A FEW THOUGHTS

Archive for the ‘Read and Learn’ Category

I am really happy that I today finally got around to registering as a Kiva lender. Kiva.org is an organization that organizes micro-loans to people with entrepreneurship around the world in need for some business capital to start or continue their business. The business plan and credit is checked by local representatives, and as part of Kiva you make a contribution together with other “lenders” (everything from $25 and up) to the people/business idea of your choice. The payment is through PayPal and you will get the money back as described in the payment plan for that loan. There are certain countries that through local regulations, currency issues or local conditions cause more risk than other places, but all together I am very impressed with the statistics Kiva can show to. For now I have started with a small amount spread on four different projects. If that goes as planned I am prepared to increase the contribution.

The website SmashingShare just came out with a great list.. Don’t you just love lists ? It’s like it makes the life so much easier for all the rest of us. It is already put in order and categorised.. Alright, anyway .. the list this time, which I though was quite cool was the “10 Mistakes You Don’t Want to Make As a Freelancer” ! And I will be the first to admit I have done some. Maybe I have done them all, but they are really true, and if someone can learn from this – then cool !

I have to share this one with you… Wear your seatbelt!
(first seen at Thomas Moen )

Both for those of us who enjoy and charish the possibility of being alone – without being lonely – and for those of you who just doesn’t get it yet; Collette Bernhardt  recently wrote a post for Matadorlife on “Being With Yourself: Lessons in Lone Ranging“.

I will also recommend, by Michaela Lola the “6 Reasons to Wander Alone” at “BraveNewTraveler” describing some of the joys of being on the road alone.

Together with a client (large international corporation) I recently attended a workshop looking at, and discussing, cross-culture elements and awareness. I found the workshop to be very interesting and giving, so I figured I’ll try to give a brief recap of it here.

Culture is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes the members of one category of people from another

Geert Hofstede

What is Culture? Culture is a shared system of attitudes, values and beliefs. First of all I found it interesting to discuss all the elements that, when brought together, constitutes to what we call culture, and identify all the different types of culture we have:

• National & regional culture
• Corporate culture
• Professional culture
• Gender and age
• Religion

And within these you have different dimensions; direct vs indirect cultures, rules vs. relationship oriented cultures, time, hierarchy, individualist vs. collectivist cultures, non verbal communication. All these types of culture we can break down to many elements. Just think of the differences in language, dress code, food, public holidays, way of thinking, beliefs, attitudes and values.  All these elements are important factors that contribute to a diverse community. And for an international company it’s important to both be aware of, respect and take care of the different dimensions in this. Building and preserving a corporate culture can, in my opinion, only be done by respecting each employees personalculture.

Now, working together in a corporation like this does demand that you are able to sort out the different dimensions of this. Escpecially being aware of the non-verbal communication is extremely important. It’s not a secret that working together across boundaries like language, time zones and different tools for communication can cause misunderstandings and discontent . Being aware of this is half of it. The other half is adapting and contributing to adjustments in a positive way.

Imagine that you have a project with project members and stakeholders from United States, Brazil, UK, Germany, Norway, Russia, Malaysia and Japan. Most of the meetings are probably over web or phone, so the project teams are more or less “virtual”. Communication will be only in written or orally and you will seldom see any body language unless you use video conference. It’s quite likely that during your project you will face more than one challenge due to cultural differences and misunderstandings. Just trying to arrange a meeting that works well in each timezone will be a challenge. We also need to think about all the hidden messages in what we say. Some cultures are more direct and some have more hidden expression. Just look at  the possible meanings of these statements:

So being aware of the cultural filter of each other and the fact that when we say something we “encode” it, and the receiver doesn’t necessarily “decode” it the same way, is very important. Another important thing is also to be aware of the pitfalls of stereotyping and generalizing. However, looking at the different ways of decode/encode messages it was interesting looking at the Lewis model which in fact “stereotype” this in National Cultural Profiles. This is a way of looking at the majority of certain countries and how you can expect to experience the different types  of behaviour and leadership.

