Archive for the 'books' Category

Simon Ramo claims to have attended over 40,000 meetings in his career. According to Ramo, most meetings stink. Larry Armstrong, BW, interviewed Ramo for the October 31, 2005 issue. Ramo has a new book titled Meetings, Meetings, and More Meetings: Getting Things Done When People Are Involved. Highlights of the interview:

• Meetings can be improved and many are unnecessary, but few people do anything about it.
• Be prepared for the meetings you conduct and attend. Be clear on the purpose, know who will attend, and be ready to help move the meeting along…tactfully.
• People present too much detail; they can't resist unnecessary elaboration.
• When you wake-up after dozing in a meeting don't say, "What?" say, "Why?"

Here's my one tip for meetings: listen; keep your attention on what others have to say and help them say it. Not only will attendees appreciate you for that, but you will be in the distinct position to make something happen.

Adrian Savage, the creative force behind lifehack, wonders if the Pareto Principle¹ can reliably be put to use in today's posting How Useful Is the Pareto Principle? He concludes that the principle is useless if it only after-the-fact describes the membership of the 20% group. Adrian misunderstands how the principle is effectively used on a prospective basis. He writes,

'My guess is the Pareto Principle distinguishes groups you can only find after the event, once you can see what worked and what didn’t. If that’s so, the Principle is almost worthless as a guide to future action, which is how it’s most often used.'

Since it is not possible to collect facts about the future we are left to making assessments. The Principle provides a way of giving weight to our assessments for the sake of planning.

Adrian does understand that we cannot know for certain what the future holds. He argues that we cannot know what 20% subset of all our possible actions will yield the 80% of desired results. Again, I agree. So are we to subscribe to a random walk of life? I think not. From reading Adrian's postings on other topics, I doubt he would either. We all have learned that some of our actions are more effective for us in some circumstances than they are in other circumstances. This tacit knowledge allows us to respond somewhat effectively and without deliberation as we encounter our everyday world. That tacit knowledge is called upon as we make observations and assessments. Read the rest of this entry ¶

1. Italian economist who noticed the concentration of wealth and then generalized the finding to other areas of life [ ⇑ back ]

Seth Godin is on a mission — to drive out the ordinary. He's collaborated with 32 top thinkers to show us how. It is a follow-on to Seth's Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside.

The Big Moo has been available for less than 14 days. It's already in the third printing and this weekend became an Amazon best seller. All royalties go to three charities Junior Diabetes Research Foundation, Room to Read, and Acumen Fund. Already, Seth reports one school has been constructed.

I had the pleasure of getting advance copies. Here are two previous reviews: Stop Trying to Be Perfect? and Plant Rocks. Learn to become remark-able while benefiting three fine charities.

areto's Law or the 80/20 Principle is well-known to economists and quality improvement professionals. Simply, it states: 80% of the gain will come from 20% of the effort; conversely, 80% of our effort produces only 20% value. The relationship was first distinguished about 100 years ago by Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto. He observed that 80% of the wealth was concentrated among 20% of the citizenry. The law is more of a way of observing phenomena than it is an irrefutable principle. However, empirical studies have shown one situation after another where the law holds up.

The art of the project manager is to focus all team members on the few things that really matter.

Author Richard Koch wrote the book The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Success by Achieving More with Less to introduce this perspective to general business. Koch does a good job explaining the principle and giving examples. He writes encouragingly of the opportunity in being highly selective in the actions we take to further our aims. At one point he shares his view on the ten biggest opportunities for using the 80/20 principle. Number 9 on his list is project management. Here's a summary of his points: Read the rest of this entry ¶

Seth Godin continues to innovate with marketing. This time he's gathered 32 of his favorite thinkers to write a book on being remarkable. All royalties will go to three charities Junior Diabetes Research Foundation, Room to Read, and Acumen Fund. The book is a collection of stories that taken together offer an avenue for becoming remark-able. It is a follow-on to Seth's Purple Cow and Free Prize Inside.

You might remember that Purple Cow was initially delivered in a purple milk carton. Free Prize Inside hit the shelves in a cereal box. No packaging gimmicks this time. Instead, the initial supply of books, galley copies for reviewers and for proofing, are only available in lots of 50. That's right, to get one copy you have to buy 49 more. But they're really not for sale. I can't say that it was worth $100 to me to get to read a copy before the book is available in October. But what is worth much more than $100 is getting to share it with my colleagues and clients. Read the rest of this entry ¶

I've been meaning to write about the art of project management for quite some time. No need for me to do something that Scott Berkun has done so well. His book, The Art of Project Management, is unlike any other book on the market. Scott understands something that most project managers fail to grasp. Developing proficiency is not a matter of knowing techniques and engineering. Proficiency develops with practice, by making mistakes, taking on challenging work, and by learning at the feet of others. Read the rest of this entry ¶

he motivationists would have us believe that people do what they are rewarded for doing. Bonus programs, salesforce commissions and incentives, and promises of raises and promotions are part of the everyday way companies organize themselves in hopes of getting higher performance from their employees. My own experience is different from that (and numerous studies reported in HBR are consistent with my experience). Neither the carrot nor the stick get me to do more work or better work. I do more, give more, and engage more deeply when my interests and ambitions are connected to those of the organization.

