tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36837435020160503412024-02-28T00:29:52.524-08:00The Manager's GuideThe Manager’s Guide contains blog posts on Leadership and Systems Engineering. The Leadership posts provide a self-study course in leadership for managers and for workers who wish to prepare themselves for management. The articles address motivating people and improving processes. People and processes are common to every type of organization so the course applies to any organization. The older posts cover Systems Engineering and can be found in the archive or by searching on key words. Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.comBlogger112125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-45845350690429690092014-01-13T16:10:00.000-08:002014-01-13T16:10:11.708-08:00Workspace and ProductivityIn my book "The Manager's Guide for Effective
Leadership" I stress the importance of giving people control over the
processes they are responsible for in order to increase productivity. Of course
it’s necessary to train people in the management of processes and to establish
boundaries for what they can control before they are set free to control their
own processes. There is another parameter that management controls that can
increase or stifle productivity. That is the work space of the workers. The December
2013/January 2014 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek has an excellent article by
Joshua Brustein on the modern workplace that is worth reading. This post
borrows from that article and from my own personal experience as a worker.
Brustein’s article is questions posed by Burstein and answered by several
experts on work place issues. I will quote some of the material in the answers
without reference to the questions that stimulated the answers.<br /><div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Jim Harter, Chief Scientist of Workplace Management and
Well-being at Gallup provides data cited in the article that establishes the
importance of paying attention to the work space of workers. Harter says that
data his organization has collected shows that only 30% of people are engaged
at work, 52% do only the minimum required and 18% are actually working against
the objectives of their organization. Harter cites a number of things managers
must do to increase the percentage of workers that are engaged; most of which I
covered in my book. One that I did not cover is the importance of personal
workspace and the feelings of ownership in the tools associated with people’s
work and workspace. Reviewing how I felt about workplace tools and space during
my career may help guide aspiring managers in addressing this important issue
that is often neglected.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
In my earliest jobs as a lab technician I was assigned a
set of tools and a tool box to contain them. They were “mine” as long as I had
the job but I was responsible for returning every tool and the tool box when I
left the job. These tools were used every day in doing the work I was assigned
and it’s easy to see why I considered these tools “mine” even though they
belong to the organization. If I loaned one of my tools to a co-worker I made
sure I got it back. If other workers had felt free to use my tools without my
permission I would have become upset and less engaged due to the perceived
outrage against me.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
Later in my career as an executive I had a private office
with desk, chairs, phone, my personal secretary and the freedom to decorate the
office as I saw fit within the bounds of decency. Sometimes I did add things to
my office to make it more personal and sometimes I did not. However, in all
cases I felt that the office was “mine”, to be used only by me or with my
permission. If these implied rules had been violated I would have diverted my
energies from my work to correcting the violation of my implied rules just as I
would have hunted down anyone who borrowed one of my tools without permission
when I was a lab technician.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
After retirement I worked part time as a consultant for a
number of years. In many of these jobs I would be given a workplace and a
computer or access to a shared computer. In some jobs I would have a workspace
with a computer that was “mine” and access to shared computers for email that
could not be accessed with my workspace computer due to security concerns. I
mention this arrangement because of the comments by Tom Eich, Partner at IDEO.
Eich says private offices are no longer economically viable so that either
open-plan offices or shared workspaces are the new norm. Also the growing
practice of working much of the time at home makes it desirable to have shared
workspace and tools such as computers and phones for use when workers are in the
organization’s facility. He says people accept these arrangements as long as
they have personal storage and have access to a dedicated desk or workspace when
they need it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
The message for managers is that attention must be paid
to the relationship of workers to their workspace in order to maximize the
engagement and thereby the productivity of the workers. It is important to assign each worker
personal storage space at the least and to allow workers to treat desk space
and other associated work tools as their own even if these are only assigned
temporarily to the worker. In principle workers like to have control of their workspace
and tools as well as their processes. The more the workers feel in control of
their processes, workspace and tools the more likely they are to be fully
engaged in their work. If they feel management or co-workers are not respecting
their “ownership” of their processes, workspace and tools then energies are
diverted from the objectives of the organization toward fixing the perceived
ownership issues.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-60164691105253040652013-08-01T07:34:00.000-07:002013-08-01T07:34:43.229-07:0030 Finish and Implement Your Action Plan<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
We last
addressed your leadership action plan at the end of the review of lectures
11-16. If you are a diligent student you have been very busy working on the
actions you defined for yourself up to that point. That is why you have not
been asked to update your plan as you studied lectures 17 – 29. Now it is time
to go back to your plan.</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
First, conduct an assessment of
how well you are doing implementing your action plan. Are you making reasonable
progress on every item? If so, you deserve a pat on the back. Are there planed
actions that you have found difficult to implement? If there are, go back to
the lecture that gave rise to the difficult actions and review the lecture to
see if you are missing anything in your implementation efforts. Are there any
actions you have dropped? Reevaluate your reasons for dropping these actions.
It may be that you just deferred some actions to put more effort on others. It
may be time to pick such actions up again. It may be that you decided you
didn’t really need to work on some actions. Think again about these actions and
see if you made wise decisions. After asking and answering these questions
assess whether you are ready to implement more actions or if you need to
continue on your current plan for a while. If you conclude you need to work on
your current plan longer before adding more actions then schedule a time when
you believe you will be ready to add more actions and put it on your calendar.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Now you are ready to continue
to build your plan. Finish your plan now even if you aren’t going to work on
new actions for some time. Finishing your plan now helps ingrain what you have
recently studied. It is also easier to do when the material in the final
lectures is fresh in your mind. A list of 21 questions relating to the material
in lectures 17-29 follows to guide you in finishing your plan:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Does your organization compete on a national or global
basis?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->If so, have you committed to developing an organization
with the skills and experience to prevail in competition at this level?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Are your recruiting and training processes robust
enough to build the quality of organization you need?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Do you know if your worker’s strengths are well matched
to their jobs and if you do, are they?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Are you developing your successor?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->6.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Are you managing your time effectively with time
allocated for the physical, mental and spiritual aspects of your life?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->7.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Are you scheduling your time by the week and following
your schedules?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->8.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Are you dictating instead of typing where it makes
sense?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->9.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Are you being effective with people and efficient with
other work processes?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->10.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Have
you learned to listen empathically to your workers, your boss, your family?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->11.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Have
you structured your organization’s meetings so that you have effective
communications with your workers without wasting their time?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->12.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Have
you organized the work in your organization so that you do not have highly paid
workers doing work that could be done just as well by lower skilled and lower
paid workers?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->13.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Are
you managing risks effectively using sound risk management methods in all your
organization’s work?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->14.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Have
you read Goldratt’s books on Theory of Constraints and reviewed your
organization’s major processes to ensure the theory isn’t being violated?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->15.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Have
you committed to self-study of statistical process control or to attending a
training course?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->16.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Have
you committed to training all of your workers in process improvement
techniques? (If you are already doing Six Sigma only selected employees need to
be fully trained.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->17.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Have
you committed to yourself to empower your workers to control and improve their
own processes once they have been properly trained? (Be careful with this if
your process improvement strategy is Six Sigma and you are training only part
of your workers.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->18.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Have
you begun continuous process improvement in your organization?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->19.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Are
you practicing how to think statistically?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->20.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Have
you stopped asking for explanations of common cause variation in processes in
your organization?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->21.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Have
you stopped inventing explanations for common cause variation in required
reporting to your superiors? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
By the time
you have finished reviewing these questions and adding to your leadership
action plan as indicated by your answers you should have a comprehensive plan.
It is likely to take several years to fully implement your plan, depending on
the state of your management maturity and your organization’s maturity. This is
a lot of work but it is well worth it. If you are working in a stable
environment and in a culture that allows you to implement your plan you will
achieve an organization that is 20 to 30% more effective than when you started.
You will be better able to prevail in today’s highly competitive and stressful
work environment. You and your workers will be spending less time on crisis
management and more time doing high quality work. You will have the time to
effectively lead your organization in achieving strategic objectives rather
than having to divert time to resolve daily crises. Nearly all will be enjoying
their jobs more.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Get busy on your plan and make
it work.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you have completed the study of each
posted lecture you may wish to have a hard or electronic copy of this material close
at hand. You can buy the book </i><b>“The
Manager’s Guide for Effective Leadership”</b><i> in hard copy or for Kindle at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-10434331271144978622013-07-23T07:41:00.001-07:002013-07-23T07:41:47.647-07:00Review of Lectures 23-29<span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">The first 22 lectures deal with the management functions of
staffing, communicating and motivating. The remainder of the lectures deals
with selected aspects of control. It is assumed that the student understands
methods of cost and schedule control appropriate to the student’s organization.
If not, references for self-study are provided in lecture 23. It is critical to
understand how to apply the principles of control to different organization
types because these principles must be tailored to the organization type and
applying them inappropriately results in significant inefficiencies. It is also
necessary to understand management accounting, which differs from standard
financial accounting, in order to make sound decisions relating to costs of
products or services. The three aspects of control discussed in lectures 23-28
relate to processes involved in the day to day work of any organization. These
three are risk management, theory of constraints and process improvement.</span><br /><div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Risk is the consequence of undesirable events on the work of an
organization. Risk is inherent in every type of activity. The objective of risk
management is to proactively identify risks and take actions that reduce the
probability that an undesirable event occurs and/or reduce the consequence of
the event should it occur. Lecture 24 describes a ten-step process for
effective risk management and provides templates used in risk management. The
primary templates are the risk summary grid, which is useful in the early
stages of an activity for communicating risks to managers, customers and the
team working the activity and the risk register, which is more useful in day to
day management of risks once an activity is underway.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Lecture 25 is a brief overview of the theory of constraints.
Understanding the theory of constraints is easier if we think of a process as
the combination of supplier, input, process, output and customer, or what is
termed SIPOC for the initials of each word. The inputs are transformed to
outputs by the process. The activities or processes that any organization
performs are a series of SIPOC steps with the outputs of one step being the
inputs to the following step. Actual processes are usually complex networks of
SIPOC steps but we can understand the theory by examining a simple series of
steps. Then it is clear that the output of the overall process cannot occur at
a rate any faster than the rate of the slowest step in the process. Applying
the theory of constraints should be the first step in process improvement.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Often managers try to keep every worker busy all of the time
thinking that is the most efficient way to manage an activity. This can violate
the theory of constraints and lead to costly excess work in process and
sometimes extra workers to facilitate work in process. It doesn’t matter if the
process is a service process dealing with paperwork or a manufacturing process.
Applying the theory of constraints minimizes work in process, cycle time and
staff size. Some workers may not be busy at all times but this doesn’t lead to
extra costs. Rather it creates time for workers to conduct process improvement
and opportunities for cross training workers to do more than one step. The
student is encouraged to read the referenced books by Eliyahu Goldratt. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Lecture 26 explains that statistical variation is present in
the actual values of all parameters relating to an organization’s processes.
Measuring this variation and understanding the resulting information is
essential to effective management. Managers and workers must know the
difference between common cause variation (the manager’s responsibility) and
special cause variation (the worker’s responsibility). An activity, the
“system” in process improvement language, must be stable, i.e. exhibit only
common cause variation, before attempting to improve the process by reducing
the variation and/or changing the mean value of a parameter. A system is
brought into stability by fixing the special cause variation revealed by data
measuring the variation. Control charts are a visual means of evaluating
variation to determine common cause and special cause. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Effective process improvement is achieved via several different
approaches. Total Quality Management and Six Sigma are two popular approaches
proven to be effective. Implementing any effective process improvement approach
requires that all or a subset of workers and managers receive comprehensive
training in statistical process control. Only after such training should
workers, or specially trained facilitators, be empowered to execute process
improvement. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Lecture 27 provides guidelines for learning and using
statistical methods. Learning to think statistically is discussed and
approaches to learning this useful skill are outlined. This lecture also
describes two of W. Edwards Deming’s famous experiments and one that I
developed that help managers understand variation and how to manage in the
presence of variation. The funnel experiment demonstrates dramatically the
things that go wrong when inappropriate actions are taken in the presence of
variation. The red bead experiment demonstrates how hard workers try to carry
out manager’s directions, even when the goals a manager sets are obviously
impossible due to the effects of variation. Watching a video of this experiment
is an experience beneficial for all managers. It provides vivid demonstration
of the “goodness of intent” of most workers and of the damage managers cause
via arbitrary, and often unrealistic, slogans and exhortations. The
productivity experiment teaches the value of reducing variation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Lecture 28 concludes the discussion of variation and process
improvement by giving some simple examples that illustrate the typical steps in
a process improvement activity. Visual tools, including fish bone diagrams, flow
charts, work flow diagrams, deployment charts and control charts are described.
These examples teach enough of the methodology of statistical process control
to enable the student to begin improving simple work processes. It is important
for the student to undergo more thorough training before applying statistical
methods to complex work processes. Complex processes can have subtleties that
are not covered in the simple examples discussed in lecture 28.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Lecture 29 deals with leading the team, which is the main
function of an organization’s manager. Developing an effective organization, as
described in the first 28 lectures, can be viewed as necessary to free the
manager from being so bogged down with problem solving related to personnel or
processes that there is no time to lead the organization in achieving its
strategic objectives. Key to leading the team is effective planning. Lecture 29
summarizes a planning process called Process Quality Management (PQM) that
focuses on the fundamentals of planning. I and many others have found this
process effective in helping the manager lead his organization in achieving
strategic objectives. PQM facilitates the planning for achieving strategic
objectives in a one or two day concentrated session. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
There are no exercises for this review session as the last
lecture is your most important exercise.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<i>If you find that the pace
of blog posts isn’t compatible with the pace you would like to maintain in studying this
material you can buy the book </i><b>“The
Manager’s Guide for Effective Leadership”</b><i> in hard copy or for Kindle at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook
at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book
at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-75320329012016240012013-07-10T11:28:00.000-07:002013-07-10T11:28:44.252-07:0029 Leading the Team<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Everything
discussed up to this point is supportive of the manager’s main function, which
is leading the organization in accomplishing its strategic objectives. I have
discussed several times how implementing the methods discussed eventually frees
the manager from daily firefighting activities thereby making time for more
strategic work. An organization of highly motivated workers that are trained
and empowered to control their processes will conduct the organization’s normal
activities with little oversight from the manager. However, accomplishing an
organization’s strategic objectives almost always involves doing some things
differently or some new things. The success of the organization depends on
accomplishing these different or new things successfully. Ensuring that the
organization has the highest probability of success in achieving strategic
objectives is the responsibility of the leader. In this lecture I describe a
process that helps both the leader and the team achieve an objective involving
change from normal practices.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
The process was
developed and widely used by IBM and others in the 1980s. (See the paper by
Maurice Hardaker, and Bryan K. Ward, titled <i>How
to Make a Team Work</i> in the journal Harvard Business Review, November 1987,
page 112) IBM called the methodology Process Quality Management or PQM. It is
fundamentally a planning process in which goals, business processes necessary
to achieve the goals and measures to track progress toward goals are
identified. What sets it apart and contributes to its usefulness is the focus
on fundamentals of planning. Recall the Super Bowl metaphor I used earlier to
guide you in developing your action plan. PQM follows a similar pattern.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
PQM starts with
the leader gathering all of his or her direct reports that are involved in
achieving the intended goal in a one or two day planning session. If possible
hold this session off site and forbid cell phones and PDAs during the session.
The team is typically made up of up to a dozen people that are involved in the
business processes associated with the goal. Hardaker and Ward advise not
including more than a dozen as a larger team gets unwieldy to manage. It is
essential to have all involved people in the planning session and allow no
observers or hangers on. It is also preferable that someone other than the
organization’s leader facilitate the process so that the team is not
constrained by the leader’s preconceived beliefs. The following steps are
carried out during the planning session:<o:p></o:p></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">The leader introduces the goal and
explains why the organization must achieve the goal. The objectives are
for the team to understand the goal, to convince the team that the goal is
necessary and that they all are required to help achieve the goal. Then
the facilitator takes over leadership of the process and the
organization’s leader becomes a team member.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">Brainstorm to identify possible measures
of success. Then narrow the identified measures to six to eight that are
both necessary and sufficient. These measures are called the critical success
factors. One method for narrowing the list is to post the whole list and
ask the team to privately rank them in importance. Comparing and
discussing the team’s rankings allows the list to be thinned. Work on the
list until <u>all</u> team members agree that the remaining measures are
the necessary and sufficient measures. That is, if all measures are
achieved then the goal will have been achieved and if any measure is not
achieved then the goal will not be achieved. Consensus is required before proceeding to
the next step.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">Brainstorm to define the business
processes that must be carried out to achieve the measures of success. To
avoid getting vague and useless descriptions of business processes follow
these rules:<o:p></o:p></li>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="a">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo2; text-align: justify;">A business process is defined
as a verb plus object, e.g. design products. <o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo2; text-align: justify;">Each process should have an
owner who is responsible for managing or carrying out the process.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo2; text-align: justify;">The owner should be a member
of the team.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo2; text-align: justify;">No owner should have more
than four processes to manage or carryout.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo2; text-align: justify;">Following a similar process
used to define the critical success factors develop a list of business
processes that are necessary and sufficient to achieve all of the
critical success factors. Again consensus is required from the entire
team. Expect to have anywhere from 10 to 20 processes. The preferred
approach to developing this list is to prepare a relationship matrix as
described next.<o:p></o:p></li>
</ol>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">Prepare a relationship matrix of critical
success factors vs. business processes. An example matrix is shown in
figure 30. The example has truncated the number of business processes and
critical success factors but it illustrates the approach. Start with the
first critical success factor and identify every business process that is
necessary and sufficient to achieving this success factor. Work through
each critical success factor in turn. Now the list of necessary and
sufficient business processes is complete. Typically processes are added
and deleted during the preparation of the relationship matrix.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">Fill out the last two columns in the relationship
matrix. These rank the organization’s capability for each process in the
column labeled business process quality and count the number of business
processes that apply to each critical success factor. The business process
quality ranking are made subjectively as A = excellent, B = good, C =
fair, D = poor and E is for processes that don’t currently exist or are
embryonic and not enough experience is available to rank them.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">The counts and business process quality
columns assist in allocating resources for changes to business processes.
There are rarely available resources to fully fund every desired change in
business processes so some prioritization must be made. These columns are
used to guide the assignment of resources to each process. Processes that
have a high number of counts and rankings of D or E must have adequate
resources. Processes that have counts of only two or three and rankings of
B or C can be assigned fewer resources. Processes with A rankings and
counts of only one or two may need little or no additional resources.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">Affirm responsibility for each business
process to its owner. The objective is to have every team member agree
that they are responsible for one or more business processes and, most
important, any necessary changes to the processes. Make sure team members
understand their responsibility and know how they are going to approach
any necessary changes.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">Define and get agreement on a plan to
monitor the status of work on the activities and progress on the critical
success factors. Depending on how the new work relates to normal work
monitoring may occur automatically via existing information systems or it
may require special meetings or it may be done as part of normal staff
meetings.<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">If it is not possible to get all team
members comfortable with their next steps during the one or two day
session then schedule follow up meetings with individual team members that
might be needed to clarify details of their new assignment. <o:p></o:p></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGKmJmdoSnWbBwosAEr9KjIgEI669Dzp2PY0_ys-vMEamdLv1BxgJySF01FzrKLpWnPvsHf0wR0lTibITLpyX2vBQV-KVBkbjYaQwXqKD7bVfmbBifxkOrf_cm3szzsgMcz5iEoA8xB3g/s1600/Figure+30.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="232" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGKmJmdoSnWbBwosAEr9KjIgEI669Dzp2PY0_ys-vMEamdLv1BxgJySF01FzrKLpWnPvsHf0wR0lTibITLpyX2vBQV-KVBkbjYaQwXqKD7bVfmbBifxkOrf_cm3szzsgMcz5iEoA8xB3g/s400/Figure+30.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Figure 30 A
simplified example relationship matrix of business processes vs. critical
success factors.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Having a well-developed
plan is only the beginning. Carrying out the plan is the real work and success
is usually dependent on persistence in this work. It typically takes a year or
more to achieve significant goals. If your plan is expected to take more than a
year it is wise to review your plan after a year. Conditions may change and any
pertinent changes need to be integrated into your plan. If achieving the goal
is essential to the success of the organization then it is essential that the
organization’s manager lead the team during work on achieving the goal. Don’t
delegate this responsibility. Delegate other work to make time for this more
important work. Recall the research of Gary Lynn and Richard Reilly cited in
lecture 9. Successful developments are three and one-half times as likely to
have senior management intensely involved as failed developments.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b>Exercises<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Review
the planning you did for your current efforts toward achieving the strategic
objectives for your organization. Did you follow planning fundamentals similar
to those outlined in the PQM process?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Do
you have a strategic objective or goal for your organization that would benefit
from using the PQM process to achieve organizational alignment?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Is
your organization in the process of striving toward a major goal and having
difficulties making progress? If so consider carrying out a PQM planning
session.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Are
there barriers that prevent you and your reports from holding a PQM planning
session for critical strategic objectives?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->What
can you do to remove these barriers?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective Leadership”</b><i> in hard copy or for Kindle at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-43343899429024842292013-07-02T14:06:00.002-07:002013-07-02T14:08:13.529-07:0028 B Example: Improving the library process<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
In most cases the largest cause
in a Pareto chart is the first target for improving a process. However, in this
example the students aren’t complaining about the time they spend in the
stacks. The students’ primary complaint is about the second shortest step in
the overall process. Based on these observations the process improvement team
decides to divide the problem into two pieces. First they will determine if
they can reduce the amount of data required for the checkout process, thereby
addressing the main complain of the students, and second they will analyze the
process in more detail to see if the overall time can be shortened without
major investments in new equipment or facilities.</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Examining the rational for requiring
the student’s local and home addresses for checking out books determined that
this policy traces to the era before the college established computer databases
of student information and the use of student ID numbers. It was incorporated
into the checkout software just because it was part of the process at the time
the software was introduced. Therefore the team checked to ensure they could
get access to a student’s addresses if they had a student’s name and ID number.
Confirming that they could they dropped this requirement from the checkout
process and modified the library’s policy documentation to reflect this change.
All librarians and assistant librarians were notified that student address data
is no longer to be collected.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The team examined the raw data
collected on the individuals using the library to see if any additional insight
might be gained on the process. This led to discussions with the assistant
librarian that collected the data. The
discussions revealed that if a student returned to the catalog after being in
the stacks then each of the times the student spent waiting for the catalog
computer, using the computer or searching the stacks were added together. For
example, if a student returned to the catalog computer three times then the total
time using the catalog computer is the sum of the three independent times.
Examining the raw data indicates that about 50% of the students return to the
catalog more than once and about 25% return three or more times. Discussions
with students returning to the catalog computer more than once showed that
these students were noting only one book at a time when doing a catalog search.
They then go to the stacks, examine the book and if it doesn’t have the
information they need they return to the catalog computer, repeat the search
and examine the next most likely book.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Based on this new information
the team concluded that the instructions for using the catalog are inadequate,
possibly explaining why 81% of those surveyed found the instructions of little
or no use. The team modified the instructions to include recommending that the
students note several books from each search that might contain what they need
before going to the stacks and examining any of the books. The modified
instructions were posted beside the catalog computers and notices were posted
reminding the library users that the instructions had changed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Next the team prepared a work
flow diagram and a deployment chart to see if any additional insight into
improving the process is provided by either of these tools. Work flow diagrams
and deployment charts are items that I have found useful that are not in my
1987 copy of the Memory Jogger. These are based on process flow charts and add
information not usually associated with flow charts that helps identify process
improvements. For our purposes the definitions of these items are:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Flowchart- A schematic step by step description of a
process. It can be top level or very detailed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Work flow diagram- A floor plan of the workspace that
includes the movements of people and items involved with the process.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Deployment Chart- A matrix of process steps and workers
showing who is responsible for each step. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Simple
examples better explain why these diagrams and charts are useful. Important
information for process improvement efforts not included on flow charts is the
spatial relationships of steps in the process and who the primary and secondary
workers are that are responsible for each step.
This information is provided in work flow diagrams and deployment charts.
