The intersection of the plan and reality (Kanban pt. 2)

Posted in Leadership, Time efficiency, Time management with tags , , , , , , , , on March 16, 2015 by danmarbes

In my last post, I shared some high level information about the way that my team is currently using the Kanban system for work management. In the nine months that we’ve been using this method, we’ve made a fair number of adaptations to make it work for us. In this post, I’ll cover the most significant tweaks we’ve made.

One of our biggest challenges is working in an environment where we are responsible for operations and support work, which by its very nature is unplanned, and project work. Our team has an on-call support rotation and many of the team members are called upon to perform support work outside of this cycle due to system access or product knowledge not shared by the entire team. As you might imagine, this can create conflicts between what we planned to do and what we actually have to do to keep the lights on.

The Kanban system offers a mechanic that helps us to identify these conflicts: the block. Whenever planned work cannot move forward, it is placed into a blocked state. This can occur for a number of reasons. We may be called away to deal with a system outage, we could be waiting on a vendor partner to provide information or another internal team to deliver a piece of the work or we could simply be waiting for an available change control window to promote the work to production. The reason for the block is ultimately less important than the process we implement to resolve these issues when they occur.

In my last post, I talked about the role of the board owner as the arbiter of priority and work sequencing. Another critical role that person plays on the board is the “icebreaker”. As mentioned in the last post, once a resource moves a work card from “to do” into “doing” they are accepting the accountability for completing that work, ideally in the estimated time frame. As such, they are initially responsible for resolving conflicts that are causing blocks. The expectation on our team is that resources will work to resolve these items until the team’s next daily stand-up meeting. If the issue cannot be resolved, then the board owner takes over the resolution of this conflict.

Structurally, we’ve modified our board to include lanes to accommodate our most frequent delays. Early on, we realized that we needed to account for our internal change control process which often adds 3-7 days from the time that something is completed and ready for promotion to production until it is actually released. To account for this we added a sub-lane under “doing” called “waiting for release”. Work cards can move here after being submitted to our change board and a date is added to the card indicating when this will move into production. Once approved and released, this card is moved to “done”. This way, we don’t tie up the WIP limits for our team with cards that aren’t really being worked on.

We also end up with items that are waiting on other internal teams or vendor partners. We decided that if these items are going to cause work to be blocked for more than one day, we needed a place to store them until these issues were resolved. We created another sub-lane under “doing” called “waiting on others” and now move cards to this lane if we reach an impasse or anticipate a significant delay with work completion. We make a point of reviewing these items every morning to keep ourselves disciplined and focused on our commitment to completing this work. Once items move to this lane, the ownership for escalation and issue resolution lies with the board owner. Once those conflicts are resolved, these cards will move back into an active state before any new work is pulled from the “ready” lane.

One thing that we reinforce is that simply because an individual resource’s WIP limit is two items doesn’t mean that he or she needs to have two work cards active at all times. We know that there are daily admin activities, email, support work and numerous other small issues that crop up throughout the day. We’ve set a guideline that any support work or other activities that won’t consume two hours of dedicated time are outside the scope of the board entirely as the administrative overhead of managing cards for these items just doesn’t make sense. On days where a resource is on-call or stuck in meetings all day it is not uncommon to see no cards in that individual’s lane and that’s OK. This is simply another data point that the board owner can use to estimate the real cycle time for work items.

Whew! Hopefully all of that makes sense. In next week’s post I’ll recap a great discussion I just had with a small business owner asking how to get started in designing a board that works for a particular situation and how to start using it.

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Get more done by doing less! (Kanban pt. 1)

Posted in Leadership, Time management with tags , , , , , , , , on March 14, 2015 by danmarbes

About a year ago, after several years of leading top notch technical resources, I took a step back to think about what my team was doing and how effective it really was. Even though we consistently busy and felt that we were providing a lot of value for our business partners, I got a distinct sense that there were some real challenges preventing us from delivering our best. Specifically, the culture that we lived and worked in, combined with our team alignment, made for a chaotic work day. As I analyzed the issue I found several common themes:

1) Work took a lot longer to get done than it probably should have
2) Many projects and tasks got started but never seemed to reach the finish line
3) As a resource manager, I didn’t really have a clear idea what my team was working on
4) There was friction within the team tied to a lack of understanding around who was doing what
5) Team members were frustrated that they were often in the middle of conflicts about what work needed to be done “now”

In short, while we got a lot of “stuff” done, we didn’t have a good system for organizing and managing that work. We took in work from multiple systems including our incident/problem management system, our project management system, our own list of items we wanted to do as well as walk-up requests (truly everyone’s favorite). We were operating in a “squeaky wheel gets the grease” mode and it just wasn’t efficient. Our level of engagement was declining and work kept pouring in.

