Now, we’re ready to pull the various pieces together to form the
The central concept we’ll examine throughout this article. The most important element in any
workflow is the process that people use to coordinate their work. This
coordination is dependent on communication, the question is whether or not to make use of this
In terms of terminology, this calls for the parties involved to be able to agree prior to the time on
A set of rules regarding how and when communication happens. This is what we call
a coordination protocol.
Many companies default to the hyperactive hive mind style
protocols for the majority of coordination activities as it’s easy to establish and also
influence people to adhere to the rules. This flexibility can also allow companies to
Avoid situations that could be disastrous. Shannon can teach us that, is the case if you’re
willing to do the work upfront to come up with better protocols
In these instances, you will usually drastically cut the cost over time. The most difficult
the time you put in to set up the best method will pay dividends
several times more for the savings that you will experience when you utilize
it. Formally:
The Protocol Principle
Making rules that maximize the manner in which coordination happens at work
It isn’t pleasant in the short-term, but it could lead to a more efficient operation
over the long run.
The rest of this chapter examines some case studies on the protocol.
Principle working. Learn about the benefits of corporate offices.
hours and how restricting your clients access to you may make them more comfortable.
It will also explain what happened the moment an educational research team started
holding regular daily status meetings similar to an IT development team
and you’ll hear arguments on why you should never ever attempt to schedule
A meeting via email. These protocols are more complicated than simply
You’re rolling and rocking using your email inbox or on Slack, and some of them
It is more likely that an occasionally bad thing happens. However, if you are guided by
The Shannon’s basic insight is the basis of their work. They adopt the fundamental idea that Shannon’s fundamental insight is
Sometimes, a bit of extra effort can help unlock more performance.
Meeting Scheduling Protocols
The year was 2016, and I participated on a panel for an event for businesses. My fellow panelists were among them.
was a New York-based tech businessman named Dennis Mortensen.
In the course of our later talked I learned that his position was as director of an new start-up that was located in
The method of the process of leaving the stealth mode and embracing beta testers. It was known as
x.ai and its products used cutting-edge artificial Intelligence technology
to take on a simple task to tackle a mundane task: setting up meetings.
In its initial version, x.ai implemented a digital agent called Amy.
If you had to set up a an appointment with someone via email then you
will send an email to a specific address to Amy and then, as is the natural
Text, request the agent for assistance in setting up the text, ask the agent to help set up the. For example, you might
Write: “Amy, can you set up a meeting for me and Bob next Wednesday?”
At this point, and this is where the magic happens – Amy would meet with Amy.
Bob and Bob via email to figure out the best Wednesday time that was convenient for both of them.
as well as your schedules, and then include the event in your calendar. It could seem like a lot of work
as a minor improvement in office life, it was a major draw for investments.
In 2016, the year I first met Mortensen, x.ai had already paid more than $26
millions of investment capital for the Amy natural interface to language. By
In 2018, they received $40 million total investments.6
There’s a reason companies that automatize meeting scheduling such as
x.ai have received lots of attention from investors, even the most hard-core
The hyperactive hive mind booster cannot overlook the obvious time-wasting
inefficiency of the method that professionals currently address this
an increasingly frequent task. The protocol used to set meetings is
What I refer to as energy-saving email Ping-Pong, also known as energy-minimizing email. In the course of an
In the email conversation, it is evident the need for a meeting. Since this
This is a tedious and insignificant task everyone involved in the game
The unspoken rule of the game is to test how fast you can bounce
The responsibility for scheduling is transferred of the event to another person the responsibility for scheduling, even if it is only temporarily:
“We ought to meet. Let me know when is the best time with you.”
“Should we shoot for next week?”
“Sounds nice to me.. The general consensus is that Tuesday and Thursday are likely
best.”
“I’m a bit overwhelmed these days. Friday?”
“Sure, when?”
“Morning?”
“Maybe I could do 11:00 if not too late?”
“I am leaving to attend an off-site conference around after. What does the week to come appear?”
And so on . . .
The cost to your brain from this process is huge because each of these messages back and forth requires the time to be on your mailbox. To add to the confusion
even more, once the scheduling conversation is underway it is imperative to monitor the conversation
Your inbox is frequently flooded with messages while you wait your next email to be delivered your inbox, because it
it is impolite to leave for hours during one of these
quasi-synchronous back-and-forth interactions.
It’s enough to have just one of these meetings to plan at
at any moment at any given moment, however at any given moment, the vast majority of experts have to be
It is difficult to manage multiple scheduling conversations at the same time. As
The news was reported in the article in a Harvard Business Review article, with a scathingly named
“Stop the Meeting Madness,” an average executive spends a full week of twenty-three hours in meetings.7
A huge volume scheduling
the process of arranging the meetings can be a significant reason for hyperactivity.
inbox checking, which can result in significant cognitive costs. When you
you must always check your inbox to find one of them.
diverse meetings as well as your capability to complete
The value of cognitive work is greatly diminished. This is the reason why the investors are
willing to invest 40 million dollars to determine if artificial intelligence is a possibility
dramatically reduce the cognitive cost – this cost is not that much when compared to the
huge amount of productivity that could be unlocked if information was available.
Sector could be forced to stop energy-saving email ping-pong entirely.