Neither the carrot nor the stick get me to do more work or better work.

In the August '05 issue of PMI's PM Network Neil Whitten offers his advice on getting more from our teams. He wants project managers to "Celebrate" the accomplishments of the team. "Leadership," he says, "means acknowledging a job well-done by thanking the project team that did it." Neil urges readers to do this at least once every three months. The Gallup Organization's research supports that as published in First, Break All the Rules, by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman. Except, the research showed that people in continuously high performing organizations receive acts of appreciation and acknowledgement at least once every 7 days! Read the rest of this entry ¶

Did the title get your attention? It got mine! Naked Consulting is David Schmaltz' latest series of articles in his Compass Newsletter. He's written on the subject in the last three issues. I urge you to have a look. But do yourself a favor, print the newsletter. The articles are just a few pages and well worth your time.

David is the author of the widely acclaimed book on project management The Blind Men and the Elephant. About a year ago Greg Howell and I interviewed him on a teleconference: David Schmaltz Was a Hit! I've also had the pleasure of speaking at the same conference with him. I'll just say it was quite provocative. As was David's comments that led to one of the more important Project e-Tips 017: Produce Coherence Among Project Participants. David has a way of pushing me to the edge of the box (and then some).

So what is in this latest Compass Newsletter? In my opinion David offers one of the most useful descriptions of what consultants can do for you that I've ever read. He calls it Brief Consulting™. Read the rest of this entry ¶

Meetings, meetings, meetings…we have far too many that don't produce the value for the attendees or the project. Patrick Lencioni's latest book, Death by Meeting, makes the case for different meeting approaches depending on the purpose pursued. For more than 8 years the founders of the Lean Construction Institute have advised people doing projects on a lean basis to have special-purpose weekly project meetings. Over the next week or so I will offer my proposals for protocols for conducting a series of meetings that address a coherent set of project concerns.

I have identified four five protocols that are consistent with the Last Planner System®. These five represent distinct phases of the workflow of project work. Read the rest of this entry ¶

Next in series

I just finished the book QBQ!: The Question Behind the Question®, by John G. Miller. This is a wonderful little book that belongs in every briefcase (not on your bookshelves) and ready to give to that special person you want to see succeed. The author's premise is we ask really lousy questions that direct our attention away from where we can be most effective in taking action. Simply, the better questions — the questions behind the question — place the accountability for action on the questioner.

No sooner had I finished the book than I read John Brandt's Industry Week column Suffocating Under That Golden Parachute?. John is offering to be any company's scapegoat for poor performance. Rather than firing the CEO and paying the usual $20 million severance John is offering to be fired for half the amount. Now that's accountability! And a bargain to boot! The board of directors can avoid the public embarrassment of letting go one of their own. Who knows, the favor just might need to be returned.

Those of us just doing our projects may never avail ourselves of John Brandt's services, so I suggest we take John Miller's advice. If you want better answers, then you gotta start asking better questions. Those better questions — the questions behind the questions — all have the same form.

What can I do now to make the situation better?

The question takes our attention away from others and places accountability where we have greatest influence — on ourself. That question alone just might save the project and your career.

A host of books have been published on company-wide improvement approaches. One of the first descriptions of the approach that makes Toyota and other Japanese firms successful with continuous improvement was kaizen, written by Masaaki Imai, published in 1986. Imai updated that work with gemba kaizen in 1997. Along the way there have been many good books about employee initiated everyday improvement and innovation. The latest is the book Ideas Are Free, by Alan G. Robinson, Dean M. Schroeder.

Robinson and Schoeder claim a company-wide practice of putting the small ideas into use will separate your firm from your competitors without tipping your hand as to what is making you more competitive. Here are their eight recommendations for an idea system:

1. Ideas are encouraged and welcomed.
2. Submitting ideas is simple.
3. Evaluation of ideas is quick and effective.
4. Feedback is timely, constructive and informative.
5. Implementation is rapid and smooth.
6. Ideas are reviewed for additional potential.
7. People are recognized, and success is celebrated.
8. Idea system performance is measured, reviewed and improved.

