MANAGEMENT VISIONS

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

July 23, 2007

"SENDING THE RIGHT MESSAGE"

I'm working on a new book which I hope to announce soon. It is entitled, "Morphing Into the Real World - The Handbook for Entering the Work Force," the purpose of which is to educate our youth in terms of making the transition from the safety of Mom and Dad and schools, to the bitter realities of the real world. One of the key points I make time and again in the book is that people act on perceptions. These perceptions could be based on reality or on something imagined. In other words, we may perceive a situation correctly or incorrectly; right or wrong.

As a communications major, I understand the importance of how we transmit signals to others, thereby affecting their perceptions of us. This can be done verbally, through writing and body language, the type of actions and decisions we make, and even our physical appearance. I spend a lot of time in the book discussing the importance of these forms of communications. For example, our youth are now wizards at electronic communications devices (e.g., cell phones, text messaging, e-mails) yet are having severe problems with simple interpersonal communications, such as greetings and common courtesy, conducting a presentation or giving a speech, interviewing, or holding a simple conversation. "Networking" to Generation X and Y means text messaging, not socializing as a group. It should therefore come as no small wonder that professional, civic, and fraternal societies are experiencing a decline in membership.

In terms of body language and actions/decisions, I discuss the importance of conveying the proper signals, as well as the impact of proper grooming and dress. Let me give you an example, I know of an Army PFC who liked to drive around his military base in his pickup truck and proudly displayed a Confederate flag on the back. Over time he noticed many of his friends graduated to Sergeant while he remained a PFC. He didn't understand this as he thought he was smarter than the others. Someone finally pulled him aside and told him to get rid of the Confederate flag, which he reluctantly did. Shortly thereafter though, he was made a Sergeant. In other words, he finally learned the hard way of the importance of cultivating the proper image.

One thing that is hard for our youth to grasp is the significance of our dress. Offices have become rather lax in their dress codes, perhaps overtly so. When I discuss this issue with young people I tell them that our dress sends some very powerful messages. More than anything, it is a sign of respect to the people we are coming in contact with, be it a boss, a coworker, a customer, or a vendor. If someone dresses sloppily, they are basically saying, "I really do not care about you." It also says a lot about our personal self-esteem. Today, there is a big push for companies to promote teamwork and, because of this, they are rethinking dress code policies, some even going so far as to institute uniform programs.

Such lessons are simply not being passed on to our youth properly, all of which are having an adverse effect on their socialization skills in the workplace and questions their credibility as professionals. In order for them to succeed in the work place, it is necessary they master these simple communications skills. Regardless of the technical skills they possess, it will not help them alter the perceptions of the people they come in contact with daily. Simple communications will.

If you would like to discuss this with me in more depth, please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail.

OUR BRYCE'S LAW OF THE WEEK therefore is... "No amount of technology will be able to alter the perceptions of our coworkers, our managers, our customers, our vendors, or our friends and family."

"PRIDE" METHODOLOGIES FOR IRM

Friends, the "PRIDE" Methodologies for Information Resource Management (IRM) is a common sense solution for Enterprise Engineering, Systems Engineering, Data Base Engineering, and Project Management. The methodologies include defined work breakdown structures, deliverables, and review points that promote quality and the production of industrial-strength information systems. Building information resources is a science, not an art form. Our methodologies clearly explain the concepts that govern them, which remarkably, is derived from engineering/manufacturing practices. Now you can get these acclaimed methodologies for free at our corporate web site at: http://www.phmainstreet.com/mba/pride/

MY "PET PEEVE OF THE WEEK" IS "YOU CAN PUT YOUR EYE OUT THAT WAY"

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Independence Day in America, complete with fireworks. This reminded me of when I was a youth and enjoyed setting off fireworks myself. I always found the instructions printed on fireworks rather amusing which said simply, "Put on ground, light fuse, run away." I didn't know exactly where they wanted me to run away to, I had already been to the circus, so I just stood back a few feet and watched the firecracker explode.

Fireworks drives mothers crazy, and I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard my mother warn me, "You can put your eye out that way." I think this was the standard warning for just about anything I did, be it riding a bicycle, playing baseball, swimming, running, or breathing. It is the first cardinal rule each mother must learn in order to bear children. I wasn't alone either, all of my friends' mothers admonished them with this same expression regularly. So much so, that we thought our mothers had formed a conspiracy or some secret society for the sole purpose of maintaining our eyesight.

The power of mothers is rather interesting. Years ago, Jay Leno commented that mothers had the uncanny ability to sniff out just about anything, even better than a bloodhound, such as your secret copy of Playboy you kept stashed away in your bedroom. Back before the Iraq war started, he said we should not have wasted time sending in a team of UN delegates to look for weapons of mass destruction since they never found anything. Instead, they should have sent in a team of mothers who would have pulled Saddam Hussein out by the ear and cleaned up the situation right away. It would have probably saved us all a lot of grief.

