Archive for the 'collaboration' Category

As 2007 came to a close, lean design and construction got some well-deserved press. The manufacturing community shares their successes and learning about lean through Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) and their "Target Magazine". Most lean manufacturers operate in buildings that were neither designed or built lean. That can change. Karen Wilhelm, writing for Target, spent quite some time investigating the lean construction movement. She shares what she learned in a cover story, Collaboration Makes Construction Lean.

"The culture of heroes works against the smooth flow of work."

I won't spoil the article for you by summarizing it. Not only does Karen write well, she shares a vision of what we can be doing in the built environment. I will offer one teaser… Read the rest of this entry ¶

We had our first Daily Scrum. It took 16 minutes. I minute too long. Our ScrumMaster asked each of us the 3 Scrum questions:

1. What have you done since yesterday's meeting?
2. What are you going to get done today?
3. What impediments (obstacles) do you need to be removed?

What do I know? I'm just a beginner. A happy beginner!

We got through the questions in under 10 minutes. We then asked follow-up questions to some of the team members' responses. One issue was left to be addressed by tomorrow's Scrum. Once the meeting was closed I called for a Spike¹ to address the issue with three people on the team. In 5 more minutes we resolved an assignment that in other settings might have taken a number of phone calls, emails, and interruptions. Spike over!

Read the rest of this entry ¶

1. The word spike refers to a focussed high level of engagement to get just one thing done. Everything else is on hold for that time. [ ⇑ back ]

There's nothing like learning-in-action.¹. We just finished our planning session for our development project. I was surprised by how much time we spent defining what it meant to be done. In the LPS world we call that establishing conditions of satisfaction. But we struggle to get team members to stay in that conversation. "Just tell me what you want!" The ScrumMaster wouldn't let us move on 'til he confirmed that the whole team understood what would satisfy the Product Owner.

I'm looking forward to comprehending!

Towards the end of today's session, I noticed that our ScrumMaster frequently said, "We'll inspect and adapt." (He said it before we started the planning. I just hadn't noticed.) "Of course," I thought. The future is uncertain and unknowable. That's just what we do on (LPS) projects. But I also know it's not what is usually done on CPM-style projects. Conventional wisdom (and scheduling software) guides people to put a plan in place and stick to it. The result is project managers often try to get reality to match their plan. Doesn't work. Never did.

Read the rest of this entry ¶

1. Chris Argyris claims it's the primary way we learn. See his book Knowledge for Action. [ ⇑ back ]

While Toyota is in 3rd place in the US behind Ford and GM, it ranks 2nd in sales worldwide and 1st when it comes to profitability and value of the company. It seems everyone is paying attention to Toyota and their lean ways. Toyota made the cover of the September issue of Baseline Magazine, What's Driving Toyota? Baseline is a Ziff Davis publication catering to IT professionals. (ZD also publishes PC Magazine and eWeek.) While there is a decidedly IT bent — read the Baseline executive summary¹ — author Mel Duvall shows himself to be quite the student of the Toyota Production System and The Toyota Way. You won't read a better 11-page description of what makes Toyota the world's best manufacturer.

While we can be fascinated with Toyota, we better get started on our own lean path.

One thing stood out for me. Toyota's go slow to go fast approach — nemawashi — is practiced throughout the enterprise. The author gives a number of project examples of how Toyota executives take the time up front to establish clear roles, objectives, communication channels, and experiments. This up front consensus-building time allows Toyota and their partners to accomplish big goals together. Try talking your clients and bosses into taking more time at the beginning of your project to clarify performer roles. Who wants to pay for that? Toyota does. And their returns are the evidence that the rest of us should take that time too.

While we can be fascinated with Toyota, we better get started on our own lean path. There's no better place to start than on projects. Each project offers the opportunity for experimentation. Set your goals with the project performers and constituents. Take the time to establish roles and communication channels. And keep your attention on what you are learning as your project unfolds. Then, share your learning broadly within your firm. Your future viability just might depend on it.

1. "Behind Toyota's power drive are sophisticated information systems supporting and enabling the business processes that help the car maker eliminate waste, limit inventory buildup and continually improve production." [ ⇑ back ]

The editors at Fast Company think Wal-Mart is about to bring about a real reduction in the use of energy. In cooperation with GE, Wal-Mart has begun a year-long initiative to replace at least one incandescent lightbulb for each customer. That's 100 million bulbs that will go out of service. In their place we'll be screwing compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs). Why am I writing about this? It's one ambitious project, that's why!

CFL sales are projected to reduce carbon emissions equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the road

The numbers are impressive. In FC's article How Many Lightbulbs Does It Take to Change the World? One. And You're Looking at It¹, CFLs last anywhere from 8,000 to 12,000 hours. This compares to 1000 hours for an incandescent. That's 8 to 12 bulbs taken out of service for each CFL. Each CFL bulb uses about 28% the energy of an equivalent 60 watt incandescent. At a savings in energy of $0.46/month the CFL pays back in 5 months. (If you buy the bulbs in an 8-pack at Sam's Club the payoff will come in 3 months.) It continues to generate savings for another 8-10 years! But that's not the best part.

