Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

This one has been buzzing around in my head for a few years. What do you call it when you are trying to write and you need to write words?

Words on the page – doesn’t work until you run your printer.

Words on the screen – that sort of works, but those words aren’t really stored on the computer, just temporary.

So, it hit me – Words on Disk. That even becomes a pronounceable acronym – WOD (pronounced wod to rhyme with dirt clod and bod-y and slob).

And Words on Disk leads me to the phrase Blank Disk to be the computer equivalent of blank page.

Okay, this isn’t earth shattering, but it is something that hit me while encouraging a team of people to stop talking and start writing so that we could finish a proposal and earn some business.

by Dwayne Phillips

Have some spare time? How about tutoring people using online course materials posted by universities?

Here is a new opportunity for people with knowledge to connect with people seeking knowledge. MIT and others have put many of their courses online. MIT has recently added a set of courses that are tailored for independent learners. I guess that means people who really want to learn, but are far away in time, space, and funding from MIT. It seems that MIT’s open course ware was not built for such independent learners. MIT felt that other professors and teachers would use the online course materials to create their own courses. The new material is much for friendly for someone wanting to learn.

Hence the new opportunity. I wish I had thought of this; someone else had the idea, but everyone has the opportunity. The online courses from MIT and others, yes there are lots of others, is incomplete. That is, it is difficult for a person seeking to learn to look at the materials and master the subject. You enter the picture as a local person with knowledge. Put an ad in the local paper or online somewhere. The ad would be something like:

Do you want to learn from so-and-so’s online course ware but have been frustrated? Call me. I will tutor you on the material. Affordable rates.

Viola. There you have it. Someone else has developed the course material, you understand it, all you have to do is connect with persons who want to learn.

Affordable rates? How about meals.

Yes, meet at a restaurant, the learner buys lunch, and I tutor on this week’s material. Everyone wins here. The learner learns, I have something constructive to do with my time, I eat lunch, the restaurant has more business, and so on.

And here is the big win for the tutor. I have been working with students at George Mason University as they write their papers in Engineering and Computer Science. I learn much more than they do. I grow. I keep fresh with current ideas. Tutoring eager learners is one of the most rewarding things a semi-retired person can do.

Even if you are not semi-retired, you probably know a lot and can assist others in knowing. What better use of your lunch time is there?

by Dwayne Phillips

An old lesson holds true today: getting the tools and people to the job site is half the job.

Twenty-five years ago, I was involved in a fence-building project. Members of the community gathered to start from scratch and erect a 50-meter-long fence. I was one of the first people there and was talking to one of the organizers. I don’t recall what triggered what he said, but I remember it to this day,

Getting the tools and people to the job site is half the job.

There is much to gathering the tools and materials to build a fence. There is much to having people show at the job site. Truly, getting the tools and people to the job site is half the job.

This past week, I was involved in a project at work. This was the kind of work you do sitting in chairs in front of computers with your hands on the keyboard. We were doing this work at an offsite building. I was one of the first people to arrive on Monday morning – punctuality seems to be one of my traits, perhaps it isn’t a good trait.

• There were a few problems getting people into a locked building.
• There were a few problems with the custom computer network we were to use.
• We took an hour to create accounts on the machines
• Several people arrived an hour or two late

Yes, that man was right years ago. It doesn’t seem to matter what type of work you are doing. Still,

Getting the tools and people to the job site is half the job.

by Dwayne Phillips

Compliant meets the minimum requirements while compelling puts some excitement into a product. Still, I would be satisfied with compliance when it comes to dishwasher delivery and installation.

I ran into the phrase that inspired the title of this post one day last week. We were writing a proposal for a contract. One of the things you want to be in a proposal for a government contract is compliant. Compliance means that you address every element in in the government’s request for proposal. If you are not compliant, you are not considered by the government.

We were compliant in what we had drafted. We were not, however, compelling in our description of what we could do. We had not given the government a compelling reason to consider our services.

First, let’s hear the worth of compliance. A person who arrives on time for a job is compliant. My wife and I recently went through two weeks of pain because a dishwasher installer would not arrive on time; he was not compliant, and we suffered. Compliance is pretty darn good and it seems to be harder to find as time goes by. Perhaps that is the ranting of an old man.

Now on to compelling. That is something that is more than the minimum. Compelling grabs my attention. Instead of daydreaming during television commercials, I awaken and register what is happening when a compelling advertisement appears on the screen.

