My focus in "process improvement" circles has to do with Theory of Constraints concepts and approaches, but that doesn't prevent me from appreciating other approaches as well. One of the ideas that comes up in the Lean world is that of Respect for People.
I've been involved in knowledge management for nearly 20 years. And over most of that time, one of the most familiar ideas is that we spend 20% of their time searching for stuff. I wonder. Is this 20% of time truly wasted?
My network is not the vast number of people I'm connected to on LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter.
Breakthrough Project Management from Ian Heptinstall and Robert Bolton is a brief guide to getting significantly improved project performance through combining two management approaches: One is Critical Chain Project Management (CCPM) and the other is collaborative contracting. For me the material on CCPM is a confirmation of what I have been doing for many years. And the material on Project Alliancing is new, and yet it rings bells for ensuring successful projects of any type.
Everyone wants to kill email. I'm no fan of it either, but it does serve a purpose - a purpose that no other tool serves quite as well. Or more specifically, better than any SINGLE tool serves.
I came across a great illustration by Henrik Kniberg, summarizing a talk he did recently on the topic of how to create and maintain focus. The blog post is a set of short commentary, all revolving around the three points illustrated: Create slack; Say no; Stop thinking, "I don't have time".
It's 18 October 2016, and it is the annual occurrence of Information Overload Awareness day. It's not like we forget we are overloaded every other day of the year.
Advertising is not a topic I normally worry about, but somehow the topic of "Seducing Strangers: How to Get People to Buy What You're Selling" by Josh Weltman goes beyond just about advertising. I like to think that this topic can be thought of beyond purely advertising into other areas where one might need to get people to "buy."
The project management community like to point to examples of really bad project management. Every once in awhile, there are examples of extremely good project management as well. These are all videos, but they get the story across
What does "continuous improvement" mean? What does it mean to you? There is a strong connection to humility and acknowledging that "I don't know". Or at least, I have more to learn.
I've always thought the idea of context was interesting. Johanna Rothman thinks so too, "We all start from our own contexts."
Depending on who you talk to and where you listen, the Lean and Theory of Constraints communities are either close partners or opposing players in the "continuous improvement" arena. But from my perspective they are much closer to being friendly than opponents.
Ajai Kapoor has a nice piece on LinkedIn Pulse where he says, "Please STOP planning ... Really." He recounts the familiar challenge of plan / don't plan. Plan because we want to direct our efforts into the right places to achieve some goal. But don't plan because plans never survive contact with the enemy.
Mike Dalton has a nice series of articles on project management in Industry Week (and copied to LinkedIn Pulse). "Are Your Plans Realistic & Robust?" entry is on planning and using the CCPM approach to construct a plan.
Want to be more effective in your work? Stop "just checking" those notifications. They drain your attention and slow you down.
Steve Holt gave a talk entitled "Stay on the Red Curve by Making Your Own Products Obsolete." He touched on a lot of topics, but the general idea is that the competitive advantage linked to innovations (in product, service, etc) can only last so long for a business.
Dee Jacob (author of Velocity) provided a workshop of a game she has been developing over many years of practice in critical chain project management. I have looked around for games or simulations to help highlight the critical pieces of critical chain, and this is the best I've seen.
Henry Camp told a parable about his own experience in trying to motivate people, in particular his sales staff. I cannot do the story justice, so I won't. Henry is a great storyteller, and he's always given off a warm, humble-but-understanding vibe. Maybe that's his Louisville roots.
Kevin Kohls had a great talk on the topic of The "Bad Luck" Obstacle - Management Churn. Essentially, he is asking the question of how people who do TOC (or any other) implementations deal with the fact of life in organization: management moves around.
Another talk on Strategy & Tactics Trees at the conference came from Michael Hannan. In this presentation he suggested updating the current "projects" S&T Tree to be more universal to any project-delivery organization.