Thought of the Day - Mentors

It is important to have a mentor in work, i think i have always been happiest in jobs when i had a mentor. A good boss is one thing, but someone senior who is intelligent, is on a career path you want and takes an interest in your career development really makes the difference in terms of job satisfaction.

Don't get me wrong, someone with the above qualities is hard to find. They can't be your direct line manager (makes it hard to discuss your problems) and they can't be a peer (they don't have the experience or big picture) which does kinda limit the options. Unfortunately my mentor in my current job has left the company and i am struggling to think who cold replace him. If he cannot be replaced then maybe it is time to move on and find a mentor in another company.

It also raises an interesting quandary, at what point can you become a mentor, how much more senior and/or intelligent do you have to be to mentor someone else? And even if you are mentoring other people do you still need mentoring for that?

Thought of the Day - Autocracy is the new Empowerment?

In the last century there has been a shift from Autocracy to Empowerment in management styles and it could be argued that some companies are reaching the extreme end of employee empowerment (Semco [Maverick], St Lukes [Open Minds] and WL Gore) so where do we go from here?

Is the future the logical conclusion of empowerment and what Charles Handy predicts, where people will primarily be self-employed and come together to work on projects? Everyone becomes their own boss.

Or as with technology, will Apple lead the way full circle back to Autocracy again? One leader of the company controls all through fear and intimidation. If a company as creative as Apple can work and thrive under autocratic management then surely others can too.

Idea from:
http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/magazine/16-04/bz_apple?currentPage=1

Thought of the Day - Stupid Daylight Savings

Damned daylight savings time means i have one less hour to work today, one less hour of daylight to wake me up tomorrow and one more hour of useless daylight at the end of the day.

Of course you won't hear me complaining in 6 months time when i get an extra hour in bed and an extra hour of daylight in the morning ;-)

Thought of the Day - Ideal Job

I don't think i know what my perfect job is and if i do (or at least have an inkling) then i have no idea how to get there. At the moment i am just bouncing around from job to job doing things that seem interesting. Which could be worse; i make decent money, i learn new stuff, but despite the fact that ~90% of my life is work i don't really feel fulfilled. Is it because i need more of a balance (find a hobby other than getting new jobs) or is it because i haven't found the right job yet?

If my ideal job doesn't exist can i create it? I really need to refer back to an earlier post about working out what problems i am uniquely able to tackle based on my strengths and try to think of a job that fits with that.

Thought of the Day - Teaching

Teaching is quite possibly the most rewarding and most frustrating thing I have ever done. I know it is a cliché but it really is great when you see that light go on in someones head when they understand something for the first time. Conversely it is painfully frustrating when no matter how you explain something a person just doesn't get it. You try phrasing it in every way you know how, draw pictures, give examples and yet it just doesn't sink in. Even worse is when you finally think it has sunk in, you ask the person a question and it becomes obvious they are just as lost as they always were.

Maybe the latter problem is a failing as a teacher, though can you always explain concepts to everyone? Could even the best teacher explain quantum physics to a toddler?

I can't imagine ever teaching full time but it is certainly a nice change of pace in my current job.

Thought of the Day - MBA's

I know next to nothing about MBA's, might be an idea to learn something so i don't end up looking very foolish when/if i apply.

Thought of the Day - Value To Companies

A new company will always value you more than your existing one. Sure there are risks that things won't work but there is also the assurance of more money and the possibility things will be better. And hey if they aren't time for a new job.

Thought of the Day - Reading Week

Bill Gates takes an annual "reading week" would it be worth doing the same?

Sure i'm no Bill Gates and i read quite a lot as things are, but is it worth dedicating a week of holidays purely to reading? Would it be a good way of clearing the backlog of books i have?

An interesting thought i had was; If i did this would i be best to just have a pile of books and spend the week in a cottage with no technology at all or whether some sort of technology would be beneficial. The argument against technology is pretty compelling and can be summed up in 2 words: no distractions. But having a laptop would be useful for taking notes (would save me typing them up when i got back) and potentially having the internet would enable me to research things more deeply, bookmark future reading etc but is that worth the potential distraction.

Thought of the Day - The Allure of Paper

Why do some people (myself included) prefer to work on/with paper for some tasks?

I don't know what it is but i can't brainstorm in a computer program - or mindmap for that matter - i need to do it on paper and then translate it. I don't understand why, i mean my handwriting is shocking and the information then needs to be typed into a computer which means more work but yet i can't bring myself to work exclusivley electronically. Yet i find it easy to work through all the stages of a report electronically, from note-taking to drafts to final copies and wouldn't dream of hand writing at any stage.