If you are looking for better scheduling protocols for meetings There are a variety of options
Solutions that are substantially cheaper than ad-hoc emailing.
The first, and the most extreme, is to get an actual assistant who is flesh and blood.
Who can access your calendar and organize meetings on behalf of you.
There was a point in time when this option was too costly for everyone, but
the top executives, since it required an entire salary to
committed employee. This is no anymore the situation. The freelance online services are now available.
It is now easy to find assistants who can work remotely for a certain number of hours.
of hours spent on particular of hours on specific. The first time I employed my first virtual assistant on a part-time basis,
through a company known as Upwork and was pleasantly surprised to find out that she could
effortlessly manage my meeting scheduling within a maximum of two or three billings
Hours per week. The true cost of scheduling meetings comes from the
multiple interruptions needed to check your email and also to ensure you keep it.
Conversations are going on however, all these expensive interruptions aren’t really adding anything to the conversation.
up to a substantial amount of billable hours when it is handed to an assistant.8
Although hourly rates vary based on the level of experience of the assistant
in light of the fact that much time actually is involved in scheduling, it is
Shouldn’t be too difficult to let go of the majority of your meeting schedule for
Around forty dollars per week, on an average. A further $160 per month as well.
is a substantial sum of cash. My experience is that the kind of information
people who are most likely to invest in this type of venture are entrepreneurs who
already invested money into their businesses in order to maintain
The world is changing. For those who are employees in large corporations,
On the other hand on the other hand, the concept of trading your personal money for the sake of gaining
The productivity of the workforce is higher in foreign countries and, in this sense, it is more important to bring in outside
Your assistant’s ability to communicate with your colleagues could be seen as suspicion, especially if
Not in any way hostile. In my work life I employ my assistant
to handle the overwhelming amount of requests for interviews and meetings. to handle the overwhelming volume of interview and meeting requests
I get in my business of writing, but not in the majority of cases dealing with the
requirements of my second obligations as a professor at the university.
Effectively working with a part-time assistant plan meetings
is two things required such as having access to information about your available as well as an opportunity to create new events
add your calendar. There are many applications that will meet these requirements.
I’ve been using an online schedule service that is called Acuity. At the
at the beginning of each semester the semester in which an assistant has been hired I’ll be able to manually
Enter into the system all times I’m available to meet during the months
ahead. If my assistant has to make a reservation for an appointment, she makes use of Acuity to
choose a block of time within these times. What makes this service valuable?
is that it syncs to is that it syncs with Google Calendar. My assistant is able to book
When I make an appointment an appointment Acuity the appointment is displayed immediately on my calendar.
Also, if I directly add something to my calendar, then Acuity
Automatically removes this block of time automatically from my availability.
The most obvious question, of course one of the main reasons I don’t use directly Acuity
to speed up my booking of meetings in case someone would like to meet me,
instead of handing them over an assistant to me, I might instead forward them directly
to Acuity to set up an appointment time that is convenient for us all. This is the reason is that I
Do not choose to go with this simple and less expensive option. I work with a wide variety of
Set of possible appointments and they’re certainly not all identically from a
scheduling perspective. If I book a meeting that is scheduled to take place in my office, I will consider the scheduling aspect.
Georgetown office for instance I’d like to look at only those times that I’m at
campus. If I am booking interviews for podcasts, by contrast, I would like to make sure that I have the
The other way around, offering only the times I’m at home and am able to make
the use of my studio at home. Certain meetings are urgent, and I’d like to know the
the closest available time slot and others aren’t available, and I would like to assign them to
A less crowded time in the near future. I wouldn’t be able to reply to
Each meeting request comes with each meeting request with a schedule of dates that I’m available. I’m also available to
My assistant will help me navigate these various needs.
In the majority of knowledge-based jobs These kinds of distinctions
Not as important. There is a normal work week when you are able to block off
Sometimes, you need to work uninterrupted with the remainder of the time available for meetings and
appointments. In this instance there’s no requirement for a real human being to
aid you in scheduling. Tools like Acuity and ScheduleOnce,
Calendly and, obviously, x.ai (to name a few of them among the many) create
It is easy for others to arrange meetings with you at time periods when
you’re available. When someone contacts you to arrange an appointment, you can email them an email to let them know
A link to your scheduling service and instruct them to choose the time that is convenient.
The best option for their needs. A time of reducing energy consumption by minimizing email ping-pong are over.
It is reduced to one message, and a few clicks on a website for scheduling.
If the event is attended by several people, avoid email Ping-Pong
is made more urgent because of the sheer volume of messages needed
The amount of time scheduled is often increased exponentially by the attendance of attendees. In
In these situations, it’s worth employing a group-based polling tool such as Doodle. In these cases, it’s worth using Doodle.
For those who aren’t familiar, for those who are not familiar, these services require you to create an online survey by
Inputting in various date and time options that will work for your calendar. You can choose to add multiple dates and times that work well for your.
Then, you can forward the poll to all the participants at the meeting and they each tick off
These times are the ones that are working for these times, allowing you to quickly identify the time
that is a solution for all.
