CONTACTS 
0201 - Talley Research                    415 389 9945 fax 383 2156.
020101 - Mr. Rick Talley
0202 - Center Prof Dev & Training         602 970 0101 fax 423 0526
020201 - Mr. Edward E. Scannel, C.S.P., C.M.P.; President

SUBJECTS
PMI Event Program, 1996, Speakers
Nov Event, Speakers, Date, initial target
Dates of Events

0805 -    ..
0806 - Summary/Objective
0807 -
080701 - Followed up work at ref SDS 4 line 62, at ref SDS 1 line 17, and work
080702 - at ref SDS 2 line 682 to get speakers for Nov event.
080703 -
080704 - Want speaker on focus group methodology for Nov event, as well as
080705 - planning theater, per ref SDS 3 line 65, ref SDS 2 line 639.
080706 -
080707 -
080708 -
080709 -
0808 -
0809 -
0810 - Progress re Rick Talley        Talley Research  415 389 9945
0811 -
081101 - Received ref DRT 2 line 30, per ref SDS 4 line 76.  This is just a
081102 - resume of Talley's services and clients.  There was no cover letter,
081103 - so I created something for the record.
081104 -
081105 -
081106 - Cost
081107 -
081108 - Talley does not submit a request for payment, so maybe he will speak
081109 - for the opportunity to reach the audience.
081110 -
081111 -
081112 - How Does Focus Group Support Project Management
081113 -
081114 - The resume indicates Talley has no work for project managment
081115 - situations, ref DRT 2 line 81.  Talley's list of "Catagory Experience"
081116 - seems to center on evaluating market pototential for products and
081117 - services, as expected for a Market Research firm.
081118 -
081119 -     This question is important to the Focus Group speaker because he
081120 -     wants to appeal to attendees as prospective clients.
081121 -
081122 - Since we are planning to advance Focus Group as a communication method
081123 - of value to PMI membership and since PMI membership are interested in
081124 - managing projects, the question arises about how Focus Group
081125 - methodology would support managing projects?
081126 -
081127 - My experinece with Focus Group, however, which dealt with political
081128 - issues, indicates this method can be used to perform group analysis
081129 - on any subject.
081130 -
081131 - Should get Talley to suggest an application.
081132 -
081133 -     One might be to develope procedures for managing a project such as
081134 -     "Communication Management," paper flows.  The people who have to
081135 -     accomplish the "system" and those who will receive documents could
081136 -     be in a focus group in order to get requirements, suggestions,
081137 -     since often people have knowledge they are not aware of, or how it
081138 -     fits in relations to the needs and expections of others.
081139 -
081140 -     Another would be to assess prospects of implementing procedures
081141 -     that have been developed, including the introduction of new
081142 -     technology, such as a software program, e-mail.
081143 -
081144 -     Perhaps in designing an improvement of an existing facility such
081145 -     as a hospital, we would want to gather reaction from people who
081146 -     will be using the facility such as doctors, nurses, custodians,
081147 -     administrators, and so on.  This would work to gather information
081148 -     to create a design, and to evaluate the adequacy of a design in
081149 -     progress.
081150 -
081151 -     We might do a focus group on bidding procedures that have special
081152 -     problems, such as on a very unique project.  Contractors could be
081153 -     brought in to assess how they would react to terms under
081154 -     consideration.
081155 -
081156 -         Usually the level of investiation is someone will call a few
081157 -         contractors and ask some questions, as occurred on the Pier
081158 -         10 project.  Better control through Focus Group might yield
081159 -         better bid documents, tighter bids and fewer claims.
081160 -
081161 -
081162 - I need to submit information to Rick to explain our program and get
081163 - his input on scope.
081164 -
081165 -     My initial view is that he comes in near the end of the first
081166 -     half day, is introduced and explains the process, and situations
081167 -     where it can be applied (per above).
081168 -
081169 -     In the afternoon, he will conduct one of the Focus Groups,
081170 -     hopefully 1 of 3 of about 10 folks.
081171 -
081172 -
081173 -
0812 -
0813 -
0814 - Center for Professional Development  - Ed Scannell
0815 -
081501 - Received ref DRT 1 line 20 from Ed Scannell, per our discussion at ref
081502 - SDS 5 line 61.
081503 -
081504 - Ed confirms he can speak on 951111, which is the weekend prior to
081505 - 951118, when we initially set for the event.
081506 -
081507 - Ed has impressive credentials, reflecting my impression of his work
081508 - at PMA event in Arizona.