Examples of these are shown in figures 26 and 27 for the book checkout process.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYtM-ritvytoYxH6Di7Pc1C_FgBLPcmt5pVosL1IqfGgV9Iw1qrGkS2BRGUfefflDEBFdBjETqhBlkM_JY_0ttsyrU32D8Bi9L1zrNFgYEm8w7w6CiDArYLy2pjlszOLVH29eBW-O8bEc/s442/Figure+26.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYtM-ritvytoYxH6Di7Pc1C_FgBLPcmt5pVosL1IqfGgV9Iw1qrGkS2BRGUfefflDEBFdBjETqhBlkM_JY_0ttsyrU32D8Bi9L1zrNFgYEm8w7w6CiDArYLy2pjlszOLVH29eBW-O8bEc/s400/Figure+26.png" width="400" /></a></div>
</span></h5>
<h5 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; font-weight: normal;">Figure 26 Work flow diagram for checking out a
book.<o:p></o:p></span></h5>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
The work flow
in figure 26 shows that this work space can be improved to make the student’s
job easier by moving the card catalog closer to the stacks so that students
that have to make a second and third trip to card catalog need to take fewer
steps. The work space can be improved to make the librarian’s job easier by
moving the librarian’s computer closer to where the students bring their books
at the checkout station so the librarian doesn’t have to move back and forth to
access the computer and work with the student. These improvements are not
apparent from just the process flow chart illustrated in figure 21.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwZ6L-cJUcZQf42IMEgP-uitqKUv9WMo0KajoJHvEpOIRz5upUbZofZHD9p1_o5ih2kvMpIUeKlLei-j0QHf8ckYjjAkcvNUqhw9Y80wBvWgv78A0Sn9y_3WMbq09V1OJj-5xXgdhigis/s444/Figure+27.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwZ6L-cJUcZQf42IMEgP-uitqKUv9WMo0KajoJHvEpOIRz5upUbZofZHD9p1_o5ih2kvMpIUeKlLei-j0QHf8ckYjjAkcvNUqhw9Y80wBvWgv78A0Sn9y_3WMbq09V1OJj-5xXgdhigis/s400/Figure+27.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Figure 27 Deployment chart for
finding and checking out a book. (The rectangles indicate a primary
responsibility and the ovals a secondary responsibility for a given task)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
The
deployment chart shown in figure 27 adds new information to the process
description, although in this simple case it doesn’t suggest any improvements
to the process. An alternate version of the deployment chart lists process
steps under columns labeled with the titles of individual workers involved in
the process. In general it is good practice for process improvement teams to
start by developing the process flow chart, the work flow diagram and the
deployment chart as a first step and to try various forms of these charts and
diagrams rather than just preparing a single flow chart before beginning
analysis. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Often just
putting charts and diagrams on paper suggests simple improvements, as the work
flow diagram did for the book check out process. The observant student will
have noticed that the description of the library processes is much simpler than
what actually happens. For example, the flow chart, work flow diagram and
deployment charts lack the loop back to the catalog if the student doesn’t find
the information needed in the books examined from the first search of the
catalog. If all three charts are developed at the beginning of a process
improvement activity it is more likely that missing steps are identified.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b>Checking the effectiveness of candidate
improvements<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The process improvement team
moved the catalog computer and the checkout computer as suggested by the work
flow diagram. They then collected new data for a week to see if these changes
and the changes they had made to the checkout process had any impact on the
number of complaints received or on the time to find and check out books. The
post improvement data is shown in figures 28 and 29.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw_pLJB6JCQSDZ5bljSojvgtrOoO-2wdXYDMOeBIjmdsh_1Y1UMcQTNd5rxq3ZuwO8qZ52QUouPVCsvkPFvX8n5Y-vPVj29SEav8c0JdONrsq2ZNUlZOC6-_7rRjfdv6hyphenhyphenbHBF9kXkEJU/s442/Figure+28.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw_pLJB6JCQSDZ5bljSojvgtrOoO-2wdXYDMOeBIjmdsh_1Y1UMcQTNd5rxq3ZuwO8qZ52QUouPVCsvkPFvX8n5Y-vPVj29SEav8c0JdONrsq2ZNUlZOC6-_7rRjfdv6hyphenhyphenbHBF9kXkEJU/s400/Figure+28.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoHeader" style="tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
Figure 28 Post
improvement complaint check sheet.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoHeader" style="tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCd0-q8AOJyDBK2hXZPJKFQl7Lojst_-Ngjs0RKPou_3ztLsuRXLRmiDl5TZwuM1FdmR-Y9CMsWKyPDV2iuVp51JpC-bodpq-82Ogw4u72QccQcJA_xIC804UICx9BIZiXK-JZjjP-oDA/s389/Figure+29.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="165" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCd0-q8AOJyDBK2hXZPJKFQl7Lojst_-Ngjs0RKPou_3ztLsuRXLRmiDl5TZwuM1FdmR-Y9CMsWKyPDV2iuVp51JpC-bodpq-82Ogw4u72QccQcJA_xIC804UICx9BIZiXK-JZjjP-oDA/s400/Figure+29.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoHeader" style="tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
Figure 29 Post
improvement times for finding and checking out books.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
The post
improvement data shown in figures 28 and 29 indicate that the objective of
reducing the number of complaints was met and some reduction in the average
time to find and checkout books was achieved. Although only a small reduction
in time the students spend in the stacks was achieved there is a significant
reduction in all other times. The students spend less time in queues and less
time providing data to the librarians. Note that the time the librarians spend
in processing books is also cut in half. This is attributed to the reduction in
time listening to students complaining. The time listening to complaints was
also increasing the time students had to wait in the queue for checking out
books. The librarians found that they had more time for other work and they
were enjoying their jobs more without having to listen to so many complaints.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
This example of
process improvement contains several lessons learned that are worth listing.
These include:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Processes are often much more complex in
actuality than workers first perceive. This is usually because they think of
how the process ought to work rather than how it actually does.<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->First attempts at collecting data often miss key
data because of incomplete descriptions of processes. <b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Fixing a problem in one step can often have
unexpected benefits in other steps in a process. In the library example
eliminating the need for providing unnecessary data to the librarians not only
reduced complaints it reduced the times librarians spent in listening to the
complaints and the time students spent in queues waiting for free librarians.<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Processes often contain unnecessary steps due to
some past rational that no longer applies. <b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Improving processes almost always makes workers
jobs easier and if continued over time can reduce the number of workers
required to carry out processes.<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Process improvement
should be an ongoing effort and if it is the improvement teams build on past
work so that their flow charts and data collection become refined with time.
The fact that first efforts are not as complete as they might be isn’t
important as long as improvement activities continue. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
I hope that
this example shows how continuous process improvement with trained and
empowered workers contributes to higher quality work, more motivated and
happier workers and a more effective organization. This is the type of
organization that survives and thrives in today’s competitive global
environment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
I also hope
this example has convinced you to learn statistical process control in more
depth. This example is only an introduction to statistical methods. There are
different types of control charts that are used for different analyses. These
include p charts, np charts, c charts and u charts in addition to the x-bar – R
chart used in the library example. In addition to control charts you need to
know about run charts and scatter diagrams. The Memory Jogger book recommend in
an earlier lecture defines all of these methods.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
You may try
statistical methods on simple work processes based on what you have learned in
this lecture. I must caution you that although that may work well you could
cause more problems by trying to apply these simple methods to a process that
demands more complex treatment or different analysis than described here. If
you have access to someone versed in statistical techniques then go ahead and
begin using these techniques but be sure to ask the expert to review your work
to ensure the methods apply to the processes you intend to improve.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoHeading7" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Exercise<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Since some books and training
courses on statistical process control do not discuss work flow diagrams and
deployment charts you can learn to prepare these tools by practicing on
processes around your home. Develop a flow chart, a work flow diagram and a
deployment chart for the activities you engage in from the time you get up in
the morning to the time you leave for work. If you are married I don’t
recommend trying to get your spouse to change the morning routine based on any
process improvement you identify from your charts. You may be judged as having
gone a bit overboard.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> in hard copy or for
Kindle at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-18530832505784152372013-06-26T13:44:00.000-07:002013-06-26T13:44:47.281-07:0028A Example Process Improvement Methods<span style="text-align: justify;">It is the
intent of this course to teach the student the value of learning and applying
methods of statistical process control for process improvement and encourage
the student either to learn these methods via self-study or from a training
course. Although it is not the intent to teach these methods in this course
giving examples may help the student understand the value of learning and
applying them. Therefore this lecture provides simple examples of process improvement
methods and tools to enable the student to get a feel for what is involved in
process improvement and begin using these methods on simple processes. The
lecture is a bit long and requires careful reading because there are a number
of important concepts involved and simpler examples would not adequately
present these concepts. Read this lecture when you are fresh and can devote
time for a tedious but important read.</span><br /><div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The example presented here is a
college library’s book search and checkout process. Let’s assume that the
librarians are receiving complaints that it takes too long to find and check
out books. Process improvement shouldn’t have to wait until customers make
complaints but complaints can help direct the improvement process. When the librarians
first decided that they were getting so many complaints that they should try to
fix the problems the head librarian wasn’t convinced that the complaints
reflected any real problems. She felt that there might be just a few
disgruntled students complaining. Therefore they decided to collect some data
over the next week. They used a check sheet to collect the data. Check sheets
are used to collect numerical data over a period of time. A check is made on a
form or any sheet of paper each time an event of interest is observed. The
check sheet resulting from the librarians monitoring of the fraction of library
users complaining about any of the library's processes is shown in figure 20.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKPmMcS78Ip_Doa7q1SZLx6dTAuLPXVq1eKSeH2cAAB8zpfF7uqk9qp-S7ptHHn3UXadc3HaWqXE2gncJkqlbVxBZlGdDeVncUnY7VAP5C1b1yfMcLF23t1hQ_E1NfzoK2RH0-jdoKqU0/s1600/figure+20.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKPmMcS78Ip_Doa7q1SZLx6dTAuLPXVq1eKSeH2cAAB8zpfF7uqk9qp-S7ptHHn3UXadc3HaWqXE2gncJkqlbVxBZlGdDeVncUnY7VAP5C1b1yfMcLF23t1hQ_E1NfzoK2RH0-jdoKqU0/s400/figure+20.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Figure 20 Check sheet recording
the complaints about library service for one week.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Seeing that complaints were
being received from an average of 17% of the library’s users the head librarian
authorized the librarians to form a process improvement team to try to improve
the library’s processes so that complaints would be reduced.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b>Flowcharting to define the
process<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The first step for the process
improvement team is to conduct a brainstorming meeting to discuss the
complaints and plan how to react to the complaints. To help guide the
brainstorming meeting the team prepared a flow chart of the library’s process
for finding and checking out books. The team’s flow chart is shown in figure
21.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ-Lq6b1-2uIUqw1VL014OHgkp6HR5dus19ucfij0P2dRCHB6gq_nuLxkQqjQywwU7xHEXtCGk00kMhzFrxCJgtMKtqx6kcnvRHMiYuYJv7uuSENqDxYJmTpICR0RQP5YjDzfAQnU93VU/s1600/Figure+21.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ-Lq6b1-2uIUqw1VL014OHgkp6HR5dus19ucfij0P2dRCHB6gq_nuLxkQqjQywwU7xHEXtCGk00kMhzFrxCJgtMKtqx6kcnvRHMiYuYJv7uuSENqDxYJmTpICR0RQP5YjDzfAQnU93VU/s400/Figure+21.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Figure 21 The process
improvement team’s flow chart for the process of finding and checking a book
out of a library.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
A flow chart
diagrammatically lists each step in a process in a time ordered sequence. Flow
charts establish ownership of process steps, establish boundaries, define key
interfaces and define the overall process and thereby ensure that the team has
a common understanding of the process in question. Flow charts are most helpful
for complex processes where there a lot of decision points, inspection points
and loop backs. The charts help clarify what is really happening in a process
vs. what might have been planned and the charts are an excellent tool for
helping a process improvement team focus its discussion and brainstorming
sessions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
There are
useful variations on flow charts including listing items under columns labeled
Supplier, Input, Process, Output and Customer in the sequence of the processes
forming an overall process. Examining a process several times using different
format charts often reveals new insights into the process. Perhaps you can
think of even more ways to define the flow of processes in your organization.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b>Analyzing the process<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The team discussed each step in
the flow chart to get ideas for what might be the source of the students'
complaints. At a brainstorming meeting each attendee is allowed to offer any
ideas for the cause of the problems and any ideas for developing solutions. All
ideas are recorded first, and then they are discussed to select those that are
most promising. Constructing a cause and effect diagram, often called a
fishbone diagram, is a good tool for collecting and discussing ideas for the
causes of the complaints. A final fishbone diagram for the library’s slow
process might look like that shown in figure 22. It helps guide the
brainstorming if the possible causes of problem are grouped in four categories.
Use the four P’s of Procedures (including Processes), People, Policies and
Plant (i.e. buildings and equipment) for four categories of problems in service
organizations. Similarly, the four M’s of Material, Methods, Machines, and Man
are helpful categories of problems in manufacturing or project organizations
that deal with things rather than services. Over time your organization may
find other categories that are more useful for your specific organization. A
category that is often added is Environment. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXQqMVj6kOjVKGXSDXgJW7KP8PE-G9u83_xtlZWCILJCfldLzZCetfnrUWuHcAq4HK6pp7QjB4v4-QKKgQR9zE0_Sglwg9U2AfvCgGhv0enco_SCX8UVLo5QU9ZXfj4HePsK_3LxwAdM/s1600/Figure+22.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwXQqMVj6kOjVKGXSDXgJW7KP8PE-G9u83_xtlZWCILJCfldLzZCetfnrUWuHcAq4HK6pp7QjB4v4-QKKgQR9zE0_Sglwg9U2AfvCgGhv0enco_SCX8UVLo5QU9ZXfj4HePsK_3LxwAdM/s400/Figure+22.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Figure 22 Fishbone diagram of potential causes for slow
library process.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
The next step
is to gather data to determine which of the potential causes are the biggest
contributors to the students’ complaints. Two approaches are to gather data
from the students that are complaining and to gather data on the process
itself. Data can be gathered from the students by querying them during checkout
and/or by asking them to participate in a survey. Let’s assume the librarians
decide to use a survey. They design the survey based on the data in the fishbone
diagram. The result is the following list of questions:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
1. Do you think finding and
checking out a book is?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
Fast ____<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
Ok _____<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
Too slow ____<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
2. Do you think the process is?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
Easy ____<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
Too complex
____<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
If too
complex, what part of the process do you find the most
complex?__________________________________________<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Are the library’s instructions helpful?___ , Little
help?____, No help?_____<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Are the librarians helpful?____, Little help?_____, No
help_____?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Which step takes you the most time?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->a.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Finding desired books in the catalog______<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->b.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Finding books in the stacks_______<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->c.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Checking out the books you have found_______<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->What changes would improve the process for you?
__________________________________________________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->When you need help from a librarian is there usually
one available? Yes__,No__<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->6.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Is the library open when you need to get books?
Yes____, No_____<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Let’s assume
that 100 surveys are collected and analyzed. The finding might look like the
following: (Note numbers won’t add up as some students won’t answer all
questions.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
1. Do you think finding and
checking out a book is?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
Fast __5<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
Ok __10<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
Too slow __85<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
2. Do you think the process is?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
Easy ____12<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
Too complex
____84<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; text-align: justify;">
If too
complex, what part of the process do you find the most complex? 65 said the
having to give too much data to the librarians; 10 said finding books in the
catalog and 4 said finding books in the stacks.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
3. Are the library’s
instructions helpful? __11, Little help? _73, No help? _8<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
4. Are the librarians
helpful?__92, Little help?___6, No help___1?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
5. Which step takes you the
most time?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
a. Finding desired books in the
catalog___25<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
b. Finding books in the
stacks_____40<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
c. Checking out the books you
have found___32<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
6.What changes would improve
the process for you?___74 said having to provide just student name or name and
ID number to the checkout librarian, 10 said adding more catalog computers, 5
gave miscellaneous answers and 6 gave no answers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
7. When you need help from a librarian is
there usually one available? Yes_87, No_10<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
8. Is the library open when you need to get
books? Yes__86, No___12<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
It is clear
from the results of the survey that the biggest source of complaints is having
to give the student’s name, local address and home address each time a book is
checked out, as required by the library’s policy and the checkout software. The
students recommend having to provide only their name or their name and student
ID number. The library is open when most students need it open and the librarians
are available and helpful for most students. Similarly, finding books in the
catalog and in the stacks take time but are not problems for most students. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The survey provides useful
information but the librarians must analyze the process, implement candidate
improvements and check the effectiveness of the candidate improvements.
Analyzing the process means establishing measurement points, collecting data
and checking the collected data to see if the actual time data correlates with
the students’ complaints.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
During the time the surveys
were being collected an assistant librarian timed students as they performed
the different tasks involved. These times were collected for 85 students. The
total times were analyzed in 15 samples of 5 students each and the average
total times of each sample of 5 were plotted in a control chart called an “X
bar- R” chart. (There are mathematical reasons for working with averages of
subgroups, which you will learn in your more comprehensive studies of
statistical methods.) X-bar stands for the average of each sample group and R
stands for the range in value of the sample. The resulting chart is shown in
figure 23.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGex_chwPKBaSucGi6DkA0oppq890Z794VLC1p6UNerLf4ope900xqQvC3dA82dHezFtRxz7F_j9_h-n4xQ9Q8kbFzx_Fs-n1PZ8vptTj4nFYZe-bMDGLmwpHwt2fhBOTPmIaRHe-vzg0/s1600/figure+23.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGex_chwPKBaSucGi6DkA0oppq890Z794VLC1p6UNerLf4ope900xqQvC3dA82dHezFtRxz7F_j9_h-n4xQ9Q8kbFzx_Fs-n1PZ8vptTj4nFYZe-bMDGLmwpHwt2fhBOTPmIaRHe-vzg0/s400/figure+23.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Figure 23 X bar-R chart for
total process times for 15 sample groups of 5 students each.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The upper control limit is calculated
from the equation UCL= X bar + 0.577R bar and the lower control limit from LCL=
X bar- 0.577R bar. (The parameter 0.577 is specific to sample averages of 5
items per sample group and would be different if more or less than 5 items are
in the sample group. Books on statistical process control, like the Memory
Jogger, list the equations and parameters needed to develop control charts.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The control chart in figure 23
tells the librarians that the overall process is stable, i.e. it exhibits only
common cause variation. Therefore they can make changes to the process and be
assured that changes in the average times are due to their changes and not
something else going wrong. Had there been points above the UCL and/or below
the LCL the process would have special cause variation and the effect of any
changes couldn’t be reliably attributed to the change.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Knowing they have a stable
overall process the process improvement team examined the average times of the
various steps in the overall process. The results are shown in table provided
in figure 24. Note that before making any changes to any step in the process it
is necessary to examine the control chart for that step to ensure the step is
stable as well as the overall process. For this example we assume each step is
stable.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj46bDNR8nfIwVpG8RAa4gIvL5__SLf6HqnY9CzLC_hdYJeuhWNL0aD5saerPI9SkWEzv38IzseS94y3Sr_DJiisIA14tirtkuzy1WqflVf6bGUpCnteEeiTCXsoBTV6TQzTbs0TplnnBA/s1600/Figure+24.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj46bDNR8nfIwVpG8RAa4gIvL5__SLf6HqnY9CzLC_hdYJeuhWNL0aD5saerPI9SkWEzv38IzseS94y3Sr_DJiisIA14tirtkuzy1WqflVf6bGUpCnteEeiTCXsoBTV6TQzTbs0TplnnBA/s400/Figure+24.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Figure 24 Table of average
times for each step in finding and checking out a book<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
The timed
process data provides further insight into the students’ complaints. They
complain that the process is too slow and complex and they identify having to
provide too much data to the checkout librarian as their biggest contributor to
their complaints. The data suggests that having to supply the personal data is
irritating rather than taking too much time. The largest contributor to the
total average time is the time spent in the stacks and the students did not
complain about this time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b>Exercise<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
A Pareto chart is a bar graph
with the data ordered from left to right so that the largest is on the left,
the second largest next, etc. This chart helps a process improvement team focus
on the problem to solve first. Using the data table in figure 24 prepare a
Pareto chart of the data. Your result should look like figure 25.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj07zwl78wzayyfOk_n4SAY7wgXZ5KMS-UCXQT_39KegouMHpp4MqR1ooGqpjJ3xwmEpfa5XGZMiwd870YSDn-zQN1ZeBylAAAfpbJmOS6Qqti7B6Ef_wXoTeLv1pJVEiEtiQdoAl7YkLI/s1600/Figure+25.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj07zwl78wzayyfOk_n4SAY7wgXZ5KMS-UCXQT_39KegouMHpp4MqR1ooGqpjJ3xwmEpfa5XGZMiwd870YSDn-zQN1ZeBylAAAfpbJmOS6Qqti7B6Ef_wXoTeLv1pJVEiEtiQdoAl7YkLI/s400/Figure+25.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Figure 25 A Pareto chart for
the times of each step in the overall process.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> in hard copy or for
Kindle at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-29495380387733022442013-06-18T07:14:00.000-07:002013-06-18T07:14:22.383-07:0027 B The Productivity Experiment<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
There is another experiment
that I developed that helps managers in charge of processes for which a high
throughput is important to the effectiveness of the organization. This experiment is a game that teaches the impacts
of variation and work in process on effectiveness and profitability.</div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The game is for two teams each
with an equal number of players and a team leader. It is adaptable to two to
about 20 trainees, it can be generic or specific to a process and there can be
multiple levels of sophistication, although only one level is described here.
This level treats variation and work in process inventory but ignores
inventories of raw materials and finished goods and ignores the effects of lot
size. Students can modify the game to include these effects if the effects are
important to training in their organization. This description assumes ten or
fewer trainees with two as team leaders and the others as workers. Workers role
dice and move items representing work from process to process. Leaders verify workers
results, record data, calculate throughput and work in process inventory. If
there are more than ten trainees they are given assignments as production
control, inspectors, supervisors or finance workers and take over the leader’s
roles in the game appropriate to these titles.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
One leader gets to choose between two
processes with the same average throughput. One process has high capacity, but
relatively high variation, and the other process has lower capacity but also
lower variation. The other gets the left over process. The game is played by
rolling dice that determine the throughput of each step in a process that has a
step for each worker on a team. The game is played in cycles with a cycle being
one turn at rolling the die for each worker on the team. Three cycles are
usually sufficient to demonstrate the principles.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The high capacity team gets a
die with numbers 1 to 6 so that its average throughput is 3.5 but the variation
can be from 1 to 6. If the game is played for three cycles this team’s overall
process has a capacity equal to the number of cycles times the largest die
number, or 18. Capacity is defined as the maximum possible through put if each
worker rolls the largest number on each turn.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The low capacity team gets a
die with only the numbers 3 and 4 so that its average through put is also 3.5
but the variation is only from 3 to 4. (Equivalently, use a regular die but
rolling 1, 2, or 3 is counted as a 3 and rolling a 4, 5, or 6 is counted as a
4.) The capacity of this team’s overall process for three cycles is 12 compared
to 18 for the high capacity team’s overall process. Each team starts with a
pile of chips that represent items of work. The objective is to move as many
items from the first step through the entire process for delivery at the end
and to have as few chips as possible left stranded as work in process (WIP)
inventory.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Each team gets the same amount
of input items for its process and gets “paid” according to its total
production, i.e. sum over the number of cycles of the number of output items at
the end of each cycle. However, each team is charged with the cost of WIP
inventory, i.e. the sum over the cycles of the number of items that are still
in the intermediate steps of its process when each cycle is over.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
When a player rolls a die a
number of items equal to the die result are moved through that player’s step in
the process. E.g. if the first player rolls a three then three items are moved
through the first step to the second step. If the second player rolls a two
then two items are moved to the third step but if the second player rolls a
four only three items are available to be moved. After each team has completed
the same number of cycles the game is stopped and the financial results are
calculated.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
I have found that the typical
manager that is oriented toward high productivity chooses the high capacity
process in spite of its higher variation and is then amazed when his team gets
soundly beaten because of both low production and all the work in process the
high variation produces. It is easy to see how this happens. The production is
equal to the number of cycles times the throughput of the last worker in the
process. The low capacity team has a throughput of at least three per cycle
whereas the high capacity can easily be limited to a throughput of only one or
two if any of the workers rolls a one or two during a cycle. Thus the lower
variation of the lower capacity team overcomes the lower capacity and usually
results in higher total production. The lower capacity team’s lower variation
results in WIP for each cycle being one, if the first worker rolls a four or
zero if the first worker rolls a three. The higher capacity team can have WIP
for each cycle of as much as five if the first worker rolls a six and any
subsequent player rolls a one.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
This game is a good
introduction to teaching process improvement, just in time inventory and theory
of constraints to managers responsible for processes in which throughput is
important. Although the game was designed for a manufacturing process it
doesn’t matter whether the items moving from step to step are manufactured
items or paper products in a service organization. In both organizations
processes with high variation result in both reduced throughput (efficiency)
and excess work in progress. Therefore reducing variation has a high payoff
even without changing the mean throughput capability of any step in the
process, including the constraining step. This is not obvious to many workers
or managers until they experience the results of the game described above.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<b>Exercise 3<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Try the productivity experiment
yourself. You can play the roles of each of the workers on each of the teams.
For example use a spreadsheet with a column for each worker plus a column for
throughput per cycle and a column for WIP inventory per cycle. Each cycle is
assigned three rows, one for the result of rolling the die, one for the
throughput and one for the WIP inventory. Try four workers per team and
carryout three cycles as described. You will find that the process with a
capacity of 12 and variation of 3 or 4 typically achieves production of 9 and
WIP of 3 or less for three cycles. The process with capacity of 18 and
variation of 1 to 6 typically achieves production of less than 9 and WIP of 6
to 8 for three cycles.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> in hard copy or for
Kindle at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-16037111640350541642013-06-11T08:59:00.000-07:002013-06-11T08:59:02.311-07:0027A Managing in the Presence of Variation<span style="text-align: justify;">I cannot
overemphasize the importance of learning how to understand variation and how to
manage in its presence. Brian Joiner said it best in his training course
(Copyright Oriel Incorporated, formerly Joiner Associates, 2009). “When people
don’t understand variation:</span><br /><div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->They see trends where there are no trends and miss
trends where there are trends<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->They blame, or credit, others for things over which the
others have no control<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->They can’t understand the past or plan for the future
properly<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Their ability to manage or lead is impaired”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Managers can
learn to manage in the presence of variation if they do three things:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Learn appropriate statistical methods; as described in
the Memory Jogger or similar book<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Ensure workers are trained in & use appropriate
problem solving and statistical methods<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Learn to think statistically<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
This lecture addresses learning statistical
methods, learning to think statistically and discusses three experiments that
are valuable to learning about managing in the presence of variation<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b>Learning Statistical Methods<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
To achieve the increased
organizational effectiveness promised by this course it is necessary to train
everyone in the organization in the basic problem solving tools and statistical
methods covered in the Memory Jogger. Workers and managers must become familiar
with and use flow charts of their processes, check sheets to gather data on
their processes, Pareto charts, cause and effect diagrams (fishbone diagrams),
run charts, histograms, scatter diagrams and control charts. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Self-study of the Memory Jogger
book or a similar book that is written for self-study is one way of learning
appropriate statistical methods. In my experience the best way to learn these
techniques is to train teams that have common ownership of processes. The team
picks a problem in one of the team member’s processes that they think needs
improving. A trainer, well versed in these methods then teaches several teams
at a time by teaching a technique and then letting the teams put the technique
into practice for the problem they have selected. It takes about 50 hours
spread over about three months for a team to work through learning the
techniques, gathering data, analyzing the data and evaluating the success of
its process improvement efforts. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
It typically costs several
thousand dollars per team, in addition to the cost of the team’s time, for such
training. However, the cost savings resulting from the process improvements
conducted as part of the training typically saves five to ten times the cost of
the training within about a year. This claim is based on documented savings of
over $20 million by about 300 such team training efforts over several years in
the late 1980s. These teams were from several types of organizations including
manufacturing, health care, and civil government services.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b>Using Statistical Methods<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
After teams are trained they
are ready to be empowered to have control over their process within some
boundaries that must be determined for each organization. Typically trained and
empowered teams do not have to be encouraged to take control of their
processes. Most are eager to fix problems that bother them by making their work
more difficult or increasing their work load. These are also the problems that
reduce the effectiveness of the team’s processes. As mentioned earlier, it is
important to monitor empowered process improvement teams so that workers are
not too heavily involved in process improvement at the expense of getting
normal work done. In organizations of more than about 40 people it is prudent
to designate a person skilled in statistical process control techniques to
monitor all process improvement work. This person should ensure that workers
are collecting data on the workers’ processes, preparing control charts and
solving special cause variation to bring their processes into stable control.
