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.
Friday, January 07, 2005
First Friday Farrago for '05 -- Cleaning out a bunch of "to-blog" items left over from 2004; things that caught my attention sufficiently to grab, but for which I didn't find time or muster energy to do justice to with meaningful commentary. With a bit of something for everyone, this little collection should keep you busy over the weekend...
Project Management Humor -- A small collection of cartoons -- interesting that they emphasize juggling.
"Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream."
Another thought along these lines is that there's a lot more of us on this planet in the long tail than in the narrow peak. The economy of the future decades are going to be more about the long twin tails of India and China than the big dog peaks of the US and Europe.
The New Accountability -- Individual vs Individual as part of a vibrant collaborative network.
"Think of a corporation like a human body. To be healthy, the body needs to take in sufficient and appropriate nourishment, exercise, and avoid behaviours known to cause disease and injury. Likewise, a corporation needs to 'invest' in people, technology, infrastructure and innovation -- the nutrients of business growth -- 'exercise' that investment to generate revenue, and avoid the behaviours (bad decisions, bad acquisitions, letting the competition inflict a beating on you) that lead to corporate 'illness' and 'injury'.
"By this analogy, the corporate model of the 1990s was the body-builder -- investing heavily in food, and exercising to build muscle and strength and speed and resilience. The catchwords of the day were innovation, knowledge, human and intellectual capital. There was even talk of a 'war for talent', an acknowledgement that bright, creative people were so valuable that companies would fight over them. Investments with long-term value are called assets, and the corporation of the 1990s generated wealth and growth by investing in assets.
"By contrast, the corporate model of this decade is the dieter -- staying healthy by eating as little as possible, spot-exercising and using diuretics to reduce every visible ounce of fat, forgoing muscle and strength and speed and resilience for the appearance of health. The catchwords today are cost-management, outsourcing, offshoring, and risk management. Focus is on short-term, quarter-over-quarter bottom-line change, and the corporation of today generates wealth by eliminating costs."
"Giving up the blame habit isn't easy, especially in a society where it seems as if everyone else is doing it, and where we likely will have to 'go first.'"
"Before you post to the company blog again, read this manifesto. To blog guru Robert Scoble, business bloggers should have a few things in common. Among them, they should steer clear of PR-cleansed jargon, they should have a thick skin, and they should avoid writing during times of emotional turmoil."
"A popular novel also figured in the turnaround. Graham bought his two dozen deputies copies of Eliyahu M. Goldratt's 'The Goal,' a book about managers who save a factory from oblivion. In the dramatic account narrated by the fictional factory director, managers figure out how to address bottlenecks, cut costly inventories and deliver on time."
Fuzzy Numbers -- From this BusinessWeek cover article on the failures of accounting practices...
"Halliburton says it followed generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP)."
"We so often think about these branching and interconnected networks as a fancy list of tasks. Built well, they represent interdependencies among people and the tasks. But the insight above really gets at the people nature of projects. There aren't hard cutoffs between the end of one task and the beginning of another. The line on the gantt chart implies a conversation, and depending on the complexity of the tasks, the amount of time people are working on the "line" between the two tasks could be significant."
Amen, brother Jack, amen!
Hot Rod Art -- ooh, I think I pulled something patting myself on my back.
"I’ve heard of a fantastic land far, far away where magical people called “project managers” collect something called “requirements.” These requirements so clearly, concisely, and completely describe work to be done that all the villagers involved share a common understanding of a project’s goals. Before a single pixel is plotted in this amazing world, villagers are able to agree to what a project will (and will not) accomplish..."
Valuing Activity -- "Here are some of the ways I may gain value from any given activity..."
Overcoming Writer's Block -- "The Web runs on good content, yet good content has to be written and can be hard to come by."
Strange to think I was suffering from writer's block in November with all this stuff in my in-box -- and this is only about half -- more to come next week. Maybe it was just lack of energy. Maybe the list was too daunting and I didn't know where to start. Now I'm putting it behind me. Clear slate. Clear mind.
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