Mothers are full of little axioms they use to keep us in line, but I have to think, "You can put your eye out that way," has to be their favorite with "Stop it or you'll go blind" coming in a close second.

Such is my Pet Peeve of the Week.

"BRYCE'S IS RIGHT!"

Folks, a couple of years ago I started to include my "Pet Peeve of the Week" in these "Management Visions" podcasts. They have become so popular that I now syndicate them through the Internet and they are available for republication in other media. To this end, I have created a separate web page for my writings which you can find at phmainstreet.com Look for the section, "The Bryce is Right!" Hope you enjoy them.

AND FINALLY...

I received a response from a DD in Atlanta, Georgia regarding last week's essay, "How well are we preparing the next generation?"

D.D. writes:

"I agree totally that these items should be taught in school.

However, I was never taught these things at school or at home. It meant that my first couple of jobs were not successes.

And yes, I learned in the school of "hard knocks," but I learned these items quickly after a couple of failures that raised a "cognitive dissonance" between what I believed and reality.

But it did not lead to my "demise". It simply delayed my success until I made the adjustments in my mid 20's. And yes, I had difficulty surviving, but I did survive as this new generation will.

These kids are not different from us baby boomers. They will learn through failure just as us "spoiled" children learned.

As for teaching these subjects in school, each of the subjects you mentioned could be taught as part of the regular curriculum, integrated as practical applications and case studies of applying math and English. However, even the most careful instruction and grading will not keep these kids from having to learn the key lessons the hard way in the real world.

As a matter of fact, some of these "video games" are teaching them a lot about being reliable as a leader, climbing a hierarchy, working as a cooperative part of team, associating with heterogeneous workers, setting and accomplishing goals, practical project, managing time, negotiating, and other skills.

This training is far beyond anything I got as a child. Definitely more than I learned by taking out the trash and mowing the lawn.

It is also teaching them computer skills and how to work in the virtual world of the Internet. This is much more important than learning the names of "cumulous clouds" and the capital of Kansas.

The rote memorization and regurgitation of useless facts that they get so they can pass these tests for the "No Child Left Behind" program is well illustrated in that game "Are You Smarter than A 5th Grader." The reason the adults don't know the answers to these questions is that they haven't used this knowledge since they were 5th graders. These kids should be learning the things they will need to know as adults, not some academic collection of information that they can find out on Google whenever they (rarely) need the information."

Thanks for your comments.

Keep those cards and letters coming.

MBA is an international management consulting firm specializing in Information Resource Management. We offer training, consulting, and writing services in the areas of Enterprise Engineering, Systems Engineering, Data Base Engineering, Project Management, Methodologies and Repositories. For information, call us at 727/786-4567. For a complete listing of my essays, see the "PRIDE" Special Subject Bulletins section of our corporate web site.

Our corporate web page is at:

http://phmainstreet.com/mba/

Management Visions is a presentation of M. Bryce & Associates, a division of M&JB Investment Company of Palm Harbor, Florida, USA. The program is produced on a weekly basis and updated on Sundays. It is available in versions for RealPlayer, Microsoft Media Player, and MP3 suitable for Podcasting. See our web site for details. You'll find our broadcast listed in several Podcast and Internet Search engines, as well as Apples' iTunes.

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This is Tim Bryce reporting.

Since 1971: "Software for the finest computer - the Mind."

END

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Wednesday, April 11, 2007

April 16, 2007

"HOW EFFECTIVE WERE YOU TODAY?"

Okay, you believe you had a great day at work today; that you accomplished a lot. And maybe you did. Then again, maybe you didn't do as much as you might think. A lot of people believe just because they are a model of efficiency, they are being highly productive. This is simply not true. We have discussed the concept of productivity on more than one occasion in this column, but some trends in the I.T. industry have spurred me to revisit it again.

Perhaps the biggest problem here is that people fallaciously equate efficiency with productivity. They are most definitely not synonymous. Efficiency is concerned with speed of delivery, reduced errors, and minimal costs or effort. In other words, how fast we can perform a given task, at reduced costs, without committing any substantial errors in the process. But what if we are performing the wrong task at the wrong time? Obviously this would be counterproductive regardless how efficiently we performed the task. I always use the example of industrial robots on an assembly line, whereby they can perform tasks such as welding very efficiently. But if they are welding the wrong thing at the wrong time, they are counterproductive.

This means there are two variables involved with productivity: efficiency and effectiveness. Whereas efficiency primarily deals with speed and "doing things right," effectiveness is concerned with "doing the right things." In other words, working on assignments in the right sequence. Sequence can be defined for a single project by its work breakdown structure (WBS) and precedent relationships, or for working on multiple projects based on priority.

