In terms of document signatures, ‘p.p.’ is the acronym for “per procurationem”. It means ‘when signing on behalf of another’.

You’re allowed to sign as ‘p.p.’ for someone in their place: the key thing is having permission to do it. If they are unaware of it, signing for someone under p.p. borders on fraud. It’s not to be taken lightly. You must have the authority of the person who is supposed to sign.

Because if there’s a problem in the future, and the named signatory did not know you had signed for them, that’s not good for either of you.

I remember the relief I felt a time a long time ago, having just joined a company for a short-term assignment, and the senior person handed me a company style guide.

One of my tasks would be to write some reports, to present information about a project that had recovered from a poor start but had a strong finish.

The style guide – owned by the technical not the administrative staff - outlined the company rules on report structure, length, content, and review and approval process. It was a relief to know they had taken the time to document those expectations.

I joined a new social group for an online meeting recently. At in-person networking events, I’m generally comfortable enough to just join a table and introduce myself.

In this online meeting, however, the conversation just took off with the 10 people who obviously knew each other. And that’s normal enough. But that means I could only just listen politely. The ability to jump in and participate in this environment was fraught with awkwardness.

We have a long way to go if this method of socialising is going to stick. There are some new protocols for all of us to learn.

Thinking of push/pull might have you thinking about a door.

Or, maybe a weight-bearing exercise routine, since they say those workouts are the ‘best’.

You might think of marketing strategies, where the medium either pushes information out to the masses, or, built-up loyalty pulls customers to your product or service.

When smartphones first came into being, there was a choice to have emails “pushed” in real time, or an option to “pull” them in when you were ready.

It fits in business, too. Effective business processes reduce friction by utilising either a push or pull regime, depending on the situation.

It’s actually a recognised word, ‘voluntold’. It describes the occasion when someone else volunteers you for something, or when you’re told to volunteer without much leeway to say no.

I’ve used the word jokingly in my committee work, where we’re already there voluntarily, and there’s just another task someone needs to do. But the online corporate definitions refer to underlying negativity of the situation, and how it can be used in underhanded ways.

I hope that’s not as common as it might seem. Volunteering is a wonderful use of time, and it should be a positive experience, not under duress.

“Can you hear me?” and “you’re on mute” have to be the most stated lines in 2020.

Commencing an online meeting, where we are not in the same room, is very different to commencing an in-person meeting.

A more challenging model – which may become more normal – is the hybrid, where there are some in the room and some onscreen.

Having good video is good, but having good audio is even more important. Since we’re not eyeballing each other anymore, it’s imperative that we can hear clearly.

Listening is already hard enough; try not to let bad audio be the reason.

[ Driver under instruction ]

The other day I saw a city council bus with the ‘driver under instruction’ signage in the window. Seeing the supervisor beside the driver, watching how they interact around corners and at stoplights, it gave me a sense of calm and trust.

I’m always impressed with the bus drivers’ deft handling and professional skills behind the wheel.

For tacit or tangible skills like driving, we publicly announce when we are still learning.

For internal and intangible skills like knowledge, we keep learning really quiet. Probably too quiet, when there sometimes may be a valid case for an “under instruction” tag.

In sporting endeavours, repetition is important for skills improvement, so repetitive drills are undertaken. Same with musical pursuits: scales on the piano, breathing drills for the flute.

There isn’t an equivalent for knowledge work. In fact, most knowledge work prides itself on its uniqueness each day, the variety, ‘every project is different’.

And yet, having repeatable skills in some parts of knowledge work, bedded in, coming instinctively and without pause, might just make knowledge endeavours that much more satisfying. Something similar to mastering a complicated piece of music or outsmarting the opponent in your soccer (football) game with fancy footwork.

It’s a little contrarian to think this, but here we go. While I agree we need technical people to be able to communicate and collaborate, I also think we need our technical people to want to do the technical work.

The purpose of an engineering degree – or any degree with a technical focus – should be that the graduate can do the engineering, science, or technical work. The reasons for getting an engineering degree should not be to be a manager or CEO.

Engineers should want to design, build, maintain, solve problems, create new innovations, or better yet, all of those.

The PMBoK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) is being revised. I don’t use it directly much, but I’m glad to know the next edition will incorporate a principles-based format.

Basing wide-ranging applications, like project management or standards development, on principles makes sense.

A strategy, or document, or even goals, based on principles, rather than on targets or rules, allows a better framework for when the unexpected occurs.

A principle is more over-arching and all-encompassing. Rules can’t cover every eventuality.

The twelve PMBoK principles are solid: stewardship, team, stakeholders, value, holistic thinking, leadership, tailoring, quality, complexity, opportunities/threats, adaptability/resilience, and change management.

There are long-distance endurance events in many pursuits: running, triathlon, motorcycle and motorsport, hiking, dogsledding. All of these require exertion, as well as a finish line.

