The gap between IT and the rest of us has turned into a cavern as IT has become more and more intertwined with our daily lives.  In this clip from the British version of  The Office, the tension comes from lack of communication and understanding.   The computer is often our only way of actually working so it can become a very sensitive issue.

From a management perspective, and employee perspective, and from an IT perspective better relationships would improve productivity, full stop.

Here are five tips to get your office started:

1.)  Even the Dress Code

Why does the IT guy get to wear a t-shirt and jeans while everyone else has to be in business casual.  Encourage an even playing field when it comes to dress code.  The IT guy may not like it, but explain that this will enable him or her to fit into the culture of the company and ultimately make the job easier.  Obviously this is a management decision and one for management to implement.

2.)  Get to Know the Lingo

Knowing a little bit about computers, viruses, programs, downloads, etc. is going to help with communication and understanding.  Gone are the days when computers are a special thing that only special people know about.  You work with a tool every day so get to know its basic functions.

3.)  Hold an IT Summit

Having everyone meet to discuss the IT needs of an office as well as to find out about IT’s plans for an office is a good idea.  This is a chance to exchange ideas and convey information.  Be sure to make this a two-way street, however, so it doesn’t turn into a complaint session that could have IT running for the hills.

4.)  Don’t Download Stupid Stuff

We all use computers for personal purposes, but don’t make an IT guy’s life harder by downloading hundreds of apps and files from random sources.  Ask if about installing software before you do it.  Even something that may seem harmless can bog down your computer with Spyware.

5.)  Don’t Let IT Dictate Every IT Move

At times it can seem that IT can be overly protective.  Banning social media sites, for example, for fear of viruses.  There are certainly risks out there to computers from various sources.  Have IT appraise those risks and weigh them against benefits.  For an office involved in communication or marketing, for example, social media is not just a personal toy, it’s a vital component of communications.

Here are five tips to taking full advantage of all that Prezi has to offer

1.)  Use Sparse Words

Prezi is great because it lets you emphasize how ideas are connected.  So big ideas are big and smaller ideas around that big idea are small.  You can present your big idea and then zoom in supporting points.  But, like PowerPoint, you’re in control of the amount of information presented.  Too many words can make your presentation difficult to follow.  One Idea=One Slide still holds for Prezi.

2.)  Think In Layers

Prezi lets present 4 or 5 big ideas, and then zoom in on each one.  Take advantage of this feature to create layers within layers.  So within idea 1, reveal 5 supporting points that can be zoomed in on as well.  A good rule of thumb is to ask if each layer would support itself on its own.  If you’re able to do that three or four layers deep, you’ll have a compelling presentation visually.

3.)  Cut Up Large Backgrounds

Some more sophisticated Prezis use large backdrops behind the presentation.  Picture zooming around a desktop or a parking lot and you’ll get the idea.  But because images flicker as you zoom too close, this visually stunning idea can fall flat on its face.  Any large, cohesive background should be very high resolution and cut up into pieces.  These pieces can be sized down and put together like a puzzle within Prezi.  It will give you a few more levels of zoom without the flicker.

4.)  Save Often

Working with Prezi online, save often.  There are glitches in the program that will allow you to work happily for hours without an ability to save work.  Save after every major step of your content creation.

5.)  Trial and Error to Get an Image Really Small

Some image just won’t shrink small enough for you needs.  Zoom in as far as you can and then import your image.  It will be tiny.  The only problem is that when you try to resize it, the image will jump to a much larger size.  Trial and error is necessary to get it right.

6.)  Record and Narrate

Right now you can embed Prezi’s and share them, but you can’t really share the full content of your presentation — namely your voice.  It’s kind of an odd omission by Prezi, but there’s a work around.     Create a Prezi and then record it using screen grab software.  You can add a narration track later or do it ‘live’ during the screen grab.  Now you have a narrated Prezi you can share through YouTube.  Prezi, are you listening?  Wouldn’t it be better to have that sharing happen on your network?

So this could be the shortest post in the history of The Job Shopper:  ban Blackberries in meetings.

There, I said it.  Well, a lot of people have said it.  There’s a whole New York Times article about it. Here’s a quote that kind of sums up the signal that tapping sends:

It’s a not-so-subtle way of signaling ‘I’m connected. I’m busy. I’m important. And if this meeting doesn’t hold my interest, I’ve got 10 other things I can do instead.