Only then should improvement activities be initiated to reduce variation and/or
change the mean of a controlled parameter.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
It’s good practice, where it makes sense, to
have workers post their control charts where they are visible to the workers
and to managers. Remember, managers are workers and are also responsible for
processes. Sometimes managers should have control charts for their processes
and these should be visible to others except where the charts involve private
data relating to people. Having control charts visible to all reinforces the
intent to manage on the basis of data rather than someone’s guesses or
intuition. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Financial and productivity
related data should be available to all as is necessary for evaluating process
improvements. Providing such data also helps build and maintain trust in
management. Workers are trusted with trade secrets that are far more valuable
than typical financial data. Denying them access to financial information
prevents them from accurately calculating the cost savings from their process
improvement actions and tends to build distrust of management.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
A quick search of the web shows
that there are numerous vendors offering software packages to assist with
generating the subject charts and diagrams. I think it’s a better learning
experience to have workers learn how to generate the products by hand before
having access to software. The software isn’t really necessary and not having
used the commercial products I can’t attest to their utility or cost
effectiveness. Therefore I recommend students learn without the help of
commercial software and then try a commercial product and determine for
themselves if it is a good investment. It may be that such products save time
and result in fewer errors so that they pay for themselves over time. I would
caution the student that if the software automates most of the data collection
and processing to observe carefully to learn whether using such automated tools
reduces the ownership workers have in the control of their processes. If they
feel the software is being imposed on them and their processes by management it
may demotivate them. Of course a wise approach is to let the workers decide if
such tools are helpful and cost effective.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
After workers are trained,
empowered and monitored properly they should take responsibility for fixing
special cause variation without involving managers. Knowledge workers can also
take responsibility for improving their processes, i.e. reducing common cause
variation, without having to get permission from or involving managers. This
frees managers from many of the daily crises that take time away from
maintaining and improving their own processes. Workers controlling their
processes effectively are the basis for the claim in the introduction to this
course that if a manager practices the methods taught here there are fewer
crises requiring management attention and therefore more time to work on
important long term problems.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b>Learning to Think Statistically<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Many books on leadership advise
their readers to trust their intuition in making decisions. I wholeheartedly
agree with this advice. Being effective often requires making decisions with
limited data. In my experience decisions based on available data plus intuition
are correct most of the time and the benefits gained from timely decisions
outweigh the costs of the few times mistakes are made. I believe that the
quality of decisions based on intuition can be improved by learning to think
statistically. Thinking statistically means using available data, your
experience and your intuition to make judgments based on probability and
statistics in situations where statistics apply. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
One objective of learning to
think statistically is to no longer spend any time explaining obvious common
cause variation or asking others to explain common cause variation. Such
mistakes are common in analyzing and discussing financial data and productivity
data. I have had to sit through or read through countless examples of someone
explaining why this months’ expenses for something are up by x% or this months’
sales missed the forecast by y% when the common cause variation in the
parameters under discussion was greater than x or y%. It should be obvious to
the student at this point that such discussions are a complete waste of time
and frustrating to those who have learned to think statistically. Explanations
are only called for if a parameter exceeds an agreed upon control limit. Feeing
one from such time wasters makes time available for process improvement,
growing the organization, working with customers and other effective work.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Weekly or monthly reports are a
typical place where seemingly learned discussions of common cause variation are
popular. That is another reason why I never liked weekly reports. If you are
required to write such reports make sure you are not wasting both your time and
your supervisors’ time by discussing common cause variation unless it is in the
context of a process improvement action. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Learning to think statistically
takes practice. Try to recognize common and special cause variation even when
you don’t have a control chart available. Often your experience and intuition
are sufficient. This is a useful skill in daily life but should never be a
substitute for managing work processes on the basis of data. A good way to
practice is by reading or listening to news reports. Think about reported
incidents and assess whether you think they are due to special or common cause.
An example is a report that some people are concerned because they believe
there is a high incidence of “x” in their community. The “x” might be cancer,
crime or some similar undesirable event. The fact that the community is
concerned is newsworthy, whether or not the concern is justified depends on
whether the high incidence of “x” is special or common cause variation.
Typically insufficient data is reported to enable an accurate decision. In such
cases make an educated guess for the practice. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Try assigning probabilities to
events and assigning relative importance to reported events based on your
knowledge of the statistics related to the event. An understanding of the
statistics of normal distributions applied to limited data given in news reports
is often sufficient to make a determination of common or special cause
variation with good probability of being correct. You soon find that the
newsworthiness of an event often is not proportional to the relative importance
of the event compared to other similar events. That is ok for the news media;
their first priority is to interest their audience. It’s usually up to the
audience to put events into proper context and statistical thinking is
essential to achieving a good understanding of news events.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
As you learn to think
statistically you begin to look at work data more carefully. You do not jump to
conclusions without collecting and examining data to determine whether
something is common or special cause. You stop wasting time looking for
explanations of common cause variation and hopefully go to work improving the
processes under your control. You take appropriate actions and stop taking
inappropriate actions in the presence of variation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Appropriate actions to take for
processes (the system) that exhibit variation are summarized in the chart shown
in figure 19.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDufCY3C-B71D5t44lDhBpIQMtSkYOREk26O2uvatw748798U5J1xHy_xSWwlA6Qu6Rf26erqsqzbbe60Yn5iZvMgoF98pgmcbE1IyuHkBTOUrQpa9_jrgFDkbbgPSjEX5O8WnvPhcUgo/s1600/Figure+19.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDufCY3C-B71D5t44lDhBpIQMtSkYOREk26O2uvatw748798U5J1xHy_xSWwlA6Qu6Rf26erqsqzbbe60Yn5iZvMgoF98pgmcbE1IyuHkBTOUrQpa9_jrgFDkbbgPSjEX5O8WnvPhcUgo/s400/Figure+19.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Figure 19 Appropriate actions
in response to variation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Brian Joiner,
cited above, also has a great summary of “Consequences of Inappropriate
Management Actions (i.e. violations of the rules summarized in figure 19):<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Wasted time and energy<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->More variation in the system<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Loss of productivity<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Loss of confidence in the manager<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Problems continue”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
As shown in
figure 19 the system should not be adjusted in the presence of common cause
variation. This is called tampering by W. Edwards Deming and just makes the
variation worse. If special cause variation is present then you must “Look for
the Difference”, i.e. look for the reason that the variation in question is not
within the control limits. There is usually some anomaly that accounts for the
special cause variation and this anomaly must be corrected so that out of
control limits variation doesn’t continue. It is possible that the system has
changed and therefore needs adjustment as indicated in column two. However, do
not adjust the system if it has not changed as that would be an inappropriate
action. The best training example of the results of inappropriate actions is W.
Edwards Deming’s famous funnel experiment. If the student has access to the
Deming video tapes I strongly recommend watching the tape on the funnel
experiment. If that tape isn’t available an excellent alternative is available
thanks to Dr. Yonatan Reshef,<b> </b>of the<b> </b>School of Business at University of
Alberta. It’s discussed in the first exercise for this lecture.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
After you have learned
statistical methods, learned to think statistically, trained your workers and
empowered them your organization will take fewer inappropriate actions and more
appropriate actions and the organization’s effectiveness will increase.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Exercise 1<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The Funnel Experiment<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Go to the web site
http://www.business.ualberta.ca/yreshef/orga432/funnel.<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">html</span> and
study the funnel experiment. Dr. Reshef provides the rules and has a
demonstration that you can download and work through yourself. Please take the
time to work through the exercise. It is important to engrain in your mind the
principles associated with inappropriate actions. If you have difficulties
getting clear results from Dr Reshef’s demonstration you can see the results of
a computer simulation of the funnel experiment at
http://www.spcforexcel.com/ezine/july2006/july_2006.htm#article4 Click on
funnel experiment in the contents list on this web page.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The objective of the exercise
is to learn the difference between tampering (some call it tinkering) and true
process improvement. All workers that you plan to empower to control their own
processes should work through the funnel experiment as part of their training. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
After studying the funnel
experiment listen carefully to politicians in the news. As they recommend
actions consider whether the recommended actions are tampering or sound process
improvements. As you become more expert at statistical thinking you will notice
that many politicians recommend actions that sound good to their constituents;
often independent of whether the recommended actions are appropriate for the
variation that precipitated their recommendation. Also, listen to other
managers and your superiors as they suggest responses to problems. Try to assess
if their suggested responses are sound process improvements or a form of
tampering. These exercises help engrain the teachings of the funnel experiment
in your mind.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Exercise 2<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">The Red Bead Experiment<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Another of Deming’s famous
experiments is the red bead experiment. You can learn about the red bead
experiment at http://www.redbead.com/docs/expressindia19111998.html by reading
the article by Manjari Raman. This article provides a clear definition of the
experiment and a concise summary of the teachings of the red bead experiment.
There is additional useful information at www.redbead.com but I strongly
recommend that you buy Dr. Deming’s video for your organization. It is
available at http://www.trainingabc.com/xcart/product.php?productid=16249&cat=254&page=1.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Observing the red bead
experiment carefully or participating in the experiment is a powerful learning
experience. Watching the behavior of participants is an amazing demonstration
of the human nature that we encounter every day in our work. Workers try to do
the impossible when bosses demand it even though the workers know that they
cannot succeed. And we have all seen bosses who demand the impossible from
workers in a system that is incapable of enabling the workers to achieve what
they have been asked to do. Some trainers recommend that managers and their
workers jointly do the red bead experiment and discuss it together as a step on
the way to changing the behavior in their organization. I think that it is
sufficient to watch the experiment but I think it is very important for the
student to watch it, not just read about it. After viewing and perhaps
discussing the red bead experiment with others, the student is likely to be
less enthusiastic about arbitrary goals and management exhortations or slogans.
Also it’s likely that the student will develop a more favorable assessment of
the willingness of most workers to attempt to do whatever management requests.
These likely changes help make the student a more effective manager.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> in hard copy or for
Kindle at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-51304725520732714902013-05-28T13:18:00.000-07:002013-05-28T13:18:20.972-07:0026 Introduction to Variation<span style="text-align: justify;">W. Edwards
Deming, the famous quality improvement guru, claimed that the two most
important things for managers to understand are:</span><br /><div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList2" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Variation
and how to deal with it<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList2" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->The
forces that motivate and demotivate people<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The subjects of the first 21
lectures, motivating, staffing and communicating, address the forces that
motivate and demotivate people, i.e. the Theory Z portion of effective
leadership. Forces mean the collection of perceptions, understandings and
misunderstandings that influence the attitude and behavior of people. Lectures
23 – 25 introduced management of processes, part of the control function of
managers, and treated the stand alone topics of managing risk and theory of
constraints. Now we turn to variation and how to deal with it, the central
theme of process improvement and process control. Managing in the presence of
variation is also part of the control function of managers. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
W. Edwards Deming claimed that
the inability to interpret and use the information in variation is the main
problem for managers and leaders. (See the book <i>Out of the Crisis</i> by W. Edwards Deming) When there is a problem
with any work process the manager and the employees both must understand when
the manager must act and when employees must act. It is through an
understanding of variation and the measurement of variation that they
understand when and who should take action and, just as importantly, when not
to take action. Thus variation is involved in both improving poor processes and
maintaining good processes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Variation is just the reality
that actual values of parameters, physical or financial, have some statistical
spread rather than being exactly what we expect, specify or desire. For
example, we may have a budget for supplies of $1000 per month. When we look at
spending for each month it is typically close to but not exactly $1000. Over
time the spending might look like that shown in figure 15.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx47yA8F0Ds9Eh1zLaCE0T8Uy9ycPDsIxrAc3cSNkodXNPqQedoCBIETx515gB_I89ZLsLGxCJiFhc0H6ZOM7DBrVHSXwzy42p5XrWHRsMeZbuPM61pSsoUtxM9TUoegTBnIOE6GqgTbw/s1600/Figure+15.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx47yA8F0Ds9Eh1zLaCE0T8Uy9ycPDsIxrAc3cSNkodXNPqQedoCBIETx515gB_I89ZLsLGxCJiFhc0H6ZOM7DBrVHSXwzy42p5XrWHRsMeZbuPM61pSsoUtxM9TUoegTBnIOE6GqgTbw/s400/Figure+15.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Figure 15. An example of variation from planned budget by
actual spending.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
For our
purposes the definition of variation is deviation from planned, expected or
predicted values of any parameter. The parameter might be financial, as in the
example shown in figure 15, it might be in units of production per day or
minutes per service, or it might be a physical parameter, such as the dimension
of a machined part. Thus variation occurs in all the work processes of any kind
of organization. Therefore, as Deming implied, the effective leader must
understand the information in variation and how to properly manage in the
presence of variation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Let’s start by returning to the
work process illustrated in figure 12, the SIPOC diagram. Where might we expect to see variation in a
work process? The answer is everywhere. Deviations from ideal inputs are
variation. Deviations from ideal outputs are variation. Deviations from
expectations in use are variation. Variation in use can be due to either hidden
variation in outputs or unexpected variation in the use environment or the use
process.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Let’s define an effective
process from a customer’s point of view. It is a process that produces outputs
that meet or exceed the customer’s expectations for quality and cost. Customers
can be internal or external to the enterprise or the organization that owns the
process. Customers have stated and unstated expectations. Specifications,
requirements, standards, and contract items are examples of customer’s stated
expectations. Customer’s unstated expectations are typically suitability for
all conditions of use and affordability. Therefore, for the purposes of process
improvement discussions, we can say that an organization’s effectiveness is
determined by the effectiveness of its processes in satisfying its customer’s
expectations. (In general the effective organization must satisfy all its stake
holders’ expectations, including managers, workers, owners and the community as
well as the customers.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Variation Drives Process
Effectiveness<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
We can see the effects of
variation by examining an ideal business process (figure 12, an ideal process
is repeated in the top half of figure 16) and a typical process as shown in the
bottom half of figure 16.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH6qjMBOSRLHF7y71g9LUbZ5WbQ_Iha8iynBZW-u5xO9IRSPsKTuTq4rLha0vwStbWFHSOIp1q2IJEIrU8NUPzNZPe9U-BpXmTXPoNAcc1vu6lVkh0SWlpiEmyEda4GkZ_Hi5vpH0ePd4/s1600/Figure+18.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="343" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH6qjMBOSRLHF7y71g9LUbZ5WbQ_Iha8iynBZW-u5xO9IRSPsKTuTq4rLha0vwStbWFHSOIp1q2IJEIrU8NUPzNZPe9U-BpXmTXPoNAcc1vu6lVkh0SWlpiEmyEda4GkZ_Hi5vpH0ePd4/s400/Figure+18.png" width="400" /></a></div>
</span></h3>
<h3 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-size: 13.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Figure 16. Comparison of a
typical process to an ideal business process.<o:p></o:p></span></h3>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
An ideal process converts all
of the supplier’s inputs to outputs that satisfy the customer’s expectations. A
typical process includes inspection steps to ensure that a defective input is
not sent to the process or a defective output is not sent to the customer. The
customer also adds an inspection step because of receiving defective outputs in
the past. If outputs fail any of these inspections the failed item is scrap or
must be reworked. It’s easy to see that the typical process is more expensive,
and therefore less effective, than an ideal process because inspections cost
money and scrap or rework cost money. In a typical chain of processes costs of
failing inspection increases as the work progresses along the chain because
more rework is required if an inspection is failed at processes near the end of
the chain. Thus often the largest cost to the organization is warranty costs
from customer returns. That is the reason for the inspection of the outputs
before they are sent to the customers. The reason these inspection steps are
added is the presence of variation. If there was no variation in the inputs or
the outputs then there would be no need for inspection to find those items
whose variation from ideal is larger than acceptable.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Notice that even the ideal
process has inputs and outputs that exhibit variation but for the ideal process
this variation is within acceptable limits most of the time. We need to define
what we mean by “most of the time”. If there is variation then sooner or later
a product will fail to meet customer expectations if there is no inspection.
(Actually it will happen even with inspection since no inspection is perfect,
i.e. inspection is a process that also has variation.) If the variation is
small enough so that only rarely is there a customer return and the cost of
correcting this return plus the cost of the disgruntled customer is less than
the cost of including inspection then it makes business sense to not have
inspection.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Now I hope the student is
thinking that to make a valid decision to not include inspection takes data to
establish that the variation is sufficiently low. The astute student is also
thinking that collecting such data costs money also, perhaps as much as the
inspection. This is an example of what is meant by a manager needing to know
how to manage in the presence of variation. Next we examine how a manager can
achieve such understanding and make good decisions in the presence of
variation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Variation is a Statistical
Phenomenon<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
To understand managing in the
presence of variation we must answer the questions how can the manager decide:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><u>when</u> to take action, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><u>what</u> action to take and <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><u>who</u> should take the action? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 3.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Managing correctly
in the presence of variation requires the use of methods based on statistics
since variation is a statistical phenomenon. The statistics needed for 85% or
so of a manager’s work is relatively simple and easily learned. The effective
leader and all workers must understand and use these simple methods. However,
there are situations that require more elaborate statistics. Every organization
should have access to at least one person well versed in statistical methods so
that managers and process improvement teams have a resource to check their work
and assist on complex problems. This statistical expert can be a consultant or
a worker that is well trained in statistics.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 3.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Here we are
going to briefly look at some of the most important simple methods. As an
example, figure 17 illustrates the daily averages of phone expenses for an
organization plotted for each month of a year.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiVxX_tWyorm9NQ1C2OsHDaRyGQMur2KqpB-cwBZbXyken6Beaa16hUyX_z4uNsM3Z-3MGB8BxrKAV09ouk9V-JTIevX2-Q_YYVkCiaVct5nkmac0UnNfpo5_2en43ym9p1IytNdr2Dns/s1600/figure+16.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiVxX_tWyorm9NQ1C2OsHDaRyGQMur2KqpB-cwBZbXyken6Beaa16hUyX_z4uNsM3Z-3MGB8BxrKAV09ouk9V-JTIevX2-Q_YYVkCiaVct5nkmac0UnNfpo5_2en43ym9p1IytNdr2Dns/s400/figure+16.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Figure 17 A graph of an
organization’s daily phone expenses averaged for each month of a year.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Should the manger take action
in response to the March expenses? The June expenses? If action is necessary in
response to the March expenses, whose action is it? The manager’s? The workers?
If the manager is expected to discuss unusual expenses in a weekly or monthly
report what should the manager say about the March and June expenses?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Control charts are a visual
method of answering the questions posed about the phone bills. A control chart
for the phone expenses data from figure 17 is shown in figure 18. You can learn
how to generate control charts later. For now I only partially describe how to
interpret the data in a control chart.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwBRGOtPOmaVBesTQbVkk9S8vxZLVqRaHoI1RyiKJNkt4xMQkUez4PsVbv8giR8VDiUTnS2hwyVeWAA1DicEci7heNQl8Rz1DZJgZ2R4RsMKA6GcxWqKZ2JTPGDUMbjH6HCIEfTR6oInA/s1600/figure+17.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="383" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwBRGOtPOmaVBesTQbVkk9S8vxZLVqRaHoI1RyiKJNkt4xMQkUez4PsVbv8giR8VDiUTnS2hwyVeWAA1DicEci7heNQl8Rz1DZJgZ2R4RsMKA6GcxWqKZ2JTPGDUMbjH6HCIEfTR6oInA/s400/figure+17.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Figure 18 A control chart for
the example phone expense data.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The line with diamond markers
is the same data shown in figure 17. The line with the square markers results
from averaging the data over a whole year. The line with the triangle markers
shows the range of variation of daily expenses for a given month. The two lines
labeled Upper CL and Lower CL are upper and lower control limits, which are
statistically determined from the data set. For the purposes of this
introduction it isn’t necessary to know how to calculate the control limits.
The control chart tells us that, with the exception of the March data point,
the phone expenses are stable, that is they exhibit variation about a stable
sample average, which is not steadily increasing or decreasing. A stable
process is predictable, e.g. frequency of errors, efficiency, process
capability and process cost are predictable. Deliberate changes to a stable process
can be evaluated. Note that some process
improvement literature refers to a stable process as being “in control”.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Variation exhibiting a stable
statistical distribution is due to the summation of many small factors and is
called <b>common cause variation</b>.
Changes to a stable process, i.e. one with common cause variation is typically
the manager’s responsibility but can be the responsibility of trained and
empowered workers. Knowledge workers should be responsible for common cause
variation because they are usually more expert with respect to their processes
than their managers. However, as is described in the next lecture, even
knowledge workers should not be empowered to control their processes before
they have been trained in statistical methods because mistakes can make
processes worse.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Only the data point for one
month, March, falls above or below the two control limit lines. Variation that
is outside the stable statistical distribution, i.e. above the upper control
limit or below the lower control limit, is <b>special
cause variation. </b> The point for March
falls below the lower control limit. This means that the March data is special
cause variation. Special cause variation is the workers responsibility; they
typically know more about possible causes than the manager because they are
closer to the process. But the workers need training in problem solving to fix
special cause variation and they need to be empowered to make fixes to their
processes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The workers should review the
data for March and examine the phone system to see if they can determine the
reason the daily averages were so low. For example, the phones may have been
out of order for a week, which would have lowered the daily expenses but
require no action other than getting the system operating again. Properly
trained and motivated workers can handle special cause problems, usually
without any management involvement.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
A stable process is a good
candidate for process improvement. The goal of process improvement for a stable
process is to reduce the variation and/or change the mean. Process improvement
should not be attempted on a process that is unstable until the process is
brought to a stable condition because changes in data taken on an unstable
process cannot be uniquely attributed to the action of the process improvement.
The special cause variation that makes the process unstable must be removed
before beginning process improvement.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Note that the control chart
also provides the manager information useful in considering process
improvement. In the example shown in figure 18 the yearly average phone
expenses are about $21 per day. A manager can evaluate the cost benefit of
making a change to the phone service based on this data since it is stable over
a year. If the manager can make a change without investment that promises a 10%
reduction in phone expenses the manager can see that data will have to be
monitored for about four to six months to determine if the mean daily expenses
do indeed drop from $21 to $19 because the normal range of variation in monthly
averages is larger than the expected change. However, if the change really
works as promised then in about four to six months the monthly averages should
begin to vary about a new long term average and the control chart will show
this change.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Exercise<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoList2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Go
to “Control Charts” in Wikipedia (<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control_</span>)
and read the article. This material expands upon the introduction given in this
lecture.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-style: normal;"> </span></span></i><!--[endif]-->Go
to <span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">http://www.goalqpc.com/shop_products.cfm</span>
and buy yourself a copy of <i>Memory Jogger
II</i>. This handy book teaches everything you need to know about problem
identification and problem analysis. It is small enough to carry in your pocket
and it is your guide to the details of process improvement. If you prefer a
spiral bound version it is available from Amazon.com (Michael Brassard, and
Diane Ritter, <i>The Memory Jogger II: A
Pocket Guide of Tools for Continuous Improvement and Effective Planning</i>)
There is also a Six Sigma Memory Jogger available.<b><i><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
The Memory
Jogger book recommended here is so widely used and so effective for the
practical user that there is no point in repeating the material in this course.
The student is expected to study the Memory Jogger and put the techniques into
practice. <b>This means that the student
and all the people reporting to the student are to have the Memory Jogger book
, or an equivalent, be trained in the techniques summarized in the book and put
these techniques into practice. This is essential if an effective organization
is expected. The exception is if your organization is following the Six Sigma
approach where only selected people are highly trained.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
If you prefer not having to learn statistical
techniques yourself you can attend training if your budget and schedule
permits. One example workshop in statistical process control is offered by the
American Supplier Institute. See: http://www.amsup.com/spc/1.htm. This workshop
focuses on manufacturing but the techniques work for any type of organization.
A web search reveals many other training organization offering similar
programs. I have found it more cost effective when training all workers to
bring the trainer to the organization rather than sending workers to outside
training.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> in hard copy or for
Kindle at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-63620536850890984462013-05-22T13:18:00.000-07:002013-05-22T13:18:00.711-07:0025 Overview of Theory of Constraints<span style="text-align: justify;">The theory of
constraints involves techniques for improving processes that have to be learned
independently of the material we address in subsequent lectures. This theory
should be applied to business processes before beginning the process
improvement methods that are discussed in the following lectures. If the
student understands the theory of constraints and if this theory is being
applied to the business processes the student is concerned with then this
lecture can be skipped. If not, this overview introduces the theory and gives
the student some feeling for the necessity for learning and using this theory.</span><br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Theory of constraints deals
with aspects of control often neglected or wrongly presented in standard texts.
