How to Publish Project Manager’s Daily Newspaper?

Have you dreamed about publishing your own newspaper? Here is quick way to publish one.

Some days ago I got a link on twitter to an online newspaper about social media content.  I was impressed and thought its lot of work put in by the author to compile so many sources and presenting in an attractive layout.

Last week I tried it and published my own daily e-paper for project managers.  Click here to see what I came up with http://paper.li/kulveervirk/projectgurus 

Isn’t it impressive?  This is quite easy to produce and took less than 2 minutes, thanks to www.paper.li for this services.

Most of us use either Twitter or Facebook (or both in many cases). This tool organizes links shared on Twitter into an easy to read newspaper-style format. Newspapers can be created for any Twitter user, list or #tag  to read and share. It assumes that you have account setup on either of the service.

This service can be used with Twitter or Facebook, since I use Twitter, I utilized my Twitter lists. All I did was setup an account, entered values to read stream of my Twitter account’s list that has many project management resources subscribed.

Step by Step:

1. Go to www.paper.li and sign in using your Twitter account.
2. Click on ‘create a newspaper’ link
3. Click on ‘create a custom newspaper’ button
4. Enter Title for your newspaper
5. Select the people on Twitter that can contribute to the paper, I used Twitter List @projectgurus that I have created. I also use #PMOT (hash-tag).
6. Click on ‘Publish Paper’ to complete and that’s it.
7. You can automate it to be sent each day on a set time.

How does it make your life easier as a project manager? 
This tool scan the Twitter list/hash-tag or user list each day based on your preferences and gives you a readable format newspaper – most relevant. 
Does it replace the following of your twitter feeds?
No, it provides selected content and mainly where links are embedded in tweets to the other websites.

If you need to find out more about it – here is link to FAQs (http://paper.li/faq.html)

How To Make PowerPoint Presentations Powerful.. Part 3

How To Prepare?

 Prepare your presentation based on self-evaluation questions in part 1.  You need to spend time according to the ‘worth’ of your presentation.  More planning and preparation are required if stakes are high.

1. Brain-storm: Like any task, you need to brain-storm about the presentation. Write down the idea / topic of your presentation. Use any mind mapping tool.
2. Weave a story: A story around topic supported by case study or testimonial or any relevant post on the Internet is very engaging to audience. Your objective is to grab and keep the attention while presenting.
3. Research: Comprehensive study of the subject is needed and also do research over the Internet.  If it is a tool or application you are presenting about, make sure to use it yourself and learn basics.
4. Question: Come up with your own questions about each slide that attendee may ask; or what question does your slide raise.  Ask questions from subject matter experts (use Internet forums, Twitter, or LinkedIn).
5. Facts: Find out how would you support the idea or story you are going to tell the audience – find facts/figures/graphs to support your claims.

Putting Slides Together

1. Flow: Develop a logical flow of your topic so that it becomes seamless from beginning to end.
2. Less is More: Question yourself why you want this particular slide; can you do without it; if not then how would it benefit the audience.
3. Simplicity is the Key: Simple slides with white background and big black fonts work in most cases; even when room is well lit.
4. Make is Readable: Use reasonably big fonts so that person from back of the room can also see. Use different color fonts to emphasize keywords, facts and figures. Use bulleted list where possible; 5 bullets per page should serve the purpose. Spell out acronyms, sources of information on the slide.  If slide contains too much – create another slide.
5. Peer Review: Review the draft presentation with available group of people, including your Boss, peers, and other concerned people.

How To Improve Your Presentation

1. FAQ: Compile a Frequent Asked Questions (FAQ) slide.  Use feedback comments at strategic places in the presentation. Use photos of the person who provided feedback or commented – it wakes audience up.
2. Engage: Put some multiple choice questions / options around the topic in the slide deck to keep audience brain engaged.
3. Bullets: Use numbered bullet points where possible or use laser pointer to point out which bullet point is being discussed.
4. Paint the Picture: Associate your product, service, or topic with something big or unique.
5. Present: Do not read the slides to audience rather present to them. Slides are to reference and show key points.
6. Practice: Rehearse the presentation and check (that it works) the tools and technology you will use during presentation. Record and watch your rehearsal practice for improvement.  If someone will be helping you in changing the slides, involve that person in rehearsal – if possible.

