Chris J Wilson

I used my iPad heavily when I was teaching but there was one thing that always brought me back to a PC: logging reports and data in the terrible student management system.

That was despite the promises of “a mobile friendly version so you can take registration anywhere”. They promised us it would reduce paperwork but during the role out they said some features weren’t ready so we had to continuing keeping paper records… and then the paper records never went away.

So our wonderful new system “to save teachers' time” made us spend far more.

I knew it wasn’t really about the teachers. It was so they had better data on student attendance and engagement so they could take actions to maintain student enrolment.

And if that meant teachers had to do more (unpaid) work to achieve those goals, well that’s a price the executives were willing to pay.

So, a certain high up at a company that may or may not be mine has decided that Slack threads aren’t good. Apparently, we (read, the high up) lose track of updates and don’t know what they are about. Related, we…I mean some company… have stopped using campaign specific channels and now have area channels (i.e social media/ SEO).

So, now there can be two people asking about two different projects/articles and responses where you just have to guess which project it’s about. Plus you have to scroll through every single response even if it’s about something you’re not working on.

I get that this is easier for a manager.

You need to go through everything and check all the action items, if you miss a comment or two then it can be a real pain. But there’s a better solution to this: Comments next to tasks.

We have project management systems, including ones that show who needs to take action and add tasks only once the previous one is completed. We can even discuss issues in these projects. BUT, then we see the comments rather than them disappearing off into the infinite scroll ether of Slack.

So of course we don’t use them.

The biggest irony in this whole situation is that by trying to make things easier to manage, they’re actually harder to manage and keep track of…in this hypothetical company.

The iPad event is today. I’m interested to see what apple brings. Mine is six years old and apart from a pixel burn in the screen, it’s great. Okay, it lags a bit more than it used to and the battery life is no where near what it once was, but it still does all I need. That said, I am really intrigued what’s coming especially as this could be my next iPad. And if not, it means the current, amazing iPads (with wireless charging Apple Pencils) will come down in price. Win win win.

A few years back I read a terrible self-help book. It was one I’d never buy for myself which is probably why I didn’t like it much. BUT, it did have one useful idea.

Know exactly what you want and don’t water it down.

It’s been on my mind recently because I’ve been reading a far better business book — “The Coaching Habit” by Michael Bungay Stanier.

While it can be summarised in one sentence — give less advice, ask more questions, let the other person speak more — it also has a ton of value inside and one of the biggest is the question

What do you really want here?

Admitting what we want

Most of the time,

1. we don’t know what we really want
2. when we do know, it’s the surface level desire
3. and we prevent ourselves from knowing because we are afraid to say what we actually want

This makes us discuss ideas or solutions that don’t actually get to the core of what we want. When we can admit what we want — even when we feel like it’s selfish, impossible, or “not what people like us do” — we can find real solutions.

Those may mean compromises including ones that consider those factors, but they may not too. When we are clear about what we really want, it makes it a lot easier to make appropriate compromises and know when we shouldn’t.

Here’s a simple example

You might say “I want a more managerial role” and so gun for a promotion. But when you get down to what you really want, it’s more free time, but you’ve been conditioned to think 1. a more senior role is easier (The reverse can be equally true). 2. more money = more free time (but it can come with more overhead). 3. The more senior your role, the more likely you need to respond outside regular hours.

The better solution might be to go freelance, consult, or even take a lower paid, more hands on position but with more free time.

Now, that might be you, but it might not be you too. If you see that example and accept the conclusions without knowing what you really want, that’s a recipe for disaster.

What do I really want?

This is the part of the post where I should give a personal example to help illustrate it, but I can’t do that so easily.

You see, I’m not really sure yet.

But I have a new note in my obsidian vault and I’m using the 5 why’s technique to help dig deeper.

Maybe you just need a piece of paper, but I recommend you give it a go.