I suspect the likely reason is that theory of constraints as applied to
business organizations was made popular outside of business schools by a
physicist, Eliyahu M. Goldratt. Theory of constraints is described by Goldratt
via his books <i>The Goal, The Race,
Critical Chain</i> & other process oriented management books. These books
are “business novels” and enjoyable reads as well as being excellent self-training
books. Theory of constraints is appropriate to processes associated with
manufacturing operations, back and front office service operations and
projects. I distinguish between back and front office service operations
because although theory of constraints applies to front office service
operations it shouldn’t be the main focus when dealing directly with customers.
This is because it is better to be effective with customers than to be highly
efficient at the expense of some effectiveness.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Theory of constraints is based
on the fact that the throughput of a process can be no greater than the
throughput of the slowest step in the process, i.e. the constraint. It is a
simple and seemingly obvious concept but having seen many offices with desk
after desk stacked with paper work waiting to be processed and many factories
with work in process stacked around machine after machine I can tell you that
it isn’t obvious to many managers in spite of the fact that violating this
theory leads to inefficient operations and excessive costs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
A basic work process,
applicable to any organization, is shown in figure 12.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ0jcqTp9FcP2e2iwnpKTCNgJ3XgBWjBtnh8qgf9PDilsDw1VgY2dnD6xa2J18DWwvjxcQDI_ClRZiHpuRfXt_6sokDOHZgEMS8tugDu1AZy2B2MvWQBY8Vzc_hYBCKfxGwKNO7I47DPE/s1600/Figure+12.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="55" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ0jcqTp9FcP2e2iwnpKTCNgJ3XgBWjBtnh8qgf9PDilsDw1VgY2dnD6xa2J18DWwvjxcQDI_ClRZiHpuRfXt_6sokDOHZgEMS8tugDu1AZy2B2MvWQBY8Vzc_hYBCKfxGwKNO7I47DPE/s400/Figure+12.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Figure 12 A basic work process has
suppliers, inputs, outputs and customers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
This chain is often called
SIPOC after the initials of each element in the chain. Manufacturing, project
and back office service processes are typically many step processes, each with
suppliers, inputs, outputs, & customers. A simple example with ten steps is
shown figure 13. Each circle with an S is a SIPOC chain in which the preceding S
is the supplier of inputs to the S and the following S is the customer for its
outputs. Note that a process can have more than one supplier, as S4 is supplied
by S3 and S8 in this figure. Similarly a process can have more than one
customer. A more complex, but typical process might have loop backs where
material or paperwork not meeting standards is sent back to an earlier process
for rework.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeJXiQGM6T5yUybwO39eJQS6LiY1-tp41FnhE0d_ah-NUq6Nx_xiYy2L31qyixrOne6FejU_90leP7TvDMvCQPvcjCGWrOcgOPcf4ti5mShcn9IQ-7sUdhDqaKNXRtO-9ZkF3MQOR-kiA/s1600/Figure+13.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="76" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeJXiQGM6T5yUybwO39eJQS6LiY1-tp41FnhE0d_ah-NUq6Nx_xiYy2L31qyixrOne6FejU_90leP7TvDMvCQPvcjCGWrOcgOPcf4ti5mShcn9IQ-7sUdhDqaKNXRtO-9ZkF3MQOR-kiA/s400/Figure+13.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Figure 13 Typical business
processes integrate many individual SIPOC processes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
If we assume that each of the
steps shown in figure 13 has a different through put then the theory of
constraints states that the through put of the overall process cannot be any
larger than the through put of the slowest step. If the manager in charge of an
overall process like that illustrated in figure 13, with each step having a
different through put, expects the workers to stay busy you can imagine what results.
Work in process (WIP) builds up in from of all steps that are slower than the
previous step. This excess WIP can lead to several problems, including:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: 42.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 42.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->In manufacturing operations and in some project
operations the WIP leads to excess inventory costs. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: 42.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 42.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Associated with excess WIP is excess cycle time,
i.e. the time from the first step to the final step in the overall process.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: 42.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 42.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->If a worker at one of the non-constraining step
begins to make errors in paperwork or if a machine at a non-constraining step
begins to produce defective parts then excess costs result from the extra
rework required on all the defective material produced before the problem is
detected at some subsequent step<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: 42.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 42.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Eventually expediters and/or overtime are added
to ensure that time critical work is located and processed at the expense of
other less critical work, leading to excess labor costs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
A second, and
again often overlooked, result of the theory of constraints is that there are
no additional costs incurred if workers at non-constraining steps are idle as
long as there is material available for the worker or machine at the next step.
This means that if such workers are cross trained then they can do other
productive work when there is a buffer of output work after their step. The
value of workers doing other work justifies paying premium wages to workers
that are cross trained and the cost of cross training.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Most
important is that workers at non-constraining processes have time to spend on
process improvement and, since total productivity is not reduced, there is no
additional cost for the process improvement labor. This is one reason theory of
constraints should be applied to work processes before initiating other process
improvement activities.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Figure 14 illustrates how to
control processes with a constraining step.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1J2-3tQw7NNb65Q5T0koRYkCUZQaYugjIT7vrGUD5brHWMSvAwFniHgoxmcKx9iFGkt4Lvku0s8s4jg1jDA1gBMHY-H29WpiGJxnigMNAwBObASoTP_1uJWWIhB6mFKTnrLgtjS8s8FQ/s1600/Figure+14.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="87" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1J2-3tQw7NNb65Q5T0koRYkCUZQaYugjIT7vrGUD5brHWMSvAwFniHgoxmcKx9iFGkt4Lvku0s8s4jg1jDA1gBMHY-H29WpiGJxnigMNAwBObASoTP_1uJWWIhB6mFKTnrLgtjS8s8FQ/s400/Figure+14.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Figure 14 Adding buffer
inventories and controlling work material release controls work in process for
processes with constraining steps.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
In the example shown in figure
14 step 3 is assumed to be the constraining step. Buffer inventory is
maintained in front of step 3, indicated by the small rectangle, so that it can
never be idle due to lack of input. The size of the buffer in front of step 3
is controlled by the rate of work material released to the input of step 1,
indicated by the dotted line from the input of step 1 to the buffer inventory
at the input to step 3. It is also correct practice to add a buffer in front of
step 4 and regulate the input to step 5 to control the size of this second
buffer. The reason for the second buffer is to ensure that step 4 does not
become the constraining step due to material not being available from step 8.
Note that this process control approach applies to any type of business that
involves material, i.e. paper, electronic media or parts, moving from step to
step to accomplish an overall work objective.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
A personal experience is a good
illustration of the problems caused by not applying the theory of constraints.
I was asked to consult for a factory that was in danger of being shut down and
the work moved out of the country because the corporate office was not
satisfied with the factory’s performance. A quick tour showed that there was
excess WIP nearly everywhere. In fact a special material handling system had
been installed just to deal with the partially finished goods throughout the
factory. A few questions revealed that the constraining process was the final
process before the products were boxed and shipped. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
I held a Saturday training
system for the managers. I asked them what the cycle time was for their
products. They answered that it was about 35 days from first material release
to shipping products made with that material. I then asked what the cycle time
would be if material moved from process to process with no waiting time in
front of each process. They thought awhile and answered that it would be 7
days. A few more leading questions and I could see light bulbs coming on in a
few minds and excited expressions on faces. Incidentally, the first person that
comprehended what they had been doing wrong was a woman doing administrative
work in the front office. By Monday they had plans worked out to change their
methods and were starting to implement the plans. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
I called the general manager a
couple of months later and asked if the cycle time had changed. They had two
products going through the same production line. He said the cycle time for one
product had been reduced to the ideal 7 days by applying theory of constraints.
They began releasing material into the line at the rate of the final constraining
process and maintained buffer work in process only in front of the constraining
process. Unfortunately, he was not allowed to control the release of material
for the second product and its cycle time was still about 35 days. Corporate
marketing people controlled the release of material for the second product and
they released it according to their sales instead of the factory capabilities.
I never learned if the general manager was able to convince corporate
management that marketing’s control of material release for the second product
was the cause of the factory’s excess cycle time, excess WIP and associated
excess costs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
This short introduction to the
Theory of Constraints illustrates the principle. Managers of manufacturing or
back office service operations should study Theory of Constraints, just in time
(JIT) inventory control and Lean techniques and understand the value of small
lot size in controlling the cost of poor quality. Project managers should study
critical path scheduling as well as the theory of constraints. I recommend
project managers read Goldratt’s book <i>Critical
Chain</i>, which addresses scheduling for projects.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Exercise<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Like lecture 23 this lecture is
only an introduction and no exercises are required unless the student isn’t
familiar with the theory of constraints and using it already. If the student
isn’t knowledgeable in these techniques and isn’t already using them then
additional self-study is necessary to learn how to put them into practice for
real business processes, which tend to be more complex than the simple example
used here to illustrate the principles involved. I recommend reading Goldratt’s
books because they are fun reads as well as excellent for self-training.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> in hard copy or for
Kindle at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-65845514247000717662013-05-13T11:59:00.001-07:002013-05-13T11:59:27.450-07:0024 C The Risk Burn Down Chart<br />
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="text-indent: 0in;">A spreadsheet similar to the risk register can be developed to
manage risks and manage the budgets associated with risk management on large
and long duration projects. It isn’t possible to avoid all arbitrariness in forecasting
the risk management budget but it is possible to provide good management
visibility into the process. One approach is as follows: (This description is a
bit tedious so look ahead at figures 10 and 11. If the process is obvious to
you from the figures skip the text. If not then just wade through the
description. It may help to drawn out the spreadsheet as you read the
description.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
• Develop
a spreadsheet with time, e.g. months, in the first column and the known risks
in the first row of adjoining columns. The planned mitigation expense estimate
as a function of time for each risk is added in the rows for each known risk.
Summing the entries in each row across columns results in the estimated
mitigation expense for all risk mitigation activities for that time period. As
new risks are identified they are added in the first row of new columns and
mitigation budgets are added in appropriate time rows in the new columns.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
• Develop
a second spreadsheet with the following columns<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
o Time
line, e.g. month number from beginning of the project or actual dates<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
o Planned
Mitigation Expense per time period to be spent on risk mitigation for known
risks, i.e. the cumulative value of the row for that time period from the first
spreadsheet<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
o Cumulative
Planned Mitigation Expenses, i.e. the cumulative cost estimates for mitigation
activities for the risks known at the time the plan is developed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
• Recognize
that as the project progresses new risks will appear as decisions are made and
additional risk management budget is needed to mitigate these new risks.
Therefore add the following columns to the spreadsheet.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
o Adjusted
Cumulative Mitigation Budget; the planned expenses plus an adjustment, e.g. an
arbitrary percentage, to mitigate unknown risks that will arise during the
project.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
o Actual
Mitigation Expenses for each time period.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
o Cumulative
Actual Mitigation Expense<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
It may be helpful at this point to show a chart resulting from
an example of the process described so far. Figure 10 is a chart for a large
project in which the mitigation budget is nearly $40 million dollars. In this
example the initially identified risks were planned to be mitigated with just
over $30 million. The arbitrary adjustments for unknown risks increased the
budget to nearly $40 million and the actual expenses at the end of a year were
just below the adjusted budget. For situations where the budget for risk
mitigation is released incrementally or for a large project that continues for
several more years having data such as this chart provides the project managers
sound arguments to defend their requests for risk mitigation budgets.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCjsvjXo5jLpnTBearUX72uQumrRmVUO4_O7UxV89-fkWQYJvtk4v-9m6qoVNm9rb4VuTUoTDRSEBrTDm4KulEp9LlwlwGEQ404L3pLOdOvefDIvSRwFN0pF5vNlVqyLpdas5J-tqmgkc/s1600/figure+10.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="276" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCjsvjXo5jLpnTBearUX72uQumrRmVUO4_O7UxV89-fkWQYJvtk4v-9m6qoVNm9rb4VuTUoTDRSEBrTDm4KulEp9LlwlwGEQ404L3pLOdOvefDIvSRwFN0pF5vNlVqyLpdas5J-tqmgkc/s400/figure+10.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Figure 10 An example of
risk mitigation budget and expense resulting from the example approach.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
The mitigation budget and expense are only half of the story.
Risk is the rest of the story so now let’s return to the example approach:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
• At
the beginning of a project sum up the expected values of all risks on the risk
register. This cumulative risk value is the amount of over budget expense that
is likely if initially known risks are not mitigated before they impact the
project. Add a column to the second spreadsheet for this Cumulative Risk Value
before Mitigation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
• Add
a risk value adjustment factor for each time period to cover unknown risks that
will arise and add a new column to the second spreadsheet for the Adjusted
Cumulative Risk Value before Mitigation. These “adjusted” values represent the
best estimate of how both identified and new risks will be mitigated throughout
the project<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
• As
the project continues, new risks are added and all risks are mitigated so that
a Cumulative Risk Value after Mitigation can be added to the spreadsheet. Now
there is sufficient data to construct a Risk Burn Down Chart which shows how
the risk value is reduced over time by the risk mitigation work.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
An example of a risk burn down chart is shown in figure 11. In
this example the adjusted and actual cumulative risk values track each other
reasonably well. If the manager of this project needed additional risk
management funding in the middle of the project then showing this chart to the
funding authority would provide excellent justification for the needed funds.
If the planned and actual risk mitigation expenses also tracked each other
well, as in the example shown in figure 10, then the funding authority should
have good confidence in the management team. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbaWx7xP5Tb72WiqySy9uem2_4EgSP14lCRpFEaGml_9xMmFFNrMaSW3OToGqXiINfVBh1qByVod1z0sZgNGz4bwJER3-tW5vA9O2Nid_HNCdJpSoxD2NvKnSvgbBTt5W75Q-m1q7RKyo/s1600/figure+11.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="376" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbaWx7xP5Tb72WiqySy9uem2_4EgSP14lCRpFEaGml_9xMmFFNrMaSW3OToGqXiINfVBh1qByVod1z0sZgNGz4bwJER3-tW5vA9O2Nid_HNCdJpSoxD2NvKnSvgbBTt5W75Q-m1q7RKyo/s400/figure+11.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Figure 11 An example
risk burn down chart for a large project with high initial risk.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
The charts resulting from the approach outlined above are
useful for showing those responsible for funding projects the most likely
project expense if risk mitigation is effectively conducted and the likely
budget impacts if risks are not proactively mitigated. In the example shown the
likely budget impact if risks are not mitigated is over $400 million. This
budget impact is reduced to about $23 million by an expenditure of about $38
million for a total impact of about $63 million compared to over $400 million. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
The percentage adjustments risks that will be identified during
a project are necessarily arbitrary but can be adjusted during the project if
the actual expected risk value line deviates substantially from the adjusted
expected value line.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
In summary, spending a small amount of money in proactively
mitigating risks is far better than waiting until the undesirable event occurs
and then having to spend a large amount of money fixing the consequences.
Remember that risk management is proactive (problem prevention) and not
reactive. Also risk management is NOT an action item list for current problems.
Finally, risk management is an on-going activity. Do not prepare risk summary
grids or risk registers and then put them in a file as though that completes
the risk management process, a mistake inexperienced managers make too often.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<b>Exercise<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
1. Spend some quiet time thinking about what the worst possible
thing your competitors could do that would negatively impact your organization
in the short and long terms. If you have already done this and have mitigation
plans in place or on the shelf you are a mature risk manager. If not, you have
some homework to do.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
2. Handling anything your competitors do or responding to the
loss of your most important customer are the easy ones. Now imagine that your
organization is stable, progressing well on improving effectiveness, trust in
management is growing, enthusiasm is growing and then your superiors tell you
to lay off 10% of your people in order to increase enterprise profits for the
year. You know this is going to demoralize the organization for some time and
erode trust in the benefits of working to improve the organization. How do you
respond to your people and to your superiors? There is no easy answer to this
question but in today’s environment it is not an unlikely occurrence and you
should be prepared for it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
2. Does your organization have a standard risk management
process in place? If so then go on the next lecture. If not then think through
a plan to put a standard process in place and train workers to use it. This can
be a commercial process or a process you or your workers develop. You can
implement it via formal training or on an incremental basis. The important
thing is having a process and using it religiously.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<i>If you find that the pace
of blog posts isn’t compatible with the pace you would like to maintain in studying this
material you can buy the book </i><b>“The
Manager’s Guide for Effective Leadership”</b><i> in hard copy or for Kindle at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook
at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book
at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-9331380810008532312013-04-30T08:28:00.000-07:002013-04-30T08:28:53.851-07:0024 B The Risk Register<br />
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="text-indent: 0in;">The risk register ranks risks by the dollar value of each risk
according to the operational definition of risk given earlier. Constructing the
risk register on a spreadsheet allows risks to be sorted by dollar value so
that the highest risks are always on top of the list. The risk register also
facilitates keeping all risks in the same data base even though management
actions may be active on only the top five or ten at any time. When a high risk
is mitigated the expected dollar value of the risk is reduced and it falls out
of the top five or ten but is still on the list. This enables reviewing
mitigated risks to ensure they remain mitigated or to readdress a risk at a
later time when all the higher risks have been mitigated to even lower values.
An example of a simple risk register constructed on a spread sheet is shown in
figure 9.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjli14LjqygZ693_QNr4QoewNHWF9GlHn9DfyIvDiKm3gih1UNYQivqL-U_GlOQq1IwNrXi59CqlL8gsm-ePxGFSdQybfBl3PQcHAWQBmne8DRIm1ogYjbRjLzyFalsa_fnhyBKGZ9NiSg/s1600/figure+9.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="172" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjli14LjqygZ693_QNr4QoewNHWF9GlHn9DfyIvDiKm3gih1UNYQivqL-U_GlOQq1IwNrXi59CqlL8gsm-ePxGFSdQybfBl3PQcHAWQBmne8DRIm1ogYjbRjLzyFalsa_fnhyBKGZ9NiSg/s400/figure+9.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Figure 9. An example
template of a risk register constructed in columns on a spread sheet.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
The risk type and impact if risk occurs are usually described
as “if”, “then” statements. This helps the management team remember
specifically what each risk entails as they conduct reviews over the life of
the activity. Expected values are expressed in dollars, which facilitates both
ranking and decisions about how much resources should be assigned to mitigation
activities. I am assuming of course that in managing activities in your
organization it is the practice to hold some fraction of the budget in reserve
to handle unforeseen events. It is this reserve budget that is assigned to risk
mitigation activities. Risk mitigation actions should be budgeted and scheduled
as part on on-going work. A failure many inexperienced managers make is
handling risks outside of the mainline budget and schedule. This undisciplined
approach often leads to risk management degenerating into an action item list
and finally to a reactive approach to unexpected events rather that a proactive
approach to reduce the risks systematically.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
A more complete risk register template than the example shown
in figure 9 might contain columns for the risk number, title, description (if),
impact (then), types (three columns: cost, schedule, quality or technical),
probability of occurrence, cost impact, schedule impact, mitigation plan and
mitigation schedule. The form of the risk register template is not critical so
the team managing the risks should construct a template that contains the
information they feel they need to effectively manage risks.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
The risk register, if properly maintained and managed, is a
sufficient tool for risk management on small and short duration projects.
Setting aside an arbitrary management reserve budget to manage risks is ok for
small projects. Portions of the reserve are allocated to mitigation of risks
and the budgets and expenses for risk mitigation can be folded into the overall
cost management system. Large, long duration projects or high value projects
warrant a more focused approach to budgeting for risk management. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<i>If you find that the pace
of blog posts isn’t compatible with the pace you would like to maintain in studying this
material you can buy the book </i><b>“The
Manager’s Guide for Effective Leadership”</b><i> in hard copy or for Kindle at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook
at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book
at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-14037850345458962422013-04-25T08:44:00.003-07:002013-04-25T08:44:39.801-07:0024 A Introduction to Risk Management<span style="text-align: justify;">The following
three lectures define risk, outline a risk management process and provide
examples of templates useful for risk management.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Risk is the
consequence of things happening that negatively impact the performance of an
organization’s planned activities. Risks arise from events that occur inside
and outside an organization. The consequence of the event can impact the
quality, cost or schedule of an activity, or some combination of these effects.
There is risk in any activity but there are usually more risks associated with
activities that are new to the organization. New activities include the
introduction of new products or services or changes to the processes, people,
materials or machines used to produce existing products or services. Risks to
stable products and services arise from unplanned changes to the internal
environment or changes in the external environment, such as the economy, costs
of materials, labor market, customer preferences or actions by a competitor, a
regulating body or a government agency. An effective manager faces up to risks
and manages risks so that the negative impacts are minimized.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b>Definition of Risk<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
There is an operational
definition of risk that aids in managing risk. This definition is:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b>Risk R is The Probability p of an
Undesirable Event Occurring; Multiplied by The Consequence of the Event
Occurrence measured in $, or R=p x $.<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
This definition
allows risks to be quantified and ranked in relative importance so that the
manager knows which risks to address first and to evaluate how much investment
is reasonable to eliminate or reduce the consequence of the risk. The
definition measures risk in dollars. Thus impacts to the quality of a product
or service or to the schedule of delivering the product or service are
converted to costs. Impacts to quality are converted to dollar costs via
estimated warranty costs, cost of the anticipated loss of customers or loss of
revenue due to anticipated levels of discounting prices. Schedule delays are
converted to dollar costs by estimating the extra costs of labor during the
delays and/or the loss of revenue due to lost sales caused by the schedule
delays. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
The key to good
risk management is to address the highest risk first. There are three reasons
to address the highest risk first. First is that mitigating a high risk can
result in changes to plans, designs, approaches or other major elements in an
activity. The earlier these changes are implemented the lower the cost of the
overall activity because money and people resources are not wasted on work that
has to be redone later. The second reason is that some activities may fail due
to the impossibility of mitigating an inherent risk. The earlier this is
determined the fewer resources are spent on the failed activity thus preserving
resource for other activities. The third reason is that any activity is
continually competing for resources with other activities. An activity that has
mitigated its biggest risks has a better chance of competing for continued
resource allocation than an activity that has gone on for some time and still
has high risks.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b>Managing Risk</b><b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Managing risk is accomplished by
taking actions before risks occur rather than reacting to occurrences of
undesirable events. The steps in effective risk management are:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Listing
the most important requirements that the activity must meet to satisfy its
customer(s). These are called Cardinal Requirements<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Identifying
every risk to an activity that might occur that would have significant consequence
to meeting each of the Cardinal Requirements<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Estimating
the probability of occurrence of each risk and its consequences in terms of
dollars<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Ranking
the risks by the magnitude of the product of the probability and dollar
consequence (i.e. by the definition of risk given above)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Identifying
proactive actions that can lower the probability of occurrence and/or the cost
of occurrence of the top five or ten risks<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->6.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Selecting
among the identified actions for those that are cost effective<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->7.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Assigning
resources (funds and people) to the selected actions<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->8.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Managing
the selected action until its associated risk is mitigated<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->9.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Identifying
any new risks resulting from mitigation activities<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->10.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Replace
mitigated risks with lower ranking or new risks as each is mitigated<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .25in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->11.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Conduct
regular (weekly or biweekly) risk management reviews to:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Status risk mitigation actions<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Brainstorm for new risks<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Review that mitigated risks stay mitigated<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
In identifying
risks it is important to involve as many people that are related to the
activity as possible. This means people from senior management, your
organization, other participating organizations and supporting organizations.
Senior managers see risks that workers do not and workers see risks that
managers don’t recognize. It is helpful to use a list of potential sources of
risk in order to guide people’s thinking to be comprehensive. Your list might
look like that shown in figure 7.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisQ2v40y-KUeYUsB1armUHiTfXWyBD2fY4XJTrv9pY6qok8LlFIX7GZ6z3c4E6FUYdheano1Boc1EhiPi43bhOseC8QeW8oiBdsRbp8yf-pfAmnle6tX0GO2D6mh0CZf8gLofrXH7SCBs/s1600/figure+7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="277" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisQ2v40y-KUeYUsB1armUHiTfXWyBD2fY4XJTrv9pY6qok8LlFIX7GZ6z3c4E6FUYdheano1Boc1EhiPi43bhOseC8QeW8oiBdsRbp8yf-pfAmnle6tX0GO2D6mh0CZf8gLofrXH7SCBs/s400/figure+7.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Figure 7 An
example template for helping identify possible sources of risk to the
customer’s cardinal requirements.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
It also helps
ensure completeness of understanding risks if each risk is classified as a
technical, cost or schedule risk or a combination of these categories.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b>Risk Summary Grid and Risk Register<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Two useful
templates used in risk management are the risk summary grid and the risk
register. The risk summary grid is a listing of the top ranked risks on a grid
of probability vs. impact. The risk summary gird is excellent for showing all
top risks on a single graphic and grouping the risks as low, medium or high.
