Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

Some tasks don’t deserve a lot of time to complete, despite how much time I would like to devote to them. I find items that limit my time on task.

Some tasks are worth only so much time. Regardless of how much I like the task or how much I feel the tasks deserves (at the time), I need to cut them off. I don’t like this, but I find ways to live with it.

For example, each morning I “view” the Internet. I put the results in a daybook or notebook. I use the Google RSS reader to look through over a hundred web sites. I would enjoy doing this for several hours, but that is too much.

I limit my morning Internet to one hour. I use a parking space to enforce the limit. I view from a coffee shop in Reston Town Center. There are parking garages available that have all-day parking. There are also parking spaces on the street that have a one-hour limit; I park in the limited spaces. No matter how interesting I find the day’s events, I have to finish the task and leave before my car is towed.

The one-hour parking space limits my Internet viewing.

Other time-limiting mechanisms include:

• Start a task at 11AM and end it by lunch
• Start a task an hour before a meeting and end it by the meeting
• Start a task while a meal is cooking and end it when the food is cooked
• Start a task a little while before my grandkids arrive at my house and end it … well you know

Silly tricks? I concede that these are tricks. I am not ready to concede that they are silly as they seem to work and keep me moving on to the next task.

by Dwayne Phillips

More often I find myself needing help from a person who is good at figuring out stuff. A PeGAFOS.

I have simple needs at work. I need a person good at figuring out stuff. Someone who can consider a puzzling situation and figure out how to work our way out of the puzzle. A colleague named Roy O’Bryan (see our book here) would often tell me, “Let’s see if they can figure out this one.” I would often reply with, “I don’t know if they have any good figure-ers.”

Excuse all my bad grammar. I suppose the proper term for this type of person is an analyst. Someone who can analyze a situation, understand the fundamental issues, and plan a way through those issues.

I like the “figure out” term better than “analyst.”

The PeGAFOS sounds like a name for a dinosaur. Perhaps these PeGAFOS are dinosaurs in that they are extinct or nearly so. It is hard to find these good figure-er out-ers. Perhaps it isn’t so hard. Perhaps it is just hard to recognize their talents and employ them as we often don’t really want to work our way out of our puzzling situations. The puzzling situations are a good excuse for what ails us. That, however, is a different subject for a different day.

by Dwayne Phillips

In the hall, in the dark corners that cannot be seen by humans, lurks a monster. We, or us, know the monster. It goes by the name “they” or “them.”

I suppose this post goes under the category of “something that happens almost daily when ‘we’ talk about our problems.” Someone is causing our problems. One thing we know for certain (not) is that we don’t cause our own problems. Someone else is causing our problems.

Someone else is lurking in the hall. They are causing our problems. Life and work would be easy if it weren’t for them.

This kind of talk is easy. Sometimes it is even fun. Nevertheless, it is a waste of time. It is almost always childish.

Now the adults walk into the room. This part isn’t nearly as much fun, but here we go:

1. Stop talking about the monster lurking in the hall
2. Name a specific person who you feel is causing you trouble
3. Name a specific action that the specific person is doing that is causing you trouble
4. Speak with that specific person regarding that specific action

This little procedure usually stops at step 2. as no one seems to be able to name a person. Those who move past step 2. usually stop at step 3. The 1% who perform step 4. feel much better about the world and their little area of work in it.

Note: This procedure does not guarantee success. Problems often persist for those adults who perform all the steps. The procedure, however, is successful far more often than mumbling about a monster that lurks in the hall.

by Dwayne Phillips

The definition of work is changing with more people forming distant, loosely connected teams. This requires people who can understand not only the words but the intent of a writer and a speaker.

Here is a new definition of work:

Work is something we do, not somewhere we go.

For years, the phrase, “I’m going to work.” has been the norm. Everyone knew what you meant. You were leaving home and going to some other place before you worked. We are now moving into the “agent economy” where (almost) everyone is a freelance, one-person business. Each person is contacted by another distant person to work a while on a project (my very short description). The colleagues are distant and loosely connected.

