Table of contents
Introduction - The Approach to deconstruct knowledge work
Level 2 of my Digital Productivity Pyramid describes the building blocks I classify as the Essentials for outcompeting other knowledge workers and building the basic competencies to leverage your productivity across all dimensions. What the Essentials level contains is going to be the focus of the next episode because I believe it will have a huge impact on everybody's. This week, I will give you a high-level overview.
First, let me frame "competency" for you as it is of critical importance to understand how skills are being acquired.
The four Stages of Competence
It is unclear where the model really originated from. But it seems that it has been invented by Noel Burch as part of his engagement at Gordon Training International during the 1970s or by Martin M. Broadwell (who was a management trainer) as the "Four Levels of Teaching" in 1969. However, it is a "learning model" in developmental psychology and describes the stages involved in acquiring a skill.
As with any knowledge or skill acquisition, you usually start on the unconscious incompetence level. You can apply it to every block on the pyramid but also to the whole pyramid itself. Taking it into the context of the whole pyramid, it means that you may start acquiring the skill to use the digital tools you encounter everyday but you are not aware about it.
Hence, the first step to climbing the competency hierarchy, is to recognize that you are incompetent, you were not aware of it and that you will benefit from starting the journey of building a digital ecosystem.
Therefore, let me clearly state: The higher levels of the pyramid are mostly for Interfaces and Managers. But if you add the skillset to your individual skillset no matter your path, you will become invaluable as you will inherit a vast amount of effectiveness through knowledge. That, I promise you.
If you want to use the Pareto-Principle, you may want to focus on level 1 and level 2 as they produce 80% of the skill acquisition and hence your individual competitive advantage.
The explicit benefits are always to be seen in three ways which I derived from the Juhari Window:
- The introspective: Me not feeling stressed by using the tools. (hidden experience)
- The independent perspective: Me being more productive than before. (blind experience)
- The interdependent perspective: Me being more pleasant to work with for my colleagues. (shared experience)
The framework - Your Personal Digital Ecosystem
The idea behind a framework for a roadmap of habits related to work is deriving from the physical world. If you think about your workplace, you will think of a physical place where things are structured for improved productivity at work although you might not do it for this particular reason. Of course, this may look different for different roles:
- In the production, different methodologies are used to improve processes, like Kanban, Poka Yoke, etc. while
- Chefs use Mis-en-place as a method to efficiently create the meals or
- In general, people working behind a desk might put it in order at the end of every day to have it clean in the morning
Hence, I derived this framework from these best practices to the digital knowledge working world, in which this kind of thinking does not exist yet. Imagine how you prepare your desk, your tools (like your laptop and its screens), your suitcase/bag before traveling; This framework is the equivalent for everything you work on digitally, meaning as soon as you "leave" the physical world into a virtual one.
First things first: If you are reading this, it most probably means you get paid for your knowledge and/or mind. Therefore, you need to have a model of organizing yourself. Period.
Second: You need to be either fully digital or hybrid. But fully offline does not make sense anymore. Each level of the Pyramid is a combination of human skills augmented or extended by some form of digital technology: hardware, software, or online platforms.
- You don't adapt to new tools and get lost.
- As everything becomes more digital, you will have more overhead to "migrate" it.
When we come to note-taking and knowledge management, I will add some thoughts on this.
There are different levels to the pyramid and the levels obey three principles:
- Law of diminishing Returns: With every step climbing the pyramid, you will get less benefits from it while having to disproportionally invest more effort.
- Pareto-Principle: If you master the Essentials (level 2), you have reached the 80:20 optimum.
- Emergent Pattern: One level emerges from the others and creates a reinforcing cycle of iteration.
Level 0 and 1: The Must-Haves
Starting from the bottom up, level 0 is emerging from the everyday usage of commoditized hardware/software and includes the most basic functions. Examples are:
- basic computer/smartphone usage (starting programs, exiting programs, etc.)
- (web) browsing
- creating and editing content within applications (smartphone apps, documents like PDFs)
As it is mandatory to even apply for any position in knowledge working, I won't explain it in more detail.
