How Much Do I Need to Save Before Quitting My Job?

by CARRIE SMITH on AUGUST 4, 2014

Most experts say you should have at least 3-6 months worth of your monthly expenses saved in the bank. But that’s generally based on the fact that you still have a consistent paycheck coming in each month.

Are you confused when you think, “How much money should I save before quitting my job to branch pursue other opportunities?”

Don’t worry, here are 3 vital questions to ask before you quit your job.

Are you the breadwinner?
If you’re the one who brings home the bacon, you’ll have to save a large portion of your income to ensure you and your family will be well taken care of in the months to come. As a single-income family with you as the main provider, the burden of the finances falls on you.

If you quit your job, you have even more responsibility, so the more money you save in advance, the better off you’ll be. One thing to determine is how long it will take for you to bounce back from an unsuccessful business, or if you’re not able to find a new job quickly.
For example; if you estimate you need at least 3 months to allot for finding clients, job search time, interviewing, hiring, and payroll/invoicing processing, then make sure you have at least that much saved in an emergency fund before quitting.

Do you have a bare bones budget?
In other words, what’s the absolute minimum amount of money you need to make to pay all the bills and keep yourself afloat each month? I call this my bare-bones budget. In the event I have a low income month, or get sick and can’t work, I feel comfortable knowing that if I can at least make this certain amount, I’ll still be able to put food on the table and keep the lights on.

Here are the top things to factor into your bare bones budget (or baseline of expenses):

• Housing costs/rent
• Auto expenses, including loans
• Utilities, including lights, water, gas
• Cell phone, internet
• Groceries, food and household items
• Health insurance/medical
• Other misc. essentials

At the very least you should review your budget and find out what your lowest dollar amount is that you need to survive, then times that figure by at least 3 to give yourself enough time to recover from the circumstance.

Are you prepared to face reality?
In a perfect world, you want to give yourself a cushion of at least one year of expenses. But sometimes life happens and doesn’t always go as planned. When I was in the midst of planning my big leap to quit my job and start my own business, my plan was to save $10,000 in a business fund as a cushion (or 5 months of expenses).

But I was only able to save about half of that when a family member was diagnosed with cancer and my husband (who’s an only child) was called in to take care of her. We both quit our jobs and had to move to a new state within a month.

You can’t always plan for everything, and sometimes you need to make what you have work. It takes a lot of hustle, hard work and dedication, but even if you don’t quite reach your goal, be flexible and have faith that it will work out.

So how much money should you save before quitting your job?
Well, since finances aren’t a one-size-fits-all type of thing, it really depends on what you and your family need. But a good rule of thumb is anywhere from 3-8 months, to even a whole year of savings to cover your expenses during this time frame.

Three months is a relatively good amount of time to recover from any financial emergencies and personal issues. But if you feel that you’re better off with six, or eight or even 10 months of savings, then shoot for that. You’ll likely land on or near your goal!

Why You Should Doodle More

Studies find that distracted drawing can spark creativity and improve memory.

Doodling, long frowned upon as a symptom of boredom or inattention, may be a more productive use of your time than previously contended. Recent scientific research indicates that seemingly absent-minded tracings can help the brain process and retain information and solve problems.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

Some researchers suspect doodling may help the brain remain active by engaging its "default networks"—regions that maintain a baseline of activity in the cerebral cortex when outside stimuli are absent, [a 2011] Lancet study says. People who were encouraged to doodle while listening to a list of people's names being read were able to remember 29% more of the information on a surprise quiz later, according to a 2009 study in Applied Cognitive Psychology.

A more recent study by Gabriela Goldschmidt, a professor emeritus of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology’s architecture department, found that doodling can help generate creative ideas, according to the WSJ:

The study discussed an architecture student who became stalled in his efforts to design a new kindergarten and started a habitual doodle he found pleasurable--writing his signature over and over. 

The student soon began to see between the letters of the doodle the outline of a layout for the kindergarten's three activity spaces. He drew progressively larger versions that eventually became an architectural sketch, the study says.

Don’t hold back from your mid-meeting art sessions. 

There are some limitations as to when doodling is actually helpful. A 2012 study found that doodling has a negative effect on primarily visual tasks, like trying to remember a certain set of images.

But otherwise, don’t hold back from your mid-meeting art sessions. Those curlicues and stick-figure cartoons (or elaborate recreations of famous artworks) may be helping your brain get down to work.

5 Ways To Change The Way Your Think About Negative Life Events

Reeling from a job loss? Financial hardship? There's a fine line between rationalizing the event, or deluding yourself. Know the difference.

By Gwen Moran 

When it comes to being resilient, the ability to reframe is an essential skill. Reframing is the ability to look at a situation or circumstance in a new way, giving it a more positive or insightful spin.

“At the simplest level, it’s changing perspectives--changing the way you look at something or trying to understand whatever you’re seeing or involved in. I’ve been seeing this one way; let me change to a different way of thinking about it,” says Lee G. Bolman, a Brookline, Massachusetts-based scholar, consultant, and author of the recently released How Great Leaders Think: The Art of Reframing.

How do you know when you’re engaging in healthy reframing versus deluding yourself, or rationalizing bad behavior? Stay on the right track with these five steps:

1. Examine Your Options

If a situation in your life is holding you back, then it’s important to step back and look at the bigger picture, says Jennifer Howard, a New York-based psychotherapist and author of Your Ultimate Life Plan: How to Deeply Transform Your Everyday Life and Create Changes that Last.

Is there something about the situation that you’re not seeing clearly? How else can you look at it? You can ruminate over how traumatic being fired is, but you can also practice appreciating it as the catalyst for a better job or career, or the end of a situation that made you unhappy. You can let financial difficulties defeat you, or look at it as a reason to take action by reining in spending, and finding new sources of income.

