Reducing the eMail Firehose

In a recent discussion with a colleague he recommended that I read the book “The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Your Email Before It Manages You”. This book has a humorous approach to explaining what we all know but are not able to do much about: eMail is wasting not hours but weeks of each of our productivity time per year. The techniques in this book seem logical so I am going to use them in 2012.

As such you will see the following changes in the email you receive from me:

• the subject line will be formatted in this way:
  ACTION: descriptive subject (-eom)
• ACTION will be one of:
  
  • ACTION
  • INFO
  • REQUEST
  • CONFIRMED – I have completed the subject action
  • DELIVERY – this email contains a response to a request you have made
• The subject will be descriptive of the contents and never blank
• If “-eom” is included then the complete intelligence of the email is in the subject and you don’t need to open the email. Just read the subject line.
• The body will normally have 4 sections (this may take a while to work into):
  
  • Brief greeting
  • ACTION: context, specific action, purpose and response time
  • BACKGROUND: clear, concise and relevant background.
  • CLOSE: next steps, signature block

Additionally, I’ll reduce the number of “thank you” email. If sent it will more than likely be just a brief note with “-eom” in the subject line. If your email does not require a reply then it’s more likely that there won’t be a reply at all ... thereby reducing the amount of email you receive. Know that I appreciate each value-added email received.

This information will be revised as the new method develops.  Check back here if you have any questions  OR send me a “REQUEST:”  email.   

We would all benefit if each of us applied some simple email structure to this important communication tool. 
I highly recommend that you read “The Hamster Revolution …” and consider it for your own email process. 

AT&T's buyout of T-Mobile

I have mixed feelings about the recent announcement AT&T's acquisition of T-Mobile USA. On one hand it will consolidate the GSM network under one provider. The combined physical network will provide better coverage than either company has alone. That is a good thing.

However, the loss of competition in the USA GSM world will allow AT&T to have a monopoly in that space. GSM is unique in that the chip can be moved from phone to phone giving some flexibility in changing devices.

Back in the mid 60s it wasn't possible to own your own phone and connect it to the phone network but rather paid a monthly cost to Bell for them.. that over time changed to where the customers owned phones. That gave rise to many different types of low cost phones. In the early 70s the Bell System was split up into 7 Regional companies. Ironically, at least 4 of those are now part of AT&T!! Seems that the old Bell System is rebuilding itself.

IF the FCC and FTC allow this merger to go through then they should put some controls in place to ensure that the combined company acts in the best interest of the consumer. They have not proven that so far (recent example is the DSL to U-Verse conversion where at their discretion they will change the service and payment plans).

If the merger is NOT allowed to be completed then that opens the door for Google to then acquire T-Mobile USA and become a carrier. This could prove interesting as Google does operate in the interest of the consumer.

Only time will tell....

Quantum leaps

Technology at the hardware level is moving at amazing speeds.. 2 TB disks are now at the 100 USD price level. Smartphones have more power and capability than desktop PCs of only a few years ago. If only industry could make the same quantum improvements in our business processes then the financial/business crisis would be truly solved, not just declared as solved via Powerpoint. We look to pretty powerpoint charts and written standards to show that we are doing good things. That just gets us stuck in a false belief that we are good.

The big question is "why is this not possible". There are 2 reasons. First, hardware has no feelings (yet). The 1 TB disk that was 100 USD last year doesn't know that it is replaced by a 2 TB disk. The 500 Mhz mobile processor replaced by a 1 Ghz Snapdragon in new phones will continue to faithfully do its job in its phone for many years until the phone isn't used anymore. We humans on the other hand are very sensitive to being replaced. In general we are very insecure about change, doing new things, experimenting, and most of all failure.

"Failure is not an option" was the mantra of Apollo 13 but it should not be the mantra of people who are tasked with the success of businesses. Only by stepping beyond what we know today and by trying new methods and processes and sometimes experiencing failure will we know that we've truly will take us to make our businesses truly world class and industry leaders.

Fear of new things or the unknown is nothing new. http://bit.ly/9OTlFd is a YouTube video of portion of a 60 Minutes 1982 interview with RAdm Grace Hopper (then Capt.) regarding change. It's worth a few minutes to watch.

Don't forget about the past but look forward to what could be and don't look for reasons NOT to change but rather never stop looking for reasons and opportunities to improve.

Very few companies are innovating at the speed of hardware. The company that can do that will DEFINE "World Class" and be an industry leader. The others are followers and copiers.

