Project Team Blog

Knowledge management professionals must keep in mind that KM’s explicit end-goal is profitability while its implicit purpose is to empower participants through intellectual platforms and processes that promote learning and practical knowledge.

Knowledge, without a doubt, plays an important role in the success of any organization. In fact, in order to maintain a competitive advantage, modern organizations incorporate knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, and knowledge management into their business processes. The mere survival of many organizations hinges on the strength of their capabilities; moreover, companies form decisions based on their relevant knowledge of their business landscapes.

Thanks to developments in information and communication technologies, it is now easier to develop, store, and transfer knowledge. This capability is particularly true among organizations with global workforces. After all, international competition and globalization are the driving forces behind most technological innovations, and companies quickly take advantage of these developments when it comes to managing the creation and flow of information.

“Ultimately, leveraging relevant knowledge assets to improve organizational performance is what knowledge management is all about,” says Murray E. Jennex in his book, Knowledge Management in Modern Organizations (2007). However, in spite of the lightning-speed creation of new knowledge and the improvements in communication technologies, many organizations still find that their knowledge management practices are lacking. Specifically, within client-consultant relationships, knowledge transfer does not always translate into better performance by all project team members, nor does it always translate into the successful delivery of projects.

To be successful, knowledge management programs require more than simply conducting training sessions or transferring knowledge. Practitioners must always remember that KM’s explicit end-goal is profitability - while KM’s implicit purpose is to empower participants by providing them with the intellectual platforms and processes that promote learning and practical knowledge.

Here are a few factors that contribute to successful knowledge management initiatives:

• Linkage between knowledge and economic performance – Knowledge management exists because it enables the organization to reach its business goals. Otherwise, there is no point in putting together all the best practices, tacit knowledge, and skill sets in a cohesive system that is accessible by all parties - when and where they need it. As business increasingly becomes more global, the competition for greater market share depends on the capabilities of its players to a certain degree. KM practitioners must be able to identify the business value of knowledge management in their organizations - whether it is to manage projects, provide back-office operations services or to give ideas on how processes can be better optimized - among others. In most consulting relationships, knowledge is the currency by which all transactions are made.
• Setting and communicating clear objectives for specific organizational or project levels – Heather Kreech, the Director of Knowledge Communications of the International Institute for Sustainable Development has some specific ideas on this very subject. In her paper, Success Factors in Knowledge Management (2005), she states that knowledge-sharing works best when knowledge managers “gather and communicate knowledge at the project/activity/field level before [they] begin to aggregate up to corporate systems and general knowledge marketing strategies”. Having a specific organizational level or project group in mind, results in better designed knowledge management systems, training programs, and tools that can meet the specific needs of workers.
• Having the appropriate systems and infrastructure – Ideally, knowledge is created, processed, stored, and archived. Managing the process of creating knowledge, communicating this knowledge to participants, and making knowledge available to anyone in the organization, means that an organization must have the right communication systems and data storage facilities. However, it is not enough to simply store knowledge as this knowledge must be found whenever it is needed. Thus, the availability of internal search facilities and computer-based training programs is critical.
• Having the right champions – KM initiatives need project and process champions who can rally the support of everyone - from top management down to individual staff members. Having management support can result in the freeing up of resources - such as financial, expertise, and infrastructure - all of which are critical to the successful implementation of KM projects. Financial backing means that KM managers can implement training programs, hire both internal and external specialists - as well as acquire the required infrastructure to manage training programs. On the other hand, access to experts from either within or outside the organization, means better identification of knowledge gaps and training requirements, and more importantly, engineering training and communication programs that meet the said needs.

