When Good People Go Bonkers

We all go nuts sometimes. Even someone as sublimely well balanced as myself goes off the deep end once in a while.

When this happens, the bizarre behavior of the suddenly wacko can bring damage to themselves, their business relationships, and yes, even their furniture.

Why do we go bananas? Sometimes we allow frustrations to accumulate without releases such as "talking it through", physical activity or masturbation until we boil over.

Sometimes a situation pushes a button in our psyche which releases a gusher of emotion stored from long-ago pain. This eruption can come seemingly from nowhere and usually scares the piss out of everyone in range including the eruptor himself.

At Evanston(IL) Hospital Outpatient Psychiatry, where I spent a six month internship bringing better mental health to scores of afflicted suburbanites, it was openly discussed that more people would flip out during the full moon. I believe the term they used was "we have more patients in crisis". Is this human response to the 28 day lunar cycle the etymology of the word "looney"?

Perhaps not so coincidently, another 28 day cycle which can bring occasional bouts of wackiness is the so-called female cycle, which is not to be confused with a motor scooter. This caused some UFO theorists to opine that women might actually be aliens not from Venus as originally believed, but rather from the Moon, come to disrupt the football games, bank accounts and lackadaisical nature of men.

Some say that men have a similar cycle - not to be confused with a Harley Davidson - but men are either too complex, or more likely far too simple and random for a true pattern to emerge.

Whatever the reason, when someone you know goes apeshit, do the following:

1. Get the hell away. People in the throes of a psychotic episode can have superhuman strength. They experience something similar to the legendary adrenalin rush which allows animal activists to lift cars off pinned-down pussy cats, a frequent sight in my neighborhood. Nutcases in full bloom can easily turn your head all the way around - remember Linda Blair in The Exorcist? - by grasping it lightly between thumb and forefinger.

2. Stay the hell away. When a person goes beserk, it can last a few days. During that time he will be manically obsessing about whatever insult or injury he perceived to have happened. He is not negotiable yet; don't even try unless your idea of fun is bashing your head repeatedly into masonry.

3. Watch (from under the desk if necessary) for the real person to return. After such an intense outpouring, Dr. Jekyll will crash from exhaustion. When he emerges, he might be in the sheepish, "What happened?" mode. That is the time for love and support. Try saying, "Wow, you really went through something there, didn't you?" If he says something normal, like "yes", you are making progress. If he snarls or throws his mouse at you, revert to #2 above.

4. Have some sympathy. Remember, you have gone daffy yourself. Remember what it was like. It came from pain, didn't it? That's what happened to your psycho, he had a tsunami of pain. Remembering this will help you be sympathetic. You might need this help if el loco stabbed you in the eye yesterday with a letter opener.

5. Let him talk and offer only gentle guidance. If a person talks enough, he will eventually realize that he got "out of line", but he will need some space in order to realize this. If you offer this insight yourself, especially too early, you might get your hand stapled to your ear.

6. Listening is key. Here's how you do it: Look into the person's eyes with a slightly sad frown. Nod slowly and knowingly after they say each sentence. Resist the urge to offer your brilliant opinion - this part is called "shutting up". Wait until he stops talking. Count to 10. Then say one carefully chosen sentence which is either insightful or encouraging. Then stop talking. Repeat until cool.

7. To take lunatic handling to the state of the art, try to get him to analyze the triggering event and why it was so extroardinarily evocative.

8. To really wrap it up, get your nutcase to commit to monitoring his reactions, so that if another triggering event occurs in the future, he will be ready with a better, more adaptive behavior. This might include removing himself from the situation with a planned excuse like, "Pardon me but I must leave this meeting unexpectedly because my dry cleaning suddenly became ready."
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Finding Roadblocks in the Critical Path

Most projects are composed of multiple steps, and often these steps are performed by more than one person. In the art/science of scheduling for project management, these steps are called activities.

When an activity is completed, it is said to have attained its milestone. One might simplistically think of a project as a succession of activities which, laid end-to-end, eventually complete the project.

But when is life ever that simple? Projects are rarely so linear that when one activity reaches its milestone the next starts.

In the real world there are many activities which interact in different ways. For instance, there are "independent" activities which can run simultaneously and apart from each other. However they almost always come together at a certain point, that is to say they share a common milestone. The shared milestone could be the project endpoint, or it could also be a waystation along the path to completion.

