The Origins of Geek

In the circus, a performer who sank sufficiently low would do horrible things (like biting the heads of live chickens) for booze money. That poor soul was called a geek. How it came to describe techies is unknown.

During the Civil War, the cheapest cigar you could buy cost two pennies.  "Two-center" cigars became synonymous with cheapness, and by the late 1800s, people who wanted to protect faux-humility would offer their two-cents' worth, and they still do in your meetings today.

In the 1600s, a formal meal would start with eggs and end with apples.  Thus, the meal went from eggs to apples.  by the mid-20th century, meals began with soup and ended with fruit and nuts, which is why you manage projects from soup to nuts.

A scandal erupted during the Civil War when some textilers sold the army uniforms made out of scraps left over from their wool making processes.  This cheap fabric was called shoddy.  In no time the noun turned into a adjective, which is why might accuse your staff of shoddy work.

In Victorian England, policy and legislation were delivered to Parliament in gigantic books with blue covers called, not surprisingly, Blue Papers.  Lesser, shorter government business was delivered in smaller books with white covers.  That is why companies like IDC sell you white paper not a blue paper.

Speaking of England, Brits who traveled there met Hindi scholars who taught religion and law.  They were known as pandits.  Soon enough, scholarly Londoners were being called pundits.  Today pundits seem to exist only for MSNBC and CNN airtime.

Europeans also borrowed ideas from Persia, like the graceful, outdoor pavilions used in Turkey for public meetings.  The Turks called them kiushks.  in the West, these pavilions were put to more prosaic uses, like selling newspapers.  Now kiosks are any place - or website - for public notices of any kind.

On busy roads in the 1500s, horses' hooves dashed mud and water on the carriages they pulled, so leather aprons and wooden planks - dashboards - were mounted on the fronts to block the splatter.  And that's why that set of gauges on the screen in front of you is a dashboard also.

In the 1800s, New England loggers took bales of hay into the forest with them to fed their horses.  These bales were bound with thin wire that was also used to make small repairs to the logger's equipment.  The more that stuff broke, the more wire the loggers needed.  If they ended up using a lot of wire, they were derisively called haywire outfits.  Linguistically, the fix (the wire) merged with the breakdown, and the process that needed a lot of fixes is said to be going haywire, as many or your gadgets are surely doing right now.

Before sentencing a prisoner to death in ancient Ireland, the judge would don a "cap of death" or cie bias.  In Gaelic, cie bais is pronounced ky-bosh.  Now you put the kibosh on expensive projects going no where like those Wi-Fi kiosks that would provide public access to the network dashboard, especially after reading a pundit's two-cents worth on a white paper on the soup to nuts deployment that went haywire because of shoddy practices by geeks. 

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The best advice for new managers: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. But on a more practical level, the following can go a long way toward building a solid manager/employee relationship:

• Don't make promises you can't or won't keep. One of the worst things you can do is promise a bonus or reward that you never give.
• Don't offer inappropriate rewards. Giving a coffee mug to a worker who led a $20 million enterprise resource planning initiative is more of an insult than a reward.
• Reward ambitious workers with important projects or tasks.
• Set aside time to meet with workers to talk about how things are going both from their perspectives and yours.
• Ask workers about their career goals and whether there's anything you can do to help them reach their objectives.
• Offer your top performers the chance to participate in a training course of their choice.
• Ask workers about their hobbies and interests and then reward their good work with gift certificates to match those interests (for example, museum passes for a history buff).
• Comment on good or bad work right away. Don't save everything-positive and negative-for one big feedback session.
• Don't assume good workers know how much they're valued just because you never give them negative feedback. A sure-fire way to get someone to stop performing well is to ignore them. Tell them specifically why their work is so valuable.
• Take your role as manager seriously. Don't put off bonuses or rewards or downplay the importance of performance evaluations.

Running Sharp Meetings

• Before calling a meeting, be clear about the outcome you hope to achieve.
• Outline a specific agenda, time frame and list of key stakeholders who should attend.
• Set a time limit for the meeting and encourage participants to mull ideas before the meeting.
• Start the meeting by going over the agenda, reminding participants of the goal and asking them to stay on course. If someone veers off the topic, call a "time-out," restate the agenda and ask participants to save other   topics for later.
• At the end of the meeting, summarize the findings, come up with an action plan detailing next steps and delegate the tasks to participants.
• After the meeting, compile that information into a memo for participants and ask them for feedback or other thoughts that weren't captured in your summary.

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Put yourself to the test.   Check the statements below that are true for you, then read on to see whether you have a collaborative mindset.