Looking at these different profiles we can clearly see how one can misunderstand one another as there are so clear differences in how we:

• talk vs. listen
• network through official channels or through connections
• plan in details or in general principles
• show or hide feelings
• do confrontations logically, emotionally or not at all
• handle direct truth vs. diplomacy

Let us remember it doesn’t have to be another country. You can easily find cultural differences, for instance between a project manager and a programmer.  Being a project manager I see some clear benefits of being aware of these issue and try to be open about them when managing cross-cultural teams:

• Bring cross cultural communication up as an issue at a very early stage and let the team be aware of it
• Define basic project team culture and rules
• Make team members curious to learn about the others
• Prepare agenda and do action minutes with deadlines in your meetings
• Limit number of participants and include the “silent” colleagues
• Avoid criticism in public and do not dominate

Cross-Cultural Awareness is a very large topic and not easy to summarize in a workshop, minutes or a blogpost. But it is important for each of us, both in working with other cultures and in our everyday life. So…

• Know yourself
• Be open and curious
• Get to know the other

And by that

• Improve effective communication and cooperation

This morning I read a post by Sacha Chua where she summarizes a  presentation she gave at a webinar for Women in Technology International. Sacha Chua is a great blogger, social networker and, in her own opinion, an introvert. She really made a good start for my day with her seven lessons in being an introvert and how to improve how you connect to others, changing your own perspective to the better and to grow with the challenge. These are good pointers for both self-appointed introverts but also for everyone else that might not fit 100% in the “extrovert” category; meaning you are not comfortable walking up to any stranger to start a conversation. So… recommended reading!

How do you raise performance in your team? How do you raise performance in a project ? How do you increase team spirit? How do you preach the true core values to your co-workers? All different aspects of the same thing, and covered in Guy Kawasakis post  How to Change a Job Title Into a Mission commenting Steve Gary Blanks book The Four Steps to the Epiphany.  The statement is that, for your company or department, to focus on its mission rather than the employees titles you may be able to raise  performance. And I think this is very true!

Having the department and its workers to identify the mission they are on, its intent and the value of the mission you will raise the awareness and the drive for your employees. Installing core values and a sense of crusade you will raise the willingness to contribute. This is something you as a leader and manager should not underestimate, and if you don’t abuse it you can achieve a lot. Here’s what he recommends:

1. Develop a mission for each department. This should summarize “why people come to work, what they need to do, and how they will know they succeeded.” The SuperMac marketing department’s mission became “Help Sales deliver $25 million in sales with a 45% gross margin.”
2. Teach the mission intent. A specific mission such as this is bound to change according to market conditions and product development schedules. Thus, employees must understand that the mission intent—achieve corporate revenue and profit goals—is the “big picture” and even more important.
3. Instill core values. The final step that Steve took was to instill core values of “accountability, execution, honestly, and integrity.” In other words, there would be no surprises and excuses. He only wanted facts and requests for help.

Going through some of the “lessons learned reports” from previous projects I’ve come up with a list of my 11 main lessons from running IT implementation projects. There will certainly be more along the way but these are very important I think;

1. Get involved from the Start
   To take over a project from someone else, or to get involved as PM when the project is already on it’s way is something you need to be aware of. When your company or customer alreay have signed agreements with third parties that will affect your project deliverables you need to go through it and as soon as possible raise a warning if needed. To have the IT department or provider with its PM involved at the earliest stage is important. Maybe just as a consultant just to oversee contracts, but nevertheless important. Both, if the project is run as a delivery within the organisation or as a delivery to an external customer someone from the IT-management or Project Management should before project initiation do an initial validation of the project scope together with a risk assessment and analysis. If possible the customer should be a part of this even if they have done their own assessment.

 

2. Make sure the customer can ask the right questions
   Either if you are confronting a customer in the project, a part of the organisation internally or a partner of some sort it is important that the stakeholders have the right competence to ask the right questions for your type of project. If they don’t it is your job as project manager to alert them or bring it up as an issue for the steering committee.

 

3. Make sure you have your backoffice support available
   If you are doing implementations that are scheduled for a certain period of time to avoid downtime for the users etc, make sure that you have the necessary support teams available during that time – and within the same time zone. It is nothing worse than being stuck with a problem somewhere in “NeverNeverLand” on a Saturday evening during migration-weekend with nobody to ask. So get support-teams, backoffice-teams and make sure you have ways of escalating if necessary.

