From my reading list... Leadership Secrets from Jack Welch

Here are my 'super-abridged' key points from the already abridged '29 Leadership Secrets from Jack Welch' by Robert Slater. It was a good short read, not too intimidating and some good take-aways.

1. "It's okay to change a company"

• This is particularly relevant to me, working in the tech industry. I try to not only be open to change, but to embrace it. 
• From the book: "Stick your head in the sand, and your business will stay stuck in the past. If you face reality and move quickly, you have a chance to compete and win in a changing business environment". 

2. "Take good ideas and run with them"

• GE is a pioneer of the Six Sigma quality initiative. As a Green Belt, I know how important it is to keep learning to gain improvements. Learning from everyone by really opening your eyes and truly listening to others. 
• From the book: "These are our three ingredients for success... Build a good team, share ideas, across businesses, give them resources to go. That's it."

3. "Act like a small company"

• I noticed a big change moving from a small company to a large corporation - but I've also seen quick & nimble teams within a large company working with well defined roles to make quick decisions for implementation. Successful senior leaders will work relentlessly to remove barriers and provide a simple clear path to action. This helps avoid the "why bother" trap when employees have a good idea but can't bother fighting for it.
• From the book: "Small companies move faster. They know the penalties for hesitation in the marketplace. What we are trying relentlessly to do is get that small-company soul - and small-company speed - inside our big-company body."

4. "Turn employees into owners"

• I am happiest when I feel personally responsible for my work output and have the power to set my own direction to accomplish a larger goal. I hope that I extend the same courtesy and respect to my peers when I am asking for a goal to be met.
• From the book: "The way to harness the power of these people is to protect them, not to sit on them, but to turn them loose, let them go. ... Empowering and liberating and exhilarating".

5. "Simplicity"

• We've all heard 'Keep it Simple' but it's hard to do when getting excited about something new and emerging. Especially in an industry with more acronyms than one can ever keep up with, I try to remind myself to communicate in a way that everyone will understand. A good motto I heard years ago is to speak like your grandmother is in the audience. Be respectful of your intended audience and focus on clarity. 
• From the book: "Simple messages travel faster, simpler designs reach the market faster, and the elimination of clutter allows faster decision making". 

I hope to have inspired you to pick up '29 Leadership Secrets form Jack Welch', but at the very least I hope that I have inspired you to build some of my top 5 into your daily work routine. 

Serving the business goddess IRACIS

I was introduced to the IRACIS tool from 'Discover to Deliver: Agile Product Planning and Analysis' (by Ellen Gottesdiener and Mary Gorman). It's such a simple acronym that I was surprised it hadn't come up before.  IRACIS is a quick way to determine a project's worth to the company and quantify its ROI.

All projects should serve the business goddess #IRACIS. Increase revenue,avoid costs, improve service. #ASTD2012 @nolecture
— Diane L Smith, CPLP (@CreativelyTrain) May 6, 2012

Love it! 

IR: Increase Revenue - How will sales improve?

AC: Avoid Costs - How will COGS be reduced? What efficiencies will translate into real savings?

IS: Improve Service - Will customers value the changes (i.e. "Delight the Customer" - Kano Model)?

So bow down to IRACIS and plan a brainstorming session to determine how a project will deliver its promised value to the company.

Being "AGILE" - the latest BUZZ word; but worth looking into

We've all heard it before in the office hallways, or sprinkled into a conversation... "We need to be more agile"! But I sometimes wonder if people are using agile as an adjective synonymous to being flexible or acting quickly. While the Agile Methodology incorporates flexibility and speed, some work is required to understand the Agile practice in order to reap its benefits. 

Last night I attended CommuniTech's Agile/Lean session on Agile Planning and Analysis, presented by Mary Gorman, Vice President of Quality & Delivery at EBG Consulting. It was a great topic to explore because of the common misunderstanding that Agile methods have no process - 'It's fast because you get to skip all the tedious planning and just dive into "the work" to get things done'. No? 

Mary took us through the Essential Partnerships, Seven Product Dimensions and Structured Conversations - as outlined in her book 'Discover to Deliver' (co-authored by Ellen Gottesdiener). 

