There have been times where I have had unpleasant email experiences dealing with conflict of interests, ad hoc meetings, communication issues, infrastructure breakdowns, unsupportive team members and inappropriate decisions which lead to a varied set of negative emotions.
It feels good to respond to such emails with a negative thought in your mind. However, every time I have responded to email with mixed feelings I have regretted it.
The CEO of Cerner Corp. (www.cerner.com) sent a very harsh email to his minors. This email killed the company’s morale and drove the stock down 20%. Link: How to kill a company’s morale in one easy memo.
To prevent such incidences I have cultivated myself into a habit of saving emails as a “Draft”. This way I re-open the “Draft” email after sometime, rethink the matter and formulate a better email which will eliminate the emotions from the email and make it a generic email.
Some suggestions to prevent you from sending a mixed-emotional email include:
* Understand the difference between a practical world and an idealistic world
* Have a Thick Skin: Always have a positive mind set for the dynamic work environment
* Have a Poker face: A face/mind without any interpretable expression
* Consulting a co-worker/supervisor during such instances
* Always remember to “Save as Draft”
Running an effective business takes a lot of energy, people and processes. The business manager needs to choose the right people, the right product, the right market and the right clients. In my past experience, I’ve seen a lot of people and processes come and go. The geographically dispersed work culture makes it difficult to manage projects.
With all things changing, I have seen the business myths remaining the same. In general, the business myths have been:
- The customer is always right.
- Every customer is a good customer
- Every opportunity is a good opportunity.
- Our competitors are doing it, so we must do so as well.
- Everything has a high priority and must be done right away (or done yesterday!)
However, new processes and policies have been introduced which have caused us to re-evaluate these business myths. We all choose to be politically correct and we mitigate the risk of being a system which adopts what has being followed previously. For all of us change is the only constant.
If we don’t our serve our customers with respect and empathy, they will seek someone who will. While the customer isn’t always right, we will always make the customer feel important.
Leisure has been one of the most inspirational work of Literature that has captured my mind.
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep and cows.No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
W H Davis
Wm. Henry Davis (1871-1940) is to be considered as the poet of the tramps.
In my earlier post “Fighting against SPAM” I focussed on controlling SPAM from the external world. These (SPAM’s) were unsolicited emails often flooding a mailbox, email promotions or advertisements (and scams).
Recently in our company we started to encounter “Internal SPAM”.
Our organizational mailing list structure:
- We have mailing lists set up for each department (We have 23+ departments)
- We have a mailing list for each of our business location (We have 3 locations world wide)
- We have mailing lists for multiple enterprise clients (Approx 40+)
In our (Internal Mails) office there were two events that occurred everyday:
- Team member sending emails to Everyone.
- Team member replying back to “BOTH” the person who sent that email AND to Everyone.
This means we did not have a controlled mailing list. Anyone was allowed to send emails to a mailing list. (Even those who did not belong to the email domain).
This resulted into:
- Emails getting bombarded to everyone for a reply which is of concern only to a particular individual.
- Each individual receives this email which causes extensive use of the email and wastage of internet bandwidth.
- Each company employee spending almost 2 minutes of his time reading that email. Which results in a waste of almost 1200 minutes (2 minutes each * 600 employees).
- Means 20+ hours of time is spent [EVERY DAY] in reading an email which was not intended to be of any concern to the individuals receiving the email.
- On an average, we received at least 4+ such emails each day.
In an effort to prevent any further loss of man hours:
- We switched to “Mailman“, the GNU Mailing List Manager.
- We converted our mailing lists to be a controlled mailing list.
- A moderator was set to monitor the mails which could be sent to everyone and those which could not. We set a list of policies which our company had to abide by.
- We allowed only 2MB emails sent to the mailing lists. This way we do not clog the network.
- We started “Archiving” emails sent to the mailing lists.
All our 87 mailing lists are being managed effectively. We have saved our employees time and we have tried to reduce our email bandwidth consumption due to “Internal SPAM” by almost 90%.