There are numerous peices of software trying to bridge the paper-computer gap; OneNote, Visio, mind-mapping etc etc but somehow none of them quite live up to the real thing. Even adding in a tablet and a stylus it still isn't quite right; Is it the pixelated nature of the lines? Is it the lack of tactility? Who knows.

Maybe i am just showing my age, i was brought up with both paper and computers and i might be stuck with that legacy. Maybe the current generation in school won't have these hang-ups, they have always had computers and were probably writing, creating art and music exclusively on computers from an early age. At some point that generation will probably laugh at me for putting things on paper and then inputting them into a computer, in the same way i laugh at people who take paper copies of computer files 'just in case'. Will paper become a socially unacceptable anachronism that only old people use, or maybe it will become a underground culture of people who prefer the real world over the electronic.

Most importantly what will the next media be? In the same way it would have been hard to predict the switch from cave walls to paper, from handwritten to printed and printed to electronic can we really predict what the next media will be? Holograms? Neural interfaces ? Or something completely different?

Book Notes - Critical Chain

Critical Chain by Eliyahu Goldratt [1997]

Summary:

Key steps to improving project management:

1. Cut safety out of individual process steps

2. Redistribute safety into a project buffer

3. Identify the critical chain (longest list of dependant events)

4. Add feed buffers to the non-critical paths to protect the critical chain

5. Monitor the progress closely and focus on the steps that will impact the project buffer

6. Look for resource contentions, if there are any resource bottlenecks; schedule and buffer them like you would a manufacturing bottleneck.

Other key notes:

The cheapest option is not always the best, pay for focus and reduced risk.

Create unrefusable offers for your suppliers or customers (See Its Not Luck).

Notes:
Page 11: "teaching by open discussion" How is it possible to do this in all situations? Can you predict adequately where the discussion will go? How do you prompt people in the right directions without giving the answers? How do you keep classes to time?
Page 24: The Golden Triangle - Cost, Time, Quality OR Budget, Time, Features.
Page 25: U2 project as an example of something that beat the golden triangle.
Page 37: Common causes for delays;

· Unrealistic timescales to start with

· Forced to chose the cheapest vendors

· Key stages started too late

Page 41: Managing projects is all about managing uncertainties in terms of timescales, costs and specifications, risk management and planning.
Page 44: How long does it take to get from A to B - tailed distribution, shortest possible time to do anything is zero, longest possible time is virtually infinite.
Page 45: What is a persons objective in a project? To be considered a reliable person. Therefore they will never budget the median, it means they have a 50% chance of being seen as unreliable. On the other hand if they finish early they can always pad the work to fill the time to the estimate and still be seen as reliable.
Page 90: You can cut costs in any department and impact the whole (make the chain weight less) but you can only improve the throughput in the weakest link (make the chain stronger). Cost cutting projects can be focused anywhere, capacity increasing projects should only be focused in the constraint. However cost cutting projects should only be undertaken once the throughput is met.
Page 92: look for policy constraints in the business.
Page 97: There are no compromises in the accurate sciences. If one person measures something at 20g and another person uses a different method and gets 30g, they don't decide it must be 25g. One or both of the methods must be wrong, they cannot both be right.
Page 98: Conflicts are the result of faulty assumptions, if there is a conflict there is always an assumption that can be challenged.
Page 124: Student Syndrome; we fight for extra safety time only to the waste it.

Page 126: The evils of multitasking; the lead time is extended for each step even assuming that there is no negative impact due to having to get up to speed with the individual parts again.

Page 172: Three steps to getting a project back on track:

1. Persuade people to cut lead times

2. Remove Milestones for individual tasks

3. Frequent reporting of lead times and issues

Page 218: If there are resource conflicts (constraints) the Critical Path becomes the resource therefore you must buffer the process steps after the resource constraint.

Page 235: Identify the resource constraint for the whole programme and schedule that resource like you would schedule a production constraint, base the other projects (start and finish) around the constraint and insert a “bottleneck buffer” to protect the resource.

Page 242: Dollar-Day investment strategy instead of payback period or NPV, don’t fully understand, try listening to Beyond the Goal and coming back.

Quotes:
Page 8: "Smart people learn from their own mistakes, wise people learn from the mistakes of others."
Page 38: "The lower the level of the person the more the finger points internally rather than externally."
Page 40: "Uncertainty is what typifies projects. It is the nature of the beast."
Page 62: "Companies are so immersed in the mentality of saving money that they forget that the whole intention of a project is not to save money but to make money."

