THE WELCH COMPANY
440 Davis Court #1602
San Francisco, CA 94111-2496
415 781 5700
rodwelch@pacbell.net


S U M M A R Y


DIARY: August 3, 1995 03:37 PM Thursday; Rod Welch

Developed marketing ideas for Communication Metrics.

1...Summary/Objective
2...Estimating Practices - Verbal Miscommunications
3...Humor - Famous Inspectors School
4...Construction Has Cultural Metrics
5...Expand Coffee Breaks into Sex Breaks, Humorous Memo


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CONTACTS 

SUBJECTS
Risk Management, Internal management
Re-Engineer Project Management
Mistakes, Impact on Meeting Objectives
Feel Good Management
Re-Engineering PM, Modern Project Management (MPM)
Time - Too Busy Being Busy
Executive Work Practices
Design Support
Conversation is Mangement by Gossip, Comedy
Fire People Reengineer Remove Management Levels Give People Computers

1512 -
1512 -    ..
1513 - Summary/Objective
1514 -
151401 - Follow up
151402 -
151403 - x0001
151405 -  ..
151406 - The memo to Jack Chiaverini at Perini on the concrete pour at Oro Loma
151407 - Pump Station, on 771130, explains "risk management," Decision
151408 - Analysis, the challenge of internal management doing self-review,
151409 - which is an aspect of TQM, "Feel Good" management" and decision
151410 - analysis.  It reflects what happens when there isn't enough time to
151411 - manage the work and what happens when adequate resources are not
151412 - applied.
151413 -
151414 -      [On 960301 used Perini example to support analysis of risk
151415 -      management responsibility in relation to what Drucker calls the
151416 -      hardest job:  managing managers. ref SDS 5 1973
151418 -  ..
151419 - I was fired about a week after submitting this memo because it
151420 - challenged management to perform their job of risk assessment and to
151421 - allocate resources to manage the job according to the risk.
151423 -  ..
151424 - There was a CPM on this job, similar to Primavera, ref SDS 4 3920,
151425 - that was not enough to adequately manage the job.  They needed
151426 - something more to align performance with expectations.
151427 -
151429 -  ..
151430 - Estimating Practices - Verbal Miscommunications
151431 -
151432 - Another example of the need for communication metrics in competitive
151433 - bidding, is the letter from Barney Hedberg to University Mechanical,
151434 - ref OF 3 line 30.  It shows the weakness of relying on conversation to
151435 - build the job.  How an offer to help someone, can be converted into an
151436 - obligation to provide help.
151437 -
151438 -
151439 -
1515 -

SUBJECTS
Risk Management, Internal management
Mistakes, Impact on Meeting Objectives
Feel Good Management, Quality Control
Samples Documents, Metrics
Document Analysis Humorous
Reengineer Humor Sex Breaks

2608 -
260901 -  ..
260902 - Created a new "Function" in the SI to identify examples of "humerous"
260903 - stuff:  020308.
260904 -
260906 -  ..
260907 - Humor - Famous Inspectors School
260908 -
260909 - I found a humorous article ref OF 5 0000 evidently is an editorial by
260910 - Bob Byrne, extracted from Western Construction, Nov 77, that
260911 - illustrates some of the darker sides of construction inspection.  I
260912 - did some editing to sharpen a few points.
260914 -  ..
260915 - The attitudes about construction inspectors reflects in some respects
260916 - the emotional distaste for accountability, and loss of productivity
260917 - due to mistakes.  This is an aspect of Murhphy's Law,
260918 -
260920 -  ..
260921 - Construction Has Cultural Metrics
260922 -
260923 - Without inspection, which is the "metric" from TQM, people will do
260924 - what they feel like, i.e., take the shortest path, the short cut, the
260925 - path of least resistance, ref OF 9 6156, try to fix any mistakes, and
260926 - if they cannot be fixed, then cover them up.
260928 -  ..
260929 - That is why self-inspection with SDS is a better solution, so that
260930 - people can discover mistakes themselves and avoid the cost of error.
260931 -
260933 -  ..
260934 - Expand Coffee Breaks into Sex Breaks, Humorous Memo
260935 -
260936 - An internal memo ref OF 7 0002, from Philco Ford was published in the
260937 - New Engineer, Dec 1977, on p. 28, to show that memos can be "fun," and
260938 - illustrates methods under theory x and theory y for changing attitudes
260939 - about implementing improvingments, reviewed on 931130. ref SDS 3 9677
260941 -  ..
260942 - This is funny because it shows people are willing to invest a lot of
260943 - time and intelligence on humor, that feels good, which is otherwise
260944 - difficult to invest on matters that impact earnings.
260946 -  ..
260947 - Exemplifies "Feel Good" Management. ref OF 7 4728
260949 -  ..
260950 - Reflects the aversion to dealing with written analysis, because it is
260951 - not easy and it is not fun, especially when it conflicts with strong
260952 - personal beliefs, the official view of reality, because it requires
260953 - investing time to research and evaluate evidence that may reveal
260954 - error, which shakes self-confidence and confidence in organizational
260955 - culture.  Obviously, a memo on "sex" is fun, and feels better than a
260956 - memo, for example, on whether to rhetrofit or replace a defective
260957 - speed increaser, reported on 920120. ref SDS 1 0001
260958 -
260959 -     [On 970624 Operation Haley's comet shows "meaning drift" causes
260960 -     mistakes in communication. ref SDS 6 7006]
260962 -      ..
260963 -     [On 971229 telephone game humorous way to illustrate meaning
260964 -     drift from "rumor" in conversation, which is solved by writing.
260965 -     ref SDS 7 1526]
260967 -      ..
260968 -     [On 980307 Andy Grove is the only person using "intelligence" at
260969 -     Intel to remove ambiguity of mental maps, ref SDS 8 3668 because
260970 -     written analysis is not easy and it is not fun, ref SDS 8 3101,
260971 -     and no else at Intel has authority to invest time understanding
260972 -     the last meeting before going to the next one. ref SDS 8 2189]
260974 -      ..
260975 -     [On 980905 cited this as example of past practice using memos for
260976 -     analysis. ref SDS 9 2016]
260978 -      ..
260979 -     [On 990713 BINGO game shows meetings can be "fun" and illustrates
260980 -     the challenge of getting feedback and maintaining attention in
260981 -     meetings. ref SDS 10 7140]
260982 -
260983 -
260984 -
260985 -
260986 -
2610 -