Category Archives: Learning

Learning

Make Meetings Count – Literally, with Meeting Ticker and Clockwork Meetings.

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Ask the internet and often it delivers more than you expected. Today was one of those days.

About two weeks ago I ended up in a Twitter discussion with Shirley Ayres and Paul Taylor about how much time gets wasted in meetings. It started with a post about are meetings are the symptom of bad organisation, and ended up with some ideas around calculating just how much meetings cost.

One of the things mentioned was doing the following calculation, in your head:

Number of people x Hourly pay x Hours spent meeting = Meeting Cost*

*This doesn’t include travelling to the meeting or preparation time, which probably needs to be built-in, but it’s a good starting point.

The idea is that you then compare this cost of meeting figure against the benefits that have resulted from having the meeting, simple. The benefits should be greater than the costs. However, calculating the monetary value of the benefits of a meeting is a bit more difficult to work out.

That was where I left the discussion until Shirley and Paul picked things up again this morning (I have a good reason for being absent, honest).

Say hello to Meeting Ticker and Clockwork Meetings, these are two very helpful programmes that allow you to display the costs of your meetings. To quote Nick Atkin of Halton Housing Trust, “this would shorten meetings by about 75%”. This is how they work:

Meeting Ticker was introduced by Paul this morning. This is open source software which has been developed on GitHub by Toby Tripp, Lydia Tripp, and Roy Kolak. It is worth reading the explanation of why Meeting Ticker was developed ….’expensive consultants sitting on their butts for hours on end’ was a big motivator (sound familiar?).

This is very straightforward to use; you add in the number attending, make an estimate of the hourly salaries and press start. You then watch a meter rapidly adding up the pounds and pence with “stop the bleeding” written dramatically below. It is slightly mesmerizing and would shorten meetings I’m sure.

A couple of observations:

  • Meeting Ticker is written on GitHub, open source software so anybody (with the necessary coding skills) could develop it further, for example to include a choice of salary ranges or a salary calculator.
  • It might not work using Internet Explorer. There is an advisory note saying “If this works on Internet Explorer, it is purely by accident”. Worth knowing if your organisation (there are plenty) only allows an ancient version of Internet Explorer as the web browser.

Clockwork Meetings This afternoon Ed Bullock from Halton Housing Trust came up with this free app on iTunes. It is just as easy to uses as Meeting Ticker, you add the number of attendees, hourly salary cost and press start. The big difference is the ability to set an audible ‘click’ to make a noise at set intervals. Just what you need in case you forget the fact there is ‘money on the clock’.

The discussion hasn’t ended here. There is a lot of activity ongoing to find the best on-line salary calculator that could be used in conjunction with either of these applications.

I’d suggest that you also need a large screen in the meeting room, so that everyone can see the costs rising as the meeting progresses (or drags on). Hopefully it will focus minds to think about costs and benefits.

I know we haven’t yet worked out how we measure the benefits of meetings. Maybe that’s something Shirley can encourage debate about next weekend?

So what’s the PONT?

  1. There seems to be software programme or app for just about anything you can think of, somewhere on the internet. You just need someone to look in the right place.
  2. A highly visible display of the costs of a meeting is likely to have an impact on how people behave and long the meeting takes.
  3. Slight word of caution here. Don’t let this approach fall into the wrong hands. I worry that a few people might misuse ‘meeting cost measures’ and force people into hasty decisions, when a more thoughtful consideration of the evidence is required.

Picture source: Meeting Ticker http://tobytripp.github.io/meeting-ticker/

Clockwork Meetings: https://itunes.apple.com/ye/app/clockwork-meetings/id384045562?mt=8

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Better Understanding – the benefit of meetings. Remember the first time?

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20130421-204621.jpgDoes anyone remember the first meeting they called?

I can, it was quite an anxious experience. Suddenly I had POWER! Power to take people away from doing something useful and have them sit around a table with me for a few hours. Outside of the work that kind of power would be considered a big deal.
The consequence of my anxiety was asking many questions like:

  •  Why do we need this meeting?
  •  Do all these people really need to be there?
  •  Is the journey from South to North Wales justifiable?
  •  What will it cost to put these people in a room for half a day?
  •  Is there an alternative way to achieve what we want to do?