Hope you found some good points to implement in your PowerPoint presentations.  What is your experience?  Lets share.

Thank you for your visit and have a great day.

How To Make PowerPoint Presentations Powerful.. Part 2

Part II – Cause Of Boring PowerPoint Presentations

(This post is also published on pmhut.com as a complete article)

The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment. – Dorothy Nevill

1. Knowledge: One does not know the subject inside-out. All talk is superficial.
2. Passion: Presenter is not passionate about the topic. If presenter himself is not interested in the presentation, how others can be.
3. Planning: Not enough planning done about presentation. Person may know a lot about the subject and also very passionate; but fails to plan or weave an interesting story for intended audience.
4. Expectations: Misalignment between Audience’s understanding level and key message to be delivered. Not conveying what people will get out of the presentation in advance.
5. Overkill: Giving too much information in one slide or single presentation.
6. Too Fancy: Stunning images & background, fancy fonts, various special distract audience. Know your audience and know your field.
7. Preparation: Not enough rehearsal, presentation not flowing smoothly gives indication as person is not prepared.

 Now we know the causes of boring PowerPoint presentation, in next post we will review -

Part III – How To Prepare? Putting Slides Together &  How To Improve Your Presentation

How To Make PowerPoint Presentations Powerful.. Or At Least Not Suck

Part I – From PoorPoint to PowerPoint Presentations

Have you attended any boring, too long to stay focused (even awake) presentation and at the end walked out dissatisfied without gaining something or giving out any useful input? Have you ever delivered any lengthy, fact loaded presentations with tons of tables, bullet points, graphs and even slide animation?

PowerPoint is an essential business tool and is used to inform/convince the audience and deliver the key message. It’s to be used as visual aid to help presenter and not to present complete white papers in PowerPoint format.

From sales people to students and from technical gurus to creative mavericks, everyone is using PowerPoint to share concepts, offer solutions, sell products/services and deliver messages. Leveraging the power of PowerPoint is helping people to deliver speeches effectively and easily. By following few steps, you can improve the outcome, make interesting presentations and engage the audience.

As we all know that most precious commodity after the time is the attention of the audience so that real message can be delivered, and desired results can be obtained. Our goal should be to keep audience attentive and receptive of our message by making presentation concise, engaging, on-topic and result focused. Also, preparation around the delivery of PowerPoint is the key success factor; actual problem is with the amount and type of content, style of delivery and type of preparation that goes in – and not with the PowerPoint itself.

Self-Evaluation

First Step is to answer following as first step, use the answers to plan your PowerPoint –

WHY do you need to give PowerPoint presentation?
WHAT do you plan to accomplish from this presentation?
HOW would you make your idea get across and accepted?
WHEN do you think will you be ready for presentation?

Now we know the importance of presenting right ‘stuff’ in ‘right’ format for better results.  In next posts we will review -

Part II - Cause Of Boring PowerPoint Presentations
Part III – How To Prepare? Putting Slides Together &  How To Improve Your Presentation

More reading material -
 http://ltlatnd.wordpress.com/2010/04/29/powerpoint-is-not-the-problem/
http://www.wordsellinc.com/blog/communication-skills/presentation-skills-public-speaking/

11 Principles of Leadership

 I came across 11 leadership principles of Marine Corps in Guide Book for Marines on the Internet and here is my interpretation of 11 principles.  I am interested in hearing from Marines about their leadership experience. 

1. Take responsibility – we need to seek and take responsibilities if we need to grow; never shy away, whatever seems challenging will help you expand your perspective.
2. Know yourself – reflect upon your strengths and weaknesses; seek improvement and understand that you can achieve only those goals that you set.
3. Set an example- conduct your business in a professional manner; do not loose temper – small minds are bothered by small problems; not only work in your job but also work on your job as well.  Be a brand that people want to associate with.
4. Develop your subordinates- consider this as part of your job; learn to delegate; as Zig Ziglar said “You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want“; give them opportunities to learn & grow;  guide them if they fit somewhere else.
5. Be available – in every respect; be available to listen to problems and challenges people are facing; to motivate, to lead and to show right direction; to hear criticism; to take decisions and to act on time.
6. Look after the welfare of your employees - the way you want your boss to look after your welfare; develop emotional intelligence; connect with people and find out what motivates them; do something that touches their lives; help them when they are in need.  Arrogance and ignorance will not take you to the top or won’t keep you there for long.
7. Keep everyone well informed  – right communication is the key; make sure that the tasks are understood, supervised and accomplished on time and tell why you need all this done; do no assume -  aks and tell.
8. Set goals that are achievable – always set the goals – people need to know what they are expected to deliver and by when; let people figure out how;  goals should motivate teams to act; measure the results and reward people.
9. Make sound and timely decisions- that are aligned with the core principles of your organization and with your job descriptions; there will always be more than one right answer – choose the one that benefits the most and not only you; take decisions like a servant leader.
10. Know your job – be technically and tactically proficient in your job; know your people; know the processes and challenges; know how can you add value to the organization or your department.
11. Build teamwork- not all people can perform equally but they should complement each other while working towards a common goal; promote team work and diversity; shield your team from external pressure; be flexible with team.