Essential Partnerships
It seems obvious that a successful project requires a strong relationship between the Customer, Technology and Business - but often this is not the case. I especially liked Mary's point about the need for transparency on the different types of Value Considerations. Customers, Technology and Business representatives will all have different perspectives on benefits, risks, costs and dependencies. These differences ensure a favourable end-result.
LINK TO IMAGE

Seven Product Dimensions
Mary encouraged the group to analyse the desired product in the short-term (2 weeks), medium-term, and long-term (2 years). This type of planning should occur at the beginning of an agile project, but also during each Sprint Planning session. In the traditional Waterfall Methodology, the expectation would be for all this analysis to be completed at the beginning of a project. But Agile projects are iterative, so there is "just enough" initial planning and the details are worked out in the appropriate future Sprint. 
LINK TO THE 7 PRODUCT DIMENSIONS - Users, Interfaces, Actions, Data, Controls, Environment, Quality Attributes

Structured Conversations
Just like every effective meeting requires some upfront planning and organized objectives - agile work benefits from 'facilitated collaborative discovery' to elicit, analyse and learn from each other. Sprint Planning has a clear objective: to define the scope of the upcoming Sprint. The anticipated value from each User Story is evaluated to plan out the next Sprint Backlog. Remembering that Customers, Technology and Business representatives will all have different value considerations - the group will need to facilitate the conversation to avoid chaos. If the group maturity is not quite ready to self-facilitate, Mary suggested bringing in an external facilitator (someone who is not part of the Scrum Team) to help provide the necessary structure. 
LINK TO IMAGE

It was nice to hear from an Agile expert who is clearly passionate about teaching the methodology to others and clarifying common misunderstandings about what Agile is and isn't. Agile DOES have processes and best practices to ensure an appropriate level of planning and analysis for a successful end-product. 

What I learnt at the TEDxWaterloo Event (Mar2013)

For a much more interactive presentation of my key take-aways; check out THIS LINK Otherwise, read on for a summary of my presentation...

I had a great experience at my first TEDx - I would highly recommend this event! The speakers expanded my knowledge in a variety of topics and inspired me to think BIG with CREATIVITY and CURIOSITY. 

The day was planned around 3 themes: 

homeWITHIN 

• Bacteria of the Gut: Emma Allen-Vercoe, Microbial Ecologist 
• There 10x as many microbes in your body than human cells (500-1000 different types, with a unique "poop-print"). 
• Makers & Fixers: Mag Ruffman, Actor, Author & Contractor 
• Mag's vision is to get people working with their hands. "It's never too late to become the person you might have been"
• Chris Eliasmith, Theoretical Neuroscience 
• This topic was fascinating even though I am not an expert in this field by any means! I've been reading up on Neuromorphic Hardware/Engineering and the possibilities are incredible. 

homeTOGETHER 

• Should kids get to Vote? Miles Corak: 
• There is no upper boundary on the right to vote, why have a lower boundary? Some teens may be more capable of making an informed decision than some seniors.
• Deported to a Death Sentence? Sudz Sutherland, Writer & Director 
• "Systemic changes are needed to address the root cause of why some immigrant parents are not getting the Citizenship for their children". His movie is 'Home Again'
• Healing beyond a Cure; Mark Greenerg, Pediatric Oncologist 
• Do patients have the 'right' to make all decisions? Patients are not always able/rational to make the best decisions for long-lasting repercussions. 

homeBEYOND 

• Particles, the Universe & Curiosity; Alison Lister, Physicist 
• "We are losing our curiosity about the world - and that should worry you!" 
• Earth Cast; Wade Larson, Space Visionary 
• Plans to broadcast HD video from the International Space Station by end of 2013. www.urthecast.com  
• Mars Curiosity Project; Rob Manning, Engineer 
• Proof exists that Mars has energy within its core that could sustain life. 

Final thought... "Home is a place where you can be yourself". I hope you find your home. homeWITHIN (in reference to becoming a 'maker' if you love working with your hands)

Communicating with the Top Dogs

Communication just comes naturally to some people. Or was their polished performance actually meticulously planned?
Have you ever realized how much work is needed to communicate a concise message? It's much easier to ramble informally with peers than to assemble a clear proposal within a few minutes to an intimidating crowd.

 

Know Your Audience

When communicating with Senior Leaders, a different style must be used for Effective Communication. Consider these 'Principles of Effective Upward Communication¹':

1. Consider their perspective - Empathize, Speak their language and (I think most importantly) Anticipate their questions
2. Be respectful - Recognize the value of time, Prepare a tailored presentation and consider cultural perspectives of a Company Hierarchy
3. Be focused and concise - Use direct communication, Know your objective and Stay focused (make inquiries in advance to find out what audience really wants and preferred presentation style)
4. Be honest - If you don't know an answer; don't try to guess! Answer honestly ("I don't know" is ok, but commit to answer within a specific timeframe)

Keep It Simple

Presentations should follow these best practises:

1. 10 slides, 20 minute max, 30-point font min (Kawasaki's 10/20/30 rule)
2. 30 second rule: be prepared to summarize in literally 30 seconds
3. Start with the reason for the presentation
4. Present all options concisely
5. Give clear recommendations
6. Summarize and give next steps

I'm going to add one more presentation tip from a colleague:

• Use statements and keywords, not sentences. Use a max. of 8 words per line and 8 lines per slide (this is actually REALLY HARD to do - give it a try!).