• I feel responsible for my team's success no matter my role
• I perform at a higher level with my team than when on my own
• I want to play a win-win game
• I am truthful and trustworthy
• I don't blame my poor performance on others, even when they don't deliver
• I am loyal to others even when I am tempted to defect on them
• I honor my agreements
• I feel the same level of accountability for my agreements, regardless of how large they are or who they're with

SCORING:
Give yourself one point for each statement that you checked as true, and two points for the last statement.

0 to 3 Points - You think it's a jungle out there and consider most everything at work a struggle. Your challenge is to pinpoint one person who's on your side and consider him or her as a potential partner or teammate.

4 to 6 Points - You are in the majority at work; you want to play a win-win game but sometimes feel trapped in a seemingly win-lose world. Your challenge is to not give up and remember to look for and count the wins.

7 to 9 Points - Kudos! You have a collaborative mindset, including the vision to imagine and create a positive outcome for everyone involved. Your challenge is to demonstrate this mindset in leadership roles.

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Some truths about leadership...
- The higher you go in any organizations, the more people you have to serve, not the other way around.
- Everyone is watching what the leader does, so instead of having more freedom and less accountability (as one might think), you end up with more accountability and less freedom.
- You can get hurt or killed, emotionally and/or physically.
- Anything you do could end up on the front page of the newspaper.

Why be a leader?
- Because you believe in what you do (in the business you're in).
- Because you believe in what you do (in the people who do it with you).
- Because you believe in what you do (you care about the people who are on the receiving end of what you do).
- Because you recognize that people need to be led, without thinking less of them. And, because the previous truth scares the hell out of you.
- Because you already find yourself being sucked into leadership against your natural inclination.
- Because you can help it.

Why you shouldn't be a leader?
- Because you want to be one.
- Because your ego needs feeding.
- Because you're sure you can do a better job than the idiot who is the current leader.
- Because you are ambitious.

What is good about leadership?
- You have an opportunity to serve more people.
- You have an opportunity to help bring about the best in others.
- You have an opportunity to make a bigger difference.
- It is challenging.
- It can be rewarding.
- It can be very satisfying.

What is fun about being a leader?
- NOTHING

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Everything I ever needed to know to be a manager, I learned from...TOP GUN.

• You'll never know how good you are unless you push the edge of the envelope.
• Never do a fly-by of the tower unless you are willing to accept the consequences
• If you screw up too often, you really might end up flying a cargo plane full of rubber dog poop out of Hong Kong.
• Never Buzz the admirals daughter.
• If you're really flying hard and doing it right, it is still possible to fly through someone's jet-wash, flameout, crash, and hurt yourself and others.   You may not be able to avoid this.
• Sometimes you just have to learn to let go.
• Always cover your wingman.
• Never loose "That Loving Feeling".
• Hang on to that number for Truckmasters, you might need that!

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Seven Laws.  No court in the world will lock you up for breaking any of them.  But for corporate IT people, they're crucial - not just because of what they mean, but because of what users,   managers and executive think they mean.  That gap is what will really get you in trouble.

Parkinson's Law:  "Work expands so as to fill the time available for it's completion".
Who said it: Historian C. Northcote Parkinson, in a 1955 article in The Economist.
What is means: We can stretch any work to last as long as necessary.
What too many people think it means: We can compress any project into a shrinking schedule.
Why the difference matters: We can't squeeze into impossible schedules, no matter how loudly the executives scream.

Moore's Law:  "Transistor density on a manufactured semiconductor die doubles about every 18 months".
Who said it: Intel founder Gordon Moore, in a 1965 article for Electronics magazine.   (Moore  originally said density doubles every year.)
What it means: Chip makers keep getting better at cramming transistors onto chips.
What too many people think it means: Computers double their ability to get work done every 18 months.
Why the difference matters: Transistor density doesn't equal computer power.
And even if it did, computer power doesn't equal the ability to get work done.

Brooks' Law:  "Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later."
Who said it: Frederick P. Brooks Jr., in his 1975 book The Mythical Man-Month.
What it means: Getting new team members up to speed delays development even more than just finishing the job with the existing team.
What too many people think it means: A crazy idea.  If throwing more people at the problem doesn't help, how can it hurt?
Why the difference matters: Developing systems isn't like picking sweet corn.  Until we all understand that, we'll keep wasting the time and people we throw at projects that slip their schedules.