I would go as in the direction of saying that any job that involves more than
Two or three scheduled events during a typical week must be utilizing one or two of the following strategies:
scheduling service, or in the event that the job demands it or a part-time assistant. There’s
There is no reason anyone should continue to spend their cognitive energy in
lengthy scheduling discussions. It is possible to think that there are benefits here are
Aren’t they? How difficult is it to send emails,
You’ll probably be amazed by the sensation of lifting a weight as you
Stop all the endless scheduling conversations that are a means of
squirming at the edges of your attention taking you back and over
Back into the buzzing mind of the.
The framework of Claude Shannon demonstrates this fact. The scheduling of meetings can be a little added cost in terms of inconvenience, because you’ve
to configure the system. Your correspondents will now need to choose the times they want to use from
A website is more than simply sending a brief email with a short
moment. However, the cognitive cycles saved are so significant that there’s not a
Comparison: the cost of these protocols for scheduling meetings is
substantially less than what is necessary by the status quo of energy-saving email Ping-Pong is significantly less than what’s required by the status quo of.
Office Hour Protocols
In the beginning of 2016, I wrote an article in the Harvard Business Review’s
Website that I used to give an intentionally provocative name, “A Modest Proposal:
Eliminate the use of email.” Even though I’d been writing about peculiar plights of
This technology is featured is featured on my blog, and this post was among my first mainstream
essays about the ideas that eventually would coalesce into the book you’re reading.
I’m currently in the process of. The article is about halfway through. the article, I’d read the
issues caused by hyperactive hive mind’s workflow. I gave my big
Conclusion: “There’s great advantage for those who are willing to stop
the reign of the chaotic workflow, and replace it with something else.
made from scratch with the objective of maximizing the value
Production and production and satisfaction.”9
In my initial draft, I was content to end the argument. My
editor didn’t agree. He correctly pointed out the idea of removing email was not a good one.
The concept was so new that there needed to be at the very least some suggestions as to how to make it happen.
The organization could work in the absence of it. I haven’t yet determined the
specifics of the concept of attention capital theory at this moment in my research, as such,
I didn’t have a definitive answer to my editor’s query about what would replace email.
In search of some examples, I discovered inspiration in an activity that I have seen in my
my own academic world in the academic world: office hours. In my post, I explained:
The idea is straightforward. Employees do not have personalization anymore.
email addresses for email. Instead, each person sends out a two-day schedule
or three periods of time in the day, during which he or she or she
is available for communications. The office is open during these hours. you can reach the
Individuals guarantee to be available in person, via phone or email.
instant messenger technologies like Slack. Outside of the person’s
The office hours are clearly stated However, you can’t be able to get their attention.
If you require them, you must be aware of what you require until
They’ll be available in the near future.
To my dismay, the article of 2016 didn’t start a firestorm.
An anti-email revolution. One commenter pointed out precisely, that offices are the main cause of this revolution.
hours are not a good option for businesses that have employees who work in a variety of hours.
multiple time zones. One person wrote that they’d prefer to have more emails than
More gatherings. “To try to make email illegal today is like trying to remove the
Barn door after the horse bolted.” said another commenter. “It’s
It’s not going to work.” My study of email continued, I decided to push the
Office hours is a concept that lies on my thinking at. As I later learned,
But, perhaps I shouldn’t have been so quick in dismissing this option.
Let’s go forward to the year 2018, when Jason Fried and David Heinemeier
Hansson Cofounders and iconoclastic founders for the company that makes software Basecamp,
The author has published a book entitled It Doesn’t Have To be Crazy at Work.10
The book
provides a set of ideas to help you create a positive workplace culture
They refer to “the calm company,” and tucked away among its suggestions is an
A well-known method: working hours. According to Fried and Hansson mention, their company follows the same
is a collection of subject experts in the field: “people who can answer questions
on stats, JavaScript events handling tips for database data.”
So, if one of employees has a concern regarding one of these
For questions, users can “ping” the expert to find out the answer. Fried and
Hansson have mixed feelings about this fact: “[It’s] wonderful. And
terrible.”11
The great thing is that experts are able to aid their colleagues
get their feet back or find ways to solve their issues. The
The most troubling aspect however one of the most damaging aspects is that experts are drawn into the
hyperactive hive mind, which is constantly absorbing more and
throughout the day to respond to these requests on ad-hoc basis. The solution of Basecamp, to my
pleasure, was to announce office hours. The experts have published their own the hours they will be working during.
Each week, they’re available for any questions you may have. For some
Experts say that these hours could be sporadic according to experts. For instance, an hour per week.
while for other, they might be more frequent, for instance, just one hour per day. The
The company relies on experts to determine the most suitable availability to match
their demands. Experts’ questions are then restricted to the ones they have set
Office hours.
“But what if you’ve an issue on Monday, and you’re in someone’s office is closed?
