Reforming Project Management » collaboration

Toyota’s Lesson for Project Managers

Hal — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:22:36 +0000

Looks like I hit a nerve with my previous post. For years I've been writing about the good example Toyota set for the design and manufacture of cars. I've been writing about the even better example they are as a model for modern-day management and leadership. At times, it might have appeared I was fawning over them…that I might not see their shortcomings. Perhaps. The one thing I know about Toyota is that they understand that their company is built on human beings…the greatness coming from the everyday ingenuity of people along with the limitations from our mistake-making.

I still choose to interpret both Lahood and Toyoda are sincere.Still, it is easy to interpret arrogance in Toyota's actions regarding unintended acceleration just like it's easy for some to interpret grand-standing from Ray Lahood. I feel no safer after listening to either Secretary Lahood tell us that he will hold Akio Toyoda to his promise to be more diligent regarding safety or to the apologetic TV commercials from Toyota. In making our interpretations we must acknowledge our predispositions just as we acknowledge Toyota's pattern of apologizing and the bluster of American politicians. Considering all of that, I still choose to interpret both Lahood and Toyoda are sincere. It will help us learn from this experience.

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Friction-Free Collaboration

Hal — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 20:34:03 +0000

: Image via CrunchBase

I've just arrived at the PMI Global Congress 2009 in Orlando, FL. Tomorrow AM a number of us who are members of the PMI New Media Council will be speaking in a panel on social media and its impacts on the discipline of project management. Among other things, I'll be talking about my company's experience using Yammer. Our experience has been good. More on that later.

It's great seeing a smiling colleague's faceOur company works with architects, engineers and construction firms along with the clients of those firms. We're a small consultancy…just 12 people all working out of their homes in all 4 US continental timezones or at our clients' work sites. We can get isolated from one another. Many of us have become way too self-reliant going so far that some people reinvent materials because it appears easier than collaborating with peers. While we take great measures to make the company's materials widely available using Windows Live Sync, still we weren't collaborating like we wanted to.

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Project Blogs Never Been Easier nor More Useful

Hal — Fri, 29 May 2009 00:06:14 +0000

: Image via CrunchBase

About seven years ago I speculated on this weblog a use for blogging on projects. It was a naive post at the time. I didn't have real conviction about it. I never encouraged my clients to have a try. Well, times have changed, or maybe I have changed. Project collaboration and up-to-date communication is valued more than ever. The technology just got so simple that there's no work to do to create and maintain a project blog.

Send an email and the project update is made

Posterous is a blogging and social media platform that works from your email account. You can use it from your desktop or your mobile phone. Just send a message to post@posterous.com and the rest is magic! The subject of your email becomes the title of the post. Anything you attach — photos, Powerpoint, recordings, documents — are handled by Posterous and presented elegantly on your blog. You can set up your blog so every member of your team can post. That would be very useful for keeping everyone up to date on progress, particularly when geographically dispersed. Just send an email and the project update is made!

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Project Performance Reviews Meets Microblogging

Hal — Thu, 28 May 2009 00:59:46 +0000

Project performance reviews are dead; long live performance reviews. A standard practice on projects is to conduct a lessons learned (post mortem) at the end of a project. In my opinion it doesn't produce much value. The current project is over so can't benefit from what is said. The project team is often broken up sending people to different projects. Instead, do project assessments all the time. On lean projects people have many practices for assessing learning and performance. The practices range from simple plus|delta reviews at the end of a meeting, to formal retrospectives at the end of a milestone or whenever a breakdown occurs. Now there's a new practice to add to the toolkit. In our ever-connected world, we can now get concise and timely assessments from our colleagues in just a few keystrokes — 140 to be exact.

Do project assessments all the time.

Business Week published a story by Jena McGregor, Job Review in 140 Keystrokes. BW reports that a company has taken a cue from Twitter to design a "quick-and-dirty 360 degree review" process. The service is called Rypple. Project teams can use the service at the end of a meeting, presentation, client review, client prep session, design collaboration, etc. to quickly get your colleagues' views. Rypple sends your request or question to the group. The 140-character responses are presented anonymously to the person sending out the question. It takes just a few minutes to complete. It looks particularly promising for people who work in geographically dispersed teams.

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Have Project? Get Yammer

Hal — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 02:32:21 +0000

: Image by smith via Flickr

Do you want to collaborate? Really, collaborate? … I'm serious, can you see yourself asking your colleagues questions? Offering answers? Going back and forth, not sure of what might result? Yes? Are you sure?

Are you stuck? Really stuck? Get Yammer. C'mon, you're not really stuck? Yammer anyway!

Then get Yammer. Huh? That's right, Yammer. What is it?"(...)
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Leave Behind Your Resignation

Hal — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 02:28:13 +0000

Every now and then along comes a surprise, something you wouldn't say, but now that someone has said it, makes all the sense in the world. The Think Big Manifesto is one of those surprises. It's a small book. Quick read. While it's a timely message for today's economic and political circumstances, there's a timelessness, too. Michael Port invites us, challenges us, engages us to join with him to think big in one provocative idea after another.

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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Engaging Leadership for Not-So-Dumb Project Questions

Hal — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 17:35:11 +0000

I've been writing about "dumb" questions. While compiling the list of 45 reader questions I got thinking, why would someone not ask a question? Engaged people, in whatever they are doing, tend to be curious. Does it follow that people not asking questions, dumb or not-so-dumb, are just not engaged?

Have you voted on the Top 42 Not-So-Dumb Project Questions? Please do so now.

Get everyone involved in satisfying the needs of the customer

On further reflection I remembered a very short article in Industry Week (IW) by Ralph Keller. Ralph is the President of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME). He has a monthly column he calls Continuous Improvement. In December 2008 he wrote Engaging the Hearts and Minds of Your Employees. Ralph makes a very familiar case:

Failure to win over the hearts and minds of all of your people will result in less-than-desired results, and will not achieve the sustainable continuous improvement efforts that conditions today demand in order for companies to succeed.

He describes a few of the successful approaches.

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Lastest Discussion of 8th Waste

Hal — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:38:39 +0000

Over at NWLean there's been quite a riff on the 8th waste. Eventually, the contributors concluded that recreating knowledge is the one true 8th waste. While it's hard to argue with any of the writers' arguments, getting at the roots of that waste is where we can begin to take effective action.

Waste in production, services, healthcare and construction are pervasive and seemingly intractable. Ohno and others noticed that. We've also noticed that the opportunity for waste reduction is right in front of us. All we have to do is tap the ingenuity of the workforce. The key question for me is, "What gets in the way of doing so?" It was that question that led Greg Howell and I to observe participants in the construction process.

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Learning from The Elegant Solution

Hal — Wed, 21 May 2008 04:45:41 +0000

Two years ago I read Matthew May's book The Elegant Solution. It's a description of how to create an organization that day-after-day is recognized by the innovation that it creates.

The book is based on the time Matthew spent with the University of Toyota. I've reread the book to prepare for a Study Action Team™¹ that I am leading for a hospital that is being designed and constructed. Toyota is best known as the world's best manufacturer. But even more important to their long-term success, Toyota knows how to do projects.

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Be Lean…Build Lean

Hal — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 15:07:22 +0000

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…(...)
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Another Scrum Day of Learning

Hal — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 03:22:17 +0000

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

What have you done since yesterday's meeting?
What are you going to get done today?
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!

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Scrum: Inspect and Adapt

Hal — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 02:03:26 +0000

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.

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