“Leadership is intangible, hard to measure, and difficult to describe. It’s quality would seem to stem from many factors. But certainly they must include a measure of inherent ability to control and direct, self-confidence based on expert knowledge, initiative, loyalty, pride and sense of responsibility. Inherent ability cannot be instilled, but that which is latent or dormant can be developed. Other ingredients can be acquired. They are not easily learned. But leaders can be and are made.” – General C. B. Cates, 19th Commandant of the Marine Corps

Thanks for reading and welcome your input.  Have a great day.

Changepoint and PPM

Last week I completed Compuware Changepoint training. I had read earlier that Changepoint is in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant (leaders) for PPM tools.

Changepoint is a web based tool for project and portfolio management.  The tool enables leadership make right decisions based on dynamic metrics of various initiatives and what value these initiatives add; and realignment of IT efforts with business strategy and vision.  Tool is very intuitive and scalable. 

In Project and Portfolio management, complexity is the key factor that makes changes difficult and time consuming. Just imagine multiple projects going on in  your organization with resources scattered around the teams (or Globe) and you are tracking the progress and reporting the metrics to the upper management.  Management wants to see  report on  status of all the projects underway, return on investment for each project, supply and demand, resource utilization, change management, issues and risks to the projects, etc. to make informed decision on project priorities, strategic planning and funding.

Changepoint makes all the aspect of program management easier by effectively managing your projects and applications, resources and client relationships.  You can find out more at Compuware website.

Disclaimer – I am a Compuware employee and opinions expressed here are my own.

3-Rs for Leaders

1. Read more
2. Reflect more
3. Risk more

Leaders ought to read a lot to stay ahead.  Each day is blessed with new discoveries and useful information.  Using the 80/20 rule, find out what is out there that you need to know.  Co-relate how changes in the world going to shape your world. Read more = Plan

Leaders take tough decisions all the time, they are the face of the organization.  Leaders chalk out the course of action in the midst of challenges.  Reflecting on the decesions taken and the one you are about to take is going to determine if you are an authentic leader - who knows where his True North is.  Reflect more = Check

Taking new risks, coming up with new ideas and having the drive to materialize them, thinking out of the box, leading organization into a totally new direction are the key qualities leader has.  Listen more and observe more.  Taking calculated and smart risk is also creativity. Risk more= Do and Act.

These 3 Rs fit into Deming’s Plan > Do > Check > Act; a continous improvement loop.  Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day.

Leadership Sans Ego & Insecurity

Photo courtesy : cultivategreatness.com

Everywhere we turn our focus to, we hear something negative and how leadership should come forward.  Leadership at every level is already faced with some difficult choices.  It is of paramount importance that when leaders make decisions to change the course, decisions should not have been plagued by personal ego and due to insecurity.

As John C Maxwell says that Ego and Insecurity are the two greatest landmines of leadership; think about any world leader and if he stepped on these landmines or not.  Do you want to?  After a long time when we reflect on the decisions we make today should be matter of proud.

As a leader, we get a chance to serve our people, I mean serve genuinely.  In these times how we act will shape our organizations and societies.  Lets take the right actions while we overcome the short-term issues, we keep long term objectives in our minds.

Thanks for visiting, and have a great day!

Capture Planning Assumptions

Your boss approaches you and tells that workplan is very good but customer wants to know how can we deliver the project sooner than promised?  Now you have to come up with a new workplan or make some adjustments based on new findings.  You put your thoughts together and go on to make changes/update and deliver the final document with required changes. 