I have immense respect for Vinton Cerf - “The father of the Internet”. Vint is the co-designer with Robert Kahn of TCP/IP protocols and basic architecture of the Internet. Without (the Internet) communication would be the biggest issue. We would still be relying on Radio Broadcasting which would be a single mode of communication and thus a barrier towards success.
The Internet is a worldwide, publicly accessible series of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching using the standard Internet Protocol (IP). It is a “network of networks” that consists of millions of smaller domestic, academic, business, and government networks, which together carry various information and services, such as electronic mail, online chat, file transfer, and the interlinked web pages and other resources of the World Wide Web (WWW).
Source: Wikipedia
In todays Internet world, it is extremely important to have an Online Presence. The ultimate goal is to be accessible to anyone from anywhere. Technology, Social Networks and Natural Technology are making Internet more visible.
I define an Online Presence as having (at least one or more of the following):
- An Email Address (Mandatory) (nainil@eliteral.com)
- A Website (www.nainil.com)
- Domain Name (http://domains.eliteral.com)
- Web Hosting (http://www.eliteral.com)
- Search Engine Optimization - (Search results on top ranking search engines should return appropriate results)
- Personal Blog: Life as a Knowledge Manager
- Accounts in:
- MSN
- Yahoo
- Google
- Social Networking Accounts:
- LinkedIn (Professional Network)
- Orkut (Friends and Family Members)
- FaceBook
- MySpace
Over the past couple of years, many standards for document management and control have evolved to improvise the adaptability and usability of knowledge driven data in work environments.
Our client base is broad and comprises of:
- Those who desert technological use;
- Those who are moderately familiar with technological concepts;
- Those who depend on making the most mounting use of technology to enhance their daily work flow processes.
Internally in our organization, we identified growing concerns on:
- File Format Standards
- File Naming Convention
- Identification of a team to act as an owner for the document
- Validating the document for current updates
The main reason for these growing concerns were:
- We do not have appropriate ownership for any document
- Documents are stored in multiple locations
- Documents are not updated regularly
A database (of indexed documents) relating to internal or external processes is something that we need. This database should be accessible by everyone in the company so that they are aware of all the documents which we have and it will make the Stake Holders more informed on process specific documents.
We had a brief discussion on a list of columns required for a database which would include:
- Document Name
- Owner of document (at least 2 owners)
- Single Location of the document
- Is this an Internal / External Document (definitions will be provided later as to what is internal and what is external)
- Brief description of the document
- List of Processes in which the document is being used
Appropriate naming conventions to this document index will be an added advantage to solve the documents issue.
We also formulated a process to:
- Identify the owner or (as we like to call) the responsible party for the document.
- Identify PDF as the ultimate document format. Maintain two copies of the same document: One document (Microsoft Word Format) for internal use and reference. Second document (PDF Format) to send to the client.
- Get all documents reviewed by the Documentation Team before they are sent out to customers.
- Identify periodic internal audits by the team managers to verify the sanity of the document.
Everyday we have over 2500 calls triaged over the phone.
Triage is defined as: The process by which projects or activities are prioritized to determine which should be attempted first, second, etc. (it is also known as “Sorting of Grapes”)
The Triage Team (for a call center) needs:
1 To ask appropriate questions to the client
2 To evaluate the call and classify the same into the appropriate queue
When the Triage Team assigns a call to a member of our company, the member needs a clear understanding of what the client is expecting from them so that they can provide a faster and appropriate response.
In our current situation we get calls from clients on:
- Regular Support Requests
- Departmental Phone Transfers
- Areas which need immediate attention
- Uncertain areas
Out of all these 4 situations we are able to handle the first three with appropriate procedures. However “Uncertain areas” are difficult to control due to the fact that they have random occurrences and do not have the correct triage policy set.
To reduce the number of “uncertain” client call domains we defined a process for Smart Triage:
- Educate various departments
- Gather a list of questions from the support techs and other departments
- Prepare a database of appropriate questions needed to be asked by the triage team before transferring the call to the support techs.
- Ask intelligent questions to the customers.