The hours don’t start until Thursday?” Fried and Hansson request. They offer a blunt
Answer: “You wait, that’s what you do.” They point out that these limitations
It might appear too bureaucratic initially it’s not, but has turned out to be an “big
“hit” on their business. “It appears that waiting isn’t a major issue for the majority of companies.
timing,” they elaborate. “But the control and time that our experts have regained is an improvement in
huge deal.”12
Further research shows that Basecamp isn’t the only non-academic company that offers office hours in a the limited way. As I
I learned about Scott Kirsner, the Innovation Economy columnist of The
Boston Globe, office hours are long-running favorites among entrepreneurs.
capitalists. He explains this in an article titled “I’m joining the Open Office
Hours Movement,” many local investment firms are involved, including
Flybridge, Spark Capital, and Polaris Partners, have taken into consideration the idea of putting aside
regularly scheduled times throughout the week at which anyone who is interested in technology companies in the beginning
You can be there, “no strings attached,” to get assistance, pitch your idea or simply
Create the connection.13
The lessons I gained from how to profile a Silicon Valley-based company
Capitalist named Mike Jackson for my 2012 book So Good They Can’t
Do not be a fool, the success of this business depends on exposure to a lot of
diverse ideas and individuals that are different, however, this is only possible if the information is made available via
unwelcome email messages, you may get lost in the ocean at the sea of emails.
“It’s so easy to just come in and spend your whole day on email,” He
warned.14
Office hours were a good way for investors to keep a check on these
rival forces.
The framework of Claude Shannon helps to show how these examples can be successful.
as well. The majority of coordination, the move to the predetermined office
hours will dramatically reduce cognitive cycle’s cost when compared to
simply bounce messages between each other in an ad-hoc fashion. Having to
You must wait until the next office hour to talk, but it is possible to
create a burden for the customer. The office hours protocols appear to be the most effective for
Activities that aren’t adversely affected by these delays. This is why
The experts at Basecamp and Boston’s venture capitalists have embraced office hours:
They reduced the high cognitive cost of distractions they also reduced the cognitive cost of distracting messages
In addition, delays were introduced that didn’t have any significant impact on the effectiveness of daily activities.
This is the reason for my 2016 suggestion to replace any communication with
office hours came in abruptly of a thud: there are a variety of coordination
currently handled via email and long delays could be unsustainable.
costly. It is a fact that every moment you are involved in any type of
of coordination activities that are both frequently occurring and not urgent, such as the office hours
The protocol could significantly lower its costs.
Client Protocols
In the mid-1990s as a teen involved in enthusiasm of initial dotcom boom. I co-founded an IT company with my buddy Michael
Simmons. We lived close to Princeton, New Jersey, and we thought of that this
was a high-end address, we named the company Princeton Web
Solutions.15
We focused on the design of websites at the beginning, by manually coding websites
for small businesses within the region. However, at some point, Michael
We are online and connected to a community of developers who are freelance and based in India. We
Soon, they realized two crucial factors. The first was that this team was far better in web development.
more advanced than we were in, and, secondly, their rates were very low at the time of their
American standards of the time. We came to a bargain that would allow us to use
clients and oversee the projects, while the Indian team would handle the actual
graphics design, and HTML programming. I remember that our first agreements were for graphic design and HTML code.
around $1,000. With our new team we started securing contracts for
The range of $15,000-$40,000. The problem with this was the fact that
We were teenagers in the 1990s, which means that we attended school throughout the entire time.
day, we did not have mobile phones. This meant that we ran out of money
contracts for clients with demanding requirements that had basically no means to reach them
With us.
Our solution to this issue was to develop an extensive client portal.
Every client had their unique username and password which for them to sign in.
access to the website. After entering, users were greeted with complete details
About their project. Design samples and pre-launch versions of their website
They were all accessible for viewing on the portal, along with an online calendar with the dates of the
important milestones that are coming up. An “work diary” contained daily information about
the work that was completed the previous day. Most of the actual conversation about
Projects were condensed to specific meetings linked to our
the detailed process of the project. Each meeting resulted in the necessary
note outlining the decisions we’d made and asked our clients to sign
They indicated that they were in agreement. (We discovered that this reduced the chance of approval.
that the client could then change their mind after the process was
underway.) The scans of these memos can be downloaded from the
portal.
We have never explained directly to our customers that we used our portal to help them.
We were in school for all day. Though I have to imagine that they had a plan
This is something they can figure out on their own. We created the conditions so that this would not be
An issue. Designers today frequently complain about the amount of time they devote to
working with dealing with emails. We did much of the same tasks back then.
However, they did it with no email at all.
Naturally, we were not the only ones who aspired to become smarter.
concerning client communications. In chapter 1 I shared the tale of Sean
revamping his workflow of his tiny technology startup. In this case, it’s
The overwhelming client communications was the most important thing was the overwhelming client communication
Sean was pushed to the breaking point. Sean was at a breaking point. Sean the situation really began to unravel
When a very demanding client demanded access to their
internal Slack configuration, causing Slack notifications’ pings to be converted into
continuous background noise and each message bringing an additional anxiety-inducing request by the customer. Unsurprisingly, the moment that Sean finally
It was decided that it was time to replace the active mind at the company with a more productive
practices, and one of the areas in which he was focused was on the way they worked together.
with their customers.
Sean’s company added an area titled “Communication” to
each document of the work. “We wish clients to be aware of this in
in the front of the project,” I asked him about the project’s front. The new section clarified the regulations for
communication between the customer and the company, such communications between the company and the client, such the communication between the company and its client, as well as Sean
I was told how to handle urgent issues arise. Most of the time, it was the
Standard setup was a prescheduled regular conference with clients
After which a written report of the conversation was then after which a written summary of the call was sent to the client. A written summary of the call was then sent to the. Sean’s
Business partner of mine, who was in charge of customer relations, was worried about
This change. “He was worried that the customers wouldn’t be pleased with this.
since we’re a user experience business, the user experience must be exceptional,” Sean explained. “But they’re definitely more content. It’s all
regarding the management of expectations.”