The result was that lots of meetings never actually happened. There was often an alternative way to get things done, it just needed thinking about. That however was long time ago and I’m ashamed to say that I probably don’t put as much thought into calling meetings nowadays. Perhaps all that anxiety wasn’t such a bad thing?

The one thing still do quite often is a quick calculation of the cost of the meeting based roughly on salaries. Following the last weeks post about meetings being the symptom of bad organisation, Shirley Ayres mentioned that she also does this. Shirley takes it one step further by challenging those present with a question about are the outcomes of the meeting value for money? I might try a bit of that.

Ultimately there is great deal of power that comes with the ability to drag people away from what they are doing and into a meeting, it needs to be treated with respect.

So why do we have meetings? There’s plenty of advice available on how to have effective meetings, have a look at businessballs.com for useful and practical material.
Amongst this they have an interesting view on why we have meetings which is about understanding.

Essentially the most useful purpose of a meeting is that face to face contact between people which increases understanding and meaning. Quoting the research by Dr Albert Mehrabian they make some points about how people develop understanding:

  • Written Word = 7% On this basis completely substituting meetings with emails will be challenging.
  • Tone of spoken word = 38% Telephone conferences will improve things, but there is still potential for lots of misunderstanding.
  • Facial expressions and non-verbal signals = 55% Face to face meetings stand a much better chance of achieving understanding and meaning. They also point out that meetings are the most effective way of; securing commitment, exchanging knowledge, creating new ideas and resolving conflict.

I’ve not seen any figures for how this works with video conferences. Face to face communication through facilities like Skype and FaceTime are normal business practice for many people. A video conference certainly feels more useful that a telephone conference, but is it as effective as a real time face to face meeting?

So it’s not just a social thing. The point about getting better understanding and meaning is a huge benefit and good incentive to have meetings. However, it doesn’t automatically follow that the benefits will happen just from meeting face to face. There is plenty more that needs to be in place to have a effective meeting, just scroll through the businessballs advice.

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. The improved understanding acquired through face to face meetings is a big incentive for holding meetings.
  2. The ability to call a meeting is powerful. Meetings use up lots of resources. Outcomes need to pass the value for money test.
  3. It’s worth remembering the ‘first time’ you called a meeting and using the same level of care and attention that went into planning that first meeting for all.

Picture Source: Dilbert by Scott Adams

Links to other posts: http://whatsthepont.com/2013/04/14/meetings-are-the-symptom-of-bad-organisation-yes-but-no-but-maybe/

Meetings are the symptom of bad organisation. Yes, but no, but maybe?

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20130414-191305.jpgFor anyone who works in a large organisation this will resonate. You can back it up with comments you might have heard over the years, like; “meetings suck the life-force out of me”, “that’s two hours of my life I will never get back” and “that was a big waste tax payers / shareholders money”.

Top tip for really dull meetings: pretend you have to visit the bathroom. Go and do some useful work, then return just before the end of the meeting. Nobody will have the courage to ask why you took so long.

Back to the full quote by Peter Drucker, “meetings are the symptom of bad organisation. The fewer meetings the better”.

The point seems to be that meetings represent a failure to properly plan and organise what you are doing. As a result you end up in meetings trying to fix things that haven’t worked. Ultimately if you have to spend time in meetings, you aren’t doing the things that really matter like: making products or delivering services.

There is plenty of research and figures to back up the idea that meetings are a problem. This paper by Romano & Nunamaker analyses a huge amount of the research written about meetings and presents some depressing findings:

  • Many reviews and surveys reveal that meetings dominate workers and managers time and yet are considered to be costly, unproductive and dissatisfying.
  •  The number of meetings and their duration has been steadily increasing.
  •  Studies of managers and knowledge workers reveal that they spend between 25%-80% of their time in meetings.
  • Self estimates of meeting productivity by managers in many different functional areas range from 33% – 47%.

I said it was depressing. Just imagine you are one of those knowledge workers or managers who spend 80% of their time in meetings, of which only 47% of that time is productive. That’s over 40% of your time in work, 2 days a week, doing something that is useless (and we worry about people wasting time on social media…….).