“You have to work on being self-aware," Howard says. "Was the situation that your boss really doesn’t like you, or were you not stepping up? Reframing is dangerous when it starts blaming others, instead of looking at the situation honestly.”

2. Embrace Your Truth

Sometimes, we get stuck in negative or destructive thoughts because we believe the most negative interpretation of events to be the truth. Bolman says we live in a world of VUCA--full of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Typically, we can tell the world many different stories, and all of them have elements of truth. But rarely is there one absolute truth for everyone, he says.

“The question is does [the reframed story] work for me?" he asks. "Does it work for the constituents or the people with whom I’m relating?"

3. Pay Attention to Your Feelings

That doesn’t mean that we can entirely make up a story and call it true. Here is where feelings and intuition play a role in the reframing process.

Bolman encourages people to seek out the truth that feels right to them and allows them to move on. You shift from viewing an event or circumstance as a terrible thing that ruined your life, which has no utility and keeps you mired in self-destruction--or you ask what you can learn from it, or how you can build on it and create something new. Your gut is going to tell you when you’ve hit upon the right way to reframe because it will help you move past your current situation and give you hope for something better.

Howard agrees. She says if you’re trying to ignore your feelings, you may be trying to justify something that you know is a bad situation. If you’re having trouble believing your reframe because you’re uncomfortable thinking positively, then that’s one thing. But if you’re having trouble because your gut is telling you that the story isn’t true, then it’s time to revisit the story and see what’s really going on.

4. Ask for Help

Talking with others about how the situation can be reframed may also be a good idea, Bolman says. Some people are naturally good at thinking positively, or looking for the value in any situation. Those are the types of people who can help you reframe in a positive, productive way. Or seek out professional coaches or therapists who can help you move beyond thought patterns that don’t serve you.

5. Find a Good Story

Bolman says that successful reframing requires having good stories which meet multiple criteria:

• It should help you how to live effectively and feel good about yourself. 

• It should also help you achieve the goals you want to accomplish. 

• It should work for you and those around you. 

Good stories aren’t self-destructive, self-defeating, or contradictory to common sense.

“I think the test of a story’s frame is how well it works for you and whoever else is involved in the circumstances--such as your partner or spouse, or the group you manage in an organization," Bolman says. "How well does it work for the success of the unit, and for the well-being of the people?”

6 Reasons You Should Quit The Job You Love

If you love your job and you're successful at it, why would you ever want to jump ship? Turns out, there are a few good reasons.

By Marc Liebmann 

I recently left my job at a major technology company to go elsewhere, and I'm often asked why.

It certainly wasn't because I didn't like my previous role. For the last eight years I worked at a company I loved. I loved the people I worked with and the products we developed.

It also wasn't because I was forced out or felt that I didn’t provide value. Over the course of my eight year tenure, I helped to grow the business to over $800 million in revenue.

So why say goodbye?

Our approach to career changes is different than it was a generation ago, but even in an environment of rapid shifts and changes, career moves should not be made on a whim. The key is to make the decision to move for the right reasons and to choose a new company or role that enables you to move forward towards clearly defined goals.

Below are a few points I found critical in evaluating whether, where, and when to make the move.

1. LEADERSHIP

No one can deny the impact coworkers have on your working environment, especially the executive team. The CEO specifically sets the tone for the whole company, and it’s important to make sure you are in sync, not only with their vision and professional skill, but also with their leadership style.

Give preference to leaders that have management styles you'd like to replicate or you feel you can learn from. Personally, I've always valued working for people who can balance professional effectiveness with kindness.

By prioritizing not working for jerks, I've been able to learn first-hand how to make sure you get results without sacrificing how you treat your colleagues.

Obviously, a company is more than just their CEO or executive team, but it's important to surround yourself with people you want to learn from and who possess traits you admire.

2. EMPOWERMENT

Equally important is understanding how much power you will have in your new role, and I don’t mean power in the traditional sense.

How much will you be empowered by your employer, boss, or supervisor to take initiative and run with an idea or a project?

We all need a certain degree of direction or guidance, especially when starting somewhere new, but when considering that move, look for a place that will empower you to discover and develop your unique contribution. It’s important to find a home that values your skillsets and has faith in your capabilities.

3. TIMING

Another important factor to take into account is timing. Being good at something is not reason enough to carry on doing it. Momentum is only positive if it’s carrying you in the right direction.

If you’re not learning and growing then you’re stagnating. Moving forces you to jump out of your comfort zone and into a place where you must develop new skills and leverage old ones in new ways. When you've reached the ceiling, it's time to move to a bigger challenge.

4. STEEP LEARNING CURVE

It may seem counterintuitive to put yourself at an initial disadvantage, but in order to make a move truly worthwhile, actively look for a steep learning curve.

Putting yourself in situations where you have to start from scratch (even if only in certain small areas), can be infinitely rewarding. For the company you join, you bring fresh eyes and a new outlook, and as an employee you gain the opportunity to learn a new set of skills.

5. IMMEDIATE POSITIVE IMPACT

Joining a company for personal growth alone is not a winning solution. Expectations are often high, and it’s important to show value quickly. Your unique perspective and capabilities are in part a result of every job or role you’ve ever had, and it’s important to be able to make use of that background.

Learning from a new role is a huge plus when making a change, but it’s equally critical to find a place where you can immediately leverage the skillset you already possess.

6. COMPANY CULTURE

Company culture might be the most difficult thing to define on this list, but it’s also in some ways the most vital. People looking for a new place to work often seek out successful, growing companies, and it’s a savvy move to hitch your wagon to a company that’s doing very well.

But it’s also important to be wary of a place that is solely results-oriented, where management only cares about the bottom line. Eventually, that kind of attitude will burn through employees instead of empowering them to become more creative, productive, and ultimately valuable workers.

