In Monday's post I went through a process of recentering myself, and identified four areas to focus on and track. The trickiest one was DESIGN AGENCY, because there are a LOT of different tasks.
I just finished creating a "process diagram" that outlines a high-level roadmap of agency operations; just about any task I can think of fits somewhere the diagram. You can read about and download the PDF over on the Agenceum Blog, which is where I am running my "open design agency" experiment. Although this diagram is labeled for Agenceum, it really is for ALL of my design-related business activities.
Read more about the diagram on the Agenceum blog.
SUMMARY: I've been feeling that there are too many things going on, diluting my efforts to make significant progress. But how do I pick what to focus on and what to ignore? First, I acknowledge that I am feeling uncertain about some aspects of my current work, getting the negative out in the open so I can have a good look at it. Then I synthesize the list of things to focus on for now that alleviate those fears through recommitment to principle.
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I came across an article on The Economist about how the threat of less is a better incentive than the promise of gain. Researchers ran an experiment at a Chinese electronics factory, offering groups of worker one of two deals:
- The group would receive a bonus if a certain target production threshold was met.
- The group has been awarded a bonus, but if production falls below a threshold it will be lost.
What do you think happened?
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SUMMARY: Getting started on Wednesday, I'm just not feeling the focus. When I get stuck I usually just write something to get my brain working; writing helps me linearize my thoughts, which helps me visualize what's wrong and what can be done. This time, I become aware that there are six different challenges that I've hazily grouped under the focus label.
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SUMMARY: I expand my "create then show" mantra to include the means of producing products and distributing them. Maybe this is the way to sell out with integrity.
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Back in October, I started a podcasting experiment with portrait photographer Sid Ceaser. We didn't have any specific goals other than to see what it would be like. Sure, I was excited for the chance to play with new gear and put some old software to work. And I was pretty sure that Sid and I would finally get some good rants recorded that could bottle the energy we have to prodding each other to make stuff. Figured it could be good stuff.
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This year's Compact Calendar added "automatic holiday calculation" when the year is changed in the Excel spreadsheet. Holiday calculations are terribly tricky, though, and a bug in the Easter Calculation was reported by Mike Kennedy with OpenOffice. The Easter calculation I'm using, he pointed out, assume date entry in a certain text format which is not universal. I went back and looked at it and saw he was right, though I couldn't duplicate the other reported bug. Anyway, I've uploaded a more robustly-coded version of original Easter calculation, which substitutes the locale-specific date string with the Excel DATE function.
UPDATE: After downloading OpenOffice and cross-checking the calculation with Google Spreadsheet, it appears that the cause of the bug is due to a difference between in how the DAY() function works for values under 61. So if you are using Excel you are fine, but OpenOffice users should probably use the EASTERSUNDAY() function.
UPDATE2: Here's an explanation of why Excel's DAY() function is buggy; it was originally to maintain compatibility with Lotus 1-2-3, which used to be the dominant spreadsheet.
In Excel 2007, Easter appears to be calculated correctly for the next five years. If you are outside the USA, you can re-download the ZIP file from the Compact Calendar Page for the more robust version of the calculation.
SUMMARY: I write about the experience of unintentional, high-quality collaboration leading to insights of how I know more than I knew, and that I should apply GUESSING more frequently because it actually works well as a starting point.
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SUMMARY: Exploring the difference between a "values-based" task list and a "goals-based" task list.
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SUMMARY: I did a dump of everything that's on my mind, and then started to sort it out to figure out what's really the management challenge I'm facing. A sudden epiphany why the word "shrine" keeps coming to mind in this context.
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