One + February 2011 - (Page 75)

Staying productive while out of the ofﬁce has never been easier. But without a clear strategic approach you risk losing valuable business…and yourself. PRIORITIZE Ultimately, the purpose of such systems is to beneﬁt the bottom line. To ensure delivery, Lawrence Polsky, managing partner of PeopleNRG and author of Say Yes to Change: 27 Strategies for Motivating Yourself and Your Team During Challenging Times, uses a system he refers to as “double star,” a way to manage the expectations of you and your boss. Suppose your department head has given you a list of 20 items to do when you visit the branch ofﬁce in London. You both realize the list is at least 10 items longer than you can possibly accomplish. What do you do? Polsky suggests sitting down with the department head and listing everything she expects you to do. “Don’t list dues dates or other details,” he explained. time. More importantly and because she travels a lot, she has a bag that is permanently packed with travel essentials. “I have a full set of makeup and toiletries. I have a pre-packed ﬁrst-aid kit. And I also have an extra set of any kind of charger that I might need. So what I’ve done is created a bag that I literally just have to put clothes in.” The productivity gains of this simple system will become more obvious every time you don’t have to ﬁnd a pharmacy in a strange city or forget to charge your phone overnight. “Productivity,” she emphasized, “is about having systems when you travel.” Then ask her to place asterisks by the items that you absolutely must get done and that will have the biggest impact. Finally, ask her to review the items that have asterisks beside them and double star those that will help other people move forward on their own projects. “When you get to London, you do the double stars ﬁrst,” he said. “If you knock off the double stars, you not only have a successful trip, but the people you met with will look forward to your next trip because they know it will be productive.” SET BOUNDARIES Business travelers, especially those who travel to distant time zones, can feel like they’re always on call. Their boss or team sitting in the Denver ofﬁce at 3 p.m. may forget that the weary traveler could be curled up in bed at 11 p.m. in Amsterdam. And so what; they are on company business after all. That won’t do, says Kathy Ameche, author of The Woman Road Warrior and CEO/traveler-in-chief at womanroadwarrior.com. “You need to manage expectations with your home ofﬁce,” she said. “Tell them ‘I’m going to work until noon or 2 p.m. Denver time, and then I’m cut off. If you need to talk to me, that’s my window. And please send me an e-mail or a text to tell me mpiweb.org 75 http://www.womanroadwarrior.com http://www.mpiweb.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of One + February 2011

One + February 2011
Contents
Energy of Many
Impressions
The Productivity Cloud
Overheard
Agenda
MPIWeb Connect
Thoughts+Leaders
Events for Life
Gateway to the Future
Top Spots
It Was Not Interesting
Irrelevant
The Wrong Words
Up to Snuff
That’s Enough Facebook
Super Foods to the Rescue
Shoring Resources
Jack and Smoke
Accidentally on Purpose
Staying on Top of Tech
The Joy of Work
Plan to Run
Productivity on the Go
Angel of the Favelas
Your Community
Making a Difference
Until We Meet Again
MPI’s 2011 Meeting Guide to Canada
Contents
Banff Centre
Ottawa Tourism
Tourisme Montréal
The Buzz
InterContinental Canada
Caesars Windsor
Vintage Hotels
The Great Green North
Whistler, British Columbia
Meetings and Conventions Calgary
Scotiabank Convention Centre

One + February 2011