monkeywrench

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monkeywrench

by - Tom L. Barnett

At the end of the day - project management processes need to be practical. Why do work if it isn't directly contributing to an outcome? That just makes sense. . . that's being 'street smart'.

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You Are What You Keep
categories: productivity

Take a look at your email inbox. Take a look at your file cabinet and the surface of your desk.

Are you a hoarder? Or are you a delegator? Do you process each item in your workday, make a decision, and move on not to return to it again?

Or do you keep everything in one big pile on your desk and actually have a ‘sorting’ approach for your inbox?

One of the great management axioms that came from legendary sports executive Mark McCormack is “you are what you keep.”

Trying to keep all of the details at your fingertips is hard to do on medium sized endeavors and impossible on large programs. If your desk and cabinets have every scrap of paper and agenda from every meeting you’ve ever been in then you are a hoarder.

Not only are you most likely ineffective as a manager you are unable to prioritize. Everything has the same priority which means that nothing has any priority.

Instead, look at your job description and through the deluge of information you receive everyday. You should only be keeping what pertains to your job.

What you keep is how you define your job.

What you delegate (or forward) is how you define your team’s job.

One trick that I learned from productivity guru David Allen is when I delegate an email to someone else to take care of, I cc: myself. Then I have an inbox rule that places anything from me and cc:'d to me into a 'Delegated' folder. I now have one spot to review all of my delegated items.

If you aren't delegating items then are you holding on to these things ‘just in case?’

It’s time to spring clean your work environment and establish fresh new commitments not only with yourself but with your teams as well.

You ARE what you keep.

| Posted: April 30, 2012 11:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) |

How To Quickly Prioritize . . . Anything!
categories: pmo, proj_mgt

We were planning some key initiatives the other day and we had to make some tough choices because there just wasn’t enough resources to do it all (first time ever, right?).

Not rocket science or anything – but tough because some hard choices had to be made. This happens every day in IT and project management (it happens millions of times everyday in the economy).

It always strikes me the way a team can get bogged down when confronted with making decisions ('buy this, not that’). Over the years I have used a quick triage process to begin sorting things out in way that won’t alienate anyone who is fighting for their particular want or need.

Whatever you have to do or purchase - the way to prioritize is to first sort them into one of three buckets.

Must Have Whether it is projects, servers, or tablets – this category is for the things that simply have to happen - the ‘non-negotiables.’ Regardless of how the priority deck is cut, these have to be ‘in scope.’ Period.

Should Have If there were endless resources (time, money, people, etc.) these projects and purchases are wanted, but they are not critical. Ideally we would want to approve this category but we are waiting to be sure. The ‘should’ category acknowledges the importance of the items in the list while setting the clear expectation that they are not critical.

Like To Have This category is reserved for those items that we would love to get to but it probably isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

Simple? Yes.

But this quick and dirty framework is great to throw on a whiteboard when the meeting isn’t going anywhere quickly. It's also an effective tool to deactivate ‘email bombs’ where several parties are heatedly vying for their needs.

Quickly set up these categories and explain the rational for putting items into each category and even if the first pass list doesn't remain intact you have now structured the chaos into a meaningful conversation.

Now you're making progress and you have taken the leadership role.

| Posted: April 01, 2012 08:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) |

6 Questions NEVER Asked in Your Annual Review
categories: Leadership, proj_mgt

We all sit down to the annual review with our boss. Sometimes it is a structured affair. Sometimes it’s haphazard.

Sometimes it feels thought out ahead of time, and sometimes it feels like just the opposite.

We can leave the meeting feeling good, or confused.

I read one executive’s approach for how he conducts every annual review with his direct reports and I have to admit it seems to make a lot of sense.

6 Questions for the Annual Review

1. Who are your most valuable peers (or subordinates) and what can we do to make sure they stay?

This is a great way to gain insight from people as to who the strong people on the team are by the folks who know them best – their peers. If you use this technique you will see the same names continually and a few surprises also.

2. What scares you most about our competition?

Puts the boss’s expectations right out on the table. Are you paying attention to our core business? Or are you focused only on your world? This answer will tip your hand.

3. Why does this company need you?

Bottom line. Make your value proposition. What do you bring to the table that others can’t or aren’t (at this particular moment in time).

4. What have you allowed to fall through the cracks in the last 12 months?

Transparency. An honest assessment that you can’t do everything (regardless of your previous answer). It isn’t important that you dropped something – but did you recognize that you dropped something? Two different points of view and one of those views is troubling to your boss.