Similarly, there are also "dependent" activities which can't even start until the previous activity reaches its milestone.

Most projects contain a macrame of interweaving activities, both independent and dependent. It is a task of project management to discern and manage the "critical path", that chain of activities within the weave which truly drives, or delays the project.

Charting these activities, showing anticipated time durations and dependencies is a first important step toward getting your project under control. There are numerous charting systems which all have the same basic elements. Some search words for you to explore further: "Gantt", "PERT", "CPM chart".

These systems can also add other levels to your analysis such as the allocation of resources to each activity, early and late starts, and also progress reporting. They are scalable so that projects ranging from baking a turkey to building a nuclear power plant can all be planned and tracked.

And, as you might imagine, there are herds of software vendors galloping to help you. Try a word search on "scheduling software" and see what I mean. In construction, where I spend most of my time, I see people using Microsoft Project for medium sized projects and Primavera for the mega-projects. But even Microsoft Project can be overkill for a smaller project with only a few handfuls of activities.

A key factor in scheduling, and keeping your project on track is the analysis of previous performance data, observation and gut-instinct.

If you have inaccurate estimates of activity durations, project performance will obviously be affected. Use data from past projects to make your current schedule better and more realistic.

Spending the time to actually watch the work and talk to people will help tremendously in not only planning but also the successful implementation of the schedule. On the ground, hands-on "subjective" data is at the core of any project and should not be ignored.

Training of workers to spot bottlenecks will yield great results. When terms such as "bottleneck" and "roadblock" become a part of every meeting, they become absorbed into team thinking. Your most effective project will be the one in which all participants have the tools to be scheduling experts.
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Create Your Own Download Links

One of the great features of working with the web is the ability to download a file by clicking on a link. As most earthlings know, a link is most frequently visible as blue underlined text displayed on a website, or on an HTML email. Links can also be presented as hot spots on an image, or a button which can be clicked.

Sometimes when we click on links, we are magically transported to a new web page. Behind the scenes, we are actually receiving new files from a web server, and our browser software is "rendering" the files on our screen according to instructions contained in the files.

These new files could be served up by the same web server which served up the previous page, or with equal ease we could be receiving files from a totally different location, possibly from halfway around the world! Such are the wondrous ways of the web.

Other times when we click on links, we get a different experience. Our browser offers to download a file and patiently awaits our answer. When we accept and possibly tell our browser where to file the download, the web server sends the file to our computer and a download takes place.

The usefulness of this functionality is obvious. We don't always want to see the information painted on our screen, sometimes we just want to use it. Consider a spreadsheet file as an example.

If I want to share my spreadsheet with you, I can easily send it to you as an email attachment, but what happens if the file is too large? Chances are, your file attachment could hit a bottleneck somewhere in your, or your recipient's email system and may never deliver.

However, if I send the file as a download, email system bottlenecks are bypassed and the pipe is wide open. Here's how it works:

1. First, I upload my large file to a web server somewhere.
2. Then, I place a download link to that file in my email to my pal.
3. When he receives the email, he either clicks on the link or pastes it into the address bar of his browser.
4. He easily downloads the file.
5. He is incredibly impressed.

To do this, here is what you will need:
1. Rights to a web server to host your file - many web hosting companies offer this.
2. Software for uploading your file - for starters you can actually use Windows Explorer.
3. Knowledge of the correct "path", or URL which will allow your recipient to access the file. This should be available from your web hosting company.

The format of the URL will look like this: http://www.domain.com/downloads/myspreadsheet.xls
Where "domain" is the domain you have registered for your use, which is targeted at a folder on a web server, which has a subfolder named, for example, "downloads". Your example filename, in this case, "myspreadsheet.xls" should match the actual filename exactly. Filenames should not have spaces or odd punctuations.

In case the above steps seem too intimidating or labor intensive, there is a software/webhosting package available called Personal FTP (www.poingo.com).

The software uploads your large files to your private webspace on the Personal FTP server, opens a new email, and places a download link onto the email, all in a few clicks. In addition, you get your own subdomain, which not only adds your identity to the link, but also enhances the reliability of the download.
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Impress your friends. Create download links.
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Email : Central to Your Work

The use of email in business has mushroomed so quickly and become so ubiquitous that it has become hard to remember working without it.