If you work in or manage in a traditional IT shop, this probably sounds familiar. This is where we were in the second quarter of 2014 and I feared that our team was nearing implosion.

Thankfully, one of my peers had been exploring the Kanban system of work management and I decided to run a short-term trial to see how it would work for us. It ended up helping us turn the tide and in the nine months we’ve been using it, I feel it has revolutionized our practice.

Kanban is a a product of the Toyota lean movement originally (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban) and was developed to increase production line efficiency. It was subsequently adopted for development work (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban_(development)) and also for overall workflow management in knowledge work.

At its core, there are several key concepts. The two most important ones are:

1) Visualize the work
2) Limit work in progress (WIP)

All work in a Kanban system is listed on story cards which can be something as simple as an index card or a sticky note. One of the first things we needed to do as we got ready to make this transition was to centralize our project tasks, big support items and all of the information in people’s heads and on personal whiteboards, notebooks and stuck in desk drawers. Once done, it was all out in the open and that alone was a huge step forward. We then looked at every item and classified it by size, in our case how many working days it would take to complete. We decided that our maximum card size would be five days and that anything requiring more time to complete would need to be broken down into smaller tasks.

This was tough in some cases but the logic is that we want to reduce work to the small, manageable tasks that we know can be delivered in a finite time window. We don’t want things to drag on for weeks and weeks delaying any sense of accomplishment or progress. It also helped us eliminate waste in our process. Rather than saying “I’m working on this project for 40 hours this week” which is directionless statement that we have two tasks that require 3 working days to complete.

During the two weeks we took to get everything recorded, I stressed that priority did not matter. Whether the task on the card was part of a mission critical project or something that was a nice-to-have improvement, they were treated the same.

Once we had all the cards, we placed them onto a board. Again this can be something as simple as a wall. This board is divided into lanes which indicate what stage the work is currently in. A very simple model would include four lanes from left to right: “Backlog”, “To Do”, “Doing” and “Done”. For this example, I’ll use this design with one addition specific to a team environment, within the “doing” lane each resource has their own sub-lane.

 

Some quick definitions:

Backlog: Work that has been requested but not prioritized/sequenced or approved to start.

To Do: Work that is approved to start and has been reviewed to make sure that it is actually ready to start, is well defined and has the appropriate size recorded.

Doing: Work that is in progress.

Done: Work that has been completed according to the specifications in the card.

 

Once all of the work was written down and placed into the backlog on the board, it was time to start getting it done. Here’s where we implemented a change to resolve on of our major pain points. In a Kanban system, all of the work sequencing (or prioritization if you prefer that term) is done by the board manager. In our case, this is my role as the team lead. When resources are ready to start work, they simply grab the top item in the “To Do” lane and move it into their “Doing” lane. Any conflicts in priority among tasks is handled between the stakeholders and me without involving the resources. We want our technical experts focused on doing work, not stuck in meetings and battling politics and planning issues.

Here’s where the magic starts to happen.

We enforce a strict WIP (work in progress) limit on each resource which is generally two items. This means a resource cannot be working on more than two items at once. Why? Because multi-tasking is horribly inefficient and plenty of studies have shown that the time it takes to switch between tasks and get back on track is significant. Also, once a resource has moved cards into their “doing” lane up to their WIP limit, they are committed to finishing those cards before grabbing more. I’m sure we all know someone who has started five or more “projects” around the house but completed none so the bathroom doesn’t have tile and the bedroom needs paint and so on. By committing to a smaller number of items, we actually turn out a better product faster. Our decision to limit card size to five working days also helps ensure that work is constantly moving through the system. This helps drive a real sense of accomplishment when resources move those cards to “done”. I feel the ability to feel productive is really at the core of engagement,and I’ve witnessed a cycle of productivity driving engagement driving productivity.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll detail more about we implemented the system, the tool we used, the process for dealing with unexpected/unplanned/rush work, how this allowed us to get rid of our regular weekly team meeting and how we continue to evolve this to meet our needs. Additionally, we’re just beginning to explore how this model works in a multi-team deployment so I’ll share those experiences as they happen.

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What’s in a name?

Posted in Identity, Leadership on August 3, 2011 by danmarbes

It’s amazing how fast time seems to fly by, encapsulating all of the things we did and meant to do in one great flurry. Hard to believe it’s been nearly three months since I’ve found time to write!

Lately, I’ve been thinking about names. No, I’m not expecting but I find the topic fascinating. One of the core tenets in this blog and a great deal of what I try to convey about leadership is acknowledging people as people, not simply as cogs in some grand machine (irrespective of their professional contributions, status, or title). At some fundamental level I believe that this is accomplished by understanding a person’s real identity. Who are they, what are they about and how can I relate those experiences?