Murphy's Law:  "If there is any way to do it wrong, someone will."
Who said it: Air Force Capt. Edward A. Murphy 1949.
What it means: Unless you bulletproof a procedure or system, things go wrong.
What too many people think it means: Things will always go wrong.
Why the difference matters: Failure isn't inevitable - unless we assume it is.

Hoare's Law (of Large Problems):  "Inside every large problem is a small problem struggling to get out."
Who said it: Oxford professor C.A.R.Hoare, in a 1984 article for the journal The Pentagon.
What it means: Big problems are really made up of smaller problems.
What too many people think it means: Big problems are really small problems.
Why it matters: Finding a small problem at the center of a large problem isn't enough to solve the larger problem - it's only a start.  If you mistake the little solution for the big solution, you'll end up testing Brooks' Law.

Metcalfe's Law:  "The value of a network grows as the square of the number of its users."
Who said it: Ethernet inventor Robert Metcalfe.
What it means: The more users who can communicate with one another on a network, the more useful it is.
What too many people think it means: The more users who are on the Internet, the more  profitable it is.
Why the difference matters: Just ask any dot-com that's now a flaming wreck on the information superhighway.

Weinberg's Law:  "If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization."
Who said it: Software engineering Guru Gerald M. Weinberg.
What it means: It is possible to build better software.
What too many people think it means: All programmers are incompetent, and all software is junk.
Why the difference matters: Never mind professional pride - if users really believe software is junk, why should they keep paying for their own expensive software developers?   They can get junk anywhere.

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Ambition can transform anything; it taught man to fly, circumnavigate the earth, and put men on the moon.  Such accomplishments are examples of people traversing the arc of ambition.

Some ambitions are bad, such as the kind that drives Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic and those starting Internet companies (just kidding).  Bad ambitions are characterized by those that focus on personal gain and do little for society.  The reference to the two genocidal murderers is clear - the link to Internet entrepreneurs isn’t so clear.

The linkage can be confirmed in the overwhelming reality that many Internet entrepreneurs start companies for no better reason than to sell them for incomprehensible sums as fast as possible.

Despite its importance and community, ambition shouldn’t be considered central to human achievement.  An equally broad case can be made for human attributes like cunning, intelligence, leadership, hubris, and zealotry. So lets cut to the chase (before I bore you to death) and strip greatness down to some simple formula like,

“managing your ambition = success beyond your wildest dreams”

Now lets reinforce this crackpot idea with stories about ambitious people who made it big.

• Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic crossing triggered the rise of global airlines and foreshadowed space exploration.
• Sigmund Freud’s invention of psychoanalysis, which charted the human subconscious, undoubtedly changed the role of religion.
• Henry Ford’s organization of the assembly line for the first time launched worldwide auto-mobility.

Admittedly, these three examples hardly do justice to who these people really were. To the ”average man” such watered down stories would have stirred the same part of us that imagines living large like Ford or Lindbergh in the same way we fantasize about winning the lottery.  In truth can anything be really learned from statements of other people’s courage and greatness?

The “average man” sees himself in a fantasy life and the recipient of all of the breaks. Maybe for just a moment the “average man” in the car in front of you, while stuck in traffic on the 405, might be inspired to believe: “Yeah, me too.” But eventually, he too has to come down to earth. But you’d better honk your horn - just in case.

[Adapted from “Pity the Ambitious” by Ethan Watters for Industry Standard, March 2000]

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Everything I need to know about project management I learned on the Fourth of July. But it turns out that running a revolution and pushing through an IT project aren’t that different. A quick review of history confirms that the universal laws of projects were true 225 years ago.

You will never get the project schedule right
In 1776 the British figured it would take one season to put down the Colonies. King George III was exasperated when the war was still going in 1777. In the end, a six-month project lasted 6 years until 1782.

Users will take forever to sign off on the project
The British surrendered in Yorktown in 1781 but King George didn’t sign the peace treaty until 1783.  More so, although fighting began in 1775 the war did not officially start until the Declaration of Independence was adopted more than a year later.

Dead ends happen, so make contingency plans
When Paul Revere made his famous ride to alert the Minutemen, he never made it all the way to Concord, Massachusetts.  He ran into a British patrol and was captured at Lexington.  Because there were two other riders, one of them made it all the way through to Concord. 

Never underestimate the problem of users who aren’t on board
A third of the American Colonist actively opposed the revolution. Such was their opposition that they aided the British with sabotage and joined the redcoats by the thousands. Another third of the population didn’t care who won.  Just hope that you will have more than one-third support behind your project (revolution).