One characteristic of this new work is that people do not meet in the same physical space. Sometimes they speak face-t0-face via some type of video chat or teleconference. They, however, are not in the same room where they can feel one another breathe.

Much of the communication in the new work is written. Much of the communication in the new work is spoken. Body language disappears. How someone walks into the room disappears. Many other unspoken, unwritten forms of communication disappear.

Hence, the new work requires

1. people who can write and speak clearly.
2. people who can understand the written and spoken word absent of all other types of communication

We are well aware of the first qualification for people in the new work. The second qualification, while just as important, is rarely mentioned. It is not easy to find people who fit the first qualification. I contend that it is more difficult to find people who meet the second qualification. How do you ask for that? Do you ask, “Can you read? Can you hear?” Few people will answer, “no” to either question, but candidly, few people can meet those qualifications.

by Dwayne Phillips

Profanity is not an indication of passion. There are many other explanations for it.

In a recent meeting, a colleagues let loose a stream of profanity. A moment later he said, “Please excuse my passion.”

Sigh.

Here we go. Profanity is not an expression of passion. I know plenty of passionate people who don’t utter profane phrases.

Some causes of profanity:

1. ignorance of the English language
2. fatigue
3. duress
4. misjudging the audience
5. anger

I go with number 2 most of the time. People are simply tired. Their minds aren’t working well, so they cannot find the words they need to express themselves adequately.

Response? Stop the meeting. Take a break. Let people rest and eat for a few moments. If a person is so tired that they can’t speak in polite language, they are probably too tired to accomplish any work.

by Dwayne Phillips

Configuration Management is concerned with the integrity of the product. It isn’t complicated. It may not, however, be liked by all.

I had a conversation with a co-worker recently about configuration management (CM). We had sat through a series of meetings where CM was tossed about in a swirl of angst and confusion.

Let’s settle a bit and review some basics.

A person on the project creates a product; let’s use a procedure the person wrote as a simple example. Several persons have reviewed the procedure and agree that it meets the requirements of the project. The person brings the procedure to the CM Control Board (a gathering of people).

Person: I present this procedure to you for configuration control.

CM Manager: Do all present today agree that this procedure meets the requirements of the project?

Everyone nods, “Yes.”

CM Manager: I hereby accept this procedure and place it under configuration control (the person doesn’t have to use the word “hereby,” but I tossed that in because it sounds formal and official and such 😉

The CM Manager puts the procedure, both paper copy and soft copy on CD, into a locked file cabinet. If possible, the CM Manager puts a copy of the procedure on a computer system where other project members may access it in a read-only format.

If anyone wants a printed copy of the procedure, they either go to the CM Manager for the copy or they print if from the read-only computer.

If the person who wrote the procedure decides to change his copy and pass it around to others, he is committing a serious breach of protocol on the project. He is reprimanded; anything from “Don’t do that,” to “You’re fired.”

If the procedure needs changing (many people agree to that), the person who created it makes those changes. That person and all the other people go back to the CM Manager.

Person: I present to you the procedure with all the changes requested by all these important people on the project.

CM Manager: Do all you important, responsible people who have proper authority agree that this changed procedure is correct and meets the new needs of the project?

Everyone nods, “Yes.”

CM Manager: I hereby…well you know the rest.

The CM Manager then puts the changed procedure in the right place with the right accesses.

If anyone wants a copy of the changed procedure, well, you get the picture. There is one controlled copy of the procedure. Any other copy of the procedure is suspect.

The system preserves the integrity of the procedure.

“But,” you may object, “this is a slow process. What if I want to change the procedure real fast?”

Yes, this is a slow process. It is also a slowing process in that it forces anyone who wants to change the procedure think a while and convince authoritative people to think a while before changing the procedure. Time and thinking are not perfect, but they help prevent mistakes. And we make lots of mistakes, especially when moving fast.

by Dwayne Phillips

Resource leveling is an obscure term in project management. It is, however, paramount to project success.

