Most of these filters are intuitive, unconsciously acted upon.

I remember hearing a basketball referree, a seasoned college-level veteran, recount how crowds went from respectful to jeering when he let his hair grow long. (An amatuer thespian, the long hair was necessary for a community play.) No fan consciously thought, “an extra three inches of hair causes bad officiating”–they just knew the good refs kept their hair short.  Long hair signalled bad ref.

In The Dip, Seth Godin writes about living within a filtered world. It’s a fascinating book about “when to quit and when to stick.” One way to separate a dead-end from success-just-around-the-corner: look for “measurable progress.” Maybe you can’t see the end of the tunnel, but can you identify progress?

(There is a danger here. Gen Y grew up accustomed to accurate and constant feedback. In video games, I knew how much farther until the end of the level, and how many more hits until I died. As a result, we’re addicted to measuring progress.)

But what about when you’re the one creating the filters for other people?

You face this question whenever someone asks for lunch. Every time you hire someone. Every time you create a sales funnel. How do you decide the best use of your time?

My friend Ramit faced this question recently. He wanted to enable someone’s dream to make the world a better place. Someone with the capacity to dream big, and the tenacity to make it happen. Ultimately, he created a scholarship for a twenty-something. (Hurry, today’s the deadline to apply.)

Many people create useless speed bumps–obstacles, especially to test tenacity.

“Thanks for reaching out–really busy–ping me in two weeks.”

But what if you created a useful, self-selecting filter?
“Thanks for reaching out–so I don’t waste your time, can you e-mail me three questions you want to discuss?”

Something that requires thoughtful effort. But the effort actually creates value for the rest of the world.

A guy applying to Seth’s latest internship reached out to me for advice. I looked at what he’d created, gave him some advice, and noticed how consistently he created value.

So I offered him a chance to come on board with another project I’ve got (still in stealth mode).

Just last night he sent me another e-mail saying thanks. And all because Seth used a filter that created value BEYOND Seth.

My super-abstract rule for filtering people: Constrain the outcome, not the process. And make the outcome value-added even if they get turned down.

I’ll spare you the rant. But you must create useful filters, rather than useless speed bumps. Otherwise, you’ll get less than the best. Because the best are filtering you. If you waste their time now, how do they know you won’t waste their time later?

Copy the master: http://www.squidoo.com/Alternative-MBA and http://www.squidoo.com/summerintern08

Create a filter, not a hurdle.

(Hat tip to my lifecoach, Chuck Westbrook, who prompted me to think more about filters.)

Related posts:

1. Virtual Assistant Needed: How to Hire And Work With a Virtual Assistant I have a virtual assistant…. And we’ve been successfully working...
2. Speaking at TEDx Zagreb in a few hours… Here’s the rather random backstory about how I found myself...

A couple of highlights:

• Our group went first (random draw). I started us off with a 30-second intro retelling the advice of a friend: “Good judgement comes from experience… And experience comes from bad judgement.” Delivered properly, it normally draws a laugh, but all the other students were too nervous about their own upcoming presentation to laugh. So I simply continued on by explaining that when I’d first heard that, my immediate thought was: “Man, now I just have to go and make as many bad judgements as quickly as possible so that I can make good judgements.” However, after some continued thought, I realized that we can vicariously learn from other’s bad examples–the sobering corrolary is that they can learn just as easily from our poor decisions.
• A lot of Powerpoint clutter… too many nervous students just transcribed their words into bullet points and then wondered why everyone was so busy reading instead of listening.
• My group’s presentation went very smoothly–we initially started by spending an hour in front of a whiteboard outlining… everything went so much smoother because of that up-front planning time.
• A continual emphasis on the lack of project post-mortem policies. Aside from having a handy binder to help transform that client into a salesman, not making time to reflect on lessons learned means you’ll miss much of the potential to add to your experience…
• Mosaic company really caught my attention. Despite my inability to find their website, they are supposedly a little gem of a company started about ten years ago which now employs up to thirty-five people. They’ve never missed a deadline in their entire corporate history. Major accomplishment. Major selling point.
• Got me thinking about the importance of timeliness. People don’t care as much if you don’t do something, but if you do decide to try, they care if you’re late. Something I need to think about more as I sometimes commit to too many things and can’t get them all done in the required time frame.

Overall, well worth the two hours. The teacher, Dr. Peter Haug, is very, very good.

Much thanks to Robbie Harding from Parity Corporation for taking time to talk with us. Attached is our group paper that we wrote.

Related posts:

1. Virtual Assistant Needed: How to Hire And Work With a Virtual Assistant I have a virtual assistant…. And we’ve been successfully working...
2. Speaking at TEDx Zagreb in a few hours… Here’s the rather random backstory about how I found myself...