Employee Evaluation: It is not just Performance

The distaste in professional life, is that performance alone doesn't matter in retainer-ship of employment.

The blog Why Haven't You Fired Him Yet? , is a very good read. Good performers should also be good at creating deterrents around them from being tossed out as fantasized in my earlier post.

The blog is truthful about the practical fact that to a certain level, we tend to expect a mandate and homogeneity from fellow colleagues with our own internalized systems, while becoming uncomfortable with little threats to the thought process. In our management circles, we discuss an employee viability in cost terms, and performance is always a second priority (not without reason). The costs are:

1. "Management Overhead Cost": Inclusive of performance is the analysis of the fact whether the resource needs to be managed not only for work, but for the self-team-organization balance. It many times, unfortunately, means and is used for "falling in line", when it actually should be used to analyze, the management attention created to address a probable negative impact. For example, a resource is self managed, goes about the job in a routine fashion, and completes the job allocation in their own style. They should ideally be more, right?

But if there is a mandate that knowledge sharing is a need and must, and the cultural aspect is neglected for personal gains, then the management over head in ensuring the cultural balance is prominent than performance required.

Similarly, there is something in the mannerisms that the next level performers find choking in the superlative performer, the management over head to elevate the next level performers to the superlative league is a crucial factor in the evaluation.

1. "Peer Value Cost": This cost is measured in comparable terms. Again, it is often than not, misused, as a favoritism, while it is to be measured to value the attention(brags/self mentions)-attraction (perks/salary) -assertion(Choosing work, being finicky of others work ) ratio vis a vis performance.
   

This is typically manifested in teams where employees come from different profiles: Some working their way up through experience, while others have a degree to boot at the same level, or in some instances, the variable attention just for the prestige associated with the school.

In a team of equivalent talented great employees, the overhead of giving disproportionate attention, attraction and assertion to a particular employee would mean other equated employees would leave/live with heart burn that would affect the morale, brand of the organization.

Hence while it is important to lay down the performance parameters, it is equally important to be conscious of the associated costs and keep them to minimum for a self-standing success.

Low Budgets, Less Time introduces stereotypes and constraints

Isn't it ?

When you are looking for quick solutions "NOW", you tend to ask and see what majority people use and buy. You seem to think that if it works for them, it will work for you as well. Further, such instances lead to dire needs, that you intend to cut the "desired" features and go for the basic stuff "that works", a compromise.

Thus you make the purchase, lest allow the sales person earn his "incentive" (I was told to use this word, instead of commission) through his skills on selling. A "bad" situation indeed.

In other instances, you understand the need and desire for a solution that eases some time off you. You have been doing the job and now, with a little automation for a small fee, try to do more with earlier constraints removed. The catch is this. For a better budget, you get to free "all" your time for better and productive tasks. But inflicting self constraints and not opening up, leads to desired vs accepted level gap.

What do sellers and vendors do.

1. Do what is accepted by majority, that is create stereotypes, thereby innovating a solution at bottom pyramid.
2. Put limitations/constraints on the solution, as to what is delivered and leave what is possible, for better times, thus manage time.
   

See what has happened? When both consumer and producer should work and concentrate on the "solution", both are now looking at "cost and time" and fitting the solution inside the slot machine.

Hence, please give sufficient time to allow for work, iterations, discussions, wider feedback to get the best bang for your buck. Instead of going down a range, try moving within a range judiciously, to accept/tweak feature/functionality that are desirable and useful.

Any alternate line of thoughts, welcome.

Never enough time to get it right - the first time

I found this quote as a gmail custom message put up by my colleague. In her own words, it is "inspired by reality".

" Why do we always have time for rework… but never enough to get it right the first time?"- Richa

As said in one of my earlier post, focus, discipline and course correction are the key execution attributes. Where does it go wrong then ?

When ever, a deadline is set, all team members race to the finish line. There is no one left in the pit stop to

1. check,
2. prevent,
3. advice,
4. correct and
5. fine tune the system according to circumstances and senses.

When the discipline to stick to stated efforts and schedule is missed, the focus gets lost from "quality" to "just get it out" model, which then leads to multiple rounds of iteration.

Had only some one stopped at pitstop and course corrected the entire execution...