By ExecutiveBrief
Technology Management Resource for Business Leaders
http://www.executivebrief.com
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A certain thing happens in product development…  (It used to bug me to death, until I got used to it.)  Your product development team just finishes a great new feature.  Everybody rejoices.  Good feelings, pride, and celebrations.  All that…  The new release is posted on the web, and you start to get downloaders.  Potential customers are giving it a look.  And you know they are seeing the great new feature you just added.  It has “X” and “Y” new things.  Everyone will love it.  Everyone will buy.  You’re sure of that!  Finally… we’ve gotten a great product out there…

The next thing you know, you get an email from an evaluator.  He can’t believe how short-sighted your product is.  In fact, he’s practically indignant.  It’s missing a key feature he needs, and he can’t belive you’d ever consider shipping a product without it.

He asks, “Can you do it?  When will it be available?

“Maybe, next month.  Can you describe it more fully?”

“Oh, I can’t wait that long…  Forget it.”

The situation is that you’ve completed “X” and “Y” but haven’t gotten to “Z” yet.  And that’s what spoiler-boy wants.  Problem is, you never considered “Z” until you completed “X” and “Y.”  Or worse yet, didn’t consider it until he pointed it out.

This is so common.  People cannot see to very down the product road-map.  That’s human nature.  They can see “X” and “Y” but only have fuzzy glimpses of “Z.”  That is, until some grumpy customer complains that it’s not in the product.  He doesn’t see the hard work you put into getting the first releases out.  I.e. getting “X” and “Y” out.  He just sees that “Z” is missing, and feels pretty certain that he can’t do without it.  He’ll move on…  Somebody out there must have it.  “I’ll look around…” he says.

Better get cracking.  Again…

–ray

Customer-driven project management uses the voice of the client as a guide at every turn of the project’s life cycle to achieve optimum quality.

Project teams that put the interest of their clients are assured of repeat businesses and long-term relationships. They know that at the end of the day, their processes and methodologies are established to meet clients’ expectations. And meeting clients’ expectations hopefully means satisfaction.

It has always been the goal of project teams to complete projects on time within cost and fulfill quality criteria, but it has often been the case that when projects are implemented, project teams focus on their tasks more and lose sight of their relationships with clients. Now, thanks to the current dynamics of an increasingly demanding business environment, the management concept of too much organizational and process control that on many occasions resulted in alienating customers is slowly giving way to a marriage of disciplined process implementation and customer satisfaction. And by satisfaction, it means giving more than what is required.

Customer-driven project management uses the voice of the client as a guide at every turn of the project’s implementation process to achieve optimum quality. According to Bruce T. Barkley and James H. Saylor in their book Customer-Driven Project Management (2001), this management approach involves the following items, which we expand to meet the more complex needs of today’s client-supplier relationships:

Customer-driven project management does not veer far from many project management approaches. However, client leadership and continuous improvement through the team’s feelings of ownership of the project spell the difference between just finishing tasks and pleasing the customer. 

By ExecutiveBrief
Technology Management Resource for Business Leaders
http://www.executivebrief.com

eWeek did a little editorial on “IT Snow Days.”  (See link below.)  Anybody out there read eWeek?  It sure is collapsing slowly - down to 42 pages, and no more Spencer Katt.  The competitor InfoWorld went out about a year back.  Now, I suspect eWeek will follow.  I guess it’s pretty hard to get IT folks interested in industry news.  Anyway…  Here’s the article.

http://blogs.eweek.com/up_for_discussion/content/it_management/it_product_snow_days.html

I liked the article because it sympathizes with IT managers who are being hit with economic snowstorms.  It’s really hard these days.  Mostly for me, it’s hard staying motivated when everything around me is crumbling.  Anybody feel that way?  There will be a few snow days to make up for when good times come again.  That’s for sure.

–newshirt

I talked with an IT professional over the weekend.  This person lamented over their constantly late projects.  I told them about Standard Time®, and how it tracks project time.  They loved the idea!  But continued the lament, claiming they would never use such a product.

I just stood there stunned.  Why not?  I didn’t ask, but assumed it had something to do with the economy, frozen purchases, and what not…

But I just kept thinking…  Wouldn’t Standard Time pay for itself?  Late projects, especially persistently late ones costs companies money.  Lots of it.  A few thousand dollars for software would tighten up those schedules and force the company into compliance.  The ROI would be 3X or more.  So, why not use it?

