So much of our attention in the lean community is on continuous improvement. Normally that is interpreted as "process improvement". In the project world processes are often incidental to the work we are doing to fulfill the promise of the project. In other words, the value stream goes through a series of tasks like writing software code, documenting a feature, refactoring, etc., none of which follow a repeatable step-by-step process. Architecture and construction projects are similar. The process stuff is supporting the value stream. When we make so-called improvements to process we are dealing with "the how" some outcome is accomplished. Rarely are improvements focused on "the what" of the outcome. Ric Merrifield tells us to shift from the how to the what to get innovation and to really cut costs.

Shift from "the how" to "the what" to boost innovation and to really cut costs.Ric's book, RETHINK: A Business Manifesto for Cutting Costs and Boosting Innovation, does a good job of getting our attention off the how and onto the what. He offers story after story of companies that stay clear about what makes them distinctive to their customers. While the process for delivering on results is always important, getting the outcome right makes or breaks our projects. My colleagues and clients have heard me say over and over Don't improve on something that we shouldn't be doing in the first place. Ric says it more forcefully,

Never has there been a more important time to continually improve your company's efficiency and productivity. (F)or that to happen, they are going to have to avoid the "how" trap, rethink and focus on their "whats," and become a collection of plug-and-play operations.

(...)
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Just read the June 15 issue of Business Week. They reviewed Management Rewired. Not surprising, it was a far better review than I did in my last post. Here are two statements BW chose to emphasize:

Feedback, praise, criticism — all useless. Instead, put human psychology to work for you, this book advises.

As contrarian as it sounds, Jacobs says employees should set their own objectives and critique their own performance.

This is a book every project leader should read.Performance reviews and project 'post mortems' are not just uncomfortable…they don't produce the kind of value that is intended. We need frequent team member-led assessments that can lead to in-the-moment changes in behavior. That will lead to better projects and more satisfied project participants. This is a book every project leader should read.

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Jacobs calls on neuroscience (the study of how the brain works) to explore what works and doesn't work with leadership behaviors. His conclusions are both reassuring and surprising. I've read many studies that say for most of us, performance-based incentive plans don't work. It's not just that they are ineffective, incentive compensation — rewards and punishment — often produces the opposite effects. Jacobs explains our brain adjusts our behavior to managers who put themselves in a dominant role. On the surprising side, Jacobs says that traditional performance appraisals including the 360° reviews don't work. So what does work?(...)
Read the rest of Project Managers Learning to Be Leaders (129 words)

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Post tags: leadership

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What do The Sopranos, In-N-Out Burger and Jim Collins have in common? They are featured in Matthew May's book In Pursuit of Elegance: Why the Best Ideas Have Something Missing which ships today. This is a little book about a big topic, how elegant design comes to be. Matt takes his readers through a series of stories that reveal the elements of elegant design. Why might that be useful for project managers? My first answer is we are all designers.

Start rethinking your role, whatever it is, as a designer.

Projects come to be when we make a big promise to someone. That big promise requires us to assemble a temporary organization to deliver on the promise. How we do that is completely up to us and our team. We design the temporary organization and we design the approach or path that we will take. For the most part, we don't think of our roles as designers of projects. Instead, I hear project managers speak of our role as conducting a project putting our attention on getting things done rather than creating a space or setting for doing. Does this matter? You bet. One way we characterize great projects is by the freedom project participants have to explore, experiment and express themselves. Designing for that is our challenge.(...)
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Post tags: Elegance

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Project management can get stuck…focused on just getting the work done. Great companies do more on their projects. They use each project to advance the strategy of the company. How? With kaizen. Take some time to read about it. Your projects and your team members will be better for it.

• One Small Step Can Change Your Life: The kaizen Way kaizen starts at home…with everyday changes in how we live our lives.
• Small Change: It's the Little Things in Life That Make a Big Difference! All kaizen begins with oneself.
• The Fred Factor: How passion in your work and life can turn the ordinary into the extraordinary Extraordinary is just the accumulation of everyday changes.
• All You Gotta Do Is Ask These authors share the secret to successful improvement programs.
• Chasing the Rabbit: How Market Leaders Outdistance the Competition and How Great Companies Can Catch Up and Win, Foreword by Clay Christensen Steven Spear shares the four key practices that separate the best from the rest. MUST READ.
• kaizen and the Art of Creative Thinking – The Scientific Thinking Mechanism The master of Toyota's improvement approach only recently published by Norman Bodek.
• gemba Kaizen: A Commonsense, Low-Cost Approach to Management Massaki Imai's ground-breaking book on the practices that create the never-ending habit of improvement.

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Post tags: Project and Program Management, Project management, Toyota

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A week, or so, ago I wrote a quick review of Michael Port's The Think Big Manifesto: Think You Can't Change Your Life (and the World) Think Again Think Big Manifesto titled Leave Behind Your Resignation. It's a great little book that challenges us to get beyond what we are comfortable doing and bring all of who we are to life. Michael is a friend. I met him about 6 years ago when we were buddies in a coaching program. We pushed each other, supported each other and continue to do the same 6 years later.