Email has become the hands-down method of choice for business communication, and for many great reasons:

*Communications move quickly and succinctly
*Communications can involve multiple parties in multiple locations easily
*Content of the communication is traceable - things don't get lost
*Communications develop a thread of continuity as the email bounces among the participants
*Emails can have attachments and links which enhance the breadth and depth of communication

For these reasons, email has moved to the core of our business functioning. At work, the first thing we do is check our email. It stays on all day. New emails pop in as we work and we shoot off quick answers without thinking twice. We juggle and multitask with ease, because email has made it so easy.

One of the difficulties of using computers is that we need to select and use the software appropriate for use for a particular task. One moment we are word processing, spreadsheeting the next, using profession-specific software a moment later.

It can be a disjointed experience for us and even for our computers as they crash from having too many windows open simultaneously.

Why not try to use the power of email to assist in unifying your work experience?

Examples:

*When jotting down notes from a phone call, jot them on a new email. They won't get lost and you can email them to yourself or others as you see fit.

*If you think of a document you will need to create, put your initial content on an email and build it during your work day. When you have accumulated enough content, open the appropriate software and copy/paste.

*If you travel and need to access files from multiple locations and computers, email the file to yourself and download the file when you are remote.

*Conversely, when working remotely, email your work file to yourself with the subject line, "File This". When you get back to home base, file it where you need it.

*Explore your email system's search capabilities. There is a wealth of information buried in your old emails. Think creatively about how to get the most out of this wealth of data. Realize that information kept in email is the most easily searchable work you have at your disposal.

*Begin your email subject line with a 3 or 4 letter prefix which represents the project at hand. When you wish to search the history of your project, use the prefix letters in your search and get a wonderful chronological record of your project.

*Use a tickler service such as Bounceback Server(http://www.poingo.com). Using this type of service, you can send yourself emails which return to you at a time interval you specify. This adds a follow-up reminder system to the already broad capabilities of your email.
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Managing with Authority and Democracy

If you watch closely, you will eventually notice that people who manage the work of others tend to fit into one of two categories: authoritarians or democrats.

The authoritarians, as you would expect, manage by telling others what to do. They are not big on eliciting opinions of their subordinates, and not coincidently, their superiors usually treat them in much the same way.

They get whipped like dogs, then they turn around and whip their charges like smaller dogs. Information and direction flow downhill only. Things get done, but quality of work output and quality of employee life suffers.

The democratic manager is quite opposite. He will seek consensus and try to make sure everyone on the team is happy. Things get done eventually and the love-in can be quite heartwarming. Employee satisfaction is high, but efficiency can lag.

I paint these opposing management styles in purposefully stark contrast. In the real world of course, managers fall on a continuum with these extremes as endpoints. What places them at their unique position on the numberline?

Corporate personality - the kind that flows downhill in an organization, and the manager's inherent personality combine (harmoniously or otherwise) placing the manager somewhere on the scale of the authority-democracy meter.

The art of managing becomes the blending of the best of both worlds for the betterment of the organization. Then, it usually follows that as the organization succeeds, so does the individual.

As managers strive to balance authority and democracy in their management styles, they would do well to add two more factors to the mix: reality and results.

After all, it may seem that the source of authority is the boss from above, the guy who feeds workers with a paycheck.

But the higher authority is the marketplace. If your company, with its unique mix of people, products and philosophies performs well in the marketplace, it will grow and bring rewards to the individual.

Thus, the reality of the marketplace, as well as the results your organization is able to deliver will be a key determinant of the rewards your company will be able to distribute to its people.

Reality and results are the real bosses in business and an enlightened management style should reflect this realization. How to we blend authority, democracy, reality and results?

Authority: "Do it because I said so."
Democracy: "Will you do it? Do you think it is the right thing to do?"
Reality: "Our competition is doing it. We need to do it to compete."
Results: "We did well last quarter doing it. Let's do it more."
Blended: "Joe's research indicated that it has helped our efforts. Jane has determined that we have gained market share with it. It's time to really push in this direction. Here are goals for the next quarter. Best of luck everyone, let's beat 'em."
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