I have one quibble with the authors. They place too much emphasis on ideas and no attention on making assessments that lead to innovation. (There'll be another posting on just that point.) There are plenty of ideas available from our project team members and throughout our firms. Greg Howell and I have found the missing element to be what we call The Two Great Wastes: not listening and not speaking. None of this works without an environment that embraces the varied opinions and contributions of everyone. There must be attentive listening and unfettered speaking. It takes leadership to get both.

So much has been made of the opportunity line workers and project performers have for contributing ideas for improvement in their daily work. 15 years ago I worked at ABB Asea Brown Boveri. I wondered what the opportunity was for harnessing the inventiveness of our highly skilled engineers. So I did an experiment. I worked with 8 engineers. First, I taught them the standard problem-solving techniques. Then I challenged them as a group of 8 to come up with 20 adopted improvements each week. I further stipulated that the team didn't succeed unless each person had originated 1 adopted improvement in that week. They got off to a slow start. I remember the first week had fewer than 10 adopted improvements and 2 or 3 of the people didn't contribute one idea. But we kept at it. At the end of the month the team had over 100 adopted improvements with everyone meeting their weekly targets. At that point they became really innovative. The second month had even more adopted improvements. It was also at that time that ABB made major organizational changes resulting in me moving from Connecticut to Switzerland. The team was disbanded.

So are ideas free? I think not. While I'm a really big fan of continuous improvement systems, here in the USA we seem not to have the stick-to-it-ness to make these approaches successful. It takes a significant effort and rethinking of how we will manage our firms and our projects. That effort is not free. It at least comes with an opportunity cost if not a real investment in training and communication of company policy. These costs (or investments) are real. So you might ask, "Is it worth investing?" Without doubt. But take it on for strategic advantage as the authors of Ideas Are Free recommend.

For those of you ready to start here's my recommendation. One of the best guides to adopting continuous improvement is The Idea Generator: Quick and Easy kaizen, by Bunji Tozawa and Norman Bodek. Their approach works. One of the authors is by far the most authoritative person on the subject. I call Norman Bodek the godfather of the lean movement in the western world. He had Taiichi Ohno's and Shigeo Shingo's books on Toyota translated into English and published in the US. Norman's latest book is Kaikaku: The Power and Magic of Lean. He's written a history of the lean movement that presents in one place all the elements of the lean approach. It's sure to be a winner.

I've been reading a new book from a new publisher. The Wharton School (U Penn) is getting into the publishing business. Their first book co-authored by one of their faculty is a winner. The Power of Impossible Thinking, by Jerry Wind and Colin Crook, has as its premise, "If you can think impossible thoughts, you can do impossible things." Last week Chuck Frey did a quick book summary at the Innovation Weblog How to See Differently. Chuck did a great job. He captured eight practices for impossible thinking from the authors' text.

• Listen to the radicals
• Embark on journeys of discovery
• Look across disciplines
• Question the routine
• Recognize the barriers
• Practice flying upside down
• Destroy the old model
• Envision multiple futures

What we think is what we see

One of the more important parts of the book is the 18-page appendix The Neuroscience behind Mental Models. Bear with me. I know the title can be off-putting. The authors do a very good job explaining why they say it is possible for impossible thinking. In a nutshell, what we think is what we see. If we want to see something else or something new, then we must adopt a different mental model.

What does this have to do with lean project delivery? People tell me it is impossible to think we can do projects with strangers without waste, delivered on time and on budget. The authors would argue that those people are right. They will not deliver projects with strangers without waste, delivered on time and on budget. However, there are numerous companies and project teams who think the impossible. They think they can. And they are also right. A division of one company delivered 29 projects in a row on time or early AND at or below budget. Now that's impossibility thinking!

Two days ago I introduced you to one of the better papers from the 11th IGLC Annual Conference, Achieving Change in Construction. One of the conclusions in that paper was the mental models are getting in the way of change. Our approach has been to fix the problems we encounter through automation, motivation, and process improvement. It hasn't worked as evidenced by productivity and injury rates that are stagnant. Achieving change in construction must start with changing our own mental models. Learn how by reading The Power of Impossible Thinking.

I read Fast Company cover to cover. Two months ago I was reading the June issue. One of my favorite sections is the book reviews. The editors present five books. Readers pick a favorite then the editors do an interview with the authors. My favorite from June was UNSTUCK by Keith Yamishita and Sandra Spataro. Somehow I set aside this posting. When I opened the August issue I immediately went to the book reviews. UNSTUCK was selected as the readers' choice. (Want to read the issue online? Go to www.fastcompany.com/bookclub/fc85/. Access code is 'FCAUGUSTBEZOS'.)

I kept jumping around just like the authors expected. I got unstuck along the way.

