At the "Developing and Mining Your Contact Database" workshop held earlier this month, Dan, one of the participants, asked a great question: "We are just getting our contact database together. For the people in the room who've had one for a while, what is the one thing you can tell me that you wish someone had told you when you started?"
There was silence, and then the hands shot up. Some of the nuggets of wisdom included:
Kevin wished that they had collected how the contact first got introduced to his organization. It's hard to go back later and capture that story accurately.Al wished he had collected e-mail addresses from the start. Ten years ago, his organization wasn't sure what they would do with them. Now, they're trying to get them. We talked about what other pieces of information are similar to that. One was cell phone numbers for text messaging and because especially young people are moving away from having landlines. Another was social media addresses for Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter.Dawn said she would've spent more time formatting and standardizing their original Excel spreadsheet so that it would import accurately into a new software program. Two years later, they are still trying to clean it up.We had a great discussion and the participants shared a lot of good ideas and food for thought. And it got me thinking about things beyond just databases. What have I learned that I wish I had known 11 years ago when I started at the Health Foundation? Here are three:
Only read e-mail twice a day. I used to check e-mail constantly, every time an alert popped up. It was very disruptive. Over time, I changed that habit. Now, I look at my e-mail first thing in the morning and then right after lunch. It has reduced interruptions and allowed me to be more productive, because I'm not jumping every time I get a new message. I have the desktop alerts set up, and I've learned to glance at them when they pop up if I'm waiting for something specific to the project I'm working on.Get and use project management software. This is something I wish I had done consistently, but still haven't. It's hard to change habits after so long! I have a lot of projects going on at one time, and sometimes things fall off my radar. Project management software helps keep track of all that. I just haven't found a system that meets my needs and doesn't cost $10,000. Or even $1,000. I'm still looking. Any suggestions?It's ok to say no sometimes. When I first started, I didn't want to say no to anyone. If someone walked into my office at 4:45 p.m. and said they needed something for the next day by 8:00 a.m., I did it. I stayed late, came in early, whatever it took to get it done. It got to be a habit and people started to expect it. I learned to say no sometimes and encourage people to give more lead time and plan ahead. One thing that helped was to show the requestor a list of projects I was currently working on and say, "Which of these things do you want me to stop doing so I can work on your project?" Most times, they would hesitate, because they wanted everything to have top priority. The list helped me negotiate deadlines and workload, and still try to get everyone what they wanted. Last minute things still happen, and I still do what I can to get things done, but it's not habit.I've learned a lot more, but these were the first things that came to mind. And thanks to Dan for the question in the workshop and for getting me thinking.
I hope I'm returning the favor by encouraging you to reflect. What have you learned that you wish you would've known before?
I learned the e-mail trick during a seminar on managing multiple projects. It has been a big time-saver. Good luck!
Christine
Hope this helps! :-D
Great suggestions. I will look into them. I've heard that both Google Wave and wikis could be used for project managment, but it's nice to hear it from someone who has actually used them.
Christine
I also agree with the other information listed, especially email addresses and cell phone numbers.