I suspect it’s unfamiliarity.  People simply don’t know how to use time tracking and project management products.  No training.  No familiarity.  Nobody’s firing them for late projects, so they keep doing what comes naturally.  Oh well… 

–newshirt

The following text is an interview with Warren Peacock of Scoutwest, Inc.  They are the developers of Standard Time® and Standard Issue® – two leading project management products.  Project Team Blog wanted to hear from an authority regarding the status quo of enterprise project tracking and management, and learn what consulting and manufacturing companies face when attempting detailed time tracking.  We’re talking full-blown project schedules, timesheets to track task status, resource allocation, employee status, detailed reporting services – the whole enchilada.  Are most companies using these tools?  Or, do they attempt to roll their own with little in-house apps and spreadsheets?  Does the economy have a bearing on these choices?  One thing is certain; Warren Peacock has heard it all.  Let’s see what he has to say.

Q: Warren, would you say most organizations are doing an excellent, poor, or fair job of tracking project status?
A: Based on my experience I would say they are doing a poor-to-fair job, though well intended.

Q: What tools are they using now?
A: Some are using actual time tracking tools like Standard Time.  However, most companies are using Excel, shareware, or shabby little in-house programs.

Q: Where do you see room for improvement?
A: One word…Efficiency.   Time is our most valuable commodity and success starts with improving our use of it, regardless of the industry.

Q: Aside from acquiring better tools for project  tracking, what are the other ongoing costs of tracking projects and employee status?
A: Lost billable hours, unfortunately this is very common.  Also, which employees are most productive?  Standard Time has one simple report that gives you that type of data.  If you need to streamline costs where do you start, what do you cut?  Again, the right tools can give you that detail.  They will show you where you spend time as an organization.  What areas are over, or under allocated.  All of this is just a glimpse of improving efficiencies with project management and associated costs.

Q: And the return on investment for these tools?  How do you get there?
A: That sounds complicated, yet is very simple.  Most consultants and business owners I speak with estimate they are losing anywhere from 3%-10% of their billable hours.  Without question a conservative estimate is 1-3 hours per week, per employee.  Multiply that times their billing rate and you quickly realize how fast a time tracking tool like Standard Time pays for itself.  Not to mention the loads of reports and other information available to help guide any number of key decisions, regarding customers, projects and employees.  We don’t think twice about spending money on an employee’s phone, computer and any number of other items.  Time tracking is just as important.

Q: Let’s talk low-hanging fruit…  What can a company do to get started cheaply?  Spreadsheets?  Paper time cards?  Smoke signals?
A: Spreadsheets work to a certain point, but again the time spent managing, compiling and crafting reports will eat an employee’s productivity and provide very basic information at best.  Standard Time is less than $150 per user and easy to use.  You can place it on your own computers or we can host it for you.  No installation necessary.  Employees can be shown the basics in 5 minutes, no down time, no compiling spreadsheets and less user error!  Instantly you have more accurate information that will help propel and streamline any organization.

Project management advice: People don’t like to be led, especially professionals with clear responsibilities.  Nobody likes “a person who knows” to tell them what to do next.  All the time.  It’s demeaning and annoying.  So what’s a project manager to do?

Clearly, project managers and leads need to stay a few steps ahead of team members.  If they don’t, projects go astray.  Why?  Because it takes time to formulate a clear vision, one that won’t break down in the face of life’s challenges.  Only by staying ahead of the team can the leadership maintain that strategic edge.  But it’s when that strategic direction turns into tactical dictatorship that things go badly.

Some managers have such a hard time articulating their vision that they resort to dictating exact tactical steps to achieve it, rather than relying on competent people to pull it off.  See the issue?  It’s a difficult balance.

