January

Problem Solving With Tinderbox

Sunday, May 28, 2006 8:09 PM (permalink)

Tinderbox is a wonderful tool for writing, organizing information and brainstorming. I have used outliners, text files, cocktail napkins--you name it--and all have their uses. If I am really thinking in outline form (such as a presentation based around an existing report), an outliner such as OmniOutliner Pro is my tool of choice, though Tinderbox is an equally fine outliner in its own right.

My brain, however, rarely spits things out in outline form. While most of the people I work with have brains like Rolodexes, mine is more like a gigantic spinning cork ball, with thousands of yellow stickies attached to it. Ask me a question, and I spin the ball. While I might grab my mental sticky before others sift through their Rolodex, I am just as likely to come up with the capital of Micronesia as I am the right answer.

Tinderbox is awesome for organizing disconnected thoughts or complex patterns that resist simple hierarchies. It's like having a gigantic whiteboard full of Post-It notes, except they never lose their stickiness, you can find every word, and you can reuse them under multiple categories.

I use Tinderbox for problem solving because it allows for divergent and convergent thinking on the same canvas. McKinsey alumni would call this making a "logic tree"--you start with one problem or concept, then break it down into all the possible reasons or issues that comprise the problem (that's the divergent part), continuing to branch until each issue has been broken down to its core components.

Once you have done this, you can then look for ways to "close" each branch of the tree--what are the action steps to solve each problem? Often, by allowing yourself to "open up the problem" with as many little sticky notes as you want (mine are generally a lot messier than the one above) you open yourself to a greater view of the connections between the parts. You close each branch of the tree by looking for the possible causes for each of the issues on the diagram, and then look for commonalities. It is this convergent thinking stage that outliners don't handle well, but Tinderbox is fabulous at:

Often you see that even complex problems, when thoroughly broken down, can be boiled down into just a couple of central issues. The folks who live within the confines of one box or another (say, Marketing, or Sales) might only look at how to solve the problem from within their functional view. When you take the time to spread out the whole "canvas of pain" from all functions/factions, however, you might just see that everyone's problems really boil down to just two or three root causes. Then you can begin the process anew--with divergent thinking around those root causes, and convergent thinking to find commonalities in possible solutions.

Turns out, all you need is more money. Anyway, I sit through loads of strategic planning issues with my clients. "Let's think outside the box" ranks up there with "step up" and "bring something to the table" as the three most nausea-inducing business/Apprentice cliches. Let's not think outside the box. In many of the business problems I have tackled, the challenge isn't "inside the box thinking," it's a lack of thoroughly exploring all the boxes. Until you know what's really in all of them, you can't possibly think outside them.

Flight Aware: All Flights Movie

Sunday, May 28, 2006 8:08 PM (permalink)

Check out this absolutely hypnotic animation of flight activity over the U.S. during a 24-hour period. While I am certainly aware of the incredible volume our east coast airports handle everyday (you try getting out of Newark on time at 5:00 PM--"Ladies and Gentlemen, we are currently number 83 for takeoff, so we'll be shutting the engines down...") I was still surprised to see how much air traffic there was in the middle of the night--even at 3 AM the skies are still busy.

(Via Subtraction, QuickTime required)

Hacking the Airport, Part One

Saturday, January 28, 2006 9:01 PM (permalink)

The past few years have not been kind to commercial aviation. Flying is a significantly greater pain in the keyster than it used to be, and a year of freakish weather hasn't helped much. When I moved from NYC to greener pastures, I knew there would be tradeoffs--sure, my mortgage is now less than I used to pay to park my car, but flights are a lot less convenient. Still, there are tremendous benefits to using an airport that doesn't require a train to get from the parking lot to the terminal. You may not be able to move to a less congested airport as I did, but there are a couple of other tricks you might find useful.