This lack of achievement and the frustration that goes with it has to have an impact upon your level of engagement and sense of job satisfaction. This paper by Rogelberg et al in Human Resource Management (March-April 2010) makes the link between overall job satisfaction and meeting satisfaction. It goes on to suggest that meeting satisfaction could be used as part of job satisfaction measures and employee engagement.

If you fancy a more in-depth look at this topic, and potential solutions, one of the co-authors of the paper, Joseph A. Allen runs the Centre for Meeting Effectiveness Lab  at Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska. There are some useful links on the page to work that the Lab is doing.

So, we need to ban all meetings! (Not quite yet……Rambo)

This could be one response to the ‘meetings problem’. As attractive as it might seem (to some people) it might actually make things worse. Meetings are very necessary for transparent decision making, relationship building and knowledge exchange. I’ve argued before that knowledge exchange is a social process  and meetings are a good place to achieve this. What we need is better meetings.

Having better meetings depends upon better process and people’s behaviour. Before any of this you need to be confident that you need the meeting in the first place, which links back to the Peter Drucker quote, “the fewer meetings the better”.

Meeting process and behaviours are two things I plan to write some posts about soon. In the meanwhile some more meeting quotes: (there are thousands on the web)

  • “A meeting is an interaction where the unwilling, selected from the uninformed, led by the unsuitable, to discuss the unnecessary, are required to write a report about the unimportant.” Kayser
  • “An employee who needs permission to buy a box of paperclips can spend tens of thousands of dollars worth of employee time on bad meetings.”

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. Meetings are very necessary for many good reasons like; transparent decision making, relationship building and knowledge exchange.
  2. The numbers and duration of meetings for managers and knowledge workers is increasing.
  3. The costs of bad meetings in lost productivity and reduced staff satisfaction are huge. We need to have better meetings, starting now.

Picture Source: http://venturevillage.eu/make-meetings-effective. Some useful tips here on how to make meetings more effective.

20130414-191327.jpgAn old favourite.

Clump Recruiting, Old Wine in New Bottles? What about the Pals Battalions and Richard Arkwright?

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20130404-224803.jpg‘Clump Recruitment’ is a jazzy new expression I recently heard mentioned at this event. The gist is that you can recruit Generation Y  people as a group or ‘clump’ by targeting where they hang out together (usually online somewhere, apparently). The idea is that you can then get them to all come along together and work for your knowledge economy business. This gives you all the benefits of a ready-made socially cohesive group. Large scale recruitment of the right people, done in a flash. Sounds fantastic.

I did start wondering though, hasn’t this sort of group recruitment happened before? Is the idea of ‘clump recruitment’ just ‘old wine in new bottles’?‘To explain my quandary here are two examples; the Pals Battalions from World War One and the older practice that flourished in the industrial revolution, where whole families worked for a single organisation.

The Pals Battalions of World War One.

The Pals Battalions were created at the outbreak of war in 1914 when there was an urgent need to recruit into the army. The Generals moved away from the traditional methods, reasoning that young men would be more likely to enlist if they could be sure they would be with people they already knew; friends, workmates, neighbours (and possibly family).

The idea certainly worked and between August and September 1914, 500,000 men had volunteered and a further 500,000 by the end of the year. A successful recruitment campaign in anyone’s books.

However, what shouldn’t be forgotten here is the impact of warfare on people from a specific community. The Battle of The Somme effectively wiped out the Accrington Pals, with a devastating effect upon the community the young men came from.

There’s is an excellent article about the Pals Battalions by Bruce Robinson on the BBC website which is well worth reading.

Richard Arkwright and Cromford Mill.

Richard Arkwright is a major contributor to the development of the industrial revolution in the 1770′s and has been credited with developing the world’s first factory system. You can read about him here or view the Tony Robinson, walking through history TV series.

What struck me in the video clip was how whole families were employed by Arkwright at Cromford Mill. Women and children in the factory producing thread whist the men were involved in weaving cloth. The workforce planning setup favoured the recruitment of a ‘family unit’.

A policy of incentives, like workers accommodation, may well have helped with the recruitment and retention at Cromford Mill. However, it also makes it difficult for workers to buck the system. If the whole family work for the same organisation there is unlikely to be much industrial dispute.

