How do you make
sure your projects complete on time? When you set a deadline, you are
supposed communicate it to everyone, right? Then, presumably,the entire
team will work towards that date, vendor and client alike, to make it
happen.
That is usually
what happens on most projects - you may be a little late on some target
dates, a little early on others, but generally all of you are working
towards the same dates, and hopefully the same priorities.
But what about when it doesn't work out, and deadlines are missed repeatedly?
Certainly you can
apply contract penalties to a vendor, but that does not always help to
achieve the desired effect of getting finished on time.
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What do you do if
it seems like part of your own team is disregarding your schedule? What
if they seem to have a different sense of timing altogether, no matter
how clearly you communicate the priorities and schedule?
This can be
particularly problematic as you near the end of the project, when there
is still a lot left to get wrapped up. People may be getting tired and
losing focus - but you need to keep them delivering, right to the end.
Tempers may
flare,
relationships can suffer, and you can end up with an even bigger mess on
your hands if you are not careful, with little to show for your project
as you near that all-important deadline. All the while, the
clock is still ticking.
A family friend was plagued with this problem for many years - until he figured out the secret.
He not only found out a way to keep a very important
chronologically-challenged team member/stakeholder happy, but he also
managed to bring things back on schedule, time and time again.
So how did he do it?
Listen to the podcast or read the full article on Gazza's Corner Blog.
The Cost of Change
We have all heard about how the
cost of change increases exponentially the further you are along the
path of project delivery. If the unit of effort is, say, (1) at
requirements stage to accommodate a feature change, in design it
increases to (10x), in development
it increases to (100x) and once delivered it may increase again to
(1000x) or more. Or perhaps a different scale applies to your project,
but you get the idea.
The same rules apply when you are doing construction, when scope becomes
set in stone - or at least in concrete. Changes are easiest when you
are still talking with the architect and drawing up the first set of
plans on a napkin, but after they have been formally submitted for
review and approved by Council, it gets more complicated and costly. Any
changes to the approved plans require rework by the architect, then a
review by another dozen or so eyes, and when that is done, it needs to
get re-approved by the city planning department. Oh, and to top it all
off, yet another cheque written out to the builder to pay for the change
in scope.
Listen to the podcast or read the full article on Gazza's Corner Blog.
A few years ago I went on a fly-fishing trip with a group of work colleagues. I was working on a project in New Zealand, and we were going to be staying in an old company-owned holiday "bach" just outside of Taupo. You could book these properties for a weekend and pay a small fee. A basic type of unit - furnished with several beds, kitchen, TV, tables, chairs and couple sofas - nothing too fancy.
We unpacked our gear, loaded up the fridge and headed back outside for fly-fishing lessons. My first ever lesson - and apparently you need to learn how to do it while on dry land (without a hook) just to get used to the back-and-forth action before you try it standing hip-deep in a river. Perhaps to make sure you didn't fall over while casting - or hook anyone around you.
After about an hour of practicing casting, it was getting dark and our arms were getting tired, so we headed back in to get dinner ready and settle in for the evening. One of the guys was frying up dinner while the rest of us chatted and watched the little black-and-white TV. I was just walking back into the living room with a fresh beer when the lights went out.
"Who turned off the lights?" I asked.
"There's some coins on top of the fridge," one of the locals called out from the sofa.
"What?"
"Coins on top of the fridge. Put some in the slot."
"What slot?"
He sighed and got up. "In the meter."
He walked over to the fridge and picked up three coins. He popped them into a box on the wall, one by one. The lights suddenly came back on. "That should do for an hour. We pay for power when we use the bach - it's one reason it is so cheap to stay here."
I studied the pile of coins on top of the fridge. It was perhaps my first experience of "user pays" - in this case, quite literally with a pocket full of change.
I was experiencing a sudden and strange shift in expectation - electricity is just supposed to be "on", right?
Listen to the podcast or read the full article on Gazza's Corner Blog.
You know the drill - anyone
who has ever flown on a commercial airline has heard this announcement
from the flight attendant, usually followed by a safety briefing video
and a demonstration by the crew.
Most of us briefly look up,
see the flight attendant standing there, snug our seat-belt, glance up
above our heads, and resume reading - or listening to music, whatever.
Most of us ignore the actual briefing if we have flown more than a few
times. Even the comment "you may have flown before, but this aircraft
may be different than what you are used to, so please follow along with
this safety briefing" is unlikely to gain more than a few curious
glances. If the safety message is only a video, there may be even fewer
people paying attention.
We
have become so used to distractions and the constant babble of noise
around us in our daily lives, we learn to tune it out - and that can
sometimes be a good thing. But how do you get - and hold - someone's
attention, particularly if the message you have to share is really
important?
On aircraft, different
techniques have been used over the years to try to gain - and hold -
your attention when announcements are made, with varying degrees of
success. Humorous flight attendants are popular, but what about the
safety videos?
Some of the most effective have been produced by Air New Zealand,
who developed a series of safety videos that actually get you watching -
and engaged. They also change the videos regularly, so you are also
less likely to be "ho-hum" when you get settled in for your flight.
Passengers now look forward to the safety videos - imagine that! Nude flight attendants with paint-on uniforms, anyone? You can be sure everybody paid attention to that safety video!
"That's nice for the airlines", you say. "But
how can we get - and keep - someone's attention?"
One tactic is to hook them with the unexpected - and then engage them in the message, and keep them interested until you are finished.