So now this week we are trying to change our compliant proposal into one that is compelling. I tell people that we need to put the “magic” into the proposal. I’ll have to think of something as clever as “compliant but not compelling.” Maybe something like “from mundane to magic.” Maybe I’ll just go with what I heard last week. It is pretty good.

by Dwayne Phillips

Here is a little secret about me:

When I walk through any store that sells writing instruments and writing surfaces, I stop and wonder how it would feel to write words with those instruments on those surfaces.

It doesn’t matter what type of store it is. Grocery stores sell “school supplies.” I stop and look at the pens and pencils and the different notebooks, pads, and paper. I stand there staring for five minutes. I don’t know what people think I am doing, but my mind is racing through the different combinations of pen and paper. My fingers tingle trying to imagine the feel of each. When in grocery stores, I try to avoid the school supplies section.

I have to go to the Office Depot to buy printer supplies. I run away from the pen and pencil section. I run away from the notebook section. Given all the possible combinations in a huge store like the Depot, I would never leave.

I don’t know anyone else who has this same tendency. Perhaps there are millions of us out there all hiding this little secret.

Is this tendency odd? Is it an affliction common to people who like to write?

by Dwayne Phillips

The MOI Model has one more part – the jiggle. Use it to restart the group when you hit the flat or descending part of the MOI curves.

The MOI Model has three parts – motivation, organization, and information. Recent posts have discussed how more of these helps until we reach a point where they stop helping. Then there is a point where more starts hurting.

Let’s introduce a fourth part to this three-part model. The fourth part is the jiggle. The jiggle is one of those things that you can’t describe, but you know it when you see it. How’s that for an excuse from a writer? It is another way of saying, “you guys just go out there and figure it out for yourselves.”

Let’s try to describe it with a few questions.

Have you ever been working on something with a few people and you all become stuck? The ideas stop flowing? Every one stares at the floor or the ceiling or both? An outsider walks in the room, tells a stupid joke, everyone laughs a minute, then the ideas flow again. That was a jiggle! That stupid joke that broke the impasse.

Here are some other possible jiggles:

• Bathroom break (please don’t say, “everyone to the bathroom to jiggle.” Bad form)
• Lunch break
• Walk around the block
• Reading the weather report or anything else from the newspaper
• Stupid joke (about yourself, not about anyone or anything else)
• Hold a silly face contest
• See who can hold their breath the longest (take medical care with this one)

Take care with your jiggles so that no one is hurt.

What good is a jiggle? When in the MOI model you reach the flat part of the curve and more of motivation, organization, and information leads no where, JIGGLE the group. Then more MOI may become helpful again.

by Dwayne Phillips

In my industry job, I see people making phone calls to obtain answers to questions right now. I never say that in 28 years of government. Here are some thoughts on the practice.

I worked in government for 28 years. I have since worked in private industry for two years. A current project highlighted to me one of the main differences between government and industry:

In industry, things get done in meetings.

I’m not swift; sometimes I take a couple of years to notice something. What I noticed is that during meetings in industry, people make phone calls. We will be discussing something, a question will arise, someone will pick up the phone, make a call, and get the answer right then. Next item.

That – pick up the phone, make a call, get the answer – never happened in any meeting I attended in government (and believe me, I attended thousands of meetings in government). Why didn’t we make the phone call in government meetings? Several reasons that come to mind. In government,

(1) No use trying to call someone else, because they are sitting in another meeting at the same time.

(2) We (mostly incorrectly) assume the right people are in the room.

And the reason that keeps coming to the forefront of my mind:

(3) There is no “get it done” (GID) mentality in government.

There were rare occasions in my government life that we were anxious to GID. So, we persevered and GID. Still, in government, there was never any urge to do it now (DIN).

I recall in 1980s, reading a little newspaper article tacked to a bulletin board. The point of the article: if you have something to get done, DIN. The funny thing, this bulletin board was in a government building where the only people who would see it were government employees. Perhaps I was the only person in the building who read the article.

These phone calls I keep witnessing in industry meetings, the are the epitome of GID-DIN. I guess every time I see this I could yell “giddin” or something silly.

By the way, these phone calls are quite effective. What surprises me is that the people we are calling are in their offices at their desks and answer their phones. They aren’t sitting in a meeting behind a closed door. Wow. What a concept. Another good reason to NOT be in meetings.

by Dwayne Phillips

People use one set of postures for thinking. There are another set of postures that make it easy for other people to hear what you are saying when you are talking. Please try to switch postures when thinking and then talking. This request is especially strong when in meeting with other people.