Although we did not use this term but both Sean and I attended high school together.
Company implemented better protocols for communication to manage
interactions between our companies with our clients. In doing this we
Significantly reduced the average cost of the coordination. Having
I’ve looked at other protocols for clients, and I’ve found some helpful
tips to help these efforts to succeed.
When attempting to reduce costs, take into consideration the client’s costs in
in addition to in addition to. One of the most important factors that makes the client protocol to work is when it is compatible with your own.
decreases the frequency of cognitive cycles and difficulties that the client has to face and also.
Very few customers actually enjoy the idea of sending endless messages. They prefer to
They feel compelled to do this because they don’t know they can get into the situation.
be sure to check that make sure that work is done. This is what I learned from Princeton Web
Solutions, the structure of our website didn’t annoy our clients. It was a great experience for them.
Instead, it brought peace of mind as they didn’t have to lose time thinking. It also gave them peace of mind, as they didn’t have to waste
the time to think about the contract we signed. In contrast it is a good idea to think of an idea for a
A communication system that helps you experience more easily when
while making the experience for the client more expensive, and thereby requiring the client with
Extreme example: forcing them to fax detailed requests for clients
each time they require something, you’ll find it much more difficult to convince them to them.
hands, and with good reasons.
Another key aspect is the need to be clear. Sean’s business
Included a full description of their protocol for clients in their declaration of
Work with all clients who signed. This was clever. They could have instead
They casually suggested to their clients that a weekly phone call could work, and the clients
was more likely to fall back into the mind of the hive as quickly as
The first minor problem was the first minor issue that arose. If the language used is contractual,
However, the customer is more likely to be a victim of the minor inconvenience
discover over time how much they actually get the cost-effectiveness of an
More restricted system.
In the end, despite all your efforts There will always be some customers for
These protocols simply won’t work. I spoke to one of them.
communications consultant who used be a part of a 12-person business in
Washington, DC. She said that for a lot people who were clients of them, they utilized an
A variation of Sean’s set-up: A scheduled weekly phone call, then writing
A summary of the various points that were discussed. Some of their clients they do provide a summary of all the points discussed.
They offered crisis communications. The clients required a means to
receiving immediate attention whenever incidents of public attention occurred, and so their procedure
It is basically a simplified version of “call right away if anything happens.” The specifics
The protocols which is to say of these protocols, is contingent on the nature of the work.
There are certain people that this strategy isn’t appropriate,
Not because of what they do, but due to their personality. To
Utilizing the technical term refers to those who love to nag people
as this makes people feel special. Tim Ferriss wrote about this exact
The situation was discussed in his bestseller of 2007, The 4-Hour Workweek. In discussing how
He improved the processes of his supplement company, BrainQuicken, he
He also talked about the way he ended up “firing” one of his most stressful employees.
belligerent clients. The thought of having to eliminate toxic clients hit an emotional chord.
“That passage just leapt off the page for me,” explained Tobi Lutke.
The CEO of the tech firm Shopify in an interview with Ferriss profile in Inc.
magazine. “If you are in business school and suggest that you dismiss an employee,
They’ll remove you from the building. It’s as it is in my personal experiences. It
This allows you to pinpoint those customers you want to be working with.”16
The framework of Claude Shannon helps to validate the logic behind this client-firing
strategy. Although it’s true that you’ll lose money on the short run but you’ll also
reduce significant cognitive cost. Once you have started treating them more
In the end, it is more simple to get rid of clients who are costing you money.
The improvements in your psyche aren’t a justification for your immediate financial bottom line.
As you put these pieces together It should be obvious that you must work with
clients are, an efficient communications protocol is crucial for your
journey to get past the hyperactive mind-body workflow.
Nonpersonal Email Protocols
Certain aspects of our daily lives become so commonplace that it is difficult for us to have a difficult to remember.
Imagine imagining a future that is never. A good instance of this effect is
the standard format for the canonical format of email addresses: person@organization. There’s an
beauty to this design. If you send an email, it is the base email
Protocol routes this message through the company that is specified by the address.
Then, the business’s email server sends the message to the recipient.
A specific recipient appears located on the left of the symbol. This is the element that makes up the
email address, also known as the recipient field, is something we assume to be a given. However, if we take a step
Reconsider it and look at the issue from a new angle It’s an interesting question
It is a question that arises: Why are recipients of email addresses nearly always individuals?
Not, for example departments, projects or other activities?
