Modern management; Workplace productivity; Embracing constraints
š”Think
Itās really easy for us to complain about things we donāt like at work, and a butt of this discomfort is more often than not our meetings.
The thing about meetings though is that weāre all accountable for its success, not just the organiser. Much like most things, if a meeting isnāt working out itās on us to stand up and make it.
Itās too easy to sit idly and wish we were somewhere else. In fact, if thatās the case, you probably shouldnāt be there and can kindly excuse yourself.
Think something is getting too much attention that other things deserve time for? Suggest it. The time of a regular session not great for you? Ask for an adjustment.
Itās time to take accountability of our meetings.
š· Look
š Read
ā¶ The brittle state of modern management
Middle managers, avert your eyes, this one is coming for your jugular. Itās a great article about how management is changing, particularly with a mostly remote workforce at the moment. And the scary thing? Management is predicated on ownership of our entire attention, so the thought that weāre at home āwasting timeā is enough to drive the controllers nuts.
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ā· On workplace productivity
This article nicely builds on the concept discussed in the previous, and tackles the issues weāre facing at the moment of productivity in the workplace. Thereās a great analogy in here about us taking too many photos rather than using data to analyse the ones we already have, but Iāve just butchered it so youāre better off reading the original. They also lay down a framework on how to measure productivity too.
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āø Embracing (design) constraints
Big fan of this notion. Too often we find ourselves staring into open ended tasks, whether thatās as a designer or not, and end up spinning our wheels forever trying to work out where to start. By introducing guard rails into our work, we know the limits of whatās possible, and whatās even more important is understanding the technological and industry-wide constraints before we dream up our big ideas.
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Bonus round
I speak to a lot of designers who are confused where they sit on the experience chart, so hereās a useful ālevellingā document
š§ Listen
8px radio ā Charli Prangley
My new podcast is officially live šļø
Iām officially launching it tomorrow, but Iāve got a sneak peak for you lovely Milk, No Sugar folks. The first episode is with Charli: YouTube extraordinaire (200k subscribers) and ConvertKit creative director. I have a feeling youāll have fun listening.
Listen to this podcast (26 mins)
Anchor ā Spotify ā YouTube
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š Thanks
Have a great week,
Luis Ouriach
@disco_lu
Founding member special shoutouts:
Kevin Fernandez (@kvnfz)