1. Join an Airport Lounge. This, to me, is not a luxury, but a necessity. $300-$400 just to have a bar and a cushy chair? Au contraire, mon frere. It is upon this little tip that the rest of this post depends. First of all, you needn't put all your eggs in one basket, airline-wise; I belong to Priority Pass, which lets me use a bunch of different lounges in every city I travel for just $400.00 a year. If you don't travel as often as I do, you can get a cheaper membership that allows 10 visits plus the ability to purchase more access (at 25 bucks) as needed for only $250 bucks.

Why is this worth it? Consider what $25.00/visit will get you:

• Wi-Fi ($9.99)
• A nice adult beverage ($8.50)
• An outlet for your laptop that doesn't involve you stretching your cord across the jetway (pricele$$)
• Quiet (1 Meeeelleeeeon dollars)

Here's the thing--if you travel ten times this year, you will be delayed at least six times. You might even be really delayed. This causes stress. You are stressed for two reasons: 1) you will be late to your destination, and 2) you are helpless, out of the office, and unable to be productive. Can't help you on #1, but I can work like the dickens in a nice quiet lounge. In fact, there is nothing I need to work that I can't get in an airport lounge. If you are stuck for two hours in an airport, it is astonishing what you can get done with your phone, a desk, reliable wi-fi and some peace and quiet. Plus, if you are at the end of your workday, enjoy a nice adult beverage while you catch up on emails and summaries. Now, isn't that worth $25?

2. OK--so you got your lounge membership. Now your day just became incredibly flexible. My number one delay-beating tip is to always take the first flight of the day where possible. For my frequent trips from RDU to PHL, that amounts to a Southwest flight at 6:10 am. Unthinkable, you might say--but that flight leaves on time, every time. The later the morning gets, the more airports like LAX, EWR and ORD get stacked up, even on sunny days. If there is bad weather anywhere along the flight corridors to Newark, incoming planes go into this funky chicken dance called SWAP (Severe Weather Avoidance Plan) which increases the distance between planes in the area even if your weather is perfect, and you aren't even going to Newark. EWR is the devil.

Also, not as much happens weather-wise at 5 or 6 am. If you travel in the southeast in spring/summer, you can pretty much set your clock around having a boomer around 4 o'clock, which snarls up the rest of the day. Getting out while it is still cold and dark means that all those happy air currents are just as sluggish and lethargic as you are, so they aren't yet causing trouble in the mosh pit of the upper atmosphere.

Finally, just as the roads get busier from 7:30-8:00 on, so too do the runways. If you leave on a 9 o'clock flight, I can pretty much guarantee you that you will hear these words from the cockpit: "Ladies and Gentlemen, we are currently number 27 for departure, so we'll be shutting down the engines for a while. We'll update you on our estimated blah blah blah..." Yuck. Leave at 5:30, and all you will hear is "Flight Attendants please be seated," which is pure magic (unless you hear it at 32,000 feet).

3. What if you can't get a flight that early? For example, maybe the best or only flight you can catch doesn't leave until 9:30. Simple--pretend it leaves at 6 anyway. Let me tell you, getting to the airport in any city at 8 o'clock is a dicey proposition. Then once you get to the airport, you have to go through screening with every other Tom, Dick and Harriet trying to catch their flight as well. So, your commute gets longer, and the wait to get through security gets much longer. Go through security at 6 am, on the other hand, and you will sail right through.

C'mon, Tom, you aren't seriously suggesting I go to the airport 4 hours early to catch my 10:00 flight, are you? Well, yes...I am. That is part of being a grown-ass businessperson. You aren't going to the office anyway, so no one will even know you did it. Instead of spending an extra 45-60 minutes in traffic/security/hell, you are spending it in the nice cushy lounge you paid for in #1, above, getting ahead.

Now do you see what 25 bucks just bought you? An hour or two of stress-free, productive time. So when your flight does get delayed, or you have to circle above Miami for 45 minutes to wait out a storm, you started your day off like a champion.