True Teamwork - The best ROI this country has ever had

On May 19th I will join approximately 100 other folks at NASA's Johnson Space Center for an educational day and behind the scenes view of Mission Control during the STS-132 mission. Since it's inception the Space Program has set the example of innovation, decision making, teamwork and leadership. One of my focuses (but not the only) during this day of opportunity will be to explore how NASA achieves such selfless teamwork where leaders and team members are so interchangeable.

Understanding and having these skills in the workforce will help companies become agile and able to respond to such issues as the economic crisis.

Follow this blog, http://www.twitter.com/rcopelan or links at http://www.copelan.com as I prepare and participate in the STS-132 JSC TweetUp

Alternative Planning

The events of the past days in Iceland shows us how fragile our infrastructure really is and how powerful "Mother Nature" can be. We grow to depend on our technology but few ever think about a disaster from the point of view that the technology no longer works. Sure we have disaster plans for:
- IT systems failing: we get new hardware and restore the backup
- fire or natural disaster: move to a new building/location, get new equipment.
But what happens when the technology can no longer be used:
- a nuclear blast generates EMP and fries the electronics in our computers, cars, radios, hospital equipment, electrical grid
- the atmosphere is filled with particles and planes can no longer fly through it
- a LARGE asteroid impacts the Earth changes the dynamics of rotation.

Yes, at least some of these are improbably scenarios but at the beginning of last week the 10 Europeans sitting in meetings with me in Chicago weren't the least bit worried about going home on Thursday and coming back in 2 weeks for a SAP GoLive. As of Saturday only one that I know of got a flight to Rome, many hours by train from his original destination. The rest were wondering if they would be at their meetings on Monday or still here in the USA. Some of us are starting to think about an alternative GoLive support plan.

I am sure that companies that depend on air freight for keeping their production lines running are now scrambling to find alternative shipping methods to get material to open airports. This impacts costs in a very real way and may even push some companies into situations from which they can not recover.

How long will it last. We all hope that flights resume on Sunday/Monday but this is not something we can control, not something that Congress can pass laws to fix or have hearings to "Punish the guilty" (though I am sure that they will). Nature has reminded us that we need to be flexible and to never depend on anything so much that we can't do without it.

Robert Paterson has a good article on this topic at: http://smartpei.typepad.com/robert_patersons_weblog/2010/04/volcano-air-travel-a-black-swan-what-might-happen.html

Thoughts on iPad Day One

Much has been said in various blogs about why to get an iPad or why to wait. There is no need to rehash that. There are good points for either decision. As a geek, today was tough to watch the unboxing of 2 iPads on the TWiT Network and not have one myself. I will wait a while. Clearly Apple has hit another "long drive" and scored multiple runs with the iPad just as they did with the iPod and iPhone.

These are paradigm changing devices and move us toward a future that we saw only in Star Trek and other SciFi movies not so many years ago. Some look at these devices and wonder "why do I need it". The real benefits become apparent only after obtaining one and discovering new ways of doing things. Books don't go away, they just become more accessible. Radio and TV becomes audio/video podcasts or streaming networks such as TWiT. Real time interactivity between show hosts and the audience, only a dream for the big networks, is already a reality for shows that are "connected". This is enhanced by these devices for those who embrace them.

There is a healthy competition between between the iDevices and Android devices. Apple has again set a high bar for tablets in both hardware and software. I expect that in the coming months we'll see other hardware for Android. There is room for both and having both will ensure that companies as well as developers continue to innovate and improve.

Thank you Apple and Steve Jobs for moving the bar up a notch or 2. The challenge will be met.

Google Wave Book - A new openness in publishing

Gina Trapini announced yesterday on This Week in Google that she is working on a new book destined to be the definitive source of information on Google Wave. I find her total desire to put her knowledge into the public domain really refreshing. The book is being developed online using MediaWiki and is licensed under the Creative Commons License. While she does plan on publishing PDF and traditional paper versions, it is clear that Gina intends for this to be a dynamic reference guide that will be updated as Wave matures. Visit The Complete Wave Guide to experience this openness in information sharing.

What does all of this have to do with 21st Century Business? Several lessons can be learned from Gina by businesses who want to move forward.

• Knowlege is meant to be shared, not hidden in some file share directory structure or locked behind passwords
  
• Knowledge is ever changing. Just because the project is over or the documentation published the changes shouldn't stop. Documentation of a process or method that is not ever changing is outdated.
  

Too often businesses create new processes but then fail to stay in a mode of continuous improvement. Some companies implement the tools of the Internet like blogs, wikis, intranets but fail to realize the dynamic change that is the culture of the Internet. They ask "why aren't our tools successful". The answer is: "free them, free the knowledge and let your employees' creativity and innovation come to the surface."