“You’re not the boss of me! Oh wait, actually, you are.”

I’ve found that there is sometimes a strange tension between worker bees and their bosses.  I’m not sure why this is the case, my guess is that this is a very Western phenomenon.  I noticed that when I was in Syria, it wasn’t that way.  Bosses were treated with a lot of respect.

I’ll let the philosophers duke out what is really happening, my point is just to emphasize that you should see your boss as your ally.

The way I approach it is that my boss is the person my organization chose to represent them to me.  So, since I work for this organization, I should do everything in my power to keep my boss happy.

Obviously, you can end up with a difficult boss once in a while, but you have the option to find a new position on a different team/department/organization.

I’ve found that if you make sure you take care of your boss, your boss will take care of you.

Let me know what you think. 🙂

A Shared Screen is worth a Thousand Words

I’ve found that you can cut out a lot of confusion and heart-ache by viewing your user’s screen.

When I’m on call and am assigned to an issue, one of the first things I try to do (after talking to the user) is to connect to their computer.  We have a tool we use that let’s us connect to any computer on our network.  So the conversation usually goes like this:

ME: [smile] Hello, this is Yousuf from the Health IT department.  May I speak with so-and-so?

USER: Yes, this is so-and-so.

ME: I just got this ticket that says you are having a problem with X.  Is that still happening?

USER: Yes, it was fine yesterday and now it’s not working correctly.

ME: Okay, let’s see if we can figure this out.  Do you mind if I connect to your computer so you can show me what’s wrong?

USER: Of course, please do connect!

ME: Okay, what is your computer name?

USER: It’s blah-blah-blah.

ME: Great, now I’m connected and I can see your screen.  Go ahead and show me what’s wrong.

USER: Well, whenever I try to do Y, it is supposed to let me do Z, but it won’t work.

ME: So, you are trying to do Z, but it won’t let you.

USER: Yes.

ME: I think I see what the problem is.  Would you try to do A?

USER: Yes, that’s what I needed! It works perfect now!  So, I just have to do A and it will work?

ME: Yep.

USER: Excellent!  Thank you so much!

ME: [smile] No problem, have a great day!

Lessons:

1. Call the user.  That lets them know that someone is working on their issue and eases their anxiety/frustration.
2. Smile when you talk because they can hear your smile.
3. Confirm that the issue still exists (many times they figure it out on their own before you get a chance to call).
4. Ask them for permission to connect to their computer.  That let’s them feel that they are in control.
5. Listen very carefully to whatever they are saying and confirm with them that you understood the issue. That will save you a lot of time/heart-ache because sometimes you can misunderstand the issue.
6. Watch what they do carefully.  You can take screenshots, if needed, at this point.

This trick has literally saved me HOURS of time.  In the past, it would take a long time to understand what the user is saying because they don’t use the same terms as you do.  You can then still totally misunderstand the issue and spend hours solving the wrong problem.

So let me know if you have any stories where you either misunderstood your user’s issue or helped a user based on them sharing their screen with you.

I look forward to hearing from you!

The Weakest Ink

Always be ready to take notes.  I prefer paper (when not at a computer) since paper and pen don’t need batteries, memory or a processor.

Here are some scenarios…

• At work/office, but not at desk: Clipboard with recycled paper (only one side printed on, so I use the blank side).  I carry a Pilot Dr. Grip gel pen that writes nicely.
• At work/office, at desk: Depends, but MS Word is good because you can quickly paste screenshots into it.  Notepad and “sticky notes” in Outlook also work fine for a quick fix.
• Outside of work/office: Right now I’m using a hipster PDA because of its extreme simplicity and it’s working great!  I also like pocket-sized Moleskines, but they can get a little bulky.  Write with Pilot Dr. Grip gel.
• Emergencies: I carry a Fisher Space Pen refill in my wallet for emergencies.  I also have business cards that I can always use the back of in a pinch.

WARNING: Don’t waste time figuring out the tools – just pick something that works and stick with it.  Otherwise, you can easily waste a lot of time.

Why do this?

“The weakest ink is stronger than the strongest memory.”  (I don’t know the origin of this quote, but I first read it in Imam Zarnuji’s classic work, The Training of the Student.)

1) You can capture thoughts, ideas, instructions (especially from your manager) & good advice.
2) Others feel that you are planning to act on what you tell them you’ll do (you’re not relying on your memory which we all know is not bullet-proof).
3) Peace of mind knowing that you won’t have to scramble for something to write with.

Story Time

Well, there have been many many incidents where everything went fine because I needed to write something down and I was able to!  But that’s not very exciting.

How about the time when my manager suddenly wanted to talk to me about something and I didn’t bring by clipboard with, but then I was still able to write down stuff because I had my pocket notebook?  Is that exciting?

I guess the most exciting thing about this is that you won’t have any negative excitement from dropping the ball because you couldn’t remember what you were supposed to do.

Anyway, I’ve never regretted making sure I have paper/pen, but I have seen many people suddenly scramble for paper/pen (at which point I let them borrow my paper/pen).

Certification for Vendor’s Software

Tricks.  I like tricks when they help you do more with less.

Sometimes you have to get certified in a particular software by an outside vendor.  Here are some tricks that helped me:

1) Skim through the manual before you attend the training class.

2) Pay attention during class (don’t read email or surf the web).

3) Schedule your exam for the first Tuesday following the first weekend after your training.  If you can schedule it for about 9 am, you’ll probably be more fresh.  Then, get there at about 8 am to settle in and calmly review your notes.

4) Study for your exam on the weekend before.  If it is an open book exam, focus on skimming through the manual to get a good sense of where everything is in the manual.  If there are practice questions at the end of each chapter, test yourself by not looking at the answers until you try to guess first.  (Read the questions/answers out loud to yourself.)

5) On exam day, get to the exam location early so you can settle in and relax before your exam starts.

6) After your exam, if you also have to do a project, start on it right away and give yourself a 1 week deadline to finish it.

Story: I waited on one of my certification’s exam/projects and ended up spending about 100 hours on it because I had forgotten the material.  I had to take the exam twice to pass it.  Once I followed the system above, I’m able to get certified within 1-3 weeks.

Use Spreadsheets as Tools (Even If They’re Boring)

No one ever bought popcorn and stared at a spreadsheet for 90 minutes.

That’s okay, though, because we just want to track our technical build successfully.  Spreadsheets are usually the easiest way to do this. 

Let’s say you need to update 100 records in your Electronic Medical Record system that are similar but have slight variations.  Well, you have a few things you’ll need to manage:

1) Save notes about all your changes so that you can reference them later without relying on memory.

2) Describe your changes as part of your change control process.

3) Be able to use your notes to quickly redo all the changes in a test environment and then in a production environment.

I have found the best tool to do this is a spreadsheet for the following reasons:

• It’s fast and easy to populate with build information.
• It’s easy to read.
• Allows for easy copying and pasting.
• You can easily put filters on the columns to focus on specific pieces of information.  (This article explains filtering in more detail.)
• It’s easy to sort your data.

Here is a sample spreadsheet for ya.

Lesson: Use spreadsheets to track your build.

Story: I recently had to create an electronic flowsheet at work for a pharmacist.  I spent hours preparing the spreadsheet because there was some logic based upon which certain records would appear or not.  It paid off because I understood the exactly what was going on with each piece of the build and had that all recorded in the spreadsheet.  Doing the actual build was easy because I just worked down my spreadsheet.  Thankfully, my user LOVES it!