In today’s smartphone world, your work can follow you home, to dinner, and into bed. Particularly in the startup world, you’ll be working long hours to help a company grow. It’s equally important that the company does the same for you. You’ll end up a better, happier worker with more to contribute if the company you work for factors in fun and decompression time to balance out the always-on quality of today’s working world.

Seek out a company where there are spaces--even small ones--dedicated to non-work activities, where you can decompress and refresh your creativity. That’s the kind of company culture where everyone wins.

--Marc Liebmann is president of ironSource US Operations.

Un llamamiento por la paz

Por Javier Bardem, Publicado: 01/08/2014 13:17 The Huffington Post,

Esta semana, junto a otros artistas españoles, denuncié el conflicto en Gaza, instando a todos los Gobiernos a intervenir en esta crisis que no deja de intensificarse. Mi firma solo pretendía ser un llamamiento para la paz. La destrucción y el odio solo generan más odio y destrucción.

Aunque me mostré crítico con la respuesta militar israelí, siento un gran respeto por la gente de Israel y una gran compasión por sus pérdidas. Ahora algunos me etiquetan como antisemita, igual que a mi esposa, lo cual es la antítesis de lo que somos como personas. Odiamos el antisemitismo tanto como detestamos las horribles y dolorosas consecuencias de la guerra.

Me educaron para estar en contra de cualquier acto violento, y el consecuente sufrimiento para la humanidad, sin importar la religión, las etnias o las fronteras. Demasiadas madres inocentes palestinas han perdido a sus hijos en este conflicto. Demasiadas madres israelíes comparten el mismo dolor. No debería haber ninguna razón política que justifique un sufrimiento tan enorme en ambas partes. Espero que los líderes involucrados en este complicado conflicto escuchen el llamamiento del secretario general de la ONU, Ban Ki-moon: "En nombre de la humanidad, la violencia debe parar".

Los palestinos e israelíes de la región merecen que se les reconozcan y se respeten su seguridad y sus derechos humanos para que en el futuro inmediato puedan encontrar la paz y la convivencia, para ellos y para sus niños inocentes. Las generaciones futuras podrían traer esperanza, perdón y compasión para ambos. Esta la forma más básica y necesaria de traer la paz para todos.

4 Ways To Retrain Your Brain To Handle Information Overload

Are you constantly forgetting where you placed your keys? Do you feel like your mind shuts down in the afternoon? Here's why.

By Lisa Evans

We live in an age of information overload. While many of us find ourselves inundated with vast amounts of data daily, our fast-paced society also requires us to make more rapid decisions.

Psychologist and behavioral neuroscientist Daniel Levitin, author of the upcoming book The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload, says information overload creates daily challenges for our brains, causing us to feel mentally exhausted before the day's end.

“Our brains are equipped to deal with the world the way it was many thousands of years ago when we were hunter-gatherers," says Levitin. "Back then the amount of information that was coming at us was much less and it came at us much more slowly.”

The pace at which we’re exposed to information today is overwhelming to our brains, which haven’t adapted fast enough to easily separate relevant data from the irrelevant at the speed we’re asking it to. As a result, our brains become easily fatigued, and we become more forgetful. By using principles of neuroscience, Levitin says we can regain control over our brains by organizing information in a way that optimizes our brain’s capacity.

1. Externalize Data

Rather than carrying around in your head a to-do list of 20 or 30 items, put them on paper. Getting information out of your head and into the external world helps you to see it objectively so you can make decisions about what you will tackle, and in which order.

When information is only stored in your head, the brain has a hard time focusing on everything, and uses up too much of its energy trying to recall what’s on your list. Writing down your list manually also helps to encode the information into your brain through the use of muscle memory.

2. Make Big Decisions in the Morning

“Each time you make a decision, it uses some neuro-resources,” says Levitin. The problem is these neuro-resources are used up whether you’re making an insignificant decision such as which pen to use out of a drawer of pens, or something important such as whether to sign a multimillion-dollar deal.

“If you spend your day making a bunch of little decisions and it comes time to make a big important one, you’re neurologically depleted,” says Levitin, who calls this phenomenon decision fatigue. Scheduling your important decision-making tasks at the beginning of the day maximizes your brain’s resources, and can help you make better decisions.

3. Be Organized

Being organized in your physical environment lessens the burden on your brain. Have a designated place for commonly misplaced items such as keys, glasses, and cellphones. Allow your physical environment to serve as reminders, alleviating the pressure on your brain to recall things.

Levitin cites an example of forgetting to take your umbrella. “You hear the weather report that it’s going to rain tomorrow so you make a mental note to take your umbrella, but when you wake up in the morning, there’s a 100 other things on your mind,” he says. Hanging the umbrella on the doorknob when you hear the weather report reduces the clutter in your brain the next morning--and you’re less likely to get wet.

4. Multitasking Is a Myth

How many times in a day do you find yourself checking email while talking to a client on the phone, or answering text messages while in a meeting? You may tell yourself you’re multitasking, but Levitin says multitasking is a misnomer.

“What we’re actually doing is rapidly shifting our attention from one thing to another,” he says. This fast-paced attention seesaw depletes the brain’s glucose supply. Glucose is the fuel that the brain’s neurons need to communicate with one another.

Using up the brain’s glucose supply by task switching means the brain will reach a level of fatigue much sooner in the day than if we concentrate on one item at a time with sustained attention. If that doesn’t convince you, Levitin says rapidly switching tasks also lowers your IQ by 10 points.

Hablar y escribir

Por Neftali Coria – Figuraciones Mías
Sexenio.com.mx

HABLAR

Hablar es cosa del aire que empuja nuestro pensamiento a decir. Aunque no seráuna definición completa, pero sípodemos suponer que hablamos lo que pensamos y lo que se dice, siempre seráuna emisión del acto de pensar. Aunque habráquien afirme que lo que se habla, también es lo que sentimos, y en consecuencia, los sentimientos también son los emisores de lo que produce ese fenómeno de la música humana.