If Wal-Mart succeeds, then their CFL sales are projected to reduce carbon emissions equivalent to taking 1.3 million cars off the road, or not burning 29,900 railcars of coal.

Now on to the project side of this. This initiative started by chance, like many company initiatives do. FC tells the story of a buyer who wondered what could be saved by replacing the incandescents in the ceiling fans with the fluorescent bulbs he saw in hotel rooms. Each lamp takes four bulbs. Each store has about 10 models on display. There are 3,230 stores selling fans. Wal-Mart alone was paying $6 million annually for the electricity for those incandescent lights. The buyers continued to wonder. And wonder some more. For me, this story is about a group of people that started with a lightbulb buyer to GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, all considering just what might be possible.

Wal-Mart is demonstrating what is possible when someone wonders and others listen and act.

Projects like this take a bunch of selling…ideas, not light bulbs. The implications turn out to be huge. By committing to provide the CFLs GE was also committing to forgo the sales of 600 million incandescents over the next few years. That would require shutting down at least one factory. It's a decision that GE eventually made.

More decisions and plans had to be made. Displays had to be created. Education programs for shoppers were developed. Shelf stocking in all 3,230 stores had to change. These are just some of the actions that we know about that had to be coordinated. Wal-Mart didn't tell FC their whole plan. I predict we'll be compelled to make the switch. Even non-Wal-Mart shoppers will buy CFLs, and many will become Wal-Mart shoppers in the process.

Selling CFLs are not like designing and coding software, nor like designing and building buildings, nor new product introductions. No, it's much bigger. Selling 100 million CFLs will take legions of people acting in concert so the bulbs are ready for you and me and then we'll replace our bulbs. While this may not save the planet, Wal-Mart is demonstrating what is possible when someone wonders and others listen and act.

1. The article will be available online to everyone on Sept 1, 2006. Subscribers and newsstand buyers can get access now by using the access code "FCSEPTCUST". [ ⇑ back ]

Fredrik Wacka writing in Webpro News Using Blogs for Project Management says the time is here for project weblogs.

"Project blogs integrated into an intranet will, I believe, prove to be one of the most valuable types of corporate blogging."

Fredrik is a regular writer on blogging. Not only is he suggesting that project champions blog he advocates Why Corporate Boards Should Blog. I've been writing a weblog now for 2½ years. I also work with project teams across the AEC industry. Maybe other projects are ready for this. The AEC environment is not ready. For the most part, project participants have neither the time or the inclination for reading or writing this sort of thing. Sure project teams would benefit tremendously from more story-telling about the project. But for now, I can't see recommending it to anyone and I wrote a specification for a project weblog.

Are you interested in spectatcular team results?

"Would a 36 percent reduction in unit cost interest your management? How about a 40 percent improvement in productivity, or a reduction of cycle time from 55 days to 1 day, resulting in a savings of $1 million? These are all actual figures from the 2004 final round of competition at the International Team Excellence Awards event.

Cathy Webber says all that is possible in her article for last week's edition of Projects @ Work*, Making Collaboration Work. Ms. Webber says the difficulty with collaboration is a function of poor leadership.

"Leaders do a poor job of creating an open, inclusive, inspiring, supportive, and motivating environment where collaborative project teams can flourish."

What can we do to help them, help us?

Ms. Webber says the results are available when leaders do the following:

• Define A Team-Project Framework
• Use Collaborative Technologies
• Create Team Champions
• Include All Stakeholders
• Reward Teams

But don't wait for leaders to take those actions. Help leaders help us.

Take some time to read Cathy Webber's article. Then, share it with your team. You might need their help.

* Disclosure: I accepted an invitation to join the editorial board of Projects @ Work.

I've been testing new software for managing projects. Basecamp™ is great! Go visit the site. Trials are free. The interface couldn't be easier to use. It's the right solution for small design projects. It's also good for consulting engagements. Get an idea of how different this is by reading their manifesto. It starts with

We believe project management is communication.

I could have written that first line. Have a look. Better yet, try it on your project.