081509 -
081510 - Cost
081511 -
081512 - He has a fee schedule as follows:
081513 -
081514 -                      1 hour       $2,500
081515 -                      Half day     $3,500
081516 -                      Full day     $5,000
081517 -
081518 - We would like to use Ed for half a day, but it will require planning
081519 - to see how he fits with other presenters, e.g., Planning Theater,
081520 - Focus Group, Human memory, Partnering
081521 -
081522 - Can we get $3,500 for Ed to be there for half a day, and be a
081523 - combination entertainer, present the main body of explanation about
081524 - the history of communication, and bring us up to today.
081525 -
081526 -      The objective is to give people a chance to grasp why they hold
081527 -      certain views about the relation between time and information,
081528 -      i.e., what drives the desire to summarize.
081529 -
081530 -      Another option is to see if he could discount his fee for an
081531 -      entire day, or maybe we just use him for 2 hours instead of half
081532 -      a day.
081533 -
081534 -
081535 - Initial Consideration of Ed's Presentation
081536 -
081537 - Ed can set out major communication issues for the practice of
081538 - management, in particular "meetings," since he is past president of
081539 - Meeting Professional International, ref DRT 1 line 48, and has written
081540 - books on communication, creativity, meeting planning, management and
081541 - team building.
081542 -
081543 -
081544 -     Run Over on the Information Highway
081545 -
081546 -     We would like to get from Ed that no amount of communication
081547 -     skill, creativity and meeting planning can result in a successful
081548 -     meeting, if people are going from meeting to meeting, innundated
081549 -     with documents and calls, i.e., receive too much information to
081550 -     understand, and follow up.
081551 -
081552 -     An example are inadequate notes, such as the prop from the Forum
081553 -     meetings, ref SDS 3 line 92.
081554 -
081555 -     This could set up the focus and planning theater efforts for the
081556 -     afternoon program.
081557 -
081558 -         One solution in a meeting of 10 or 30 people, the leader
081559 -         should call on someone at random to summarize the meeting,
081560 -         and assign that person to do the SDS meeting notes.
081561 -
081562 -         The problem with this is that often people attend who have an
081563 -         interest and responsibility for only a few of perhaps 20 - 50
081564 -         issues.  That person should be not liable to grasp the whole
081565 -         thing.  For external projects one might not want someone else
081566 -         to control the content of the record, except possibly in a
081567 -         partnering situation, and even then it coule be irresponsible
081568 -         to permit someone else to control the record.  For internal
081569 -         projects, this might work better.
081570 -
081571 -         Somehow we need a way to ensure people are paying attention
081572 -         and there is common understanding, and then to follow up, and
081573 -         second, we need to share the burden of writing the SDS record.
081574 -
081575 -         If we share the burden, this means doing the initial dialog
081576 -         and connecting up.  Once it is available, each attendee can
081577 -         still integrate the record into their own SDS data base and
081578 -         supplement it, so we are not stuck with someone else's view.
081579 -         It is only a resource.
081580 -
081581 -
081582 - To succeed faster by understanding better, sometimes we have to slow
081583 - down.  So, we can actually speed up by slowing down.
081584 -
081585 -     The purpose of Ed's presentation is to bring out the need for
081586 -     greater care in analysis needed to overcome misunderstanding and
081587 -     to dig out of the system nuance and implications that otherwise
081588 -     lead to failure, Murphy's Law.
081589 -
081590 -     Explain purpose of Writing and what it accomplishes with respect
081591 -     to thinking, remembering and communicating.  This is something we
081592 -     think about because we learn writing at age 6 and the goal is not
081593 -     to explain why we are learning, but merely to teach it, since the
081594 -     culture has long established the why, i.e., it works!
081595 -
081596 -         Show how writing is a tool of analysis since it requires
081597 -         assemplying symbols in alternate ways to form larger thoughts,
081598 -         ideas, concepts, decisions, leading to action.
081599 -
081600 -         So we are molding, crafting, acquiring understanding, by
081601 -         building, associating, comparing "stuff."
081602 -
081603 -         The better we can manipulate these components, the better
081604 -         chance we have of not deviating from the truth, and so being
081605 -         successful.
081606 -
081607 -     The "why" of writing only arises every 5,000 years or so when we
081608 -     decide to improve on writing as a basic skill.  Wordprocessing
081609 -     merely lets us write better.  But if we want to improve things
081610 -     writing accomplishes, we have to think at a lower level to
081611 -     identify what we are doing in writing a sentence, paragraph,
081612 -     paper, ...
081613 -
081614 -
081615 -
081616 - We might reserve the last hour before lunch to introduce 3 focus
081617 - group leaders, and 3 planning theater leaders.
081618 -
081619 - What about partnering?
081620 -
081621 -     Maybe we should leave this for
081622 -
081623 -
0817 -