Thursday, February 26, 2004
WAVE OF FOCUS
The MasterList is a computer system that enhances personal and professional focus on the planning and execution of to-dos. Call them projects, call them plans, call them tasks, call them to-dos. They are all made up of building blocks and take form like a molecular structure. They link together, like interweaving chains, across time and across organizations both spatially and temporally. With The MasterList individual managers are responsible for all aspects of the chains within their view, focus, control, and authority. They are essentially management pilots of their part of the whole. Co-responsibility occurs where there is co-observation, shared focus, communication with control, and definitional structure about authority. Decision-making and execution is relatively organized, focused, consistent, efficient when a system like this is in place.
Enterprise wide, top-down management and computer systems impose control, structure, focus, and authority which narrows and channels individual ability to decide and implement. The MasterList is a progeny of Deming's theory of TQC. All of us can do things better and want to. The MasterList improves the enterprise by providing an empowering, but systematic, structure at the level of organization where action occurs in terms of recognition, reaction, and implementation of response. This system revolutionizes the way we do things by improving the way we focus on things, enhancing the ability to structure, track, and follow-up on them. Decision-making and implementation are organically improved. Because it's a simplified software system, with basic rules, it is fun to use and see how it plays out across workloads and teams with workloads.
We, at The MasterList, are going for Venture Capital this year, because we believe The MasterList will fan out across our computer culture and provide a wave of focus that gives our users a competitive edge on the global playing field.
The MasterList is a computer system that enhances personal and professional focus on the planning and execution of to-dos. Call them projects, call them plans, call them tasks, call them to-dos. They are all made up of building blocks and take form like a molecular structure. They link together, like interweaving chains, across time and across organizations both spatially and temporally. With The MasterList individual managers are responsible for all aspects of the chains within their view, focus, control, and authority. They are essentially management pilots of their part of the whole. Co-responsibility occurs where there is co-observation, shared focus, communication with control, and definitional structure about authority. Decision-making and execution is relatively organized, focused, consistent, efficient when a system like this is in place.
Enterprise wide, top-down management and computer systems impose control, structure, focus, and authority which narrows and channels individual ability to decide and implement. The MasterList is a progeny of Deming's theory of TQC. All of us can do things better and want to. The MasterList improves the enterprise by providing an empowering, but systematic, structure at the level of organization where action occurs in terms of recognition, reaction, and implementation of response. This system revolutionizes the way we do things by improving the way we focus on things, enhancing the ability to structure, track, and follow-up on them. Decision-making and implementation are organically improved. Because it's a simplified software system, with basic rules, it is fun to use and see how it plays out across workloads and teams with workloads.
We, at The MasterList, are going for Venture Capital this year, because we believe The MasterList will fan out across our computer culture and provide a wave of focus that gives our users a competitive edge on the global playing field.
Saturday, February 14, 2004
TO-DO MANAGEMENT AND THE CONE OF FOCUS
The present is a position that can be fixed by your location in space-time relative to all cognizable points of reference. A cone of focus is an attempt to narrow cognizable points of reference. The purpose of a cone of focus is to identify a goal. The distance between the present and a goal is a direction of achievement. The means to achieving a goal along a path illuminated by a cone of focus is to establish and achieve interim mileposts in a continuous sequence of to-dos which are accomplished until the goal, as defined, is accomplished. Mileposts which are outside the cone of focus and not necessary to the achievement of the goal are diffusions of purpose to that goal. Mileposts which stand in the way of a goal and which need to be handled to reach the goal are the elements of a project to achieve a goal.
A sequenced path to a goal is a project.
The steps to achieve a goal are the elements of a project.
A to-do is a potential element of a project.
A diffusion of to-dos without a cone of focus is a goal-less to-do list.
A goal-oriented to-do list is always a project with a cone of focus with a single end. Each step along the way is defined by that end and illuminated by the single-minded focus on the goal.
A single to-do sequenced in terms of consequences can develop into a goal. (Write sentence one of a novel without knowing the characters, plot, or the ending.) A highly focused goal may require steps as yet unseen. Focus on a goal does not mean that every element of the journey to the goal is pre-illuminated.
Knowledgeable pre-determination is not a realistic option.
A journey to a goal requires complex adaptive behavior.
Not all mountains that can be seen in the distance can be walked to in one day. Observations of interim mileposts will be made on the way, but not necessarily achievable simultaneously upon first sighting. Impressions and plans on how to handle aspects of the journey as they arise cannot always be implemented in the same moment that they are seen or foreseen.
For anyone who has many goals, many projects, and many journeys, a notational system is required. That system works best if it is organized like a journey for a single journey and like multi-journeys if that is what is.
The humble to-do list is the perfect tool for a single journey. Multiple to-do lists for multiple journeys are equally useful. A way of co-ordinating mileposts across multiple cones of reference (projects) requires a method for finding resolution in the moment on one or another point of focus, but not all. Diffuse projects do not need to cause dispersion of the self.
Orientation should take moments not hours. Then, focus, and do.
The MasterList, software with a cone of focus.
The present is a position that can be fixed by your location in space-time relative to all cognizable points of reference. A cone of focus is an attempt to narrow cognizable points of reference. The purpose of a cone of focus is to identify a goal. The distance between the present and a goal is a direction of achievement. The means to achieving a goal along a path illuminated by a cone of focus is to establish and achieve interim mileposts in a continuous sequence of to-dos which are accomplished until the goal, as defined, is accomplished. Mileposts which are outside the cone of focus and not necessary to the achievement of the goal are diffusions of purpose to that goal. Mileposts which stand in the way of a goal and which need to be handled to reach the goal are the elements of a project to achieve a goal.
A sequenced path to a goal is a project.
The steps to achieve a goal are the elements of a project.
A to-do is a potential element of a project.
A diffusion of to-dos without a cone of focus is a goal-less to-do list.
A goal-oriented to-do list is always a project with a cone of focus with a single end. Each step along the way is defined by that end and illuminated by the single-minded focus on the goal.
A single to-do sequenced in terms of consequences can develop into a goal. (Write sentence one of a novel without knowing the characters, plot, or the ending.) A highly focused goal may require steps as yet unseen. Focus on a goal does not mean that every element of the journey to the goal is pre-illuminated.
Knowledgeable pre-determination is not a realistic option.
A journey to a goal requires complex adaptive behavior.
Not all mountains that can be seen in the distance can be walked to in one day. Observations of interim mileposts will be made on the way, but not necessarily achievable simultaneously upon first sighting. Impressions and plans on how to handle aspects of the journey as they arise cannot always be implemented in the same moment that they are seen or foreseen.
For anyone who has many goals, many projects, and many journeys, a notational system is required. That system works best if it is organized like a journey for a single journey and like multi-journeys if that is what is.
The humble to-do list is the perfect tool for a single journey. Multiple to-do lists for multiple journeys are equally useful. A way of co-ordinating mileposts across multiple cones of reference (projects) requires a method for finding resolution in the moment on one or another point of focus, but not all. Diffuse projects do not need to cause dispersion of the self.
Orientation should take moments not hours. Then, focus, and do.
The MasterList, software with a cone of focus.
