Project X Discussions

The Wrong Users Manual

Does life surprize you or confuse you?   

The book, "The Black Swan," talks about events that come out of left field and surprise us.  

A great example is 911.  Two things that baffled me about 911, the coordinated successful operation and the colapse of the buildings.  I remember thinking how could someone hate that much to commit such henious act.  

The Black Swan suggests that we may have the wrong users manual on life.  When they happen we try to make sense of it in hindsight, but really we are just deluding ourselves.  If lawmakers warned us and caused us to increase security of the cockpit, we would complain about all the cost increase of flights.   Clearly no believing that such an event was possible.  

See what I mean about us not having the right user manual.

Another observation is that some disasterous IT projects that have driven companies out of business.  Clearly these decision makers have the wrong user manual.  

I commit personally to spend the rest of my life trying to find the "Right User Manual."   Remember life is a pligrimage not a destination.

Scope Creep and Other Horrors

• What can you do about scope creep?
• What are the causes of scope creep?  
• Is it inevitable?

I think everybody becomes creative as we think about a project.  I was thinking of adding a bathroom at the cottage and before the conversation finished it became adding a whole new wing onto the cottage.  Of course, nothing happened because the project was too big.  What happened to the simple idea?

I think part of the cause is nothing is ever perfect and can always be improved upon.  You know the expression "Anything worth doing is worth doing well."  I think it might be unsaid but that it really means "anything worth doing should be perfect."

I have a relative who spent a long time getting his PhD.  He said he just wanted to do an adequate job.  I think adequate was his definition of perfection.

Another cause of scope creep is people's unwillingness to take the Rapid Results approach.  Get something working and then make it better, faster.  We are all scared that we will not go the next step and thus never finish.

Very few of us can tolerate the creative tension between our vision and reality.  See my blog on that subject,   Creative Tension

I would love to hear from some Project Managers stories about scope management.

 

The beginning of the end for Data Warehousing ?

Some of you may be surprised to read I've recently become less religious about Teradata. That's not because Teradata has declined or it's competitors have improved significantly. It's mainly because I see the market moving toward realtime and near realtime reporting. That drives to enhancing OLTP systems for performance to allow them to do OLAP on or near the system of record (think 64 bit addressable memory and solid state drive technology) .   After 20 years of RDBMS performance that didn't meet expectations, I'm predicting the beginning of the end of Data Warehousing and those evil replicating Data Marts. As the performance curves are finally catching up to the business' BI expectations.  Data Warehousing as we know it will gradually fade away.  A lot of people in DW and BI aren't ready to hear that from me... yet.  Just remember you heard it here first. The focus now shifts to the Enterprise Architecture, Enterprise Metadata and Systems Integration Architectures, good-old Data lineage and that old favorite Referential Integrity on an enterprise level. Woow!

The Cloud Theory of Strategic Planning

In setting strategy, we need to have an overall vision or overall goal.  The diagram is a way of thinking strategy and planning. My idea comes from the theory of Alfred Adler who talked about motivation and said the human organism is motivated to goal.  Without a goal, the organism will cease.  Therefore our psychology always keep the goal just out of reach.  Thus he said we keep our goal "dimly envisaged". (Click on the diagram so it enlarged) Thus that is my cloud.  It is a dimly envisaged goal. Having the cloud defined, we then need to set a strategy. The boundaries in the diagram represent the strategy which defines the direction we must go to get closer to our goal.  Then we decide on the next few steps to take us closer to the goal.  Then we embark of the first 100 day project.  At the end of that project we evaluate how we are doing towards the goal.   How does it feel and have we made improvement?  That gives us an opportunity to alter the next project slightly.  It is a strategic but incremental approach.  A simple example might help. As you think about your company, you have a image of what you would like it to become. Let's imagine you want your company to become a company that makes a difference for your customers and makes good living for all the employees. This image would be the cloud. To move toward the cloud, you need a strategy. You decide what kind of product or service you will offer the customer. This decision will help set the boundaries of your plan. You decide you will offer customers services in the use of computers for planning for example. Based on that decision, you now make an action plan to get business from customers. As the test your ideas, you find that customers really want something a little diferent and you adjust your action plan. You take an incremental approach to your action plan in the context of your overall strategy. For each strategy, you decide to take some action. For a partner, you decide to look for certain kinds of people. You try that for a while and discover you are not finding the right people. You then change you action and try a different approach. The key with testing if an action is moving you in the right direstion is how the results feel. This approach to implemting strategy is called incrementalism. The approach is quite different form creating the five year plan. The value of the cloud theory is that it gives you a visual model of strategy and the rapid results process.

