Come Up For Air

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Nick Sonnenberg. Come Up For Air: How Teams Can Leverage Systems and Tools To Stop Drowning In Work. HarperCollins Leadership. 2023.

  1. Optimize for speedy information retrieval
  2. Individual productivity is necessary but insufficient for team productivity
  3. The framework becomes more valuable with participation

The book starts with a short set of insightful front matter, then describes the elements and components in the Communication-Planning-Resources framework. The book has many insightful methods, reference lists, and diagrams.

Additional Resources

Summary

  • Effective teamwork puts speed of retrieval ahead of transfer speed (to avoid the "Scavenger Hunt")
  • Teamwide optimizations must supersede individual optimizations (global optimizations better than local ones)
  • Teams perform better in communication environments where people can pull the information when they need it
  • Email better for external only
  • MS Teams better for internal or close-knit communication
  • Work management tools better than using chats or email for coordinating work
  • Best way to Inbox Zero is Email Zero (Reply-Archive-Defer)
  • Channels in internal communications organize conversations by topic
  • Truly effective meetings start before the meeting has even begun
  • Sprint planning solves many of the underlying problems that cause people to feel as if they're drowning at work
  • All team members benefit when everyone gets into habit of organizing tasks and responding to comments in the work tool on a daily basis
  • Organizations and teams are better off striving to move from ad hoc work to repeatable work (processes)
  • A knowledge base is useful only if it is easy to use and optimized for retrieval

Abridged Table of Contents

  • Communication
    • Principles of Efficient Communication
      • Synchronous versus Asynchronous
      • When Synchronous Matters
      • Case Study
      • Separating Communication
    • External Communications
      • Email: Your External To-do List
      • Inbox Zero - Reply-Archive-Defer method
      • Note for Leaders about response times
      • Case Study
    • Internal Communications
      • What's the Big Deal
      • When to use your "Walkie Talkie"
      • Getting Organized
      • Ground Rules
      • Channels: When, Why, How
      • Case Study
      • The Central Command Center
      • Case Study
  • Planning
    • Efficient Meetings
      • True Cost of Meetings
      • Does This Really Need to Be a Meeting?
      • It Needs to Be a Meeting
      • No Agenda, No Meeting
      • Proper Meeting Preparation -- all parties
      • Scheduling
    • Principles of Efficient Work Management
      • Work Management Tools
      • Tasks, Projects, Portfolios
      • When to Use a Work Management Tool
      • Establishing Your Routine
      • Tasks
      • Projects
      • Portfolios
      • Case Study
      • Supercharging Daily Workflows
    • Workloads and Capacities
      • Sprint Planning Theory
      • Getting Ready to Sprint
      • Calculating Bandwidth
      • Synchronizing Sprinting
      • Sprinting to Success
    • Goals and Planning
      • Planning Systems
      • Objectives and Key Results
      • Aligning on What Matters Most
      • Updating OKRs
  • Resources
    • The Knowledge Base
      • What is a Knowledge Base?
      • Starting Your Knowledge Base
      • Updating and Maintaining the Knowledge Base
    • Process Documentation
      • Process Documentation is Sexy
      • Project Management versus Process Management
      • Process Management Tools
      • The Process of Documenting Processes
      • An Iterative Approach: the 80/20 Process Rule
      • Role Rotation: The Ultimate Process Test
      • Working Yourself Out of a Job