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By Andy Brenits, February 8, 2010

Last night CBS debuted their new program “Undercover Boss”. I think this show demonstrates something that every senior manager should do; go work side-by-side with front-line staff to see what their job really entails, and how decisions made by “management” affect everything from productivity and moral, to workplace environment and corporate culture.

This episode focused on the President of Waste Management, Larry O’Donnell, performing entry-level jobs at different WM locations. He learned how one WM site manager was docking employees 2 minutes pay, for every one minute late from lunch, how one route driver had to pee in a can, and was being “spied on”  by a supervisor in a pickup truck a few blocks away, as well as meeting an employee doing the work of 3 or 4 people at an admins salary.

As a manager myself, being managed by a manager above me, I love the message this episode sends out. You should get down in the trenches with your people to see what’s going on. Sure, my boss has been where I am, and I have been where all of my designers are now…but your current role often causes you to to forget what it really takes to do the jobs on the front lines. Especially since what it takes to do that job has probably changed since you had that role.

But I think the true messages managers need to take from this TV show, is that semi-regular “catch-ups” with direct reports are simply not enough. You can’t simply meet with someone, or call their customers, to take the temperature of workplace climate or individual/team performance. Go spend the day with someone in your organization to really see what they do, and learn  first-hand what they need to be most effective…not just productive.

What do you think?

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By Andy Brenits, February 8, 2010

As most people know Apple announced the iPad recently, and the pundits are still speaking about it (both good and bad). Most people I have spoken to about the iPad think it’s pretty cool and want one, but like me will wait for version 2.0, letting Apple work out the kinks (lessons learned from the iPhone).

The more I think about it, the more I am still on the fence about whether the iPad is really for me. Frankly, I use my laptop only when I am away from my desk (E.G. in front of the TV), and find that I am mostly checking email or surfing the web. When not in front of the TV, I am checking email or using apps on my iPhone. Thanks to several different productivity tools linked to all my devices by the “cloud”, notes, tasks, bookmarks, and email are all synced between my iPhone, PowerBook, and desktop Mac (and any computer with a web browser). So, unless I am actually designing something, I don’t really need the full computing power of my PowerBook. But sometimes, just sometimes, I do need Word, InDesign, Acrobat Pro, or Quicken while away from my desk…and thats where I need to switch from my iPhone to my laptop while watching Fringe. So the iPad as purely an email, web, eReader, or game device is not enough for me. But still, a laptop is overkill.

While the current version of the iPad as demonstrated by iSteve appears to me to be little more than a giant iPod touch with better eReader support than Kindle, I can’t help but imagine some really great future uses for the iPad. Apple demonstrated an App version of it’s iWork suite which shows that developers may be able to port their full applications to the device. If the Office and Adobe apps were available, I’d be sure to replace my trusty  PowerBook with a shiny new iPad, for less than half the cost of a new MacBook Pro.

But the possible uses for this handheld device go way beyond how I can use it from my couch.

For example, I can see a day where Doctors carry an iPad during rounds to make notes to patient charts that are instantly updated to hospital records (and if OCR is employed, the handwriting could be transcribed to text). They could even pull up patient history, drug interaction references, and xrays and MRI images on the fly.

The possibilities I think, are limitless.

What do you think?

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By Andy Brenits, February 7, 2010

Here we go, the start of yet another blog. I don’t know where this will go yet, but I’m sure it will be fun for me to express some thoughts, observations, and opinions on design, creativity, and all things related.