Throughout the industrial revolution there are numerous examples of several members of the same family, if not whole families or generations working for the same organisation. I know from my own family history that having a relative working in Deep Navigation Colliery meant that other members of the family followed.

Old wine in new bottles.

Back to old wine in new bottles, I do wonder if the idea of ‘clump recruiting’ Generation Y people is a bit of history repeating itself. The idea of recruiting specific groups, sometimes in very large numbers, has been around for a very long time.

If you want some interesting perspectives on ‘old wine in new bottles’, have a look at The Custody Record blog. I particularly like:

  • “We are not returning to how we did things before. We are moving forward in a familiar way.”
  • “We are not retreating. We are advancing in a new direction.”
  • “Old wine in new bottles.” The practice of taking something old and dressing it up to look like something new.

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. Recruiting groups of people who are very similar or linked can have consequences such as a potential lack of diversity in your workforce (or much worse in the case of the Pals).
  2. “History merely repeats itself. It has all been done before. Nothing under the sun is truly new”. Biblical quote, Ecclesiastes 1:9.
  3. It’s always worth checking that the new idea isn’t just ‘old wine in new bottles’.

Picture Source: Cover of the book about the Carmarthen Pals Battalion. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Carmarthen-Pals-Steven-John/dp/1848840772

Rituals, routines and how to polish shoes

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This isn’t something you see very often in our house. Four pairs of shoes (size 8 -13) all nicely polished and lined up by the front door. It was a nostalgic reminder of a ritual from growing up.

Sunday afternoons as a schoolboy were about my shoe cleaning ritual. It had started with my rugby boots and developed into an epic task of cleaning as many pairs of shoes as I could find. I really used to relish the process of:

 

  • Finding the shoes (it was the sort of house where people abandoned their shoes rather than take them off);
  • Cleaning off mud and other detritus;
  • Applying the polish;
  • Removing excess polish;
  • Buffing them up to get a nice shine; and
  • Placing the finished article in a neat row by the kitchen door, ready for Monday morning.

As a physical activity it wasn’t particularly demanding, just a routine I repeated, but it did allow me time to think. Thinking about the week that had passed and preparing for the week ahead. There was actually a lot of other stuff going on as part of this ritual, which only really makes sense to me now:

Taking care of valued possessions. The act of cleaning the shoes was about making sure they were fit for purpose. Also prolonging their useful life through repair and maintenance. I really did cherish my rugby boots.

Taking care of others. Thinking back I did enjoy the thought of having my siblings, mother and grandmother wear shoes I had looked after for them. My strongest sense of pride however came from cleaning my father’s shoes, even the terrible tan colour ones I could never find a polish to match. (My brother once threw up in those shoes – something weirdly symbolic in that I’m sure).

Making the best use of my time. This probably came from my time in the Cub Scouts. I always used to feel justified that I had done something useful with my time on a Sunday evening, setting me up for school on Monday.

My kids claim that they know nothing about the process of polishing shoes, due to my poor parenting skills they inform me. Apparently they aren’t alone.

I had to buy some polish in a local shop this week which was slightly odd. First off the polish was kept behind the counter. I can’t fathom out why. It’s hardly dangerous medicines or high cost like the vodka they keep there. Perhaps it was because they didn’t know what shoe polish is? The young guy serving said that he had never used shoe polish and asked how it worked. I did explain. I then got a guided tour of his £90 trainers that last him about six months. Great, I was heading off to polish some shoes I’ve used for two years and have had re-soled and re-heeled twice. I walked away with the distinct impression that he thought I was some weird old codger.

For the benefit of my local shop worker and my kids, here’s a video on how to polish your shoes. I hope they watch this. On their behalf I have picked one of the better videos with a really cool guy, with cool clothes and nice hair. Perhaps they will learn something from him rather than me.

On a positive note, I did notice that my middle son had cleaned his rugby boots last week, first time ever I think. OK, the sink was full of mud and the draining board was covered in grass, but it’s a start. At least he’s stopped asking his grandmother to do it.

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. Rituals and routines are important as a way of making sense of the world around us.
  2. They can also help surface memories and patterns of how to do things. It helped me get back into the school week, perhaps I should resume it for work?
  3. Training shoes have a lot to answer for.

