There’s still time to join me and other thought leaders in Pasadena February 22nd – 24th at the 2010 National Conference of The Association for Strategic Planning (ASP). I’ll be among a team experts and top-rated strategists who will share their expertise in strategic planning and project execution.
Check out the brochure www.strategyplus.org for details. As my thank-you gift for the first ten readers who register as a result of this notice, I’ll give you a complimentary copy of Strategic Project Management Made Simple: A Practical Tools for Leaders and Teams. Just let me know after you sign up.
Hope to see you there!
Going Viral!
My recent interview on “The Importance of Project Management” by Dr. Hendrie Weisinger in the Huffington Post got reprinted in 1800 other tweets, blogs, newsletters, and the like, proving the power of viral communications. Catch the original article here.
About this time each year, my long-term clients ask me to guide an annual review process with the leadership team. I developed this list of questions to spark this discussion. Try them out at your next review meeting and be prepared for a stimulating conversation.
- What were our biggest wins during the last year?
- What did we accomplish last year that we feel especially proud of?
- Who should we congratulate or thank that we haven’t acknowledged?
- What are some things that didn’t work out, which still deserve effort?
- For the things that didn’t work out, what did we learn?
- In what ways have we grown as a team/company?
- How has the business environment changed, and what are the implications for us?
- What areas of our business are in decline (by product, market, customer and other dimensions)?
- What are potential areas of new sales or growth?
- How does our product roadmap and strategic plan need to change to reflect the changing environment?
- What new goals/themes are important to us now?
- What future internal conditions/changes do we anticipate?
- What future external conditions/changes do we anticipate?
- What is potentially coming up that could disrupt our business?
- Which values are we living well; and which ones are we not?
- Are we measuring what matters most to our future?
- Are there any measures we need to add, delete and/or modify by department? And as a company? And how do we do this?
- What’s working really really well?
- What’s not?
- If we had a magic wand and could wave it to make any changes, what would those changes be?
- Which cross-department and cross-function systems/processes are in sync and which need adjusting?
- What are some of the internal pinch points? What are the root causes and solution approaches?
- What else needs to change? Why? How?
- What do we need to stop doing (or do less of)?
- What do we need to continue doing? Or do more of? And/or do better? How?
- How can we (as individuals and a team) renew and refresh ourselves?
- How can we do a better job of supporting each other?
- How can we appreciate ourselves and each other more?
PAST PERFORMANCE QUESTIONS – “Where have we been?”
FUTURE DIRECTION QUESTIONS – “Where are we going?”
CURRENT ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS – “Where are we now?”
Time for Grad School?
Do you know someone ready to apply for grad school? Or perhaps you’re thinking of doing so yourself. Use this LogFrame “Get Accepted into a Top Graduate School” to help you create your strategy. While the deadline to apply may a while away – but designing and implementing your strategy now can give you the edge to get accepted.
Reinventing Your Core Processes
by Terry Schmidt
In the day-to-day swirl of our work and lives, we seldom see the larger picture and patterns at plan. There is great value for every professional who takes a birds-eye view of the core processes that their work involves in order to identify how to do it better.
Here’s how to review and reinvent your own core processes and functions in 4 primary steps. (I define a function as a group of related processes, which should work together.)
Reinvention Step #1 – Identify your core overall work functions—from 3-7 is usually a good number that covers it for most professions. For example, as a management consultant and entrepreneur, my major functions fall under the headings of Marketing; Client Service Delivery; Product Development; Finance; Administration, and Human Resources. Your functions will likely be different, of course.
Reinvention Step #2 – Identify the priority goal of each function:
- Marketing = Attract new clients and projects; and maintain current clients.
- Client Service Delivery = Surpass clients’ expectations.
- Product Development = Create new products (e.g. seminar, books); improve existing products.
- Finance Goal = Make and manage money.
- Administration = Stay organized internally to support other functions.
- Human Resources = Build and support my extended virtual team.
Reinvention Step #3 – For each major function, identify the core processes or steps required to reach the goal. For example, Product Development function includes these core processes:
- Identify market need for a product
- Define the product’s format (e.g., article, CD, workshop)
- Research source materials (tap my brain, review my files and other sources as needed)
- Develop the product (create, edit, polish, publish)
- Deliver the product to the end-user
Reinvention Step #4 – Reinvent each major function or process by asking these bulls-eye questions about how to do it better, cheaper, faster, and smarter. Below are some ideas about how it may apply to you and your business:
- Do it better. Make a qualitative improvement. Make your process less complicated, less involved, and less wasteful. Eliminate the process altogether. Get two people to do it instead of three. Handle it only once; and then file or delete it.
- Do it cheaper. Reduce costs, obvious or hidden. In my Product Development example, reduce the number of edits and rewrites, and improve the way the files are saved and organized.
- Do it faster. Time is money and speed to market is essential. Reduce the time spent on low value-added steps (countless edits!) to free up more time for other, more value-added activities (better distribution). Do online editing of drafts rather than print out, mark up, and re-type for each revision cycle. Being better organized and having the required resources readily on hand reduces the time it takes to create a great product.
- Do it smarter. Making improvements as described above, results in working smarter. Doing it smarter also means being strategic about deciding which new products to pursue and which to ignore.
How can you shave 10 minutes here or 30 minutes there—everyday? Saving one hour every workday adds up more than 200 hours per year—or five work weeks that increases your productivity and/or creates some downtime for you. (By the way, walking my dog Mushka is also productive thinking time that provides both a “break” from desk-top work—but stirs creativity simultaneously.)
Doing it smarter means mentally projecting the probable impact of the completed effort. Being smarter about what it takes to produce a product helps increase awareness of being smart in the other functions of my business as well.