Level 1, on the other hand, extends this concept and contains the core capabilities for collaborating with others but also the building blocks of work as a knowledge worker itself. This means that everything you do as a knowledge worker depends on them. A few examples of friction you might encounter on higher levels if not fully embraced:
- Focusing on your Inbox Zero, you might face a lot of obstacles if you don't understand the basics of using email as a communication tool
- Previewing task management for the near future (day, week, month) on level 3 is even more challenging if you have never tracked your time (level 2) working on specific tasks and are not using a digital calendar (level 1) as you cannot estimate how much time you will need and when to block time for it
- Automatizing workflows (level 4) is impossible if you have never defined any generic steps on how to approach your work (level 3)
The basic principle is that friction on the lower levels of the pyramid can result in major friction in the upper parts. Hence, the emergent pattern I mentioned.
Let's look at some examples from level 1 which you might know from your daily work.
Basic Office Tools - Mail, Calendar & Drives
Mail is still the predominant communication channel in corporations. It still has a much more formal touch for people although it is extremely inefficient in most its usages. Nevertheless, if you cannot use an email program, you are not able to work properly.
The same principle lies behind the calendar and drive:
- If you don't use your calendar, you are not able to participate in (remote) meetings and
- if you don't use any kind of drive or storage, you cannot safe any kind of data/document.
Therefore, understanding the basics of those tools is mandatory to even start being productive as a knowledge worker.
Basic Task Management
Basic task management means to be mostly in a reactive state of "receiving" tasks from others as a part of a bigger process. If you think right now that most people might be in this state because they lack the experience, you are right in a way. But I can tell you that most people, also after years of experience, behave the same way and that there are people, who are inexperienced, that still try to propose things they might contribute to a common cause.
As a tool, people usually start working on their task management with a traditional To Do List (digital and/or on paper) in order to remember tasks they need to perform within a short window of time (usually within the next days).
Basic Communication Management
This particular area can be mixed in some parts with the Office tools. Still, I would like to differentiate them because communication is in my opinion the biggest leverage one has compared to competitors. Let me explain.
If a client or manager wants to have a report, there are many ways of putting this request into a consumable format:
- You can just verbally tell him on the phone or in person
- You can write up an email with the most relevant details
- You may even create a presentation with charts
There is no right or wrong, back to sales rule number 1: It depends on what the receiver needs. Hence, there is only right or wrong in the context of
- the purpose of the information for the receiver (is he presenting it to someone else or is it just for him?)
- the level of details the receiver wants to know and therefore the amount of time the receiver wants to invest
- how much trust he/she has in you (the more trust, the less detail necessary)
Another example would be in which use case you should use which communication tool. My experience tells me that people have difficulties in distinguishing the correct usage of mail, chat, call or meeting which is why it is so crucial to understand the purpose of the basics.
Basic Note-taking
Let me give you an example of the three domains I defined in the section about the definition of competency about how your environment profits when you adapt the framework (in this case, taking notes):
First, the shared view: Everybody hates it when people re-ask the same questions all the time. If you remember more stuff other people told you (through notes) you not only won't need to ask questions again but you will also become more likable as you project interest in other people's areas.
Second, the independent view: People will notice that you are a basis of knowledge which will make you an authority for others which will increase your value for the company. For example, imagine that there is an incident within one of your former areas of work. The guys still working there will still call you to help them out and praise you when you helped resolving the issue. I promise you that this will not stay unnoticed.
Third, the introspective view: You will feel more secure when you recognize terms, processes, people or projects. It feels very good to connect the dots when you start creating context between experiences you brought down on paper.
Hence, especially in the beginning within a new team or topic, always take notes about
- people and internal politics
- processes and cycles
- context and interrelationships
An example are meeting minutes with agendas, participants, interests as well as next steps/actions which need to be assigned or taken.
Therefore, I recommend clearly separating within your mind what kind of notes you want to do in a physical notebook (if any). The biggest advantage of digital notes is the feature of creating a query to search for something fast. Other advantages are the sheer never ending storage without purchasing more "space", saving natural resources and keeping the opportunity open to migrate your content to another tool. Last point: You can also use a tablet to create notes digitally with a pen which may give you at least the illusion of creating "real" notes.
Next week
While the two levels mentioned today should be taken as granted (although they are clearly not), the level I will write about next time is the core of the whole pyramid. It is the crucial move from conscious incompetence to conscious competence.
If I forgot something in your opinion, feel free to send me a dm.
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