 

 

 

Leadership What Do You Stand For

I look for examples of great leadership and learn from them.  Lolly Daskal has written a great blog abour that Lolly Daskal on leadership.  

As Project X matures the committment to deliver value rapidly to the client drives all our actions.  Our understanding and demonstration of our vision continues to evolve but our core values remain.  

Stephen and Graham's continuing support of these blogs demonstrates their desire to look beyond the immediate challenges.  Although many of the blogs do not relate to the business, we hope it adds value to our community.

We just had a great discussion about culture in our Senge Circle and Edgar Schien gave examples of how important leadership in creating the culture of an organization.   We look to leadership to set a tone and style.  The openness and authenticity of our leaders set a great example. 

The Best Way To Use The Last Five Minutes Of A Day

Reflecting on the days activity with three questions:  How? What? Who?

Every day, just before finishing work, save a few minutes to reflect about what happened today. Look at your calendar and compare what actually happened — the meetings you attended, the work you got done, the conversations you had, the people with whom you interacted, even the breaks you took — with your plan for what you wanted to have happen. Then ask yourself three sets of questions:

• How did the day go? 


• What did I learn today? 


• Who do I need to thank, update, give feedback?

This is not my original thought but I really like the idea of reflecting back on each day.  I have taken liberty with the questions but the core idea remains.  

See  http://blogs.hbr.org/bregman/2011/01/the-best-way-to-use-the-last-f.html

Put it in your calendar as a regular meeting with yourself.

 

Different Kinds of Money

Do you ever wonder how the big numbers the Federal Bank deal with are different than the money we use day to day?   I think the only similarity is they both are measured in dollars but they are quite different items.   "So what?" say you.

At Project X we deal with many items which are a measured in dollars but quite different.   We take great care that we do not mix things measure quite different things.

I think the way we think about different things that are measured in dollars is important.  For example sales, cost, profit and taxes are all measured in dollars are quite different items.  If we treat each of these items as just parts of the same things we are distracting ourselves from managing each of these items in different ways.

Another dramatic example is income before and after tax income.  They are very different.  If we pay for something in after-tax dollars it costs more than if we pay for something in before-tax dollars.  The comparison of the net cost is complex.

I have found this useful when I think about the huge numbers that government and the federal banks talk about.  These numbers are really not the same dollars as we spend day to day.  I expect these dollars exist only as lines of credit.

Another example was when I was talking to somebody about estate planning.  He asked me about whether I was planning to leave a legacy.  I said no and he said your planning would be quite different than somebody managing an estate.  Money you leave as an legacy is different than the money you plan to spend in your lifetime.

Another example is the money you have invested in real estate.  Usually this is a lifestyle investment as opposed to a investment to generate income or growth.  It may grow but because you are living in the house converting it to money you can spend is not simple.  It is a different kind on money.

In business, depreciation is quite a different type of money than cash.  The confusion is that all these different things are measured using the same units of measurement.

Another practical example is you cannot manage profits, you can only manage revenue and costs.  Profits even though they use the same measurement as the others it is the difference between two large numbers.  Managing that number as opposed to the other two is doomed to failure.

I invite your comments.

Setting Personal Goals

Are you achieving your goals?  Why not?  Do you have fifteen minutes right now?  This could change your life.  I have found that the setting of goals has been very rewarding.  I will write them down and share them with a confidant.  Then at the end of the year, I will pull them out and look at how I have done.  I am always amazed at how well I have done.  If I have not made progress on a goal, I will reflect on whether that really is important for me.

At Project X, we help our clients to set and achieve their goals,  We encourage our clients to have clarity on their goals.  The technique I am describing is one of the many techniques we use to help our clients and ourselves.  Clarity of goals helps in our approach to get rapid results for our clients.  

In setting goals there is a great exercise in a book called "How to Get Control of Your Life and Your Time".  I will describe the exercise and recommend that as you read this take a piece of paper and do this as quickly as the instructions say.  The whole exercise will not take more than fifteen minutes.  Have a timepiece close so you can time your activities.