Perfect picture moment

I was just checking my children photos. Out of 10 clicks, one photo had me glued taking me to the moment of the picture. The only realization of present was the wetness in my eyes not letting me gaze longer that I long for that very perfect picture moment

Why so!. Why not the remaining 9 ?

The answer was available when we met one of our customers steering committee. True, this project and customer has made me "unlearn" me many heuristics that is for better.

The project was to convert their SOP to e-Learning training manuals. Now, there was just one topic, which is conceptual in nature. The customer wanted it to be treated differently. We tuned to the ways of standardization and reusability, got the delivery which had the meaning explained well. There was a silent acceptance with indications that more was expected for this topic, yet the direction remained unclear.

Knowing that we need to stop, rewind, revert back to creativity for this module, back in drawing board, we talked, iterated, scrapped ideas, and came up with what is an acceptable profitable proposition for both in form of a complete story. The end result was demonstrated in the steering committee, with personal accolades coming our way.

There, 3 of us were standing, staring at the gamble thinking what went right, while receiving compliments, with an all time high in customer satisfaction.

The perfect picture moment, was when the COO congratulated us with a firm hand shake and trade mark briskness with a smile.

Personal or Professional, strive for that perfect picture moment which freezes you in time. It should make you realize the loneliness of the present, and wanting the moment etched in memories back.

Perfection paralysis

“Perfection paralysis” is expensive. More than cost, it is time and opportunity, that once missed never present themselves again.

Sometimes it is not worth the effort to make things “perfect.” Take a look at time costs involved and weigh these against the benefit of perfection. Always, second best in operation is better than first best on the drawing board.

How much ever I have said, this is one point, that I have not been able to convince my team. May be, I never had a story to drive my point on this one.

We have been eternally working on the perfect communication logo, perfect out-of-world site, perfect phrases in communication, that is still iterated, scrapped and reinvented.

Today, after much coaxing, we have launched our work in progress site to a focus group. It is now nowhere near the perfection aimed at start. However, I sense the pride that at-last, the team has broke its shell and courageous enough to test with what is considered v1.0.

Lofty ideals, need hardships, practice and courage to achieve their eternal perfect state. Sensing hardships and trying to workaround practice and courage, never gets you out of paralysis stage.

You have something to share and sooner you get to the market is the best survival tactic.

What is a good communication ?

What is a good communication ?

There are lots of way to get a point across. The best and most preferred one: TALK.
In professional environment, is it sufficient though ?

When every person in their roles are awarded multiple responsibilities, wouldn't it help, if I remember the context, why,
1. A discussion went a certain way, OR
2. The information and advice provided in taking a decision OR
3. The current problem is linked to my earlier/prior action OR
4. The assumptions, were left unaddressed/unstated during prior meetings ?
5. Did I confuse between my 2 distinct responsibilities when we talked last time ?

TALK is a transient medium. To give credence, it is always required to create a record that leaves a trail to trace, track and find out where the deviations occurred. When things go right, the records give a case study for future team to follow.

Have you noticed that many times, bad news is always learnt through long winding emails ? Is it fear of guilt or fear of retribution ?

Avoiding any of these problems always requires diligence, discipline and detailed record keeping of you, your customer and your customer bosses.

A unknown side effect is that, you will learn to do your duties in more organized manner, as you cannot keep a bad communication in your records.

"Leave a Trail" was my main message in this appraisal cycle.

Communication with multiple stakeholders

The biggest challenge faced in my current project is the multi channel communication and the variety of content that need to be dealt with.

Different businesses together are required to own a project part and with no relationship of their users with other business users. Thus, this is still difficult, as one process and one set of styles are not acceptable to the other divisions.

Further more, the integrated team which conceived the project is not the end target audience nor has convinced them about this importance.

Amid such tough challenges and constrained timelines, the only silver lining is creation of another IP within the group.

Hope at end of this project I would be able to post some answers.

Where do you start

Every project, I always fumble the start. This also could be due to fact, that I kick off a new project with new customer every 6 months. Having a behavioral preference for being numbers driven , I prefer hard data collection with which the project plan will be near accurate. Making guesstimate is most uncomfortable situation.