ANALYZE THIS

To illustrate this point, let's consider your work activity today (either perform this analysis at the end of the day, or for your last business day). Write this down on a piece of paper:

1. First, let's define your EFFICIENCY rating for the day; as guidelines, use the following:

1.00 - I was a dynamo today; worked fast, no errors.
.75 - I did more than my share, not too many mistakes.
.50 - I did my fair share, average number of mistakes.
.25 - I was below average, some mistakes.
.00 - Had a bad day; too many mistakes, a lot of time lost.

Enter your EFFICIENCY rating here: __________
(enter any number from 1:00 High to .00 Low)

2. Make a list of your work assignments IN PRIORITY SEQUENCE; (list at least your top five assignments, regardless if it is within a single project or involving multiple projects; obviously you may have more assignments, but let's limit it to five for the purpose of this exercise):

1. __________________________________
2. __________________________________
3. __________________________________
4. __________________________________
5. __________________________________

3. Account for your time during the day using the following variables. Be honest.

A. WHAT WERE YOUR "TOTAL HOURS IN DAY" (THD)
(The total number of hours spent at work)

___________ hours

B. Of the THD, how much time was spent on interferences or activities not directly related to your work assignments (e.g., breaks, lunch, meetings, reading, surfing the web, e-mail, correspondence, telephone, travel between appointments, etc.)?

___________ hours

C. Enter the number of hours spent during the day on your top five priorities (enter "0" if you didn't work on something); then compute the extended number according to the equation shown:

HOURS EXTENDED #1 Priority (___________ / THD) X 1.00 = ___________ #2 Priority (___________ / THD) X .90 = ___________ #3 Priority (___________ / THD) X .80 = ___________ #4 Priority (___________ / THD) X .70 = ___________ #5 Priority (___________ / THD) X .60 = ___________

Note: The hours reported here, coupled with the time recorded for interferences ("B"), must equal the Total Hours in Day (THD). Also, the rates used in the computation are based on priority (highest to lowest).

4. Add the EXTENDED numbers of all five priorities: ___________
(This is your "Effectiveness" rating)

EXAMPLE

A. WHAT WERE YOUR "TOTAL HOURS IN DAY" (THD):

8 HOURS

2 HOURS

C. Enter the number of hours spent during the day on your top five priorities (enter "0" if you didn't work on something); then compute the extended number according to the equation shown:

HOURS EXTENDED #1 Priority (1 / THD) X 1.00 = .125 #2 Priority (1 / THD) X .90 = .1125 #3 Priority (0 / THD) X .80 = 0 #4 Priority (0 / THD) X .70 = 0 #5 Priority (4 / THD) X .60 = .3

4. Add the EXTENDED numbers of all five priorities: .5375
(This is your "Effectiveness" rating)

PRODUCTIVITY = EFFECTIVENESS X EFFICIENCY

Let's put it all together now and compute our Productivity. Let's first start with our example; let's assume we had a pretty good work day and our Efficiency rating (as defined in step #1) was .75. When we multiply it against our Effectiveness rate, we get .403125 .

Next, let's compute YOUR numbers:

__________ EFFICIENCY (from #1) X __________ EFFECTIVENESS (from #4) __________ PRODUCTIVITY

To calculate your own productivity rating, see our "MBA Daily Productivity Analyzer" on our web page: http://www.phmainstreet.com/mba/mbaprod.htm

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

This is but a simple example. It is far from scientific (for example, the efficiency rating is crudely estimated without any level of precision). Nonetheless, the Productivity number highlights the differences between Efficiency and Effectiveness. Using the numbers in our example, if we were to use a perfect 1.00 Efficiency rating (as opposed to .75), the worker's Productivity rating would not be any higher than .5375. This is because the worker spent time on interferences/distractions and worked on other priorities that perhaps he should not have.

I have seen companies who like to plot efficiency ratings on a graph, but as far as I am concerned the data is misleading as they only portray a glimpse of a much larger picture. Plotting the effectiveness rating is just as important as the efficiency rating and helps produce a realistic productivity rating.

CONCLUSION

Some workers, particularly craftsmen, understand the differences between efficiency and effectiveness. They appreciate the total process for building something and are acutely aware of the potential risk for cutting corners. Some simply don't get it (and probably never will). For example, the I.T. industry commonly misunderstands this concept and is obsessed with efficiency. As evidence, consider the use of "Agile Methodologies" today which are quick and dirty approaches for writing a program. Here, a rudimentary program is developed, then radically refined over time until the client signs-off on it. Proponents consider Agile Methodologies to be a quantum leap forward in terms of productivity. I don't. True, they can write code fast, but because they are not well structured, a lot of time is spent revising designs and rewriting code, not just once but several times. Instead of getting it right the first time, Agile Methodologies rely on the efficiency of their power programming tools to make them look good.