But what does Blackberry or iPhone use really mean?  We can talk about changing cultural mores, scold rude people, lament the passage of time and pine for a day when people wore hats, but are we really getting at the reason why people are tapping away during meetings?  Is it possible that it’s not the technology, or ego, but the meeting itself?  Your meeting?

Making your meetings Blackberry-proof is impossible, but here are 5 things to cure both the symptoms and the root cause.

1.) Keep it short

In the last post I championed the short, fast presentation. That may well be part of it.  If someone knows that you’re going to drone on and on for an hour, taking 15 minutes to check emails seems doable.  Even if they get only 50% of what you say, that’s a half hour of time.    The reasoning is that if you’re going to take an hour, they’ll only give you a half hour.

2.) Create Time Limits

Revealing your time limits will help set people at ease.  “I’m going to talk for 10 minutes and then give you 10 minutes to ask me questions.”  That tells people that they’ll be back at their desks in 20 minutes.  Most emails can wait.

3.)  Invite Only

You don’t have to invite everyone to a meeting.  Inviting people who have no skin in the game and are there just to observe is like inviting a giant Blackberry into the room.  If someone doesn’t need to be in your meeting, don’t invite them.  And if they spent the whole meeting tapping away, consider not inviting them next time.

4.)  Be Up Front

Many companies ban Blackberries and iPhones during meetings.  The problem with this is that it holds people hostage rather than really engaging them.  If you’re up front and say:  “Look, I need your full attention on this for just 15 minutes.  I’d appreciate if you could hold off on responding to emails during that time.”  You’re not banning it, but just making a human appeal.

5.)  Give In

There are some meetings that are going to last a long time.  Telling people that they’re in this for the long haul and checking email is perfectly OK, and it may just diffuse the situation.  You’re still in control of the situation because you’ve given permission and blackberry usage won’t be as distracting for others.

So why go through all this?  Why not just ban them from your meeting?  The problem with bans, is that they just encourage us to break the rules and further adds to the mystique of being ‘too important to miss an email.’  Instead, look at ways that you can structure meetings to engage the right people, for a short period of time and let them get on with their day.

Because the rhythm and rhetoric of effective email exchange is a critical success factor in business performance, mismanagement of email may in fact be a symptom of other weaknesses in your organization.

But no executive has the time (or obsessive-compulsive disorder) to review and edit their people’s correspondence — it’s not possible and it wouldn’t be healthy. So how can managers quickly and cheaply create the shock of self-consciousness to push their people to take the style and substance of their correspondence more seriously? And how can you find out the interoffice spam actually reflects a deeper issue of employee performance?

I’ve found that the most powerful approach is also the simplest: make email an intrinsic part of performance reviews. Insist that colleagues and subordinates better evaluate their email so that you may better evaluate their performance. There are few better proxies for assessing how well individuals are communicating, on task and on target, than the digital missives they send in order to get their work done.

Email can be a frustrating train of cc’s that mean nothing to most of the people being cc’d.  The important stuff gets lost and the unimportant stuff just wastes time.  This proposal is a good one, but only if a manager is not part of the problem.  Often managers demand to be ‘in the loop’ so much that they cultivate a CYA culture.  In other words, if I hit cc to everyone in the office including my boss or bosses, I can’t be blamed for something going wrong.

In addition, managers often blast out emails to a vague group of people or cc people on a ‘team’ with no real thought to who really needs to read the message.  So how do you really get to the heart of an email inefficiency problem.  Job reviews might be a way for individuals to change, but that won’t quickly change the culture of your organization.

So here’s a tip direct from the Job Shopper: take away email for a week.  Ban it.  OK, don’t ban it.  That’s ridiculous.  We all have people we need to communicate with quickly.  But encourage your office not to use it unless it’s necessary.  Absolutely necessary.  At the end of the week, have a discussion to see what alternatives people found.  Is it possible that 25 cc’d messages were less productive that 1 short meeting?  Is it possible that people had more time to concentrate on the things that really matter?

The irony here is that when email and the Internet first entered our office, the quesiton was how to stop innappropriate use of the technology which would waste time.  Today, appropriate use of the technology is actually the big time waster.  So ban it. For a week.  Then talk about what went wrong and what went right.  It’s possible that more went right than wrong and that you’re whole office may learn how to use the technology more effectively.

