The 24-Hour Rule and Other Secrets for Smarter Organizations

Book excerpt: How do we change our focus from what we KNOW to what we DO with what we know? Convert your abstract ideas, plans, and proprietary knowledge into purposeful action with an innovative six-step approach proven to solve your business problems and strengthen your workflow. It’s one thing to have a great idea—but it’s an entirely different thing to actually bring that idea to life. Consultant Adrienne Bellehumeur’s purposeful practices are your key to capturing our collective brains’ bounty—and to pull the most power from even the simplest of actions. In The 24-Hour Rule and Other Secrets for Smarter Organizations, Bellehumeur draws on the fields of productivity, knowledge management, and design thinking to form what will soon become your and your team’s greatest work superpower. At the heart of Bellehumeur’s six-steps of Dynamic Documentation is the “24-Hour Rule,” a reminder that actionable items—like to-dos, deadlines, feedback, and observations—need to be written down and shared with others. Without embracing documentation—and other memorable secrets like “The Skill Stack Solution” and “The Groundhog Trap,”—our greatest plans and hoped-for solutions will easily slide into oblivion. What’s more, Bellehumeur’s Dynamic Documentation is a “zen” approach to information management, making documentation accessible, doable, and even appealing. Not only will this refreshingly simple guide equip you with an array of practical tools, it will also bring real joy to your everyday work activities.