CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
Personnel, Training, Management Skills, Risk
Discovery, Strategic Resource
Management productivity & Teamwork
Making more money; Feel Good Management
Mistakes, Impact on Meeting Objectives
Correcting Corrections, Overcome by SDS
Budgeting to Fail
Communication Offers Opportunity for
Communication More than Talking and

1511 -    ..
1512 - Summary/Objective
1513 -
151301 - Received article ref OF 5 line 29, that ostensibly is about insurance,
151302 - i.e. imponderable "risks", but really is "intuitive skills we have
151303 - learned through years of experience...", ref OF 5 line 35.
151304 -
151305 -      ..
151306 -     Management Productivity - Avoid Mistakes, Correcting Corrections
151307 -
151308 -     The author explains that too much executive energy is spent on
151309 -     damage control instead of on organization building and expanding
151310 -     markets, ref OF 5 line 41.  This reflects the POIMS concept of
151311 -     managers spending more time "correcting corrections," at ref OF 2
151312 -     line 234, which is the idea that management productivity is mainly
151313 -     about avoiding mistakes, per ref OF 2 line 384.
151314 -
151315 -         This idea is echoed by Peter Drucker at ref SDS 4 line 254,
151316 -         and it shows why "feel good" management is not effective, per
151317 -         discussion with Morris, ref SDS 2 line 204.
151318 -
151319 -         [See later correlation of risk management with Communication
151320 -         Metrics, ref SDS 11 line 291.]
151321 -
151322 - ..
151323 - Author cites failure to perform adequate risk management as not
151324 - having enough time and too expensive, ref OF 5 line 108, which sounds
151325 - like why people don't use SDS.
151326 -
151327 -     Another reason is a desire to get a job, rather than face the fact
151328 -     that risk which competitors are likely to overlook will escalate
151329 -     your price above that of those less informed, experienced, skilled
151330 -     at assessing risk, or risk averse (i.e., more reckless).
151331 -
151332 -     Risk analysis is difficult, because it requires drawing on experi-
151333 -     ence which is only partially formed.  The struggle to write it out
151334 -     can be laborious, even painful and so under feel good management,
151335 -     people avoid it, i.e. put off a little pain in hopes that a lot of
151336 -     pain will not arise in the future.
151337 -
151338 - ..
151339 - Author calls for communications and teamwork, but overlooks the
151340 - need for Communications Metrics, ref OF 5 line 125 [defined later at
151341 - ref SDS 11 line 190,]  Author says poor communication causes
151342 - "out-of-sight out-of-mind" syndrome," which inhibits adequate risk
151343 - assessment by executives, i.e. poor staff work. [A later study found
151344 - that "communications" are major cause of project failure, ref SDS 12
151345 - line 117.]  This is corrected by creating a link between information
151346 - and time, as SDS does.
151347 -
151348 - Author says "risk analysis software" with proven methodologies, are
151349 - available, ref OF 5 line 176.
151350 -
151351 -      This software will not overcome the reluctance to use them nor
151352 -      provide the experience to use them effectively.
151353 -
151354 -      See also comment at ref SDS 10 line 87.
151355 -
151356 -
151357 - Methods for creating risk evaluation culture and systems (beginning
151358 - with assigning a "task force" and buying software) are listed at ref
151359 - OF 5 line 180.
151360 -
151361 -
151362 - PMI Editor lists additional research on risk analysis at ref OF 5
151363 - line 220.
151364 -
151365 -
151366 -
1514 -

SUBJECTS
Personnel, Training, Management Skills
Meetings
Joan Knutson
PM Steering Committee
Send product information, requesting give
PM Training Firms