I wonder if any attribute is more closely identified with that concept of identity than a person’s name? In many cases, a person’s name has been around longer than they have. Parents spend countless hours trying to decide the perfect name, one that reflects a part of the familial heritage in some cases or one that speaks to virtues and traits the parents hope the child will espouse. It can convey a sense of individuality (check out http://bit.ly/rtuGtb for an interesting look at some alternate spellings of common names) or stand unaltered representing generations past. Further still, as some children grow they may choose to adopt a shortened version of their given name, take their middle name as their preferred name or go so far as to have their name legally changed. Long before we meet someone in a professional capacity, this identity has been forged and defined.

Over these last few months, one of the things I’ve noticed about the workplace is just how bad people are with names.Whether it’s a misspelling in an email or a mispronunciation on a conference call, gaffes seem increasingly common. While these errors offer up an air of sloppiness as do other verbal and written miscues, I wonder if in this case the actual impact of the error runs deeper. By not knowing my name or not making an effort to reproduce it correctly, what have you told me about how you value me as a person?

Think back to the first day of school for a moment. I suspect we all remember roll call, listening to teachers struggle with less common names. As a person with a last name that was often mispronounced in that exercise I can tell you that those few minutes were always a source of great dread. Kids being kids, once the teacher had mispronounced a student’s name it would be repeated ad nauseum in the halls and at recess, and subliminally it was easy to feel devalued from the continued mockery. For many adults, the impact of hearing their name “butchered” draws a similar response.

In our corporate cultures, we interact with people from all over the globe and with increasing frequency our primary communication paths are not face-to-face. When email, instant message and conference calls become those primary vehicles for collaborating and thereby building relationships it seems to me that the extra few seconds it takes to cross reference a name spelling or to make sure we know how to pronounce those seemingly difficult names will return dividends of engagement far beyond our expenditure.

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Reach for the stars with all you’ve got

Posted in Opportunity, Potential on June 8, 2011 by danmarbes

This week I’ve been in Orlando attending Dell Storage Forum. As part of the conference, there was a closing party at EPCOT and I found some time to break away from the hustle and bustle for some quiet reflection. Being at EPCOT in many ways brought my journey over the last nine years full circle. I’ve also been reflecting on a conversation I had with a colleague recently in which he asked me why I work so hard?

For those who may not know, my professional journey has been somewhat…atypical. I’ve not only held different jobs, I’ve had several distinct careers. In early 2002 I was in the 5th year of a successful stint as a high school and middle school band director. Then a funny thing happened. I got tickets to see Blast with my family in February. While watching the show, I found myself thinking that the professional touring life would probably be pretty cool. On our way out of the theater, I asked one of the cast members (more as a funny aside than a serious inquiry) if the show was hiring. Rather than dismissing me, he pointed me to the show’s website where there were details about the show’s casting needs.

I sat on that information for a while and debated with myself whether I should apply at all. I’ve always been an adequate trumpet player and maybe even a good one, but did I have what it took to hang with the pros? I had no real marching experience and wasn’t sure I had the look they were looking for. I had all but talked myself out of taping the audition when in a rare moment of clarity I thought that I would regret not having tried much more than I would being told that I wasn’t ready for primetime. In March, I recorded and submitted a 30 minute video thinking that I could at least say I had tried.

I will always remember where I was when my phone rang with the news that I was being offered a position with a new show that the producers were creating (it was on Exit 165 South from I-39 in Stevens Point, Wisconsin as I was heading to a dress rehearsal for a symphony performance). Thankfully I had invested in that bag phone for my car (oh yea, it was a real statement in ’02!). After nearly driving into the ditch, it struck me. My life was about to change in a big way and it was going to take a lot of work (even on that initial call, my earlier concerns were validated… I’d need to lose a bunch of weight and since all of the choreography was dance-based it would even harder than I anticipated). I don’t believe that I accepted the offer on that call as I knew there were a lot of things I needed to think about and in the day that followed I did a lot of soul-searching. To be sure this was an awesome opportunity (come live your dream, tour the country, meet great people, it’ll be A-W-E-S-O-M-E) but I almost let the doubt demons get the best of me (you’re leaving a good job where you’re loved, who knows if this will work out…). Thankfully in another moment of clarity, I decided that an opportunity like this would never present itself again and I would forever regret not trying.

Fast forward to the summer of 2002. Rehearsals were in full swing and we were pushing up to 10-12 hours per day getting ready for the fall start to the US tour. Meanwhile, we were performing a shorter version of the show with different choreography at EPCOT. To put it mildly, it was the single most physically grueling thing I have ever done but it was so exciting to be a part of something like this show. The cast members were all committed to perfecting the product and were all-around great people to boot. Then one day in August, the choreographer asked me to stick around following morning rehearsal. What followed was another transformational moment in my life. I met with the entire creative team and was told with little room for interpretation that they weren’t sure I was going to make it. I hadn’t dropped enough weight, I wasn’t moving well enough and they were concerned I wasn’t going to be able to perform at the level required. At that moment, Mike Tyson could have walked in off the street and punched me in the stomach and it would have been less painful. I had already given so much physically and emotionally not to mention putting my career on hold that I hadn’t even contemplated failure.