Typical grids are 3 x 3 or 5 x 5. An example 5 x 5 template is shown in figure
8.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0pYzN63szySzDke55PwyTtZXWcu9mFHRX605uqbEyo-Q6h9ZExdEZyT0JjWQKkje-S2AXil68jm3sp98DgMuE1eZectBCzuIUKoodV0ooX-McuOdsWrdWuN9jem3uoVstiLUwCuZsXlg/s1600/figure+8.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0pYzN63szySzDke55PwyTtZXWcu9mFHRX605uqbEyo-Q6h9ZExdEZyT0JjWQKkje-S2AXil68jm3sp98DgMuE1eZectBCzuIUKoodV0ooX-McuOdsWrdWuN9jem3uoVstiLUwCuZsXlg/s400/figure+8.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Figure 8 An example of a 5 x 5
risk summary grid <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
The 5 x 5 risk
summary grid enables risks to be classified as low, medium or high; typically
color coded green, yellow and red respectively, and ranked in order of
importance. Note that the definitions for low and medium are not standard. The
definition used in figure 8 is conservative in limiting low risk to the six
squares in the lower left of the grid. Others, e.g. the <i>Risk Management Guide for DOD Acquisition</i> (An excellent tutorial on
risk management that is available as a free download at
http://www.dau.mil/pubs/gdbks/risk_management.asp) define the entire first
column plus six other lower left squares as low risk.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Relative
importance is the product of probability and impact. Identified risks are
assigned to a square according to the estimates of their probability of
occurrence and impact to the overall activity. In figure 8 there is one medium
risk, shown by the x in the square with a probability 0.3, impact 7 and
therefore having a relative importance of 2.1. The numbers shown for impact are
arbitrary and must be defined appropriate to the activity for which risk is
being managed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
A typical
approach is to construct a four column by six row table with Impact being the
heading of the first column and the numbers 1,3,5,7,9 (or whatever five numbers
or letters you choose) in each succeeding row of the first column. The
remaining three columns are labeled Technical, Schedule and Cost. Each box in
the rows under the Technical, Schedule and Cost headings is defined
appropriately for the activity at risk. For example, costs could be defined as
either percentage of budget or in actual monetary units. Similarly schedule can
be defined as percent slip or actual time slip.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
The process
using a 3 x 3 risk summary grid typically assigns risks as 0.1, 0.3 or 0.9 and
impacts as 1, 3 or 9. There are three squares for each of the low, medium and
high risk classifications with relative importance values ranging from 0.1 to
8.1 according to the products of probability and impact. Specific processes or
numerical values are not important. What is important is having a process that
allows workers and managers to assess and rank risks and to communicate these
risks to each other, and in some cases to customers. The simple risk summary
grids are useful tools for accomplishing these objectives and are most useful
in the early stages of the life cycle of an activity and for communicating an
overall picture of risks. The risk summary grid can be used as a tool in risk
management meetings but a better tool is the risk register discussed in the
next lecture. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> in hard copy or for
Kindle at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-61459306332685429322013-04-19T08:49:00.000-07:002013-04-19T08:49:08.788-07:0023 B Risk Management, Theory of Constraints and Process Improvement<br />
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<span style="text-indent: 0in;">I include risk management in this course because poor risk
management is the second highest contributor to failure in projects or in major
changes in operations for manufacturing and service organizations. (Don’t
forget that team dynamics is the primary contributor to failure in such
activities.) A second reason for including risk management is that
inexperienced managers are the ones that typically ignore risk management or
just give it lip service. If you are going to be an effective leader you must
understand and practice sound risk management. Risk management is the topic of
the following lecture.</span></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
I include theory of constraints because it is often left out of
treatments of control and in some traditional approaches to manufacturing this
failure leads to promoting techniques that are inappropriate and cause
inefficiencies. The lecture following risk management is an introduction to
theory of constraints and I hope it leads the student to further study of this
important topic.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
The remainder of this course addresses that portion of control
that deals with what is typically called process improvement or quality
improvement. The objective of the process improvement part of control is to assess
work processes and to make continuous improvements to these processes so that
employees’ jobs are easier and more cost efficient due to fewer and fewer
quality problems and to reduced use of resources; including labor, materials
and maintenance. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
There are many versions of process improvement in use. Six
Sigma and total quality management (TQM) are two popular versions. Kaizan is a
Japanese term for continuous improvement and many organizations use this term
to describe their process improvement work. Sometimes Kaizan is used to
simplify processes without gathering data and some quality gurus are critical
of non-data driven process improvement. Another term used by manufacturing
organizations is Lean. Lean is using a set of tools or methods that improves
manufacturing processes by eliminating waste and errors. Some organizations
combine Lean and Six Sigma into Lean Six Sigma. Whereas both Six Sigma and TQM
are proven to be effective I favor TQM, or data driven Kaizen if you prefer the
Japanese term. Let me give short descriptions of the two approaches and then
discuss the reasons I favor TQM.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Six Sigma thoroughly trains a small number of people and then
empowers these trained specialists to work with other workers and managers to
improve processes throughout the enterprise. These specialists get titles
according to the amount of training they have received, e.g. those with
extensive training are usually called black belts or master black belts. An
experienced manager is selected to manage the specialists and their process
improvement activities. Other managers are given overview training so that they
know what to expect and what is expected of them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
In the version of TQM that I have practiced all employees in
the enterprise, workers and managers, receive about 50 hours of basic training
in process improvement techniques. A very few receive additional training in
special techniques and serve as a resource to all the workers and managers.
After training, all workers and managers are empowered to work on process
improvement of the processes they own, i.e. the processes they use in their day
to day work. There is a coordinator to authorize teams and facilitate access to
any data needed by the teams or to the specialists that provide analysis beyond
the capabilities of the team. The authorization is necessary to prevent workers
from getting involved in several teams at once and impacting productivity by
spending too much time on process improvement at the expense of process
execution.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Either of these approaches is effective and if your enterprise
is already involved in one of these or a related approach then stick with it.
If your enterprise is not yet involved in process improvement then I strongly
recommend the TQM approach. The advantage of TQM is that it empowers every
employee to control processes they own. This empowerment results in two
benefits compared to approaches like Six Sigma that empower only a few
specially trained personnel. First, empowering employees to have control over
their own processes is highly motivating. It is one of the things required for
employees to reach Maslow’s highest level of needs fulfillment, i.e. self-actualization.
Second, employees at any level know more about the processes they own than
their supervisors, or any specialist, because they are more intimately involved
with the processes. They feel, smell, hear and experience details of their
process that supervisors or specialists do not experience. They are better at
recognizing what aspects of their processes need improvement first, second and
so on. They are also better at developing improvement approaches because often
they have been thinking about better ways to do their job for a long time. They
are inclined to look for improvements that make their job easier as well as more
cost effective. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
The disadvantages of the Six Sigma type approaches from my
experience are that sometimes the workers resent outside experts coming to
change their work processes and the outside experts aren’t as familiar with the
work processes as are the employees that own the processes. I have observed
that the process owners tend to create simple and effective improvements
whereas the highly trained experts tend to go for elegant and expensive
improvements, but not necessarily any better improvements. Another disadvantage
is that the experts attack the most important processes first and work their
way through enterprise processes a few at a time, depending on how many experts
there are. With TQM all processes are subject to attention at any time. The process
owners naturally prioritize processes they own but even simple processes get
attention that are unlikely to be addressed in a Six Sigma approach until all
higher priority processes have been addressed. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
An apparent disadvantage of TQM is that all employees must be
trained and therefore the training costs tend to be higher than for Six Sigma,
assuming only a few employees are given the full Six Sigma training. I believe
this extra cost is more than offset by the more comprehensive attack on process
improvement that TQM achieves and from the increase in employee motivation that
results from empowering employees to have control over their own processes. TQM
also requires a more careful introduction to empowering employees after they
have been trained. There must be boundaries to the empowerment and these
boundaries must be carefully communicated to the employees as they are
empowered. Otherwise employees adapt their individual definitions of
empowerment and some naturally expand the boundaries beyond what is acceptable
in an efficient enterprise that is under control. Obvious examples of items
employees are not empowered to change include recipes, standards and accounting
rules; changes of which must be handled very carefully and usually with
management involvement.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<b>Exercise<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
This is an introductory lecture and no exercise is required
unless the student is unfamiliar with text book methods of control for
manufacturing, projects and service organizations and with the differences
between financial accounting and management accounting. If you aren’t familiar
with these methods of control and cost management then take the time now to
learn the basics. It is important to effective process improvement that changes
to processes do not violate sound basic principles. It may be frustrating to
put this course on hold while you study other subjects for several weeks but it
is beneficial in the long term. If you are familiar with these basics then go
on to the next lecture.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<i>If you find that the pace
of blog posts isn’t compatible with the pace you would like to maintain in studying this
material you can buy the book </i><b>“The
Manager’s Guide for Effective Leadership”</b><i> at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook
at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book
at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-32721273546559280552013-04-09T13:03:00.001-07:002013-04-09T13:03:07.884-07:0023A Introduction to Control and Process Improvement<br />
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<b style="text-indent: 0in;">Basics</b></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
The lectures up to this point deal with the management
functions of staffing, motivating and communicating. These functions are the
portion of effective leadership that derives from the fundamentals of Theory Z
and are the people related functions. Executing these functions effectively are
necessary to achieving highly motivated workers. Now I turn to processes. Effective
organizations require both highly motivated and well trained people and
effective processes. Even the most highly motivated people with superior skills
cannot be successful if they are encumbered with processes that produce
defective products or services. In addition, even the best processes encounter
problems from time to time due to changes in input materials, worker actions,
business environment or machine related problems that are often subtle and hard
to identify. Therefore the effective leader must have the skills needed to
improve processes that produce defective outputs and the skills to fix and
maintain good processes when unforeseen changes cause problems.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Processes involve the management function of control. Control
is a complex management function and is specialized to the organization type.
Whereas most of the fundamental principles of control are the same for
different types of organization the implementation is vastly different for
manufacturing, service or project organizations. Also specialization is
necessary for nonprofit organizations compared to profit based organizations
and within the many types of service organizations, e.g. health care vs.
education. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
A comprehensive treatment of the control function is beyond the
scope of this course. This course treats four aspects of control that apply to
all organizations. These are risk management, theory of constraints, process improvement
and leading the team. Early in this course effective leadership was defined to
be derived from combining the principles of Theory Z and Process Improvement.
The theory of constraints can be considered part of process improvement
although it was developed separately and is treated separately here. I do not
know the formal history of risk management but it is certainly a critical part
of the control function and a necessary skill for effective leaders so it is
included here. Leading the team is of course the fundamental job of the
organization’s manager and I’ll end with a brief description of a process that
has proven effective for many organizations. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
An important tool related to control that is essential in
today’s environment is Taguchi methods for design of experiments. These are
statistical methods that require a well-trained person to use effectively. Low
and mid-level managers should have sufficient training to be able to identify
when Taguchi methods might apply to problems in their organizations. Every
enterprise should have access to a person with extensive training in these
methods. It can be the same person experienced in statistics as necessary for
oversight of process improvement activities discussed in later lectures. It is
important to allow only well trained individuals to design and monitor Taguchi
experiments. Properly used Taguchi methods save time, money and result in
higher quality designs and products. However, used by inadequately trained
personnel these methods can lead to costly mistakes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
I do not treat Taguchi design of experiments further in this
book because of the extensive training necessary to be of value. Based on my
experience with these methods I recommend that students seek training from
trainers familiar with the students’ type of organization. Seeing examples of
the methods use on problems familiar to students help them recognize where the
methods can be useful in their organizations. Students in engineering
organizations can benefit from reading Don P. Clausing’s book “Total Quality
Development: A Step-By-Step Guide to World Class Concurrent Engineering” and
Madhav S. Phadke’s book “Quality Engineering Using Robust Design”. Students in
manufacturing, research in any science, and perhaps all students, may benefit from
Genichi Taguchi and Yoshiko Yokoyama’s “Taguchi Methods: Design of
Experiments”, although I have not personally read this book. I regret that I
cannot recommend specific training sources for students in marketing,
advertising, bio-technologies and other fields involving statistics but I
suspect some research would find such sources.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
In studying Taguchi’s methods do not confuse Taguchi’s strategy
for quality engineering with his design of experiments methods. Only
engineering managers need to be familiar with Taguchi’s strategy for quality
engineering, which has the three stages of system design, parameter design and
tolerance design. Taguchi’s design of experiment methods have much wider
utility. Reading Wikipedia’s discussion of Taguchi methods provides students
with a good starting point for more in-depth study of methods pertaining to
their work.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
The primary emphasis of the remainder of this course is on
process improvement. Before beginning these subjects I provide some background
relating to control in order to convince the student that control must be
tailored to the type of organization.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<b>Background on control<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
I assume that the student is part of an enterprise that has
effective cost and schedule controls in place and that the student understands
these methods. Presumably these are standard methods of control for
manufacturing, services or projects as appropriate for the student’s
organization. If these assumptions are incorrect and/or the student doesn’t
know how control differs for manufacturing, services and projects then
self-study is needed. I recommend Part II, Chapters 4-10 of “Production and
Operations Management” by James B. Dilworth. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Unless the student is in the financial organization of the
enterprise study in management accounting is recommended. Management accounting
differs from the accounting used in financial departments, which is often
tailored to tax laws and accounting standards. These tax and associated
accounting standards are fine for their intended purpose but they do not
provide a simple and clear picture of the costs of operating an organization or
enterprise. This often leads to managers doing stupid and incorrect things in
attempts to manipulate overheads in hopes of reducing costs. To easily
understand and manage costs correctly the methods of management accounting that
focus on cash inflows, cash outflows and true product costs are preferable. A
book I have found helpful is “Managerial Accounting- Concepts for Planning,
Control, and Decision Making” by Ray H. Garrison.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Control methods must match the organization type; applying
methods appropriate to manufacturing to projects results in drastic decreases
in effectiveness and vice versa. A few comments help to explain why control
methods must match the organization type.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
A manufacturing organization might have a split of costs of 80%
material and 20 % labor whereas a project might have 80% labor and 20%
material. In this example materials costs drive manufacturing costs and
effective manufacturing control minimizes inventory and work in progress while
maximizing through put per day or per hour. Labor cost drives overall cost in
the project example and effective project control requires maintaining plenty
of spare parts and even spare assemblies so that schedule delays due to lack of
parts are avoided. The cost of a few extra spares is small compared to the
“marching army” costs of labor idled while waiting for parts to be delivered if
a part fails or is damaged. Note that both organizations are maximizing the
productive work per time period but the most effective method of handling
material depends on the material/labor cost split. Most service organization’s
costs are almost all labor so that the details of how material costs are
handled have little impact on the organization’s success. Restaurants are an
exception in which the cost of food ingredients is a significant portion of
overall costs and must be managed carefully to achieve business success.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Note also that research and development (R &D) is a project
so control for R & D in a manufacturing organization should be different
than that for production; a requirement sometimes lost on poorly trained
manufacturing managers. Similarly, purchasing personnel trained for a
manufacturing organization typically don’t understand control for R & D and
try to impose constraints appropriate only to manufacturing, e.g. no sole
source procurements. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Mangers of R&D activities in manufacturing organizations
should expect problems with purchasing and stand up to purchasing people. In a
manufacturing organization that I managed at one stage in my career the
purchasing manager insisted that the sole source procurements the R & D
people wanted were illegal until I had a government auditor personally explain
to him that he was wrong. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
A similar problem can happen when the quality department in a
manufacturing organization is also involved in R&D or project work in the
same organization. They may have rules calling for source inspection that are
appropriate for production material but not for special parts needed for
R&D or projects, e.g. parts that cannot be handled except in a special
environment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
There are sometimes sound business reasons for combining two
types of organization in the same business unit, e.g., manufacturing and
projects or manufacturing and services. If one type is much larger than the
other type in such combinations then the management tends to be from the larger
type. Unless these managers are familiar with the different control needed for
each type of organizations they can cause a lot of inefficiencies. If you find
yourself managing in a mixed organization make sure you learn the proper
control techniques for each.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Exercises: There are no exercises for this introductory
lecture.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<i>If you find that the pace
of blog posts isn’t compatible with the pace you would like to maintain in studying this
material you can buy the book </i><b>“The
Manager’s Guide for Effective Leadership”</b><i> in hard copy or for Kindle at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook
at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book
at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: .25in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-88079222437865934472013-04-03T05:36:00.000-07:002013-04-03T05:36:13.112-07:00Review of Lectures 17 - 22<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The first 16 lectures focused on
how to manage so that you increase the motivation of your staff. Motivating
your organization was addressed first because highly motivated workers are
necessary for an effective organization and necessary to work with an effective
leader in making the organization changes discussed in the lectures following
lecture 16. Lectures 17-22 address the important management functions of
staffing and communicating. Executing these two functions skillfully is
critical to building a world class organization. The reason you should be
building a world class organization is that today technology has made the
workplace a global environment for almost all types of organization. If your
organization isn’t world class you are likely to lose customers to competitors somewhere
in the world that offer higher quality goods or services at equal or lower
prices. Even governments and medical organizations are outsourcing work that
can be done better or cheaper in other organizations.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Lectures 17
addressed staffing; specifically how to find and recruit the top people needed
to build a world class organization and achieve a low staff turnover. It is
necessary to achieve a low staff turnover rate because replacing people is both
expensive and time consuming. As your organization becomes more and more
effective you can expect to grow, assuming you are in an activity that permits
growth. If you need to grow your staff at 10 to 15% each year you will be
extremely busy with recruiting plus running your day to day work. If you have
to replace workers because of a high turnover rate you may not be able to keep
up with your staffing needs or afford the recruiting costs for the best talent.
Lectures 1-16 taught how to develop a work environment that is conducive to low
turnover. Also important to low turnover is not making mistakes in recruiting.
An example of a recruiting process was discussed in lecture 17 that is proven
to help recruit workers that meet an organization’s needs and fit well with the
organization’s culture so that they are likely to be long term employees. The
best approach to finding world class talent is to develop and maintain a
network of people that are always on the lookout for exceptional young people
that are candidate employees for your organization.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Lecture 18
covered the four basic principles for matching people to jobs. These are:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Decisions about people are the most important decisions
a manager makes<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Workers have a right
to competent leaders<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->If a worker does not perform then the manager has made
a mistake; don’t blame the worker<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Don’t give new people major assignments until they are
familiar with how the organization works<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Factors to be considered in
matching workers to jobs include:<o:p></o:p></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">Matching the skills
and experience of candidates to the requirements of the jobs<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">The compatibility of
the personalities and work styles of candidates and potential coworkers<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">The impact of
removing candidates from their current positions<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">The potential for
career development of each candidate in the new position<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">Matching the style of
innovativeness of the candidates to that demanded by the job<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">The candidates’
knowledge of the way things are done independent of what the organization
chart says<o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">The opinions of other
managers <o:p></o:p></li>
</ul>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Lecture 19 provides guidelines
for managing your time so that you accomplish more in the time you have
available for your job and other facets of your life. There are five main
guidelines to remember and keep in practice:<o:p></o:p></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">Write
out six to eight short and long term goals and plans with specific actions
for your work and the physical, mental and spiritual parts of your life. <o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">Schedule
the actions over a week at a time, carry your schedule with you at all
times and do your best to follow it. <o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">Remember
to be effective with people and efficient with other work activities. This
means spend as much time as necessary with people to ensure you understand
them and they understand your plans and directions. Have unscheduled time
in your schedule so that you have the flexibility to accept time wasters that
are necessary to be effective with people. <o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">Don’t
allow yourself to become a workaholic, i.e. working so many hours that you
do not have enough time for the important non work things in your life. If
your life is unbalanced then you are not as effective in your job as you
could be. <o:p></o:p></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">Learn
how to use administrative help effectively if it is available to you.
Learn to dictate to secretaries and to electronic media. Encourage your
workers to use efficient practices.<o:p></o:p></li>
</ol>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Lectures 20-22
discuss ways to help workers manage their time. This topic was outlined in the
introduction titled “Lectures 20-22” that is between lecture 19 and lecture 20.
Go back and review that introduction before proceeding to lecture 23. If any
topics in the outline are hazy reread the appropriate sections in the lectures.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-891786199823239102013-03-26T14:09:00.000-07:002013-03-26T14:09:46.756-07:0022 Identify work that can be done better by others<span style="text-align: justify;">An area
related to time wasting is those situations where overzealous cost cutting
eliminates too many support staff with the result that extra administrative
work is forced back on highly paid knowledge workers. These cases are not
always clear cut. I can describe the boundaries but I can’t give you foolproof
answers because there are human factors involved that are unknowable. A few
examples best illustrate what is involved.</span><br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b>Secretarial support<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
My favorite is secretarial
support. Before personal computers, knowledge workers either had personal
secretaries or access to a pool of secretaries who had the typewriters. The
knowledge worker either wrote drafts in longhand or dictated to a secretary versed
in shorthand or to a dictating machine and the secretary did the typing. With
the availability of personal computers and good word processing software many
knowledge workers prefer to do their own typing because they now have access to
typing equipment and because they are spared from having to organize their
thinking as required for dictation. This has led to fewer and fewer
secretaries. Is this cost effective? A knowledge worker typically types at 20
to 40 words per minute at best. A secretary types at 60 to 80 words per minute
and is paid 1/4 to 1/3 that of a knowledge worker. If only the direct typing
time and cost were involved it is clear that having secretaries do the typing
is about ten times cheaper than allowing workers to do their own typing. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Other factors affecting the
cost comparison include the cost of dictation time, editing time and time to
get the product finished. Experience and experimental data has shown that it is
about three times faster to dictate something than it is to write or type it
so; at most, the time for dictation cuts the advantage of secretarial typing to
about a factor of three. My experience indicates that editing is faster if done
using standard journalism techniques on paper copies, which again favors the
dictation/typist approach. However, not all knowledge workers take the time to
learn these editing techniques and some secretaries aren’t familiar with them
so I will call the editing cost equal. I will also ignore the advantage
dictation has in that less editing is usually required. This is because most
people outline a document before they dictate whereas those who do their own
typing typically just start typing without an outline. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
That leaves only the cost of
time to get to a finished product. This cost is the cost of information latency
and depends on the product involved, the dictation process in use and the
worker involved. Information latency
cost is very high for situations where knowledge workers are exchanging vital
task information because the latency time translates directly to delays in
other work products and thereby to increased costs. If the product is small
then it is more cost effective for the worker to type and send an email. If the
product is so large that it must be typed, reviewed, edited and then
distributed it is more cost effective to dictate the work and have a skilled
typist type and distribute the work. In these examples the most cost effective
approach is the one that gets the data to users quickest.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Most emails are small and it
isn’t convenient or cost effective to dictate and have a secretary type and
send them. At the other extreme are reports and similar paperwork that have
deadlines days or weeks away. In these cases the information latency cost is
negligible and the dictation/typist approach is about a factor of three
cheaper. Thus the most cost effective balance of what should be directly typed
by the worker and what should be dictated and then typed by a typist depends on
the mix of products and the dictation process. The product mix varies from
organization to organization and likely from time to time. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
However, if the product mix was
the only factor remaining in determining the cost effective solution then it
could be worked out by a diligent manager. The problem is there is also a human
factors issue that is worker dependent. Some workers want to do all their own
typing no matter how costly it is and they present all kinds of spurious
arguments to defend their position. Others are more than happy to use the
secretaries as much as possible and perhaps even for things they should do
themselves. I believe this human factors issue makes it too hard to get the
exact right answer because the most cost effective balance includes some
disgruntled workers and it’s not possible to accurately estimate the resulting
cost of the inefficiency due to their being disgruntled.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
I believe that modern
electronic tools, including personal computers, the intra/inter nets and
recording devices so small they are embedded in cell phones and MP3 players,
make dictation even more cost effective than in the past. E-mail, fixed and portable, and cell phones
have greatly reduced information latency but expensive knowledge workers spend
a lot of time inefficiently typing. Sound files recorded on personal computers,
or portable devices can be sent almost instantly to typists anywhere and text
documents, with corrected grammar and punctuation, can be typed and returned
about as fast as a slow typing knowledge worker can type a document. This
modern technology has the capability to reduce information latency for most
work requiring typing but it doesn’t seem to have caught on for two reasons.
First, workers wanting to do the typing themselves, even though they are
inefficient typists and second, overzealous cost cutting leading to reducing
the availability of skilled typists.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Given all these factors what
should the effective leader do? My advice is, if you have access to secretarial
support use it as much as possible. Experiment with the various new
technologies for dictation and collect data on how much of your time is saved
and how long it takes to get data to users for the various work products in
your organization. Keep it up long enough that you are comfortable dictating
and have adequate data to make decisions. The experience and the data will help
you determine what is best for you and your work. When you have the results
share them with your workers and encourage them to use the best practices you
have determined. But be prepared for all kinds of arguments why they can’t
effectively use dictation.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b>Administrative support<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The personal computer has
complicated the issue of administrative support even further. Take for example,
travel arrangements and expense reporting. In the past workers submitted a
travel request and a secretary or administrative assistant made the travel
arrangements. At the end of the travel the worker gave the travel expense data
to the secretary or administrative assistant who then filled out an expense
report for the worker to sign before it was submitted to the financial system.
Now it is likely that the worker goes on line and makes travel arrangements and
fills out an on line expense report upon return. Here again the worker is doing
work that a less costly secretary or administrator can do much faster. This
example and many others like it aren’t so easy to analyze. There is no question
that having an expensive knowledge worker do such work in place of a support
person isn’t cost effective in the simplest analysis. However, here again human
factors are involved.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
If the knowledge worker
completes all the work scheduled or expected of them in a given time period and
also does the administrative work then clearly it is cheaper to layoff the
support people. I am convinced that in many cases this happens. The knowledge
workers absorb this extra work and put in the extra time to get it done without
an increase in compensation. On paper it looks like the organization has gained
in cost effectiveness in such cases. My opinion and it is only an opinion as I
have no data to back it up, is that the organization does gain up to a point
but loses after that. I think the knowledge worker can absorb some
administrative tasks but at some point the administrative tasks begin to
interfere with the workers ability to focus on the tasks they were hired to do.
