There are methods to deal with the activation energy of big projects. You can lower the activation energy by listening to good music while working, putting yourself in a good environment, and cleaning your calendar of obligations. You can conserve energy to apply to the project by doing this work first or when your energy…
Category: Miscellaneous
Activation Energy of Work
Tasks have an activation energy. The amount of energy that must be expended to start the task. Checking email has a low activation energy and developing a project plan has a higher activation energy.
Why Are Projects Hard?
Sometimes projects are hard because they are big. Sometimes projects are hard because checking email and completing your to-do list is easier.
You Need a Department Handbook: Make Your Job Easier
An independent business operates differently than you do as an employee or as your department does in a larger organization. Though there are some aspects of an independent business we should copy. One of those aspects is a department handbook. A department handbook can capture the standards you want to set for your team and…
Reduce Employee Stress and Get More Done: The Case for Replacing Email With a Ticketing System
What would happen if your IT department removed the ticketing system they use to manage requests and let the individual IT employees determine their priorities? This would be based on a mix of the authority of the requestor, the stated urgency, the preference to do the task, the time it came to their attention, the…
Mastering Responsiveness: The Art of Building Trust and Maximizing Impact
When we are new to a role and trying to build our team members’ trust, we need to be responsive. We need to prove that we can manage everything given to us. Though over time we need to reduce the responsiveness to allow us to complete impactful work. Your manager and team members don’t expect…
Redefining Work: The Value of Thinking in Problem Solving and Innovation
“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you different.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, A Man Without a Country You want to be known for solving hard problems not only executing tasks. Much of this work will occur solely in your head and no tangible artifact will be…
What Does My Manager Do All Day? A Candid Look into the World of Managerial Responsibilities
Whenever someone asks me what I am doing I always want to say “I’m doing manager sh#t” Periodically individuals ask me what I do as a manager because they are trying to determine if they want to become a manager (or wondering why I am in meetings all of the time). I always struggle with…
Three Primary Skills Employees Need to Develop
I have been a first-level manager for a few years now and I have identified a handful of skills that employees need to develop. The interesting thing is that employees are aware of their shortcomings in these skills but leadership has never made it a priority to develop these skills. Communicating project status. It…
Exploring the Concept of Pseudo PhDs and Building Expertise in the Work World
One of the reasons we work is for personal development. I like to ask the question “How many years of experience does it take to equal the output in a company of an engineer” due to my frustration that some individuals without engineering degrees produce the same or more as engineers. Outside of my frustration,…
Knowledge-Work Processes Should Flow Like Water
The first step in improving a knowledge-work manufacturing process is defining the workflow. I have always understood that the steps and order of a process had to be defined, but I did not fully grasp the concept of flow (I have never been the smartest tool in the shed). Recently I read an article that…
Unveiling the Hidden Wastes in Knowledge Work: A Lean Approach to Task Management
In knowledge work, tasks are given to us without consideration of the priorities we already have. Anything that is our responsibility (even remotely) can be given to us to complete (a push system vs a pull system). If we were manufacturing widgets there would be a big pile of them next to us that we…
Managing Conflicting Goals in Challenging Work Environments
The employee’s goals at my company stay pretty constant. However, there is a temporary situation where the team members have to take a significant amount of additional training for a few months which hinders their ability to meet all of their standard goals and this frustrates them. In many cases, they are put in a…
You Will Always Have More to do Than Time to do It
This post is a message to myself that hopefully, you can use. I am off from work for the holiday and every day I have the urge to check my email or do some work “get caught up”. Over my career, this pull has become more pronounced, especially since became a manager. The problem is…
Navigating the Popcorn Effect: Strategies for Smoothing Out Prioritization Chaos in Knowledge Work
In knowledge work, following a defined process can sometimes be frustrating and feel slow but most often it is best for the business and best for your stress level. A counter-example to this is when a project is moved up in priority and everybody must shift their focus to the new priority and “hand carry”…
All Deadlines are Made Up
Today’s post is going to be short. I have been trying to collect my thoughts on why we tend to look for workarounds rather than use defined processes and I am struggling to collect my thoughts. Hopefully next week I will have it figured out. Here is something for you to think about in the…
Beyond the Assembly Line: Applying the Andon Concept to Knowledge Work for Increased Efficiency and Quality
This post is more of a thought experiment. In manufacturing on an assembly line, there is something called an andon cord. It is a method (sometimes a cord hanging above each workstation) to stop the assembly line when an operator on the line is not able to complete their task before the assembly passes them.…
Empowering the Workforce: Navigating the Final Step of Lean Implementation for Continuous Improvement in Knowledge Work
This is the last post defining the four-step process to implement Lean manufacturing principles in knowledge work. The previous posts were defining the workflow, defining the connections, then defining the work of one. The last step is continuous improvement. Continuous improvement can only come from a place of stability or a defined standard. For instance,…
Streamlining Knowledge Work: Simplifying Tasks for a Less Daunting and More Fulfilling Workday
Implementing Lean principles in knowledge work is a 4 step process. The first step is to define the workflow, the second step is to clarify the connections between the people, and the third step is to define the work of the individual, which I will talk about today. The fourth step is continuous improvement. Improving…
Optimizing Knowledge Work: Streamlining Connections through Lean Principles
Continuing on from last week’s post, once you have all of the key processes identified and flow defined, the next step in implementing Lean manufacturing principles in knowledge work is to analyze the connections between people. The individual providing the product is the supplier and the one receiving the product is the customer. These connections…