And then your boss asks, why this task is due this particular day and why are we taking this long to complete, etc., etc…

You might have answers for most of the questions your boss has asked but it is of prime importance that you document all the assumptions you made while planning, does not matter how small or evident those assumptions are.

I would capture following -

• why are you making these changes or what is the objective and if these objectives are aligned with customer expectations;
• what are high-level or global assumptions for the plan being put in place (standardized assumptions);
• why making change to time/scope/cost;
• what are risks that can derail the work;
• what are the opportunities that you are counting on;
• who are the critical resources you have based your work on;
• what exceptions from standard process did you make;
• what compromises are built into the plan;
• what is the impact on existing process (if any);
• for budget tail of it : dollars spent per month; and
• what are the key milestones.

I hope these are the basic questions that we should be able to answer from a Project Management perspective when talking about assumptions.  Let me know what your thoughts are and what else could be added to the list?

Thanks for reading it, appreaciate your feedback.

Life is bigger than that!

2008 is nearing the completion of business work days and it was one of the eventful year.  We have seen all from US election to Canadian elections, Wall-street meltdown to Automotive bailout, Saturday Night Live comedy to economic worries.  All the stuff, never thought of. 

But when it comes to our professional life, one needs to make sure there are no unexpected surprises.  I have mentored and provided guidance to few people over the year and have also asked for advice from my peers.  Some people either make small issues into big problems or do not even have clue what is wrong.  Here are some of the points to consider-

1. Get feedback from your boss; have 1 on 1 regularly (weekly or monthly) to align objectives.
2. Grow your professional network by volunteering at work, in community or join any organization.
3. Understand that everyone is different; workplaces are diverse.
4. Totally messed up? If you are honest, you’ll get another chance.   Life is bigger than that!
5. Do not just focus on getting credit of everything you do or say.  Give credit where deserved.
6. Be careful about sarcastic sense of humor.  It may be wise to stay quiet.
7. If you do extraordinary job you get promotion as a result. Its not the other way.
8. Help others grow and learn.  Don’t be afraid that someone will steal your idea.
9. Take vacation or take time out.  Its must to revitalize your energies and focus.
10. Try to listen.  Pay attention to your superiors and peers.
11. Dress according to your job profile, at least.
12. Do not make ‘difference of opinions’ at work your personal issue.

I firmly believe if we are serious to improve ourselves, we can start afresh anytime.  Its never too late and Life is bigger than that! 

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think.

Communication Skills for Managers – Learning From Barak Obama

I was looking into posts on Mr. Barak Obama’s communication style and how it contributed towards Obama’s victory.  Did Obama address people in all 4 categories of DiSC Model?  These categories are Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness. 

Each person in his/her category wants to hear in a specific manner.  Some people need direct answer while others need some encouragement and hope and so on.  Please see the table at the end of the post and read more about DiSC Model. 

While doing so, I found very interesting Wall Street Journal video on the topic titled  ”Learning From Obama’s Effective Communication Skills“.
 

To summarize, what project manager can do -

1. giving good positive message
2. clear and compelling tone
3. giving substance along with style
4. speaking with confidence and authority
5. not in hurry to speak- patience
6. pause between sentences: at least 3-4 seconds
7. stress the right words
8. relate to people and places
9. make it simple to comprehend
10. identify what is not right with other approach

Here is the table what people mainly like to hear/communicate around- 

Major Category	Like to hear words and actions around
Dominance	challenge, power, direct answer, authority, assertive, active
Influence	empathetic, people focused, receptiveness, accepting
Steadiness	stability, methodical, calm response, careful approach, thoughtful
Conscientiousness	logic focused, skeptical, clarity and quality, questioning

What are your findings?  What did you learn? Lets share.

Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day.

Fast, Cheap AND Good

Can’t pick any two? You also need all three – fast, cheap and good? 

It has been very commonly used set of options in I.T. when offering an alternative or usually when dealing with issues from outsourced service.  Someone will come and say – “Pick any two!” 

Sometime ago I was involved in a project where we had to pick any two options and it was very hard to leave out the third one.  Many times we had to leave ‘cheap’ and other times ‘fast’,  for us ’good’ was essential and paid the price accordingly.  We had to compensate for third left out option through continuous improvement.  I kind of thought that this is the  dilemma every one will be facing.  But it is not the case as I am finding out.  Things are getting better.