The answer to this question could be traced back to one of the
earliest proto-email systems. In the early 1960s computers were still big
and costly mainframes that needed special rooms and regular maintenance
staffs. Utilizing these machines was to wait for your turn. At that moment you
could be granted temporary control over the digital giant and we would hope that it
The program will be computed probably inputted via punch cards, prior to your
turn expired. Engineers from MIT dissatisfied with this system, realized that there could be a
could be a better method to divide up access to the mainframe. Their solution, first announced in
The MIT Computation Center in 1961 was dubbed”the Compatible TimeSharing System (CTSS). The CTSS introduced something new into
The world of computing The ability of multiple users to sign in to the same computer
Mainframe simultaneously by using terminal machines wired to the
mainframe. The users were not actually in control of the mainframe computer.
at the same time; instead, it is the operating system that shares time runs on the
A large machine would rapidly switch between users, albeit with a small
One user’s computation is completed before switching to another user to complete a calculations for
Another, and so on. However, from the perspective from the user, this was felt like each
as if they owned the mainframe to as if they had the mainframe all to.
The switch between CTSS into email seemed a natural transition. The feature that timesharing introduced was the notion that every user account was their own directory.
Each of its own files that are private, while others are open to all
On the computer system. Early users who were smart about CTSS knew they could quit the system
messages within directories that belong to one another. In 1965, this pattern was normal
Standardized with standardizing the MAIL command, which is implemented by software engineers
Tom Van Vleck and Noel Morris. It inserted a file named “MAIL BOX” in
every directory of users. If you send an email to a certain user, you can do this by using the
MAIL command The note was added to the individual’s MAIL BOX document.
Users could make use of the tool to delete and read messages within their own MAIL
BOX files.
The first email accounts were linked to individuals
individuals, or for example, since the mainframe user accounts timesharing systems were initially established in this way. After this connection was established,
It was created, and it stayed. Ray Tomlinson, the engineer who was perhaps the most responsible
for the format of person@organization addresses that was later standardized for the format person@organization, which later became standard
earlier, we worked on more sophisticated versions of the time-sharing messaging
tools such as MAIL.17
It is a naive and oblique decision to connect email to
People played an important role in the development of the hyperactive hive mind.
workflow. As we have discussed in part 1 of the book, the human brain can increase the
The way we’ve always worked in small groups natural way of coordination: unstructured, ad
hoc, back-and-forth chatter. Since email addresses are linked with
People, it was easy to use this tool to facilitate this kind of discussion,
that led us to the slippery slope, which eventually resulted in an uncontrolled
messaging. In a different universe, emails were not the norm, email addresses were
connected to teams or projects linked to projects or teams, the hive brain work flow might have felt less
natural, and thus could be more natural, and therefore might have had a tougher time getting noticed.
The reason for presenting this story is to inspire you to think about
infringing on the tradition of affixing email addresses to individuals,
particularly when trying to find the most efficient protocols for communication. By
removing this link between email and people you can do this, by using one
big gesture that will shake up expectations of all regarding how
Communication should be fluid which will make it simpler for you to build
This expectation is created from scratch, using a the help of a procedure that makes sense.
Take, for instance, the protocols for communication between clients that are discussed in
This chapter. In this chapter, a client can be accustomed to communicating with a specific person in
Your organization should be able to assist them when they face problems or questions It can be difficult to
lessen their expectations for quick response times. They will tailor the responses.
interactions, and start treating delays as personal insults (why do you
I’m not paying attention to me. ?!). Now imagine that each client is assigned an
dedicated email address of the form clientname@yourorganization.com. It’s
it is much easier to free them of the notion that they are sending messages
to an individual , to a specific person, in the moment and thus is better
Answer them promptly! If you can depersonalize your communications, you can have many
More options for optimizing the process.
I implemented protocols based on these concepts to aid in managing my author
communication. The last time I provided just one email address to
people to contact me. Since I had my name, and the messages were
Overwhelming: not just in the volume but also in complex. When you
When you believe you’re communicating with someone, it’s normal to believe that
They’ll be willing to listen to your lengthy story and provide specific
help, or arrange an appointment to discuss your business opportunities contact us
You can introduce you to people who are relevant in your networks to connect with relevant people in their. I did this with pleasure until I realized that it was not as enjoyable.
as the number of people attending became larger, it became difficult.
To enhance my author communication protocols, I developed
Non-personal email addresses that are not personal. One could be intriguing.
@calnewport.com My readers utilize to send interesting hyperlinks or leads.
Under the address, you will find a short message: “I really appreciate these tips, however
because of the time constraint, I’m typically due to time constraints, I’m not able due to time constraints, I’m not able.” According to my experiences,
If you place an disclaimer on an individual address, for example
cal@calnewport.com It will be generally disregarded, given our expectations for
one-on one interactions are so effective. However, when the disclaimer is added an
nonpersonal address, like interesting@calnew port.com, I receive few
without preconceived expectations you can set these up
From scratch.
There are a variety of ways to integrate low-cost procedures into your
Professional life or an organization however, in many instances it is beneficial to have email addresses that are free
The support of individuals can give a huge encouragement to the effort.
Short-Message Protocols
In 2017 C. L. Max Nikias an accomplished scholar, was president of
The University of Southern California, wrote an interesting op-ed piece for The Wall
Street Journal. He was not talking about the achievements of his research that were being made by the
His memberships have been granted to him by his organization, the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Engineering.
American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The author also didn’t write about the
The capital campaign of $6 billion which he managed as well as the new campus that he established or the
the addition of 100 chairs endowed with money that he contributed to the creation of during
the preceding 7 years since his election as president during the previous seven years of his presidency USC.18
His subject was equally
more common and commonplace more common and mundane.