Hablamos solos y en silencio todo el día y quizás durante el sueño, la voz siga sonando en la vida del soñador, porque los sueños son voz, palabras, imágenes nombradas, vividas, actos representados desde la ensoñación del mundo real. Hablamos, siempre hablamos. Somos voz, firmamento sonoro, lluvia perenne de palabras, hoguera de la música humana que nunca cedióal silencio total, a ese que sólo llega con la muerte. Hablamos todos los días y creemos que como orinar, hablar es otra de las facilidades del cuerpo. Y claro, si se considera que hablar es sólo un acto que nos permite sobrevivir en el mundo y no importa la manera vaga, escueta y hasta insulsa de expresarse, sí, hablar es fácil. Pero no hay que olvidar que hablar es pensar, imaginar, construir un mundo que repita las exactitudes de la vida y si de verdad, de eso se tuviera conciencia, sin duda se buscarían las mejores rutas del habla para esclarecer los misterios de la vida, el pensamiento y el insondable mundo al que tenemos la obligación de comprender, nombrar y explicarlo desde sus verdades esenciales y no esenciales.

Al hablar nombramos y al nombrar, damos sentido a las cosas nombradas por abstractas que éstas sean. Aprendimos a decir palabras con la necesidad de mirar por dónde debíamos caminar y no caernos en este mundo sonoro al que sin pedirlo llegamos, y en el camino, siempre buscamos a otro a quien decirle y a quien escuchar, como si buscáramos vernos en un espejo. Siempre buscamos las palabras de otros, para comprobar que no estábamos solos. Hablar con otro semejante, desde el principio de la vida, fue una necesidad, pero también un encantamiento, una pasión, una vía por la que pudieron desatarse los grandes privilegios del corazón, pero también las primeras grandes y hermosas catástrofes.

Hablar es quizás el acto más misterioso e inexplorado que difiere al hombre de otras especies, sin embargo este acto de palabra sonora, nos lleva a otro suceso humano que sigue siendo un misterio maravilloso: escribir.

ESCRIBIR

Escribir es una de las otras de las maravillas humanas que nunca me ha dejado de asombrar como fenómeno paralelo o como un símil del habla humana. La escritura es el habla gráfica y la segunda vez del pensamiento, porque la primera es el pensamiento hecho palabra, alláen la oscuridad primaria del que piensa, en consecuencia, al escribir lo pensado, es más tardío que hablarlo en la inmediata oralidad; al escribir lo que se ha pensado, el que piensa y escribe (en ese orden) puede expresar con mayor claridad su dicho por escrito. Escribir es construir la permanencia de lo que se hablóantes de ser signo, traspasando y saltando el sonido de la oralidad, porque por lo regular siempre se escribe en silencio. La escritura es la construcción gráfica o plástica del habla que se dirige a formalizar un convenio con el tiempo y la persistencia de la voz que ha de quedar escrita, repitiéndose en una página, cuantas veces aquella voz, sea leída por quien sabrádescifrarla, comprenderla y darle la bienvenida a su pensamiento.

Quizás si se escribiera con mayor frecuencia en la vida diaria como una sana costumbre y la escritura fuera una herramienta para poder anotar nuestras ideas diarias, tendríamos muchas mejores condiciones mentales para pensar con mayor claridad. Escribir es un acto indispensable para organizar el pensamiento y hacer de la reflexión un instrumento central, ahora que escasea cada día más. Muchos piensan que sólo los escritores tiene que escribir, y sólo Carlos Fuentes, Octavio Paz, Jaime Sabines, debieron hacerlo. No, todos podemos y deberíamos escribir por salud y ejercicio mental.

Escribir bien, hablar bien, pensar claro y reflexionar con propiedad, debería ser una obligación moral, patriótica, jurídica y de conciencia pública.

Dear Josh: My Partner And I Have Great Chemistry, But I'm Doing All The Work. Can We Make It As A Team?

By Joshua Wolf Shenk

Joshua Wolf Shenk, author of Powers of Two: Seeking the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs, offers advice on forging great creative relationships. Today: One is a rock star, the other a work horse--can it work?

From August 4 to 8, Fast Company is hosting the Creative Counselor, who offers advice on how to forge and maintain great creative relationships. The Counselor, aka Joshua Wolf Shenk, is the author of the new book, Powers of Two: Seeking the Essence of Innovation in Creative Pairs. He's spent five years studying the most famous and productive creative partnerships, from John Lennon and Paul McCartney to Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to Marie and Pierre Curie, comparing the common points of these stories with the latest in science and psychology. And now, he's here to help you make the most of your creative collaboration.

Here, the Counselor advises one half of a creative pairing that's heavy on chemistry, but out of balance--one partner is supplying the sparks but the other is doing the heavy lifting. Can a partnership run on magic? Or will the get-it-done member of the team end up being exploited?

Dear Josh,

I’m an entrepreneur in the food world and a few years ago I created a series of pop-up restaurants with a manager I’ll call Kate. When we got going, the chemistry was immediate. The business was fabulous--we did 200-some dinners with 40 or so chefs--but beyond that, there’s just this electricity around us. We started getting approached by agents and managers and production companies to do a TV show. Our communication is crazy good. And we just naturally find our roles and switch: good cop and bad cop, awkward and not awkward. Whatever it is, we know what the other one is going to do.
The problem is that I did so much more work than her--from booking the chefs to managing accounts to marketing and PR. When we came out of the pop-up and were going to open a new place, she said she’d do the P&L. She said, “I know you’re a little wary of me, so let me give you a deadline.” But it came and went three times and she just never delivered.

Now I’m on another project. Kate and I are good friends but I don’t know whether I want to work with her again. The potential is so much greater with her than with anyone that I’ve ever worked with. But the risk is also much higher, too. She does bring skills--but I could hire someone equivalent for much less than 50% of a venture.So my main question is how much do I value the magic? And if we do proceed, how do I work with her?