The 7 Habits For Managers

Stephen R Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is classic and most of us have read and learned from it. 

 This week, I listened to his another audio book The 7 Habits for Managers: Managing Yourself, Leading Others, Unleashing Potential. Its based on ‘classic 7 habits’ and with focus on management. 

I would recommend to listen to this audio book to refresh 7 habits and learn how managers can apply these habits.  If this is new to you,  here are classic 7 habits and start with reading ’The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’

Habit 1 – Be proactive
Habit 2 – Begin with the end in mind
Habit 3 – Put first things first
Habit 4 – Think win-win
Habit 5 – Seek first to understand, then to be understood
Habit 6 – Synergize
Habit 7 – Sharpen the saw

These habits are to be used as pointers for our actions.  We got to make sure that our employees understand the value of these habits and learn from these. 

Thanks.

DiSC model – Management Styles

I completed DiSC (stands for Dominance, influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness) training last week and fount it interesting.   DiSC confirms one thing, different strokes for different folks.

DiSC is a system to help you find out similar and unique characteristics among people.  It also shows person’s behavioural preferences and helps to identify different management styles that can lead to obtain better results through interaction. 

According to the DiSC model, there are four management styles – by Dominance, by influence, by Steadiness, and by Conscientiousness.

Series of questions lead to a specific DiSC profile, that tells you what is your score and what is you dominant style of management and what are your supportive styles. 

D – Dominant : these people are active and questioning; these are direct and competitive in nature.  These people want to ‘get it done’.

i - Influence : these people are active and accepting; motivated, enthusiastic, sociable and lively. 

S - Steadiness : these people are thoughtful and accepting; patient and even tempered, accommodating. 

C- Conscientiousness : these people are thoughtful and questioning; kind of private with analytical abilities and task oriented.  Main objective is to ‘get it right’.

As we know everyone is unique and all have different ways of interacting.  Imagine, I interact with a person who has dominant  style of ‘Conscientiousness‘ (private and task oriented).  I pretend to be of ‘influence‘ (sociable and enthusiastic) dominant style; my interaction with that person can not be productive as I may not be providing the specific instructions that other person needs. 

Why is that?  Because people with dominant ‘infulence’ style mix personal talk with business discussions, becoming informal and emotionally expressive leaving the ‘Conscientiousness’ style person unclear or confuse as Max requires specific task oriented info and does not express himself emotionally.

How it will help me?  It lists what are key strengths, what things are overused, what could be the limitations and what changes should be made in management style that make one more effective.

Have you ever taken DiSC and Meyers-Briggs assessment?  What are your thoughts? Did you benefit from it?  Please share your thoughts.  Thank you for reading. 

More info -

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DISC_assessment 
2. One of the best books on the application of DiSC is by Keith Ayers titled “Engagement is Not Enough.”

Intro to Earned Value Analysis – Part 1

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We got to measure the progress of the project and report it to upper management along with controlling it.  Project might seem progressing well, tasks completing on time and we are spending money for that.  Earned Value Analysis (EVA) gives us an integrated view of cost and schedule performance.  Lets go over some basic definitions in this post.

There are three basic things that we need from project plan - Earned Value (EV), Planned Value (PV) and Actual Cost (AC).

EV  - Budgeted value (in $ or hours) of work performed a.k.a.  BCWP
AC- Actual value (in $ or hours)  of work performed a.k.a. ACWP
PV- Budgeted value (in $ or hours) of work scheduled or planned a.k.a. BCWS

These three key values enable us to calculate Cost Variance (CV) and Schedule Variance (SV).  This variance gives us info on if we are on track.

Cost Variance CV = EV-AC
(i.e. budgeted cost of work performed minus actual cost of work performed).
Positive variance means we are below budget and Negative variance means over budget.

Schedule Variance SV = EV-PV
(i.e. budgeted cost of work performed minus actual cost of work scheduled).
Positive variance means we are ahead of schedule and Negative variance means behind schedule.

Positive variance (in $ or hours) is usually considered good.  But when we have to compare progress of multiple projects, CV or SV of one project won’t make any sense when compared with other projects because they could be of different size in terms of budget and schedule.  To overcome this issue of comparing different projects regardless of their sizes, indexes are used.   Instead of subtracting, we divide the same numbers.

