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Featured in Seth Godin's
Bull Market 2004

Here's my third weekly Project e-Tip. I've decided to emphasize the fifth lean principle, pursue perfection, in my early e-tips. This one has the added benefit of producing a team dynamic of open communication. This is key to benefit from the varied perspectives and expertise of project participants.

The Project Reformer's e-Tip of the Week

003: Conduct Plus-Delta Reviews to Encourage Team Openness

Schedule sufficient time on your agenda both at the beginning for carrying forward learning and at the end of the meeting. Two to three minutes at the beginning and five to ten minutes at the end of the meeting is usually sufficient for groups of eight people. Adjust your scheduled time based on your experience and size of group. Inform participants at the beginning of each session that you will be asking them for their comments and assessments at the end of the meeting. Ask people to comment on what was performed 'nearly well' or 'approximately correct' as well as what produced high value. Ask people to keep their comments positive, ...'unconditionally constructive'. Record comments in two columns: plus on the left, delta on the right. Limit the conversation on any comment to exploring what is being said rather than arguing the merits of what was said. At the beginning of each session refer back to the most recent Plus-Delta sheet of comments to give people guidance on participating in the current session. Always thank people for their comments, both at the time they make them and at the end of the session. Excerpted from the coaching-by-email program First 30 Days on the Last Planner System™

©2003 Hal Macomber | weblog.halmacomber.com | e-Tip Archive | PDF | Submit Tip

Note to readers: I've got five subscriptions to Business Book Summaries that I want to give away along with five copies of Purple Cow. Submit your tip.

posted by Hal at 11:22 PM | link  |   |   | Google It!  | Email This  |

I keep hearing people say, "We spend too much time in meetings." The complainers often have a good point. Project meetings are often poorly run and don't result in action. On the other hand, there are people who complain about all meetings. Jeffrey Pfeffer, co-author of The Knowing-Doing Gap writes Don't Believe the Hype About Strategy in the May issue of Business 2.0.

Pfeffer argues that we spend too much time talking about what we will do and not enough time (and intention) on doing it. While the article is about strategy, he could have been talking about project management.

Talking replaces action, planning replaces learning by doing.

For a company to stay ahead of its competition, it must do things that others cannot easily copy.

What is difficult to copy...is the way a company implements and executes proficiently. Anyone can talk about...delivering software that actually works. But few organizations can really make good on such promises.

Pfeffer finishes the article encouraging readers

(I)nstead of sitting in meetings and producing fancy PowerPoint demonstrations, develop your strategy by using your company's best thinking at the time, learning, refining, and trying again. Under almost all conditions, fast learners are going to outperform even the most brilliant planners.

Projects are always about "implementing and executing." Let's substitute some fast learning on our projects for some brilliant planning.

posted by Hal at 8:17 PM | link  |   |   | Google It!  | Email This  |

I'll be attending and speaking at Coachville's Future of Coaching conference in San Francisco. My topic is Becoming an e-Celebrity by Blogging. I'll be sharing my learning maintaining Reforming Project Management over the last 8 months with the attendees. If you are a project coach, internal consultant, or executive coach take a look at the conference agenda. There's still time to sign-up. Coachville is an incredible resource for developing your skills at coaching. The organization is the largest of its kind boasting over 32,000 members. In addition to conferences, Coachville offers telecourses and online programs for skill development. Check it out.

posted by Hal at 8:55 PM | link  |   |   | Google It!  | Email This  |

Low Intensity Project Management by Andrew Weiss, PhD, PMP, appearing April 30, in Gantthead.

The article is both seductive and frightening. Weiss states, ...not all project management is highly structured and driven by formal tools. Towards the end of the article he characterizes low intensity projects:

LIPM is far more of an emergent activity than standard project management (in other words, project management in a given organization would arise more from situational variables than from adherence to standard practices). LIPM thus tends to be more experimental than prescriptive.

Are you beginning to see the seductiveness? (for me anyway)

It's all the stuff in between that's scary. Weiss offers one rationalization after another describing why some organizations or situations may not be ready for the formal approaches that they really need. (my paraphrase) He sees taking a LIPM approach as a way of introducing more formal approaches to organizations. An example:

Work breakdown structures. In the LIPM environment, one of the most challenging tasks is simply keeping track of what has and has not been done. Personnel are probably not used to regularly reporting on their progress or looking at their activities in a structured, hierarchical manner. However, once they are shown how to do so, the WBS becomes a powerful tool for project control.

See what I mean? In short, LIPM is a Trojan horse for introducing formalized methodology and all the trappings.

Still looking for just what's needed and no more? Consider designing a set of practices based on Fernando Flores description of projects. You're sure to do better than LIPM.

posted by Hal at 10:54 AM | link  |   |   | Google It!  | Email This  |

 

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