It’s in moments like this that I think we grow to know ourselves. That evening, I sat alone on the balcony of our apartment and pondered my options. Should I call it quits and try to get my teaching gig back? Should I press on? I called my parents who have always been my sounding board and told them everything. Thankfully all they said was “do what you feel is right and we will support whatever decision you make”. After that call, it hit me. I had made a commitment to the show, to my students back home who supported me, to my family and friends, and most importantly to myself. If I gave anything less than 100%, I would fail them all. The next morning I arrived early to work on choreo, I stayed through lunch and I worked late when I needed more time. I cleaned up my eating and did more in the gym when not in rehearsal. In short, I pushed myself harder than I thought possible. I knew that if it ended up not working out, I wanted to leave with my head held high knowing I gave it everything I had.

That chapter of the story had a happy ending. Not only did I earn the right to perform in the touring show, I never missed a performance due to injury. I got to see many wonderful theaters and share experiences with some very wonderful people. As fate would have it, when the original schedule wrapped up and the show went to London and then I found myself out of work but the lessons I learned in that summer will last a lifetime. Living those lessons has opened up doors for me that I would not have dreamed possible even a few short years ago.

So, what does that mean really?

I would offer the following to anyone willing to listen:

Life is full of challenges. How you approach and work through them helps shape and define you as a person.

Opportunity knocks, but often only one time. Open the door when it does.

Everyone can be great and accomplish great things but it takes a lot of hard work to do it.

Don’t be afraid to give all that you have to succeed and don’t be afraid to fail if that’s not enough. What you learn about yourself along the way has value beyond measure.

Thanks for indulging me. The picture below is the stage door at the American Adventure pavilion at EPCOT, which I walked through many times on this journey. When opportunity knocks, will you open the door?

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I before E equals fail

Posted in Empowerment, Leadership on April 26, 2011 by danmarbes

“I before E except after C.” Remember this mantra from elementary school spelling? I do, and I’ve used it many times since to spell check my own writing and that of others (my notepad has yet to spawn an F7 key). Mnemonic devices like this stick with us years after we learn them and for that reason I’m going to pirate the idea.

I’ve been reflecting on what core attitudes, concepts and values really drive success in the workplace. How, really, is it that we as leaders can create an environment where those around us consistently give their best? I believe the foundation of this workplace is EMPOWERMENT; the first and most powerful “E”. Allowing those around us the opportunity to make decisions and feel ownership in their professional life is so basic, yet so powerful. Rather than simply being cogs in the great corporate machine, empowered employees strive to make things better because they have a more vested interest in the outcome and they understand that the choices they make actually matter.

This concept probably scares some leaders to death. “How do I know that they will make the right decisions or know which decisions they should make?” The answer lies in EDUCATION. Empowerment does not mean that a leader turns over the keys and gives everyone free reign to do as they please. We need to educate employees so they understand the difference between a decision they should feel empowered to make and one that may have farther-reaching consequences. Perhaps the employee works in a regulated industry with oversight and audit frameworks and if so, they need to understand the scope of those frameworks so they can make informed decisions about when a decision point needs to be escalated.

In addition to “learning the ropes”, we need to encourage our employees to become active learners with respect to their professional role. Understanding new technology, process, regulations and whatever other knowledge is relevant to a specific job is key to understanding how it can be done better. You wouldn’t expect to see a golfer turn in a good round with only a 7-iron, so why would we expect creative and innovative ideas from our employees if we don’t encourage them to add more clubs to their bag?

We also have to realize that occasionally even the best intentioned employees will make a bad decision. Again it falls to us as leaders to take advantage of this teachable moment. Rather than dispatching discipline from the mountaintop, we need to review what happened and make sure that employee (and the employee’s team) understands how to avoid a similar mistake in the future.

If we allow our employees into the decision making process and give them more control over their environment, I suspect we will see more ENGAGEMENT, ENTHUSIASM, ENERGY, EFFORT and EFFICIENCY. Once converted, this environment will feed on itself to drive continued improvement. Employees will replace outdated processes with new ones that actually make sense for people doing the work. They will gravitate towards the work they are really passionate about and will drive positive change in that space. Attitudes will be better all around and when a big challenge or project comes along we’re likely to see much more willingness to go that extra mile.

At face value, it seems like everyone should be doing this. If we can create a workplace where our employees come every day EXCITED that they can make a difference, how do you explain why so many Americans are utterly miserable and disenfranchised with their professional status?