–ray

CIO Insight did an article listing the top 10 ways to retain IT workers.  The link to that article and results are listed below.  It’s pretty interesting, but appeals strictly to the least-common-denominator or employment.  The results could apply to a landscaping firm.

http://www.cioinsight.com/c/a/Management/How-to-Retain-Top-IT-Workers/

They rated each criteria from 1 to 3, with 1 being the lowest, and 3 being the highest.  Notice that the results have little to do with IT workers.

    Lowest                                                       Highest
        1                               2                                3

    1. Salary: 2.82
    2. Training: 2.47
    3. Incentive pay: 2.40
    4. Paid Time Off: 2.38
    5. Flex Schedule: 2.36
    6. Work Facilities: 2.26
    7. Insurance Benefits: 2.26
    8. Retirement: 2.13
    9. Work at Home: 2.06
    10. Social Environment: 1.99

I’d like to add an intagible criteria to the list: “IT Imortality.”  And I’m wondering where you would place it.  A 1 or a 3?  Send in your comments.

IT Imortality is the chance to rise above your peers in a significant way, building products that change the industry.  It involves working with the brightest and most motivated individuals on the planet.  It means leading (or participating in) a product development team that makes a true impact on your generation.

Although I cannot say I’ve achieved such a lofty status, the lure has certainly been there for every company I’ve worked for.  And, at least a few of my projects have impacted individuals around the world.  That’s offers a sense of achievement that no cubical job can.  I rate that somewhere near 3.

–newshirt

Last night I attended a party at an old friend’s house.  After small-talking my way around the deck, I hooked up with some old acquaintances, with whom I had participated in a software project.  The gig we shared had taken place back in 1999, in Atlanta.  It was one of those 90’s love-fest dot-com jobs.

While sipping cokes and gobbling slices of homemade pie, we discussed the project’s failings.  “What went wrong?” I asked my colleagues.

“I think it was the fault of the CEO,” one said.  “He just had no experience, and wasted all the money.”

“No, the development organization was all messed up,” the second said.  “The lead engineer kept jumping in and changing everything I did.”

“Well, I think they spent all their money on marketing before they even had a product to sell,” I put in.  “You have to make some sales and get customer feedback before you can spend millions on marketing.  Don’t you think?”

The discussion heated up for the better part of an hour, and I realized that none of us, even ten years later, knew exactly where the faults were.  Who had messed up?  What had gone wrong?  Why hadn’t we succeeded in shipping a product and engaged the sales channel.  None of us knew for certain, yet we all saw some pretty gross mistakes.

That really got me thinking…  Sometimes project failures are not as easy to diagnose as one might think.  Even by salty old dogs like us.  And everybody has their own opinions.  Think about that the next time your project bites the dust.  Or before it does.

–ray

I once read a bizarre statement, written by an overloaded IT manager.  He was complaining about the heavy workload his executive management was throwing on him.  Here is what he said:

When a new project request comes down, I just ignore it.  I ignore it until management makes it clear my job depends upon it.

Wow!  That’s revealing!  Evidently, this poor soul is so swamped with exciting new projects that he is forced to ignore the bulk of them.  I can vividly see how these superfluous demands go down.

First, the executives get a great idea.  Yeah!  Let’s restructure the customer database to maximize the communication [read: spam] we send out.  We’ll get some great sales!

The project is handed off to Harold in IT.  “He’ll make it happen,” the suits say.

Harold comes in Monday morning, sorts through 400 spams, and finds the outlandish request.  He rolls his eyes and drops it into the “Oh Boy!” folder.  And then he checks the ESPN stats.

The execs never give the project another thought.  They just go off and reinvent the company ten more times, dumping an equal number of requests on poor Harold.  And he ignores them all.  He doesn’t have time for the fun.  He’s got real work to do.