Your own power and authority will only get you so far. You'll gain power when you share it. So goes the argument of the editor of Harvard Business Review. Read on…

The Project Reformer's e-Tip of the Week

036: Exercise Power Collaboratively

One of my favorite business writers is Thomas A. Stewart. Stewart wrote for Fortune Magazine and Business 2.0 before joining Harvard Business Review as editor. He's not doing much writing anymore. However, he does write the opening essay for each issue of HBR. I open to it each issue. The October lead article is titled "Surprises for New CEOs," a collaboration of Michael Porter, Jay Lorsch, and Nitin Nohria. Their article is a winner. Stewart's commentary is unforgettable. Stewart sums up the article with the following: "The more power you have, the more important it is to exercise that power collaboratively." HBR's target readers are the leaders of our companies. Stewart's one sentence conclusion is good advice for all of us who find we are accumulating power and authority. This is especially appropriate for project managers on big, or complex, or troubled projects. It's also practical advice. Project leaders can't be in all places at once. Projects by nature are distributed in their organization and execution. Sharing power with project performers only accumulates more power for the leader. The organization functions better when each member is in the position to act with authority. Try it. Explore with your team how you can share power with them. The Project Leaders' Studio™

©2004 Hal Macomber | weblog.halmacomber.com | e-Tip Archive | PDF | Submit Tip

Try this on your projects. First, discuss it openly with your project team. How collaborative are you in your leadership? You'll never know if you don't ask!

I had the opportunity today to observe a group of 20 superintendents and foremen plan the next six weeks of their project. They were working out how they would build the project. This contrasts with the way the project had been planned up to that point. Like most projects, a few smart experienced people work out a sequence of activities that others are to follow. This project, like many others, fell behind schedule and drifted over budget. Also, like many projects, the only thing to do was to ask the project team members what needed to be done.

Why do we think the head is smarter than the body? Why do we wait 'til a project is in trouble before asking the project performers what it is we should be doing?

Today's session was impressive. The superintendents and foremen worked their way through the schedule correcting sequences while identifying the work that can be done and culling that work that can't be done. After 2½ hours these people had a plan that they were committed to. And, unlike having "experts" plan the work, these superintendents and foremen got practice thinking through how they will build. That practice will be invaluable when the future turns out to be different from their expectations.

I don't do this very often but I have to showcase one man's work and his calling: Better Workplace Now™. Tom Terez has set out to create better workplaces. This doesn't appear to be altruistic. Tom's writing indicates a pragmatism rather than idealism. Tom is a story-teller. He's well-equipped with an MBA and a degree in journalism. But he's not just a story-teller. I get the impression he lives the lessons of his stories.

I came to find Tom by way of Alan Mossman, a friend and colleague from the UK who is working with Greg Howell this week delivering a workshop in Atlanta on implementing a lean approach on your projects. Alan picked up the story from one of his friends, Geof Cox who reprinted the article in New Directions, also in the UK. (I love how small a world it is!) Alan is a regular reader and frequent commentor of this weblog.

What got both of our attention is the story of an elementary school principal in Ohio. I'll let you read the story. It's well-worth your time. Go to Lessons from a Principled Leader. In a sidebar, Tom describes 7 action steps for being present to your situation. I've excerpted them here.

1. Reserve some quiet time for yourself each day. Listen to the inner dialogue.
2. Walk around, observe, ask questions. Be among the people who do the work.
3. Expect to see fascinating things. Then tell stories about what you've seen.
4. Don't dismiss the "small" stuff. What you think isn't important may be very important to someone else.
5. Remember that all organizations, no matter how bad they appear in the moment, have things that are working. A well-framed question or prompt can lead people to acknowledge and honor what currently works.
6. Recognize that even negative people are trying to say something positive. If someone complains about dull meetings, what they're saying is that they want better meetings where they can communicate and engage with colleagues.
7. Strive to live by the 95% Rule: Spend 95% of your time trying to understand and just 5% of your time making judgments.

Tom could have told a story about project managers and used the same 7 action steps. Try them on for a week or two. I bet it makes a big difference in your effectiveness and enjoyment.

There's plenty more at Better Workplace Now™. Have a look and get a bronze key while you are there.

Dad knows best…not! While finishing the outdoor room we got to the point of laying the pavers. My son worked concentric circles using a variety of squares and keystone shapes. The rest of the family kept feeding him those blocks as he called for them. He finished the 18 foot circle with a row of darker pavers to give it a crisp visual edge. Up next…laying two walkways to the circle.

The pavers for the walkways were 6″x9″ and 6″x6″ in the ratio of 4 to 3, respectively. This is equivalent to an 18″x18″ space. I wanted to work out a pattern that would be repeated throughout the two walkways. One walkway was 42″ wide. The other was 84″ wide narrowing to 42″ as it approached the circle. To further complicate it the brothers decided to build the two walkways at the same time, one working from the driveway to the circle, the other working from the deck to the patio. (Bear with me here.) To me it looked like a mess about to unfold. My landscape architect student son had another idea. He would let a pattern emerge.

Working with a few simple rules the two boys could independently approach the circle. Their rules: use 4 rectangles for every 3 squares; bridge 3 rows with 2 rectangles every once in awhile. The rest of us fed the pavers in batches of 4 rectangles and 3 squares. Randomness evolved.

Here's my lesson: first, trust competence; second, autonomous agents acting in accord with a few simple rules will produce something functional and unexpected. The circle and the walkways are beautiful…far superior to Dad's repeated pattern. Have a look.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about another lesson in emergent/organic processes…my participation in a day-long open space planning session for Coachville.