I suspect that from a leadership perspective the single largest obstacle we face is INSECURITY. If we are afraid that our employees are going to “show us up” or think less of us when we’re not the ones coming up with the new ideas it’s hard to give them any decision making power at all. As true leaders we need to move past these feelings. Our world changes too fast for us to be experts in every area that we manage. We have to become secure enough in our own leadership ability to promote the good ideas of those we lead. To borrow a metaphor from a previous post, you don’t need to be a virtuoso on every instrument to be a great conductor.

INSTITUTIONALIZATION is another gigantic pitfall that swallows up good ideas. “We don’t really want to consider your idea because we’ve done this thing this way as long as we can remember and it’s still working for us”. Ack. This line of thinking blows my mind. If you think about some of the many things we now take for granted (cars, television, cellular phones, the Internet) may not have been developed if someone didn’t want to improve an existing idea. I can get from my house to the office on the back of a mule, but I would argue that’s not the most efficient way for me to accomplish the task. Just because something isn’t broken doesn’t mean it can’t be improved.

As leaders, we must continue to break down these walls and remove the obstacles that keep our best and brightest from living up to their full potential. If we allow “I” to stand in the way of “E” we will never realize the CHANGE that will make us great.

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The LEGO experience

Posted in Creativity on April 3, 2011 by danmarbes

This post is dedicated to my parents, without whom I could never have realized my aspirations. I love you both very much and am forever indebted to you for the lessons I learned growing up, especially those I didn’t even realize were occurring, and the sacrifices you made to facilitate them.

One of the truths I see every day in IT is that things are in constant motion. Technology changes so quickly that it seems we are designing solutions for new challenges on an almost daily basis. While I’m sure this keeps some people up at night in cold sweats, it’s actually one of the things I most enjoy about my current role in IT systems design. I never know when someone is going to walk up to my desk with the need to produce some new widget, make a new application work, or just have some vexing issue that is important to solve. Recently I’ve started to wonder why I’m often been able to conceptualize multiple design strategies on the fly and I think the answer reaches all the way back into my childhood.

When I was young, I loved playing with LEGO®. I could spend whole days building elaborate buildings, vehicles and even complete cities. While I always enjoyed getting a new LEGO® set to play with and took the time to build it according to the included directions, the greatest fun came when I could spend time with my full collection of pieces limited only by my creativity. I would build, rebuild, tweak, disassemble, and build again. Each project was always a work in progress. I’m sure I didn’t think of it at the time, but this experimentation would prove invaluable years later. I truly believe that LEGO® play had a profound impact on my creative development (and still does to this day).

Well, great, I was a happy kid, but where’s the professional relevance? Fear not! I think there are several concepts which can translate into the modern workplace.

1) Understand what you’re working with – Part of that LEGO® experience was spending time learning how to manipulate a bunch of raw materials to form a solution. Through repeated tries, I learned a lot about which pieces worked best to accomplish specific tasks and how pieces could also be used in different ways when the ideal component was not available. By continuing to understand all of the “tools in the toolbox” I was able to build more complex and elaborate creations. In the professional world, some people may gain this knowledge by reviewing documentation, manuals and use cases while others may just need time to experiment to figure out what the “tool” can actually do. Irrespective of the way the knowledge is gained, this foundation will allow the construction of better and better mousetraps.

2) Find new uses for existing pieces – When I got new LEGO® sets, there would be specialized pieces like aircraft wings, antennas and the like.  While this was their original purpose, very often they worked nicely to solve other problems. In the workplace, this type of thinking can help you leverage existing solutions to solve problems without additional cost or complexity. At our office we use Microsoft Live Meeting as a collaborative platform. It works great for its intended purpose but I figured out that I could also use it to record audio and video to create procedural demos that I could distribute to other engineers as a training tool. Using “LEGO® thinking”, I was able to fill a gap in training without having to invest in a separate application.

3) The creative process needs time – Part of my mother’s wisdom was the way in which she would suggest a concept “Why don’t you build me an airport?” to provide some initial direction and then leave me to my creative process, sometimes for hours.  In that time, I was able to experiment and figure out what I felt was the best way to reach the design goal. While time seems to be a resource in perpetually short supply, managers and supervisors have to realize that standing over someone’s shoulder asking for a status report every fifteen minutes radically diminishes the odds of a truly creative solution to a problem. Some of the best solutions I’ve come up with for design challenges in my professional experience have stewed in my subconscious for weeks.

4) Today’s failure may become tomorrow’s success – I built a lot of LEGO® creations that were failures. Some broke, others were just ugly. Wings fell off airplanes, wheels didn’t steer, doors didn’t open and the list goes on. While all of these failures helped me figured out better ways to build so I gradually improved my skill, some of them sent me in different creative directions altogether. Just because the square peg doesn’t fit into the round hole doesn’t mean it is devoid of value. It may have incredible benefit if used in a different way.

