Denise Brinkmeyer

Moving Big Rocks in 2012

I've lost some of the most important people in my life during the last two years.  It's made me keenly aware of how brief our lives are.  The moments of our lives are precious resources not to be wasted.

Standing in the kitchen before sunrise, your sleepy headed daughter stumbles her way in for a cup of coffee.  This is a moment. 

"Good morning.  How is my precious daughter today?" delivered with smile and a hug.  What a wonderful moment.

It's these wonderful moments that also tease us with fantasies about giving up "the rat race" and staying here in this moment forever.

But this role of mother is just one of my roles and I am committed to my responsibilities in the others as well.  If I can just learn to seize all of the moments of my day, in all of my roles what kind of impact could I make?

A few years ago, Alan and I read The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber and it changed our lives.  We were at a place with the business where we weren't surewe could ever have our weekends to spend with our families without suffering late nights playing catch up.  The business ran us and we had no control.

E-Myth changes our lives because it acknowledged this plight of the small business owner and suggested that there was a path to changing it.  Since that time we've made small strides in the business and even bigger strides in our health and happiness.  The book gave us hope and that is what we needed.

Now it is a few years later, and we still haven't achieved the level of confidence we want, but as I reflect on our achievements I wonder why.  We've had success, but once we achieve a goal, we set a new one and move on.  We don't take time to step back and look at what we've accomplished like we do on our home building projects.

In early November, I began changing the way I worked.  I started committing more time to my leadership role and focusing on big rocks.  If you're not familiar with the Stephen Covey concept, read this summary.  

I was worried that taking the time away from my operational responsibilities would have a devestating effect on the bottom line, but I felt I had no choice.  I have the best staff I have ever had, but the big rocks piling up kept them from being wildly successful individually.  If I don't take a leap of faith now, the big changes I want will never happen because these wonderful people will lose their motivation.  

In just eight weeks we've designed and implemented a performance and training plan that I've tried to get off the ground since 2006.  Yesterday, we announced the plan to the staff and have had very positive reviews.

Moving big rocks helps me to maximize those precious moments as a business owner, a wife, a mother, a daughter...

This year, I'm going to save my list of goals off to a special file instead of just deleting them from my planner as they are completed.   I'm going to sit around a roaring fire with our associates and toast each of our accomplishments in 2012.  I'm going to thank them for making it possible.  

Want to Increase Productivity? Kill the Distractions.

It's been 5 1/2 years since I locked the front door at JUMP and removed the expensive, antiquated phone system that gave the outside world a direct connection to our production staff.  I took a lot of criticism from a few customers and some friends who said it wasn't good customer service to take away that human connection to customers and potential customers.

I had decided to provide my business process improvement abilities to my own company.  We had been operating too long in the mode of "this is what you are supposed to do, we hear."

So to my naysayers I pointed out that the activity we were accomodating wasn't profitable business or potential business for the company. 

My analysis showed that the majority of telephone contacts fielded by a receptionist had to do with potential vendors who wanted to use my time to find out whether or not their product fit our needs even when I wasn't shopping for their products or services.  She also spent a great deal of her time helping people who mixed our address with another building.

We're not a walk in business.  Why did we need a receptionist?  If a customer was coming by, the project manager had an appointment and would great him at the door.

What about the phones?

Well, customers who contacted programmers directly were bypassing our analysts and project managers causing cost and schedule overruns.  Again, not profitable business.

However, the single most important reason for the changes was my concern for the staff's ability to focus on their work.  Every interruption costs well beyond the time the interruption took.  For example, a 10 minute interruption to a worker who is involved in problem solving or critical thinking tasks might cause up to an hour's impact on his productivity. 

The mental shift between the task and conversation also makes it convenient for the worker to further delay for fear of other interruptions or to check on new information.

So, let's say John is working through several procedures when he is called on the telephone at 11:00.  He answers the phone and engages in a 10 minute conversation about a work related topic that is not related to his current task.  At the end of the conversation, his momentum in his work is completely  gone.  He knows it will take him approximately 10 minutes to get back to where he was in his thought process and even then he may still be in the middle of the problem. 

But now it's 11:10 and John's lunch break is at 11:45.  So he's looking at less than 25 minutes of quality output before leaving for lunch.  John may be hesitant to shift his attention back to the task for fear of how the inadequate amount of time may affect the quality of his work.  He may be tempted to catch up on email messages and spend the next 25 minutes in tasks that are not nearly as important for the satisfaction of achieving something during that time.

And all of this happened for the convenience of the person on the other end of the phone.  The information may have been important or even urgent to the other person, but for John it was a productivity killer.