- Direct calls to the right person so that the “First Call Resolution” goal is met.
Technology Used:
A Wiki for maintaining an updated record of questions to ask for each category of call.
This now brings us to the next project of:
- Defining processes to keep the questions updated in the Wiki
- Assign owners for various department related questions
- Keep updating and recording trends in client call response quality.
This process will allow us to control the quality of calls and respond to the clients needs in a more efficient fashion.
Until recent times it was difficult to find the most current news and updates from various sources. One of the most revolutionary technological advancement in internet is the RSS/Atom feeds.
RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a format for sharing content among different websites. Sites can syndicate “feeds” (content) and Internet users can use an application called an RSS reader or aggregator to download feeds.
Source: www.ipowerweb.com/editorial-library/EDL-glossary.html
There are more than 16 websites I use to keep myself update on topics relating to Technology, Health Care, Management, Politics, Current Affairs and Science.
I use Google Reader to act as an aggregator to retrieve web content from various websites.
An aggregator or news aggregator or feed reader is a client software that uses web feed to retrieve syndicated web content.
I am listing the most frequently read feeds which I use. I use the OPML markup language to display the feeds I subscribe to.
Attachment Link: Subscriptions in OPML format
I also use the Google Desktop Web Clips gadget (Sidebar view) to view news from the web pages I visit and RSS/Atom feeds. This way I do not have to open any additional browser and check for updates. It automatically refreshes the news as and when updated.
Technology has made our lives simpler. We should make the most optimum use of the technical resources we are offered, thus allowing us a better networked living.
We are a 600 employee company with at least 15-25 members being out of office at any given business day due to reasons beyond control like:
- Out for work
- Personal Days
- Vacation
- Maternity Leave
- Sick Days
- Jury Duty
- Military Obligations
There are multiple instances when other team members have some work with a person who is out of office (on that very day). We have set appropriate policies for employees who are out of office. They need to:
- Fill out an out of office form and submit it to the HR after approval from their Team Leads
- Update their Email with an Auto-Responder (Vacation Message)
- Set the External and Internal Greeting in the Phone System describing the out of office message
- Send an email to a predefined out of office designated email address which notifies the team leads.
What we realized is that our method of communication was only a two way communication where-in the employee taking an out of office leave is communicating it only to the HR and the Team Lead. The problem lies when a colleague of the out of office employee tries to contact the employee. This is what happens:
- The caller remains uncertain whether the out of office colleague is out on a break for coffee or is out of office
- There is wastage of time and effort due to the fact that the caller assumes that the other employee will respond to the callers needs in a timely fashion (which is not going to be the case)
To eliminate this confusion we have:
- Designed an module on our intranet website “Helpdesk” which will allow all employees to see a list of employees out of office.
- The HR team has access to add/modify this list daily (hence keeping this list updated all the time)
- We run periodic reports to check whether the data on the Helpdesk matches with our Payroll system (thus keeping both the systems integrated together)
With appropriate planning and policy definitions we have been able to educate all our company members the new policies and are able to save employee time by displaying them who is In-Office and who is Out-of-Office.
2007 was a very exciting year for me (at work and personally). My past teaches me how to live the present and how to deal with the future. With the new year (2008) commencing I have balanced my resolutions towards work, personal life and embracing “the green movement” by reducing my carbon footprints.
My resolutions for 2008:
Work:
- Implement a “Blog” for educating existing customers, prospects and the rest of the world the advancement in our company product and services; work culture; technologies used and our achievement.
- Educate our company members with the latest “Web 2.0” products which will increase their overall understanding of technology and its uses.
- Concentrate my efforts towards managing a mobile health record.
- Formulate appropriate guidelines to Manage the expectations of prospective and existing clients by time based management policies.
- Upgrade our network infrastructure to a better routed network to improve network latency.
- Move towards a controlled environment automated backup solution for our network documents.
- Educate myself on Six Sigma Techniques towards managing business.
- Understand and Practice Game Theory concepts at Work.