So my own checklist will be
1 .Can you delegate more work to customer. DO IT FIRST.
2. Customer Education (I am posting a new one under "Project Literacy" - includes project team literacy as well)
2. Schedule Plan FIRST. Schedule Plan FIRST.
3. Don't take it on your plate, if you have not done it before and the stakes are high (less time, more work for you, etc)
4. Report Report Report!! This is hardly followed as it is kinda more administrative and mostly good things only happen which is taken for granted.
5. Escalation is a bad word. So if things don't go your way start reporting daily, saying the phase is crucial.

Whose Project is it?

When you win a project, how much do you, rather should you take on your plate? The full responsibility of success or just your work for which you are paid?

In hindsight experience, lack of owner and a project master at client end always ends in a mess and stress. Typical project master qualities should be
1. The project owner should be the direct beneficiary of the program.

2. The content owners/providers must have "something in it for them" individually. May be say, a cosmetic overhaul / better looking PPT service would need to be considered without a change request to customer.

3. The requirement has to be from "business" and not from training/HR cell. Our most business is from Training/HR cells. But such projects are delayed, content inputs flow is disrupted, pressing business transactions, push this to back seat,. Business is the ultimate sign off authority and hence dealing with influencer is most importance.

This now brings me to next question - Do you then work ONLY for which you are paid.
Well Yes. That would be meaning business. However, you as a vendor need to provide perspectives and qualify multiple options out of which a concious decision is comin from customer. So you do share what works and what doesnot based on your past experiences, but not with responsibility and only suggestive in nature.

Parrot Lines

It is often a sub conscious act that we make monotony of ourselves by repeating our pet ideas, themes, defenses for our line of thinking, with various people, forums, and rake the topic when there is a minimal pause in conversations. Think of times, when you spoke of a topic with same sentences with same group or multiple people at multiple instances. You will often see it when we say the same story over and over again.

It is important to understand the power of this situation - "Parrot Lines".

Parrots are used in India to forecast your future (Still very popular). They are trained to see the color of a card deck and say exactly the line that is appropriate for the card. So the foreteller person,plays a mind game with you. He says that the parrot has intelligence that it chose a color card and after completing his reading, the parrot will speak a line that is apt to the contents in the color card. He says that what he said by seeing the color card that Parrot picks up is validated by parrot again. Hence, having an alibi say the same thing, makes you believe that it is about "YOU" and so the future truth is bare open by parrot and not the foreteller person.

1. Parrot lines are instruments that serve the cause of focus and discipline. Saying them again again in same way, seeks to drive the seriousness of the point and hence rallying teams is easier. At times, they signal closed mindset as well. Rephrasing the parrot lines and reasoning the various other thinking hats, may seek to open the person for better insights, or you know where you are headed if any good discussion always ends with the same parrot line.
2. So be it a peer, juniors/seniors, bosses, customers, vendors, partners, it is important that they know a consistent picture of you when you are not around. Parrot lines help this cause.
• For example, when my boss asks any of my team members about a task/assignment, the member will recollect to give an answer that satisfies me and then my boss. Because, my questions are parroted every time in more or less the same sequence, the team member will exactly know the questions, will answer according to my order.
  
3. Parrot lines can also serve a good reminder message for the critical success factor that is in consideration.It could be like:

• We need to be careful if this would exceed the scope. The scope is for 80 screens. In our recent project, this is the favourite line, I start with and end with in a discussion.
• I would prefer to put more resources and effort, but still schedule constraint may not be addressed. In one of the projects,that I am unable to close (yes, my failure as on this writing date), this is the parrot line, I repeat to customer for every request.

Parrot lines, help a manager to rally the team to a cause with commitment on "passion" than just monetary considerations.

• Imagine the cognitive load, you are putting on me and other reviewers for this output. Can't you make it more easy to comprehend? My favourite line to all my team members, to push them for better output and buy myself more time for task on hand. ;)
• What is your value in this system if you are just a postman, transferring deliverable from one to another? Again my parrot line to all my team members to think of their value in their system. (inherently to reduce the cognitive load on deliverables, that would have been passed without you in the system)
  

Parrot lines are important to put things in perspective. Perception is built over a period of time looking at consistent and inconsistent behavior of group (mostly senior management leading by example, needs to be careful about this one). When I need more than realistic expectation, my parrot lines are:

1. Let us get it done for leaving a legacy and add it to our portfolio first. It is up to company to leverage it or not.

What parrot lines do you have in your arsenal and are you conscious about it?

