus – I can see that for posts, twitter, facebook etc
– ok percolation .. good idea
– dumping stuff – I’ve lots of those .. ideas, etc
I just have to work with two lives, but I’m coming out of the woodwork .. I have to ..
Many thanks .. these are really useful thoughts to put into practice – Hilary
Hey JD,
Great stuff. I would suggest doing some video training as well. It will help many people.
It would be good if you can write a book on mentoring mostly confined to software developers.
Cheers
Nilesh Joglekar
JD you work! your post is a great evidence that action can be by design!
Wish you all the best
I meant your rocks!!
I can tell you’ve worked hard on the book. When you put a lot of time and energy into a product, people can feel this. They want to be a part of you.
I started the book and so far it’s excellent. I love the rule of three in the book. It has helped me focus my energy instead of taking on too many goals in a day.
@ Hilary
I’m glad they helped!
@ Nilesh
Thank you. Videos are a really good idea, especially for sharing this info in a more friendly way.
Great point on writing a book on mentoring for devs. I’ve been lucky to have great mentors and it would be good to consolidate, synthesize, and share succes patterns.
@ Dror
Thank you!
I get by with a little help from my friends.
@ Karl
You’re right, the energy sure does catch on.
Thank you. I’m glad you’re enjoying it so far — it sounds like it’s already helping out and that’s great to hear.
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