CONTACTS 
0202 - Golden Gate University             415 442 6547 fax 7049                                                                                                           O-00000605 0201

SUBJECTS
Education, institutional courses
Educational Institutions
Studies

0605 -    ..
0606 - Summary/Objective
0607 -
060701 - Follow up ref SDS 19 line 47.
060702 -
060703 - Bill and I explained Communication Metrics and use at PG&E with SDS.
060704 - Frank requested a course outline for consideration of teaching
060705 - Communication Metrics at GGU.
060706 -
060707 -
060708 -
0608 -
0609 -
0610 - Progress
0611 -
061101 - New GGU Curriculum:  Communication Metrics
061102 -
061103 - Discussed prospects of a new curriculum at GGU for Communication
061104 - Metrics, per my letter to Cheryl, ref DIP 4 line 30, and the
061105 - curriculum proposed for the Wharton School of Business, ref SDS 5
061106 - 1674.
061107 -
061108 -
061109 - Main Idea:  Lift Capacity to Think, Remember & Communicate
061110 -
061111 - Communication Metrics overcomes the harm caused by success in getting
061112 - more information, sometimes called the Information Revolution or
061113 - Highway.
061114 -
061115 - Faster information cause mistakes in connecting up related information
061116 - which are hidden by the pace of modern life. These hidden mistakes are
061117 - characterized as "Murphy's Law" when they later surface unexpectedly,
061118 - causing failure, losses, destroyed businesses, lives and recessions.
061119 -
061120 - The basic tool devised to create and apply knowledge is written
061121 - language.  Writing originated about 5,000 years ago to help people
061122 - think, remember and communicate.  It uses 26 symbols (ABC...) combined
061123 - according to rules of spelling and grammar to represent sounds,
061124 - sights, thoughts, concepts, understanding.  If we cannot write it
061125 - down, we don't understand it.  This worked fine until the modern age
061126 - where it has proven too slow and cumbersome.  Everyone is buried by
061127 - information and documents, most everyone is working for a computer,
061128 - instead of having a computer work for them.
061129 -
061130 - Communication Metrics is a new faster, more powerful knowledge tool.
061131 - It lifts the productivity of people above that attainable by using
061132 - conventional writing skills, in the same way that writing lifts the
061133 - productivity of people above that which can be achieved by those who
061134 - cannot write.  This occurs by the integrated design of computer
061135 - software that enables people to make connections faster and more
061136 - accurately to keep up with the pace of modern life.
061137 -
061138 -
061139 - Background
061140 -
061141 - Explained background using Communication Metrics at PG&E which showed
061142 - need for dedicated training within the Business and Management Science
061143 - curriculum.
061144 -
061145 - Bill gave an overview of his success using Communication Metrics at
061146 - PG&E applied by Welch using the SDS program.  However, PG&E executives
061147 - had difficulty explaining what Communication Metrics is, who does it,
061148 - and how it fits into the existing discipline mix.  Therefore, advanced
061149 - educational support is needed to integrate Communication Metrics into
061150 - the cultural perspective of business and management.
061151 -
061152 -
061153 -     Publications
061154 -
061155 -     I submitted the NWO... and POIMS papers.  Frank will review as
061156 -     background in evaluating our course outline.
061157 -
061158 -     He attended the Vancouver PMI conference, but was not aware of the
061159 -     POIMS presentation, which appears on p. 493 of the 1994
061160 -     Proceedings.
061161 -
061162 -     I advised of the call from Jim Pennyparker on Jun 19, while Millie
061163 -     and I were vacationing, that PMI wants to publish the NWO...
061164 -     paper, ref SDS 15 line 75.
061165 -
061166 -
061167 - Automated Management Uses Computers
061168 -
061169 - Bill said Communication Metrics requires the use of a computer in
061170 - order to integrate the range of tasks required to improve the practice
061171 - of management. [These tasks are listed in the POIMS paper on page 2.]
061172 - The paper develops the idea of "automated integration" as a practical
061173 - means to improve management productivity.  This means the power of
061174 - personal computers can be applied to the art of management.
061175 -
061176 -
061177 -     Microcosm - George Guilder
061178 -
061179 -     The breakthrough in management productivity derives from the
061180 -     ability to improve understanding by greatly increasing control of
061181 -     the details of daily business life.  This reflects the concept
061182 -     identified by George Gilder in his book Microcosm on the power of
061183 -     the microprocessor, ref SDS 1 line 103.
061184 -
061185 - Accordingly, this would be a lab course where students with access to
061186 - a computer can experience Communication Metrics to gain new knowledge
061187 - rather than mere information.
061188 -
061189 -
061190 - Demonstration
061191 -
061192 - Frank did not have time to see a demonstration of SDS today.  He is
061193 - meeting with Ahmet Taspinar at 1330 and has to get some other matters
061194 - cleared away in time for that meeting.
061195 -
061196 -
061197 - PMI Event Program - Communication, MPM, PMBOK
061198 -
061199 - We told Frank about our meeting with Ahmet at 1200 in the PG&E
061200 - offices, to discuss plans for an Event Program on Management
061201 - Communications, the PMBOK and MPM, which will include presentation of
061202 - Communication Metric concepts, ref SDS 18 line 386.
061203 -
061204 - Frank said he is a member of PMI.  He showed us a flyer to be
061205 - distributed in the PMI NCC Newsletter announcing the MS/MBA Project &
061206 - System Management program.
061207 -
061208 -
061209 - Need for New Management Science
061210 -
061211 - Frank seemed to indicate recalling Joel Koppleman's remarks to the PMI
061212 - meeting at Gabbiano's restaurant on Apr 12.  We discussed Joel's
061213 - explanation of why conventional automated CPM software was inadequate
061214 - to manage Primavera's project to create a Windows program, ref SDS 3
061215 - line 237, and ref SDS 3 line 251, Frank appreciated that attributing
061216 - poor performance to lack of candor by subordinates is not good project
061217 - review practice, ref SDS 3 line 322.  We considered this excuse dates
061218 - at least to the time of the pyramids, ref SDS 3 line 296.