Bringing in an army of outside consultants won’t guarantee success
The British used Hessian mercenaries to build up their largest overseas military expedition ever. But the rent-a-army plan did not pay off as many defected and were captured by the hundreds - including 900 the morning after George Washington’s little boat trip across the Delaware.

Training is always worth the price
After a year of watching his army being beaten in 1777, Washington hired a professional Prussian officer to bring the army up to speed on faster musket-loading technology and how to march together. Arguably, the training paid off, they won the war didn’t they?

Politics can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
In the last month of the war a group of American officers led by Horatio Gates tried to oust Washington and take over the government. Unknown to Gates, he was being played for a sap by the Federalists in Congress. Despite egging on Gates, Alexander Hamilton tipped off Washington who tactfully defused the situation and preserved army moral.

Of course, you can always take comfort in that even if your project doesn’t crash and burn, at least the fate of a nation is not at stake.

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More than a century ago, Karl von Clausewitz, the legendary developer of the Prussian military strategy, coined a phrase to describe the extraordinary leadership challenges faced by commanding generals.  He called it the “fog of war”.

The phrase was meant to represent a set of complex factors, including pressure for quick decisions, inadequate or distorted  information, stress, anxiety and fear, the crushing impact of loss of life, and the difficulty in communicating with others. These factors combine to cloud the thinking and decision making of leaders at critical times.

In more contemporary times you can cut through the fog using the same technique used by the Marines and fighter pilots to guide their decision making. It is called the OODA loop: observe and orient, decide and act.

Observe and Orient

• Get a lay of the land. Understand the terrain, the players, the trends, and where you are in relationship to everyone else. Create a view of the situation that incorporates a longer-term strategic perspective as well as the immediate tactical reality.
• Generate a frame of reference. Have your own mental construct that defines boundaries and points of navigation even when there appear to be none. Construct a stable high-level frame of reference to interpret all the changes taking place around you.
• Conduct reconnaissance. Get as much meaningful information as possible, then double- and triple-check it for reliability. Identify obstacles, allies, etc.
• Communicate, communicate, communicate. Keep a constant flow of communication from multiple sources and expect to be surprised and respond to last-minute changes.

Determine your goals and objectives

• Nothing accentuates the tension and anxiety of working in the fog like a lack of objectives.  Create strategic goals that drive all goal setting, performance measurement, risk assessment, and organizational roles and responsibilities.
• Have a plan and be willing to change it. Know where your opportunities and risks are likely to be.   Then have victory and escape routes planned based on tactical conditions, resources available, developing opportunities, and emerging risks.
• Develop multiple scenarios and contingencies. Make deliberate decisions. Capture the worst case scenario and work systematically to increase the probabilities of getting to the maximum best possible case.

Act and react

• Make bold, deliberate moves. Work your own plans and make bold moves that will require others to respond to you and not visa versa.

When you find yourself in a leadership situation and the fog is settling in, remember the OODA loop. Systematically work through its cycles as best as you can. You may find the fog more comfortable to work in and even clearing up faster than you expect.

[Adapted from “Fog Cutter” by Christopher Hoenig for CIO, March 2001]

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Fast Company's recent Real-Time San Diego generated a remarkable collection of ideas, tools, and inspirational advice. Here are 25 of the smartest insights that we took away from the event.

1. Audit Your Company Cultures
"Companies don't have one culture. They have as many as they have supervisors or managers. You want to build a strong culture? Hold every manager accountable for the culture that he or she builds." --Marcus Buckingham, coauthor of First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths

2. Informed People Don't Fear Change
"People are not afraid of change. They fear the unknown." --Dick Brown, chairman and CEO of EDS

3. Beware "Aspirational Accounting"
"Enron has changed things significantly. You used to be able to buy a company, account for it in bizarre ways, and make money on the sale. That world is over." --Nolan Bushnell, founder, chairman, and CEO of uWink Inc.

4. Empower Your People -- Turn Them Loose
"Freedom is the greatest when the ground rules are clear. Chalk out the playing field and say, Within those lines, make any decisions you need." --Dick Brown, chairman and CEO of EDS

5. Prevent Erosion of Human Assets
"We are systematically depreciating our human capital. For most people, the first year with the company is the best. It's downhill from there." --Marcus Buckingham, coauthor of First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths

6. Be Generous With What You Know
"Knowledge sharing is the basis of everything. Share knowledge with reckless abandon." --Tim Sanders, chief solutions officer at Yahoo

7. Expand Your Roster
"Think of your team as not just the people you pay, but as the people who pay you as well." --Feargal Quinn, executive chairman of Superquinn

