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: November 4, 1997 10:08 AM Tuesday; Rod Welch

Called Ross at Caltrans about USACE cost savings report.

1...Summary/Objective
2...Caltrans Needs Flexible Methods, Improve Traditional Documentation
3...Experience Shows Business Intelligence Reduces Paperwork
4...USACE Found Communication Metrics Provides Business Intelligence
5...Communication Improves Construction Management
6...Common Administration, Concurrent Dispute Resolution Reduce Costs


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CONTACTS 
0201 - State of California                                                                                                                                                O-00000063 0401
020101 - Department of Transportation                                                                                                                                     O-00000063 0401
020102 - Mr. Ross Chittenden                                                                                                                                              O-00000063 0401
020103 - Chief Office of Project Management
020104 - Project Management Program, MS 28                                                                                                                                O-00000063 0401
020105 - Systems Implementation                                                                                                                                           O-00000063 0401

SUBJECTS
SDS Marketing, Caltrans
Trust, Winning People Over Needs History Constructive Support
Change Requires Sponsor, Ambassadors
Partnering, Concurrent Discovery
Common Administration
Concurrent Dispute Resolution
Paperwork SDS Writing Impedes Expediting
Fear Accountability Metrics Second Guessing
Bureaucratic Organizational Memory Knowledge Repository Write What is
Planning Analysis Writing Slow Conflicts Want to Expedite with Conver
Fear Accountability Proactive Problem Handling Resisted Small Problem
Fear Accountability Slippery Slope to Murphy's Law Deleting Records
Denial Overkill Complexity SDS Organizational Memory Too Difficult Fe

