In basket

Believe it or not, when I first joined IBM, every other cubicle dweller seemed to have one of those desk baskets that consisted of an in, a pending and an out shelf. The pending shelf was usually the middle shelf, while the in and the out shelf could be either the top or the bottom depending on the person's taste. The lack of standards necessitated labeling of them In or Out.

And if you had achieved enough of a rank (like becoming a manager or level l 59 which is band 9 for you youngsters) the department assistant would come to your office to feed your in basket and take care of filing stuff from your out basket.

Eldon's talk last LPG brought back this timeless technique of managing activities and to-do's, which goes to show that good ideas never die they just get recycled.

I am a believer of recycling good ideas. Often times wisdom comes when you take another look at a situation or some piece information with a different perspective--from another angle. It might surprise some that not every one is equally endowed with this ability to widen the scope to take another look. There are people who are so convinced that they got it right the first time they will fight you and argue with you and convince you that there is only one way and it's their way.

Since last week I have been in Orlando for a couple of weeks to practice taking another look at things. I am attending the Avatar Wizard course for the fifth time.

I won't be at LPG this Friday. Eldon will conduct session 2 of the life hacking discussions.

What set of topics or book should we do next?

Now that we have completed another cycle of Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,
I am soliciting discussions and suggestions on what book, or sets of topics we as a group should study.

So, if you have any suggestions or ideas, please post them here.

Google Blog has a label feature to categorize blog entries. I have labeled this entry "Begin" because it has the feel of working on Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind.

Deciding what next book or set of leadership topics to study and practice probably require us to also contemplate and visualize what the core value of LPG is. Our next meeting will be facilitated by Donna to revisit the current LPG vision and spirit to see if it needs to be realigned or evolved now that our current group structure has been changing since the beginning of year.

In any case, it won't hurt to start listing what books might consider using for the Phase 2.

Suggestions so far:

8th Habit--Find your own voice and helping others find theirs by Stephen Covey
Developing the leader within you or The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership or Becoming an person of influence by John C. Maxwell.

If you have any suggestions feel free to post.

9/4/08 LPG Logistics Planning Meeting

We used today's LPG meeting to discuss logistics for our evolving LPG. The following action plan was agreed upon:

1. Changing meeting time for LPG. Starting with the next meeting, LPG will meet on the second and fourth Friday every month.

2. The next four meetings will have the following agenda:

1. 9/12: Jingdong to lead Session 2 of Habit 7: Sharpening the saw. (in the meantime, a reminder to all LPGers :-) ... "be mindful of doing this habit, look for opportunities to sharpen your saw eg. put together an education plan, are you spending time to renew each of the 4 dimensions: physical, mental, social and spirtual? are you making a commitment?).
   
2. 9/26: Team discussions and brainstorming to re-align the team ... to be facilitated by Donna, topics include: mission statement of LPG? And what do we study and practice after 7 Habits? Meeting will be open to all LPG members but Advisory Members should be there.
3. 10/10: Fall Kick off meeting LPG: Open to all LPG members, Might want to invite guests, We will present vision statement of LPG and the proposed detail of fall program
4. 10/24: Fall LPG starts
   

3. We will be using the lobby conference room. We will use Roger's call in conference number.

4. Team agreed on using the following web collaboration technologies:

1. Google blog for indepth reflection of LPG topics
2. Google web (a kind of wiki) for more static content for LPG
3. Facebook and its Leadership Practice Group group on Facebook to establish a community presence on the fastest growing social networking platforms. Goals include: reaching out to wider network (that was how Tracy found us), "Sharpening the saw" on this fast growing collaboration platform (it's up to you to learn as much or as little as you want or have time for .. but you will generally be pleasantly surprised to find a lot of friends and most likely your tennage kids already on facebook). So, at least please make sure you have access on Facebook. Think of it as your action for shapening your saw on web 2.0.

5. News. Gilma said that she is still looking to start an LPG chapater in Brazil but it would be outside an IBM context. Things are really changing fast and very hectic at IBM Brazil. She said when she gets to a point of forming that group, she would look for help from LPG Rochester. Al thought that it would be a great experiment for LPG outside IBM or any company as it meshes with the vision that LPG is not just about work, it is about living a total effective life.

6. Misc. Within IBM, there are two distribution lists: ANG-LPG which contains LPG extended members, LPG Core which as the core members. We should make sure that advisory members have admin access to the distribution list. At certain time, we should make a point to update the list. Maybe after kickoff.

See you all on 9/12 for Session 2. Sandra will send out invitations. Thank you Sandra!