 

4. Do not assume everything is as usual
   This part has sub-paragraphs actually:
   1. After, for example, a migration-weekend – do not go into the trap of thinking everything will work. It will not! Something has not been tested thoroughly enough and somebody will complain! It’s just the name of the game. Most of it will hopefully work if you and everyone else has done your job right, but there is always something.
   2. For an organisation going through change or a massive project changing routines etc, it is directly ignorant to assume a “business as usual” attitude through the project. Instead steps should be taken making sure you have a chain of command through the project phases and that resources are kept available. In project oriented organisations one should be aware that a change of organisation affects responsibilities and people taking responsibility.

 

5. Do not underestimate the benefits of a steering committee!
   Large projects should automatically have a steering committee. Smaller projects is often left out in the cold.
   Do not underestimate the benefit of a good steering committee where you have representatives from the different stakeholders, customer and project management. If you run into problems, the right committee can move mountains.

 

6. Theory and practice are two very different things!
   Having a good design is not enough. You have to make it work. That is also affected by lesson no 9, having the right people, but first of all you need quality assurance. Before starting anything – go over the design with as many as possible. Not every Tom, Dick, and Harry – but people that know this area. Get the providers to look at the design and make comments too. Better to find flaws before starting than after.

 

7. Every design has an expiration date
   Do not think something that was designed a year ago will work today without going over it for quality inspection again.

 

8. Every OSI layer counts
   Make sure you do not forget any of the OSI layers when designing,  implementing or troubleshooting. It is all connected, no matter what the tech-guys tell you!

 

9. Make sure you have people who know what they are doing
   You need to both make sure you have people onboard the project that know what they are doing, and that the organisation have employees that can operate this in an operation phase. Hired consultants do not count in this matter. The organisation need to have its competence inhouse if they are to operate it themselves.

 

10. Trust yourself, your instincts and be fair.

 

11.  Take learning from this:

Technical Project Meetings, like any meetings I suppose, have a tendency of sometimes getting out of hand both in sense of time and agenda. This can be reduced by some simple tips on how you prepare and how you carry out the meeting. There are also som pitfalls you should be aware of. Let’s start with a few rules on planning and carrying out the meeting:

1. Set Crispy Clear Objectives
   Ever experienced the meeting that took half the day and where you achieved nothing? Yes? Chances are that one of the issues were lack of clear objectives for the meeting. Before calling any meeting, make sure that you have clear objectives that follows the idea of S.M.A.R.T. (S = Specific, M = Measurable, A = Attainable, R = Realistic, T = Timely).
2. Set an Agenda
   Meetings without a clear agenda will take longer than they need to and don’t get the results you need to. Write and distribute the agenda in advance, at least 1 or 2 days before the meeting, not 30 minutes before the scheduled time. Give timings for each item and allow for small delays, otherwise you will get halfway down your agenda by the time you have to leave.
3.  Keep meeting papers short or avoid them
   Receiving a ton of papers is the biggest turn-off for someone attending a project meeting. Consider whether you really need to distribute papers for your meeting, and try to keep papers to a maximum of one page. For status reports, consider giving people a template that include a simple traffic light system to indicate where things are good(green), there are issues (yellow) there are major issues (red).
4. Get the right people in the meeting
   While there usually is a core team you need in the meeting, there might be decisions that require someone more senior occasionally. If you know this, make sure that you get the person who can make the decision along otherwise you will have a frustrated team on your hands. If difficult, try to schedule that persons part of the agenda to the end of the meeting and limit the time.
5. Make sure the environment is comfortable
   Effective meetings only take place if the people attending are comfortable, so get the room with A/C and provide cold water and hot coffee if needed.
6. Start and Finish on time
   I know you hate it when people turn up 15 minutes late when there is 15 minutes left. Make sure it is clear to everyone that you will be starting and finishing on time. Encourage them to leave 30 minutes either side of the meeting free to ensure they can get there on time and that if something major arises it can be dealt with. If that doesn’t work you will have to schedule it in for them.