Those who know me would know that I often partake in long-distance running and triathlon events.

The concept of endurance is usually associated with athletic or otherwise “exertion” efforts.

A person’s career is not often thought of this way: but it could be an endurance event of another kind.

Endurance invokes visions of resilience, fortitude, and stamina. Also associated with endurance is the ability to plan, withstand, and recover.

That describes a career, too.

I’d never heard of nominalisation until recently taking an interest in strategic business writing.

Nominalisation is turning a verb into a noun.

Grammar reminder: the verb is the action word; the noun is a thing or person.

Example, with “consider” as the nominalised verb:

• The committee considered all the information, or

• The committee took all the information into consideration.

Nominalisation has added in another verb, “took”.

So, while not wrong, it inadvertently adds complexity to the sentence, making it longer and more convoluted.

Some consider it less personal and more authoritative, which is probably valid in business and technical writing.

Time-blocking is a proactive way to manage time. That’s pre-assigning blocks to a set of tasks to be done.

And I know: just thinking about such a structured day makes some people queasy. But time-blocking works, especially if you’re in a role that requires deep thinking, reading, or writing.

Anyway, one simple and effective hack I found is to change my calendar view (Outlook) to 15mins instead of the default 30min blocks.

Besides feeling like I have ‘more time’, it also conditions me to only spend 15mins on some tasks (i.e., admin) and then move on to something more important.

It’s one of those words with two different meanings, depending on syllable emphasis.

“Con-TENT” is a state of being. It’s being in want of little and just humming along productively. That’s my definition, anyway. Spending time being content is a good goal, and pretty satisfying too.

“CON-tent” is a thing, or rather, many things. I didn’t know there were actual “content factories” for social media. Certainly, these days there is a huge focus on strategies for putting out content for visibility.

Well, I can confidently say that I am content. And, I have many days of content for #100wordsaday ahead.

Developing leadership skills is important as we navigate through our long careers.

Some end up leading large teams even without trying, and others never quite get there.

Part of good leadership is solid self-leadership, combined with professional excellence. Even those who aren’t interested in leading others, or those who don’t get the chance to lead others, can benefit from strong self-leadership.

I think self-leadership is a sound combination of:

- Self-awareness,

- Efficient productivity hacks, and

- Clarity of knowledge.

While I ponder those attributes, I’ll be taking a break from #100wordsaday for the month of August. Back in September!

For the last three weeks of July, I’ve been on call for jury duty. Back in May with the first notification, I purposefully decided not to opt out. I wanted to give back, participate in the legal system, and maybe learn a bit about human behaviour. It would be a chance to see judgement and decision-making in real time.

What I’ve learned is being called for jury duty doesn’t at all mean you’ll actually get to be on a jury. My number only came up once and, in the end, there was no jury needed that day.

Maybe next time.

Writing “TERTly” is a framework I’ve developed recently.

It helps organise the content of my reports and thought-bubble longer articles.

First, establish the “T”. A Thesis, Theory or Thought is presented simply and succinctly.

Then, the “E” section provides Examples or Evidence of that thought. This helps establish credibility that the thought is worth writing about.

Next, the writing needs an “R”. A Realisation, Result, or Recognition. In many cases, this section establishes change or a conclusion of sorts.

Finally, wrap up with a Take-away, Teaching, or Try-this advice. After all, in the end, it’s all about the take-away advice.

Apparently, there are only four types of problems:

1. Troubleshooting, needing a rapid fix,

2. Gap from standard, the fix which prevents recurrence,

3. Target condition, the fix which improves output, and

4. Open-ended, needing creativity and innovation to solve.

These were named by Art Smalley, known for his work in lean manufacturing.

The first two are ‘caused problems’ and would have reactive responses to solve. The last two are ‘created’, solved with a proactive approach.

Each has a different cadence and focal point.

When faced with a problem, it might be useful to think about which type it is.

Sometimes things happen and the only response can be “that was like it was magic”. Or things look so simple, or they work so fast, we think “it must be magic”. Take our smartphones and how little we have to know about them, and they mostly just work. Like magic. Or search engines, which twenty years ago were not as speedy or specific like they are now. Or 3D modelling for building or process plant designs – like magic.

Of course, there is no magic. There’s an enormous amount of work and clever coding and thinking and problem-solving that’s gone before.

After writing reports, or even emails, we should also make time to edit the writing. After writing the ‘bad first draft’, go over it again to simplify the writing, avoid repetition or extraneous words, and, mostly, to reduce the usage of the passive voice.

The passive voice is not wrong; the active voice is just stronger and communicates in a less wishy-washy manner.

“I wrote these 100 words” reads better than “these 100 words were written by me”. They both convey the same information, but the passive tense – the second example – is cluttered and longer than it needs to be.