Personal:
- Continue growing my Professional as well as Personal Network (Orkut ID: nainil@gmail.com).
- Take nature walks and try to exercise at least three times a week. (HillWalking)
- Continue with my (Petrology) study of rocks and geological sedimentations.
- Develop a website to promote Jainism.
- Update my personal website with information on my travel activities (places I have visited) and more photos in the Image Gallery.
- Gather knowledge on New Englands topographical layout.
- Learn historical facts about: Boston, Mumbai, London.
The Green Movement:
- Participate in “Plant a Tree” movement
- Reduce my Carbon Footprints
I look forward to a great 2008 with all my colleagues, my customers, and the industry.
Many of us consider Web Technology as the biggest advancement in Innovation. Collaborative effort is encouraged by use of Web Application tools like Email, Forum, Blog and Wiki.
In our company we have support solutions/articles on Forum, Emails and Network Folders. Lately it was becoming more and more difficult to manage information due to the fact that data was located at multiple locations and the most updated copy of data was difficult to find. We needed a centralized location where the accessibility and availability of information/documents was quick, easy and up-to-date.
As a Knowledge Manager, I concluded Wiki was the most logical and technologically feasible solution for an organization of our size.
Forum
You can post questions and you get responses. People come to a forum to communicate, exchange thoughts, etc. However it is not a true form of Knowledge Repository. You would have to search through multiple forum threads to find the answer you are looking for.
Emails
They are not reliable due to the fact that 1) you would always have multiple emails 2) finding the last updated information through the email is not always easy
Network Shared Folders
We have Multiple Copies of the documents on the Network. It’s difficult to determine which one is accurate. Many folders are not backed up daily.
Wiki
- Wiki offers a collaborative environment to maintain data.
- A controlled environment can be set-up to provide group based read and edit rights.
- Wiki is easy to learn and manage.
- The Wiki software keeps track of every edit made and it’s a simple process to revert back to a previous version of an article.
- Wiki can allow a user defined structure of data management
I tested various Wiki softwares and websites including:
- MediaWiki
- DokuWiki
- Wikispaces
MediaWiki (Official supporter of the Wikipedia Project) came out as the best available Open Source Wiki software. We quickly drew our task force members to lay down policies to:
- Define Wiki Advantages over other mediums of communication
- Define Wiki policy to be a single source of information and slowly transition on submerging the Forum.
- Defining policy on keeping the Wiki constantly updated.
After proper implementation of the policies:
- We now have 5 Wiki instances (4 out of 5 use MediaWiki).
- There is a controlled environment set to edit Wiki; thus maintaining appropriate quality of data
- The most current information is available on Wiki
- We are now integrating “Video” uploads on the Wiki allowing employees to upload videos on various services we provide.
This time of the year I tend to rethink all that I have accomplished through out the year.
2007:
Personal Life:
- Got married!!
- Expanded my field of study from Technology to Health Care with IT.
- My rock collection/study (Petrology) is progressing.
- Extended my lifestyle as a Jain follower.
- Organized all our important documents online for real time access.
Work:
- Successfully coordinated the $28,000 valued CCHIT certification effort for the company product.
- Improvised the company intranet website — HELPDESK — allowing internal communication improvement.
- Formulated appropriate communication policies within the company for directing the employee efforts in the right direction.
- Transformed from being a Knowledge Research Specialist to being a Knowledge Manager.
We (myself and Avni) wish you a Merry Christmas and hope your holidays are filled with joy and happiness.
My Contact Information:
Email: nainil@eliteral.com
Orkut: nainil@gmail.com
IM: nainil@hotmail.com
Christmas is that time of the year where wants to contribute towards a better life. Every year there are hundreds of organizations that touch the lives of everyone in some way or the other. Getting outside and connecting with nature is the perfect way to celebrate the beauty of the season. The organizations which have brought commitment, compassion and have touched my life this year include:
- Carbon Footprint: http://www.carbonfootprint.com
A Carbon Footprint is a measure of the impact human activities have on the environment in terms of the amount of greenhouse gases produced, measured in units of carbon dioxide. (carbon footprint calculator)
- Earth 911: http://earth911.org
Through the Earth911.com environmental portal users can access the leading comprehensive resource for community-specific “actionable” information about: Recycling Centers;
Green Shopping; How to Live Green; Energy Conservation; Beach Water Quality and Alerting; Household Hazardous Waste; Programs for Children; Environmental Education. (videos)
- CNN Impact your World: http://www.cnn.com/impact
- Doctors Without Borders: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an independent international medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural or man-made disasters, or exclusion from health care in more than 70 countries.