Signed,

Chemistry Experiment

Dear Experiment,

You should value magic a hell of a lot. The fact that it’s not obvious to an accomplished entrepreneur says a lot about how poorly our culture understands the real engine of creativity. It’s not gumption, or originality, or talent, or executive ability. It’s all the ways these qualities get activated--which almost always depends, in one way or another, on an electric connection.

But if feeling electricity can be as potent as plugging into a socket, it can also be as jarring as a shock. A mad great partner is often maddening. When Sergey Brin and Larry Page first met, they broke into an argument; the writer John Battelle has described them as “two swords sharpening each other.”
So, asking yourself whether it’s worth it--I think that’s actually a sign that you’re in a partnership that’s worth it. Creative connection is much like love that way. Your second question is the interesting one--what do you do now?

The main thing is give up the idea that a profoundly mutual enterprise needs also be symmetrical in terms of power. It never is, not completely, and it may be that your biggest piece of work is getting comfortable with that, and finding a way to dominate Kate in a way that still keeps the energy flowing.

It sounds like you’re an adept producer and that she’s the sort of talent that brings an intangible value. It sounds like you’re more ordered and organized and she’s more free-flowing and associative. So you need to be open to the risk of being involved with her--but she needs to be held accountable.

One very effective way would be for her to have to show up and play or face some consequences. Maybe she is an employee to whom you pay a salary. Maybe you split profits but keep a controlling interest. It might mean that on paper everything is equal but you just find a way to take the wheel.

Ironically, one of the best ways for you to structure an arrangement that works best for you is to really think about her, first. What arrangement would help her do her best work?

I don’t mean that you should hedge your bet. The point is to maximize the potential of your ability to operate together. And no matter what, if you stick with Kate, you’ll be vulnerable. Magic is of infinite value, but the price you pay for it is that you’re at someone else’s mercy. There’s a good reason why people prefer to be alone and less powerful. The moment you recognize someone is indispensable, you have to put up with her shit.

Now go connect.

Warmly yours,

The Creative Counselor

El lado oscuro del trabajo en equipo

En un libro clásico de gestión, Jerry Harvey describe una situación que le ocurrió personalmente y que bautizó como “La paradoja de Abilane”

Una tarde muy calurosa en Texas, Jerry estaba con la familia de su esposa jugando plácidamente dominó cuando su suegro sugiere viajar a Abilane, una ciudad 80km al norte, para comer allá.  Mientras Jerry piensa “a quién se le puede ocurrir una cosa así”, su esposa dice “buena idea”; su suegra se una con aparente entusiasmo y Jerry, quien no quiere ser el aguafiestas del grupo, accede también.  La familia llega a Abilane, luego de soportar el calor y el polvo del camino, para comer en una cafetería desastrosa.  Regresan a casa exhaustos, cuatro horas después.

Ante un silencio prolongado e incómodo Jerry dice, intentando quedar bien: “Fue un buen paseo, ¿no?”.  Su esposa contesta, “La verdad es que a mí no me gustó nada, acepté ir porque ustedes parecían entusiasmados”; la suegra replica “la verdad es que yo me sentí presionada, habría que estar loco para querer ir a Abilane con este calor”.  Finalmente, el suegro, algo avergonzado exclama: “Yo solo propuse la idea porque me pareció que se estaban aburriendo, ¡hubiera preferido mil veces quedarme aquí!”

Allí estaban cuatro personas inteligentes y bien dispuestas quienes, al tomar decisiones en equipo, habían terminado haciendo exactamente lo contrario a lo que cada uno de ellos individualmente habría decidido hacer.  A muchos nos ha pasado que, en alguna oportunidad, nos hemos ido en equipo a nuestros propios “Abilanes”.  A veces con consecuencias mucho más significativas.  Al lanzar un producto, estructurar un área, definir un plan de trabajo o hacer frente a una acción de la competencia, muchas veces los equipos tienden a tomar decisiones que los miembros no apoyan realmente de modo individual.  Este fenómeno se conoce como “pensamiento de grupo”.  Debido a él, las personas muchas veces dejan de lado sus creencias u opiniones y dejan de expresar su desacuerdo, pues prefieren mantener el consenso y no alterar la aparente uniformidad de criterio del equipo.

El lado oscuro del trabajo en equipo se presenta cuando los miembros sienten que deben subordinar su individualidad en aras del bienestar del colectivo; cuando sienten que para ser aceptados deben dejar de ser ellos mismos, alterar su voluntad, esconder sus creencias, encubrir sus opiniones.

Los primeros responsables de enviar a sus equipos a “Abilane” son los propios líderes.  Por ello es importante implantar procesos en la toma de decisiones en equipo que propicien la generación de ideas.  Se podría nombrar a un “abogado del diablo” que debe encontrar objeciones a la decisión que el equipo se siente inclinado a tomar.  A veces, basta con propiciar un espacio de algunos minutos para escribir individualmente alternativas a las que el líder propone.  Cualquier mecanismo para implantar en la toma de decisiones en equipo procesos que permitan la expresión del desacuerdo puede hacer que el trabajo en equipo sea una experiencia gratificante y enriquecedora para todos.  No hacerlo puede condenar al equipo y a la organización a tomar decisiones con consecuencias mucho más serias y duraderas que el pasar un mal día en Abilane.

"Cambiar muchas cosas"

16-07-2014

Zico no aguantó su enojo por haber quedado eliminado del Mundial por goleada y pidió a la Federación Brasileña de Fútbol una amplia reforma: "Es hora de ponerse las sandalias de la humildad y empezar de cero".