You can read the rest of Michael Schrage’s blog post here at the Harvard Business Review Blog

David Pogue, the technology editor for The New York Times, focuses on cell phones and offers up some very cool tips and tricks to increase productivity…and have a little fun with them.

Many of these tips come from frustrations we all have: Why do we have to listen to instructions to leave a message? Why isn’t WiFi available in more places? Why does it cost $2 to call Information on your cell?

Pogue comes up with some clever work-arounds to these issues.  Some of these tips take a fews minutes of set-up but it’s worth the time to make life easier on the road or even if you step away from your desk. Generally, these are services that can balance work and family life and also give you the freedom to be away from your desk and still be effective at your job or job hunt.

The talk is entertaining but it’s also pretty lengthy so we’ve summarized some of the tips below if you don’t want to listen to the entire video.

Grand Central (Now Google Voice)
Google bought this service so it must be pretty good. We’ll have to take David’s advice on this, however, because Google Voice is now being tested by invite only. You can click on the Google Voice page and read more about but here’s the gist: It’s a free service that allows you to forward calls to any number of cell phones and landlines. You can also send certain numbers to certain phones or give them tailored voice mail messages. It’s really a personalized switchboard. Watch for it or sign up for an invite when it becomes available.

Google SMS
This service allows you to text Google a question and recieve an answer. It’s useful for finding local information, flight times, weather and more. You just text message your search query to GOOGLE (“466453″ on most devices) and they text message back your results. Visit the website for more details on using the service with certain phones.

Google Info
This is the voice version of the above service. You call 1-800-466-4411 (that’s 1-800-GOOG-411) and simply say what you’re looking for. The voice recognition works well and it gives you a list of possibilities that fit your search paramters. So if you’re looking for a nearby pizza joint, you can pick one and the service will even connect you so you don’t have to dial the number. It’s easier than dialing information, gets better results, and it’s free.

Chacha
This service lets you text a question and get an answer. The kicker here is that the answers you get are from actual human beings. It sounds weird but it’s a network of people paid 20 cents per answer. The answers are short because they’re texts, but the answers are intelligent and even insightful. It could be useful for finding directions when you’re lost or settling a dinner conversation debate. Just send your question to 1-800-2chacha.

Spinvox

PhoneTag

CallWave

These are all versions of the same thing, more or less. It’s your voicemail converted to text sent to your phone or email. Listening to voicemail can be time consuming and inconvenient while traveling. Getting voicemail in your email is actually something a lot companies have already and it seems like the next logical step in phone protocol.

Popularitydialer.com
This one’s just kind of fun. You set the service to call you at a certain time. You can even select the voice that will “call” you. It’s a good way to interrupt yourself at a meeting that you know is going to go long and you need an out.

“Why apple would never do a cell phone”
Finally, Pogue brings up an article that he wrote (obviously) before the iPhone came out. At the time, cell phone carriers controlled every aspect of phone design. The only way Apple entered the market was by promising exclusive rights for 5 years to AT&T in exchange for free reign over the phone design. This is just an important lesson in fostering innovation. We all talk about thinking outside the box, but we are often married to ideas and conventions based in the past that do us no good today or in the future. It makes you wonder what you or your company are doing to foster or hamper the next iPhone idea in your business.

Some may shrug and continue to hit send on big files.  Email may still go through but even modestly large files are problematic for several reasons:

1. Cumulative Size: This stuff builds up in your send box over time and a big “sent” folder can impact your PC performance.
2. Uncertainty: Did they get it?  Did they not?   If you’re sending over 5MB you don’t know.
3. Immobility: Large files don’t translate well onto Blackberries and iPhones.

Fortunately there are services out there can help.   Here are a few that each approach the problem differently:

Pando –  This works more like a hosting/streaming service.  For sharing video and photos, however, it’s a great way of ensuring you’re only sharing with a small private audience (unlike, say, YouTube).  It’s probably more involved than the occassional user but worth a look if sharing video and photos are often in your daily routine.

Send6 and Yousendit — Both are very really simmilar services.  We like Send6’s interface a little bit better, but they both offer essentially the same functionality.  These are good in a pinch because they are web-based and allow you to instantly send something.  They also offer upgrade service that help you add functionality if you need it.