As Nikias describes the role of his position, the position he was receiving more than 300 emails per day.
day, and this created a challenge. “The essence of being an effective leader is to
to move an organization to a new direction.” He notes, “yet email can
can have an opposite effect, stopping the leader from doing any task.
active or with lasting value.” To keep from the fate of wasting his time
“glued to a screen and responding endlessly,” Nikias thought of a simple idea for a name.
Solution: “I keep all of my emails to a minimum of the length of
an average typical text messages.” How do you deal with emails that call for an
More involved interaction than can fit in the text-length of a reply? Nikias
Contacts the person, or invites them to arrange an appointment. “The essential aspects of
Human communication isn’t well translated to cyberspace,” He
explains.
Nikias isn’t the only person who has experimented with emails that are shorter. In
2007 an internet designer named Mike Davidson posted an essay on his
personal blog that I run called “A Low-Fi Solution for E-mail Overload.”19
In this article,
Davidson expresses his displeasure with the unbalanced nature of email.
communication. “Often times, the sender might ask up to three open-ended questions.
one-sentence questions that elicit multiple paragraph answers.” He writes.
“In these situations the sender is allowed to spend one minute while the receiver gets a question,
informally, perhaps for an perhaps an.” He was able to come up with the exact general
Solution as C. Solution as C. Max Nikias: keep his emails as short as possible. He is also similar to
We identified the 160 characters of a text message sent via SMS as a fair
The goal, however, it is important to recognize that counting characters requires some kind of
Special software plug-ins Instead, he used an approximate method: he could
Limit his email messages to five or fewer sentences.
For “politely” explain this rule to his correspondents Davidson
launched a simple website, http://five.sentenc.es, that briefly explains the
guidelines on a minimalist landing page. Then he put the following sign-up
to the bottom of his emails:
Q: What’s the reason why this email is only five sentences long?
A: http://five.sentenc.es
In the end, Davidson concludes in his introductory blog: “By ensuring that all
The emails I send out require the same amount of the time it takes to deliver (viz. “not a lot”) I
Evening is the time to play is between checking emails and attending to lots of
Then they will come back.”
— The concept of limiting the length of emails is not just a illusion. It’s more of a way to limit email length.
is a step that far too few people take in the current digital world: the digitalization of
clearly defined rules regarding the types of email that can and cannot be used for
accomplish. The hyperactive hive mind’s workflow would like to make email an effective tool.
neutral carrier that can support non-structured, flexible, ongoing conversations
all kinds. Short-email is pushing away from this commitment. It
It defines email as a tool to answer short questions, quick answers as well as
brief updates, but insists that anything more complex be dealt with
employing a different kind of communication that is more suitable for the exchange. This
It could be difficult for a moment but in the eyes of Claude
The Shannon framework is a method that has a lower cost per unit
over the long term.
As Nikias describes within the Wall Street Journal op-ed, for instance the time
He was in charge of the biggest campus expansion in the university’s time,
He often received emails from his construction managers that included the design
Small change requests or updates that required quick approval (“everything
From brick samples from brick samples”). This is a fantastic application of email:
for construction managers to for the construction managers to Nikias with a telephone call or
attending for each one of the approvals would have consumed the entire
schedule. On the other hand as Nikias says, when there is there is a construction issue
It seemed to call for “substantive” discussion, he immediately tossed it around
out of his inbox and rather make a phone to call.
If they are properly deployed when properly, these short-message rules are implemented
effective protocols that make use of email to facilitate the type of communication required.
It’s the best for (quick and fast and) for forcing people to more efficient
Mediums for all other things. Making emails as short as possible is a basic rule.
However, the impact can be significant. Once you have stopped thinking of email as an option, the effects can be profound.
general-purpose tool to talk about anything and everything at any moment it’s stranglehold
on your attention will diminish.
Status Meeting Protocols
The year 2002 was the time when Michael Hicks and Jeffrey Foster joined the computer science field.
department within department at the University of Maryland as newly appointed department at the University of Maryland as newly minted assistant
professors, after which they began working in tandem to create the research
group. In the midst of having to coach students they were bringing on, Hicks
and Foster used a method of operation that’s virtually universal in the world of computers.
Science professors: they arrange weekly meetings with their students
to monitor progress and collaborate to discuss research issues.
In the beginning it worked well. Like many junior professors,
Hicks as well as Foster had the two to three pupils under their supervision and they had a
A relatively small amount of additional responsibilities that go beyond research and
teaching. This is what they describe in a technical document on the effectiveness of research that
They published their first book in 2010 but as their careers grew they published their first book in 2010.
the mentoring method was beginning with the intention to “reach its limits.”20
They moved from
Supervising up to three students, totalling up to six or seven students at a time. As
Their mentoring workload grew as did their other commitments to be able to
Papers and grant proposals writing grants, further limiting their time for writing grants and papers, further limiting. The weekly
the meetings with each student were “extremely inefficient,” as they were
Every time, the same time, ranging from thirty minutes up to an hour.
It was almost never the appropriate duration. Sometimes they only needed
Ten minutes to complete an update on their status, and other times, they’d need only a couple of minutes.
hours to work on a challenging issue.