Tension Elasticity: A Management Framework for small teams

Not PMP, PRICE II, ITIS. I work with small teams and the most simple framework is something not for managers but to make team members self manage themselves. Hence the idea needs to be in the term and not in an explanation for terms. The framework is simple. Every project and team members goes through 3 phases:

1. Concern Phase,
   
2. Breath Easy phase and
   
3. Elongation phase

What you need to do is bring the project to "Breath Easy" phase all the time.
Why is this a framework and what worth is it to say what every one knows. The importance is in the "tension" inherent in the phases. As long as you maintain the "tension" to "breath easy" phase, the project will always be a good place to work giving you lot of experience. Why it does not seem to be worth given a consideration is that the "tension" is never realized.

When the customer raises a concern, we firefight till customer cools down or till the customer forgets "Temporarily" about the project. We never move the project and do things that get us back to "Breath Easy" ways of doing work. Mostly we move into "calm" phase than "easy" phase. The more you breath easy the more sustainable the project team will be and more satisfied your employees would be.

Hmm, how do you know that you "breath easy" and not "calm" phase ? The answer is in delegation. Are you dispensable in whatever your role on the project demands you today ? Can you get a fresh recruit, share the hard coded files, documents, explain the work in a couple of hours and relax googling for the rest of day ? If yes, the project is in "Breath Easy" phase. Which can be judged by the fact that the scalability and bottle necks are non-existent on the project.

When are you in concern phase ? It happens at all stages in project.

1. Whenever you are sure there is an impending fire that you are allowing to subside with time.
   
2. It could be a seemingly simple comment that customer would have made, that you took it lightly.
   
3. It could mean a request that potentially, without analysis looks good to deliver, but consumes more time than anticipated,
   
4. Could be a feature, you have no experience with that you theoretically think is possible, something the team considers as a value add while the basic needs of the project are still not delivered while you press for delivery of value add first, etc.
   
5. You can always feel, that you are in concern phase, if you do not get a systems view of the work, be it lack of information, time, resources, experience, expertise, support, tools, etc.

Elongation phase should then be same as concern phase - rite? Yes, as far as tension is concerned, it is in same league and you need to move in to "Breath Easy" phase fast. However, elongation phase is more painful than mind mapping a concern phase. In Elongation phase you need to manage reality and perception differences as well. In a recent project, I totally believed the customer is taking more time, while we deliver as per the last 3 month old project plan asking for the turnaround time dates. However in last sales interaction, I got the feedback that 'damage is already done'. Well, to bring the project to "Breath Easy" phase, we are trying to complete them to the satisfaction, while another "breath easy" option is to to write off the small amount based on the reality or facts submitted to client.

Fundamentally, elongation phase starts when there is a miss from deadlines and scope. When value add becomes a priority, and many times I falter this principle not to entertain them till the scope is closed.

Any ideas on how to "Breath Easy" often in project teams?

Instruments as Weapons

Any task requires instruments. Software is one. Transport is another. Document is the evergreen, must have, all purpose instrument for reference.

Whenever you use anything, have you thought, how they are channelized? How they can be used for best benefits. Be it a bag, for a seemingly simple task of carrying vegetables.

Weapons are instruments that serve the purpose they are created for. Use and Misuse is the same. The pedestal they reach is always on a target. Missing the real target they hit another target. Isn't that the reason why they are so powerful, dreaded, lot of committees, safeguards, efforts go in creation, maintenance and securing them. Isn't the same effort goes in using them at the time they are required. Even diffusing a weapon before it is put to work, has lot of tension and precision to disarm them COMPLETELY.

The point is, if we take weapons as a benchmark for all instruments, then in simplest plane, they need to exhibit the following character:

1. Purpose: All instruments should have one purpose. Instruments in e-Learning content could be Video, Animation, Graphics, Text, Polls, Surveys, FAQ's, Glossary, etc. If you want to use them in your project, then you need to define their single purpose channel used in the course. For example,

Video: Seeing an action is easy to imitate. Do we imitate voices in radio more than actions of heroes TV or Movies? Providing videos give more answers and aid in easy comprehension.