061219 -
061220 - Clearly, for the 21st century, we need something more than cost and
061221 - schedule control.  Since communication is about 90% of an executive's
061222 - time, this is the area where improvement can yield the greatest
061223 - reward, (see Justification for PMI's Event Program on Communication,
061224 - ref SDS 10 line 90).
061225 -
061226 -
061227 -     Cost, Schedule, Communication Control
061228 -
061229 -     I explained that Communication Metrics extends the concept of
061230 -     automating cost and schedule control to the field of
061231 -     communications. The basic aim is to lift or leverage the capacity
061232 -     to think, remember and communicate, using a concept of "investing
061233 -     intellectual capital," explained in the POIMS paper on page 1.
061234 -
061235 -     The Kerzner lecture in Feb underscored these dynamics, ref SDS 2
061236 -     line 248.
061237 -
061238 -
061239 -     Communication Metrics is Proactive
061240 -
061241 -     We discussed the advantage of adding a metric to communication in
061242 -     order to discover misunderstandings before mistakes are made.
061243 -     Since most cost overruns and schedule delays arise from
061244 -     mis-communication, Communication Metrics improves earnings and
061245 -     avoids schedule delays, ref SDS 2 line 200.
061246 -
061247 -     One aim of a course would be to alert practitioners and students
061248 -     that the budget for Communication Metrics fits within existing
061249 -     cost and schedule control budgets.  Indeed the experience at PG&E
061250 -     is that Communication Metrics was the most effective management
061251 -     improvement effort tried in the past 30 years, ref DRP 1 line 25.
061252 -
061253 -
061254 -     TQM - Measure to Improve
061255 -
061256 -     Peter Drucker points out that the primary measure of management
061257 -     productivity is in the quality of decisions.  How many mistakes,
061258 -     how much time is devoted on correcting mistakes and correcting
061259 -     former corrections, rather than planning and implementing goals,
061260 -     strategies and tasks?  Improving communication requires a metric.
061261 -     The design and implementation is complex, but highly effective,
061262 -     ref SDS 2 line 268.
061263 -
061264 -
061265 -
061266 - Curriculum Opportunities
061267 -
061268 - Frank feels these ideas might fit into the curriculum at GGU.  We
061269 - reviewed existing programs in Project & Systems Management, and
061270 - Communications offered by the English Department.
061271 -
061272 -
061273 -    Existing Courses
061274 -
061275 -    Communication Metrics applies to the following courses for the
061276 -    Advanced Business Communications Certificate.
061277 -
061278 -        CIS 137    Computer Applications for Business Communication
061279 -        Engl 120   Advanced Business Writing
061280 -        Engl 140   Human Communication
061281 -        Mgt 100    The Manager as Communicator
061282 -
061283 -    ... and to the MS and Advanced Project & System Management
061284 -    programs:
061285 -
061286 -        Management Information Systems
061287 -        Project Management
061288 -
061289 -
061290 -    New Knowledge
061291 -
061292 -    Communication Metrics will add the following instruction that is
061293 -    not presented in GGU's existing courses, is not available from any
061294 -    other course of instruction or any other source, and which is
061295 -    extremely valuable in the world of today, and more so in the 21st
061296 -    century:
061297 -
061298 -      • Automated integration of primary management tasks:
061299 -
061300 -            Time, information, people, documents, subjects
061301 -
061302 -      • Automated Management by Objectives
061303 -
061304 -      • Organic Subject Structure ("intelligent" filing, organizing and
061305 -        "growing" knowledge)
061306 -
061307 -      • Theory of Knowledge and Confusion Linking Time and Information
061308 -
061309 -            Distinction between knowledge and information.
061310 -
061311 -            Converting Information into Knowledge
061312 -
061313 -      • Command and Control of the Record
061314 -
061315 -      • Management Cycle in the Microcosm
061316 -
061317 -      • Investing Intellectual Capital Saves Time and Improves Income
061318 -
061319 -            The Long Way Around is the Short Way There!
061320 -
061321 -                 Hare and Tortoise argument.
061322 -
061323 -            Executive as Nomadic Hunter/Gather will give way to new
061324 -            model of executive as a good steward of the management
061325 -            landscape:  intellectual capital.
061326 -
061327 -      • Communication as Leadership, Understanding and Follow Up.
061328 -
061329 -      • Writing as Self-dialog to discover understanding, implications
061330 -        and nuance.
061331 -
061332 -      • Notice, Authority (Contracts, Law) Politics, Diplomacy
061333 -
061334 -            The art of human interaction - integrating tools/methods
061335 -
061336 -            Distinction between Internal and External mangement
061337 -
061338 -                How can internal projects be chartered to provide a
061339 -                measure of authority granted to project managers on
061340 -                external projects by virture of contracts?
061341 -
061342 -                Without a grant of authority, can a "project" really be
061343 -                "managed;" or, is it simply "coordinated?"
061344 -
061345 -
061346 - Course Outline
061347 -
061348 - Frank requested a proposed course outline.
061349 -
061350 - I will submit a preliminary outline based on submission to Wharton
061351 - School of Business, ref SDS 5 line 201, and George Washington
061352 - University, ref SDS 13 line 84.
061353 -
061354 -
061355 - Follow Up
061356 -
061357 - After we submit the course outline, Frank feels a meeting with other
061358 - Departments may be helpful, e.g., English Communication program,
061359 - Business and Management.
061360 -
061361 -
061362 -
061363 -
0614 -