Después de la decepcionante participación brasileña en la Copa del Mundo, que incluyó la histórica caída 7-1 ante Holanda por la semifinal, en Brasil quieren volver a ser el duro equipo que siempre fueron para evitar más disgustos. Es por eso que una de sus máximas leyendas, Arthur Antunes Coimbra, más conocido como Zico, pidió una amplia reforma en todo el fútbol de su país. "Es hora de ponerse las sandalias de la humildad y empezar de cero", dijo.

El ex jugador de 61 años dejó en claro que es inadmisible que Brasil haya quedado eliminado del Mundial por tanta diferencia en el resultado: "Todo lo que escucho es que se cometieron errores, que da igual perder ante Alemania en semifinales con uno o siete goles en contra. Pero esto así no es aceptable", resaltó. Además, le recomendó a la Federación Brasileña tomar como modelo el fútbol alemán, reciente campeón del mundo. "No se puede seguir ocultando que hay que cambiar muchas cosas", afirmó en una entrevista con la revista alemana Sport Bild.

"Tenemos que repensar la capacitación de nuestros jugadores. Hay que trabajar sobre todo con el talento", planteó el ex futbolista tomando como referencia el trabajo realizado por Alemania después de la triste participación en la Eurocopa 2000, en la que el equipo germano comenzó una larga transformación en su plantel. Ahora, según declara la leyenda brasileña, es momento de que su país haga lo mismo.

ASK THE EXPERTS: IS THERE A WAY TO INCORPORATE MY DAY JOB INTO A SIDE HUSTLE WITHOUT BEING SHADY?

YOU LOVE YOUR JOB BUT IT DOESN'T PAY THE BILLS. YOU NEED A SIDE HUSTLE. HERE'S SOME ADVICE ON HOW TO MAKE THAT HAPPEN.

BY LOLLY DASKAL

Finding a job that you love that pays well can feel a dream more impossible than finding the tooth fairy riding a unicorn. Many people are happy to get at least half of the equation.

So what do you do when you love your job but you can't make rent? If a raise isn't in the cards and you're not ready to sell out, you look for a side hustle to make some extra money. Here's how to make it happen without being shady.

Here are some ideas on how you might be able to earn some extra cash that likely won't present a conflict of interest with your current position:

Become a freelancer or consultant. 

More companies are looking for contract and freelance work as an alternative to full-time positions. Farming out work to independent contractors makes sense for the bottom line because companies can pay for the work they need done, with decreased overhead expenses like benefits and setting up a physical office for each employee.

Many companies are willing to pay a freelancer to assist them with writing, monitoring, and maintaining their Wikipedia listing, Facebook page, or Twitter feed.

There are multiple websites where you can post your resume and search job listings, including elance.com, ratracerebellion.com and flexjobs.com. Some sites charge a commission to connect you with an employer, others charge a flat fee to access the listings, and some are completely free. Do be careful--there’s plenty of legitimate work out there, but it’s also an area where scams abound.

Start a YouTube channel or a blog. 

With some steady video traffic--and maybe even one that goes viral--it’s possible to bring in income from Google’s AdSense platform. Even modestly viewed channels can make a regular income by posting videos often. The key, of course, is adding value. What could you record and post to help people or just entertain them?

Blogging can help generate a little extra money. Many blogging platforms are free. Once your blog is up and running, connect with ad and affiliate programs to generate income.

Become a tutor. 

Everyone has something they can teach, and everyone has something they need to learn. Usually, it’s pretty easy to find someone who will pay you to tutor them in something. When people hear about tutoring, they assume that only subjects like math or English are involved. This is not true. People will pay for tutoring in every area of academic work, music lessons, computer skills, and all kinds of other subjects. This is definitely one of the most varied side jobs out there.

Become a bartender or server. 

One of the greatest things about the service industry is the flexible hours, and that is what can make bartending and serving great side jobs. In most cases, you can find a place that will let you work around your primary job.

Consider the side work you did as a teenager. 

Things like pet walking, babysitting, and yard work is often sought out by teenagers looking for a few bucks. However, it can be a lucrative opportunity for adults with some spare time, and people might feel more comfortable hiring a responsible adult.

Advertise with flyers in your neighborhood or online that you can walk dogs and watch pets--it is work that can usually be done in the mornings, evenings, or on weekends.

If you’re an experienced nanny or babysitter, Care.com is the place you want to make money. By listing yourself on “the Craigslist of child care,” you’ll broaden your reach and increase your odds of finding the right position.

Mowing and trimming lawns, watering, and other outdoor chores are a challenge for the elderly, and people who lead busy lives. As a bonus, you’ll be helping yourself stay healthier.

Consider sales. 

If you are crafty, there are a lot of places to sell handmade goods like jewelry, T-shirts, knitted items, and more. Set up shop at local festivals or events or create a shop on Etsy.

If you have anything you’re willing to part with, list it on eBay. Some people make a side income scouting bargains at yard and estate sales to sell for a profit online.

You can also try direct sales. 

You won’t get rich selling things like Avon and Amway--according to Amway, their average salesperson earns $115 a month selling their products--but you can make a side income.

No matter what you do to make money online, promote it on your social media accounts. By promoting yourself and your projects online, you’re greatly increasing the chances of people actually giving you money in exchange for your goods and services.

If all else fails, and you have a car, you can try this:

Drive a billboard. 

Have you ever seen a car drive by plastered in ads for potato chips or an energy drink? A number of advertising firms will pay drivers to have their own cars covered with ads. Depending on the firm, the length of the promotion and your region, you can be paid between $400 and $900 per month to serve as a moving billboard. Some companies will even provide you with a car to drive free of charge. All you have to do is sign up on the company's website, filling in basic demographic information.

I hope this list of ideas can help you find ways to earn the extra cash you need. Let me know the direction you went and how it turned out.

70% OF YOUR TIME AT WORK IS WASTED—HOW TO CHANGE THAT

STREAMLINE TIME-SUCKS, LIKE EMAIL, MEETINGS AND TASK-RUNNING, TO GET YOUR TIME BACK.