8. Don't Judge a Man by the Size of His Wallet
"The only thing wrong with poor people is that they don't have any money. That's a curable condition." --Bill Strickland, president and CEO of the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and the Bidwell Training Center

9. Harness Your Skills for Good
"Technology has enormous potential to facilitate public-health problem solving. Marcus Welby needs you guys." --Dr. Irwin Redlener, president and cofounder of the Children's Health Fund and president of the Children's Hospital at Montefiore

10. Groom Your People for Success
"Weakness fixing might prevent failure, but strength building leads to excellence. Focus on strength, and manage around weaknesses." --Marcus Buckingham, coauthor of First, Break All the Rules and Now, Discover Your Strengths

11. Promote Brand Awareness Throughout Your Enterprise
"Everybody throughout the enterprise should know what the brand can and cannot do. There's an imperative for education." --Jim Goodwin, vice president of marketing at the Absolut Spirits Co.

12. Embrace Imperfection -- Fast!
"Beware of perfect people. They will never propel your enterprise to greatness. They're too cautious. You've got to be fast to be good." --Dick Brown, chairman and CEO of EDS

13. Don't Let the Venture Capitalists Get You Down
"Revolutionary change is where real value is created. Don't assume the capital markets know what the hell they're doing. The VC market is currently in more disarray than most companies." --Nolan Bushnell, founder, chairman, and CEO of uWink Inc.

14. Allow Yourself to Dream
"Dreams are maps. The ability to think about the future is what drives us all to attain." --Dr. Irwin Redlener, president and cofounder of the Children's Health Fund and president of the Children's Hospital at Montefiore

15. Increase Your Net Worth
"Networking is sharing your contacts with others to create value without the expectation of compensation. Your network is your net worth." --Tim Sanders, chief solutions officer at Yahoo

16. Use Every Teachable Moment
"Every time you give somebody compensation, it's a great time to give feedback." --Dick Brown, chairman and CEO of EDS

17. Shine Some Hope
"If you want to work with people who have no hope, you have to look like the solution and not the problem." --Bill Strickland, president and CEO of the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and the Bidwell Training Center

18. Set a New Standard of Performance
"We need to get beyond the single bottom line and measure a company's performance by a triple bottom line. Financial profits alone aren't enough. The results also need to be good for people and for the environment." --Scott Bedbury, CEO of Brandstream

19. Laugh at Yourself
"Just when you think the sun shines out of your butt, all you have is an illuminated landing area." --Nolan Bushnell, founder, chairman, and CEO of uWink Inc.

20. Get Up, Stand Up
"YCDBSOYA: You can't do business sitting on your armchair." --Feargal Quinn, executive chairman of Superquinn

21. Stop Whining -- Start Seeking
"In these times, it's important to find the opportunities in the disruptions rather than just to lament the change." --Rob Glaser, chairman and CEO of RealNetworks Inc.

22. Leaders: Move It or Lose It
"Managers consistently delude themselves about how much good they're doing. The oath for managers should be the same as physicians: First do no harm. " --Robert Sutton, professor of management science and engineering at Stanford University

23. Be Honest
"The same thing you want from management is what customers want from you: honest communication. Be honest with your customers; tell them everything you know." --Bonnie Reitz, vice president of sales and distribution at Continental Airlines

24. Don't Stretch This Rule
"When you start thinking about growing your brand, be sure not to ignore the Spandex rule: Just because you can, doesn't mean you should." --Scott Bedbury, CEO of Brandstream

25. What's Your Bottom Line?
"People over 65 were asked, 'If you could live your life over, what would you do differently?' They said three things: 'I'd take time to stop and ask the big questions. I'd be more courageous and take more risks in work and love. I'd try to live with purpose -- to make a difference.' You don't have to be an elder to ask, What's my own bottom line?" --Richard Leider, founding partner of the Inventure Group

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The top stress expert at Canyon Ranch offers five take-home exercises designed to reduce your anxiety and increase your work-life integration.  

Get Physical
To achieve a truly integrated life that concentrates neither too heavily on work nor too lightly on personal development, Baker says you must invest time, energy, and skills into developing the following: a sense of purpose, meaningful relationships, and personal health.  "The mind-body connection is a reciprocal connection," Baker says. "Sometimes, we tap into the body through the mind, and sometimes, we access the mind through the body. That's why it's very important to start a fitness plan that incorporates emotional, spiritual, and physical health." Develop a workout routine that includes cardiovascular work, strength training, flexibility exercises, and practice with balance. By engaging your body in each level of fitness, you will simultaneously become more mentally and spiritually resilient, strong, flexible, and balanced, Baker says.   "When people engage in yoga or tai chi, they are learning to choreograph their autonomic nervous system," he says. "Through physical activity, they can learn to interact with life and people in a healthier fashion."