When knowledge workers are continually interrupted from their main work they
become inefficient because they have to spend time revisiting thought
processes, and they make more mistakes because they are distracted. I believe
some organizations today are fooling themselves. They are employing extra
knowledge workers to cover for the inefficiencies of existing knowledge workers
brought on by pushing more and more administrative tasks onto these workers in
the guise of being more cost effective by laying off administrative personnel.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Having made the case that
determining the optimum number of administrative workers is complex and
involves factors that are unknowable what should the effective leader do? My
advice is to make your mistakes on the side of having too many administrative
workers rather than too few. First because having too few leads to having to
hire additional knowledge workers and the optimum number of knowledge workers
is the minimum number required to get work done with no administrative overhead
assigned to the knowledge workers. This is because of the costs of data latency
and the hidden costs of extra communications between workers incurred when
there is more than the minimum number of knowledge workers. It is also less
costly to err by having one or two extra administrative workers than to have
even one extra knowledge worker due to the large difference in salaries between
knowledge workers and administrative workers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b>Treat support people with
respect<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Before leaving this topic I
must remind you of a couple of things that can undermine the effectiveness of
your organization. First, never ask a secretary or an administrative person to
do something for you while you wait for it that you could do yourself. Besides
the fact that it is simply rude behavior it takes two people’s time instead of
one. It is important to treat secretaries and administrative people as
professionals and to give them as much responsibility as each one’s skills and
experience allows. Think of them as knowledge workers just like the rest of
your workers. Then you realize that the more work they do at their relatively
low salary is less work you have to pay for at the higher salary of other
workers. Second, when you are assembling a team to solve a crisis don’t forget
to include secretaries or administrative workers that have responsibilities for
portions of the process that is in crisis. Very often such workers have more
intimate knowledge of process problems than others that have less day to day
involvement in the processes. I have
worked in organizations whose culture just won’t allow them to include
secretaries or admin people in process improvement teams. If your
organization’s culture includes such thinking you need to work to change the
culture in order to gain the benefit of all the skills and all the experience
in the organization.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Exercise<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The objective of this exercise is
to determine the size of the largest document that you can type more cost
effectively than you can dictate and have typed for you. For documents larger
than this size dictation is more efficient than typing and for smaller
documents typing the document yourself is more efficient. Although this takes
some time it is well worth knowing in the long term. If you have software that
translates dictation to text you can modify this exercise to compare the time
to type and edit something to the time to dictate and edit the software
transcription.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Pick
two similar, but unrelated topics, e.g. a recent sports event you watched and a
recent repair job you did around the house or yard. Start with either topic and
write 250 to 300 words, i.e. about a page, about it. If it is your habit to
outline work before you type it then do that. If you don’t normally outline
then just begin typing. Time yourself and record the time it takes you to
outline and type, or just to type a page, edit it, save the file and email it
to yourself. The word count and the time will give you an effective typing
speed. For example, if you actually type 30 words per minute it should take you
ten minutes to type 300 words plus the time it takes to think about what to
write, edit, save and email, say another four to five minutes so that the task
overall takes about 15 minutes for an effective speed of 20 words per minute.
If you outline first it should be about the same overall time since you are
likely to spend three to four minutes outlining but you won’t have to spend as
much time thinking during the typing and there is less editing of the draft.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->If
you have a pc with a microphone set it up so you can record a sound file. If
not use the recording capability on your MP3 players, PDA or cell phone and
transfer the sound file into your pc. Next determine the time it takes to
outline and then dictate about 250 or 300 words on the second topic, save the
sound file and email it to yourself. If you can’t stand outlining then you can
skip that step and just dictate the sound file directly. If you are somewhat
used to outlining and dictating you will have accomplished the outlining,
dictating, saving and emailing in about seven or perhaps eight minutes. Record
your own time but for now assume it is eight minutes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Account
for the time a typist would take in opening your file, transcribing it,
checking it, saving it and emailing it back to you. Assume you dictated at
about 80 words per minute and the typist transcribes at the same speed. Thus it
takes about 3.75 minutes to transcribe your 300 words. Suppose it takes about
the same time to check the work and an additional half minute for corrections,
saving and emailing for a total of eight minutes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Now
you have the data needed to estimate the size of document above which it saves
you time to dictate the document and the size above which it is more cost
effective to dictate. For the example discussed so far it took 15 minutes of
your time to type a 300 word document and only eight minutes to dictate 300
words. Assuming the typist makes about 1/3 your salary the cost of dictating is
only 71% of the cost of typing it yourself for this example. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
By now you
have figured out that I have gamed you. There is no size of document beyond a
small paragraph that is faster for you to type or cheaper for you to type
unless you assumed some unreasonably large overhead times relating to dictation.
The important factor is information latency. If you can get critical data
faster by typing yourself, e.g. via email, then it is more effective and cost
effective. Otherwise it is always more efficient and cost effective to dictate
rather than type unless you are the rare manager that can type at 100 words per
minute. The point of this exercise was to get you to try dictation so that you
would see it is relatively easy. It gets easier as you get used to it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts isn’t
compatible with the pace you would like
to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-40889541320947806432013-03-21T11:01:00.000-07:002013-03-21T11:01:36.140-07:0021B Managing Meetings<span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><b>Crisis Meetings</b></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Crises are everyday occurrences
in most complex organizations. They must be dealt with rapidly and effectively
as discussed previously in lecture 20. Meetings are necessary and they should
be staged to minimize wasting time of workers involved. Stage the meetings as
follows:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->First meeting- gather only those likely to have
data needed to define the problem<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Second meeting- gather only those necessary to
solve the problem<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Follow-up meetings- gather only those needed to
status the problem and plan for solution. (Crises are abnormal events so
standard information systems aren’t likely to be adequate to status progress
and brief meetings such as daily stand-ups are needed.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Think about
how the crisis solving team can be structured so that few meetings are needed.
For example, if a manager is available with the necessary problem solving
skills that manger can be part of the team and be responsible for reporting
status so that other team members need only concentrate on problem solving.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Work Meetings<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Many work tasks require
collaboration of knowledge workers and collaboration requires communication.
Work communication can be informal face to face or electronic involving just
two or three workers or it can be formal meetings involving large numbers of
workers. Managers are involved as organizers, facilitators, workers or all
three roles. Useful guidelines for work meetings include:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l6 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Separate status reviews from working sessions<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l6 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Keep working sessions small and informal<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l6 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Keep status reviews from becoming working
sessions<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l6 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Exploit modern technology including all forms of
electronic communications<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l6 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Develop agreed upon guidelines for electronic
communications<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l6 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Hold working sessions and status reviews at
fixed times and places so that people prepare and attend automatically<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
A fundamental
principle is to minimize information latency* by means appropriate to each
situation. If possible co-locate team members to reduce the need for frequent
meetings to exchange information. [*
Information latency is the time between when information is generated and the
time it is available to others depending on the information for the next steps
in their work.]<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The availability of inexpensive
large screen display projectors, n to one video switches and inter/intra nets
makes it cost effective to set up special work rooms where teams of 10 to 25
knowledge workers can gather with their laptops and software tools to
simultaneously work and share work results. Many organizations now use such
facilities for teams to gather for intense work and information sharing periods
of three to four hours two or three times weekly. These sessions must be well
planned and workers must come prepared to work and share results in real time.
Planning, documenting work and time consuming tasks are performed in between
sessions in the work rooms. This approach is called by a number of names but
Integrated Concurrent Engineering (ICE) is a common name. This approach is
effective because it reduces information latency from minutes to seconds or
hours to minutes. It is proven to reduce cost and schedule of complex projects
by factors of three to ten.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
If you are responsible or desire to be
responsible for teams of knowledge workers I recommend you become familiar with
ICE. Don’t let the term engineering dissuade you from investigating this
approach for any knowledge worker activity.
There is adequate information on the web so I will not include the
details here. Start with: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>Observation, Theory, and Simulation of Integrated Concurrent Engineering
</i>by<i> </i>Chachere, Kunz and Levitt, <span style="font-family: "TimesNewRoman,Bold","serif";">CIFE Working Paper #WP087, </span>STANFORD
UNIVERSITY, August 2004, or <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<i>The Integrated Concurrent Enterprise</i> by David B. Stagney, MIT
Thesis, 2003.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Knowledge workers spend much of
their time in work meetings and much of the time not in meetings in their
ubiquitous cubicles. If your organization is housed in cubicles consider
arranging the work space of small teams; those with two to eight members, in a
common cubicle. This can often be done by removing partitions or rearranging
the cubicles. The objective is to enable the small team’s members to see and
talk to each other from their normal workstations. This eliminates the need to
get up and walk to another cubicle to ask a question, sending an email or
calling a meeting to obtain data from teammates. Information latency is greatly
reduced for the small team thereby increasing its efficiency. Yes, it likely
increases unproductive social conversation but this loss is more than offset by
the increase in efficiency for most teams. For teams larger than about eight it
makes more sense to use the ICE technique mentioned in the preceding paragraph.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
If you work in a large
enterprise with multiple locations it is likely that you and your organization
are involved in work spread across locations. In such cases it is impossible to
physically co-locate workers but virtual co-location is possible with modern
teleconferencing and collaboration software. In planning uses of this
technology seek to drive information latency as low as practical as well as to
coordinate and status work. In my experience these modern techniques are
effective if workers that must interact electronically are first brought
together in one location for a day or two to get to know each other. Face to
face interaction enables workers to learn each other’s work style and quirks.
This makes it easier to understand each other later when interacting via
electronic communications in spite of the filtering imposed by these methods.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Be aware that small
organizations may not know how to organize to work big projects and large
organizations may treat small projects the same as large projects and overkill
on status meetings when informal communication is adequate. This is because the
methods needed to effectively manage projects do not scale with the size of the
project. Methods don’t scale because much of the communication that takes place
in the work place is informal communication. Let me explain how this impacts
work with extreme examples.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Informal communication is
completely adequate if everyone involved in a project is located in the same
room. Information needed by one worker from another is available by direct
asking. Information needed by all can be posted on the walls so there is little
need for formally scheduled meetings. Contrast this tiny project with a giant
complex project involving several enterprises located in several different
parts of the country or world and each enterprise using its own data bases of
project information as well as shared data bases. Workers do not even know who
is responsible for generating the information they need, let alone being able
to ask for it, without there being formal organization, organization charts,
descriptions of responsibilities and similar documentation plus the many types of
meetings associated with large projects. Note however that within each separate
part of the project there is informal communications working locally as always.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
If you are responsible for a
new project that is either much larger or much smaller than those you and your
organization are experienced with it is wise to call in someone with experience
with projects of the size of your new project to help you avoid serious
mistakes in organizing the project and structuring the meetings necessary to
ensure effective communications.
Mistakes in organizing the project or structuring meetings lead to major
time wasters that are also money wasters and threaten the success of the
project.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The discussion above is couched
in terms of projects because projects have limited lifetimes and organizations
that do project works face these problems repeatedly. All organizations are
faced with project work from time to time. However, the principles apply to
other work types and problems of scale arise in the initial stages of setting
up an organization or when the size of the organization increases or decreases
in size substantially.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
I now digress from discussing
work meetings with a personal story about the effects of scale on
organizations. Feel free to skip this story as it is just an example of the
principles described above applied to manufacturing. I was responsible for two
manufacturing plants, plant A producing a product at a rate of about 100 per
day and plant B a similar product at a rate of about 1000 per day. Applying the
methods that are the subject of this course we had improved the effectiveness
of plant A to the point that we had the space and skills available to absorb
plant B’s work, which would make plant A even more cost effective. My boss,
supporting the move but having a lot more experience in manufacturing than I,
told me that my plant A team wouldn’t be able to handle the new work because of
the difference in rate. Having the arrogance of ignorance I told him my plant A
team was a crackerjack team that was familiar with the materials, processes and
machines involved with the higher rate product and I was confident they could
do the job. Well the boss was right. My team was indeed familiar with
everything involved but the difference in rate. They tried to use the work flow
management techniques that worked well at a rate of 100 per day on the 1000 per
day production line and these techniques were inadequate. I won’t admit to the
amount of money we lost before we got proper work flow management processes in
place for the higher rate production but I will say that I was reminded of it
several times by the top level financial people in the enterprise.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b>Problem Solving or
Brainstorming Meetings<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Problem solving meetings are
part of crisis meetings and are in a class of meetings that involve
brainstorming. Problem solving meetings are particularly prone to wandering off
focus and wasting time. If the meeting room has a white or black board, or an
easel, then there is a simple technique for making a problem solving meeting effective.
You can use this technique as the meeting leader or as a volunteer secretary.
The approach is to write down on the board or easel just the key things needed
to keep the meeting on track and to follow a logical sequence of discussion.
This sequence is as follows:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->First get agreement from the group on the definition of
the problem to be solved. If it is your meeting you should have defined the
problem in your planning (see next section) and be ready to define the problem
with your introduction.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Gather data. In a true problem meeting this means using
a tool like a fishbone diagram* to guide brainstorming on the possible causes
of the problem. [*Fishbone diagrams, also called Ishikawa diagrams or
cause-and-effect diagrams, are diagrams that help collect and organize the
causes of a certain event. Consult Wikipedia for a more complete definition.]
In a brainstorming meeting you are gathering ideas. Be open to all ideas and
write each down for all to see. Make sure everyone has the opportunity to offer
ideas. Gather all ideas without evaluation, i.e. make sure ideas are not
critiqued in real time. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->After all the ideas are written down thin and organize
the gathered data. This means consolidating data that is similar into one item,
throwing out data that doesn’t seem relevant after brief discussion and
identifying any obvious hierarchy or relationships between the remaining data
items. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->If a fishbone diagram has been generated then
prioritize the candidate causes collected so that actions can be assigned to
determine if each cause is a root cause of the problem. Some causes are likely
the result of other more fundamental causes. It is important to track causes
back to root causes. Otherwise solutions may only correct symptoms and not the
root causes. It may be that additional data is needed to identify root causes.
If so, assign actions to collect the needed data, schedule a follow-up meeting
to discuss the new data and close the meeting.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Once root causes are identified brainstorm to collect
possible solutions to the root causes if possible solutions were not collected
as part of the brainstorming in step 2. Follow the same procedure as for
collecting and evaluating causes.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->6.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Thin and organize the alternative solutions as
described in step 3.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->7.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Discuss pros and cons of each alternative and make a
decision on the best if sufficient information is available. If additional
information is needed then assign actions to gather the information.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->8.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Define the steps necessary to implement and monitor the
effectiveness of selected alternatives, assign actions, schedule any necessary
follow-up meetings and close the meeting.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Using a board or easel to write
down relevant information at each step keeps the group on track and having the
information available visually to all attendees aids their thinking. Being the
recorder of information helps you guide the meeting and keep it focused. Once
the members of your organization become familiar with the process outlined here
the meetings tend to stay focused because they recognize that the process works
and doesn’t waste their time. Whereas it is possible to use a computer and
projection screen in place of a white board or easel it isn’t as effective
unless the computer operator is particularly skillful in capturing and
organizing data. For most people it is easier and faster to use a board or
easel.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Make Sure Meetings Are
Disciplined- Guidelines for Effective Meetings<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The reason for most meetings is
to communicate, i.e. gather or disseminate information as efficiently as
possible. If meetings go beyond gathering or disseminating information then
they become time wasters. Plan your
meetings, have an agenda and a time limit. Planning a meeting means thinking
through each candidate item on your draft agenda and answering the following
questions:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Does this item belong in this meeting?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->What information must be communicated and/or
gathered for each item?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->How do I introduce each item to focus the
discussion so that I get the answers I or the organization need?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->How do I decide when this item is ready for
closure?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->How much time is it likely to take to discuss
and close each item?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
If you think through the
questions above you can limit the items on the agenda to those that can be
covered adequately in the allotted time and you are prepared to conduct an
effective meeting. If you are not prepared you risk wasting everyone’s time by
getting off track or onto unnecessary topics. Don’t be discouraged if this
looks like it takes a lot of planning time. With practice you become proficient
at this planning and find that it takes only a few minutes to plan an effective
meeting.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Start meetings on time and end
them on time. Make it clear that you expect to start meetings on time and do
not wait for late arrivals. They soon learn that they are expected to be on
time and most people do what is expected of them. If you wait for late arrivals
you not only waste the time of everyone present but you condition everyone that
it is not necessary to be on time for your meetings. As a result your meetings
are always late in starting due to waiting for late arrivals and waste the time
of those that arrive on time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Establish intended outcomes for
the meeting at the beginning and get agreement on outcomes. Make sure you have
a process to capture actions. It is sufficient to identify the action and
responsible person in the meeting. Hold a follow-up one on one with the
actionee to discuss details, set up guidelines, due dates and what is expected
at midterm and final reviews. These details are critical to ensuring that an
actionee understands what is expected but they are not important to other
meeting attendees.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Keep on schedule, summarize key
points frequently and use group problem solving tools as appropriate. Use your
judgment on the necessity of keeping and distributing minutes since the
necessity depends on the type and frequency of meetings. Formal organization
meetings that are scheduled monthly typically require minutes and weekly staff
meetings typically do not as long as actions and other decisions are
documented. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Discussing details of problem
resolution and issuing detailed instructions to an actionee during meetings are
just two examples that result in ineffective meetings. It is the responsibility
of the meeting leader to keep the meeting focused on the agenda items. Other
items will come up and it is necessary to quickly judge whether the additional
item is relevant to the success of the meeting or should be dealt with at
another time. Items that are not relevant can be deferred to another meeting,
to a one on one, or assigned to someone to resolve outside of the meeting.
Although such items must be dealt with quickly make sure you take the time to
listen effectively to people bringing up items not on the agenda. They have
decided, rightly or wrongly, that the items are important for the group and if
you cut them off before they complete their explanation you frustrate them, and
thereby demotivate them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Exercises<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoList" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo7; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Develop
straw man agendas for the following meetings for your organization:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Weekly Staff Meeting <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Monthly All Hands Meeting <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Crisis Meeting to Address an Apparent Case of Fraud in
your organization<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Status Meeting on a current project in your
organization.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo7; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Review
your answers to the exercises in the middle of this lecture and assess the
effectiveness of your organization’s meetings according to the guidelines
covered in lecture 21. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo7; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Identify
any changes you need to make to improve the effectiveness of meetings in your
organization.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo7; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Incorporate
plans for these changes in your action plan.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-48691429781409779112013-03-12T12:07:00.000-07:002013-03-12T12:07:23.674-07:0021A Managing Meetings<span style="color: windowtext; text-align: justify;"><b>Communications</b></span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Communications are required in
all organizations and the old truism that you can’t communicate too much is
indeed true but sometimes communications are ineffective and become time
wasters. Remember, managers communicate by what they:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Say<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Don’t say<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Do<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->And don’t do.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Make sure
your actions are consistent with what you say because you can’t explain away
behavior inconsistent with what you say. It’s also important to remember that
you cannot satisfy all communication desires and it’s not effective to try. In
this lecture I address how meetings can be effective communication tools and
how to keep meetings from becoming time wasters. This is a long lecture and
there are a lot of concepts presented. I recommend that you read through it a
couple of times to make sure you capture all the concepts. I have divided the
lecture into two halves, 21A and 21B, with exercises at the end at the end of
each. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b>Too Many Meetings<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
In large complex enterprises
many meetings are necessary to ensure effective communications. If managers
aren’t cautious unnecessary meetings creep into everyday use and become time
wasters. Typically what happens is there are too many meetings within a
functional area and too few meetings across functions. If you observe yourself
or your subordinate managers holding daily meetings with most of your/their
direct reports you should suspect that many of these meetings are unnecessary.
Typical causes of too many meetings include:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-list: l6 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->poor meeting discipline,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-list: l6 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->poor information systems,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-list: l6 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->insecure or incompetent managers. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 3.0pt; text-align: justify;">
If a
subordinate manager is holding too many meetings you must investigate and take
action quickly. The manager holding too many meetings must change or be changed
to avoid the organization becoming ineffective due to the workers not having
enough time free of meetings to do productive work. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The first step is to determine
the reason the manager is holding so many meetings. If the reason given for too
many meetings is due to meetings being so long that additional meetings are
called to complete agendas from previous meetings then the problem is meeting
discipline. Solve the problem of poor meeting discipline by teaching the manager
better methods and insist that the better methods be followed to reduce the
number of meetings and the time per meeting.
Methods for effective meetings are described in the last section of this
lecture.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
If the reason is poor
information systems then work with the manager and others responsible to fix
the problems. Sometimes poor information systems can be fixed within the
organization using quality improvement techniques discussed in later lectures
and sometimes professional help is needed to augment the group’s efforts,
particularly if the system is software based. Changing software based
information systems can become a costly quagmire. There are always those that
argue that available information systems don’t fit the organization’s
requirements and therefore a new system must be developed that is tailored
directly to the organization’s special needs. Be wary of such arguments. In my
experience such thinking leads to long and costly efforts to develop systems
that still aren’t effective for the organization. Whenever possible it is
advisable to use or adapt an existing commercial system.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Insecure managers should be
mentored or coached carefully until they are secure in their job or you
determine that they are not ever going to be secure with limited meeting time
with their staff. Everyone isn’t suited for management and the sooner you
replace someone found not to be suited to the job the better for your
organization. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Managers that lack
understanding of their organization’s work, lack effective interpersonal skills
or insist on excessive meetings in order to micromanage their staff are
incompetent managers and must be replaced as rapidly as possible. In some cases
sending them to special training, assuming it is available, may work but in
most cases it’s better to replace them. You do not have enough time to train,
or retrain them yourself, (and some are not trainable) and perform well in the
rest of your management responsibilities. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b>Electronic Communications in
Lieu of Meetings<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Today electronic communications
are used effectively by top management to communicate training, policies and
plans directly to all employees. This removes most of the need to pass down
communications from top management and therefore reduces the time needed for
staff meetings. However, it is important for you to acknowledge communications
from top managers and give your staff an opportunity to ask any questions they
have. Don’t assume that just because senior management has explained new ideas,
policies or plans in emails that everyone understands what is expected of them
and how to respond. Remember, it’s your job to ensure your staff understands
and is correctly supporting the policies and plans of your superiors; otherwise
you are creating an ineffective environment. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
If your superiors are pursuing
what you and/or your staff believes is a dumb policy or plan it’s your job to
work with your staff to figure out how to make the policy or plan effective in
your organization. This topic was discussed in an earlier lecture. If you are
still unsure how to handle bad policies or plans of superiors please review the
earlier lecture again. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Whereas electronic
communications do reduce the time needed for meetings and even the need for
some meetings don’t let email or an equivalent replace all face to face
meetings. As an extreme example, a college dean that I know found that one of
his department chairs was using email to conduct annual performance reviews of
the professors in the department. Remember this case when you are communicating
electronically to your staff and ask yourself; is this topic suitable for an
electronic communication or is it so personal or so important that it should be
handled face to face?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
An important function of an
effective leader is informally walking around the organization’s work area and
having brief personal interactions with workers. Don’t let electronic
communications replace walking around and talking with workers. The primary
reasons are to gather information and to demonstrate that you care about the
workers, their work and their work issues. Often it is easier for a worker to
bring up a problem with the boss when the boss drops by just to say hello or to
ask a question. You learn important things by walking around that you do not
learn in formal meetings or via email. If you find yourself sitting for long
periods at your desk doing email or some other tedious task break up the task
by taking time out to walk around for 15 minutes. It not only clears your mind
and gets your circulation going it helps keep your workers motivated.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">Types of Effective Meetings<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
I can’t give you an exact list
of what meetings are needed or not needed in your organization. You have to use
your experience and judgment to determine the cost/benefit of each meeting that
you control. Here are some meetings that are useful in most organizations:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Staff Meetings<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Vertical Staff Meetings<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->All Hands Meetings<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Crisis Meetings<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Work Meetings<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Problem Solving or Brainstorming Meetings<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b>Staff Meetings<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The one meeting that managers
control is their staff meetings. The cost/benefit analysis of staff meetings is
subtle because the meetings are rituals and deeply wound up in an
organization’s culture. Some of your direct reports expect a staff meeting and
feel cheated somehow if you don’t hold regular meetings. Others feel they are a
waste of time and only attend begrudgingly. I believe staff meetings are
necessary for the staff to feel involved and therefore committed. In my
experience it is best to discuss candidly with your direct reports what you
intend to include in staff meetings and why. Ask them what they want to include
regularly on the agenda. Hold staff meeting regularly; weekly or biweekly. Have
an agenda and commit to limiting staff meetings to an hour or even 15 minutes
if you can complete your communications in no more than 5 minutes. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Limit your comments to items
not suitable for e-mail or personal conversations. This can include explaining
new policies, new directions, etc. It is also wise to fully explain new things
you or your boss wants. Take time to celebrate successes and give credit to
those contributing to successes (remembering what was said earlier about the
dangers of rewarding individuals). The rest of the agenda can be what your
staff wants. Always leave 5 to 10 minutes at the end to let each person comment
on anything they think the group needs to hear. This helps some feel involved
and contributing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">Vertical Staff Meetings<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Vertical staff meetings are a
manager’s way of finding information that is not in regular communications
channels; particular information that subordinate managers neglect to report.
These meetings also help ensure that the manager’s views are flowed down and
understood. A vertical staff meeting
includes the manager plus 5 to 12 workers and subordinate managers with no
direct supervisor of any attendee present. The reason for excluding direct
supervisors of other attendees is to enable workers to speak freely about
things that they see as problems but their supervisor is ignoring. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The manager uses a third to
half the time to explain the ground rules for the meeting and to communicate
his vision, near terms goals or other relevant information that the group needs
to hear directly from the manager without it being filtered by subordinate
managers. The remainder of the time is for questions by the group and answers
by the manager. All questions are fair and the manager must commit to answer
all questions in the meeting or in a follow-up communication within a day if
possible. No question or comment by members of the group is to leave the room
without consent of the person asking or commenting. The group should be
encouraged to share everything the manager says with the rest of the
organization. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Hold vertical staff meetings
regularly so that everyone in the organization attends once every year or at
least every two years. Hold over lunch if lunch can be provided for the
attendees. Keep the time limited to one hour and encourage workers to share
their concerns. You find out problems exist that you haven’t heard about any
other way. If these meetings aren’t successful at first keep holding them. If
the ground rules are followed over time trust develops and workers begin to
communicate freely. Problems due to a subordinate manager that are disclosed in
a vertical staff meeting without the subordinate manger being present must be
handled discreetly without embarrassing the subordinate manager. Otherwise you
will lose the trust of the subordinate manager.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: windowtext;">All Hands Meetings<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Hold one hour all hands
meetings monthly if possible. These meetings are to build the trust of
employees in their management and the organization, which in turn builds
commitment by the employees and effectiveness for the organization. All hands
meetings can be held at lunch time if lunch is provided or before work if
coffee, juice and donuts are provided.