Am I off?  Got it all wrong?  Honestly, I don’t think so.  I’ve seen numerous projects like this get swept under the rug.  Execs don’t run the show, the little guy does…

–ray

It is not easy being perfect, just ask Ed Hochuli, a widely respected NFL referee who blew a huge call last week during the Denver Broncos’ San Diego Chargers football game. You can not miss this guy. He has been a referee for many years and has worked playoffs and Super-bowls. Not to mention his arms are the size of tree trunks and he looks like he should be playing line-backer instead of throwing flags.

Anyhow, the point I am trying to make is that this guy set the standard for NFL ref’s throughout the league. Week after week, game after game, Ed Hochuli was the definition of steady and consistent.  In the world of referees, he was considered the best. Then came last Sunday, one bad call and bam!  Many in the media and fans across the country deriding him as brainless and calling him the worst referee on the planet. 

However, Ed is taking it like a champ. He is facing up to his giants. After receiving hundreds of hate filled e-mails, Ed is personally responding to every single one with a sincere apology.

So, what is the lesson in Project Management? You have got to be on your game and make the right decisions without EVER making a mistake? That’s impossible! But, what we can control is how we respond. People respect someone who takes responsibility for their mistakes. So, own up to it and move on. Only then can your team do the same. 

–Warren

Every project manager knows he must identify project risks, document them, and resolve each one.  In other words, he must learn what could jeapardize the duration, budget, or quality of his project.  If you don’t, the project may fly off the tracks and you’ll look bad, or worse.

Problem is, your engineers are hiding those risks from you.  The fictional dialogue below shows how it happens.  It is a faux conversation between your project manager and one of the engineers on the team.

PM: “I love your new designs!  This project is really coming along.”
Eng: “Uh-huh.” (hoping to be left alone.)
PM: “Do you think you’ll be finished by October.  Big deadline you know!”
Eng: “Of course.” (barely lifting his head.)
PM: “Any risks or unknowns?  How about that integration task?”
Eng: “Nothing I can’t handle.” (peering deeply into the montor.)

Engineer-boy has two problems.  First, he’s a little too independant to admit he needs help.  Secondly, he won’t risk the tarnish to his stellar reputation.  No white-shirt, tie-bearing, non-pierced PM will ever get him to crack.  He’ll work all-nighters if he has to, or so he tells himself.

–newshirt

I picked up a neat little business management book named “Semper Fi, Business Leadership the Marine Corps Way.”  The web address is below, in case you’d like to check it out.

http://www.semperficonsulting.com/

The philosophy of the book is to run your business like the Marine Corps.  Does that mean scream bloody murder into the faces of your new recruits?  Only if they need it.  :)  No, it simply outlines the Marine Corps way of running its operation and the parallels to business management.  Here’s a quote from the book.

In Officer Candidate School, there is a famous exercise in which the prospective officers are given the assignment of raising a flag pole so that it meets a number of detailed specifications.  It is assumed in the exercise that the officer has one sergeant and two privates to assist him.  The instructors are constantly amazed at the ingenuity of the trainees, who have come up with a thousand and one ways to erect that flagpole.  What the instructors are looking for, however, is a much simpler answer: “Tell the sergeant to raise the flagpole and walk away.”

The point of the exersize is to delegate to subordinates.  The sergeant can figure out the details on his own.  And, if they are very detailed, he can present his plan to the officer before proceeding.  This leaves the sergeant to get the job done, and the officer free to strategize the next steps.  Everyone has his job to do, and things move efficiently.

–ray

Something finally occurred to this week.  People care (mostly) for themselves.  I’ve been observing some people recently, and have noted their project participation.  When there’s something in a project for them personally, they go gangbusters to finish it.  And when there’s nothing, they lose interest and quit.  At least, mentally that is.  Be it financial gain, or street cred, or just looking good.  There must be something in it for them.

I may be a little slow, but I had never really studied this aspect of human behavior.  I just thought people worked hard for their company and that was that.  Not so.  They work strictly for themselves.  And now that I look back on my career, I see the same pattern.  My own career was carefully crafted to climb the ladder of success.  If a project didn’t fit that model, I found a way out.  If it did, I worked it for all I was worth.  I wasn’t greedy with my time, but eventually gravitated toward projects that benefited me.  That’s not selfish, it’s just natural.