Animation: Kids love illustrated motion than real motion. Seeing my daughter, I realize that illustrated motion (Animation) gets more attention to details, with fun, than real action. Using the same analogy, I suggest use of animation for providing low level details along with action for better application.

2. Precision: While instruments are created with purpose, their execution determines their effectiveness. Using instruments at their appropriate place gives the precision of a weapon, that can be used in a good place for best intent. For example,

Video: Executing a video has multiple challenges. First, feature a model, if you want a diversion. We recently saw a video explaining a product demo, and half the attention went in noticing the mis-act sequences of the lead. When a normal person needs to be the lead/host, just get a close up. I may be a best actor when my wife is around, but cannot do the same in front of the camera. The strain of getting the body language correct and relishable by the viewer is beyond normal man bounds. We recently saw a video with key top people explaining the values - at times, I need to admit, the actions were funny.

Second, Zoom slowly. There is no hurry to reach the destination. A little bit of action, suspense, aids better comprehension than focussing on the object and holding the camera as if it is a still picture.

One more for this post, cover multiple angles: A video is a movie format of delivery. To ensure precision of the intent, use its potential to give better views than normal eye can perceive in normal circumstances. Can you now understand, why fight sequences are captured in angles, that overwhelm you or there is so much attention on camera man as the director?


3. Preciseness: When precision can acquire its purpose is the timing when it is used. In content design, animation initially is always felt more entertaining than concluding a module.the results. While concluding a module, a little bit of action is better refreshing and leads to a continuation action than a passive conclusion. Recently, we started showing the learning objectives as a static screen while the summary slide acts as a recap and option for user to comment on the learning. Will keep you posted on the results.


4. Passion: One of the elements I missed in my last post, Execution Attributes is passion. There is a reason. Reason is, execution involves things that need not be liked by you. As a practice lead, I detest testing. But in a small team, where the function is managed internally, I need to do it. To do it properly, I cannot bring passion with me; but I need to bring focus, discipline and course correction to do the job right.

The case of instruments is different. Execution, timing and creation purpose requires passion to bind them all together. When you find an instrument, not living up to expectations, then passion will be missed block. Either preciseness will miss what precision and purpose want to achieve or preciseness and precision will miss the purpose for which the instrument is designated.

5. Pointers: In olden days, instruments always had a mental model towards sharpness, pointed objects with a target object in reference plane.Example, sharpening a saw to cut a tree, to have a sharpened pencil to draw a thin line, a sharp dart to indicate target attack and sharpness to hit the target. In India, it is always bow and arrow that are used for pointers to mean target and sharpness to hit it hard.

Ensure your instruments have enough pointers. Simply put, is the instrument used with right set of references. References could mean users too. Are users familiar with animations, polls, surveys, assessments? In one of the recent projects, I learnt this lesson. Good instruments cannot be used everywhere when the pointers are blank and blunt. For the customer, polls, surveys as instruments were not aimed at them and their target audience. So utilizing them without a pointer would result in vaccum zone. Isn't that a great insult to the instrument itself.

So use instruments where they are capable of making an impact.

Like weapons, instruments should boom with sound, visual and match them in their functional effects. Videos should have music, sound and matching action, while animations should have music,visual effects and attention to detail,while glossary should have letters, words, definition along with pictorial depiction of their meaning for better attention and knowledge reference.

Did you read the related post for knowing what instruments can do for you?

Execution Attributes

Man, being essentially active, must find in activity his joy, as well as his beauty and glory; and labor, like everything else that is good, is its own reward.--WHIPPLE.

While ideation, strategies, process formulation, vision documents are various forms of expression/desire, it is execution that gives credibility to these forms. May be why news is relied upon for movements/momentum while results are relied upon for decisions/commitments.

Execution is a commitment to achieve the expression/desire.
To do so, execution teaches you 3 most important things that any sacrifice is worth.

1. Focus
2. Discipline
3. Course Correction.

Out of the 3 characteristics, the 3rd point is the most mis-understood/ missed term. There needs to be focus on tasks at hand and at the sight in future; Discipline to commit in good faith to a decision or a majority view point. However, the earliest warning signs must wake you up for a course correction.