For every communication opportunity, carefully consider your audience and choose the most appropriate style for Effective Communication. After much planning and prep work - you too could come off as that person who is "just good at communicating".

1Source: Techniques for Communicating Effectively with Senior Executives, Skillsoft

A Diamond in the Rough... strategic planning

Strategic Analysis... sounds like a huge task - where to even start?! So many factors, so many variables to consider.

I was recently exposed to the Diamond-E Framework which breaks down Strategic Planning into approachable buckets. The Framework is a tool that will help to identify potential gaps within an entire ecosystem before deciding to pursue an opportunity or address a threat.

The assumption is that you have a Strategy in place, but you are now assessing specific proposals to determine if they are worth pursuing. The Framework guides you to find deficiencies or gaps within specific components (see below); how those gaps relate to each other, and how they relate overall to the Strategy in place. Corrections can be made to fix the specific issues (i.e. missing capability) or it may be more appropriate to adjust the Strategy (i.e. against corporate culture).

ENVIRONMENT (external variable)

Consider factors outside the organization that will impact chances of success: Supply (technology, suppliers, resources), Demand )customer needs & preferences), Competition (market rivalry & attractiveness), Government (regulatory compliance, policies).

RESOURCES (internal variable)

What requirements are needed in these organizational areas? Marketing, Operations, Development, Human Resources, Finance

MANAGEMENT (internal variable)

What are the 'Observed Preferences' in Individual goals, values and attitudes and how do these differ from the 'Required Preferences'? "What's best for me and my team?" vs. "What's best for my company?"

ORGANIZATION (internal variable)

What are the required capabilities for success with relation to: Innovation, Productivity, Speed, Collaboration

There are many opportunities to apply the Diamond-E Framework. Strategic planning of complex/huge opportunities are an obvious match to apply the Framework (i.e. should we get into THIS type of business?) - but it can also be applied at a tactical level (i.e. project selection or deciding on feature enhancements to pursue). From what I've read, it will feel more 'natural' once it's been used a few times. Overall, the Diamond-E Framework is a tool that will help to identify potential gaps within an entire ecosystem before deciding to pursue an opportunity or address a threat.

Reference Material

Joseph N. Fry, J. Peter Killing - Strategic Analysis & Action 

Need to do more? Try slowing down! A lesson in Kanban.

Have you ever had so much going on that you don't know where to start? Or you've got your toe in so many tasks/projects that it seems like nothing ever gets DONE? 

Mike Edwards (@mikeeedwards) led a session on Tuesday Dec 4th at the Kitchener CommuniTech 'Limited WIP Society' meeting (@ltdWIP), to show us how Kanban can help bring focus and faster resolution to our workday. He made it clear that Kanban doesn't work in all situations; it has to be a good mix with the corporate culture. 

Check out this YouTube clip he showed the group to demonstrate how easy it is for people to get distracted when there's a lot going on (Change Blindness video link). 

Five simple Kanban rules

1. Visualize the work 
2. Limit WIP: inventory is waste!
3. Measure and monitor 
4. Make processes and policies explicit - make the rules visual, okay for rules to evolve (i.e. How to handle blocks, Batch size (wip) limit, Goal of completion rate)
5. How to treat urgent items and their limit (very disruptive)

The basic idea with Kanban is that you capture a list of task using post-it notes and then you 'pull' tasks into the next column as capacity allows. There's a limit on how many tasks can be worked on at one time, so capacity only opens up once a task is FULLY completed.

Sample Kanban Boards

To Do	Work-In-Progress	Completed

or ...

Backlog	Requirements	Design	Develop	Test	Deploy
E F G	C D	A B

or...

Plan/Define	Build	Verify	Implement

Group Exercise

We did a group exercise that quickly demonstrated his point. A small 'work line' was set up a BA creating batches of requirements which went through a series of developers until it was handed to the customer for final acceptance testing. The first round was chaos and then Mike gradually added more rigour by limited the work in progress. 
Take a look at the results in the '# Accepted' row in the below picture; there's your proof!