You are planning a project or planning some work that involves a limited number of people. You lay out all the tasks that must be performed and record all the resources needed to perform each task. Resources include:

• people
• time
• objects (test equipment, computers, offices, tools, etc.)

You are not ready to begin work. First, you should perform (trumpet blast) resource leveling. This is where you examine which resources are needed at what time. Resource leveling tells you things like:

• Bob will work 92 hours a week for the first month of the project
• Your only delivery truck will be used by 16 different people everyday between noon and 3PM
• Ten people will use your drill press Monday at 10AM

These are not good situations. You are over-using some resources. You are in an impossible situation where time, space, matter, and other such laws of physics will destroy your project.

Resource leveling means you have to straighten out this mess.

For Bob, you will try to:

• find other people who can do the work Bob is scheduled to do
• move some of Bob’s work to the second month of the project
• eliminate some of the tasks Bob is scheduled to perform

You do the same for the other over-scheduled resources.

If you don’t level the work of your resources, you will have people standing around pointing fingers at each other and saying things like, “If you touch that drill press I will fill-in-the-blank-with-something-you-wouldn’t-want-to-see-happen.”

Resource leveling isn’t much fun. You have to decide what to do; you have to decide what is more important. No, not much fun. The result of avoiding resource leveling is even less fun. Please do it.

by Dwayne Phillips

Try as we might, we often jump to a conclusion while bypassing the rather boring gathering of facts. Results are predictable and predicted.

“Jump to conclusions” is an old cliche. Let’s try to put a little more thought into this topic.

Consider the Satir Interaction Model from the late family therapist Virginia Satir. One description of the model is given here. There are four basic steps

1. Intake
2. Meaning
3. Significance
4. Response

Intake is what I receive from a person sending me a message. Intake is from the five senses, i.e., what I hear, touch, taste, smell, and see. Meaning is how I interpret the intake, i.e., my conclusion. Significance is the importance I assign to the Intake and Meaning. Response is how I choose to respond to the first three.

Consider the Intake and Meaning. Here is where I jump to conclusions. I immediately tell myself things like, the other person:

• is attacking me
• is stupid
• is just joking
• is confused

I don’t take the time to consider the Intake. I don’t consider:

• the other person said these words…
• the other person’s email contained these words…
• the other person made this facial expression…
• the other person stood, sat, walked, ran…

Instead, I have already assigned Meaning and am charging off to conquer the world or some noble task like that.

Stop. Breathe. Consider the Intake. Concentrate on the Intake. Dwell on the Intake. If I could think of another thing to do with the Intake that would take a few moments, I would add that to the list.

Avoid the jump to conclusion (Meaning).

by Dwayne Phillips

Some simple life advice: eat, rest, work – in that order.

Fatigue is a killer to accomplishing anything; hunger is a killer to accomplishing anything.

Trying to accomplish anything while tired and hungry? Not much chance of accomplishing anything positive while a very high chance of accomplishing a mess.

When I am tired, I should rest. When I am hungry (real hunger), I should eat. After I am rested and fed, I can work. I should not attempt work in weakened states.

“But,” here it comes, “I am tough. I can do it.”  I have heard that countless times. I have seen people charge into work in weakened states. The results were predictable.

Here is an old story:

A computer programmer came to work and worked hard for six hours. The programmer accomplished a lot of work. Great. The programmer felt guilty because there were two hours left in the work day, and the programmer had to continue working. The programmer was elated because of accomplishment, but was also exhausted. Guilt overcame exhaustion, and the programmer worked for two more hours. In those last two hours, the programmer made dozens of mistakes, so many mistakes that the programmer needed to work hard the next four days to find and fix the errors.

Oh well. Don’t work into those two hours exhausted. Rest. Work again tomorrow.

by Dwayne Phillips

Here is a photo of some excellent tools for writers. These aren’t exciting and certainly aren’t new. I consider them to be excellent tools because they are always with me and I can only use tools that are with me.

Excellent Writing Tools

When I notice something, I note it; I write a note on a card. Later, I can expand on the note.