CONTACTS 
0201 - Transamerica Realty Services, Inc. 415 983 5497
020101 - Mr. Donald G. Harms

SUBJECTS
Sales discussions
Tennis
Definition of Communication

0605 -    ..
0606 - Summary/Objective
0607 -
060701 - Follow up ref SDS 16 0000.
060702 -
060703 - Transamerica has hired a new employee who may become their SDS person,
060704 - per our discussion on 950117. ref SDS 15 N58M
060705 -
060706 -
060707 -  ..
0608 -
0609 -
0610 - Progress
0611 -
061101 - During a break in our tennis last night, Don advised that Transamerica
061102 - has hired a young MBA, who was formerly with Disney.  Don explained
061103 - having mentioned SDS to this person, and expects I will hear from him
061104 - on how to implement good management practice he learned in MBA class.
061105 -
061106 -  ..
061107 - Don feels this person is the "next" generation of managers and so may
061108 - be more conducive to introducing SDS at Transamerica, rather than
061109 - through established executives who like to work by conversation.
061110 -
061111 -  ..
061112 - I explained this can work provided there is adequate supervision,
061113 - because in addition to learning HOW to use SDS, young people need to
061114 - know WHAT to write down, what to link up, who to notify, what laws and
061115 - contract provisions apply, what schedule and cost impacts to consider,
061116 - and how to organize information, i.e. what "subjects" to track.
061117 - Judgement on these matters comes from experience.  Young people by
061118 - definition are inexperienced, and so are less equiped to discern what
061119 - part of the record is important, and what needs to be done as a
061120 - result.  Experienced people are better equipped for this task.
061121 -
061122 -  ..
061123 - As indicated in Bill DeHart's memo at PG&E, ref DRP 1 ON6K, which was
061124 - submitted to Transamerica on 950111, ref SDS 14 0001, executives are
061125 - responsible for earnings, and so must provide sponsorship to ensure
061126 - SDS is used, instead of just "winging it" with personal recollection.
061127 -
061128 - After a meeting or phone call, they need to say....
061129 -
061130 -     "That all sounds great!  How soon can I get the SDS record on
061131 -     this?"
061132 -
061133 -       [On 950303 reviewed this opportunity with Morris. ref SDS 18
061134 -       5555
061135 -
061136 -
061137 -  ..
061138 - Communication Metrics Logical Extension Metrics for Cost, Schedule
061139 -
061140 - SDS records are the "metric" communication that TQM folks talk about
061141 - to improve business processes.
061142 -
061143 - Cost and Schedule control emerged because people discovered it was not
061144 - enough to wait until the job was completed to find out if the job
061145 - made money and finished on time.  They found it was better to measure
061146 - intermediate performance so adjustments can be made early enough to
061147 - influence project success.  Thus, today we routinely "capture the
061148 - record" of actual cost and actual progress through the course of a
061149 - project.  But in addition to cost and schedule, seasoned executives
061150 - recognize that "communications" are critical to job success.
061151 -
061152 - Through the ages from Aristotle, to Voltaire, to Disraeli, to Drucker,
061153 - to modern day gurus like Covey, the role of communications in
061154 - achieving a community is well established.  On 890809 executives spend
061155 - 80% of their time communicating. ref SDS 2 8812  On 940510 article in
061156 - HBR reports managers spend 66% of their time talking. ref SDS 9 0034
061157 - ..
061158 - SDS provides a critical intermediate measure of communications,
061159 - and integrates it with cost and schedule, so that all three components
061160 - of management are automated.
061161 -
061162 -      [Used this idea in reviewing conference on PM, at ref SDS 17 line
061163 -      215.]
061164 -
061165 -      [On 000713 semiotics explains communication, meaning and
061166 -      inference. ref SDS 19 4176
061167 -
061168 - However, when things are going poorly on a project, people feel they
061169 - do not have time for "metrics."  Cost and schedule control suffer, as
061170 - managers scurry to "expedite" the work by ignoring sound management
061171 - practice, and instead rely more and more on conversation.  This is
061172 - precisely the time SDS is most needed in order to break out of the
061173 - spiral of "correcting corrections" that results from rushing ahead.
061174 - ..
061175 - When things seem to be going well, SDS appears redundant, i.e.,
061176 - why write down what we already know?
061177 -
061178 - Executive sponsorship is needed to point out that we only "know" what
061179 - we can write down and link up.  So lets see if we can discover what we
061180 - know, and in the process preserve valuable lessons from a successful
061181 - job, that can be recycled on the next project.  Investing intellectual
061182 - capital pays off, but it is easy to loose sight of this fundamental in
061183 - the daily grind of management.
061184 -
061185 -
061186 -
061187 -
0612 -