What is a workaround, you say? It’s a temporary fix that gets you moving again when things get stuck or broken.

In this book, Russell Bishop outlines strategies for “How to Conquer Anything That Stand in Your Way at Work.” These types of strategies are especially applicable when work situations make you feel frustrated and ineffective. In today’s work environment that is a common feeling with few solutions offered and it’s a big contributor to work stress. That is why I wanted to review “Workarounds That Work” for some fresh ideas.

Russell begins by pointing out that workarounds have varying levels of risk that are important to consider before choosing a strategy. Then, the first question to yourself should be, “What can I do to make a difference that requires no one’s permission other than my own?” Even before that you must free your mind from the blame game to get mentally prepared to focus on and create a viable solution. Russell writes,

Assume the positive. Just about all workarounds start with you and your internal attitude, intention, and determination. If you bump into something in your organization that seems like a roadblock, it may be useful to consider that what now appears to be a hindrance might have originated as something helpful (page 10).

In the beginning of the book, Russell is quick to emphasize that all workarounds begin with you and he goes on to describe three circles of your environment: control, influence, and respond. Next, he outlines the three basic elements of creating workarounds: intention, accountability, and response-ability.

In the chapter about communication, a neat distinction is made about listening vs waiting to speak vs malicious listening. The workarounds that Russell suggests are questions you can ask to move a stagnated discussion on to something useful.

Russell shares excellent strategies for workarounds in decision making, moving beyond consensus leadership, making the most of meetings (including dealing with disengaged attendees), and e-mail management that are spot on!

The last two chapters of the book were the highlight for me. In “Overcoming Criticism, Complaints, and Resistance,” Russell introduces the “minus 6″ mentality and how to turn that around. He reframed complaining by explaining three types of complainers and how to get at useful information they may provide. There were some very clever descriptions in this chapter too such as describing complainers as skilled at “one-downmanship” and that playing with gravity is what happens at the Olympics. Love it!

In the final chapter “Multitasking Our Way to Oblivion,” Russell contrasted multi-taskers with serial taskers and explained that many of us are distracted taskers and half-taskers. He pointed out that a more viable way to go is to “become a uni-tasker and supreme multi-goaler!”

I enjoyed this book and found it to be a very good professional development read with outstanding, outside-the-box, practical strategies to consider.

The book is available at Amazon.com. You can learn more at the website for the book where you can also download a free chapter — WorkaroundsThatWork.com.

Also, check out Russell’s Top Three Tips audio on e-CareerCoach.com.

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of “Work Arounds That Work” by Russell Bishop. I received no other compensation for this review.

I ran across this post from Seth Godin today which reminded me of one of my old favorites about where great ideas come from.

Long story short, make room for new ideas by controlling your focus and capturing them when they do show up. You capture an idea by journaling it, or sending yourself an email or voicemail, or using your digital recorder. It’s important to capture the ideas so you can refer back when you are ready to develop them further.

If you are thinking of starting a publicly viewable blog, you have a few important decisions to make. I will sum them up here an add my opinion along the way.

Self-hosted vs Free

Self-hosted requires some money to start. There is a less expensive way and a more expensive way. WordPress.org with one of their recommended hosts will cost around $85/year. A less expensive way is to use Blogger.com and buy a domain name through them for $10/year and it will still be hosted for free.

You’ll need to decide on a domain name too. You can use your name or something clever or catchy. I like to see people use their own name for personal blogging so it becomes a hub and electronic portfolio for their online presence. Choose that route if you intend to maintain a professional presence online with your new blog.

One reason to consider a different name is if you are wanting to build a community around a certain topic. Then you need a keyword in your site name. The free Google Keyword Tool is helpful in that case. For brainstorming self-hosted site names check out NameBoy.com and InstantDomainSearch.com.

Free blogging is available too and takes about 5 minutes to get started. The biggies are Blogger.com or WordPress.com. Both are very good options. I suggest you check both sites, see blogs build with each, and see which appeals to you most. I do think of WordPress.com has having better potential to grow with you but that may be just my personal bias. I have used both platforms though.

Comments or Not?

A blog doesn’t have to have comments turned on. Many people love having comments though because the feedback or interaction is important to them.

I usually do not take comments on my blogs mainly because I have no interest in moderating them, but also I like to encourage people to set up their own blog. There are a few reasons I think it is good for people to have their own blog.

1. It helps you develop your online presence and personal brand.
2. It encourages learning about online technology.
3. You don’t need permission to say what you would like to say (many blog owners moderate the comments that come in deciding who gets through and who doesn’t).
4. It helps you practice creating –which doesn’t only have to be done through writing…for example, you can have a blog of photos, you can have vlog (video blog), or you could have a audio blog (aka podcast).

The Rest of the Story

Even after you decide on the these initial choices there are still other decisions to make like deciding on the look of your blog and how to organize information. As you post to your blog, you’ll start developing your personal style which will happen as the process rolls along. Then you will need to decide on a posting schedule and topics to write about. There is a learning curve whatever route you choose but consider starting a blog to be the beginning of an adventure!

I began posting just once a month a few years ago on this blog and I can definitely recommend it as a low stress way to begin. If you want to start even smaller though, you can do microblogging with Twitter, Tumblr, or Posterous which are all easy and free.

I have learned a lot over the past few months from Ester Hicks.