I learned about the book from Seth Godin. He featured Yamashita in Bull Market 2004. The authors address what all of us have experienced. Eventually, we get stuck on our projects. While you can read the book from beginning to end, Yamashita and Spataro have indexed the book and offered cross references to make it easy to find help fast for your particular situation.

The book is good. The presentation is outstanding. No kidding. The graphics are bold and exciting. The paper is substantial. I couldn't read the book from beginning to end. I kept jumping around just like the authors expected. I got unstuck along the way.

Get a copy, or maybe two. If you're like me, you won't want to lend your copy to others!

The book The Third Opinion came highly recommended by someone who I've learned to think with for his third opinion. Previously, I used the term thinking partner. I frequently call on others for help in sorting out and exploring a range of perspectives on an issue and for speculating. I've haphazardly developed a loose network of thinking partners. The possibility of being more purposeful about that drew me to the book. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

The idea is more powerful than the author's development of it. Dr. Saj-nicole A. Joni subtitled the book "How Successful Leaders Use Outside Insight to Create Superior Results." That did come through for me. She tells one mini case after another to illuminate elements of her various models of networked leadership. The author does a good job of developing those models in a step-by-step way. However, I was left thinking "Is that all there is?"

The author claims throughout the book that her own claims and insights are based on years of research. Unfortunately, she doesn't reveal what that research is, how it was conducted, or how she validated her conclusions.

What is the project leader or project executive to do with this? I'll tie The Third Opinion to a book that is having a big impact on many aspects of business and life, Tim Sanders' Love Is the Killer App. Tim claims that business works on three principles:

1. Develop expertise that you freely share with others. This is the opportunity for you to be the second or third opinion for others.
2. Develop your network. Make it a big network. One that you call on and are ready to be called. Be a connector for people in your network.
3. Bring compassion to your relationships. Another way of saying that is to be generous with your interpretations of others' intentions and actions.

The connection between the two books is obvious. By developing a network of support at the edge of our relationships we make ourselves and the network stronger. We can get more done. We can take on bigger challenges. We become more powerful along the way.

Tim Sanders is a key note speaker this week at the Coachville Annual Conference. I'll be attending, presenting, and blogging from the conference. Drop by at CoachBlog™.

Let me introduce you again to David J. Anderson. David is the author of Agile Management for Software Engineering. He has a companion weblog where he continues to explore the topics in his book. David will be one of our guest authors in next year's Project Leaders' Studio™ Conversation with Authors teleconference series. Have a look and sign-up.

In a recent posting David proposes Good, Fast, Cheap, Pick 3! Common wisdom says there is an iron triangle cornered by good, fast, and cheap. For any project or product you can have two of those elements but not three. That wisdom makes permanent the relationship. By not questioning the wisdom people go about designing products, processes, projects, and services to provide just two.

David's been reading Built to Last, by Jim Collins and Jerry Porass. In this classic management book the authors speak of the phenomena as The Tyranny of the OR. They offer an alternative view, The Genius of the AND. David claims,

Agile software development is all about having it all - good quality through rigorous testing, reviewing, and learning - fast speed through face-to-face communication, less bureaucracy and more tacit knowledge - low cost through small teams of empowered generalist developers.

You'll need to read Agile Management to learn how. (David, how about a few follow-up postings?) You can also dig through his previous weblog postings for hints.

Thought you'd enjoy a taste of David Schmaltz's writing. David will be the first author we interview via a teleconference in January. Here David is writing in Winston Brill's Innovative Leader, The Blind Leading the Blind.

David uses John Godfrey Saxe's famous fable "The Blind Men and the Elephant," as metaphor to explore the nature of projects and what we can do to produce success on our teams.

(B)lindness is a continuing feature of work life today. Consider your last project. Didn't it require the enthusiastic contribution of several different specialists, each unavoidably blind to all but his own perspective?

If your project succeeded, did the plan predict the path you ended up following? Chances are you succeeded by figuring out how to blindly lead each other to success, not by following some omniscient leader or predictive plan, but by somehow integrating the disparate perspectives of all of the "blind men."

David offers six steps for dealing with the always-present blindness on project teams.

What You Can Do to See the Elephant

1. Be clear about your own purpose for engaging.
2. Understand your intentions.
3. Extend your trust.
4. Let go of how it's supposed to be.
5. Stop trying to motivate others.
6. Sit in the mess before tidying it up.

Visit his article to read how.

We look forward to kicking off the New Year by having a conversation with David. You're all invited! Get ready by adding The Blind Men and the Elephant, Mastering Project Work to your wish list this holiday season. Better yet, buy two copies from Amazon. You'll get free shipping. You'll have one to give away and one to keep for yourself!

Now, have a look at the announcement, http://leader.halmacomber.com/project_authors.html and follow the instructions you find there to stay informed.