2115 -
2115 -    ..
2116 - Summary/Objective
2117 -
211701 - Follow up ref SDS 12 4829, ref SDS 11 5938.
211702 -
211703 - Caltrans wants to reduce paperwork and needs effective support that
211704 - can be fielded quickly without a long learning curve. ref SDS 0 3594
211705 - Managers need a chance to experience the benefits of "business
211706 - intelligence" delivered by Communication Metrics. ref SDS 0 3672  Ross
211707 - feels Communication Metrics could be used for Construction Management
211708 - as a field test.  He plans to suggest Caltrans consider this because
211709 - communication is a major factor in project success. ref SDS 0 2284
211710 -
211711 -     [On 980831 notified Ross about using Internet to deliver business
211712 -     intelligence produced by Communication Metrics. ref SDS 17 0000]
211713 -
211714 -
211715 -
211717 -  ..
2118 -
2119 -
2120 - Discussion
2121 -
212101 - Caltrans Needs Flexible Methods, Improve Traditional Documentation
212102 -
212103 - Ross received the report issued on 971007 by the U.S. Army Corps of
212104 - Engineers, ref DRP 3 0000, which was submitted by ref DIP 5 0000 on
212105 - 971017. ref SDS 11 5938.
212106 -
212107 - Within the past few days Ross has met with his project team and
212108 - explained Communication Metrics as a methodology under consideration
212109 - to support Caltrans' Project Management processes, per our meeting on
212110 - 970926. ref SDS 5 5180.
212112 -  ..
212113 - Ross has also discussed Communication Metrics with his boss and other
212114 - executives at Caltrans.
212116 -  ..
212117 - Ross used some of the documents received from Welch to show how
212118 - Communication Metrics tracks understandings. e.g., my letter on
212119 - ref DIP 4 0000, issued on 970930. ref SDS 8 6903
212121 -  ..
212122 - Senior people, who are members Ross' team, view Communication Metrics
212123 - as cumbersome, requiring a prolonged learning curve, per discussion on
212124 - 970919, ref SDS 4 6432 and ref SDS 4 5670, and they are worried that
212125 - SDS records restrict daily dialog, since "documentation" implies more
212126 - accountability.  Ross explained that executives assigned to assist him
212127 - in reengineering to improve management at Caltrans, per our meeting on
212128 - 970926, ref SDS 5 PS4H, have expressed a common worry that SDS limits
212129 - good communication skills for working things out with flexibility and
212130 - wriggle room to avoid accountability.
212131 -
212132 -     [On 991103 Jim Lovo called fear of accountability the 800# gorilla
212133 -     that prevents people from using SDS for improving management to
212134 -     avoid mistakes that saves time and money. ref SDS 23 7308
212136 -  ..
212137 - This perspective aligns with Clyde Earnest explaining on 890324 that
212138 - SDS helps get the work done correctly, on time and within budget, but
212139 - people won't pay for good management, unless there is a crisis.
212140 - ref SDS 1 8R97 and ref SDS 1 OF46
212141 -
212142 -     [On 980908 Ross reported that the legislature has passed measures
212143 -     to improve accountability. ref SDS 18 P96N
212145 -      ..
212146 -     [On 020504 study shows professional standards for communication
212147 -     practices and requirements on good management specified in FAR,
212148 -     ISO, Health Care, Covey, Drucker, law, contract notice provisions,
212149 -     and 2,000 years of literacy for contemporaneous documentation for
212150 -     alignment and feedback to work intelligently, quickly, and
212151 -     accurately are ignored in government, business, health care, every
212152 -     sector. ref SDS 25 NS6F
212154 -  ..
212155 - Ross noted that, since SDS implements ideas in the article he wrote
212156 - for the April 1997 issue of PM Network, explaining efforts by Caltrans
212157 - to improve project management, ref SDS 2 4680, the lack of support to
212158 - pilot test SDS makes his job kind of frustrating.
212159 -
212160 -     [On 971105 began work on using Internet to reduce handling of
212161 -     documents, without long learning curve, so that business
212162 -     intelligence is viable for daily management support. ref SDS 14
212163 -     1459
212165 -      ..
212166 -     [On 980405 developed ideas to make accountability an effective
212167 -     part of management. ref SDS 16 5065
212169 -      ..
212170 -     [On 980831 notified Ross about using Internet to deliver business
212171 -     intelligence produced by Communication Metrics. ref SDS 17 0000
212173 -      ..
212174 -     [On 981104 report from Army Corps of Engineers that Communication
212175 -     Metrics on the Internet is "pretty neat." ref SDS 19 4320
212176 -
212178 -  ..
212179 - Experience Shows Business Intelligence Reduces Paperwork
212180 - USACE Found Communication Metrics Provides Business Intelligence
212181 -
212182 - We considered this morning the need for the Project Team to experience
212183 - Communication Metrics in order to discover the meaing of "business
212184 - intelligence" as a helping hand, rather than burdensome paperwork, per
212185 - our discussion on 970930. ref SDS 8 1427  It is very difficult to
212186 - convey the advantages of "intelligence" support for executives,
212187 - despite the model of the National Security Advisor as an intelligence
212188 - aide for the U.S. President.
212189 -
212190 -     [On 980226 IBM plans to market business intelligence, $70B
212191 -     business by 2000. ref SDS 15 1247]
212193 -      ..
212194 -     [On 991014 Intel needs experience with Com Metrics in order to
212195 -     understand "intelligence." ref SDS 22 3166]
212197 -      ..
212198 -     [On 991124 Einstein relied on experience. ref SDS 24 0001]
212199 -
212201 -  ..
212202 - Communication Improves Construction Management
212203 -
212204 - Ross is meeting with Caltrans Constructon Managers.  He plans to
212205 - suggest they consider Communication Metrics for construction contract
212206 - management, since that was the application at USACE.
212207 - ..
212208 - On 970829 research shows communication is the biggest factor in
212209 - project success. ref SDS 3 3298
212210 -
212211 -     [On 990406 Ross gave a name of a new manager ref SDS 21 8472]
212213 -  ..
212214 - Ross will sent me a letter on the results of his meeting with his
212215 - project team and his boss.
212217 -  ..
212218 - If we can find an opportunity to apply Communication Metrics within
212219 - Caltrans, then they can discover it brings benefits without causing
212220 - disruption.  That was what happened at the Corps of Engineers under
212221 - effective leadership.
212222 -
212223 -     [On 980831 asked Ross about trying Communication Metrics on a
212224 -     Caltrans project. ref SDS 17 0000]
212226 -      ..
212227 -     [On 980908 Ross plans to ask Caltrans managers to call. ref SDS 18
212228 -     6120]
212230 -      ..
212231 -     [On 990406 Caltrans has set up a management position to improve
212232 -     communication. ref SDS 21 6336]
212234 -  ..
212235 - Common Administration, Concurrent Dispute Resolution Reduce Costs
212236 -
212237 - I did not discuss the idea of...
212238 -
212239 -    Caltrans specifying Communication Metrics for Common Administration
212240 -    and Concurrent Dispute Resolution program, developed at ref SDS 13
212241 -    8886.
212242 -
212243 -       [On 990331 sent explanation of this system. ref SDS 20 8112]
212245 -        ..
212246 -       [On 990406 discussed with Ross. ref SDS 21 9583]
212247 -
212248 -
2123 -
Distribution. . . . See "CONTACTS"