Now, with those six rules you should be quite well prepared for your meeting and it should be ok. However, as you know, there are always some people who can sink a meeting totally just by being themselves. So there are a couple of stereotypes you should know how to deal with. I am quite sure you recognise them:

• The Dominator
  Some people tend to dominate discussion simply because they are excited. These can actually be useful to the team if we find appropriate approaches manage their positive energy. Unfortunately, most of us are also familiar with the other type – the aggressive bully that disrespect others comments and hijack the meeting completely. Sometimes these dominators are overly negative, and other times they just won’t let anyone else get a word in. In either case, you need to deal with it:
  • Thank them for their feedback and ask for other opinions (“Paul, that’s an interesting idea. Let’s see if others have ideas as well.”)
  • Repeat the dominator’s comment and write it visibly for all to see, then ask for other ideas to complete the list, before you discuss them all. You can say; ”that is a good idea, let us get three more ideas on the table before we discuss them all”. 
  • Suggest you use a round robin technique of going around the table and ask each person to share a comment and start off with the other participants, or ask everybody to use a minute to write down their ideas and then have everybody read it out loud while you write it all down. Then discuss.
  • Make sure you also ask the more quiet people to share their ideas
  • If necessary, take a break and have a word with the dominator where you explain that he/she brought up several key points and you appreciate that because it helps the others on the way, and now you are hoping to get some of the other team members involved in the discussion. Ask them to help you get the team involved.

•  The Multi Tasker
  We are seeing more and more multi taskers in our meetings. You know the ones whose attention constantly darts between the meeting and for example PDA, laptop, reading etc. And usually with the explanation that he can not be away from his work. Otherwise the world falls apart.
  • Using a “drop box” in the meeting room and agreeing to place all phones, etc there prior to meeting start.
  • Limiting meeting time to one hour to ensure participants aren’t away for too long.
  • If you arrange a full day workshop, agree on 5-10 minute technology breaks every hour
  • Use techniques to keep participants engaged (round robin, team work, voting)

• The Rambler
  The rambler derail the meetings with their extensive rambling commentary. Often the rambling goes into areas with little or nothing to do with the agenda, and not only extend the meeting,but also completely alters the agenda – and thereby minimising effectiveness. A couple of pointers:
  • Have a printed agenda on a whiteboard. When conversation goes into wilderness, point to the specific agenda topic to refocus the group.
  • Include timings for each part of the agenda, and ask someone on the team to give a 5-minute warning before the end time for each section.
  • Simply interrupt. Remember, it’s your meeting. Raise your hand and interrupt discussion to ask if the conversation is on topic and helping the group reach their goal for the meeting. You can also introduce a list of these unresolved issues that come up which you address at the end of the meeting and assign action items for each.

At the end of the day, running effective meetings is about planning and executing. And in regard to the team members; too often project managers simply ignore their “personality issues” and instead stick their head in the sand hoping the behaviour will improve on its own. It won’t! The good news is that there are a variety of facilitation techniques you can use, and they enable us to be assertive while preserving those critical relationships. Remember these key points when using the techniques:

• Don’t forget the power of questions. Questioning is a powerful way to deliver a difficult message.
• Try less assertive techniques before progressing to more assertive ones. Many will respond to very mild interventions.
• Act early! You want to send a very clear signal to the team that you will address counter-productive behaviour quickly.
• Act on behalf of the team. The more you remember it’s not a situation of “you” verses “them”, the easier the exchange will be.

I’ll finish this brief lesson off with a quote form the book of Tim Ferriss; “The 4-Hour Workweek”;

It is your job to train those around you to be effective and efficent. No one else will do it for you.

As one of the steps of altering the way I work to be more efficent and productive I have tested the service RescueTime. Basically it is an online service where you will find a dashboard presenting the data from your computer through an agent you download to your computer (Windows, Linux or Mac). The agent gathers data from your computer on what programs you are using, what websites you are visiting and by use of categories (that you can modify) identify how productive or how much work you get done. These data are shown in a great sample of graphs and charts making it real easy to see what pitfalls you easily go into during your day. It also provides a search-function where you can do a search on a single website or program to see how much time you have used on it for a period of time.

The service comes in versions for both individuals, business or schools. For business and schools there is a variety of options you can look deeper into, and it can of course be used for management information as well. For individuals you can choose between a free lite version and a pro version for $5 per month. I tested the free lite version but the pro version will give you deeper tracking, options to block webpages, alerts etc. When starting I recommend that you after a couple of days use go through the categories and tweak the different websites and programs to your use, so it will give you more precise output. The “downside” to this is of course that when using this it is really just all up to you to change your bad habits…