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Bring an End to the Craziness

This weblog started out in August 2002 as a little writing project so I could learn to speak more clearly on project management. Well, one thing led to another and soon I found an avocation! Along the way I began collecting a group of readers who were also dissatisfied and disillusioned with the current common sense and expert opinion. Readers have joined me from the PMI community, many certified as PMP®s, people who are students of the Theory of Constraints, and from the XP / Scrum / Agile software community. These folks have joined me in investigating what really works, why it works, and what we can be doing to help others succeed. I've learned tremendously from interacting with my readers. You'll find their comments at the end of my postings. You'll see my references to them. And I've included many of them in my blogroll.

At the beginning of 2004 I took up an additional focus for this weblog. The construction industry has been injuring and killing its workers at four times the representation of labor in the industry. This must stop. While I don't know how to bring an end to this I do know it is worthwhile trying. Each Thursday I'll be writing about safety. Also check out the Safety Everyday page each day for construction safety in the news and other resources. For those of you who are strangers to this industry, please give yourself permission to question, comment, and suggest actions we could be taking. For all you others who are members of the industry, please join me in bringing about an end to this craziness.

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Hal Macomber, Project Reformer

Hal is a partner with Greg Howell in the consulting company Lean Project Consulting, Inc. He also operates a coaching practice as G2G Assocs., LLC, and is having some fun with Michael Port as one of The Project Guys. Through these endeavors he is delivering services to a variety of industries and situations: defense, power generation, construction, fabrication, entrepreneurs, micro businesses, solopreneurs, and other coaches.

Hal studied economics and operations research at Lowell Tech, the former UMass Engineering School. He went on to get an MBA from Boston University in operations management. Hal's preoccupation with operations effectiveness finally paid off when he learned about workflow, Fernando Flores' linguistic-action reinterpretation of work.

With that new distinction Hal's career took off. He moved from one industry and one role to the next:

• Production control management of computer manufacturing
• Materials management of software distribution
• Division management of boiler manufacturing
• Worldwide quality management of steam and gas turbine equipment design and manufacturing
• Consulting for operating and maintaining power stations and copper smelting
• Software design for project management and consulting
• Operations and consulting management of software development
• Chief Operating Officer of integrated design-build construction operations
• Consultant on lean project delivery, general business management, and leadership

Results exceeded expectations:

• ERP implementations were highly successful while the industry failed and continue to do so.
• Self-managed work teams were successfully introduced in high tech, in traditional unionized factories, and in white-collar departments all the while the popular business press claimed it only the latest fad.
• Learning organizations were created that out-performed and out-lived the founders while the so-called leading experts weren't able to produce permanent change.
• Power station operation's reliability soared while generating recurring revenue increases.
• The principles of the Toyota Production System and Goldratt's theory of constraints were introduced in the construction industry producing unheard of improvements in margins, time schedules, quality, customer satisfaction, and employee satisfaction.

Hal is currently placing his attention on project leadership. By bringing together the work of Flores, Goldratt, and Ohno/Shingo with an emphasis on leadership he is setting out to bring about a transformation in how projects are delivered. Project management, one of the most-cited career positions, is failing to produce the desired business results. Projects are routinely over budget, late, and fail in often significant ways to satisfy the customer and the project participants. While many people recognize and suffer with the failings of our current practices the bulk of today's improving efforts are spent on doing a better job applying the same old techniques. In conjunction with the Lean Construction Institute, Hal has set out to change that.

 

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