Social Ch@nge

You’re sitting in your cubicle, trying to get a grant proposal finished.  Through the thin plastic wall, Ted’s yammering away on the phone.  The phone message light is flashing red, like an emergency beacon signalling your imminent overload.  And then Shannon sticks her head around the corner, and asks if you have a sec…just one second…

Getting things done shouldn’t be this hard.  And I’ve recently found some interesting thoughts on how to make it easier.  Most recently, I read an interview with Jason Fried, the founder of software company 37signals.  It’s a fascinating chat, because it’s not so much about his software.

37signals makes tools for online collaboration, like Basecamp and Campfire.  They are great tools, and I’m happy to recommend them.

But the O’Reilly interview focuses on how 37signals works as a company.  Turns out that there are a few zen-like secrets to their success.

• Employees that work from home, work harder
• Meeting face to face encourages eating donuts, but not productivity
• Passively collaborate, actively disengage
• Wax on, wax off.

Okay, maybe not that last one.

What does this look like?  A bunch of software engineers in their pyjamas, using a text chat program to “talk” to eachother through the day, all collaborating in a virtual workspace.  Basically, this works because it decreases the number of interruptions that can occur: you can choose to focus on a task, then check in on your colleagues.  If you need to contact someone, you can do so in a non-invasive way.  When they are ready to switch their attention to your message, they will.

This approach works well for employees that are working from home, and works particularly well if all your staff are working on something like a piece of software.  Could it translate to a non-profit setting, where you have a diverse range of tasks going on?

There certainly is a lot of discussion around telecommuting going on right now, both pro and con.  As the cost of fuel goes up, no doubt we’ll all start to examine just how much we really need our staff in one place at the same time.

In the meantime, I think we all could learn a little from the 37signals approach: cut down your distractions; minimize your meetings; use tools like chat and email to control your time, instead of the other way around.

ps.   Zen koans about work are genius, but beware the phrase productivity ninja!  It seems to be a trend to attach the cache of a martial arts assassin to your mastery of keyboard shortcuts.  Hey, kids – CTRL+D is great, but it’s not going to make you the cool kid at school.