2 Things to do less

Note: this is posted on my blog at work, where I do most of my writing. But in case the financial crisis takes down IBM, I wanted to preserve it here.

Email
Is email the biggest productivity drain in business today? I say yes...and not for the reasons you might think. I can handle SPAM, administrative requests, and even Lotus Notes (sorry, IBMers, but as a long-time Outlook user, my efficiency dropped a notch or three moving to Notes). I can even deal with the volume of emails I receive: my delete button is fully operational.

The danger of email, and its allure, is that you feel productive when doing it -- but you really aren't. I can spend 24 hours a day giving the appearance of being ultra-responsive -- answering questions, checking in with my direct reports, letting my boss know what's going on. But, when I do that, I miss out on opportunities to really grow the business: talking to clients, coming up with new strategies and tactics to execute on them, solving some really tough technical problem that simply takes concentrated effort.

Lately, I find myself spending less time on email during the work day, and it has been quite refreshing. Instead of reacting to requests from the world, I find myself thinking ahead -- whether it's planning for my next client meeting or planning for how I think our business will change next year. The result: I'm better prepared and more valuable to my clients and my company.

Powerpoint (or any slide show presentation, for that matter)
While I've never been a huge fan of slides (charts, as they seem to be called around here), I've been totally turned off by a slide-show culture that seems pervasive at IBM, and has even infiltrated Cognos employees. Not only are the volumes bordering on obscene, the designs are often utterly grotesque, with 2 point type and montage of shapes that are supposed to represent something profound, but end up looking like the floor of a pre-school art class. Ugh.

When you think about it, slide shows are a terrible medium for engaging clients: the focus moves away from the people in the room and on to a wall or screen, where the content may or may not make sense to the people in the room. It also gives the client an excuse not to think, and that's a bad thing. The best bond you can form with your clients is when you are thinking together, creatively, on how to solve a problem that holds value to both parties. Slide shows explicitly define topics, which is not conducive to understanding the needs of the client.

Unless I'm presenting to a very large audience, I've given myself a 5 slide limit to my presentations. Any more than that, and chances are the scope of the meeting has gone beyond what is necessary or practical.