This is because many organizations do not like to see the overhead
expenses associated with all hands meetings during working hours. I am
convinced that these meetings are cost effective but proving it is difficult as
the numbers are “unknowable”. These meetings are primarily downward
communications. A sample agenda includes:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Status of the organization’s annual plan<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Status of any special projects<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Introduction of new employees with time for the
new employees to tell about their background<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Celebration of successes and acknowledgement of
defeats<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Brief Q & A period<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
It is
important to share real information, including financial data, in order to
build trust. Employees are trusted to keep trade secrets and other proprietary
information that is more valuable than financial data so there should be no
hesitation to share financial data. Withholding such data implies that
management does not trust workers and therefore the workers reason that if they
aren’t trusted they shouldn’t trust management.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b>Exercises<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo6; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Jot
down a list of all the meetings you led over the past week. Then think about
each one and answer the following questions:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l5 level2 lfo7; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->What would the regrets be if the meeting was not
held?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l5 level2 lfo7; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Did the meeting accomplish your objectives for
it?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l5 level2 lfo7; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Was the meeting efficient and effective or was
time wasted with off the track discussions?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l5 level2 lfo7; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Do you think the other attendees left the
meeting believing it was efficient and effective?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo6; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Are
you communicating with your organization via effective staff meetings? Vertical
staff meetings? All hands meetings?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo6; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Is
your use of electronic communications sound or are you using emails where face
to face meetings should be used?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-63568212618133564852013-03-07T12:20:00.000-08:002013-03-07T12:20:08.943-08:0020 Eliminate Time Wasters<br />
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Crisis Management<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Crises are a fact of life in
any organization and test the skills of even the most effective leaders. Each
one is unique and requires carefully thought out methods for resolution. There
are several factors that must be balanced in resolving a crisis. First, of
course is urgency. By definition a crisis is an undesirable situation that is
disrupting normal operations and is likely costing money or the organization’s
reputation. In a crisis the leader’s objectives are:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->to restore normal operation as fast as possible,
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->at the least cost, <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->with a high probability that the system is
changed so that the crisis can not recur,<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->with assurance that any changes to the system do
not encumber the organization or work processes in ways that reduce overall
effectiveness<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 39.0pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo6; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->and that the rationale for changes is
documented.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Problem solving tools are
discussed in later lectures. Here I just want to emphasize two constraints in
effective crisis resolution. First, it is very important to not just resolve
the crisis but to understand why it happened, what deficiency in the system
enabled the crisis to occur, to change the system so that the same crisis
cannot reoccur again and to document the rationale for decisions relating to
any changes in the system, or rules or policies. The crisis manager’s job isn’t
done until all of this has been accomplished. There is always pressure to
return to normal operations as fast and cheaply as possible and this pressure
can inhibit getting to the root cause of crises, changing the system so that
they don’t reoccur and properly documenting the rationale for the changes. If
the crisis manager succumbs to this pressure the crisis will likely reoccur and
blame will be assigned to those that didn’t fix it right the first time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The second constraint is to
ensure that system changes are effective; that is they are not cosmetic and
they do not unnecessarily encumber work processes. Old organizations are often
filled with rules and policies that were put in place to solve long ago crises.
Too often such rules and polices do not reflect changes to the system that
prevent the crisis from reoccurring but rather try to constrain workers so that
they don’t allow or cause the crisis to reoccur. Often the crises continue and more rules and
policies are instituted until the organization is so bogged down it becomes non
competitive. If tempted to add rules or change policies to prevent a crisis
from reoccurring take the time to question whether the system is being changed
effectively by such rules and policy changes. Ask whether the proposed changes
are changes to the system or the result of blaming people for the crisis.
Recall the 85/15 rule discussed earlier. If people are being blamed for the
crisis 85% of the time the managers are wrong and proposed changes are more
likely to encumber the system than to prevent reoccurrence of the crisis.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The effective leader is always
on the lookout for old rules and policies that inhibit productivity and may no
longer be necessary due to changes in work processes or products. If the
rationale for the old rules or policies was properly documented knowing when
they can be changed is usually evident. Caution is required if there is no
documentation to ensure that changes in work processes or products have really
eliminated the need for the old rules or policies. New data may be needed. If
so, the issue becomes a process improvement activity, which is covered in more
detail later.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Your crisis resolution plan
must be based on in depth analysis of the causes of the crisis and in depth
discussions with the people closest to the problems. Jumping to popular
solutions rather than carefully thought out plans usually results in a
continuing crisis. Failure to have an effective plan and effective communications
invites others to give you help, which typically just makes the problems worse,
and always increases your workload. You must maintain the confidence of
stakeholders, particularly your superiors; otherwise expect to be removed from
leadership of the crisis. At the same time you must fend off uninformed advice,
which is abundant in a crisis. More will be discussed on crisis management in
the next lecture on meetings. <o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Poor Information Systems<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Defining proper information
systems is beyond the scope of this course but it is necessary for the
effective leader to know how to identify the symptoms of poor information
systems or improper use of good information systems. One tip off of poor
information systems is people saying meetings are necessary to gather
information. If you hear this reasoning for meetings not related to a crisis or
a new project then you should examine the information systems. It takes much
less time for workers to record key job data in some type of data base for a
manager’s review than it does to have to meet with the manager and provide the
data verbally or, even worse, on PowerPoint charts. If you find workers are not
entering necessary data properly than training is required. If workers are
entering data properly then either the processing of the data in the data base
is ineffective or the manager using the data doesn’t have the training to
properly use the data. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
A second tip off of poor
information systems is workers or administrators having to chase down needed
information. Information should flow up and with today’s computer networks this
can be make to happen nearly automatically if the right data is being entered
at the right time by the right people.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Finally, be on the look out for
information that isn’t actionable. This is information that is no longer needed
or just doesn’t apply well to current work processes. This can result from
commercial or homegrown information systems that are improperly tailored to
your organization or enterprise. If you see information that isn’t useful to
you or anyone else then question whether it is worth having workers collect and
enter the data.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Poor information systems are
costly if highly paid workers are required to process data that could be
processed by lower cost administrators. This topic is explored further in
Lecture 22.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Over staffing<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
When projects or special tasks
fall behind schedule there is often pressure to add additional people in order
to get back on schedule or at least not fall further behind schedule. Of course
there are times when this is the right management action. However, there are
times when process problems are causing the delays and adding more staff isn’t
the right answer. If process problems are the cause then usually fixing the
process is preferred to adding additional people. The difficulty is that it
takes time and knowledge to identify when process problems are the root cause
of delays and there is typically pressure for immediate management actions such
as adding staff.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The theory of constraints,
often used in manufacturing and service organizations, also applies to projects
and special tasks but its effects are not as easy to identify. Failure to
understand constraints can lead to the wrong management action and overstaffing
is a typical wrong action. Project management techniques use critical path
analysis to identify constraints to schedule but projects are dynamic and
critical paths change or new critical paths emerge. The project manager and the
supporting managers must not only identify and track the critical paths as they
evolve, they must also understand the reasons the work is schedule constrained
and the nature of the work that is on the critical path.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
In some cases the critical path
work is easily divided among additional workers and schedule can be reduced by
adding staff to the tasks on the critical path. Other times the work is
dependent on special skills or requires extensive review to understand before a
new person can contribute effectively. In such times adding additional staff
actually delays work on the critical path because the existing staff must bring
new people up to speed and because of communication induced delays introduced
by the additional people. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
In an ideal situation doubling
the number of people on a task cuts the time to complete the task in half, that
is, ideally, the schedule is inversely proportional to the number of people
assigned to the job. However tasks are typically complex and can only be
divided into a limited number of pieces that can be worked independently. On
complex tasks there is a need for work results to be communicated to other
workers, as well as to managers. The more workers assigned to the task the
bigger this communication need and the time spent communicating grows
geometrically with the number of people. At some point workers are spending
more time communicating results and status to each other and to layers of
management than they are actually generating direct work products. The result
of these relationships is that there is an optimum number of workers for a task
in order to achieve minimum schedule and adding workers beyond the optimum
actually delays the time to completion.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
How does the effective manager
avoid over staffing? The details of
project management are beyond the scope of this course but we can touch on some
highlights. First of all, when a project or special task falls behind it must
be treated as a crisis and the effective manager takes charge or ensures that
the right kind of manager is in place. A project or task in crisis is no time
to have a manager that leans toward affiliative management. A czar is called
for until things are under control. (Don’t forget to change your behavior if
you are the czar, or remove the czar, when the project stabilizes because czars
are best at “stop the bleeding” situations and are not the most effective
managers in non crisis situations.) Second, remember that in a crisis it is
doubly important to manage both up and down. Down requires that you get
involved sufficiently to really understand what is going on in detail,
otherwise mistakes will happen, e.g. as discussed above. Managing up means
having a detailed plan to resolve the crisis and communicating the plan and
progress on the plan to all stakeholders more frequently than normal. These
communications must be honest and timely but you must understand problems
before they are communicated upward. The trick is balancing your understanding
and the timeliness of your communications. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Please remember that project
management is one of the most complex management jobs. The steps listed here
are necessary but by no means sufficient. You should study books on project
management if that is on your career path. And a final reminder, under staffing,
although not a time waster, is a serious detriment to effective organizational performance
if left uncorrected for more than a couple of months.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
I will digress here to share a
story from my early management experience that may be helpful to those new to
project management. If project management isn't on your career path feel free
to skip ahead to the subheading “Useful Hint”. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
As a young department manager
in an engineering organization I was given management responsibility for an
important product development project that had been in crisis for several years
due to technical problems, resulting in large loses of company money, unhappy
customers and the firing of the two previous project leaders. Many people in
the company believed they had the solution for the technical problems and were
more than free with their uninformed advice. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Fortunately, I was saved by the
previous manager’s hiring of a new engineer just before the manager was fired.
During the short grace period I had before results were expected I learned that
this new engineer understood the technical problems in depth and had developed
an effective plan to resolve them. Unfortunately, it was going to take at least
four months and considerable investment to solve these problems. The new
engineer had neither the respect of management (because he was new and
untested) nor the communication skills needed to sell his plan. I recognized
that continued failure would lead to my firing so I had little to lose. I went
to the company president with a simple plan. Give us six months, the money we
needed and keep all management off our backs during this time. I promised we
would achieve the desired product performance within that time or he could fire
us both (which would have happened anyway). <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The plan, which was really no
additional risk to me, gave us the freedom to work in peace for six months. The
technical problems were solved as promised, the product performance exceeded
requirements, the new engineer got the credit he deserved and the product went
into a long and profitable production run.
The lesson is simple. Successful crisis resolution requires in depth
understanding of the causes, sound plans and no shoot from the hip management
actions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Useful Hint: Don’t Be Afraid
to Use Time Logs<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Increasing the effectiveness of
your organization must include changes in processes as well as changes in
people. Data is required to change processes effectively. The reasons are
discussed more fully in a later lecture so for now accept this requirement. A
simple and convenient way to gather data relevant to time management is via
time logs used as appropriate by everyone in your organization. I don’t
recommend time logs be used all the time but if you suspect some process is
wasting time or if you are concerned that your people are spending too much
time on some relatively unimportant task ask them to keep time logs for four to
six weeks. The objective is to find information that is not on formal time
reporting systems. This includes time lost in amounts too small to record on
formal time reporting systems. Two examples are time lost due to unreliable
equipment or time spent correcting poor work done by another person. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
When you suspect such time
wasters in your organization pick one to three of the suspect items and ask
your staff to jot down on paper or electronically each day how many minutes are
spent on each suspect time waster. In a few weeks you should have enough data
to make effective decisions. The lost of ten minutes per day by each person in
a 40 person organization over 250 work days amounts to 100,000 minutes or
almost a full person year; well worth correcting. Such data is useful for
making decisions for your organization and for convincing your peers and your
superiors action is needed on topics important to your organization but not
under your control.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
A couple of examples better
explain the use of time logs. Suppose you think your staff is spending an
inordinate amount of time doing remedial work on defective paperwork submitted
to them from another organization and the manager of the other organization doesn't respond to your concerns about the quality of his or her organization’s
work. Presenting the other manager with hard data on time lost in your
organization fixing mistakes made by his or her organization makes your
argument more effective because such data can’t easily be dismissed and
reflects poorly on the manager’s performance if not addressed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Suppose your workers are
complaining that a copy machine is unreliable and is wasting their time. You
report it but the unreliable machine is neither repaired nor replaced. Ask your
workers to keep a temporary log of the time they waste coping with the
unreliable machine. You can use this data to calculate the excess cost of the
unreliable machine and then use the cost data to make a stronger case for
having the copy machine repaired or replaced.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Exercises<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoList2" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Think
through a crisis you have recently handled or observed and answer the following
questions:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Was the system blamed or were people blamed?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Were the root causes of the crisis identified?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Were changes made to the system or were new
polices and/or rules introduced?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Was the rationale for any changes documented?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Do you think the same crisis can happen again or
have the changes made that possibly remote?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Should you handle the next crisis the same or
differently?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList2" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Review
how actionable information is gathered and processed in your organization and
answer the following questions:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Is it necessary to gather some information by
holding meetings?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->If so, could this information be gathered
automatically just as well?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Do you receive management information that isn't actionable or useful in some other way?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->If so, is this information useful to others or
could collecting it be stopped?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Is there information that you need but don’t get
because no system is in place to gather and process it?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Would implementing a system to provide the
needed information be cost effective?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo5; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->If so, what information do you need to convince
others that the information is worth collecting and processing?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList2" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Think
about things that might be wasting your staffs’ time unnecessarily. Would time
logs confirm your intuition and give you the information needed to fix any of
the time wasters you suspect exist?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList2" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Have
you observed situations of over staffing in your enterprise? If so, what was the
evidence that indicated over staffing existed? Do you think you would recognize
over staffing if it occurred again? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-84199264932778419252013-02-21T07:23:00.000-08:002013-02-21T07:23:39.850-08:0020 to 22 Helping the Workers Manage Their Time<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-outline-level: 2; page-break-after: avoid; text-align: justify;">
At first reading your
reaction may be that helping workers manage their time is not the manager’s
responsibility but bear with me. One principle of leadership is that it is the
leader’s job to make subordinates’ jobs easier. Ken Blanchard (Co-author of <i>The One Minute Manger</i>) and Phil Hodges
wrote an excellent book, <i>The Servant
Leader</i>, that provides an in-depth treatment of this principle. Their book
shows that Jesus Christ is not only a model for spiritual leadership but also a
model for organizational leadership. They define this model as the “Servant
Leader”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
Helping workers manage their time is important to having an
effective organization and the aspects of worker time management discussed here
are those that the manager can influence. This topic is a bit long so I treat
it as three lectures.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
It’s quite likely that you as manager are the biggest source
of wasted time for your workers. At least that’s probably what they think.
Therefore the topics we cover in the first lecture are:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Eliminate
time wasters that are the manager’s fault<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Crises that occur more than
once<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Too many meetings
(examine job and organization structure
to see why meeting are needed)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Poor information systems (holding meetings to
gather information that should be automatically reported and processed)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Overstaffing to correct
schedule delays (leads to time wasted in interacting)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Many would argue that
meetings are the biggest time wasters so meetings are the topic of the second
lecture:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Managing
meetings<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Meeting to communicate<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Types of effective meetings<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Guidelines for effective
meetings<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Finally, an insidious time
waster is workers doing work that can be done faster and cheaper by others.
This is the topic of the third lecture:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Identify
work that can be done better by others<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
If by studying
and practicing the ideas discussed in these three lectures you are able to save
two hours per week for each of your staff members you will have improved your
organization’s productivity by five percent. Actually it will be more than five
percent because many time wasters interrupt workers from their core tasks. Some
researchers claim it takes twenty minutes for workers to regain focus and
effectiveness on a task after being interrupted. This productivity gain will be
achieved with no investment other than your time learning and practicing better
methods.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<o:p> </o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-51011181823853759592013-02-12T12:42:00.000-08:002013-02-12T12:42:12.676-08:0019 Managing the Manager’s Time<span style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">The final topics under Building a World Class
Organization are Managing the Manager’s Time and Helping the Workers Manage
Their Time. I’ll discuss managing your time in this lecture and how to help
your workers manage their time in the next three lectures. Points discussed in
this lecture include:</span><br />
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Schedule time by the week<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo3; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Keeps precious
time from “melting”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Have an open door policy and accept time wasters
gracefully to maintain good personal relations <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Accept the reality of daily crises<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Be effective with people; efficient with things<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Use lunch hours for formal and informal communications
with staff<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
There are
many systems for managing time and you must select one that works for you. I
like one recommended by Stephen Covey in his book <i>The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People</i>. In simple form it involves
allocating time to your job and to your personal life. Your job should have six
to eight objectives for both the long and short term at any given time. Having
more limits the time available for each objective so that it takes a long time
to accomplish the objectives. Therefore it is better to limit the number of
objectives to six to eight so that they can be accomplished effectively before
adding new objectives. There are three parts to your life; physical, mental and
spiritual. This means allocating time to keep yourself physically, mentally and
spiritually healthy so that you are able to be effective in your work; and with
your family and friends. In the mental part you must allocate time for learning
in order to keep up with technology and your career ambitions and time for hobbies
or other mental recreation. It is important to take the time to write down your
objectives for your job and your life and develop plans. These plans don’t have
to be detailed written plans but you should think about what is necessary to
achieve your objectives.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Personal Observations about
Work and Work Hours<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
This is a good point to insert
some observations about work from my decades of management experience. The
number of hours spent each week on work depends on three factors. These are the
culture of the enterprise, the business environment at any specific time and
the choice of the worker. Some organizations have a culture of working 60 or
more hour weeks and workers that don’t put in those hours are looked down upon.
The culture in other organizations admires those who work just the scheduled 40
hours and of course there are cultures that expect between 40 and 60 hours.
Similarly there are times in any organization when critical deadlines impose
the need for long hours for a few days or even weeks and other times when work
can be easily accomplished in normal work hours. Even without such cultural or
business environment constraints there is a distribution of typical work hours
among workers. Some want to work excessive hours and others want to work just
the minimum required. For this discussion I want to ignore the first two
factors and consider the factor that is the clear choice of the worker most of
the time. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
There is an optimum amount of
work time per week for each worker. For some it may be just 40 hours and for
others it may be 60 or more hours. Working more or less than your personal
optimum isn’t effective in the long term because you can’t be as effective in
either your work or your non-work life. Those who become “workaholics”
voluntarily usually don’t accomplish any more in their long hours on the job
than other workers accomplish in their optimum times, even if their optimum is
only 40 hours. This is because workaholics often don’t work effectively. They
get involved in unimportant tasks, they often spend too much time in social
activities and they lose creativity due to lack of involvement in activities
outside of work. Workaholics thinks they are helping the enterprise or their
career or both when in fact they are not; except in those deviant cultures that
prize excessive work hours. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Now to explain what I mean by
an optimum number of work hours for a person. Each of us has different
obligations in our life outside the job. Each of us has different needs for
recreation and relaxation. Individuals with few outside obligations and low
need for recreation and relaxation can work more hours effectively than an
individual with many outside obligations and high need for recreation and
relaxation. To be effective in our work we must have a balance between our work
and other activities. Working more than our personal optimum for protracted
times isn’t effective because our mind is on our failing to meet obligations
and personal needs rather than on our work. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
It is important to remember
that work isn’t the most important thing in our lives. I have observed several
people that made work more important than necessary. Then comes the time when
they are faced with a family crisis or get a health scare, e.g. chest pains
while on a business trip. When faced with their mortality they change their
priorities. Suddenly their families are the most important thing in their life
and work is relegated to second place or lower. Don’t let that happen to you.
That is what I mean by having a balanced life. The relative unimportance of
work, compared to our families, is easy to understand near the end of or after
our working life. It’s much harder to understand when we are young. However,
young people do see older people that have led an unbalanced life and suffered
the consequences. Use these examples to remind yourself to maintain a balanced
life.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Scheduling Time by the Week<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
After completing the definition
of your objectives and thinking through plans to achieve them you are ready to
schedule your time. It is very important to schedule a whole week at a time.
The reason is that you cannot work on six to eight objectives in one or even
two days, but you can over a whole week. There are too many uncertainties in
life and jobs to schedule longer than a week without rescheduling every week so
just do one week. Pick a time each week when you can be alone for 20-30 minutes
and make this your scheduling time. Early Sunday evening after dinner is a good
time for me. If I try to develop a schedule on Friday evening after work my mind
is filled with minutia resulting from the weeks crises that seem important at
that time. Scheduling such minutia pushes off work on more important but
seeming less time critical objectives. By Sunday evening most of this minutia
has receded in apparent importance and I can better focus on things that
contribute to achieving my objectives. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Select a format for your
schedule that suits your taste. I prefer a single sheet of paper for each
week’s schedule. The format isn’t important but I find it easier when I can see
all the hours of a week at one time along with my lists of objectives and tasks
for the week. I make up a form using a spreadsheet and prepare copies of the
blank form. You may prefer a printed calendar or a software schedule on a
personal computer or personal digital assistant. The key is to allocate some
time to each important task you have for the week. Allocate the tasks for the
week by one or two hour chunks and leave several unscheduled hours each day
during work time. This unscheduled time is necessary to fight daily fires and
to go back and complete tasks that were interrupted by firefighting or other
unanticipated events.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
A planned and recorded schedule
works if you discipline yourself to stick to your schedule and work the task
assigned for each period. You will find that this discipline results in getting
significant amounts of work done on major objectives in the one or two hour
chunks of scheduled time. The biggest benefit is that it helps prevent you from
filling in your time with displacement activities. Without the discipline of
following your weekly schedule you tend to fill your time with what Stephen
Covey calls urgent but not important tasks. With the weekly schedule you are
more likely to work the important but not necessarily urgent tasks. As a
result, at the end of the week you have accomplished a number of important
tasks that contribute to your objectives whereas without the schedule the week
is filled with the urgent but not important tasks and very little that is
important is accomplished. Think of your weekly schedule as a refrigerator that
keeps your precious time from “melting away”, i.e. being wasted in doing urgent
but not important tasks.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Open Door Policy<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Having an open door policy is
important at all levels of management. For first and second level mangers it
means being open to interruptions by any of the people working under you as
well as your peer managers and superiors. If you are more senior then you need
a gatekeeper that will filter those allowed to interrupt you but you should
allow interruptions by all of your direct reports, your peer level managers and
of course by your superiors. The reason it’s necessary is that if you don’t
maintain an open door you are not likely to hear all of the information you
need. You are at the mercy of the “chosen ones” who are allowed to interrupt,
thereby filtering what you hear. (I’ll address how to use vertical staff
meetings to obtain unfiltered information from levels below your direct reports
in the lecture on meetings.) Having an open door means that you will be
interrupted with trivial matters from time to time. Accept these time wasters
gracefully as the price for maintaining good communications and good relations
with others in the enterprise. If someone abuses your open door, i.e. takes
your time to discuss non work related items; then say you have a deadline and
suggest continuing the discussion over lunch or after work. <o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Make Sure You Are Effective
With People<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Don’t become a slave to a rigid
schedule. You must accept the reality that there are daily crises that require
your attention. That is why you leave unscheduled blocks of time in your
schedule. Attend to the crises when they arise and then go back to your
schedule and use the unscheduled periods to catch up. When you are dealing with
a person make sure the time you spend is effective and spend the time necessary
to be effective. Don’t rush through a conversation so that you can get back to
what you have on your schedule; otherwise you won’t achieve effective communication
and will waste the time spent.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b>Learn to Be Efficient With
Other Tasks<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Learning how to work with a
good secretary or administrative assistant is essential to being an efficient
and effective manager. When I started working there were no personal computers;
secretaries were numerous, available to all and used by all knowledge workers
because the secretaries had the typewriters. By the time workers became
managers they had usually learned how to work effectively with secretaries.
This is no longer true due to the introduction of personal computers, which has
led to fewer and fewer secretaries and less opportunity for workers to learn
how to work with them effectively. I now see vice presidents that haven’t a
clue to how to work effectively with their secretaries and are either too
arrogant or ashamed to ask the secretary or other managers for advice.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
I have had the pleasure of
working with some outstanding secretaries and I know that they at least doubled
my effectiveness. Not all secretaries are good at everything and manager’s
needs vary. For example, in my case I could cope with secretaries that were not
expert at filing, although it was great when they had that skill. The skills I
sought most, and needed most, were the ability to take care of administrative
work independently and to keep in tune with the organization’s grapevine. As a technical person I focused on business
issues and would have missed important personnel issues without having a
secretary that alerted me to people issues that needed my attention. Let me
relate two examples of how a good secretary can improve a manager’s
effectiveness. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
For several years I was general
manager of a company in a small town and it was necessary for me to spend at
least 5% of my time involved in civic activities on top of the demands of
running a difficult business. I was fortunate to have a secretary that was
outstanding at administrative work as well as having good secretarial skills
and being in tune with everything that went on in the company. This was before
email was widespread so there was a lot of paperwork traffic. My secretary
prescreened all paperwork; eliminated junk stuff, handled the easy stuff
herself and came to me for 15 minutes each morning with the small amount that
she couldn’t handle. She came in with everything sorted; some for my signature,
some for questions and some she wasn’t sure what to do with. She summarized
each item, often giving her recommendation or telling me what questions she had
about the item. I only needed to give her quick verbal instructions on most
remaining items. Typically there were only one or two items daily that I had to
handle in detail myself. She saved me more than enough time every day to cover
the civic activities I was involved with. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
At another company managers
were required to send a weekly report up the management chain that was
distilled by senior managers and eventually went to the corporate offices.