Cost Performance Index  CPI = EV / AC

Schedule Performance Index SPI = EV / PV

If CPI  is 1.0, we can say we are on track with respect ot cost; if CPI > 1, we can say we are under budget plus better cost performance.  If CPI<1.0, we are over budget and need attention.

If SPI  is 1.0, we can say we are on track with respect ot schedule; if SPI > 1, we can say we are ahead of schedule plus better schedule performance.  If SPI<1.0, we are behind schedule and need attention.

If CV or SV is negative or CPI or SPI is less than 1.0, I would monitor the trend of CV and SV for over couple of weeks to see the trend and then take some action.  If CPI or SPI is greater than 1.5, we still need to evaluate why is it so?

We use EVA by plotting project schedule on x-axis and cumulative (weekly or monthly) budgeted spend plan according to base-lined data from project plan. 

We need to remember one thing, Garbage in, garbage out.  If project is poorly planned, EVA can not come to aid.

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think, any suggestions for improvements and corrections are truly welcome. 

Trust is very important for teamwork

When a team outgrows individual performance and learns team confidence, excellence becomes a reality. – Joe Paterno.

Who else can say better than JoePa?  He is absolutely correct, but key thing is outgrowing individualism.  When a team is motivated to work together, everything seems possible and there is quite a different feeling. I have been blessed to work with some of the best people who knew how to empower team and have experienced how team’s common goals produce stunning results. 

Very first thing is to cultivate the trust in the team.  If there is no professional trust among group members, team will never perform at par. 

We have to be little bit open to our team members (my own perspective). if we become totally professional by delegating tasks and demand results with ‘paid for the work done’ attitude, team will not work.  You got to use some emotional intelligence, you got to connect with the employee.

Next, you being the boss,  have to guide and empower the team.  Every team member comes with unique skills, personality, objectives, understanding.  You got to know who needs direction, and who needs nod; who needs to be left alone and who should be slowing down.  Check Situational Leadership II post on my blog.  You are the one who will make things happen through this dynamic team.

Thanks for reading and I welcome your comments how you made your team perform above expectations and what factors were important to you.

 

Cheese Moved? Doesn’t Matter.

We, as a professional, are hired by organizations to deliver results and perform. As time passes, our daily job becomes our universe.  We spend our energies resolving problems, improving processes, saving money and many other good things.  Sometimes we are ignorant and sometimes we are so busy handling all the situations at the job, we do not realize that whole world has changed and we are still there.  We find that new technologies, processes, ideologies, concepts and trends have taken over what we used to do.  And when we realize, then blame our employer for not guiding us, showing us the right path, etc.  Remember, we are professionals and professionals know all about their field of expertise.

 When I see clueless people in the situations when their cheese (i.e. work) is moved (or gone), I tell them to stop complaining but learn the lesson from it and take action. 

Here are 11 points I tell (and remind) people to avoid becoming obsolete -

1. Subscribe to professional/trade  magazines and journals and read ( or go to library, but stay up-to-date on what is happening).
2. Bookmark and frequently checkout websites dealing with news & views related to your field of expertise.
3. Read some good books on the subject.  Check Amazon.com’s ratings and views before buying. 
4. Become member & get involved in professional organizations in your chosen field.
5. Volunteer your time & services in your chosen field or for any good cause.
6. Mentor and guide other people, help people grow, offer help selflessly.
7. Attend seminars or conferences; it does not matter if you got to spend few hundreds from your own pocket and on yourself.
8. Read some good self-help books on personal development and personal finance.
9. Grow your network, if good people can not find you; you go out and find for your networking.  Interaction is the key.
10. Always keep learning new things in your chosen field, and
11. Change with time.

You will find out many successful people are already doing these above mentioned things to grow their professional network and knowledge base. 

I am certainly interested in what you got to say on this subject.  Everyone has unique experience and lets share our thoughts and learn from each other.

 Thank you for visiting and reading the post.  I appreciate it.  Have a good time.

Leading Creative Employees

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There are always some special people in teams who are very much techie, creative and loaded with specific knowledge.  Lets call these employees creative people in this post.

