Following up on the effectiveness/efficiency episode from last week, here’s a bit about a lesson I re-learned recently: how to be a bit more efficient with office work …
I keep trying to do better!
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Related Videos:
– Don’t Sacrifice Effectiveness for Efficiency
– Just Doing Our Best
– We Are All Unfinished Products
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On the primacy of effectiveness over efficiency:
Unfortunately, I’m neither very efficient nor very effective — but I keep trying!
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Related Videos:
– Just Doing Our Best
– We Are All Unfinished Products
by This might have been little more than an excuse to make up a new word….
How about you? How good are you at abandoning some ideas — especially good ideas — in order to concentrate on others?
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Related Videos:
– We Are All Unfinished Products
– Looking at Education as a System
– Just Doing Our Best
by We haven’t had a breakthrough in my novel being available — hopefully we’ll get past the e-commerce roadblock today — so here’s a new video that considers the idea that we are never finished, but always in the process of “becoming,” as we move along the assembly line of life. And, unlike inanimate objects in a factory, we have a say in what we become.
What do you think? Where are you, and what are you becoming, on the assembly line of your life?
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Related Videos:
– Looking at Education as a System
– Just Doing Our Best
– Every Student A Scholar?
by Talking about potential in this video, and specifically the idea that every student has the potential to be a scholar of something. The problem then is finding what it is the student is interested enough in to study in depth. Helping students find those topics of interest requires exposing them to a wide range of things, which is the nature of the “Musashi-Heinlein School” discussed in previous episodes.
What do you think? Can every student be a scholar, in something?
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Related Videos:
– The Musashi-Heinlein School
– Looking at Education as a System
– Two-Dimensional Characters, and Education
– The Dimensions of Sphericity
by On Independence Day this year, I had the opportunity to experience glass-blowing — something I’d wanted to do for a long time, but not something I was prepared to do on my own. I would have failed miserably, and possibly done a good bit of damage even with my best efforts, if I had not had supervision, coaching, and expert guidance.
And, having this week learned that my best efforts in another endeavor were woefully inadequate, I recalled that Dr. W. Edwards Deming often said we were being “ruined by best efforts.” It’s not too hard to imagine how bad things might be in other areas of life — in business, in education, in the military or the government or the church — if everyone was doing their best but no one knew what they should do or how to do it.
So, in this episode, we look at glass-blowing, best efforts, and lessons learned from failure.
What do you think? Can we be “ruined by best efforts”?
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You May Also Like:
– Video: Perspective and Self-Improvement
– Video: Public Speaking Tip: Stand Up, If You Can
– My YouTube channel
by Chocolate and raspberry is one of the greatest flavor combinations ever. Sure, Oreo cookies are good by themselves, and chocolate creme Oreos are pretty awesome, but they can be made even better very easily …
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Related:
– Video: another “Just for Fun” episode, The Legend of the Gray Man
– More videos: My YouTube channel
by Have you thought much about the placement of the prepositions in Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address? Does their placement — “of the people, by the people, for the people” — matter much in understanding what they imply for our government?
In this video, I suggest that their placement is pertinent … and proper:
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Related:
– Video: The Verbs in the Preamble
– More videos: My YouTube channel
by It may seem a bit self-evident, but standing up to give your formal presentation can make a lot of difference in how your audience receives it — especially if the points you’re making are at all important.
One-on-one, or speaking only to a few people? Sitting down is often fine. But speaking to a bunch of people at once? You’re better off standing up, if you’re physically able to do so.
Unless you don’t care that much about your message, in which case go right ahead and sit on your butt to give your speech, or your presentation … or your sermon.
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Related:
– Video: Public Speaking Tip: The Value of Inflection
– More videos: My YouTube channel
by The beginning of June seems an odd time to hearken back to Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, but that’s where Dickens sets out a pair of conditions that I call “The Dickensian Duo.” In this video, I introduce them, consider the relationships between them, and discuss the importance of education in addressing them.
Let me know what you think!
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Education-Related Stuff:
– Video: The Musashi-Heinlein School
– Text: Quality Education: Why It Matters, and How to Structure the System to Sustain It
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