Watch Your Language
"We see the world we describe; we don't always describe the world we see," Baker says. "So it's terribly important to create descriptions that are constructive rather than debilitating. We should always ask ourselves, 'Does my language give me energy, or does it sap energy away?' "  When confronted with challenges or disappointments, practice putting on rose-colored glasses. However unsure or deflated you feel, resist the temptation to focus on your hardships and setbacks. Instead, tell friends and colleagues about the opportunities for growth and learning around the next corner. Make an effort to adopt a constructive outlook rather than a destructive one. "Stephen King has nothing on the horror stories that you can tell yourself," Baker says. "If you say that your problems will kill you, your body will begin to believe you, and you will suffer painful anxiety. On the flip side, you have the power to help yourself by simply changing the way you talk. Infuse your life with energy and hopefulness by communicating your opportunities rather than your disappointments."

Mind the Gap
Draw up a list of values, including spirituality, financial growth, relationships, control, adventure, and so on. Circle any that are important to you, or add others to the list. Now narrow that list down to your three core values, and ask yourself, "Is there a gap between what I say that I value and how I behave?"  Bridging that gap is essential to achieving "enoughness," because living with that gap means that you're living in conflict with yourself. In a well-designed life, behavior reflects values -- and values drive action. So what should you do if your behavior is out of sync with your values? Write down specific actions that reflect your core values. Then do one of those actions this week, and do other actions on the list in the weeks that follow.   "When I act in contradiction to what I truly believe is right, I'm going to be at war with myself," Baker says. "The trick is rediscovering those core values."

Question ( Your ) Authority
This exercise represents a formidable challenge because it requires you to declare a time-out and pause long enough to ask yourself some very probing and uncomfortable questions. Baker calls them "fateful questions," and they go something like this: What have I done to improve myself this year? How do I feel about the work I did today? Do I feel valued at work and at home? What do I want my legacy to be?  The last question is guaranteed to inspire a sense of purpose and discipline. What do you want to be honored for? Where do you hope to make meaningful contributions during your life? What personal accomplishment will inspire the most praise and pride from others? Think about the "defining moments" of your life --the critical choices that lead you down one path or another. Consider what you've done and what you want to achieve.   This sort of introspection -- increasingly rare in a go-go world of incessant connectivity -- is essential at Canyon Ranch. "Questions contain implicit directions," he says. "And to take control of your life, you must be able to seek and follow your own directions."   

You Say You Want an Evolution?
Think of change not as a major overhaul but rather as a gradual redesign. "It's all about continual improvement through small, incremental, seemingly insignificant steps," Baker says. "Let's say that you're working 80 hours a week. How about cutting back by 5 hours a week? Now let's figure out how to spend those 5 hours on your health or on your relationships." On index cards, list three agenda items that you will pursue in the next few weeks -- nothing too ambitious, just small, doable changes, first steps that can lead to bigger steps. Then celebrate each small achievement along the way to maintain your dedication to change. 

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Quain's Top 10 for taking care of yourself during long hours in front of a computer.

1.Get up and walk around!  Take a 1 minute break from the computer every 30 minutes, and a 5 minute break every couple of hours. Go to the water cooler and catch up on office gossip.

2.Learn the keyboard commands.  Try to remember commands such as "Ctrl A" to mark text. Avoiding the mouse will preserve your wrist and forearm.

3.Don't cradle the phone with your neck.   If you're right-handed, put the phone on the left side of the desk so you hold the handset with your left hand and take notes with your right.

4.Keep the screen clean. Dusting it off once a week will relieve eye strain.

5.If it hurts, don't do it.  Pay attention to your body.  If your wrist aches, print out so you can get away from the computer.

6.Have your eyes examined regularly.   Slaving over a hot CRT only exacerbates improperly corrected vision.

7.Change your gear.  From time to time, switch to different keyboards and pointing devices. The more variety you put into your computer work the better.

8.Be kind to your mouse. By using a light grip, you won't tense the muscles and tendons in your arm.

9.Keep warm.  Colder muscles and tendons appear to be more susceptible to RSI.

10.Is it just your office?   Repetitive activities such as playing a musical instrument can cause RSI. You might have to make some changes outside of work.