Knowing that gives me something to work with.  It means I must find ways to help people succeed in the projects I expect their help with.  I must find a clear benefit for each team member.  If there’s nothing in it for them, I should expect them to grow disinterested and mentally quit.  Sounds like a real challenge!

–ray

Many people know that Phil Jackson coached 9 teams to NBA titles and Bill Walsh was a football genius with many Superbowl wins.

Do you ever hear about Project Managers who take multiple million-dollar projects to the finish line and bring home the victory?  Of course not, but they are critical in setting the tone of a project, defining clear objectives, and pushing all the right buttons to get a Project Team on the same page to accomplish their project goals.

People alone, with all of their various personalities, are tough to manage.  Project Managers are responsible for setting project task dependencies, trying to stay within project budgets, and work to keep a pulse on all the project resources.  Man, that is a lot of responsibility!

In sports, coaches use video tape, advanced scouts, and many other tools to accomplish their goals. In the project world, we use tools like MS Project or a good time tracking/project management tool such as Standard Time® software. Standard Time automatically e-mails Project Managers if a timesheet is insufficient and will warn a project team if a project is over budget.  It allows you to visually manage your resource allocation. It is a very effective tool.

The bottom line is that championships are not only won by pushing the right buttons. The foundation for winning starts with having the right tools. Are you still using antiquated spreadsheets and verbal discussions to win your championship?  If so, you may be setting yourself up for failure.

–Warren

There are a lot of possible reasons for this.  I’ll enumerate the reasons why I think projects cost more than expected, and then discuss the most probable ones.  Let me know what you think!  Got a few more reasons?

1. Forgotten tasks
2. Unknown tasks
3. Customer expectations change
4. Feature creep

My biggest issue is always ‘forgotten tasks’.  In my experience, forgotten tasks results in project cost overruns more often than any other reason.  People tend to throw out a cost before they have listed all the work involved.  Halfway down the road, they remember 25 - 50% more tasks.  That adds up!

Sometimes, one thing leads to another.  Tasks that you didn’t know about pop up.  What are you going to do when that happens?  You can’t just abandon the project.  You have to eat the extra work and absorb the cost overrun.

Once your customer gets a look at the product, he may have a few new ideas of his own.  He may see something he likes, and feel free suggest some additions.  Those add up too.  Just make sure he knows that he must absorb the additional project costs.  Otherwise, you’ll end up eating that too.

Feature creep happens when customers and developers like what they see and want a little more, and little more, and a little more.  Before you know it, there’s an extra 10% cost in the project.  Yikes!

–ray

We’ve all heard the adage, “Afraid of change”.  It’s preached throughought the business world and even in our personal lives.  We are constantly told to step outside of our comfort zones, embrace change…don’t be afraid!  It is great advice that everyone has faced at some point. 

So why is it that as soon as the media starts telling us how terrible the economy is, we freeze up with fear?  Even in uncertain times we must press forward and get past our fear.  Yet it seems totally acceptable to use the economy as a reason to remain static.  This is bogus.  I agree that we must scrutinize our expenditures and evaluate new ideas, but we should do that in good and bad times.  What frustrates and kills businesses is doing nothing!

If you have an idea to save your company money and improve revenue, why let fear stand in the way?  During good and bad times we must always be prepared to step out and embrace change.  I can honestly say that I’ve had my wins and losses with fear.  However, it always comes down to a simple choice that we make…be controlled by fear or choose to be fearless.  I’d like to hear what you think? Are you driven by fear, or are you fearless?

–Warren

Having varying points of view is healthy for company growth.  However, sometimes the varying opinions have underlying meanings that aren’t always what they seem.