- Make-A-Wish: http://www.wish.org/
The Make-A-Wish Foundation has enriched the lives of children with life-threatening medical conditions through its wish-granting work.
- One Laptop Per Child: http://laptop.org/
Please note: I have the utmost respect for all other organizations that have touched millions of lives and have not been mentioned in this blog.
My first encounter with materialistic world came into actual realization when I first had to shift apartments from Philadelphia to Boston. I realized that I had almost 30% of house inventory which I had never used or was not going to use in the future. Since then I decided to balance my needs and wants which my factual needs and wants.
This Christmas myself and my wife we both decided to give each other a gift. We decided to:
- Organize our Documents with online access control.
- Remove all unused items for charitable donation or recycling.
- Scan all our Health Records and upload it on Microsoft HealthVault
Online Documents: We have scanned all of our most important documents and have uploaded them on a dedicated VPS server with dual backup facility for real time accessibility of data. We are now able to organize our documents online without the fear of loosing them for the rest of our lives.
Charitable Event: We donate our unwanted clothes at the local Walmart’s Cloths Donation boxes. Any other unused item goes to “Salvation Army” or any such projects available locally.
HealthVault: Microsoft HealthVault is personal health technology platform that lets you gather, store and share health information online. With HealthVault, users control their own health records, so they can privately share their health information with family, friends and healthcare professionals, and have access to trustworthy online health management tools.
We spent a total of 2 weekends to take care of the above mentioned tasks. By doing this exercise:
- Time is saved (as we lead a more organized life).
- We have a clear understanding of our needs and wants.
- We are now looking at the bigger picture of being a united family with a sense of responsibility towards the world we live in.
- We are able to find anything we need without searching for it.
- We have secure Health Records; accessible from any where around the world.
- We embrace technology to make our lives simpler.
I have always believed in optimizing time and work effort to lead a balanced life.
Todd D. Rakoff is Byrne Professor of Administrative Law, Harvard University. His book “A Time for Every Purpose - Law and the Balance of Life” explains the various laws which govern our effective use of time and it explains that the structure of our time for organized efforts is gradually changing.
Here is my work schedule:
- 6.30 AM : E-mail
- 7.00 AM : Write project plan for a process optimization project.
- 8.00 AM : Read news, blogs and watch videos on Health Care; Technology and Government matters.
- 9.00 AM - 6.00 PM :
- Every day I attend 2 meetings (at least) and define rules for process definition and improvement.
- I am a developer by heart; I spend an hour coding for our “HelpDesk” using open source (PHP and MySQL). The HelpDesk is a central source for all our internal communication needs.
- Write and send enterprise e-mail about our monthly Network Maintenance updates; Email Policies; Latest updates on Health Care; Introduction of new projects.
- Attend communications-project steering committee meeting
- Define pricing for customized development items and lay down a road map for timely completion of the projects
- Define knowledge transfer rules for an employee
- Meet with senior vice president of sales to discuss plans for: Website updates; New ideas on marketing
- 7.00 PM : E-mail
- 8.00 PM : Dinner with family
- 9.00 PM : Update Blog; Write research paper [on Governing Dynamics of Internet (Health Care IT)]
- 10.00 PM : Study Jainism and geological sediments (rock formation)
Nainil Chheda,MS is the Knowledge Research Specialist at eClinicalWorks LLC, Member of ASTM, AMIA, AIIM, PDF/H, EHRVA, HITSP, AIS and ACM, and a practicing researcher on Healthcare Informatics.