These creative people provide tremendous value to organization through application of their knowledge and expertise.  These really smart and creative people need nurturing environment and motivation. When leading these creative people, keep in mind that they may-

1. think they know more than anyone (or know everything);
2. do not want to be led (know what, how and why);
3. do not want to follow the process (think its bureaucracy);
4. want to discuss the solution with higher authority (by-pass chain of command);
5. expect people to come and ask for help (until then they keep quiet);
6. show their exceptional knowledge in group meetings;
7. become poor listeners and jump to solution (feel they know problem already);
8. dislike to say thank you for any assistance;
9. feel attached to the solution they offered (won’t accept alternate);
10. stop contributing if ignored;
11. want praise and recognition (not always care about position);
12. want challenges and new things to work on.

Leading creative people require smart leadership.  Smart leaders will help these creative employee contribute by creating environment where they feel valuable while making sure that other employees also flourish. 

Smart leaders demonstrate their expertise and authority over creative employees quietly by not pushing them or by not showing them who is the boss.  Smart leader also makes sure that they know what organization’s strategic goals and objectives are; but does not dictate how to achieve.  These creative people can contribute beyond expectations when their leader becomes their coach-cum-mentor-cum-guardian.

Not all the points may apply in any given situation and there might be other examples as well.  I am interested to hear your thoughts on this.  Please leave comments.  Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day!

How to Have Project Kick-off Meeting

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Kick-off meeting is the first meeting of the project where you give all the team members good news that project is ‘go ahead’ from the sponsors and also set the tone of your project – is it going to be a success or a failure.  Many hours and days have gone into preparation before you have kick-off meeting. You have worked very hard and now have project charter and project plan is in your hands.Primarily kick-off meeting has following goals-

1. energize the project team
2. communicate project goals and expectations
3. introduce team members and stake-holders
4. highlight opportunities plus challenges and reiterate importance of project for organization
5. provide information of processes, methodology, project plan, key milestones, etc.
6. handout team’s contact phone numbers and email addresses
7. present communication plan
8. give time to attendees to ask questions and express views

I would do following extra things to make sure kick-off meeting sets positive tone -

1. print the hand-out material a day before, also check for meeting room projector etc.
2. have some project related posters and famous positive quotes posted on the wall
3. invite one or two senior managment  people to talk about project’s importance
4. have kick-off meeting around 9 AM (start of the day is better)
5. block enough time for this meeting (time for refreshments, presentations, questions and answers)
6. set date of kick-off  meeting and notify all members at-least a week ago
7. offer light refreshments at the beginning of the kick-off meeting
8. do not sit and just talk, look and feel energetic
9. have your project plan and other documents (that you plan to hand out) reviewed well in advance by subject matter experts for accuracy
10. make sure meeting conveys the message and people walk out with motivation

Are there other key things? I will be interested to hear.  Hope this helps and good luck with your kick-off meeting. 

Keeping in touch with direct reports?

Workplaces have transformed a lot in last few years from people working in same office building to team members scattered over different continents.  This poses some benefits and challenges.  As we all know that we are all connected via communication and our communication skills and capabilities play a major role in our success.

Keeping the communication channel open and alive is the responsibility of the manager.  As a manager you just can not assume that if no one is complaining, all is well.  There are some employees who get chance to meet and talk to boss on performance review day.  I know there might be some employees who always say “everything is good” and prefer least interference as all the routine work is being done on time.

Does not matter what kind of work you are in, keeping in touch with your direct reports does the following -

  1.  Boosts the employee morale (you value the employee by calling or listening).

  2.  Employee feels connected with the organization/department.

  3.  Employee is encouraged to give and receive suggestion/feedback.

  4.  You can coach employee in the right direction as per his objectives.

  5.  Your objectives and expectations are clearly communicated and aligned.

  6.  You, employee and organization, all benefit from this interaction.

  7.  You make the real difference by managing talent.

Employee is a talent.  We know that when we are managing talent in this innovation age, we got to ensure that talent thrives and stays innovative. 

Thank you for reading and have a great day.

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The Toyota Way – 14 Management Principles

I completed listening ‘The Toyota Way’ audio-book by Jeffrey Liker.  The book talks about 14 priciples of Toyota Production Systems (TPS).  There are many gems that I think could be of use in Information Technology Project Managment.  Here are 14 TPS management principles -

1.   Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals.

2.   Create a continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface.

3.   Use “pull” systems to avoid overproduction.

4.   Level out the workload (heijunka). (Work like the tortoise, not the hare.)

5.   Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time.

