Killing inefficiencies one at a time... (Part-1)

This theme is based on Gille's famous "Twelves Weird Links of Christmas", he has been posting funny links on our Intranet, I am proposing a similar series on common inefficiencies in the work place.

This could be ugly, I am a sarcastic person (yep this played against me in the past), hopefully it will be more funny to you than anything else, however, if the hat fits you, I will propose alternatives to these inefficiencies so you can act on right now.

Jason Womac is earning a living telling people how to use Outlook. More recently (not that recent anymore) Merlin Man from Google posted his famous Inbox Zero


These guys got it right, there is a serious problem with email (we all know it) but it is pathetic to see how few people seem to be acting on this problem, the sad things is that there are solutions and they do not require a huge investment.

Somehow inefficiencies in managing email seems taboo, you can offer help as much as you want people will generally ignore you. Even when they are in a crying need for help.

To me, my email handling inefficiencies started to fade away with Womac's talk, I then reached more recently paramount when I got rid of Outlook in favor of Gmail. (more on my tool box later)

In the mean time, if you are recognizing yourself in the quotes below chances are that you are in need of help.

- I am often looking for that email but I can't find it anymore.
- My inbox has more emails in it that the screen can show.
- I am frequently wandering in Outlook folders, scrolling like a mad man, for this email.
- What should I be doing now, I know I have a few tasks hidden in my inbox.

(to be continued...)

Another Epheblog?

EPHEBLOG: noun, (gr. blog that is of short duration) 1.Is said of a blog that last for a short period of time. Said to be pure when for a specific short punctual event.

I am making this up.

This got to be my twentieth blogs since 2001. Most have been pure
epheblogs. A couple with more depth... But a readership of zero has always made me wonder about the value of the exercise...

In anycase, for posterity, you can expect to find here some thoughts on Process Improvement.

Btw, it.is.pi comes from the title of a slide I created one day working on my objectives related to Information Technology, Information Systems and... Process Improvement.

A lot of what makes life interesting in the work place is often due to the smartness we see in our peers. Working on a project where everyone knows where they are going (and seeing they are effectively going there) is a chance.

This certainly means one thing to me, although a lot of the challenges are external and we have no power at them, we can certainly have an effect on what's internal to each one of us... getting better at doing this, using this tool for that, eliminating waste when possible, etc...

This is what process improvement is all about, this is what I want this blog to be.