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Photo Source. It’s one of mine, as are the smallest pair of shoes.

 

Jefferson’s Taper. A 200 year old perspective on the internet?

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This is a real gem from 200 years ago that has a great deal of relevance today.

Thomas Jefferson made the following reference to the ‘taper’ (a candle) in a letter to Isaac McPherson, August 1813.

“He who receives ideas from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine receives light without darkening me. That ideas should freely spread from one to another over the globe, for the moral and mutual instruction of man, and improvement of his condition, seems to have been peculiarly and benevolently designed by nature, when she made them, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe, move, and have our physical being, incapable of confinement or exclusive appropriation”

The full letter (available here) discusses the merits of the patent system and was part of a debate around how innovation was being restricted by perceived controls over the exchange of ideas and knowledge.

Two centuries on you could almost argue that we have reached a pinnacle in knowledge exchange with the development of technology that allows:

  • Instant global connectivity and collaboration;
  • Very low information storage costs;
  • The ability to quickly and easily reproduce exact copies of information;
  • Virtually zero transmission costs; and
  • Things Jefferson couldn’t have imagined such as webinars, videos, Skype etc.

200 years on and Jefferson’s Taper description stands up as a reasonable explanation of what the Internet provides. Did Thomas Jefferson write the first specification for the internet?

“…..ideas should freely spread….over the globe…, like fire, expansible over all space, without lessening their density in any point, and like the air in which we breathe …..incapable of confinement…..”

One final thought, as important as the taper is, without the flame it serves no purpose. A single unlit candle produces as much light as a million unlit candles. I suppose the same is true of the Internet. Without data, information and ideas it’s just a jumble of wires and hardware.

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. Many good ideas concerning knowledge exchange have been around a very long time.
  2. A taper without a flame is of little use. The flame is necessary to the taper as are ideas to the exchange of knowledge.
  3. Without data, information and ideas, Jefferson’s Taper and the Internet are just hardware.

Previous Jefferson Post: http://whatsthepont.wordpress.com/2013/02/09/busmans-holiday-the-jefferson-memorial-wastewater-treatment-and-root-cause-analysis/

Picture Source: Jefferson Memorial, Washington DC.

Interesting Links: Jefferson’s Taper Letter: http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/a1_8_8s12.html

Cardiff University Lecture on Jefferson’s Taper: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/share/newsandevents/events/history/distinguished-lecture-jefferson-taper-and-the-future-of-books.html

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Busman’s Holiday. The Jefferson Memorial, Wastewater Treatment and Root Cause Analysis.

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20130209-094238.jpgTo avoid any confusion with my friends I need to put something on the record:

  1. I did not take my wife on a visit to a wastewater treatment plant (sewage works) on our honeymoon.
  2. We had a lovely time camping in a second-hand tent at St Cast, Brittany, NW France.
  3. I did visit the Barbados Wastewater Treatment Plant – alone – whilst we were on holidays in the Caribbean a few years later (it was fantastic).
  4. I did visit several other wastewater treatment plants whilst overseas on holidays during the following years (they were also very interesting).
  5. Yes, this activity was associated with my job at the time so it could be labelled as a Busman’s Holiday, but my wife never came on any of the visits, she’s far too sensible (bet you are now thinking I’m a real catch……).

Fast forward almost 20 years…….. Washington DC Hotel, family holiday with the kids.

Me: “Come on kids, get ready, we are off to see the Jefferson Memorial”

Oldest Son: “Ah yes, Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, born 1734,  etc etc etc…… ” (He’s still talking)

Wife: “Yes, it’s where Howland Blackiston from the Juran Institute filmed that classic video on root cause analysis, The 5 Whys.”

Me: “Yeah, I really want to go and see if there are any spider webs left”.

Younger kids: “Please can we stay here and watch Sponge Bob on TV?”

Two points to note here:

  1. The 5 Whys video is a great one to watch if you are interested in root cause analysis and the 5 Whys technique. I’m not going to explain it and spoil things; I suggest you watch the 60 second video. By the way I did see plenty of spider’s webs at the Jefferson Memorial.
  2. This was a sublime moment when my wife and I were completely in tune and thinking about the same thing (that wasn’t kids related). We had both been exposed to the 5 Whys video during separate work activities and were genuinely excited about going to see the real place (well I was). A joint busman’s holiday, lovely.