BY BILL TRENCHARD

The average tech CEO works about 300 days a year, 14 hours a day. That’s 4,200 hours a year.

The stats for most other tech leaders and startup employees aren’t too far off. It sounds like a lot of time, but for most, it’s not enough. Nearly 30% of that time gets sunk into email. Another third gets spent in meetings--and studies show that half of those hours are completely wasted.

Looking at the schedule of a typical CEO, a full 70% of that time is sub-optimal, and I’ll back that up with my own experience. Prior to joining First Round as a partner, I served as cofounder and CEO for three companies, including LiveOps. Today, I meet with dozens of founders every week, helping them grow their teams and get more productivity out of themselves and the people they work with. They know they should be using every hour to move their companies forward, create great products, close deals and hire the best candidates. Many just can’t find the time. So, how do we get better?

This year, I spent several weeks leading up to our annual CEO Summit catching up with people I know who do a superhuman job at managing their time. My goal was to capture the tools, tips and hacks they use to make every work hour count. Below, I share eight strategies that have worked for them and for me, so we can all stop wasting time and missing out on opportunities.

1. SAY NO.

As your company becomes more prominent, you’re only going to get more of everything. More people reaching out through LinkedIn, email, invitations to connect, to go to coffee, to ask for a favor. It’s death by paper cuts. Inevitably, a childhood acquaintance from 20 years ago who you can barely remember will ask you for introductions to all your influential friends at Facebook. This is when you have to say, “No.”

Saying no is so hard. It’s hard because you want to pay it forward. So many people have helped you. You want to do the same. But you have to draw the line somewhere, and there are ways to make it easier.

Try “No” templates--canned responses for all the common situations where you find yourself saying no. I first heard about the idea from entrepreneur and investor Mark Suster, and it’s saved me immeasurable time and anxiety. Here’s an example:

Hi Bill,

Great to hear from you. I hope all is well. Fortunately, my company is starting to take off, and I’m under extreme pressure to deliver against some ambitious goals. I go to a lot of social events, but unfortunately I won’t be able to connect right now.

Best,

Josh

This lets you put the time and attention you want into crafting a response. You just don’t have to do it every time. The most important thing is that you close the door to further communication. Do it nicely in a way that truthfully explains the situation, but don’t leave things open-ended.

When you have your batch of templates, you can say no to salespeople. Say no to investor meetings when you’re not raising money. Investors make a lot of introductions. You don’t have to take all of them. Board members make random requests. You don’t have to agree to all of them. Write a template for each of these cases, including messages on LinkedIn. Even that email from your long-lost friend looking for a meeting. Eventually, you’ll need it.

2. BE AN EMAIL NINJA.

For those of you who haven’t seen SaneBox, I’m a huge fan--it’s so simple. It's likeGoogle Priority Mailbox, supercharged and works well with your iPhone. It sets up a bulk folder that takes all bulk email out of your inbox. Anything that you don’t need to read personally, you never see it. It’s accurate and it saves a ton of time.

Most of the CEOs I know who are very productive make a priority to get to inbox zero. Just think about postal mail for a second. Do you pick your letters up, look at each one and then put them back down only to pick them up and put them down again and again? This is the definition of insanity. Yet that’s exactly what most of us do with our email. There are three methods that I’ve observed email ninjas use:

All day. Your inbox is always open and you process things as they come in. You’re extremely responsive but it’s hard to focus on projects that require deep thought.

Batch. You look at your email two to four times a day and run through everything then.

Assistance. You retain the help of a full-time or virtual assistant who can help sort through your email to flag what’s actually important, what requires action and what doesn’t. You’ll need to set up a private inbox, of course, but this can turbo-charge your whole life.

If you don’t have an assistant, I recommend the batch route. It lets you focus on email when you need to, and give other tasks the attention they deserve. Constant context-switching makes you mediocre at everything.

Another way to take your email skills to the next level is to install a suite of plug-ins. Task managers like Asana often have them, allowing you to move emails in and out of your task manager. It’s a quick way to get things out of your inbox but not off your radar.

Rule of thumb: If you can respond to or act on any email in under two minutes, just do it immediately. If it’s going to require more than two minutes, move it into your task manager to process later. When you do this, you have the ability to prioritize tasks and emails in relation to each other, and your inbox no longer owns your time.

I’ve heard from a number of people that learning the keyboard shortcuts in Gmail can save up to 30% of your time. Gmail also offers a setting that lets you archive emails as soon as you click send, leaving you with a more pristine inbox at the end of the day.

Finally, and perhaps the most useful thing you can do is use TextExpander or another shortcut utility. It allows you to type short-hand and have it magically fill out an email with prepared phrases with just a few quick keystrokes.

3. MANAGE YOUR ENERGY.

Not too long ago, the average human used to walk 12 miles a day. Now we sit. We sit a lot. We sit so much. It’s so bad for us that Harvard Business Review has called it the smoking of our generation. If you work in tech, you average 9.3 hours sitting every day. This is more than you sleep. As people, we’re meant to move. It’s vital to our health, but also our ability to be effective. Here are three quick hacks in this department:

The seven-minute workout. It’s scientifically proven. The New York Times has spoken. You do 12 exercises in seven minutes and it works.

TAKE WALKING MEETINGS.

Almost everyone has one-on-one meetings. Suggest taking a walk instead of sitting in a conference room or a coffee shop.

ASK FOR A STANDING DESK.

Most offices now accommodate these requests. They’ve been proven to reduce risks of heart disease and cancer and boost mood and alertness. And if you’re really committed to daily movement, try a walking desk.