It's funny that we respect a person working as a chef more than a person whose job requires thinking.  We would never dream of interrupting the chef in the middle of cooking the meal for fear of ruining the outcome.

I saw an article this morning on information-management.com which pointed to the increasing problem of information overload.  The article, "Interface - Information Overload: None Are Immune" inspired me to consider whether or not I was effectively managing information overload.

While technology can help us manage a lot of things, we have to make decisions about our own processes for managing the information and putting "first things first."

5 1/2 years later I can report that the changes I made did increase our productivity and quality several times over.

While I certainly like to accomodate and please as many people as possible (yes I am high blue), I never regret focusing on the wildly important, even if that means I have to tell someone "no", or "not right now".

PlanPlus for Outlook: A Great Tool for Personal Planning and Organization

Like a lot of people I know, this time of year makes me look back at the year's accomplishments and measure the effectiveness of my resolve to improve myself.  Personal productivity resolutions are always on my list, but I've achieved several of my goals thanks to a tool from Franklin Covey that makes electronic planning better.

I've been using PlanPlus for a couple of years now, and I finally feel like its part of my daily routine.  I thought I'd share my review so that my friends and family wanting to "go paperless" in 2011 could put away their paper planners with confidence.

A little side note about being "paperless"...  A couple of years ago I resolved to stop taking meeting notes on paper because my schedule is so busy that by the time I was able to recreate the notes electronically, much of the context of the meeting was lost.  It was a struggle at first, but today I'm fairly consistent in capturing meeting notes on my pda or my laptop.

The Franklin Covey PlanPlus tool is a big part of my success. 

My pda notes sync to Outlook notes.  Within Outlook, I am able to move content into tasks and calendar items using the PP tool.  The main planning screen allows you to drag emails into tasks and calendar items using drag and drop.

You can organize tasks into projects and track the progress of the project.  The utility will even create a progress report for you.  My only criticism of the report is that the tasks themselves don't show on the report, just the overall completion and timeframes.

The tool includes the same planning tools you'd see in your paper Franklin Covey planner: weekly goals, mission, compass, and coaching.

Version 5 of the tool had some bugs that would cause Outlook to crash.  I'm now on Version 6 which rarely has a problem.  According to the website, Version 7 is out with a couple of new features.

The price is $99.95 for a first time installation or $49.95 for the upgrade. There is a free trial, too.  I thought it was very affordable considering that I was paying about 1/3 of that each year for a paper planner a few years ago. 

If you're a fan of Franklin Covey, AND you want to be paperless, you'll like this tool.  You'll find it online at www.store.franklinplanner.com/store/  Select Software and PlanPlus for Outlook 7.0.

 

Is Innovation at Odds with Standardization?

In theory, the concept of innovation (thinking outside the box) conflicts with the concept of standardization (doing something to standard or norm).  I find it interesting that some organizations don't handle the two movements in their organization very well.  One or the other will find itself disenfranchised for such a time as management has no use for them until the need arises and the roles reverse.  You go from "zero to hero" because you are the one with the answer.

The dysfunctional organization:

"We need a new product to serve market X", says management.  "We'll get right on it!" says the  Innovation camp who detail a wonderful product designed to make the market drool.

"This new product can't be produced using the current process." says a junior Innovation member.

"That is not our problem," says a senior Innovation member

Operations begin and product rolls off the line.  60% of the initial production is returned.

"This isn't working," says management.  "We can't control the product quality."

"That's because all of the standards have become obsolete with this new product.  Don't worry, we'll define some new ones."  says the Standards camp.

The moral of the story is that Innovation must drive but Standardization must orchestrate the process to carefully control the outcome.  In a healthy organization they communicate and collaborate.

Seeking Permission to Control Projects

Last week I taught a Professional Project Management course to a group of smart, hard working individuals anxious to bring order and control to their projects.  

Many times during the week I was reminded of the times early in my career where I struggled to gain control of my projects and responsibilities.  I thought of the people who either willfully or unintentionally attempted to block my systems for process and order.  I eventually found a phrase that explained my intent and I gave it to my students to add to their own project management toolbox.

If it's not in control it's out of control.

 

Too often people define "out of control" as "spiraling out of control" which occurs when the situation has become a crisis.  Simple, day to day "out of control" occurs because of the project manager's inability to regulate or maintain functions or activities.

Why can't the project manager just be a better manager?

I used to work for someone that most people described as "very controlling."  In fact, many times that I have been assigned projects, I was described as very controlling.  Quite frankly, I'm honored by the label.  As a Project Management Professional, my job is to bring the project under control.  Earlier in my career it was a tool that others could use to manipulate or control me.