I sat in a meeting this week. No, this isn’t about unproductive, waste-of-time meetings. We accomplished much in this meeting. We had a number of questions before us, we talked, there was much contemplation, and we decided what to do next. Good meeting.

I noticed something about people thinking. There are a few postures or body positions that people around a table assume when thinking. Some are:

• scratching chin
• biting finger nails
• scratching nose
• resting chin on fist
• rubbing eyes and face

After thinking, people would describe their thoughts, i.e., they would talk a while. There are a few postures that are good for speaking in a manner that is easily heard by others. Some are:

• nothing in front of your face
• nothing touching your face
• neck straight
• head up

Notice that there is no intersection between the two lists of postures. In almost all cases,

the thinking posture is terrible talking posture.

Something else I noticed in the meeting,

people in deep thought usually don’t change posture before talking

In fact, they usually stay in the thinking posture while talking. Ouch, that makes it difficult for everyone else to understand. Hence, the next time you follow a period of deep thought with some description of your thoughts,

please try to switch postures.

by Dwayne Phillips

The vast majority of people need some type of information. There is, however, a limit to  information that leads to effectiveness. Adding more information after this limit only leads to lesser effectiveness.

Here are a few posts on the MOI model from author and consultant Jerry Weinberg. The MOI model comprises three parts:

1. Motivation
2. Organization
3. Information

This posts discusses Information.

Knowledge is power. We all know that, right? As a manager, I want to make my team powerful so they can be effective. Therefore, isn’t this management stuff simple, I give the team information to make them powerful. And in today’s world of the Internet and all, I provide them hundreds of links to places that have pertinent information. My goodness, I can just feel the power of my team growing with every little link that I email to them.

But then, things stop working with my team. Rats, that MOI model curve looks the same when we consider Information. See the graph below. It is remarkably similar to the Motivation and Organization curves. More information leads to more effectiveness. Then we hit the center section of the curve, and effectiveness levels. Then we go to the right section of the curve and effectiveness drops with every new link of information I send.

The Information Part of the MOI Model

What could be wrong with my team? Why can’t they accept the wonderful information I am supplying and use it well?

Information takes time and energy to sort. While all the information I supply is good, well, okay, the vast majority of the information I supply is good, a person can only juggle so many things at a time.

There is this rule of seven that states something like:

A person can consider seven things (plus or minus two) at one time

Persons don’t seem to consider 12 things at a time very well. Even the exceptional people who are on my team, and believe me, since I chose these people, they are all exceptional, well even these exceptional people might be able to consider 10 things at a time, but well…

Once again, the key question is, “how much information is too much information?”

Once again, the answer is, “that differs with different people and different situations.”

Once again, the answer is:

Notice yourself.

Notice the team.

Sigh. There ought to be more to this management field than noticing.

by Dwayne Phillips

The vast majority of people need some type of organization. There is, however, a limit to  organization that leads to effectiveness. Adding more organization after this limit only leads to lesser effectiveness.

Here are a few posts on the MOI model from author and consultant Jerry Weinberg. The MOI model comprises three parts:

1. Motivation
2. Organization
3. Information

This posts discusses organization.

If there is one person working on a project, especially if that one person is me, little is required in the form of management organization. I just do the work. Add a second person, and now we need some type of organization so that the two of us can talk (at this point, just ensuring that the two of us have a common language is almost enough organization). Add a third person, and we need more organization. Add a fourth, fifth, and so on person and, well you see that we need even more organization.

Like motivation, the MOI model shows that there is a period of time where more organization leads to more effectiveness (see the graph below). Ah, I love that part of the graph. You see, I love to organize things and lead people. One of my problems, however, is that given the time, I tend to start organizing the people. I mean, I guess given enough time, I start organizing the lives of the people. Hmmm, is that a bad thing ;-).

Move to the center portion of the graph. More organization leads to a leveling in effectiveness. Maybe people don’t need to have a team meeting in the morning and in the afternoon. Maybe one team meal a week is sufficient.

Move to the right, and more organizing leads to less effectiveness. I guess sitting in team meetings six hours a day reduces the amount of time that the team has to do the work. I should have realized that one.

Managers like me mean well. We want our teams to succeed on their projects. We want this success so much, that we just add a little more help in the form of organizing. Then we add a little more help, and then we add a little more help, and then we add…well you know.

The key question for the manager is,

How much organizing is too much organizing.

The answer differs for every different group of people and every different project. Like in the Motivation part of the MOI model, the manager needs to observe.

Notice yourself.

Notice the team.

The Organization Part of the MOI Model