How We Work (Together)

The Way We'll Interact

First Things First

Working with anyone new presents a huge amount of challenge — whether it’s a client, a business, an employee, or a teacher. I want to make sure you have a feeling for how we do things around here so that your learning curve can be more of a learning line.

Communicate (a little) Differently

Have an open mind for every idea. It’s too easy to get stuck thinking that your success has to look like someone else’s.
Be sincere about how you feel. Name everything that is holding you back (it’s often fear) so we can attack it together.
Subtlety can be confusing. Mixed messages only get mixed up. Simple works. And if you have any questions, ask.
We’re on the same team, reaching for the same goal. No one is right 100% of the time (not even me).

The Tools We'll Use

Trello

A lot of work is, unfortunately, work about work: the status reports, the meetings, the confusion of priorities. When we’re already working together, I make sure everything about our work is in one place. That place of choice is Trello.

By cutting down on all the time wasted in useless communication, we have more time for results.

Google Office

The ability for multiple parties to collaborate on documents in real time is huge. When you combine that with the benefits of access from anywhere, a low learning curve (if you’ve ever written a document on a computer, you’ll be right at home), and automatic saving with version control, it doesn’t make sense to use anything else. I use Docs and Sheets and link to them inside Trello cards.

Email, Phone, F2F

I initially reach out to people by email. (Gmail, in particular, helps me automate things with filters and connecting to other products.) When there needs to be a lot of back and forth, a phone call or a face-to-face meeting helps, reconnecting us to the big picture more effectively. But, this is always a last resort: a meeting’s true time is multiplied by the number of people. (To make scheduling painless, I use Calendly.)

The Path We'll Follow

Forward Motion

Projects can be huge, encompassing a number of people across a number of skill sets. But, if nobody knows what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, or what their constraints are, things get messy.

Plan (a little) Differently

Not all tasks are equal. Ask the question: what’s the one thing I can do, such that by doing it, makes everything else easier or unnecessary? We’ll find that thing and put it at the top of the list.
If you want to eat an elephant, start one bite at a time. Once we’ve figured out our elephant (er… our one thing), we’ll break it down into small enough pieces to eat (… uh, you’re smart; you get it.) The momentum we build from actually finishing things, even if they’re small, is energizing.