2009 -
200901 -  ..
200902 - Steering Committee
200903 - Meetings Need Better Productivity for Project Management
200904 -
200905 - This is the 4th and concluding article in a series on executive
200906 - support of PM through a...
200907 -
200908 -
200909 -                  Project Steering Committee (PSC)
200910 -
200911 -
200912 - ...ref OF 13 0001  The article today focuses on conducting meetings.
200913 - ref OF 13 ZT7K
200914 -
200915 - The first article is reviewed on 940103. ref SDS 5 0005  We do not
200916 - seem to have the intervening two articles.
200917 -
200918 -      [See proposal in 1997 for a Project Management department,
200919 -      ref SDS 13 6902
200920 -
200921 - Submitted ref DIT 1 0001 explained below.
200922 -
200923 -
200924 -
2010 -
2011 -
2012 - Analysis
2013 -
201301 - Joan recommends the Project Steering Committee (PSC) help the PM team
201302 - prepare for meetings by submitting agenda, objectives, and procedures
201303 - on how the meeting is to be run, ref OF 13 009L, so that people will
201304 - be more "satisfied."
201305 -
201306 - Advise all PM teams of criteria for selecting which project is to
201307 - report, so those not selected will not be de-motivated, ref OF 13
201308 - 005Q
201309 -
201310 - The author recommends against criticizing reports of "bad news", so
201311 - that others are not "de-motivated" to present problems in the future,
201312 - and those reporting do not leave the meeting with low morale,
201313 - commitment and energy, ref OF 13 00GS
201314 -
201315 -      This is more TQM "mothering."
201316 -
201317 -      There is no reason to be ill manered, but neither will "feel
201318 -      good" management prevent the genetic drive to avoid
201319 -      accountability from withholding bad news.  People act in their
201320 -      interests.
201321 -
201322 -      I guess Joan's point is for management to show that the calculus
201323 -      of interests extends beyond a single issue.  This is very hard to
201324 -      accomplish, particularly where many people are involved.  Genetic
201325 -      variability ensures a committee member will falter, or a team
201326 -      member will "cook the books." Often things are going bad, but the
201327 -      PM team is too inexperienced to recognize it. They don't know
201328 -      what to report.
201329 -
201330 -
201331 - Joan makes a pitch for consulting business to train members of the
201332 - PSC in practices of MPM, ref OF 13 014O
201333 -
201334 - PSC calls periodic focus groups to share ideas on project management.
201335 - ref OF 13 01FO.  Use a "facilitator" to get suggestions and feelings
201336 - on how PSC can support projects better, ref OF 13 01HR
201337 -
201338 - Author says "MPM" is different from past PM practice because people no
201339 - longer kowtow to aggression, ref OF 13 01BT, and there are more
201340 - precise tools available.
201341 -
201342 -      Sent Joan paper on NWO... to indicate the impact of MPM on the
201343 -      management process, per ref DIT 1 line 30, included an extract
201344 -      of this record for context.
201345 -
201346 -
201347 - Author cautions that without discipline to apply modern practices and
201348 - tools, teams will stray off in all directions, in fact, losing rather
201349 - than gaining productivity, ref OF 13 line 130.
201350 -
201351 -     This is the flaw in Covey's arguement to improve productivity by
201352 -     changing habits, ref SDS 3 line 214. There is no shortage of know-
201353 -     ledge about what to do, the challenge is consistent implementation
201354 -     of what we know needs to be done.  Attending more meetings worsens
201355 -     the problem.  The MPM environment of more meetings, requirements
201356 -     and information, increases the pressure to take short cuts, per
201357 -     ref SDS 3 line 359.
201358 -
201359 -     Better management productivity comes from the same source as bet-
201360 -     ter farming, excavation, and manufacturing:  work smarter, not
201361 -     harder.  We have to lift the capacity to think, remember and com-
201362 -     municate.  This means automated integration of management func-
201363 -     tions to capture the record and role it over into controllable
201364 -     action items, ref SDS 3 line 325.
201365 -
201366 -
201367 - PSC Duties
201368 -
201369 - Allocates resources, sets methods, motivate and guide project teams
201370 - with review meetings, set performance review procedures, direction on
201371 - using project life cycles, the project management life cycle, good
201372 - estimating techniques and dependable history bases, ref OF 13 line
201373 - 136.
201374 -
201375 -     Another use of executive talent might be to visit the job; attend
201376 -     the meetings, answer the phone, capture the record and respond to
201377 -     backed up correspondence.  This shows the real job status.
201378 -
201379 -     Errors and omissions from too much information coming too fast is
201380 -     the greatest source of project problems.  There is too much to do.
201381 -     Managers need help, some days more than others.  Usually executive
201382 -     visits detract from time needed to manage the job, but that need
201383 -     not be the case.  The PSC could be a reservoir of talent for
201384 -     harried managers to use ad hoc, so when they come to the job, the
201385 -     executive is working for the PM, not the other way around.
201386 -