 Reforming Project Management |
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Thursday, June 26, 2003
Experimenting with the Listening Workplace
I've had some provocative comments on my speculation for a Listening Workplace (5R). (See Clearings, Intentions and Noticing.) The comments have ranged from "You are really on to something" to "Get real, Hal. It's not this complicated!" So, I'm emboldened to proceed with my experiment. Starting next week I'll be working with as many as six teams on developing the practices for a Listening Workplace. I am still looking for a few more project teams. Here's what we'll be doing.
Who knows where this will go. I certainly don't. But, I do know this: there is so much waste on projects. Our attempts at getting lean are just scratching the surface. Just maybe, a Listening Workplace can be a clearing for ongoing focus on client value without the usual waste. Contact me now. Please include this information:
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
Project e-Tip of the Week
This week's Project e-Tip was submitted by Clarke Ching, a reader in Scotland. Clarke reminds us of the perils of multi-tasking by sharing his story of book reading. Enjoy!
Clarke selected a 1-year subscription to Business Book Summaries as his reward for submitting the Project e-Tip. Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Day with Seth Godin
Today I drove 475 miles round trip to New York to spend the day with Seth Godin. It was worth every minute of the drive. Seth is a prolific writer about marketing. He spoke of permission marketing, unleashing an idea virus, and being remark-able. Of the about 40 people attending his workshop a number of them were leaders in their fields. So, what did I learn? I now have a whole new perspective on what I'm doing by blogging. Seth says in the post TV-industrial complex permission marketing, rather than interruption marketing, will prevail. However to do that you must turn strangers into friends before you can turn them into customers. While this weblog is not a marketing arm, I am developing 'friendships' among the readers. Over 80 customers are readers. Geez, and I thought I was just learning with the rest of you! Seth charges $800 to attend the Purple Cow Workshop. However, for every 25 Purple Cow books you purchase you get a seat in the workshop. That's a savings of over $450! Remarkable! Get a dose of Seth by reading his recent ebook 99 Cows. It's normally $10 on Amazon. He's allowing me to distribute it to my readers for free! Hello Again to All Subscribers!
I apologize for the interruption in email delivery. Many of you must have forgotten about Reforming Project Management or me or both. I've been blogging away even though Blogger has had its problems. It is finally fixed (for now). Please take a look at five of my recent posts:
I'll keep monitoring the delivery of emails. If you don't hear from me for awhile, please check-in. It will most likely be a technical snafu. Thanks for reading! Monday, June 23, 2003
Six Project Teams Wanted
Are you adventuresome? I'm looking for 6 project teams who want to join an experiment with me. Here's my plan: over the next five weeks I will be creating and testing a set of tools for encouraging the listening workplace in the project setting. This is part of a larger effort of mine to have project managers step up to the role of project leaders. As you've probably read by now in 5R Protocol for a Listening Workplace I think that one of the reasons lean initiatives work in the production environment is they either begin or include the visual workplace (5S). The visual workplace does something essential for people working in the production environment. It creates a clearing for observing and maintaining value-based practices. That clearing is predominantly associated with materiel (equipment, tools, space, material, and labor). The world of projects is always about people and only sometimes about materiel. The principal actions of people on projects occur in language: requests, promises, assessments, assertions, and declarations. But those speech actions don't appear as clearly as does the physical elements of projects. If we are to conduct projects on a lean basis we need to produce a clearing for observing and maintaining conversations that are attending to the value promised on the project. So here goes:On Thursday I will offer six teams the opportunity to work with me on creating the listening workplace. To be one of those six teams I want to hear from the project manager of the team. Please email me to accept my invitation. Include:
I want to remind you that this is an experiment. There is no listening workplace. There is only my strong suspicion that something I'm calling the listening workplace will create the circumstances for delivering projects on a lean basis. Don't even think about getting your team and project involved if you aren't up for the learning and surprises. I'll provide more details during the week. In the meantime, I need to get ready for a trip tomorrow to New York. Seth Godin, author of Purple Cow, has invited me to attend his Purple Cow Workshop in his office. Maybe he thinks I'm purple...naw. I'll tell you what I learn. Visit the Archives for more postings |
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