Managing your energy isn’t just about physicality. It’s about understanding your mental rhythms too. We all know about sleep rhythms, the importance of deep sleep and a healthy REM cycle. But we don’t pay attention to how these rhythms continue throughout our day too. To take advantage of upcycles, you need to build your schedule like a sprinter. Block off an hour to two hours when you are at your most alert and use them to work against your three top priorities.

Here’s an example of a CEO’s calendar:

They set up their morning to do the most creative projects. Research shows most people are at their most creative in the morning. Handle email and stand-up meetings after that and then power through emails at the end of the day. Notice how there are breaks between these scheduled blocks to remain optimally focused in between.

When you do take a break, you actually need to take a break. Go for a walk. Listen to soothing music. Do something not work related. Talk to the people in your office and discover things about them that aren’t related to work.

4. BUILD PLAYBOOKS.

For anything you do more than three times, write down your process in detail. Build playbooks that you can hand off to someone else, so they can execute something exactly the way you would. Never get held up by people asking what the next step is or whom they should ask about a process.

This is how Uber in particular scaled so quickly. They’ve grown to over 70 cities and they’ve killed it in all of them. How did they do it? With a playbook. They have a list of the things they do in every single city when they launch, with slight regional adjustments. They have practiced this method and tested it and wrote it all down. So now they just execute, like turning a key.

The startups that I have seen succeed the most at scaling are the ones who have systematized their common actions and core procedures early, and made a habit of it as they grew.

5. GET GREAT AT EXTERNAL MEETINGS.

How many times do you meet with someone important to your business, but fail to take away knowledge you can use to grow that relationship? This could be anyone from a business development partner to a client. It can be hard to hear, and when you walk out, you lose so much of what they’ve told you. The chances that you’ll improve your performance for them are slim.

To break this mold, you need to understand their professional challenges.
If you don’t, you have to ask them. If you’re in a B2B space, what are your customers’ customers asking for? How can you help them meet these challenges?

To really get the most out of your meetings, you have to bridge personal and professional. It doesn’t have to be deep. It could be as simple as asking them if they are going anywhere on vacation soon. When they respond to questions like this, make note of it. Give yourself the opportunity to reach out again, outside of meetings, with a personal touch to build that connection and deepen it. For example, if a contact likes cycling, send them an awesome bike route you've discovered. It makes a transformative difference.

6. GET GREAT AT INTERNAL MEETINGS.

Startups tend to hold a lot of meetings. Too many. Have less. One of the easiest ones to kill is the status meeting. You don’t need to constantly meet with your team to provide a round robin of updates. Just have them write it down. Put it in a Google Doc and have everyone read it once a week.

NEVER LEAVE A MEETING UNTIL YOU'VE DECIDED WHAT THE OUTCOME IS.

When it comes to decision-making meetings, make reversible decisions quickly. Most decisions in startups are reversible and yet we agonize over them for too long. When you come together, get the right data and the right people and drive toward a decision.

Do this for all decision-making meetings, unless it's truly an irreversible decision. Take more time with those, have more conversations, involve your advisors and board. Otherwise decide and execute. Your biggest advantage as a startup is the ability to change quickly later since there are so few moving parts.

7. LEVERAGE ASSISTANTS.

Technology is great at making us more productive, but it has its limits. It’s worth growing a relationship with an assistant, either in-office or remotely to help you.

Virtual assistants and services like TaskRabbit that are more dedicated to specific tasks can be very powerful. However, they can’t take what’s inside your head and make judgments for you.

If it is possible for you, hire a full-time assistant in the same building as you. This can extend your capabilities more than you can imagine. In addition to having enough context to make decisions on your behalf, they can orchestrate these other services to do even more. If having a full-time assistant isn’t possible, try a virtual one. There are many inexpensive services, like Prialto, and they can take a ton of stuff off your plate. They can order and send gifts, take dictation, schedule many meetings at once, etc.

Dictation, especially, should not be underestimated as a great source of productivity. I recommend you install an app called Voxie. You can open it and literally say, “Draft an email to Chris,” and then just speak it out, “Hi Chris, Great to see you this morning. Thanks for catching up.” Your virtual assistant can easily field the recording, and when you get back to your inbox, it’ll already be in your drafts. All you need to do is hit send.

“Following up on meetings can be tremendously impactful, but how often do you actually do it?”

Now you can draft the follow-up email in seconds right as you’re leaving a meeting.

8. GIVE YOUR TEAM LEVERAGE.

One of the most productive CEOs I recently spoke to is religious about “management by walking around.” This is exactly what it sounds like. He circulates the office, stopping to talk to his team members one-on-one or in small groups throughout the day. He asks them:

• What’s holding you back from getting more done?
• What are your blockers? Are there any bottlenecks or barriers I can remove for you?
• What resources or processes would let you move as fast as you want to?

So I advise you, get the answers to these questions and get it done for your team. If you want them to model speed, you need to model speed yourself. Give them the help they need to do their best work in record time. Responsiveness is key. You can still batch your emails and catch urgent requests with a tool called AwayFind. Whenever someone sends a high priority message, you’ll get an alert without having to leave your inbox open all day.

A lot of the time, you’ll hear that people are simply stuck. They’re nervous about deploying a feature or cold emailing an important contact. They’re toiling away to fix a tiny bug while a larger project grinds to a halt. When something like this is holding them back, the best question you can ask is this: What is the cost of failure? If only two people out of two million will see a new feature that isn’t perfect, you don’t need to be spending so much time on it. De-risk it for them. When you’re a manager, this is often the best use of your time.

Demonstrate the 80/20 rule in everything you do. This means spending 80% of your time on the work that moves the needle, and only 20% on the smaller stuff. Condition your team out of seeking perfection. So many startup employees, especially engineers, want to nail everything perfectly the first time. But that’s not what you want. You want speed.

If you implement these simple hacks, you can get that 70% of time you aren't maximizing back. You can spend less time in meetings and your inbox. Most importantly, you can get back to leading, inspiring, closing deals and changing the world.