I like to explicitly state the reason we do many things at work. It allows me to determine if the goal is being met and it keeps me from doing things because of momentum. For instance, by defining the goals of a meeting you can then determine if the meeting is meeting that goal. Why…
Category: Miscellaneous
Projects Need Time to Breathe
Recently I was leading a brainstorming session to downselect improvement projects we will take on. There was a lot of discussion and meandering around the related topics. By the end of the meeting, we had only reviewed about a quarter of the projects. When the meeting concluded one of the participants asked if we could…
Are We Rewarding a Behavior We Don’t Want
“Show me the incentive and I’ll show you the outcome,” -Charlie Munger When there is a problem it is great how teams can come together and solve that problem. It is exciting to be part of a team to resolve the crisis and it feels good to receive recognition from senior leadership. In the long…
Halfs and Doubles
When you make a plan for what you want to accomplish today, cut it in half. You can always pull in more tasks if you get it all done. When planning the time it takes to complete a project make your determination then double it. Stop white-knuckling your projects.
Why are we so hurried?
I used to work at a company that supplied engineering services to refineries. One of the engineers told a story comparing a refinery start-up in America to another country where the refinery was on an island. In an American refinery start-up, they would work extra hours to complete the start-up in time but on the…
You Need to Calculate Your Real Hourly Wage
I am intrigued by the FIRE movement where people work to get expenses as low as possible to retire early. I don’t adhere to the practices but some concepts can be borrowed from the movement. When considering changes related to our careers we tend to rely on vague criteria to determine if we should take…
Frustrating Work
The hard part of the job is the job. You were not hired for it to be easy.
Delayed Improvements
When does a delay in an improvement (like a software upgrade) at a company hurt the company?
Crafting the Perfect Email
If you are working to craft the perfect email or text to make sure you cover all of the bases and ensure there is no misunderstanding then you need to make it a phone call or a meeting.
Two Types of Quality Work
There are two types of quality work. The first type is meeting expectations (like no errors). This type is when the outcome is clearly understood. The second type is the type that means going above expectations and always trying to do better. This is applied to pushing your limits in tasks with unclear endpoints. An…
What I Have Learned in Quality
Your Manager Is Not Always Right
Your manager is not always right (that includes me as a manager too). They have good intentions and think they know what is best based on their experience and knowledge but a lot of it is based on their opinion.
Emailing like a Child
When a child wants something they blurt it out. It does not matter what is going on. You could be in the middle of a conversation or asleep. They don’t consider the situation or if what they have to say is important. They are impulsive and lack discipline in their communication. Many of us are…
Artist Version of Activation Evergy
Those of us in the technical world are not the only ones who struggle with activation energy in projects. Artists do too. Steven Pressfield wrote a book called The War of Art. In it, he calls it The Resistance, almost like an anti-muse. Artists are trying to make a career of the big projects but…
Overcoming the Activation Energy
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…
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…