When people say "controlling" they usually mean "oppressive" or "interfering."  I often wish they would cut to the chase.  The adjective has become a tool by which the uncooperative attempt to manipulate and assert their own will.  You could argue that they themselves are interfering with the process.

I know that I am not oppressing my team and I am not interfering with their responsibilities.  So I press on, control, control, control.

But what do you do when your own manager is the problem?

A dear friend of mine joined a company I worked for several years ago.  Within a week he told me that he couldn't perform his duties. "Why not?" I inquired.

He said that he didn't have permission to act in his role.  He was given the role and given responsibilities as a professional in the industry, but when it came to actually taking action, he wasn't supported.

I realized that he was not only right about his position, but that it was also true of my position at the time.  I had a role and I assumed that I had permission to manage my projects, but I did wonder why I ran into conflict with my peers so often.  Armed with this new insight I began to observe the inner workings of my company to discover that no one had outright permission to act in their roles.  We all blamed each other and ran into conflict because we were lead to believe that we had permission.  It was implied, but never truly granted.

When conflict arose amongst our managers, we would all turn to our boss with the expectation of support for the permission we believed we had only to discover that he took a different side or avoided giving a definitive response.

I was surprised by my friend's quick assessment of a situation I had been struggling with for some time. But then again, I avoided looking too closely because I didn't want to be accused of being "controlling."  

Looking back at it now, I appreciate the lesson I learned.

Project managers have an instinct for how to manage and control their projects and the outcomes.  The ones I know are patient, thoughtful, compassionate, and hard working. Despite all of this, they are only successful when they have permission to be in control.

 

On the Benefits of Project Management Professional (PMP)

Today I passed my PMP exam and I am pleased with the effort. I've passed several Microsoft certification exams, but the PMP exam was unlike any of them. By comparison it was a marathon compared to running 15K.

I have been managing projects for JUMP since 2001 and have completed the training offered by the "School of Experience." In my opinion, the best project managers graduate from this school. I believe its why PMI focuses on experience during the application process. The application takes a few hours to put together, and the test preparation requires many additional hours, but the experience is worth the effort.

The discipline of project management requires constant review and modification (in education we used to call it monitor and adjust). The benefits of the practice is that project managers realize they are constantly learning to be better leaders. Sitting in the exam room for four hours running formulas, answering questions, and relying on my memory of principles made me appreciate the education and experience more than I ever have before.

I enjoy this profession and I enjoy other people I work with in the profession. And as often as I have the opportunity, I will tip my hat at others who have sought and earned the PMP credential.

 

Visit our company website for more information about Project Management Consulting

Probable Efficiency

My work as an analyst creates many opportunities to help organizations create more efficiency in their systems. Of course understanding the business drivers and infrastructure is key to designing a good system. Also essential is the understanding of mentality of the workforce. You must evaluate whether or not adoption of a new system is probable.

Calculating the probability requires an understanding of what motivates the workforce. Mandates to use a new system or workflow will usually be followed, but the quality of the work will suffer. If, however, the new system design balances worker motivation with other business objectives the probability of adoption increases.

Establishing the right team of stakeholders early in the project is critical to its success. The true secret of project success is effective communication.

 

Visit our company website for more information about Project Management Consulting

What's the TRUE Cost?

A big part of my job as a systems designer is to identify efficiencies that could be realized by the SuD (System under Design). I've come to realize that nowadays I look at everything in terms of efficiency, net cost, and net benefit. Sometimes when I am preparing solution proposals I'm perplexed by the decisions made in order to "save money" because the customer doesn't know what I know about total cost. Yet I'll admit I don't know everything about his resources.

The Law of Conservation of Energy says that energy cannot be created or destroyed. I make a parallel observation about work. All projects require a given set of work. Work requires resources which have a cost. The work is done either by internal resources or external resources but there is still the cost associated. And that, is where the calculations usually end. But let's consider the hidden costs. What's the cost associated to the project not being undertaken let alone finished? Are there other projects dependent upon the completion of the current project? What are the costs of delay to those projects? There isn't a one size fits all solution. In every situation the stakeholders must balance cost, quality, and timeliness issues with an objective eye. Overly optimistic projections mask future delays and cost overruns. Objectivity and a realistic appraisal no matter how unpleasant protect the company by providing the opportunity to mitigate disaster before it could occur.

In the end, every organization must decide upon the appropriate balance of resources to create the most benefit whether it be money, time, or quality.

 

For more information on custom software development processes, visit JUMP's website.