Tonsho – This is an application that lets you send files from your regular account and magically takes care of the rest.  There is nothing to download or install.  As the website explains: “You send email as normal, all the clever stuff happens on our servers, recipient clicks link in email to download file.”   This would have the distinct advantage of getting around spam filters which is a danger of Send6 and YouSendIt.  However, having a program hover over ALL your email may be unnecessary and could cause some unforeseen problems with your system.  If you have time, give it a try.  But don’t if you’re in a hurry.

TransferBigFiles – Got something bigger to send?  Send it here.  You can send a file 2x bigger than other free services, but it has less functionality although password protection is an option.

Considerations

So which are the best?  Before we get there, you really should look at how you’re going to send a file.   Are you going to create an account or just use the service when you need it?  Are going to send a file or just a link to the file?  Is there a file that you regularly send that you would be better off hosting and sending a link?  Does your company have a policy on this kind of thing?

Finally, many companies already have in place FTP servers which get around the issue by taking on the hosting, uploading and downwloading essentially inhouse.  If this is what you have, you should take another look at if the FTP system is convenient and easy to use.  Some of these outsourced options may be a better choice.

The Bottom Line

For most casual users, YouSendIt and Send6 are going to be the best options.  However, Tonsho seems like a good option if you’re going to put some thought into the whole process.  It may be something to bring to management so a company policy can be created.  Finally Pando is interesting in the age of video where sending a video presentation to a small group of users is possible in just about any work environment.

There are literally hundreds of sites and applications out there that deal with this issue.  If you have a resource we haven’t listed here, let us know.  Also, if you’ve had an experience, good or bad, with these services (or not using one) comment below!

Here’s what advocates of Inbox Zero believe: While it may appear to be risk-free to keep everything, you are much more likely to not act on something if you let it sit in your inbox and get buried. In other words, the really important stuff gets thrown under all minutia and nothing is important, nothing needs action, and nothing really gets done.

Think about it, do you save every phone call and every voicemail? No. Partially because it would be very difficult to do, but mostly because it makes no sense. With email we tend to save, revisit, file, flag, open, shut and then archive. All of that takes time.  And it all takes the same amount of time: urgent or not.

So is the answer a complex filing system that let’s you organize by category and sub categories? The Inbox Zero advocates say no. That also takes too much time. So what do you do? Throw stuff away. Read a message, act on it, and then throw it away. If you can’t bear the thought of that, create an “archive” folder and throw stuff in there. That way it’s there if you need it…but you probably won’t need it.

Actually, the whole process is outlined at 43folders.com.  Merlin Mann, the creator of the site, is a big advocate of work simplicity and letting technology work for you…instead of letting it drive you crazy.  Below is a quote from a post where he outlines a simple way to get started:  Creating an Email DMZ.  You can read all of Mann’s posts about Inbox Zero here: Link

But here’s a question:  what methods do you use to stay organized in email.  Is this even a problem for you?  For your boss?  Let us know by commenting below under the quote.  Maybe the next big idea in email is yours!

From  43folders.com:

Like a lot of the best fresh starts, this one’s a total psych-out; also, like most of the best ones, you won’t believe how well it works until you actually try it for yourself.

• Open your email program and create a new folder called “DMZ”
• Go to your email inbox and Select All
• You might alternatively choose all email older than n days
• Drag those emails from your inbox into the DMZ folder
• Go, and sin no more.

Is this the email equivalent of covering your ears and singing loudly? Not really. You still need to deal with all the emails in your DMZ folder (personally I’d recommended “archiving” anything older than 21 days), but, most importantly, you’re drawing a line in the sand. You’re saying “Okay, starting this minute I quit letting ‘being behind’ stop me from making good decisions now and going forward.” Hence the “fresh start.” Get it? Tomorrow morning you arrive to a spanking fresh inbox and the chance to start anew. Of course, using your fresh start to develop an actual new habit is entirely optional, but it’s certainly more reachable than ever now, right? Right.Basically, this works at accomplishing the one thing you need more than anything else right now: to stop digging.

Think about it: how much stuff in your life has gotten unmanageable simply because you decided at some point that you were too behind to ever make a difference? More than anything you need a way to recover these projects from the brink – to find the handle that lets you stop making it worse and start seeing a way back toward daylight.