Fast forward to summer holidays 2013 (Back to the Future)

It turns out we are going on holiday somewhere that doesn’t excite me very much. I’m not really a posh hotel sort of person. I’m not one to complain either, which is probably why I enjoy the hardships of cycling with my friend Geof. But I am someone who sees opportunity in even the direst of situations.

Good news! The place we are going has some interesting industrial facilities nearby AND some wastewater treatment operations. Even better they are really good at continuous improvement and staff engagement. I know a few people in the country who may be able to arrange a visit for me (and eldest son, he can tell them all about Jefferson). I am truly excited about the prospect of this latest busman’s holiday; hopefully I can share my learning experiences in some future posts.

It really is a bit like back to the future. My wife plans to go swimming with dolphins while I’m off at the industrial complex. I thought she did that in the Caribbean?….. whatever, roll on summer!

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. There is opportunity for learning even in the most unlikely of circumstances.
  2. If you enjoy something it doesn’t feel like work, or a busman’s holiday.
  3. Having a few different interests to your partner isn’t such a bad thing.

Busman’s holiday: Definition from http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/busman%27s_holiday

Etymology:  First recorded in 1893 in the UK. The idea is that a bus driver going off on a holiday, would take an excursion by bus, thereby engaging in a similar activity to work.

Noun: busman’s holiday.  A holiday or vacation during which one does something similar to what one does as work

Interesting links:

5 Whys and Root Cause Analysis a the Jefferson Memorial http://www.oahhs.org/quality/lean-transformation/jefferson-memorial-root-cause-analysis.doc

Why you need to ask Why? http://www.ideachampions.com/weblogs/archives/2011/05/some_years_ago.shtml

Howland Blackiston Juran Institute video. The 5 Whys. http://youtu.be/IETtnK7gzlE

Picture Source: Lego Bus http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=lego+london+bus&hl=en&tbo=d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=4QsWUYmcFufY0QXnsYDQCw&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=768&bih=929#biv=i%7C12;d%7C_0gRqkBD9u9ZTM:

Florence Nightingale; the mother of Infographics? (btw she was also a nurse……)

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20130127-152835.jpgThis week I’ve had a few interesting conversations following this exchange: Question, “What did Florence Nightingale do? ” Typical response, “She was a Nurse……(of course!)“.  But….. “did you know she was also a mathematician and in the 1850′s produced a remarkable graphic showing the causes of death of hospitalised soldiers during the Crimean war.  The graphic convinced Parliament to improve sanitary conditions, which lead to a huge decline in mortality in many areas. She was probably the mother of modern Infographics…..”

I got involved in a project to develop better ways of communicating numerical information several years ago which we called ‘graphical presentation of data’. I don’t think the word Infographic had been invented back then, so it’s nice to have something new and groovy to describe what we were up to. An associate at the time was very concerned about the potential for the manipulation of data and its misrepresentation using graphics to “tell the story you want“. We never really made much progress and I think that some of the concerns that troubled us are still evident. Some infographics I’ve seen are a biased, inaccurate, unethical or just badly put together.  If you want a useful (and entertaining) description of good and bad infographics have a look at halfblog.net and the campaign against crap infographics (more links at the end of the post).

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Back to Florence Nightingale. In the 1850′s she developed this graphic which was a circular histogram that she called a ‘Coxcomb’. The purpose was to illustrate the number and, more importantly, the different causes of deaths soldiers suffered during the Crimean War. The graphic illustrates difference between;

  • Red – deaths caused by wounds,
  • Black – deaths from other causes, and
  • Blue – deaths caused by diseases.

It’s clear from the Coxcomb graphic that far more soldiers died from preventable diseases than from their battle wounds.  The result was action to improve sanitary conditions which led to greatly reduced numbers of deaths.  This article by Understanding Uncertainty provides a detailed explanation and helpful animation of the graphic.