Get off the fence…start thinking big!

Today is the big launch of The Think Big Manifesto: Think You Can't Change Your Life (and the World) Think Again. For today only, Michael is bringing his big thinking to bear to help you and your team bring big thinking to your projects. In addition to a big discount at Amazon, about $13 for the book, Michael is introducing you to a group of big thinkers he keeps close to him. Get this book for every member of your team. Once you've ordered go to his Think Big Revolution site to claim your gifts. There are gifts for when you purchase 1, 3 and 5 copies. Michael's offering some big gifts for people who order large quantities. Get off the fence…start thinking big!

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I see an authenticity in the writing that is refreshing. From the very beginning of the manifesto Michael confronts his own small thinking; he continues with that throughout the text. His boldest move against his small thinking may be his numbering of the principles in the big thinking code: 0,1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21,34, a Fibonacci sequence. Why would he do that? It's weird. Bold, but weird. (There's my small thinking.) Items 1 and 1 remind me of "my brother Darryl and my other brother Darryl." How will we remember the principles? But Michael pulls it off.

I'm told that good reading doesn't involve subvocalization…sounding out the words as you read. But I challenge you to avoid it. Reading the manifesto is like being in a conversation with Michael. So don't resist, prepare yourself to be called to action, to leave behind your resignation…to join the revolution.

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One of my project blogging friends, Bas de Baar, has begun a compilation of his posts that he's calling the Project Shrink Linear Edition version 0.1. It's an unbook. I don't know if Bas is calling it that, but he's creating it in that way. I'm a big fan of his thinking and his writing. Bas hits the nail on the head when he says, "Projects are about humans."

Projects are about humans.

You'll like his writing. He mixes personal experience with stories and just enough philosophy to be interesting, but not boring.

(...)
Read the rest of Projects Are about What? (145 words)

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My good friend Michael Port's and Elizabeth Marshal's book The Contrarian Effect was named by 800ceoread as the best sales book of 2008. That follows Amazon naming it as one of the 10 best business books of the year.

How about a big woo hoo for Michael and Elizabeth!

Why is a guy who writes about project management calling attention to a sales book? People always need to sell their ideas. In these economic times it's even more important that a project manager can sell ideas and land work. The book is short. It's full of stories. Learning to "do the opposite" just might save your bacon.

How about a big woo hoo for Michael and Elizabeth.

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Libraries are a part of the landscape, but not everywhere. Many children and adults around the globe don't have access to literature and basic knowledge. Room to Read was created to change that. They are building libraries in Africa, India, Cambodia and elsewhere. They are also supporting girls' education.

Act today while the offer is available.

800ceoread is supporting the Room to Read efforts. For a limited time, they are selling off the accumulation of 2008 books that have built up in their offices. Here's the deal. You buy a mystery box of 3 books for $30. You get at least $60 of recently published business books and Room to Read gets the $30. I'll sweeten the deal by sending you one of my duplicate books for the first 5 people who send me your 800ceoread receipt for the mystery box dated today or later. I'll ship to the address on the receipt. Here's what I'm offering: Toyota Culture, The Innovator's Guide to Growth, The Milkshake Moment, The Portable Coach and UNSTUCK. The first person to respond will get to select the book. Others will get what I choose…a mystery just like your purchase.

Act fast. The 800ceoread mystery boxes will be gone soon. Order one now. And when you are done making your purchase spend a few minutes at Room to Read to see the great work that you are supporting. If the offer has expired, then please consider making a direct donation. Thank you.

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Clarke Ching, regularly blogging at Clarke Ching — More Chili Please, just published his second book titled, Rocks into Gold. He wrote the book in response to the sorry state of the worldwide economy, particularly for those working on projects in the software industry. He tells a story of optimism in the face of our everyday pessimism. It's a book about ingenuity, frank reality and a touch of cynicism for it to ring true.

He tells a story of optimism in the face of our everyday pessimism.

The story opens with a software development firm losing a contract with one of its biggest clients. The loss will likely lead to significant layoffs. People are devastated. One person, it could be anyone of us, finds a path forward.

(...)
Read the rest of Turn Rocks into Gold on Your Projects (153 words)

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While American Auto go hat-in-hand to Washington, I thought it might be instructive to take a look at what those firms have missed while Toyota has steadily out-invested, out-innovated and racked up more profits than all three combined. Who's got the answer? How about three professors from a Japanese business school.

In their book Extreme Toyota, Osono, Shimizu and Takeuchi claim that Toyota managers embrace contradictions, opposites and paradoxes. Rather than find the best on either side of the argument, Toyota pursues the approach they call "this yet that".

(...)
Read the rest of Extreme Toyota’s Lesson for American Auto (321 words)

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