Comments on: Getting off the email hamster wheel. http://www.gilyehuda.com/2009/07/24/getting-off-the-email-hamster-wheel/ A blog about collaboration, trust, open source, workplace, and community behaviors. Wed, 08 Feb 2012 09:19:08 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 By: Richard Harbridge http://www.gilyehuda.com/2009/07/24/getting-off-the-email-hamster-wheel/comment-page-1/#comment-4730 Richard Harbridge Mon, 27 Jul 2009 19:42:36 +0000 http://www.gilyehuda.com/?p=383#comment-4730 <span class="topsy_trackback_comment"><span class="topsy_twitter_username"><span class="topsy_trackback_content">Good point from Gil on email use and technique: http://is.gd/1OOCd {People need to learn to frame their thoughts, messages, and input}</span></span> Good point from Gil on email use and technique: http://is.gd/1OOCd {People need to learn to frame their thoughts, messages, and input}

]]> By: Rex Lee http://www.gilyehuda.com/2009/07/24/getting-off-the-email-hamster-wheel/comment-page-1/#comment-1253 Rex Lee Mon, 27 Jul 2009 02:49:29 +0000 http://www.gilyehuda.com/?p=383#comment-1253 Gil, Good post. As easy as it is to slam e-Mail, I can remember the time before e-mail... And it was NOT better... As for powerpoint, I think the same thing applies. It's easy to slam powerpoint, but the same bad habits people employ to build decks (e.g. Death by bullets) are often transferable to other social authoring tools such as wikis. Gil, Good post. As easy as it is to slam e-Mail, I can remember the time before e-mail… And it was NOT better… As for powerpoint, I think the same thing applies. It’s easy to slam powerpoint, but the same bad habits people employ to build decks (e.g. Death by bullets) are often transferable to other social authoring tools such as wikis.

]]> By: Gil Yehuda http://www.gilyehuda.com/2009/07/24/getting-off-the-email-hamster-wheel/comment-page-1/#comment-1252 Gil Yehuda Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:21:28 +0000 http://www.gilyehuda.com/?p=383#comment-1252 Hadley, Thanks! Exactly my point. Slamming email is easy and fun, but does not make us more productive. Some really good (proven) disciplines have a much better impact on our work. And I totally agree, E2.0 vendors that ignore email are running the risk of being irrelevant to their enterprise customers. Most of the popular vendors have some email integration, some more than others (e.g. allowing collaboration between people on the platform and others who insist on email-only). The most recent Hamster Revolution book (for meetings) addresses meeting length too -- suggesting hard-starts, 20 or 50 minute lengths (to accommodate the need for bio-breaks and to allow for hard-starts at your next meeting if they are "back-to-back"), and also suggests "mini-meetings". Moreover the authors suggest a methodology to determine if you need to attend a meeting of not. There's a lot of great ideas in this small book, that's why I'm recommending it. As for PowerPoint -- we'll that's a post for another day. I'm slightly influenced by Edward Tufte's loathing of the tool, but I think there is a way to use it right also. My recommendation here is the book "Beyond Bullet Points" -- which is less extreme than "Presentation Zen", and yet quite effective at helping you use PowerPoint in a very different manner. To the readers: let me disclose to you that Hadley (and two other colleagues) taught me most of what I know about Enterprise 2.0 prior to my employment at Forrester (where I learned a bunch more). Hadley, Thanks!
Exactly my point. Slamming email is easy and fun, but does not make us more productive. Some really good (proven) disciplines have a much better impact on our work. And I totally agree, E2.0 vendors that ignore email are running the risk of being irrelevant to their enterprise customers. Most of the popular vendors have some email integration, some more than others (e.g. allowing collaboration between people on the platform and others who insist on email-only).

The most recent Hamster Revolution book (for meetings) addresses meeting length too — suggesting hard-starts, 20 or 50 minute lengths (to accommodate the need for bio-breaks and to allow for hard-starts at your next meeting if they are “back-to-back”), and also suggests “mini-meetings”. Moreover the authors suggest a methodology to determine if you need to attend a meeting of not. There’s a lot of great ideas in this small book, that’s why I’m recommending it.

As for PowerPoint — we’ll that’s a post for another day. I’m slightly influenced by Edward Tufte’s loathing of the tool, but I think there is a way to use it right also. My recommendation here is the book “Beyond Bullet Points” — which is less extreme than “Presentation Zen”, and yet quite effective at helping you use PowerPoint in a very different manner.

To the readers: let me disclose to you that Hadley (and two other colleagues) taught me most of what I know about Enterprise 2.0 prior to my employment at Forrester (where I learned a bunch more).

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