For instance, how often do IT teams resist implementing new programs out of fear, laziness or just the extra work it creates?  I mean they are tasked with everything from support desk tickets, computer set-ups for new employees and even firewall security.  So it’s easy to get bogged down with the extra work a new program rollout will cost instead of focusing on the big picture and long term benefits.  Other times people resist out of simple personality conflicts.

When this happens you will hear legitimate-sounding excuses of how the installation may conflict with another program or of how it may take up too many resources.  This happens because one manager doesn’t want to help another manager or due to many other normal and very human reasons.

So the next time you have someone objecting to what most everyone else is pushing for, ask yourself, “Why?” It could be a very real objection worthy of consideration.  Or, as I found out last week, it could be a person impeding progress because they simply do not want to put more work on their plate.  The tough part is determining which is true. After all, we are all human!

–Warren

Don’t get discouraged; losing your best people is not as hard as it sounds.  And we’re here to help!  We’ve offered a few good ideas below.  If you have others, please post a comment, and they’ll be added to the list.  Why remain in agony, when the answers are so simple.

#1: Make life easy
That’s right; lavish money, benefits, and perks on your best people.  Foosball, anyone?  They’ll relax from the high-tension goals you’ve set, and things will slowly go undone.  Small things.  Your competitors will make life hard for you, and remove your ability to compensate so graciously.  Your best people will leave as a result.  Harsh realities, but you can pull it off!

#2: Lower your expectations
Why treat your best people like slaves?  They’ve worked hard to get where they are today, and they deserve a rest.  After all, you don’t want to be known as the Pharoah’s taskmaster.  Trust me… this works.  The results will be similar to point #1.  As soon as they realize the company and project goals are negotiable, you won’t have far to go.

#3: Create a Dilbert environment
Don’t know Dilbert?  See the comic to the left, or click here to see the cartoon.  Poor Dilbert is an IT professional who faces more daily incompetence than an Oklahoma Street-sweeper.  (Get it?  Armadillos?  That was my own pitiful attempt at humor.)  :)  Foster a certain degree of incompetence in the office, and your Dilbert will flee.

#4: Let your projects take care of themselves
They will, you know?  Project management is not a discipline, its a recreation.  Don’t track your project time.  Don’t bother with post-mortem analysis and percent complete.  If you must, use a little spreadsheet with some cool fonts and colors.  Your best people will drift along with you - until their job search pays off.

All kidding aside, people leave for a lot of reasons, and it’s not always the company’s fault.  Don’t beat yourself up too badly.  If you’re trying hard to keep good people, you’re probably doing okay.  It takes a pretty messed up organization to drive good people away.  And sometimes, even the best companies cannot keep them.  Keep up the good work, and don’t let these things happen to you. 

–ray

A few years ago I learned a valuable lesson.  I was working for a fairly large company in the order/shipping department to improve performance.  We were losing money on mis-picked items.  A customer order would be placed in a box with 1 to 15 items to ship.  That box would travel through our pick line, stopping at various stations, where human operators would pick the items ordered out of a bin, and place it in the box for shipment.  Too often, customers received the wrong items.  Then an employee would go out of sequence, make a special order and ship the correct item, a second time! 

My job was to reduce the number of incorrectly shipped (mis-picked) items.  To do that, I had auditors randomly inspect the pick line orders.  The ship line auditors despised our presence and we saw no marked improvement over the first few months. 

One day we had a meeting with the shift leads on the pick-line to explain why we were doing the audits.  We explained how a small decrease in the percentage of mis-picks would save our company hundreds of thousands of dollars and add to the bottom line.  In turn, this would increase their profit sharing bonus checks.

Over the next year we had a significant reduction in mis-picks and we received record profit sharing.  This happened in large part because we decided to share a little piece of information as to why we are doing what we do.  All too often we are quick to tell people to do something assuming they already know the reasons or don’t care, instead of explaining why!  I was guilty, and from time to time I imagine I still get in that “just do it!” mode.  However, I’ve learned that it is worth a few extra minutes to share the reasons behind our decisions.

–Warren