6.   Standardized tasks and processes are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment.

7.   Use visual control so no problems are hidden.

Positive interpretation of other people’s actions

It is very simple thing to do and results are excellent and enriching.  Often we interpret other people’s actions or behavior negatively when we do not have enough detail about their actions or behavior.  My approach is to give benefit of doubt in such case and interpret the action positively instead of taking it otherwise.  It saves a lot of energy, calms the mind and also saves lots of ‘brain CPU cycles’. Leaders and managers cannot afford to spend time and energy on negative things, they always think positive and bring positive changes to the organizations and in the lives of people around them.

10 Steps of Project Success

Whenever IT project failure is talked, people refer Denver Airport project that failed big time and costed a lot.  I have also seen project that failed or cancelled or shrunk.  Why is it happening when so many intelligent people are working and we know all the ingredients of project success. 

Here are some commonly known factors needed for project success -

Importance of TimeOut

We have seen in various sports when a play or a pass is not developing the way expected or falling out of bound, timeout is called.  After timeout, team regroups and turns the outcome for that instance or break the momentum of the opponent team going for score. It give opportunity to re-focus, re-think and re-group.

The 4 Disciplines of Execution

Execution of ideas/goals makes the real difference.  Any one can set goals and objectives but when it comes to implementation, it is totally a different game.   You might have seen excellent concepts being converted into highly visible projects and later the project being cancelled or product being shelved.  Its all how you execute.  As Will Weider said in his blog – I am surrounded by people with good ideas.  I need more people that implement them well.

I just finished another audio book by Stephen R. Covey – The 4 Disciplines of Execution.  This book talks about prioritized goals and how to achieve results with excellence.  It is important that team is involved in the development of important goals and methodology of measuring the goals.  The best ideas come not from the leaders, but from the interaction of the leaders and the front line. These are 4 disciplines -

Discipline 1 – Focus on the wildly important (goals) 
Discipline 2 – Create a compelling scoreboard
Discipline 3 – Translate lofty goals into specific actions
Discipline 4 – Hold each other accountable – all of the time.

How to Attend Team Meetings

Once I was approached by a team member and enquired why she is not being given special tasks or not being involved that much in comparison with her another colleague.  Since I had led both team members and knew where she is falling behind. 

I suggested few points to follow, she was no longer feeling left behind and became a dynamic contributor in the team.  Here are 10 points  -

Leadership Secrets

Leaders are not only people with heavy-weight designations like CEO, CIO, Vice President or say Senators, Member of Parliament, or something with power and authority. 

We all are leading in some shape or form and making things happen by our leadership.  Some people with their role and authority can have big impact and can lead a big group, or company or a nation, while on a small scale,  for example a team of 4 people, or at very minimum an individual leading himself while working on a task, also help the bottom line of an organization or society by contributing at a small level; collectively these small contributions change the whole picture. 

Situational Leadership

I completed Computer Based Training – “Situational Leadership II” developed by the Ninth House.  I was amazed with the technique used to give lessons; it kept me involved till the end and I did not feel disconnected or bored.  It is kind of movie that you watch and your decisions dictate the way story develops.  Decision taken can result in getting job done or getting you fired.  This training is based on Ken Blanchard’s leadership model and teaches how to increase team productive with proper leadership style by providing right amount of direction, support, or coaching.

You had problem pronouncing long Indian name?

You might have seen that some Indian names are little complicated to pronounce (particularly by our American and Canadian fellows – may be Europeans too). 

Now-a-days, Indian names are very common in workplace as offices are quite diverse and multi-cultural.  Some have changed their long (or complex to pronounce) Indian names to short ones, the same way William is Bill, Robert is Rob etc. 

In this funny clip,  a guy from America or Europe goes to (may beSouth) India to work (where long and complex names are common).

Someone forwarded me the link to this video clip on Indian Names (probably from a UK TV show).  It’s quite humors, please take it that way.

 Have a great day!

The Art of Getting Work Done!

When managing a project, it comes down to managing work and leading people; and everyone is different; we cannot apply a single rule to get the work done.

Enthusiasm of doing the work depends greatly on the type of job or assignment or things involved.  It does not mean that in I.T. all the team members work on designing leading edge product, someone has to do the regular work of running operations, being on call if problem arises or other code maintenance work.