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.
Tuesday, August 15, 2006
Accumulated Blogfodder -- Cleaning out a backlog of links...
Assumption Based Planning: A plan is a tentative solution to the inexact problems posed by an uncertain future...Planning is not the same as scheduling.
Good versus Bad Variation: Organizing for routine work: Drive out variation. Organizing for innovative work: Encourage variation.
Late projects are late one day at a time: "How does a project get to be a year behind schedule? One day at a time." - Fred Brooks, software engineer and computer scientist - Read the extensive comments
Balancing diligence and laziness: Common organizational practice is biased in favor of diligence,...laziness doesn't get the respect it deserves.
Is change really tough?: "Change" is difficult (for people being told to change) because they have no idea what the change means for them and their work.
Peter Drucker Quote: "My greatest strength as a consultant is to be ignorant and ask a few questions" - Peter Drucker
When do people change?: If you don’t know them and you don’t love them, you are not going to change them. Why people do the things they do: So I'm thinking about the person who was proud of making people cry when consulting. Let's call her Jackie. Jackie comes in with an idea of how people should be doing their jobs. If the people aren't doing their jobs that way, Jackie's assessment is that the people are incompetent.
Project Managers and Technology: "Do you feel that to be a great Project Manager one need not know completely about the technology involved?"
Might come back to revist a couple in detail, but they've been sitting in my to-blog pile too long not to share.
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