Foster’s and Hicks’s ever-busier schedules made it hard to keep up with their busy schedules.
at additional student gatherings that extend in addition to the ones previously scheduled
week. In the end, students started to slip into the gaps. If there was a problem, it could be that someone was
trying to solve the issue, it may be a week before solution is found.
discussed. Hicks and Foster were also aware that one-on-1 meetings did not work.
Create a sense within the research team. “We had created an
An amazing group of students, not the formation of a research group that is collaborative,”
They wrote. After considering all the issues the conclusion they reached was straightforward:
“Clearly, something needed to change.”
The catalyst for that change was a meeting of research that was held by Hicks
Participated in 2006. He was talking to his former graduate student
school, who has since turned into an software engineer. The old
Officemate started telling Hicks of how much they liked Scrum officemate began to tell Hicks about how much he enjoyed Scrum, and the
the agile method his employer employed to plan software development
work. The idea seemed to resonate with Hicks. He returned to
Maryland Foster, he suggested Foster Foster that these esoteric methods of organization
From the world of software development could be just what they require to
Get their research group to operate more efficiently.
I introduced Scrum and agile methods more broadly, in
Chapter 5 is part of our discussion on task boards. The strategy’s different strategies are discussed in chapter 5.
The element that resonated the most the most with Hicks as well as Foster was the
routine of scrums that are conducted daily. As you may remember, in the standard Scrum software
Teams of development break their work into sprints, sessions lasting between two and four hours
weeks are devoted to the development of a particular series of specific features. During the
sprints, the group meets each morning for 15 minutes in a group
is referred to as known as a scrum. During the meeting, every member of the group is asked to answer the questions.
Three questions to be answered: (1) What did you accomplish since the last scrum?
meeting? (2) Have you face any issues? (3) What do you plan to do prior to the
The next scrum? Then they spend the remainder of the day working on their
objectives. When implemented in software, the coordination process is far more effective.
effective more efficient than trading email or instant messages that are sent throughout the day. To
to enforce the 15-minute limit and thus stop the meetings from going on for too long.
The process can drag on for hours, wasting time and are generally time-consuming.
everyone should get up.
Hicks and Foster developed the concept of daily scrum for their research
group. Instead of having the sessions on a daily basis, they held the meetings on the weekends.
Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Also, they changed their name from “status
meetings.” However, the specifics remained the same meetings: These
The meetings lasted fifteen minutes. The participants were all was on the team of researchers
Answered the standard three asked the traditional three. They also tried out a variety of
taking the meetings in a standing position and discovered that “surprisingly,” it really did
aid them in sticking within the limited time frame. Hicks and Foster will
They also update students with information about their daily activities. They
known as the modified SCORE system. SCORE.
The key element of Hicks as well as Foster’s SCORE was separating these two
Status meetings differ from more technical discussions. If a status meeting is held, it will be more involved.
In the meeting, it was clear that an individual student needed the discussion to be more thorough.
If progress is made make progress, make progress, and a progress report would be issued, and a “technical meeting” would be set up right
There in the immediate vicinity. In contrast to the traditional weekly meetings, these are technological
Meetings were only scheduled to be used when they were needed. Since their primary function was to serve a purpose, they were only scheduled when needed.
as soon as they were planned, they also tend to be extremely effective
Everyone arrived with an understanding of the purpose for the debate. As Hicks and
Foster elaborate, as they had cleared the weekly standing meeting.
with each student taking their calendars off there was plenty of schedule
space to accommodate these meetings on-demand when the need arises.
I was curious if their students expressed their admiration for the SCORE
In their approach, the professors carried out an official questionnaire of the group they were working with.
They requested them to rate seven aspects of their research experience.
for graduate students such as “quality of interactions with adviser,”
“productivity level,” and “enthusiasm for research.” For students who
existed prior to when SCORE was established, and they were also asked to be rated
their experiences with the old method of organizing groups. “The reactions
The results were generally positive.” Hicks and Foster summarize. “SCORE increased
Students’ experiences in all aspects we considered.”
-The regular status-meeting strategy Hicks and Foster have extracted from
Scrum methodology is highly effective and widely applicable
Communication protocol. There are many different working settings in the field of knowledge,
Utilizing these brief meetings, which are three to five times per week, will significantly
limit ad-hoc emails or instant message interactions during the day.
Everyone is synchronized during the normal gathering. The small synchronization is exchanged.
the number of cognitive cycles required for the status meeting for the vast
the number of cycles required to reach the same level of coordination using sporadic
back-and-forth messaging. In the report, Hicks and Foster write, the routine pattern
The shortness of meetings also generates an atmosphere in “momentum” that helps people
Both feel more confident in their work, and enjoy greater productivity. Also, it makes them feel more confident.
improves the cohesion of groups, since everyone is aware of the same thing about everyone else.
I am working on.
This procedure comes with certain inconveniences. Particularly,
waiting for the next status update could be a hassle if you require urgent help.
Answer a question or assist in overcoming the obstacle. I’ve been in groups to
It was discovered that there is a variant from these meetings regularly however they did not.
The likelihood of bad things happening is less frequent than many people think. Backup protocols are a good example.
Of course, there are always measures that can be established to address the risk (e.g., “If
If something urgent arises prior to the next status meeting me a ring.
door”).