At a time when organizations are recognizing the need to reinvent themselves, be certain to apply these steps to improve your own processes and add value. Starting the reinvention process begins with identifying your current processes so you can determine what’s working and what needs improvement.
Why not start now?
Here is an interesting list of recommended books, compiled by a gadfly~~Ralph Nader~~ with a proven record of stirring up trouble (especially for Al Gore. Thumb through his latest list of recommendations to see what grabs you:
- Achieving the Impossible by Lois Marie Gibbs; Published by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (www.chej.org) is an inspiring collection of short stories about how ordinary people have risen to meet the challenges of toxic pollution confronting their families and communities. The author herself rose from the Love Canal controversy in Niagara Falls, New York to lead a grand national grass roots organization.
- Europe’s Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age by Steven Hill (University of California Press, 2010.) His thesis is that Western Europe treats its people better in many ways than the United States does its people, and not just in social insurance and services. Read, wonder and galvanize!
- Grand Illusion: The Myth of Voter Choice in a Two-Party Tyranny by Theresa Amato (New Press, 2009.) My former campaign manager weighs in with an indictment of the two-party barriers to a competitive electoral system, candidate ballot access and voter choice. Partly personal memoir of her battles in 2000 and 2004, part history about the decades long ago when third parties could get on the ballot easier and make a difference and part a series of reforms that only an outraged public can make happen.
- Priceless Money: Banking Time for Changing Times by Edgar S. Cahn is a revolutionary elevation of traditional assets in how time can become a currency—a means of exchange that is beyond price—that does not allow market price to define value. It is a limited edition booklet you’ll never forget, free. Send two first class stamps to TimeBanksUSA, 5500 39th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20015.
- Empire of Illusion by Chris Hedges (Nation Books, 2009) The Pulitzer Prize winning war correspondent turned prolific author and lecturer, Mr. Hedges goes to the core of a culture that cannot distinguish between reality and illusion. He “exposes the mechanisms used to divert us from confronting the economic, political and moral collapse around us.” In gripping, memorable concrete prose that resonates the moment we let ourselves think.
- The Buyout of America: How Private Equity Will Cause the Next Great Credit Crisis by Josh Kosman (Portfolio Hardcover, 2009.) Think it is all about the brand names of a corrupt, reckless Wall Street? Try the entirely unregulated private equity firms that acquire and strip mine them under the guise of saving them, then leave behind debt time bombs and mass layoffs as the value of these leveraged buyouts is sucked out by the corporate buccaneers. Kosman predicts a coming private equity-caused big bubble crisis.
- Ordinary People Doing the Extraordinary: The Story of Ed and Joyce Koupal and the Initiative Process by Dwayne Hunn and Doris Ober. This husband-wife team “just ordinary people,” in their words, started out powerless and in over a decade, largely in the seventies, built Initiative power to qualify reforms on the California ballot for the popular vote. A story for the ages that strips away excuses steeped in a sense of powerlessness. This small but invigorating paperback can be obtained from The People’s Lobby (peopleslobby.hypermart.net) for $15, including shipping. California St., Unit 201, San Francisco, CA 94109.
- Getting Away With Torture: Secret Government, War Crimes, and the Rule of Law by Christopher H. Pyle (Potomac Books, 2009) A former captain in army intelligence and Congressional staffer, now teaching constitutional law at Mount Holyoke College, Mr. Pyle shatters our belief in the rule of law before the unconstitutional government of Bush and Cheney in waging war crimes and torture, while seeking Congressional amnesty to those responsible for implementing their rogue, secret regime. Veteran constitutional law specialist, Louis Fisher asserts these practices have “left American weaker politically, economically, morally, and legally.”
- It Takes A Pillage by Nomi Prins (Wiley, 2009.) A former managing director of Goldman Sachs, who quit Wall Street and now is dedicated to educating and mobilizing the American people so that they press for reforms to prevent myopic greed from bringing down our economy again and to hold the speculators and crooks accountable. She “gets inside how the banks looted the Treasury, stole the bailout, and continued with business as usual,” in the words of one reviewer.
- Censored 2010: The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2008-09 edited by Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff with Project Censored (Seven Stories Press, 2009.) This book contains investigative pieces on important topics too often neglected by the mainstream news organizations. Read this book, it will make you angry and then it will energize you to take on a significant societal problem in the New Year.
(This list was originally published on December 24, 2009 by CommonDreams.org)
A New Zealand shepherd was herding his flock in a remote pasture when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced out of the dust cloud towards him. The driver, a young man in a Brioni suit, Gucci shoes, Ray Ban sunglasses and Yves St. Laurent tie, leaned out the window and asked the shepherd, "If I tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give me one?"
The shepherd looked at the man, who was obviously a self-absorbed yuppie; and then looked at his peacefully-grazing flock and calmly answered, "Sure."
The yuppie parked his car, whipped out his notebook and connected to the Internet. He then surfed to a NASA page where he called up a surveillance satellite system, scanned the area, and then opened up a database and an Excel spreadsheet with complex formulas. He sent a message on his Blackberry and, after a few minutes, received a response.
Finally, he prints out a 30-page report on his miniature printer then turns to the shepherd and says, "You have exactly 1362 sheep."
"I’m impressed. That is correct! Take one of the sheep," said the shepherd. He watches the young man select one of the friendlier animals and load it into his car.
Then the shepherd says: "If I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my animal?"
"OK, why not?" answered the young man.
"Clearly, you are a consultant." said the shepherd.
"That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"
"No guessing required." answers the shepherd. "You turned up here although nobody called you. You want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked; and you don't know anything about my business. Now give me back my dog!"