In my experience, course correction is the missing characteristic in otherwise success stories, that went down even with focus and discipline. This also applies to few of my mentors whom I learnt the tricks from.

The easiest way to take course correction is to leave a trail of numbers that can inform you about the pitfalls when looking back. With little PROPER introspection, future path can be visualized with focus and discipline. The path can be course corrective in nature as well. This can save you time, efforts and remove "fear of failure" from your hearts.

Hence execution is not about having work that I need to do, but doing work that needs to be done. Get it Done. Have a happy execution for the rest of your life.

How do you get Focus, Discipline, Course Correction in style? I will share my formulas in next few post.

Project Outsourcing Commandments

Customer is king. Customer decision is final. King's deliverables should be good and on time. There can be many statements validating customers importance. Yes, it is important to drive the point to ensure greater customer satisfaction. But it is equally important for customers to know when and how projects can be turned downside with their own actions/statements.

Few don'ts advice to my customers and prospects will be:

1. Never give a project without internal commitment: Who needs to review, who needs to approve, who needs to be involved, who will pay the invoice, is important to be on board from first time.

2. Never give feedback more than twice on a file: First time, the delivery has all the passion in it. Second time, the feedback on issues seen are considered learning, third time, the moods/mindset and expectations are understood. But from this time on, more feedback will only add to low motivational work. The fixes would be done just to satisfy you, without any passion or brain behind it. If the release is not up to your expectations, send email that you do not consider it as a release at all, and still keep only 2 review cycles.

3. Treat Review cycles with seriousness: Ensure you dedicate time, stop reviews after a optimum batch size(say 25 local issues and/or 5 global issues) in one review cycle, 5-6 localized issues in second review cycle. Period. Validate issues fixed please.

4. Delay the start of the project, but never delay the completion date. The date committed during project start is known to all (senior managers of both companies), but changed dates are hardly communicated unless in case of escalations. The initial buy-in will see to it that projects are on review radar, but past initial deadlines, it is left on excel sheets/Gantt charts within project teams.

5. Escalate without bias: Never escalate only when there is a problem that is discomforting you. Escalate and demand when normal, routine deliverables are missed. Treat escalations for support deliveries as well, like meeting minutes, discussion notes, future commercial implications, tracking requests for fix, changes, etc.

6. Ask for senior management attention, what ever your size be: The seniority can be decided by the vendor. But a non-project senior person is necessary to provide attention and consultation on project from both sides. If this is not there, project teams will tend to do things comfortable to them but not to their respective organizations.

7. Praise the team: US customers do this. We love it. But in India, these are more subtle. A behind the scenes word of mouth is very nice for managers and seniors, but a word of applause is required for project team workers.

8. Accept for delays and contingencies at both ends: You do not need a status report to tell you who is delaying what. Delays are inevitable at both sides. It is important to acknowledge or force an acknowledgement in email, so that they do not become a habit.

9. Provide enough references/source/stories: Well, this sounds like why i need to give the project to you. However think about it differently. Giving a project is no letting go of your commitments. It is to do things smartly and differently. Smart way, is to outline your needs progressively based on vendor thoughts. What you have in mind is validated/invalidated by similar prior experiences available with vendor. What you need is executed differently with added bonuses of giving away the maintenance and support hassles.

References/Source examples/Stories gives better clarity on expectations and aid in realistic schedules and deliverables matching expectations.

10. Prioritize what you need: As a vendor I can be willing to give a "free" lunch. But it is free only for a day. What lies ahead is more investment. Hence prioritize and do not ask for "free" lunches unless there is a need for the same. Example, You ask for a blog engine, I give "content engine" free. To manage, govern and administer the content engine, is really additional investment from your side. Do you really need it ?

11. We work mutually for better appraisals: You may hate me saying this. But at the end of the year, my project and yours too will be evaluated for WIN. Hence WIN-WIN is a must for a serious engagement. When either of our appraisals and more money is in danger of getting lost, we will not be able to get together at any levels - professional or personal. Hence mutual respect is governed by more serious personal money at stake.

Can we strive for a better appraisal partnership please ?

And few more, may be in next posts.

The ever shadowing late night experience

One of the differences that I bring as part of my existence in organization is to ensure that people leave early and leave me time in night to focus on my tasks. Part of it is selfishness since I am a night-person and late riser.