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Fast Company's RealTime Philadelphia generated a remarkable collection of ideas, tools, and inspirational advice. Here are 25 of the smartest insights that we took away from the event. Feel free to put them to use and share them with your colleagues.

1. An Acronym Worth Using
"S.A.V. -- Screw Around Vigorously. Try something. How are you going to figure out if the Internet is going to cannibalize your sales unless you try selling stuff on the Internet?" -- Tom Peters, management guru and author

2. Up, Up, and Awry
"There are certain disadvantages to flying, like crashing.... The one thing I did not anticipate for MicroStrategy was the most disastrous outcome possible, and then it hit at the worst time possible." -- Michael Saylor, founder, chairman, and CEO, MicroStrategy Inc.

3. Don't Be a Pushover
"What's next for advertising? Pull will soon replace push. We will begin to ask people what advertisers they want to hear from and what advertisements would be most helpful to them. Advertising will evolve into a terrific business." -- John Ellis, columnist, and strategy and advertising consultant

4. Independent State
"How many California residents hold conventional, full-time, 40-hour-a-week jobs? One-third. Hmmm ... has California ever led the nation in any trend before?" -- Dan Pink, contributing editor, Fast Company and author, Free Agent Nation

5. People Power
"People don't leave companies -- they leave leaders." -- Richard Leider, founding partner, the Inventure Group

6. When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Tea
"During a crisis, my third command was always to put on the kettle. In the midst of chaos, no leader can deal with a crew of 18 upset people. By demanding cups of tea for the whole crew, I got one person out of my hair, and I introduced a normalizing factor into a crisis situation. If the skipper wants a cup of tea, it can't be that bad." -- Simon Walker, managing director, Challenge Business

7. Currency Exchange
"Ideas are capital. The rest is just money." -- advertisement for Deutsche Bank, quoted by Leslie Becknell of Coca-Cola

8. Job Title of the Future: Hero
"Don't assume that your people want a promotion. Talk to them, get to know them, ask them what they hope to achieve at work. If your guru programmer won't thrive as a manager, don't promote him up the ladder. Instead, make a hero out of him. Put him on a pedestal and make him a superstar that other employees can admire." -- Debora Wilson, president and CEO of weather.com

9. A Recipe for Learning
"When your oven is jammed and your bread is burning -- that is when you will learn to use an oven. People can't learn in a classroom. True learning occurs 'just in time.' " -- Tom McMakin, COO, Great Harvest Bread Co.

10. The Power of Positive Thinking
"Stop disciplining employees. If you catch people doing things right, they will do things better in the future. When we did this at the Bellagio, performance went up, and turnover went down." -- Arte Nathan, former VP of human resources, Mirage Resorts Inc. and director of the Data Intelligence Center of the Unifi Network division, PricewaterhouseCoopers

11. You Should Get Out More
"I don't want to hear that someone else beat us to the marketplace because we didn't get out of the building. You have to get out and talk to people to find out about your problems." -- Frank Hauck, executive VP of products and offerings, EMC Corp.

12. Getting to Know You
"We spent most of the 20th century creating things that people somewhere might like. Then we broadcast messages to find those people and get their money. Today, instead of giving people a lot of choices and taking orders, we are beginning to serve customers better by getting to know them. A company that knows what I want has a great advantage over a company that offers me a slew of choices and makes me sift through them." -- Martha Rogers, partner, Peppers and Rogers Group

13. The Downside of Technology
"The greatest misconception is that technology makes customer service easy. In many cases, technology makes the provision of service more difficult because it introduces entirely new ways of recording information that are not compatible with yesterday's techniques. At the same time, expectations have far exceeded technology." -- Hal Logan, president and CEO, Manheim Interactive

14. Messy Is Beautiful
"Today, rabid rationality drives the culture of business -- especially in the U.S. -- straight into a dead end. Abandon the safety of structures. Forget tidy assumptions. Face up to the messy reality of the world. Revel in it. People do not act with rational, unemotional self-interest. Over the past 18 months, the stock market has given us a sharp lesson in the limits of rationality. As it turns out, even the market's completely wired into moods and emotions." -- Kevin Roberts, CEO, Saatchi & Saatchi

15. Everybody Must Get Stoned
"In the new world of work, passion and expertise are the Rosetta stone." -- Julie Anixter, managing director of new media and R&D, Tom Peters Co. 

