Messaging for the Highly Scheduled PM
Situation: You Schedule Time to Return Messages OR Want Mobile Team Alerts Everyone has their own way of dealing with the tremendous volume of messages we receive every day. Many succumb to a demand-driven lifestyle, constantly checking voicemail, email, etc. - and responding as soon as they come in. Others like to shut out the noise and focus on the task in front of them until a particular time of day that they allocate to returning messages. Got Voice is a free service for those in that last group. The service grabs voice messages off of your cell phone and drops them into your email (you actually play back the voice recording). That way you can go through everything at once.Perhaps a more useful feature of the service allows you to create voice mail groups. This means you can send a voice mail to your entire team without their phones ever ringing. Like a text message (SMS), but easier on both ends. You get rid of the awkward typing thing and take a step out of the process by sending to the group vs. checking off each person on the list. Think about any situation where you would normally send an email out, but need EVERYONE to get it right away vs. when they read their email. It could really come in handy in certain situations. |
Instant Cartography
| Situation: Your Distributed Team Needs Location-Specific Guidance |
Google MapsTeambuilding Without Training Wheels
Situation: You're Hard Up For Team Building Options There are sites out there that offer teambuilding exercises you can do in the office, which I guess is ok if your group is the "go along with it" type. However, most need something a little different and off-site. Which brings us to this goofy idea for a teambuilding exercise. The conference bike has been around for a while now. I thought I'd throw it out here, just because its unusual. Wikipedia defines teambuilding in a rather complex way, which I think is what happens once people start consulting in a particular area. To me, if everyone just gets along a little better afterwards, then we've had a good outing.Other Options I tend to think weird=memorable. I'm still working on getting everyone to do the group Trapeze Lessons. We've done Dave and Busters, Ice Skating, etc. - but I just can't bring myself to do the ropes course thing. Our crew is a little more outspoken , dynamic, and opinionated than most. So we just try to get together and have a good time once in a while. |
Color Me Funny...
Categories:
Time Killers
Categories: Time Killers
 Situation: Your Team Needs a Good LaughI'm not typically an email "forwarder", but someone really put some time and thought into this Executive Coloring Book. My friend Laurie sent it to me a couple of months ago and everyone I've shown it to loves it. |
Is the Manager Committed to the Project?
Categories:
Advice
Categories: Advice
| Situation: You're Looking for a Truly Committed PM... |