As the pace of change in our lives and our world continues to accelerate, we will need more people with the creative skill set to meet these challenges head-on. We need people who can conceive innovative solutions, people who can develop effective and efficient process, and people who can creatively lead others to realize their full potential. I hope that the people who emerge in these leadership roles have in their own way learned the lessons that I did as a young boy with a box full of LEGO® pieces and a world of possibility.

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The workplace symphony

Posted in Leadership, Music, Roles on March 20, 2011 by danmarbes

Maybe it’s the wisdom of age or possibly just my mid-life crisis grabbing me by the lapels but I’m really starting to notice amazing parallels among seemingly unrelated areas of my life.  My life journey has taken me through three distinctly different professions (public school teacher, touring musician and currently IT systems engineer) and it’s fascinating how the lessons of the past continue to be not only relevant but extremely poignant in the present.

As I reflect on this today, I am going to assume that you the reader have seen a symphony orchestra at some point in your life.  Maybe it was live or maybe it was televised, but at least the term ‘symphony orchestra’ means something to you.  If in fact it is totally foreign, take five minutes to find and watch an online clip of an orchestra playing something.  Anything will do.  You needn’t be a classical music afficianado to appreciate the discussion but the points below will make more sense if you’ve seen an orchestra in action.

As you watch a symphony, you’ll see instruments of all sizes and shapes being played (hopefully well….maybe I should have given a recommendation in the above paragraph….sorry if you were scarred).  You’ll also see a conductor, the individual standing in front of the musicians frantically waving a small stick.

What’s fascinating about the orchestra performers is that within this team, they are all subject matter experts.  The bassist knows how to manipulate his instrument in such a way that the music in front of him is realized with accuracy.  The cellist does the same, though her instrument is slightly different.  The flutist uses a completely different set of techniques to get the correct sound to emanate from his instrument.  The percussionist has an even different set of challenges, sometimes playing upwards of ten different instruments in a single piece.  Some of these performers may be skilled performers on other instruments, but aside from percussionists it’s relatively uncommon that you will see them changing instruments frequently in a single performance and when they do the additional roles make sense (you may see a flutist that also plays piccolo but you’re not ever likely to see that same flutist grab a tuba).

Standing at the helm is the conductor.  This individual, more often than not, is also an expert performer but in the orchestra has set this aside to provide leadership.  Some of the conductor’s tasks are relatively simple, such as giving a signal to the performers indicating when they should begin.  Some are more ethereal such as conveying the emotion of a piece and guiding the players’ efforts through facial expression, body movement or manipulation of that little stick (the baton….now you know!).  While the conductor likely has a base understanding of the techniques used by all of the performers, she is almost certainly not a virtuoso on all instruments represented in the orchestra.  Again, her job is to provide leadership and combine all of the individual instruments into a team to realize the ideas of the composer who wrote the piece being performed.  Understanding that composer’s vision and intent takes dedicated study and preparation away from the orchestra and an ability to convey that knowledge both in rehearsal and during performances.

So what about the parallels that I mentioned earlier?  Think of a team in your workplace.  That team probably has a large number of different tasks and responsibilities requiring many different skills and personality traits.  Ideally, these tasks are performed by people with the specific expertise needed to do them efficiently and accurately.  These people are like the performers in the symphony.  Each has specific skills and knowledge.  While some may be able to fill multiple roles (like the percussionist), others may be a considered a virtuoso in one specific skill.  Much as it does not make sense to ask one of the violinists to play clarinet, does it really make sense to ask someone known for doing fantastic accounting work to function as a lead salesperson?  Maybe they do in fact have the moxy for it, but wouldn’t we be better off finding a resource who can really excel at the task (and is passionate about it)?  Not only do I suspect we will have better results, but when given a chance to do work they believe in, team members’ effort and dedication is likely to be much higher.

As a team leader or manager, the challenge is to set aside previous accomplishments and focus on this leadership role.  I would guess that the manager at most car dealerships was probably a pretty darn good salesperson at one time.  However, if that manager continues to try being the best salesperson at the dealership, not only is there likely to be conflict with the actual sales team, there’s probably not enough time being spent on the leadership tasks.  Much like the conductor, leaders have to understand the vision.  As a conductor studies the composer’s work to find the meaning in a piece of music, a corporate leader must analyze the company’s strategic vision and translate those objectives into relevant and meaningful direction for his team.