5. Are the company objectives at odds with your own? Is the company expecting you to work more hours than you are willing to give? Less? Underchalleneged?

Trying to see if you and the company are still a good fit for each other. Things change. Strategies change. Directions change, People change. Here is a chance to take the temperature again and see of any course corrections are needed. See if you have extra cycles you can spend.

People ALWAYS have extra cycles for something they are passionate about (regardless of how booked they are) and here may be the opportunity for a conversation about your future.

6. What are the half dozen or so areas you expect my support over the coming year?

In my mind this is the best question of the lot. It shows the proper role for the boss. Not someone to drive you and be suspicious of you – but a true partner who is not only looking out for your best interests but who asks how they can help you to be successful.

If you are fortunate, you may get pitched one or even two of these questions in your annual review - but what if these questions WERE your review? Would it make a difference?

| Posted: February 20, 2012 12:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) |

Side-Stepping a Professional Reference?
categories: other

A number of years ago I used to work for a large IT services firm. They were very buttoned up, very professional, and nearly everyone dressed the same.

During one of the many, many training courses that we went through (most of which were very good, by the way) there was always this one topic that pertained to HR: references.

I don't mean getting references so much as giving references.

In our training we were taught that if we ever received a call about a past employee (e.g. who no longer works for the corporation) we were to give the stock answer. ‘Yes that person worked here” or “no, that person didn’t work here during that timeframe.”

If the person had performance problems when they worked for us or left on ‘iffy’ terms then the simple acknowledgement that they worked here covered the company from a legal perspective. No comments made about his or her performance.

If the person was a stellar performer, we were still to give the same answer. From a legal perspective we were not going to sway or influence someone’s perception about a former employee. It protected the corporation both ways.

And everything was pretty much fine until Social Media happened.

Enter professional sites like LinkedIn or Plaxo. Now most professionals have their resume posted at one of these online sites. And a curious feature of these sites is the ability to write a recommendation for someone.

I have them and I bet that you probably have them, too.

In a way, however, it's really grey area. You can get a professional recommendation for your work at a particular company from a reference supposedly within that company – all while side-stepping many of the rules and safeguards put into place by HR. In fact, I have seen many resumes with a link to the candidate's LinkedIn public profile (take that HR!).

It does create a lot of interesting questions that all still have to be shaken out. Since the person offering the reference is identified as working for the company in question is it almost like speaking for the company or not? (clearly no).

Is a person’s LinkedIn profile their own private internet presence or does it have overlap in the public mind with that of the company they currently work for? If someone defames a fellow employee or posts pictures to their Facebook page of another employee behaving badly at the last office party – legal or not – it creates impressions.

I think the old rules still don’t hurt in today’s social media world. Or perhaps if professional endorsements are posted, maybe it should be emphasized that it represents a particular personal opinion? (perhaps it already does)

Something to think about while I continue cleaning up these old training guides from a by-gone era. . .

| Posted: January 29, 2012 12:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) |

The Steampunk PM
categories: gadgets, steampunk_pm

Steampunk PM Today’s project managers have to exist in a technological world that can make their jobs easier or exponentially harder depending on how they operate.

In a world where SharePoint sites can notify you of updates to documents to having multiple instant message windows open simultaneously, from email message issue clarifications to status reports filed on remote project servers – the PM world seems to become more fractured every day.

But there is a rare breed of PM that is able to invent ways to tie all of these moving icebergs together enough to have solid ground to stand on. These PMs don’t simply have status meetings and update project plans, but they are constantly staying on top of the latest ways to get work done and figuring out how to integrate it into their own project management workflows.

They are not unlike those Victorian-era technology anarchists that constantly pushed the envelope of what science and engineering were able to do. They were up-to-date on all inventions of their age and found new uses for different combinations of these gadgets.

Steampunk PMs are usually one of the first ones to try a new technology. Whether it’s software-based mind mapping, web-based action trackers and reminders for teams, or the latest in online conferencing Steampunk PMs have already been there, done that, and cast their verdict on that new something before it hits most of our radars. If it's new they're just itching to try it out.

Project plans on your PDA? Old Hat. Tablet-based, handwritten meeting notes emailed on the spot? Give me a break! Delegating voicemails to team members through an email? That is soooooooo 2011.

The variety of technologies is always changing and always fresh – but for the Steampunk PM it’s all about how to get the job done. The Steampunk PM is never afraid to try something new and is restless with anything that he or she has already done at least twice before. Who knew you could conference 4 different conference bridge lines together to get around a participant limit? Steampunks did.

Isn't there a little Steampunk in all of us?

| Posted: January 15, 2012 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) |

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