Every manager at the division level and below knew these reports were useless
but our pleas to drop the requirement for them were rejected. My solution was
to select a secretary that could write them without my help. In eight years I
didn’t write a single one. I read, edited and signed the reports my secretary
wrote and there was never a problem. This skilled secretary saved me roughly an
hour a week; precious time for a manager.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
I had learned in my first
management job that, although widely used, written weekly reports are a useless
communication tool and therefore I quit spending precious time on them. If I
needed to communicate something to my superiors I did it face to face or during
meetings so that I was sure my concerns were heard and understood. Don’t
require weekly reports from your workers if you have a choice. Walk around and
talk to them to find out what is going on. This takes no more of your time, a
lot less of their time and is more effective for understanding what is really
happening compared to reading sugar coated reports.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
If you are fortunate enough to
have a secretary or access to a secretary please learn how to dictate to them,
if they know shorthand, and to electronic dictation equipment. I have timed my
work and found that it is three times faster to outline and dictate something
than it is for me to write it out or type it. Just as important I can dictate
things while driving to and from work or at home if I think of something I
forgot that is critical for the next day. Today I see many managers doing their
own typing and spending hours at a keyboard. This isn’t fun and it isn’t
effective. Learn how to offload such work to a secretary and it will make you
much more effective. There is a more in depth discussion of the benefits and trade-offs of dictation in the next lecture. Here I want to make the point that
managers must learn how to effectively use secretaries to become more effective
and if they expect their staff to follow their lead. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Many of us need the time
allocated for lunch not only to eat but to wind down from the morning and
regenerate our energy for the afternoon. However, we don’t have to spend every
lunch period unwinding or socializing. Spending a couple of lunch periods a
week on some formal or informal communications tasks is well worth while.
Examples include “all hands” meetings for your organization. Lunch hour is
about the only time you can expect to have your entire organization available
to listen to you or to each other on topics of interest to all. The cost of
providing lunch for the group of workers is a good investment for having their
attention for important communications. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
You can also use lunches to
catch up with what individuals are doing in their jobs. It’s much more
effective to discuss job performance during an informal lunch than it is across
your desk. In informal lunch sessions with subordinates it is easy to focus the
discussion on their tasks, processes associated with their tasks and the system
encompassing the work. Such discussions are more effective in evaluating the
subordinates’ work than a formal review in your office and they certainly are
more pleasant for you and the subordinates. In a formal review both individuals
are tense and guarded so truly open and honest communication rarely takes
place. An exception is formal discipline of an individual, which should always
be discussed in your office or other private setting.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Exercise<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoList2" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Write
down your objectives for your job and your life outside of the job remembering
to include both long and short term job objectives, the physical, mental and
spiritual parts of your life and your relationship with family and friends. You
may want to spend a day or two doing this and if possible do it while on a long
weekend or even on vacation. You can think more objectively about your life
when away from your normal surroundings and work environment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList2" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Think
through plans to achieve the objectives listed under number 1. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList2" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Identify
tasks that you should work on over the next week that will begin to implement
your plans and contribute to achieving your objectives<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList2" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Decide
on a format for a weekly schedule and prepare a schedule for the next seven
days<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList2" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Begin
to follow your weekly schedule starting the next morning when you report to
work.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
Maintain
the discipline of scheduling your time by the week for at least a month and
then evaluate whether it is helping you achieve your objectives. You may find
that your planning works well or you may need to adjust the planning depending
on how well your schedules have worked for you.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-9828759994853182272013-02-05T09:00:00.000-08:002013-02-05T09:00:50.316-08:0018 Matching People to Jobs<span style="text-align: justify;">Matching people to jobs
is the third topic under Developing a World Class Organization. There are four
basic principles to follow in matching people to jobs:</span><br />
<div class="MsoBodyTextIndent" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Decisions about people are the most important decisions
a manager makes<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Workers have a right to competent leaders<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->If a worker does not perform then the manager has made
a mistake; don’t blame the worker<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo2; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Don’t give new people major assignments<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
The reason
that decisions about people are the most important is that the right decisions
lead to happy and productive workers; not just the one that the decision was
about but also the ones that that person interacts with. Putting a person in
the wrong position soon becomes obvious to other workers. Everyone is unhappy
and the boss is blamed. If you put the wrong person in a subordinate management
position then that manager’s entire group will suffer and blame both you and
the subordinate manager. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Sometimes the
right person just isn’t available for a management position and you will be
forced to install an acting manager that isn’t wholly prepared for the job by
experience and training. It then becomes your responsibility to make it clear
to the group that the acting manager has agreed to help you by filling in until
you can recruit a permanent manager. Ask the group to help both you and the
acting manager during this period. People will tolerate less than ideal
situations if the reasons are made clear to them and if they are asked to help.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
You must be prepared to help
the acting manager with difficult problems and you must make it clear to the
acting manager what his or her position will be when the permanent person is in
place. If possible there should be some reward for the acting manager stepping
up. Often an acting manager blossoms with the opportunity and demonstrates that
they do have what it takes to manage the group. Basically, the rule here is
being as fair as possible to the group and the acting manager but not accepting
a less than fully qualified person for the permanent position.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
An important consideration in
matching a person to a job is thinking about what success in that job means to
the person. Let me give a specific example that I have seen done well and
poorly. There are times in competitive enterprises when it becomes necessary to
assign a person or persons to gathering information about competitors. The
obvious candidates are personnel in the sales or marketing department. Giving
the job to senior personnel almost ensures that a poor job will be done. Giving
the job to junior personnel has a much higher probability of success. How can
that be you ask? The reason is that the
primary job of the senior people is maintaining and, if possible, growing
sales. This is what they do and what they get rewarded for. If sales fall then
it is the senior people that are likely to be blamed and they will get little
recognition for doing a good job of researching the competition. They
understand this and therefore don’t put much effort into researching the
completion. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
On the other hand junior
personal aren’t expected to make major sales and are more likely to be
recognized if they do a good job of researching the completion. I witnessed a
situation where a naïve vice president assigned the researching competition
task to his senior people and they completely ignored the task. This is clearly
a case illustrating the third principle listed above. I also witnessed a
situation in which a company president gave the same task to two young and
inexperienced marketing personnel. They took the assignment seriously and
gathered an amazing amount of critical information on a key competitor for a
major contract; contributing significantly to our company’s winning the
contract.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Defining assignments for new
personnel is especially challenging. You feel obligated to give them an
assignment that fits their background, your needs and is going to be viewed
positively by the new employee. This can lead to giving new people with
experience major assignments to start with. This is a mistake. The new person
isn’t familiar with your organization. They don’t know who to go to in order to
get things done or even find information. They become frustrated and take far
too long to complete the assignment. New people with experience need a
transition job that enables them to learn the new organization and new culture.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Organization charts alone never
define completely how work gets done in an enterprise. There is always a system
within the system. In well managed
enterprises the difference between the written down system and the actual
system is small. In poorly managed or large and highly bureaucratic enterprises
there can be a big difference so that it can take some time to learn how to get
things done. This is the reason many large enterprises place experienced new
hires in staff positions for a year or two. This practice is wise for people
intended for leadership positions. Transition assignments typically aren’t as
critical for individual contributors even if they are highly experienced. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
With the above as guidelines
let’s walk through the task of filling a vacant job. First, think through the
assignment to identify the skills, personality and experience needed. Positions
change with time and require different skills at different times. There are
many things to consider including the characteristics of co-workers, what
skills are required, what constitutes success and failure for the job and how
critical success is to the organization.
Also consider the degree of innovativeness the job requires. Fixing
problems with products/services that are in development has different
requirements from fixing problems with mature products/services. Out of the box
innovativeness is desirable for problems with products/services in development
and highly constrained innovativeness is required for problems with mature
products/services. Most people are innovative but they are innovative in
different ways. Some personality types are divergent innovators and fit the
needs for an out of the box innovator. Others are convergent innovators and
function well solving problems without disrupting a mature system.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Second, consider a number of
candidates potentially having the skills, personality and experience you have
identified as necessary for the job; at least three candidates if possible. Focus
on the strengths of candidates. Match strengths to requirements and forget
weaknesses; we all have them (except where a weakness rules a candidate out).
This is critically important. It is essential to focus on all of your staff
member’s strengths rather than their weaknesses. Tom Rath says on page 12 of
his book <i>Strengths Finder 2.0</i>, that
the Gallup organization’s research shows that:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: 2.5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -2.5in;">
“If your manager primarily: The
chances of your being actively disengaged are:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
Ignores you 40%<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
Focuses on
your weaknesses 22%<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
Focuses on
your strengths 1%”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
He also says that workers that
are not using their strengths in their job are six times less likely to be
engaged in their job. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
If you are not sure of your own
or your worker’s strengths and weakness I strongly recommend that you use an
assessment tool like Myers-Briggs or Strengths Finder. Googling Myers-Briggs
provides a number of sources for personality assessment and www.strengthsfinder.com
provides an alternative to Myers-Briggs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Discuss the candidates with
people who have worked with them to validate your perception of the candidates
fit to the requirements and to identify considerations you have missed. Discuss
the job with the candidates to ensure they are interested and their reactions
fit your expectations. It’s usually a good idea to ask the candidates how they
will approach the new job if selected.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Third, make your decision and
make sure the selected person understands the new assignment. (E.g. check that
the selected person isn’t redoing the job held prior to the new assignment.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Finally, be prepared for your
choice to fail. Remember, if this happens it’s your fault not the candidate’s
fault. If two people fail in a row, change the job. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
(See p128 of <i>The Essential Drucker </i>by<i> </i>Peter Drucker, for further discussion of matching people to jobs.)<span style="color: red;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Exercise<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Recall the last job assignment you made. Think through
the steps you took. Did you take the time to think through the needs of the
assignment? Did you consider at least three candidates? Did you discuss these
candidates with others to check your perceptions? Did you fully explain the new
assignment to the selected candidate? Did you monitor the work to ensure the
selectee stayed on track? If you are
following these steps you are being effective at matching people to jobs. If
not then consider if you need to modify your action plan or just your approach
to matching people to jobs.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Think about the candidates you have in mind for succeeding
you. Did anything you learned in this lecture apply to preparing the candidates
for your job? Do you need to adjust your mentoring plan for the candidates?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-23836111694406445462013-01-29T15:34:00.000-08:002013-01-29T15:34:28.894-08:0017 Developing a World Class Organization<span style="text-align: justify;">Today many
organizations operate in a global environment and must be world class to
survive. Even if your organization doesn't operate in a global environment it
should have a goal of being world class for the benefit of its stakeholders.
The topics to be discussed for developing a world class organization include:</span><br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Recruiting to build strengths<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Achieving low staff turnover <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Developing your successor<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Matching people to jobs<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Managing the manager’s time and helping the workers
manage their time<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
The first
three topics are included in this lecture and the third and fourth topics are
covered in Lectures 18 -20. <o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Recruiting to build
strengths and Achieving Low Staff Turnover<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Your recruiting objectives
should be:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo3; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->To “raise the batting average” of the organization<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: 1.0in; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo3; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->To achieve low staff turnover<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Your
organization deserves a “raise the batting average” objective. (Here the term
“batting average” refers to the average capability of the organization so that
to raise the batting average means hiring someone with skills and/or experience
that exceed the average of the organization.) It leads to a more successful
organization and thereby supports all stakeholders. People like working with
highly capable people so such people are generally welcomed into the
organization, which helps satisfy the new worker’s need for belonginess. People
are inspired and often mentored by highly capable people so that highly capable
people help lift performance beyond just their own contribution. If everyone is
treated fairly and there is a sound career development process there should be
few ego problems or career concerns over bringing in people that raise the
batting average. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
I believe
building a world class organization by recruiting exceptional people that
strengthen the organization is a superior approach to Jack Welch’s approach of
firing those whose performance lowers the batting average of the organization.
(Jack Welch, the former CEO of General Electric required his senior managers to
get rid of the bottom 10% of their subordinate managers each year.)This is
because Welch’s approach promotes competition to survive, which inhibits
teamwork and diverts worker’s attention from their job to their survival. This
results in a fear environment, which appears to have high performance, but
actually has lower performance than the organization is capable of if fear is
removed and replaced with an environment of cooperation and commitment.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Let’s now
look at why achieving low turnover is important. Let’s take a very conservative
example of an organization where the average wage is $25 per hour. The
recruiting and orientation training costs for a knowledge worker is typically
about equal to one year’s salary. Figure 6 shows the costs for typical turnover
rates as a function of the organization size assuming the cost of replacing a
worker is equal to one year’s salary.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLOXkNCkxhg5xxCNOSASug-Lb43r2zhd60244hJXOTGyvXIcuerNcXo-Xk2n2na26UTK7A2V_xlJK6cm6_B1lUj-jkBFs38JM9MUPxLwoyY1lUhz-JZrhbT5wkf3RXPghx_NQHWF1kuQ4/s1600/Figure+6.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLOXkNCkxhg5xxCNOSASug-Lb43r2zhd60244hJXOTGyvXIcuerNcXo-Xk2n2na26UTK7A2V_xlJK6cm6_B1lUj-jkBFs38JM9MUPxLwoyY1lUhz-JZrhbT5wkf3RXPghx_NQHWF1kuQ4/s400/Figure+6.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Figure 6 Annual turnover cost
for organizations with turnover rates of 2, 4, or 6%.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The difference between a
turnover rate of 2% and 4% for an organization of 100 people is $90,000 per
year. That difference is equal to spending $900 per person on training or new
software each year. This example is conservative because it ignores the hidden
costs related to disruption of work, the diversion of manager’s attention from
other critical activities and the diversion of workers attention associated
with people leaving and new people being assimilated. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
An effective leader has a goal
of maintaining turnover close to the limit imposed by retirement, promotions
out of the organization and the occasional need to replace a bad worker. This
limit is usually between 1 and 2 % and it can be achieved if the managers are
truly effective as defined in this course. Turnover rate is also dependent on
effective recruiting. A low rate cannot be achieved if an organization is
growing and the recruiting process doesn’t add workers that match needs and
stay with the organization for the long term 80% of the time or more.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
The recruiting process is
dependent upon the style of the manager and the culture of the enterprise so I
cannot claim to describe the only correct way to recruit. I can however
describe a recruiting process that has proven to work and to support low
turnover in organizations I have managed.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Example of Effective Recruiting Process<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoListBullet" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Discuss
open positions thoroughly with human resources so that they can determine if
normal job applicants are likely to fill needs, or if new ads are needed, or if
help from professional staffing organizations (headhunters) is required<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Manager
must prescreen resumes provided by human resources to identify high potential
candidates <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Manager
or designee should prescreen high potential candidates via phone calls before
they are brought in for an interview<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo4; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Does candidate understand job opening and local area?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo4; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Does the manager receive positive “vibes” from the
conversation?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo4; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Will candidate likely accept if ultimately given offer?
(e.g Can the candidate relocate if necessary or does a divorce decree prevent
relocation?)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->After
human resources meets the candidate begin the in-house interview with a group
interview to cover common questions- this should take 45 - 60 min and involve
all workers and managers scheduled to interview the candidate.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo4; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Responsible manager defines the open job for the
candidate and the group so that everyone understands what is expected of the
candidate<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo4; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Candidate answers general questions about education,
experience, etc. so that these questions are ask and answered only once and
everyone hears the same answers<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Individual
meetings with at least four managers and likely coworkers<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo4; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Typically 45 - 60 minutes each<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Lunch
offsite with two or three senior people<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo4; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->This is critical as it often leads the candidate to
reveal information that would never be provided in formal interviews<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Hold
a group discussion at end of day with all the interviewers to discuss what each
has learned in the private interview and make an offer/no offer decision<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo4; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Reach consensus or don’t hire<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: .75in; mso-list: l3 level2 lfo4; tab-stops: list .75in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->The senior manager must be responsible for preventing
the group from only hiring clones of themselves. Diversity of many types is
necessary and the group will accept diversity if it is discussed and a
consensus is reached <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Human
resources verifies resume (e.g. Claimed education and former employers) and
references, works with the manager to determine an appropriate salary and makes
formal job offer or informs candidate of rejection<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
My experience
indicates that the group meetings at the beginning and after the interview and
the offsite lunch are critical for the reasons explained in the description
above. It is also essential that the interviewers not be working in a fear
environment. Otherwise they may provide the feedback they think the manager
wants rather than being objective and speaking up when they disagree with the
manager or each other.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
The need for diversity needs further
explanation. Here diversity means diversity in thinking and working style as
well as diversity of race, gender and national origin. In general,
organizations of people that have similar cultural behavior work smoothly but
if there is no one to offer different views then the organization tends to be
restricted in thinking. Such an organization of cultural clones isn’t as
effective as an organization having a few members that provide alternative views
that are outside the bounds of the homogeneous culture. Hiring people whose
thinking and working style deviate from that of the rest of the organization is
always a risk. The wrong person can create dissention and some people just
won’t be happy being in a culture different from their own. The objective is to
find a few people that are able to work well with the group and yet offer views
divergent from the group’s usual thinking.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
A key element in recruiting the very best people
over the long term is to develop a network of people that are always on the
lookout for exceptionally capable young people. The network typically includes
people in the organization with a wide circle of friends and associates in
other organizations, consultants (particularly university professors),
customers, suppliers and others that have the opportunity to interact with
young people having the skills needed by your organization. Developing and
tending such a network takes time but the payoff is finding the exceptional
young people that can lift your organization’s performance to world class
levels almost by themselves. Once you have attracted a few exceptional people
and provided them a positive environment for their work they attract other
exceptional people. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
You must be well on your way to developing a
highly effective organization in order for people in your skills identification
network to feel comfortable in recommending exceptional people to you and for
you to be able to recruit such people. If your organization doesn’t have a good
reputation then it is difficult to recruit top talent until you have fixed many
of the organization’s problems. You can still attract top people by being
honest with them, convincing them you have a plan to fix the problems and
giving them an incentive to be part of your plan. Don’t settle for less skilled
people because your organization has problems; work harder to attract top
people that become part of the solution.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
<b>Developing
your successor<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-left: 0in; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Demonstrating effective leadership of a
successful organization is one ingredient in preparing yourself for promotion
to more responsible positions. Another is having an obvious successor so that
your current organization can continue to be successful if you move on. An
effective leader is proactive and prepares a successor so that it is apparent
to others that the candidate is ready. A way to accomplish this is to give the
candidate leadership tasks once you are convinced they are ready and can
succeed in leadership tasks.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
You can develop a successor via recruiting,
mentoring or the natural maturation of one of your subordinates. The path isn’t
important unless the culture of your enterprise favors one path over another,
e.g. some cultures prefer to promote only from within. If your enterprises has
such a culture and you recruit your successor you must be prepared to mentor
this person for the time it takes for the new person to be considered eligible
for promotion.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
The most important advice I can give from my
experience is to make sure the person you pick is as capable of managing your
organization as you, or preferably more capable than you. Giving your candidate
leadership tasks enable you and others to evaluate the candidate’s capabilities
and readiness for promotion. If the candidate fails to meet your expectations
in two or more such assignments then review both the assignments and your
assessment of the candidate’s capabilities. If the assignments were reasonable
and if you decide the candidate was as well prepared as he or she is likely to
be then you must pick a new candidate and prepare them. Do not compromise in
hopes that the candidate will grow into the job after promotion. Whereas that
might happen you shouldn’t count on it. Remember that the failure was failure
of your judgment so do not punish the candidate.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Exercise<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoList2" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Without
looking forward, write a list of what is necessary for achieving a low turnover
rate besides an effective recruiting process.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList2" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Develop
a mathematical model to define the time required to recruit a new employee in
your group. Your model should include time for deciding a new employee is
needed, preparing, submitting and defending a requisition to hire, discussions
with the Human Resources people before they begin collecting resumes, screening
resumes, phone interviews, on site interviews, post offer discussion with the
candidate and orienting the new hire once on board. Assume percentages for
resume screening, other screening steps and offer acceptance rates appropriate
with your experience.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList2" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Assume
an organization of 100 people and a growth rate of 15%. Run your model to
determine how much time is required of top managers to grow their organizations
by 15% per year.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoList2" style="mso-list: l4 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list .5in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Review
your staff for candidates to succeed you. If one, or hopefully more than one,
is available then begin to develop a mentoring plan to prepare the candidate(s)
for your job. If none are available then look for the opportunity to recruit a
candidate.<o:p></o:p></div>
<h4 style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-size: 14.0pt;">Discussion of Exercises<o:p></o:p></span></h4>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
If your experience with the
time it takes to be effective at the various steps in recruiting is similar to
mine you will have learned from exercises 2 and 3 that growing an organization
effectively takes a surprising amount of time. Inexperienced mangers often fail
to allocate enough time for recruiting and end up chronically understaffed for
much longer than necessary. In addition such failure can lead to an
organization not achieving the growth it could because there simply isn’t
enough staff to execute the work. If you have subordinate managers you must
make sure they are spending the time necessary for effective recruiting if your
organization is growing. Most mangers don’t like recruiting as well as their
other work and their other work always seems more time critical so they tend to
put off recruiting. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Your model also likely predicts
that there is a limit to the growth rate that can be accomplished and still
have time to execute other required work. Watch what happens when a new hot
shot CEO announces that his or her enterprise is going to double in three to
five years. Often such a strategy causes the enterprise to implode. There
simply isn’t enough time for the employees to win new business, execute the
high quality work that enables growth and develop the staff fast enough to
handle work well. (Exceptions occur in business areas that are very new and
therefore can tolerate growth problems better than a highly competitive
established business.)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
Your answer to exercise 1
should have included such statements as:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalIndent" style="text-align: justify;">
Satisfy Maslow needs<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalIndent" style="text-align: justify;">
Fair salaries, Security,
Fair treatment, Help belong to team<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalIndent" style="text-align: justify;">
Opportunity for self-esteem
and self-actualization<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormalIndent" style="text-align: justify;">
Career development that is
constructive and meaningful<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Managers that “removes
rocks from path” so workers can do their jobs (“Rocks” include poor processes, defective
equipment and oppressive policies and procedures)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Low Fear environment<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyTextFirstIndent" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0in;">
Effective Time management; e.g. no long, non-productive
meetings<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="text-align: justify;">
If so, you successfully
understand this part of the training.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<o:p> </o:p> </div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3683743502016050341.post-86206099359462947322013-01-24T12:10:00.002-08:002013-01-24T12:10:31.982-08:00Review of Lectures 11-16<br />
We observed
three lessons from the discussion of the “lost on the moon” exercise in lecture
11:<br />
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 39.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Teamwork in more effective than individual
efforts in solving complex problems. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 39.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->Effective teamwork doesn't just happen by
assigning people to a team. It’s important that they are trained or mentored in
how to work together in a way that utilizes the best knowledge and skills of
each team member. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 39.0pt; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo4; tab-stops: list 39.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt;">
</span></span><!--[endif]-->People must be in job assignments that match
their styles. Not every worker does well on a team; some are best as individual
contributors.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
There were
two messages in our brief review of Stephan Covey’s teachings on habit 5 from
the <i>The 7 Habits of Highly Successful
People</i> in lecture 12. We learned that if we expect people to listen to our
logical arguments we must first establish our credibility with them, and
second, we must listen empathically to them until they are convinced we
understand their concerns and problems. Only if they are provided evidence that
we are someone they should listen to and only if they believe we understand
their situation will they listen effectively to us. The hardest part for most
people is listening empathically. Effective managers must learn this habit and
use it with their workers, their bosses and the customers for their work.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;">
Lectures
13-16 addressed fear in the workplace. Key points included:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Fear of perceived consequences (real or not) causes
workers to avoid proper actions and substitute inappropriate or ineffective
actions.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Managers induce fear by negativity, disloyalty to their
boss or to the enterprise and excessive emphasis on numerical goals.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Oppressive policies and procedures written in attempts
to control the behavior of the 5% of workers that cause problems are
counterproductive. They cause fear and distrust in the many good workers and
don’t deter the few problem workers.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->A poor business environment can induce fear; counter
this fear with openness and honesty.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Blaming people for problems caused by the system
induces fear<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet3" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: 1.0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-list: l2 level2 lfo3; tab-stops: list 1.0in; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->–<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Remember the 85/15 rule. Problems are caused by
the system 85% of the time and by people only 15% of the time.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Managers that focus on fixing the system and seeking
help from workers without expressing negativity build trust and reduce fear.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Energy spent on issues you can influence is positive
and grows your circle of influence. Energy spent on issues you can’t influence
is negative and shrinks your circle of influence.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Fear of change and of knowledge are inherent fears.
Managers have to deal with both and must learn to help workers overcome fear of
change.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->•<span style="font-size: 7pt;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Cultural change requires patience, persistence and
typically training time of about 10% of the total annual hours worked by the
organization.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Exercise<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoBodyText" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">
You last reviewed and modified your action plan at the end of Lecture
13. Review your plan after studying the review of lectures 13- 16. Are there
changes or additions you should make based on what you have learned in lectures
14 - 16? If so, make the changes now.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>If you find that the pace of blog posts
isn’t compatible with the pace you would
like to maintain in studying this material you can buy the book </i><b>“The Manager’s Guide for Effective
Leadership”</b><i> at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney%20"><i>http://www.amazon.com/Managers-Guide-Effective-Leadership-Organizations/dp/1449000673/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1346946310&sr=8-2&keywords=Joe+Jenney</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or for nook at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book%20"><i>http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/Joe-Jenney?keyword=Joe+Jenney&store=book</i></a><i> <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<i>or hard copy or E-book at:<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<a href="http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx"><i>http://bookstore.authorhouse.com/Products/SKU-000269270/The-Managers-Guide-for-Effective-Leadership.aspx</i></a><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoListBullet2" style="mso-list: none; tab-stops: .5in; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Joe Jenneyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11566600363536588381noreply@blogger.com0