Though, it is a good practice, in IT, any one who has been strict about timelines is not known in my circle yet. Ask my mom and now she has tutored my wife better to poke fun at my management practice whenever the late nights happen.

Today (or yesterday, it is always a confusion), the late night work happenned. The master plans, effective habits all went to a toss. So what makes late night follow you constantly and catch you at the appropriate moment? Would not any IT company have a practice that is so mature and robust that they have good clients and accept only limited work that promises not a single day of extra staying hours ?

Still groping for answers...

Cognitive Load - Your Take - Part 1

What is the real worth of your work ?
Have you ever considered that you take up a task to complete something that someone else needs to find it easy for their progress?

Do you deliver a physical asset at the end of your task ? If you claim you deliver an asset, then have you defined what the asset is worth ?

Try yourself and tell me the answer.

Sensitivity

In recent past, I tried to move from micro management to try and bring in more empowerment to my team. When I was explaining how to approach a customer requirement and frequently I have to explain that the fit and finish is lot left to be desired during my review, I wanted a "word" that I can always ask and establish the context for discussion easily.

After much long speech explaining what I need multiple times and thinking over it for couple of weeks, I got the "eureka!!" moment. The term is "Sensitivity and reduction of Cognitive Load". This post is about first - Sensitivity.

Isn't the most important thing any human being in personal or professional life requires is "Sensitivity".


Sensitivity
1. Think the pains of sales to get the business you have in your hand.

2. Think the pains of a manager in taking down notes of issues that you left open for them to find.

3. Think the pity of your users using your work, in going to live with the pain as it is mandated by the company.

4. Think about the appraisal your client is going to get for being responsible in giving the business to you.

5. Think about the constraints in real world the manager is going to face in making decisions of either schedule or quality.

6. Think about the shareholders investment (if you are one) in your company. Does not the company ability to keep its promise depends on the revenue you earn with your rendered services .

7. Think of your team member who is going to take over from you and work in lesser time that assigned to you and does not have the luxury of the same background that you work.

8. Think the marketing guy who is going to write about your work and try earn some brownie points over competitors hoping to make some big orders.

9. Think about the sales guy missing their commission and hence breaking a promise to their loved ones.

10. Think while making edits to a document or file of another author in having to review your work entirely to know what has changed ? Would you not make sense by providing a mechanism to highlight changes to make lives easier?


Would not these thoughts bring to you the desired qualities that any company expect in you ?
Having thought at above topics, what is your action ?

Project Stand Lessons from my daughter - Closed Vocabulary Set

My daughter is now 18 months old. The best period of one's life is to see your very own come to liven you up and remind you what you did unknown.




For quite a few months, I am getting used to seeing my daughter pick up some communicating words. Now she is quite comfortable in her zone of expressing her desires according to her style and it is left to us to understand and interpret it. Which means, she now has enough vocabulary in her set in her own style that is sufficient to make us understand her needs.




Which led me to wonder - Isn't it important that we establish such closed vocabulary set in project teams, which will lead to better communication and the interpretation within the team will always be right every single time.




Thinking of my past, I now realize that this closed vocabulary that we used within ourselves could have been the success for our smooth interaction and greater work satisfaction at Digital Think (my first company job). However, then I was not conscious about this existence and it just happened.




More on the story...


In e-Learning business, we use various terms like STB(storyboard) , UI (User Interface), CDD( Course Design Document), visual design, PI(product integration), CI(content integration) and similarly in quality area SS(Show stopper), NC (no change as against non compliance), Critical, Major, Minor Incidents, etc. If you are reading from e-Learning background, lot of these terms may sound familiar as a mother tongue.Put yourself in shoes of a newbie or from a different industry and try making sense of the short forms and sentences around it. Better still, try talking to your parents with these terms and see their reaction.




While we were practicing it without any hitch or fuss or didn't even find that we are using something different that people outside the group/industry will not understand. My new, last boss in Digital Think, was asking us for details on each of the terms in our off site meeting conducted by my sweet US boss to make sense of what we were talking. Being shrewd (has to be if he has to be my boss ;)) he picked up the vocabulary set very fast and easy.