The significance for me is that Florence Nightingale was able to communicate a very important issue through the graphical presentation of hard evidence; the data. It has been suggested that this approach enabled Politicians and Civil Servants to understand the issue and take action. They would have apparently struggled to understand if the data had been presented in the format of tables or other statistical reports used at the time. Clear presentation which enabled understanding was the key to the success of Florence Nightingales’ Coxcomb. It is worth remembering that this was created over 160 years ago, and today the 1857 Coxcomb still sets a standard that many modern infographics could aspire to. Florence Nightingale could in my view claim to be the mother of modern infographics

One last observation. Writing this post was partly prompted by reading this blog post  from Ayrshire Health, and a very brief twitter conversation with Derek Barron (@dtbarron) about nursing research.  The gist was around how some research is presented in a very academic way that can obscure understanding. That got me thinking about Florence Nightingale again, thanks Derek.

I’m not aware of how much the mathematical research and data presentation capabilities of Florence Nightingale feature in modern nurse research and communication training. In my view you’ve got a very helpful role model.

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. The graphical presentation of data (aka infographics) has been around for long time.
  2. It is an effective and quick method of clearly communicating complicated information, and can have a huge impact.
  3. Like any method of communicating there are good, bad and terrible examples of infographics and how to use them. Be careful how you use a powerful tool.

Photo Sources: Florence Nightingale picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Florence_Nightingale_CDV_by_H_Lenthall.jpg

Coxcomb Graphic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nightingale-mortality.jpg

Useful Links: mostly from halfbog.net

Good Examples. http://halfblog.net/2013/01/22/infographics-of-xkcd/

Not so good. http://halfblog.net/tag/crap-infographics/

I had to end this with a link to an Infographic. Here is the latest from Mashable showing the rise in Infographics: http://mashable.com/2013/01/26/infographics-marketing/

Improving Email Behaviour. End of Campaign Report and Four Recommendations

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20130120-115054.jpgIt’s funny how things turn out. Six weeks ago I wouldn’t have predicted I was about to embark upon writing a series of blog posts about email behaviours. We’ll I’ve done it, had a few surprises and learnt a lot. Now it’s time to pause and reflect.

It all started with a post about how to deal with the email backlog on the 2nd January. The main message here was just delete everything; the important stuff will find its way back to you. Quite a radical suggestion, apparently, which attracted a few comments, included one which led me into the next post. The email ‘cc’ option is undermining the very fabric of society, in a dystopian 1984 manner, was also quite a radical thing to say. My logic was based upon the misuse of the email ‘cc’ option and its impact upon trust between colleagues.  A fair few people seemed to agree so I went for the treble with a mauling of the misuse of email read receipts .

Reflecting on what has been my busiest and most viewed blogging period here are a few of the things I’ve learnt:

  • People are very generous in their support. This was in terms of the re-tweets/ shares and comments on the posts;
  • People are very balanced, thoughtful and positive in their comments. One of my anxieties when I started blogging was negative comments, thankfully I experienced none;
  • People are willing to share knowledge. Where I’ve missed something or posed a question, someone will offer the answer. At the end of the posts or in the comments you will see things where someone has pointed me in the right direction;
  • Technology is great, but if misused it can cause a few unexpected problems (like cc’s and read receipts), our behaviours are key. Final learning point;
  • You can never go wrong with a cat picture in your blog post. Obviously it needs to be relevant and tasteful. Gratuitous cat pictures are no good, which is why you need a top-notch cat picture consultant.

That’s it for this stage of this stage of my campaign for better email behaviour but there are four things I would recommend you look at:

  1. The Email Charter, 10 Rules to Reverse the Email Spiral. Good behavioural advice, remember; “emails don’t send emails, people do…..”, we all need to do our bit.
  2. Should I send this email?  A fantastic Infographic on how to manage email overload. The cat picture email question is addresses here, along with some startling statistics on the impact of un-necessary emails on business.
  3. A prediction that emails will be dead by 2018 .  This post, by David Christopher at Stop!ThinkSocial explains the thinking behind the prediction that was made in 2008. Keep an eye on progress.
  4. Practical Action. Predictions are fine, but what we all want is some practical down to earth experience. It doesn’t get more down to earth than a social housing provider in the North West of England, Halton Housing Trust. Their Chief Executive Nick Atkin (@nickatkin_hht) is on a campaign to ban internal staff emails which you can read about in this Guardian article. I’ll be eagerly following progress.