The Unexpected
****BANG!****
Well,
perhaps it is not a great idea to literally start with a bang
(especially on an airplane), but you need to do something to begin to
hook their attention away from their smartphones at the beginning of
your message or presentation. Something out of the ordinary can work
quite well, if you don't overdo it.
Many
years ago,well before the clever Air NZ videos, I was on an aircraft
that most definitely held my undivided - and disconcerted - attention.
Listen to the podcast or read the full article on Gazza's Corner Blog.
Let me ask you an important question:
Have you Exploited your Project Team Today?
Wait a minute, Exploit your Project Team? You are probably thinking - He can't be serious. That's a horrible, evil thing to do, right?
You
probably also have visions of unfair wages, an evil boss, overworked
and under-appreciated staff, things like that. Unfortunately, that does
happen - but it is not what I am talking about.
You really should exploit your team - and a trip to the toy store made me come to view this as a viable management approach.
Wisdom from the Toy Store
While
shopping for a birthday present for one of my children, I came across
the following toy that you first assemble, and then play with:
"Exploiter"? My initial reaction was to take offense at the words on the
box. My second reaction was to take a photo. Translated instructions from
a foreign country are often quite humorous, but it is less common to
have the label or name of a product be so obviously "wrong". It was one
of those you-have-to-see-it-to-believe-it moments.
I paced around the store, agitated, thinking about
what a poor message this was giving to our children - nobody wants to be
exploited, and if you exploit someone, you are obviously a bad
person - right?
Listen to the podcast or read the full article on Gazza's Corner Blog.
Fifteen minutes of Fame
- we all seem to want it, and according to some we are all due our
fifteen minutes in the limelight. Well, maybe, or maybe not. I am sure
that the law of averages has something to say about that, and more
likely some celebrity out there is using up a whole lot of other
people's 15 minutes. I am sure mine has already been used up somewhere,
maybe yours too. Who knows?
We all day-dream
about what might be. However, instead of making the dreams a reality, we
often squander countless minutes musing about a possible future - while
instead we could have been doing something more productive towards that
(or any other) goal.
Other times, we
are either delaying work on an unpleasant task, trying to put off the
inevitable, or simply waiting until we "have enough time" to get the
task done.
The truth is that it is far more
rewarding (and practical) to apply those extra minutes towards the things
that you need to get done. Even better, apply the time towards the
things you need to get done, and you will find you have more time to do the
things you want to do.
For some, this
seems hard to do, particularly if the task is difficult or unpleasant,
or you are simply procrastinating. We all procrastinate - some more than
others, and I will admit I have had my fair share over the years.
Usually, it just takes some butt-in-seat glue to stay and get focused on
the task, and it gradually starts to take shape - and soon enough you
find the task completed.
Listen to the podcast or read the full article on Gazza's Corner Blog.
When I was
fifteen, I spent the summer visiting my relatives in Alberta. Nothing
unusual about that, as we did that most summers. We would usually drive
the nearly 14 hours to Calgary and then spend a few very enjoyable weeks
visiting the grandparents, exploring the farmyard and visiting our many
aunts, uncles, cousins and other relatives in the area.
What was
different about that summer is that our family divided up the visits,
allowing us kids to each spend more time with our relatives, one-on-one.
I spent a few days with my grandparents, and then one of my Aunts came
to pick me up and drive me up to their farm an hour and a half to the
north. My parents were going to pick me up later in the week to take me
to the next relative.
It was a hot, dry
summer, which was not uncommon in the prairies. Her car was brown.
Actually, it might not have been brown, it was just coated in so much
dust you couldn't see the colour underneath. My grandparents waved from
the front steps of the farmhouse as we rumbled away down the gravel
driveway, dust rising high behind the car. It was a little hard to see,
but I didn't think too much of it. Everything was dusty that summer.
As we drove down
the main gravel road and onto the stretch of pavement before we reached
the main highway, my Aunt said she needed to stop and get some gas. We
pulled into a little gas station and the attendant started to pump the
fuel.
"Just need to
clean the windshield," she said as she hopped out of the car and grabbed
a squeegee from the bucket beside the gas pump. I remained seated in
the car.
She dragged the
wet spongy side across the top of the window, and rivulets of mud
tracked down the glass. She re-wet the squeegee several times as she
progressively sponged and cleared the dust and mud off the outside of
the window.
She looked at the
window, frowned, and then leaned into the car to have a look out of the
windshield. "You might want to get out," she said as she walked back
around the car towards the squeegee bucket.
I unbuckled myself and got out of the car just as she stepped forward and proceeded to drag the wet squeegee across the inside of
the windshield. It, too was covered in dust, and trickles of mud ran
down the glass and dripped onto the dashboard. Slightly flustered, she
quickly cleaned the inside of the window, paid the attendant and then we
got back into the car.
As we drove down
the dust-free highway, windows still down but now able to see ahead of
us more clearly, I asked her why the car was so dusty on the inside. She
replied that the car did not have air conditioning, so naturally
driving with the windows down was a good substitute.
However, living
on a farm (with no air conditioning), you had to keep the windows down
to cool off, but of course that let the dust in. With the manual window
winders and only one person in the car, it was hard to put the windows
up and down as you regularly went from asphalt to dirt or gravel - so
she mostly left them down.
Thus the coating of dust throughout the car, inside and out.
Driving with
clear visibility in front of you is obviously important - that is why my
Aunt cleaned the window once we were off the dusty road. But ask
yourself this - how many of us truck on ahead with our projects, "just
getting the work done", but with no clear vision of where we are going
or what is up ahead?
It might just be time to pull off the road and check those windows.
Listen to the podcast or read the full article on Gazza's Corner Blog.
