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Get In Gear Newsletter in this issue: efficiency = authenticity |
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a personal note from Cairene
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eventsSECP Meeting - September 18, 2008 Business Operations Manual: sounds awfully bureaucratic, doesn't it? But even creative solopreneurs need to document how they do business. With special attention to right-brain approaches, I will share how you can begin to compile your very own operating instructions (the book you wish had come in the box when you started your business). Stop making it all up as you go along and learn how to clarify your standards, policies and procedures so you can streamline routine tasks, build and maintain momentum, evaluate the big picture, and focus on your creative ambitions. A lifesaver in situations when you are unexpectedly unable to work, your business manual is also an indispensable resource when it comes time to delegate activities to others as your business grows. Pointless if never referenced, I will discuss how to make your manual a tool you will want to use - customized to your business and personality with all the information you need at your fingertips. A living document that will change as your business evolves, you will also learn easy ways to keep your manual up-to-date and relevant to your business so you keep on using and benefiting from it. Running your business can feel like coming home from Ikea excited to assemble your new Flärke bookcase, only to discover the instructions are missing and that you're going to have to figure it out yourself. If you'd like a hand putting the pieces together, this is a presentation you won't want to miss. Date: Thursday, September 18, 2008 I'm really excited to be offering this valuable information and I hope you can be there!
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workshopsPlease note new dates & times! The Complete Series The True Discipline of
Time Management Your Business Manual Get-In-Gear Fridays did you know?Teleclasses and workshops can be customized. If you would like to take a class (or the whole series) with a small group of colleagues, courses can be tailored to the challenges you share in common, on a schedule that works for your group. All it takes is four like-minded people who are ready to get to work. Interested? Please contact me for more information. All teleclasses and workshops include individual support between classes, an online forum for participants and graduates, and private consultation with me following the course to address individual challenges - and results are guaranteed.
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one-on-one coachingWant more individualized attention than is available in a workshop? Need help with a specific area of your business or special project? I currently have two openings available for one-on-one coaching. Whether it's making better use of your time or putting systems in place to streamline your business, gain the skills and information you need to succeed through individual training and support in the areas you want it most. [learn more]
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get in gear > efficiency = authenticityFor three of my four years of college, I was a member of the Steering Committee of my alma mater’s Womyn’s Center (and the “y” pretty much tells you everything you need to know about the organization). Each spring, we held a festival over several days featuring seminars, music, and other events. The festival was, of course, a lot of work to plan and carry out. (It was then I first began to realize that most people don’t understand how things happen.) But we were not always rewarded for our efforts. Events were not well attended and the t-shirts didn’t sell. And we came away from what should have been a great experience feeling like deflated balloons. By senior year, we’d had enough. No way were we going to work that hard again to present something people didn’t want to come to. So, we said #@%&! them and did what we wanted to do. We planned workshops on subjects we wanted to learn, lectures on topics we wanted hear, music we wanted to listen to, t-shirts we wanted to wear. And, to our surprise, it was a HUGE success. When we stopped focusing on what we should do, when we stopped guessing at what everyone else wanted, when we stopped worrying about what everybody thought of us – we were finally able to serve and connect with our community in the ways we wanted to, and have fun doing it. Interesting lesson for a bunch of young feminists, wasn’t it? the personal is universal I had a similar experience several years later in art school. As young artists in first-year foundational drawing and design courses, we were constantly struggling to figure out our “style” and how to communicate ideas visually. It was always a temptation to go with the iconic or the stereotypical to get something across, thinking it would be more easily understood. But that often resulted in work that was impenetrably conceptual, that made your classmates say, “Sorry, but I just don’t get it,” during critiques. And in the same way the steering committee got tired of no one showing up to our party, our class got tired of not being understood and we all, sooner or later, ended up making something just for ourselves instead. But that very personal little work of art, created to please no one but ourselves, would end up being the very piece that moved everyone else, that was understood, that was identified with. And that’s when I really got it: the personal is universal. And it would seem that the more personal, the more universal. For example, if you have ever read Anne Lamott’s work, you know she is very good at – how should I say it? – “confessional” writing. I mean, sometimes you can hardly believe she’s telling you what she’s telling you – never mind how it could be so funny and moving at the same time. I am neither a recovering addict nor a single parent, but when I read Operating Instructions and Traveling Mercies I was thinking throughout both books, “That is so true! I thought I was the only one who felt that way.” It’s a paradox. A big, beautiful paradox. embracing the paradox in business If you are focused on what you “should” do, if you are guessing at what everyone else wants, if you are worried about what others will think of you – you are ultimately wasting your time. You are planning a party no one will want to come to, creating a painting no one will understand, writing a book no one will much want to read. But if you offer what you think is most interesting and useful and fun, if you share honestly and enthusiastically from your own experience – I figure you’re home free. Serving and connecting with people the way you want to will come much more easily and feel much more rewarding. But what, you may be asking, does this have to do with business administration? with effective time and task management? Deciding which projects to pursue based on what you think you should do and what you think other people expect is terribly inefficient and inaccurate. Unless you’ve done a heap of market research, your decision-making criteria comes down to your doubts and insecurities - and my experience is that fear is a really incompetent consultant. Without something more substantial to weigh your ideas against, you’re prone to a lot of waffling and poor decisions - both of which waste your time. Projects that come out of guesswork and “shoulds” tend not to make as much sense as the ones that come from your own interests and experience. They may not be the biggest projects you could imagine, but they are more difficult to figure out how to plan, execute and support because they feel so foreign. You can’t tap into your intuition – and that slows you down. Marketing is more difficult, too. Who wants to get out there and promote something you feel lukewarm about? It’s a lot of effort to present a false front, and chances are it won’t be well-received. Doubt and self-consciousness will also quickly erode your momentum. And administration is nearly impossible. If you don’t like doing admin under the best of circumstances, you really aren’t going to want to maintain projects that bore or annoy you. If not already doomed by your lack of understanding or promotion, your projects will fail without proper support. get in gear > be yourself When you pursue projects without genuine delight and authenticity, day-to-day operations can be a real slog. Why make the work of building a business harder than it has to be by offering services and products you aren’t excited about? If you want to use your time most efficiently, keep it simple: let go of the “shoulds” and do what you know and love. You aren’t as different as you feel you are. And you know more than you think you do. Get out there and share it. Need a hand figuring out which projects are the best use of your time? Join my upcoming workshop The True Discipline of Time Management and learn how to recognize and eliminate “shoulds.” Teleclasses begin September 9 and October 7. Register now.
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I encourage you to share this newsletter with people you think may enjoy it. When doing so, please forward it in its entirety, including my contact and copyright information. Thanks! An archive of past issues of the Get In Gear newsletter can be browsed here. Unless otherwise attributed, all material is written and edited by Cairene MacDonald. Cairene MacDonald Third Hand Works |
unconventional workflow strategies for unconventional people |