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. Inappropriately used technology can cause as many problems as it solves.
  2. Our behaviour is key, “emails don’t send emails (or do the other annoying stuff) people do”.
  3. People have been very generous, kind and helpful in response to my blogging and tweeting on this topic. Thank you.

20130120-115101.jpgSecondary cat picture. Need to check which is most appropriate with consultant.

Royal Navy Field Gun. A lesson in incredible teamwork, motivation, commitment and missing fingers.

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20121230-191744.jpgBack in about 1989 I went on a rugby tour to play against a Royal Navy Field Gun Team in Portsmouth. Some of our team (Whitchurch Hospital Cardiff RFC) were on sabbatical from the Royal Navy and gave the following stern advice the evening before the game, “watch out for the Field Gun players with missing fingers…….they have no sense of fear and are absolutely committed to winning”. “Whatever you do, don’t pick a fight with them!” This was obviously expressed in slightly more colourful language at 10pm in the bar, and I’ll leave it up to your imagination as to what was actually said.

Imagine my joy the next day to discover my opposite number had a missing finger on his right hand (and some missing teeth, but that’s pretty routine for the front row). He wasn’t the most technically effective Tighthead Prop I’ve ever played against, but probably the strongest and liveliest. I can’t actually remember who won the game, but we certainly lost the post match ‘entertainment’ by several nautical miles.

I never managed to sum up the courage to ask my opposite number why he was missing a finger, but this is the story that was told by my Royal Navy teammates…….. Before you read on have a look at this video of the Field Gun event from the Royal Tournament in 1999.

Field Gun has a remarkable history well worth reading about, going back to the siege of Ladysmith during the Boer War in 1900. The competition developed from this and involved two teams of 18 Royal Navy personnel transporting a field gun plus ammunition carriage around an obstacle course. That sounds reasonable until you actually see it in action. With 900 pound gun barrels and other chunks of metal flying through the air and crashing together it is terrifying. It is an incredible thing to watch in terms of the individual skills, commitment and how they all fit together perfectly as a team to deliver the end result.

Back to the missing finger. The story goes that during one of the ‘runs’ of the assembled field gun it wasn’t unknown for a pin that secures the wheel on the axle to go missing. To avoid losing the race one of the highly committed team members would insert a finger into the pin hole, keep the wheel on the axle and get the team across the line to victory. The inevitable action of metal + finger + metal + frantic movement = bye-bye finger.

This of course could have been an urban myth. There was no YouTube in 1989 for me to check, though having recently  found this video of Field Gun training I’m quite glad I didn’t see what I was about to face. I reckon you could lose a finger, or sustain any number of other dreadful injuries during just about any part of the exercise. The story did however make for excellent motivation and keep me on my toes throughout the rugby game.

Field Gun doesn’t exist nowadays in the Royal Tournament format shown in the 1999 video. I’m not sure of the reasons why, but defence cuts have been suggested and I bet health and safety probably had something to do with it. As an example of astonishing levels of teamwork, motivation, commitment (and missing fingers) Field Gun is an incredible example. I’m not sure how you would replicate any of this in the current climate, or in non military organisations, but it’s worth thinking about.

One final thought. Imagine Field Gun as an Olympic sport?  An interesting alternative to beach volleyball……

So, what’s the PONT?

  1. Fear can be a great motivator, it worked for me.
  2. The smallest action within a team activity can have a big impact on the overall result. A dropped axle pin could result in losing a wheel, the race and a finger.
  3. People will do astonishing things if they are highly motivated and committed to the team objectives.

Links to videos of Field Gun:

http://youtu.be/32s4qCCFnmk 1999 Royal Tournament Field Gun Competition. This is an astonishing spectacle. Amazing teamwork.

http://youtu.be/-wmOv5TCE9U Portsmouth Action Field Gun Team Recruitment video 2010.

http://youtu.be/eRY-wiAkpNE Field Gun Interviews. Described as the most dangerous team sport in the world. The training looks terrifying.

Photo source: http://forums.canadiancontent.net/sports/84033-worlds-most-dangerous-sport-back.html BBC TV picture.