First and foremost is to care enough about myself to control my focus. I feel so good so fast by being aware and tweaking this one aspect about my thinking. What I do is imagine how I will feel when I have what I want and choose to feel that now. I get jazzed about all the experiences I want to have and what I want to create and I go with that feeling as long as I can.

Another huge change for me is clearly understanding that I cannot control what someone else is thinking or experiencing…and I don’t want to. What I want is to leave them to their creation and focus on mine. The freedom and heightened energy I have from this release is astounding.

I have also appreciated the idea of wellness as a natural state of being. I remind myself periodically throughout the day to relax, allow, and enjoy.

Cool movie by Dr. Jim Bright at The Factory Podcast on chaos and careers.

This is a nice collection of articles to stimulate thinking about traditional educational investment in higher education and potential career development payoff. While it is possible to get too analytical in coming to a decision about whether to invest in further education and when, it is a good exercise to check these kind of statistics in the process.

Even more important, have fun with the decision! Talk to people who are already in the field you are considering further study in, and talk to a coach for feedback and insight through your research and decision making process. It can’t be emphasized enough that whatever steps you take to further your career should be in line with what you truly enjoy and not just to impress others or fulfill someone else’s expectation for you. Your career is about you and what you desire to have and create.

In a previous post I talked about Robert Allen’s definition of an infopreneur. This month one of my favorite organizations, The World Future Society, has a very good article titled The 21st Century Writer. Fascinating stuff and another way of further defining the career option called infopreneur although they don’t use the term infopreneur in the article.

Reading this article reminds me that the key to cutting edge infopreneuring is taking advantage of the newest technology and knowing how to mix the media to provide people with the information they want the way they want it. Maybe that is text, blogging, audio, video, slides, some sort of mixture…who knows? The point is the possibilities are endless for creative, tech savvy infopreneurs!

I have been thinking about the money flow difference between coaching and mentoring and it has been good food for thought. Surely mentors get some other sort of compensation for their contributions (rather than the green stuff), maybe not from the person who sought out their expertise but from somewhere else. Or, maybe they do get something besides money from their mentees. They might receive stimulation for their own development and/or creativity; or they might simply get another set of ears to hear them speak about their passion which may feed their energy and motivation. That could be worth more than money because of the richness of the experience.

Okay, so it doesn’t have to be total bliss but it should not be career hell either. I mean look at what often happens to people who stay in jobs they hate…stress and health issues, negative effect on relationships, and overall poor quality of life — what a bust!

But food does need to get to the table and sometimes despite all your best preparations and intentions, you don’t know that the job you just accepted is a buster until you are in it. From there you have a few options.

• Assuming you are financially able, admit the mistake asap and get the heck out of dodge within the first few months on the job. Don’t do it more than once or you are demonstrating poor decision making skills but it is a once in a decade option if need be and it can become a “lessons learned” story.

• Follow the advice of Eckert Tolle and learn to drop the emotion, frustration, anxiety, and anger around the situation and be fully conscious and egoless in the present moment. This approach will help you stay in the job you accepted and it will help you to make a smoother transition overall when the time comes.

• Hang in at the job remembering to take care of yourself a bit more than usual on your time off. Give yourself plenty of opportunities for rejuvenating exercise and recreation. Also, give yourself permission to further explore your interests and be open and creative about possibilities for your next career move.

There is definitely something to be learned by studying those who find their success by following their bliss. I believe following your interests is so important because interests are often little taps from intuition pointing to flow experiences and other types of abundance.

I had e-mail correspondence with someone I barely know yet who asked if I ever watch “The Big Idea” with Donnie Deutsch on CNBC. When someone comes by with a little tip like that out of nowhere I pay attention. My experience shows that there is probably something I need to see there. So, I responded that I had not, thanked her for the referral, and promised to TiVo it. I have now watched three episodes and I enjoy the show very much. But I’ve also noticed an interesting phenomenon.

On the show, one of the main things Donnie Deutsch does is to try and get insight with each person featured on the show about exactly where and how they got that big idea. This makes total sense because that is the name of the show, after all, so people really should expect that question. Nevertheless, each time he asks it the person pauses for a moment and looks as if they are processing that question and aren’t quite sure what to say. As if they are saying to themselves, “hey, that is a good question, where did that idea come from?” And, it is a pertinent question because essentially Donnie is trying to educate and coach people in his audience to find their own big idea and go for it.

I think the reason that the question is difficult is because when people have a great idea, they are often fully engaged in whatever it is they’re studying at the time inspiration strikes. They just know that they were busy following their noses, uncovering clues, letting one thing lead to another and it all seemed obvious at the time…until they get this question anyway. Then they want to be able to tell others how to do it.

Creativity is something that we all have if we can open to it. I think the first step for someone who is just sitting there with no idea at all but desiring one is to remove all barriers to getting into the flow of creativity. Very “out there” I know, but creativity can’t occur while sitting in judgment of every thought that pops into your head. One has to open and be comfortable with the creative process. Some people are very good at tapping into their creative source consistently, others might have to be reminded to let go and play a little.

Begin by exploring things that catch your eye, just follow your nose a bit and see what happens. Once you have gathered some info, give yourself a rest and see what your wonderfully creative mind cooks up. When you feel a little kick of enthusiasm, you may be on to something!