This brings out 2 important points:


1. Any closed vocabulary set is easy to adapt, comprehend and understand. Think of the languages tribes speak and acquire various dialects of same language.


2. A closed vocabulary set is easy to follow and becomes part of self and peers which leads to better communication, bonding and ease of doing job with a team.


3. As with any language vocabulary, a common team thinking is subtly re-inforced every time. This under current flow making management of employees and their work easier.




4. Further don't you think it with a little creativity that child infuse in a language, we too can Become Child Again ?






However, it took my daughter to make me realize the profound impact of this simple mechanism for creating, sustaining and developing ever challenging high performance teams.




Have you consciously developed vocabulary set for your teams or have you left it to be a sub conscious effort ?

Product Action

After a long time servicing projects and being in reactive mode, we took time to step back, reevaluate our lives in office . While my patience had run out in 4th month of the job, doing the repeated tasks, I had to wait for 5 more months for my team to come out of the hood and challenge our working style and realize that they can do a lot worth their character.




As I said in my earlier post,


Evolution Story - Power of Need establishing the need is an organic process and needs to be incubated for the time it takes. All you can do is to mould the thinking in subtle ways in hope of acceleration the need for change.




To the real story now...


In the step back exercise, we decoupled and dis-integrated all our project assets to its atomic level (yes including the efforts). On analysis we found that rather than hand crafting the integration of the assets, the technology we are familiar with was more powerful and could do most of the tasks better. All it required was the basics of XML and the power of integration with Action Script.




So we started our journey within the project time frame to risk our reputation of on time and quality delivery and try the creation of productivity improvement tool. Hats off to my team that even though the basic idea germinated in me, the execution took its own turn and was not stamped with my control written on it. The positive outcome of the exercise was that we now have a tool, started for internal use, has a good UI (yes we are designers first) and is web based with the simplest of usability that hides the complexities that is associated with simulation design.




Looking now at the output, each one of us have started thinking that product creation is a great way to service every project. Rather than ONLY provide an output that is usable to customer, the thought magic is now to create a product that can be extended, customized, maintained, changed frequently at customer's will which at the same time will reduce the work load or rather provide us with the challenge of working on better mind stimulating creatives.




The product action has just kicked in. Hope it sustains the way of thinking and brightens our future.




How else have you incorporated the service around a product, rather than a service or product service model?

Client Eye Review

One of the very first projects at my current engagement is handling a tried and comfortable method of simulation animation with a team adept at a certain way. This was a time when 2 of my reliable team leads left the organization. The audio vendor we engaged was without any defined SLA's.

Being new, the first thing I realized was that the quality of the audio recordings in multiple sessions did not have the correct settings. The stereo mixing was incorrect, the audible levels were not matching with each other. How much ever trials to correct them were not leading us satisfactorily to the end output result.

Further, being the first in engagement with the client as a company and team, we were caught by the customer in the delivery quality. To complicate matters, there were issues in the delivery which were not caught in the review cycles instituted as a process.

What did we do then ??

Enter the process of "Client Eye Review"...

What is the process all about? Get the entire team sit in a conference room and have a product viewing session.

The Objective: Role play the customer and try to find as many obvious seemingly small issues that can be found without much attention.

The Reason: People with technical knowledge and working in technical area always seem to be chasing the big issues and looking for challenge to all reviewers to find a show stopper or a critical issue. While they feel that smaller issues can always be fixed in a matter of time. Even now, after 10 projects together, I am grappling with the same mental model of developers. Enough explanation that these seemingly simple issues are what affects the customer psyche and are the uncovered open visible issues that puts off a customer confidence, never has satisfied their quest to find bigger hidden issues. These issues they feel are worthy of their time are known only to them and not to customer, still never makes sense.

The Real Timing of Client Eye Review:The client eye review is very very important when the company has acquired a first time customer. The importance of communicating what the customer feels rather than sees has to be perceived to make repeat business happen.

In my current experience, client eye reviews are the best way to start an engagement before the first delivery to make a decent impression. While the use has not been of much bigger value from second releases, rather after the time the team is comfortable working on the project and know all the most common errors/mistakes/issues that customer is likely to find.

Isn't it a great quality system where a team remains unchanged and committed to a customer thereby making a committed customer good business sense?

What is your customer acquisition engagement execution plan?