This Focused Performance Weblog is a "business management blog" containing links and commentary related primarily to organizational effectiveness with a "Theory of Constraints" perspective. TOC is noted for its applications in Project Management and Multi-Project Management (Critical Chain) and Operations Management (Drum-Buffer-Rope), as well as in Marketing, Strategic Planning and Change Management (TOC Thinking Processes). If you are on an archive page, current postings are found here.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Chance that the Printer is Working -- Example of funny charts and graphs found at GraphJam.
"'The Shingo award establishes that the B1-B PDM is a world-class operation,' said Kim Roe, 76th Aircraft Maintenance Group Bomber Transformation chief. 'This award recognizes the mechanics and managers who have shown that critical chain theories are applicable at the depot maintenance level, repair and overhaul process.'"
Planet Money -- A few months ago, I was extremely impressed with an episode of This American Life, called The Giant Pool of Money. It was a joint venture between TAL and NPR News, and was and remains the best description of how we got into our current "worst financial crisis of generations." Another recent TAL episode - The Enforcers - included a segment put together by the same folks. It's subject is the partial root of the crisis in the SEC's failure to sufficiently regulate the markets - a failure rooted in the last 30 years of Reagan-Bush laissez-faire policies, compounded by the ubiquitous incompetence of the last 8 years (that last bit is my interpretation, not part of the radio piece).
At the end of that episode, there was an announcement of a new podcast from NPR - Planet Money - as well as a related blog, to both of which I've subscribed this week. If you have any interest in global finance, and these days you should, I strogly suggest you check it out.
"I have decided I’m not going to waste my time anymore with lazy, rude, self-important, self-delusional, intellectually dishonest, closed-minded curmudgeons who bark against the full moon of change."
Program Manager - Responsible for assuring PMO methods and practices implemented within assigned Client programs. Responsible for overseeing all work activities leading to the delivery, assurance, certification and acceptance of project deliverables and solution components each assigned program. In coordination with assigned Project Managers, interface with client regarding high-level issues of project scope, status, and risk mitigation. Works closely with client to identify and assure delivery against key business objectives. Helps define and refine company standard PMO methods and practices. Primary responsibility for program-level knowledge management.
Oversees large complex e-Marketing programs consisting of multi-discipline and mixed resource (company, client, and third party) teams. Responsible for defining scope and content of programs in coordination with Account Management. Assists in contract negotiations. Assures program knowledge capture. Ensures program profitability.
May manage up to 4 client teams. Primary interface with client regarding program process/progress. Responsible for assigning and directing work in compliance with proposal or statement of work. Maintains overall program plan and coordinates high-level aspects of program activities with client and team. Acts as development Manager for 3-5 Project Managers. Performs project level and annual reviews with assigned PMs. Reviews and approves staff reviews performed assigned PMs.
The sense I get from the interviews is that the Princeton/Hamilton office culturally feels like a 100-person version of the 25-person DigitalGrit I joined in 2004 - smart, caring, dedicated people trying to do good work and strongly supported by its leadership. If my suspicions are correct, this should be fun.
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From Dell to Taco Bell -- Here we go again. A few years ago, Jeff Jarvis kicked off the Dell Hell meme. This time it's Taco Bell Hell.
"...this is a moment of decadence in online marketing and the next turn of the screw will root out this baroque, extraneous set of contortions around conversation. Marketing should be dialogic. True dat. But the goal isn’t conversation...
"...what’s so powerful about going online, you can talk back. But it feels like what some marketers are taking away from this is that they should talk to us in conversational tones and should do product placement by getting the video podcasters we listen to to pitch to us in their own voices. It feels like they still want to talk at us and still keep tight control of the message—but just hide that they’re doing it."
[my added links] As in everything new, it's a learning process, and many will take longer to understand and adapt.
Evidence of Critical Chain in the Wild -- One of the heartening things I've discovered during my job search is that of the two firms that I've had sufficiently successful conversations that they might be in my future, one manages their multi-project organization "the TOC way" and the other is seriously considering doing so. I knew about the first going in, the second was a pleasant surprise sprung upon me in an interview.
No Respect -- Scott Berkun has written a great piece in Why project managers get no respect, on the perceived roles of PMs - perceptions that are created and reinforced by all the bureaucratic trappings with which many PMs surround themselves with as proof of their value.
"This lack of respect creates a huge opportunity for people who open minds: their expectations of you are low. If you take the time to find out what it is that the people on the project need from you, or value from you, and make that as large a part of your job as possible, you'll get more respect than you expect. And you may find that people start referring to you as a different kind of PM - one who has changed their opinion of what PMs can do for a team - and you’ll earn not only their respect, but their trust and best work too."
This is so very much in sync with how I have tried to perform the PM role and something I've had to think about carefully for interviews in my current job search.
Project Management - the way I try to do it - is 1) about serving/leading the team (worrying about the process not to keep the team in line with it, but rather so the team doesn't have to worry about it), 2) about helping the people who do the making understand what they are making, defining (for communication purposes) the boxes, and more importantly (for modeling the effort for them), the arrows between those boxes, and 3) assuring that the promises being made are both feasible and realistic at the outset, and protected along the way (especially working with other project managers to avoid/minimize cross-project interference).
In my last four years at an interactive agency, one of the things I am most proud of is that while in the beginning, I had to horn my way into certain projects to get to know the business and its processes, in the end, teams were asking for the support of myself and other project managers in the firm. I like to think that I didn't change their opinions of project managers as Berkun talks about (because project management was not all that mature in the agency four years ago), but rather taught them by example how to rely on our project managers to help everyone do their best work building our marketing programs and web sites.
It wasn't out plans and schedules. It was our communication supporting our dedication to helping the team and the client meet their goals.
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