Page 121: “A delay in one step is passed in full to the next step. An advance made in one step is usually wasted.”

Page 188: “The probability of a piece of bread falling butter side down is directly proportional to the price of the carpet.”

Thought of the Day - Marketing Myself

Somewhat randomly this came from a dream.

Am i marketing myself correctly for the type of job i want? In the dream i was giving someone advice that they weren't marketing themself correctly (a bit vague i know) but then it occurred to me that i probably wasn't marketing myself correctly either.

I think i have probably been too passive in my career to this point, i have just gone with the flow of what has been interesting at the time. Don't get me wrong i have definitely done interesting things and am fairly happy with where i am at the moment, but i think i should have more of an idea of what i want to do in the future. What is the end game? Then once i have worked that out i need to work out how to get there and part of that will be marketing myself.

Thought of the Day - Demand Spikes

Why do businesses insist on ordering more than they need? Why do they insist on creating spikes in demand rather than leveling it? Why when it is so simple to pick up a lean book or buy in a consultant are so many businesses stupid?

Thought of the Day - Finance Heijunka

Why do finance always run around like headless chickens at the end of every month, quarter and year?

Surely there is a way that they can Heijunka their workload so that all of the information is pulled together and collated during the period, then all they would have to do at the end is print off a report. Potential GB or BB project.

Thought of the Day - Extreme Learning

3 Principles of Extreme Learning:

"The first is that effective learning requires purpose and meaning. This purpose and meaning can, in many instances, be obtained by concentrated self-development focused on developing combinations of abilities that enable us to make a unique contribution.

The second is that effective learning requires a long-term vision. In all organizations the short-term incentives neglect critical aspects of our development. By developing and constantly reinventing a compelling long-term vision we are able to ensure that we develop and learn in the most effective ways possible, even when those ways are in contradiction to the established short-term incentives.

The third principle is that one of the most effective ways of changing deeply ingrained habits and establishing new behaviour is to either create a social environment that will promote the behaviour we’re trying to learn."


For more details see:
http://michaelnielsen.org/blog/archive/tough-learning/tough-learning-final.html

Thought of the Day - Computer Woes

Why do computer parts never work as easily as they should? Even with apple things don't always work right out of the box. Its not like I'm dumb and am not doing it right but its a little frustrating. Maybe it is because when something works right out of the box you don't notice, you just get on with it but when it doesn't work it is a major pain in the ass.

Thought of the Day - MBB

How can i become the MBB for my group of companies?

Thought of the Day - Top 10 Values

List of my top 10 values:

1. Creativity
2. Inquisitiveness
3. Inventiveness
4. Intelligence
5. Vision
6. Knowledge
7. Inspiration
8. Punctuality
9. Challenge
10. Introversion

Found through:
Steve Pavlina (original list) and
Douglas Wagoner (web-based test for them)

Thought of the Day - Required Sleep

How much sleep is enough sleep and what determines how much you need? How do you optimise your sleep and more importantly (in a six-sigma-geeky kinda way) how do you measure how well rested you are?

On Monday got up at 5am after 4 hours sleep and felt fine all day till 10pm. Today got up at 7am after 8.5 hours sleep and been feeling a bit tired, not a lot but a bit. Twice as much sleep, two extra hours in bed in the morning but i don't feel much better.

Now i have improved my diet and i definitely need less sleep and feel less tired but is it optimised enough? I know i should exercise and a lot of people suggest that you will sleep better and feel more rested after that but then a lot of people also say that you need more sleep when you exercise to let your body recover. Again it is something i need to do in the long run (probably once the skin improves) but is it worth doing now to get more available time, energy and motivation for other things ...

Thought of the Day - Creative Benefits of Lazieness

More creativity comes from being lazy (avoiding doing things you don't like) and discomfort (avoiding things that are unpleasant) than anything else, particularly being well organised and action orientated. I haven't had a single innovative thought since i got organised after new year ...

As a quote on the spine of my "ideas book" says;
"Unfortunately all the better paid jobs start before I wake up..."

Thought of the Day - Travel Tip \ Overtime Tip

Learning 1 courtesy of Anura:

You should keep a copy of the front and back of all the credit cards and things in your wallet so if it gets stolen you have all the important info.

Learning 2:
If you are going to work at the weekend spread the work out over 2 days instead of having 10 hours in one day.

Thought of the Day - 05:00

Chris Klein is a really sucky actor and I/you should avoid watching anything he is in.
Dexter is the best show on television.


How can i find a reason to get up at 05:00 both during the week and more importantly at the weekend?