Step 1:  Quickly write down your lifetime goals.  Brainstorm and take about three minutes.   After the brainstorming, review the list for completeness and revise any items.  Another minute.

Step 2: Quickly write down your goals for the next five years.  Maybe three years.  Brainstorm and take three minutes.  Review the list and revise for another minute.

Step 3:  Quickly write down your goals if you knew you were going to die in six months.  Brainstorm and take three minutes.  Review and revise for one minute.

Step 4:  Review the complete list and make the high priority ones A's, second priority B's and Next priority C's.  You should only have three to five in each category.  Do that in one minute.

Step 5:  Rank the A in order of importance.  A1, A2, etc.  Do that in one minute.

Step 6:  Later review the list and revise as you see fit.

Step 7:  Make a sheet for each of you A's and brainstorm a list of all the actions you could take to accomplish the goal.

You can then use these priorities to determine whether you are spending time each day working on you A's.

One amazing thing is just by writing them down will ensure you will likely achieve them in the next year.  Try it you will like it.

Commander's Intent

"No plans survive contact with the enemy."  The military have discovered that the plans that were made in detail to think through all the issues  can change radically in the heat of battle.  In the 1980's they added an element to the planning called the Commanders Intent (CI).  This was a short succinct statement that help the people under the commander know the overall intent and make decision in the heat of battle which supported the CI.  In business, I believe the same principle applies.  If you know your leaders intent, you can make decisions that support the intent even if the actions were not in the plan.  We make lots of decisions everyday which need to fit with our commander's intent.

At Project X Ltd., we have a CI which expresses itself in the phrase "Always act in the best interest of the client.'  In every situation, this intent gives us guidance on how to act.  I do not mean to imply that the solution is easy but at least the intent is clear and memorable.  

Another which we keep in the front of our mind is "Business Value Through Rapid Results."  This Commander's Intent is always on our mind as we work on the business and IT challenges which face us daily.   We have frequent ad hoc meetings looking for ways of creating breakthroughs for our clients on projects.   I find the idea really helps in our decision making.     

The real key with the CI is that is a simple message that will be remembered under pressure and will be helpful in making decisions.  I have found in my experience this phrase is quite helpful.

Many plans in business do not transmit the CI in a simple, memorable and practical terms.  Many organization issue CI messages that people who are doing the work find it difficult to use as a basis for decision making.  For example, "increasing shareholder value" or "increasing the firms profitability by X%", neither of these will help the person dealing with customer complaint or fixing some problem on a production line.  They certainly will not have guidance from that intent.   However if the people in the particular area could translate that into an intent for their area or department then it might stick.

One example is the story on Sony in the early days of transistors.  Sony was struggling to find its niche and was building rice cookers and many other things.  One fellow decided to give the company the challenge of "Building a pocket-able radio."  At the time radios were a big piece of furniture and the vision was considered impossible.  The intent was clear and launch Sony on a journey to leadership in the electronics business. 

JFK's intent to have a man on the moon walk on the moon and return safely within the decade is an amazing example of CI.

Can you think of great examples of Commander's Intent?  What is your intent?    

   

Core versus Context Business

What part of your business is CORE and what is CONTEXT?  What differentiates you and what must you do well but does not differentiate you.   This mental model can really make you look at your business in a new light.  In a book by Moore called "Dealing with Darwin: How Great Companies Innovate at Every Phase of Their Evolution" he makes an interesting distinction between various activities of a company which might be of help in setting company strategy.  He defines Core activities as the activities your company does that has potential to differentiate you from your competition and Context activities as those activities which you must do well to keep up to or ahead of your competition but will not differentiate you.

For example, personnel support is a very important activity but is not one that will differentiate you from your competitors.  Often customer service falls into that category.  Certain aspects of information processing can also be a context activity.  If you are looking for resources and money to invest in your core activity, these are areas you might consider improving your productivity through outsourcing.  Remember these are things you must do well to stay in business but will not differentiate you. 

However he does point out the people working in these areas may not be suitable for innovative activities.  He does suggest they may be used for managing an outsourcing and in the more routine work in a core activity.  This would free up resources more suited for innovative work.

Analysis of your core and context can be very helpful in considering where you should be applying money and resources.  How can you differentiate yourself and which way should your business evolve?  Sometimes you need money and resources just to keep up with the competition and the business environment.

In his book he also talks about the type of company you are and your stage of growth.  I did not find those models as helpful as the ideas on core and context.