Armed with this knowledge, leaders must be able to evaluate the activities going on around them and offer guidance where needed.  If the trombonist is playing too loudly, the conductor must give direction to correct this or it detracts from the quality of the performance.  If a team member is devoting significant resource time to a task that falls outside of the established strategic direction, the leader needs to work to refocus that effort and help the team member understand how these choices impact the ability to execute the overall strategy.  Also, as a conductor would not ask one musician to play violin, cello, harp, and trumpet simultaneously, a corporate leader needs to realize when there simply aren’t enough “performers” to make the music happen.  Rarely will you see a professional orchestra with less than 20 violinists.  The conductor knows that to get the sound that’s needed a certain number of players are required.  And while a lot of wonderful sounds can be made by 50 violins, they alone are not enough to accurately perform Mahler’s First Symphony.  Sometimes it’s not just a matter of the number of team members, but ensuring that we have the ones with the needed skills to execute our strategic vision.

With the right people in the right place doing the right things for the right reasons, we set ourselves up for as much success as we can.  Facilitating that is one of the great challenges of leadership but with careful preparation we can deliver results that will have the audience on their feet.

I wish you many standing ovations.

DM

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Time efficiency and the nature of meetings

Posted in Leadership, Meeting Etiquette, Time efficiency on March 13, 2011 by danmarbes

Time.   It’s that one mystical, magical resource that almost everyone says they never have enough of at some point.  It’s a funny statement since everyone is given the same 24 hours in each day and the same number of days in each week, month and year.  It’s what we DO with this time that we can control.

I think that an adequate discussion of time efficiency (using one’s allocated time in the most effective manner) will take several posts but I think that the topic is incredibly important.  With that, I would like to dive into one of my biggest corporate pet peeves, the meeting.

Let’s talk about meetings for a moment.  My experience in corporate culture is that meetings are the great black hole of resource allocation.  Time and money are poured in and very often light itself cannot escape.  I’m sure everyone can think of a meeting (and likely many more than one) they attended which started late, ran long, was disorganized, and in the end didn’t get much accomplished.  I respectfully submit the following tips for consideration for dramatically improved meeting results.

1) Understand whether the meeting is needed at all.

This is huge.  In corporate culture we have this tendency to set up recurring meetings for projects and staff teams that run for many weeks.  As the meeting organizer, understand the difference between items that can be resolved on an individual basis versus those needing group discussion.   It is perfectly acceptable to cancel an occurrence of a standing meeting if there’s nothing to discuss.  If there’s some non-critical information, maybe distributing that via email is more efficient.  People will appreciate not having their time wasted.

2) Invite the right people and only the right people.

Again in many project meetings, the organizer may invite 20 or more people who represent a variety of interests in the company.  It is unlikely in many meetings that topics which pertain to all of these individuals will be discussed.  If we value the time of those on our teams, we will not ask them to attend meetings simply for the sake of attending.

Conversely, if the necessary resources are not present when needed for a specific discussion point, this section of the meeting will be ineffective.  For each discussion topic, know which resources are needed and be prepared to table a topic if the required attendees are not present.

3) Set an agenda.

This ties in with the first two points.  Have a detailed agenda for the meeting and send it out at least one day in advance so people can review it to determine whether they need to attend.  This allows for some margin of error in understanding which resources exactly need to attend.  Allowing attendees to review the information and potentially provide feedback in advance may allow the actual meeting to run more efficiently.

4) Start on time.

This is my single largest frustration in the workplace.  If you schedule a meeting that starts at 11AM, you owe it to the attendees to be in the room or on the phone prior to that time with all of your materials prepared.  To me nothing says “I place no value on your time” more than a meeting organizer who doesn’t arrive until 7 minutes after the hour which means it’s 10-12 minutes after the hour before things get rolling.  By starting things on time, you communicate professionalism.

5) End early.

This is the partner to the point above.  Many of us who work in corporate environments get back-to-back-to-back meeting invites and if the first meeting in that chain runs over it throws our schedules into chaos.  In addition to allowing others to get to their later appointments on time, ending a few minutes early may allow attendees to take a bathroom break, get a drink of water, catch up on email or simply prepare for the next scheduled meeting.  At the very least, aim to end 5 minutes prior to the scheduled end time.  In an environment with shared meeting rooms, this will allow the organizer of the next meeting to get in and set up so his/her meeting can begin on time.

6) Avoid distractions.

This is really tough to do in our world of constant interruption by email, IM, Blackberry, iPhone, and myriad other technology.  While this is enough of an issue in itself, we must be as diligent as practical about sticking to the meeting agenda.  While free-form discussions are often a great creative outlet, as a meeting leader you have to have a sense about when it is appropriate to rein in a discussion that’s going off the rails.  The new topic may have significant value, but it may be occurring in the wrong forum.  There’s nothing inherently evil about tabling a discussion and resuming it at some point in the future with the appropriate resources.

An additional point on this topic, and I hope it doesn’t come off as being cold.  I think generally most people care about the welfare of their co-workers, but in these meetings it’s not appropriate to spend time talking about someone’s vacation or pet cobra.  Stick to the agenda and have those discussions at lunch.  Especially in larger meetings, some of these “detours” will cause attendees to mentally disconnect and they may miss something important.

