This Project e-Tip comes courtesy of a fellow blogger and close friend Joe Ely. Joe writes in the blog Learning About Lean. He shares with his readers what he is learning as he and his company adopt a lean approach to the design, fabrication, and construction of pre-engineered wood structures. As usual, Joe made some great comments to last week's e-Tip. I've used them as a basis for this. Thanks Joe. Hope you enjoy Purple Cow. It's in the mail!

The Project Reformer's e-Tip of the Week

015: Make Any New Practice a Habit

One of the challenges on every new project is getting project team members to adopt a standard set of practices. These might entail planning, reporting, preparing to start a task, and simple communication protocols among team members. Here's a way to turn your intention for a new practice into a new habit. The following example uses the contrasting intention-commitment statement pairs used in Project e-Tip 014: Shift Good Intentions Into Commitments. Make a 3x5 card with the contrasting statements on it and put the card in my pocket. Make a simple chart for the next 20 work days and put it on my desk. Each day color code it: green means I used a statement like this 4 or more times -- yellow 2 or 3 times -- red means 0 or 1 time. Each day assess how well I use the statements by referring to the chart. Note what I am learning, what I am getting good at, and where I will place my attention in the next day. Enlist a colleague to help me accomplish my intent. Request that person's assessment weekly on my use of such language. The intentionality and deliberateness of this exercise are what makes it work. And you might discover it is not easy to stay on a program of this sort. You will learn what it takes for you to produce a new habit. That will be great data for you when working with team members who are trying to do the same. This Project e-Tip is based on Joe Ely's comments to last week's e-tip. Joe writes Learning About Lean.

©2003 Hal Macomber | weblog.halmacomber.com | e-Tip Archive | PDF | Submit Tip

Anyone for a free book? If I publish your proposal for an e-Tip, then I'll send you Purple Cow for being remarkable.

posted by Hal at 3:46 PM | link  |   |   | Google It!  | Email This  |

Why Good Projects Fail Anyway, Nadim F. Mattat and Ronald N. Ashkenas, Harvard Business Review, September 2003, p 109-114, (reprint R0309H) piqued my curiosity. I've been skeptical about mainstream publication's thought pieces on project management. I was pleasantly surprised to find a thoughtful article.

I'll start by sharing the last paragraph with you: (I just love to start at the ending)

Attempting to achieve complex goals in fast-moving and unpredictable environments is humbling. Few leaders and few organizations have figured out how to do it consistently. We believe that a starting point for greater success is shedding the blueprint model that has implicitly driven executive behavior in the management of major efforts. Managers expect they will be able to identify, plan for, and influence all the variables and players in advance, but they can't. Nobody is that smart or has that clear a crystal ball. They can, however, create an ongoing process of learning and discovery, challenging the people close to the action to produce results -- and unleashing the organizations's collective knowledge and creativity in pursuit of discovery and achievement.

The authors have one big recommendation they offer. They implore project managers to organize the project as a set of rapid-results initiatives. They make a number of claims for doing a series of quick focussed projects within projects. An obvious benefit is getting a payback from the investment fast. A second benefit is learning quickly to influence the balance of the project.

I'm reminded of the work of Christopher Alexander. Alexander is an architect. Not just any architect, but the person who created a language for design -- A Pattern Language and The Timeless Way of Building. Alexander talks about repair as the usual course of action following the move-in to any space. He encourages architects to get the client to live in the space as quickly as possible so the architect can begin the process of repair (continuing design) before the project is complete. Alexander is sure we cannot anticipate how people will use the space provided until they use it.

We live in an illusion that we can figure it all out (ahead of time). It is blatantly false. The future is uncertain and unknowable. We can get off to a good start on our projects. But we have to engage with the people who are 'living in our spaces' and with those people 'building our spaces' to tap into their wisdom, care for the product of our efforts, and their collective talents.

Matta and Ashkenas have described again why a reductionist and deterministic approach to project delivery is bound to fail us. Let's get on with the reform.

posted by Hal at 9:24 PM | link  |   |   | Google It!  | Email This  |

Harvard Business Review, Sept 2003, leads with a case study on blogger behavior at work. The case is kinda fun. A woman writing a blog calling herself "Glove Girl" is responsible for a big increase in the sale of the company's products, but she blogs without permission, and without following the company line. (Imagine that.) What is the CEO to do? [smirk]

As usual, HBR invites four 'experts' to offer their views on what to do. The advice is not bad. It ranges from figure out how to take this blog-marketing thing mainstream to what's wrong with the way you communicate internally that you didn't know Glove Girl was blogging.

Here are my comments:
(I used to be a Chief Operating Officer for a design-build commercial builder.)

• Create mechanisms for employees to engage fully in the mission of the company. Some people are just dying to make bigger contributions. Blogging is just one way to share ones voice.
• Blog with company bloggers. Ray Ozzie founder of Groove took up blogging and discovered his own voice along the way. (If you can't beat 'em, join 'em?) Learn first-hand how the blogging medium (genre) can support the company mission.
• Encourage group blogging. As companies become more and more virtual (physically separate) we risk becoming detached from our peers. A group blog, where each of us can post, read, and comment as it serves us and the group, nurtures relationships. Group blogging may be the safety net for distributed project teams.
• Bring the marketing department together with the company bloggers. Prepare yourself to mediate the conversation! My experience of bloggers is they are VERY well-intended. Help people find ways to create something new from an intentionality between the groups.
• Look for other 'marginal practices' that may be contributing to the success of the company. Instant messaging for supporting clients immediately comes to mind. Wikis for supporting the folks who are supporting the customers? How about unsanctioned websites?

Creating a blogging presence was too easy. It took me all of 3 hours on a weekend. Just imagine what is happening at work with all the 'friendly support' available! Don't wait...harness it.

posted by Hal at 10:46 PM | link  |   |   | Google It!  | Email This  |

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