So what is a good productivity rating? First, let's dispense with the notion of 100% productivity. This is purely a myth. This would mean that everyone in a company is being both highly effective and efficient around the clock. This is simply not possible. Our example herein shows a productivity rating of 40% which is probably closer to reality. In fact, 25% is considered a good rating and is typical for a lot of companies.

If this paper has done nothing more than raise your consciousness about the differences between effectiveness and efficiency, then it has served its purpose. Hopefully, it will cause you to refocus your efforts on "doing the right things" as opposed to just "doing things right."

So, how "effective" were you today? Your answer will say a lot.

As a footnote; If you are familiar with my writings on "PRIDE" Project Management, you have heard me talk about "Effectiveness Rate" in differentiating the use of time. What I am describing herein is not the same thing; similar, but not quite. Under the Project Management scenario "effectiveness rate" is an availability rating which is used for estimating and scheduling, but not for calculating productivity.

OUR BRYCE'S LAW OF THE WEEK therefore is... "Productivity = Effectiveness X Efficiency"

MY "PET PEEVE OF THE WEEK" IS "TURNING CRAP INTO GOLD"

Last week I suffered a major crash of Windows XP. This caused me to reinstall the operating system as well as the many programs I work with. Fortunately, I was well backed-up and didn't lose anything of substance; nonetheless, I lost a day and a half recovering from it. The week before that, a good friend of mine suffered a similar crash on his laptop which took him days to recover.

Not long ago you heard me complain how Microsoft products are actually counterproductive. Well, here are two fine examples of it. Instead of doing what we're paid to, both my friend and I lost considerable time fixing the operating system.

While I was reinstalling the operating system I was, of course, encouraged by Microsoft to upgrade to Windows Vista (like that would be better). Frankly, I've lost all confidence in Microsoft products and understand why so many of my friends and business associates are switching over to the Mac. We want confidence that our computers are industrial strength and aren't going to hiccup at the worst possible time for us.

I'm just amazed how blindly people follow Microsoft, be it at home or in the corporate world. I always chuckle when I hear Bill Gates described as a technical genius. A marketing genius, yes, but a technical genius? Hardly. To me, Gates is living proof that you can indeed turn crap into gold.

Such is my Pet Peeve of the Week.

"PRIDE" METHODOLOGIES FOR IRM

AND FINALLY...

I received a lot of e-mails this past week from our listeners; first, I heard from "The Great One" in Sarasota, Florida regarding last week's essay on "Virtual Project Teams"; he writes:

"Your essay on virtual teams was on the mark. Having extensive experience on working and managing virtual teams I would like to stress the most critical factors to success:

1. Holding weekly meetings with all team members following a structured agenda and meeting etiquette.

2. Prior to meetings, team members forward their status reports to the project manager and report any critical issues PRIOR to meetings such that the project manager has a chance to digest, analyze, and action resolutions...bringing large issues to the meeting is inefficient and counterproductive to the rest of the team.

3. Team members report on their progress at each meeting giving the entire team a view to the overall project picture.

4. The Project Manager should conclude the meeting with general announcements, perhaps praise noteworthy events, and point out any important procedural requirements.

I agree that working in a virtual mode brings the need for carefully planned projects following some form of methodology to the forefront.

My pet peeve is that when an individual who is an in-house type of person working from home consistently shows up late to virtual meetings and falls behind in their work, they should be brought back in house for a time until their work habits are brought back in compliance. Working from home is a privilege, not a right..."

Next, I heard from some listeners pertaining to some of my recent "Pet Peeves of the Week."

First, I received a note from a DW in Toronto regarding my "Fascination with Celebrities" column. DW writes:

"I think its the 24 hour news channels, Larry King, and all the Entertainment TV shows that keep all of this in our face more than it used to. More bandwidth needs stuff to fill it and still make money, so easy stories get airplay

It is the "tabloidization" of the media. Paper tabloids have been with us much longer, like in the movie "LA Confidential" (was that art? dunno...). I swear I would do all my grocery shopping at a store that banned tabloids at the check-out counter.... but that's about as likely as getting my spouse to stop watching Entertainment Tonight.

So, is our interest in celebrities/entertainers new? No, it can start with Mozart and Liszt, on to Dickens and Twain, then to non-entertainers like Lindburgh. Again, its the "fill the bandwidth" issue."

I also received an e-mail from a FD in Edmonton regarding my "Birthdays" Pet-Peeve where I complained how we tend to celebrate the wrong things. FD writes simply:

"The alternative to another birthday is certainly not a pleasant thought!"

Again, thanks for your e-mail. Keep those cards and letters coming.