Lastly, I think that when possible meetings should be conducted face-to-face.  While dial-in technology is wonderful and can bridge geographic divides cost effectively, the risk of distraction for attending members is high.  I’m as guilty of this as anyone else when attending meetings by phone and have had to force myself to either close my email or even lock my computer to keep focus on the task at hand.

7) Be consistent.

The key to driving change and building new habits is consistency.  If we commit to scheduling the right meetings with the right people and running them efficiently, we can drive positive change and show our co-workers that we value their time.  Old habits die hard, though, so it is imperative that each meeting adheres to “best practices”.

I don’t think of myself as a time management expert, but I hope these ideas will allow you to run better meetings and get more out of them.  Along the way, hopefully we empower those we lead to make better choices with respect to their own time management.

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Lessons in leadership: #1 – It’s a people business

Posted in Leadership on March 5, 2011 by danmarbes

Recently, I’ve had a number of discussions with my peers (both immediate colleagues as well as close friends) about the many dynamics of leadership.  The essence of these discussions seems to me worth sharing so I hope to capture the many facets I’ve discussed and thought about in upcoming posts.

While traveling with my brother today and discussing employee management and training, I found myself coming back to a central tenet.  Dealing with people is a “people business” and you will be far more successful if you can stay focused on that, rather than emphasizing the work.

People want to feel valued.  It’s central to our human nature and when we feel, honestly and truly, that the people we work for care about us, we are willing to go many extra miles to repay that feeling.  Conversely, people who come to feel that they are just another cog in a corporate machine detach themselves emotionally from their work and are likely to detach themselves physically as well when the opportunity to move to a new company is presented.

How do you accomplish this as a leader?  In many ways, it’s as simple as just telling your team this very thing.  It doesn’t have to be fake or contrived, but finding time to tell someone “Hey, thanks for your work on that project earlier this week.  I’m really glad that we were able to leverage your experience to help us come up with a solution for that problem” or if you see one of your team members looking tired, frustrated or disconnected take five minutes to pull them aside and ask them what’s going on.  If they’re feeling overwhelmed or frustrated with assigned tasks, see what you can do to help. Maybe you’ll discover a process failure that can be corrected, maybe you’ll find that tasks aren’t being assigned correctly in terms of team members’ individual skill sets. If it’s personal stuff, let them know that you’re available if they need to get something off their chest.  They may not take you up on it, but you continue to build and reinforce a culture that says “I care about you as a person and value you as an employee”.  Building that culture will go a long way to establishing better relationships and will likely be reflected in improved morale around the office.

People also want to know that their employer is vested in their individual success.  A leader who can identify that an employee is frustrated with assigned tasks but doesn’t do anything to help the employee has failed.  This doesn’t necessarily have to manifest itself in the form of external training/seminars, etc. (though that may be the most effective solution).  It could simply be finding a teammate with experience in the issue to mentor the frustrated one or the leader taking time to work with the employee to find a solution.

My brother, who manages a staff of personal trainers, has seen this first-hand.  Often, he will get a new trainer who is dynamite with clients, is very personable and knows the fitness end of the job very well.  Many of these trainers, however, have a difficult time with sales which is an important part of the job.  If he were to say simply “You’re not making your numbers.  If you’re going to continue to work here, you need to bring in $xxx per month.”  Now that trainer is panicking, thinking they’re going to lose their job.  Since their sales numbers directly influence their take-home pay, it’s safe to assume they would like to do this well.  If that’s true, they’ve probably tried to improve their skill.  If that hasn’t worked in the past, why should we think that it will work now with the added stress and pressure of losing the job?  Consider this alternative response “I noticed you’ve had some difficulty closing the appointments you’ve had in recently.  When I first started out, sales was tough for me too.  Why don’t we find some time to talk about sales techniques and I can share what I’ve learned and save you some of the mistakes I’ve made?”  Now the subject has been addressed in a non-threatening manner and a growth opportunity has been presented.

Where the rubber meets the road for me on this is that being a leader in the workplace is so much more about being a leader of people than being a taskmaster.  I find it to be a direct parallel to my former life as a high school music teacher.  Walking into a room of 50+ high school students with instruments of all shapes and sizes who were there as volunteers (band was not “required” in the district’s curriculum) knowing we had 2 months to prepare a concert program and that MY efficacy would be judged on the result was a large dose of reality.  The only way that was going to happen was if I got everyone to buy into what we were doing and do their best with the tasks I had assigned them.  Along the way, many of them stumbled but I paid attention and did my best to help them through the challenges they encountered.  By working together, the students were able to exceed what they assumed they were capable of and the band as a whole put forth a very high quality product.  This success built upon itself and allowed us to undertake more difficult music with each successive performance.

I hope that some of these observations resonate with you and allow to to foster your own culture of success.

All the best,

Dan

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