16. Don't Stop Now
"I'm seriously pissed off, absolutely irritated that Lucent, Nortel, and Cisco are in the tank. It only goes to show that those companies have astonishingly stupid customers. Now is the time to turn the heat up, not down.... Go bananas on IT and marketing spending while your competitors are too stupid to do so." -- Tom Peters, management guru and author

17. ( In )Action Item
"Create a "To-Don't" list that contains tasks, rituals, and meetings that you should never waste your time on again. Then stick to it." -- Tom Peters, management guru and author

18. Staying Creative in Mentally Constipated Times
"Celebrate weakness. Play the fool in your group or your company by embracing inversion, absurdity, and perseverance. Inverted thinking may help you leapfrog the competition. And just think of the innovations that rose from failure: Post-it Notes, the telephone, Silly Putty, the light bulb." -- Annette Moser-Wellman, author of The Five Faces of Genius

19. Don't Back Down
"When you're faced with a decision, always choose the bolder option. The most extraordinary things are created by ordinary people." -- Simon Walker, managing director, Challenge Business

20. Brands Stop Here
"Brands were built as a substitute for relationships. Today, they are the antithesis of relationships because they can't -- and shouldn't -- change based on information about me, the customer." -- Martha Rogers, partner, Peppers and Rogers Group

21. A Penny Saved
"Accept that you're a creature of the marketplace. In the current economy, if you have a single business and can do it well, you should be happy with it. Do one thing properly, and carefully evolve that one thing. Figure out how much money you're going to make, and spend less." -- Michael Saylor, founder, chairman, and CEO, MicroStrategy Inc.

22. Keep It Simple
"I tell my staff, 'If the solution you're proposing isn't simpler than what we're doing today, then don't even bother telling me about it.'" -- Peter Foss, president of the Polymerland division, General Electric

23. Raise Your Brand
"You can't control your brand. It's like a kid. You can raise it, but in the end, it will do what it wishes. Brands need strong and loving parents." -- Scott Bedbury, founder and CEO, Brandstream

24. Be All You Can Be
"Leadership is an army you have to enlist in. You can't get drafted into leadership. You can get drafted into management." -- Rayona Sharpnack, founder and president, the Institute for Women's Leadership

25. Winning the Battle, Not the War
"If you're a traditional employer, beware: You're a way station for talent just until the economy clears up." -- Bruce Tulgan, founder, RainmakerThinking and author, Winning the Talent Wars

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• My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE - “If you’re going to kill each other, do it outside - I just finished cleaning!”
• My mother taught me RELIGION - “You better pray that will come out of the carpet.”
• My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL: “If you don’t straighten up, I’m going to knock you into the middle of next week!”
• My mother taught me LOGIC: “Because I said so, that’s why.”
• My mother taught me FORESIGHT - “Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you’re in an accident.”
• My mother taught me IRONY - “Keep laughing and I’ll *give* you something to cry about.”
• My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS - “Shut your mouth and eat your supper!”
• My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM - “Will you *look* at the dirt on the back of your neck!”
• My mother taught me about STAMINA - “You’ll sit there ‘til all that spinach is finished.”
• My mother taught me about WEATHER - “It looks as if a tornado swept through your room.”
• My mother taught me how to solve PHYSICS PROBLEMS - “If I yelled because I saw a meteor coming toward you; would you listen then?”
• My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY - “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a million times - Don’t Exaggerate!!!”
• My mother taught me THE CIRCLE OF LIFE - “I brought you into this world, and I can take you out.”
• My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION - “Stop acting like your father!”
• My mother taught me about ENVY - “There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don’t have wonderful parents like you do!”

• Computers always start counting from zero, except sometimes.
• Grabel's Law: Two is not equal to three - not even for very large values of two.
• Skinner's Constant: That factor which, when multiplied by, divided by, added to, or subtracted from the answer you got, gives you the answer you should have gotten.
• Pournelle's Law: Cables do matter.   When something doesn't work, always check the cables and their connectors first.
• Best's Law: If data resides in two places, it will be inconsistent.
• Estimating Time: Everything takes longer than you think or want.  To estimate the time required for any given project, first guess at the time you think it should take; multiply that by 2 and change to the next higher unit of measurement.  Thus if you think you can complete a project in one hour, tell your boss you will need two days; if four weeks, ask for eight months.
• The 90-90 Rule of Project Scheduling: The first 90% of the project takes 90% of the time, and the last 10% of the project takes the other 90% of the time.
• When you get a computer to do a job for you, the time you save will usually be spent watching the computer to make sure it works properly.
• Parkinson' Law of Data: Data expands to fill the space available for storage.
• No matter how expensive you expect a system to be, it will always end up costing more.

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