Category Archives: Project Management

Replay with Time-boxing and Parking Lot method.

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Time-boxing is a method which allows you to do everything that you want to do without the above pitfall.

You get into the office early because you need to review the results of the overnight test run, and mail in the results before the 9:00am meeting.

“Darn, the overnight test failed at stage 6.  Why did that fail?  I need to figure out why and start it back up.  I need some version of the report by 8:30am for the 9:00 meeting.  That means I need to start creating the PowerPoint slides at 8:00am.  I’ll set my timer for  8:00am.

Man – the error code is so cryptic.  I don’t know what it means or how to fix it.  I’ll call Carl…it’s his code.  Oh – that’s right.  Carl doesn’t get in the office until 8:30.  But he’s probably awake.  I’ll find his cell number in his last email.”

When you bring up email, you notice several urgent emails from your 2nd line manager.

“Okay – let me jot a note on my parking lot list to review these emails.  The message was sent at 2:00am.  Most people are not into the office this early.  It’s unlikely that the executives expect a response before the 9:00 meeting.  I’ll just make sure to go back to this after the meeting.  And the meeting will probably make these email obsolete anyway.”

You open only Carl’s email for his cell number.

Carl: “Hey, John!  What’s up?”
“Hey Carl.  Sorry to be bothering you at home and so early.”
Carl: “No worries.  I was up getting the family ready for the day.  What can I do for ya?”
“Well, I came in to review the overnight results and it got stuck on stage 6.  Any ideas?
Carl: “mmm… that’s odd.  I ran my unit tests on it and it ran through all 8 stages without a hitch.  How many test inputs did you use?”
“Approximately, 1,578 files.”
Carl: “Approximately, eh?”
“well…ummmm…”
Carl: “Well – I confess that my unit test only ran with 20 input data files.  I ran with all the files you sent me at the time.  It’s always helpful to get samples of the real data that you will be using.”
“Oh!  That’s great.  Let me jot a note to send you these files as well.”
Carl: “Cool.  So — back to today’s issue.  Hopefully it’s running into a data limit and not a data validation issue.  If it’s only a data limit, we can batch the test runs into 20 file limits and it should run fine.  If it’s a data validation issue – that will take some time to debug and diffuse. By you sending me those files, I’ll be able to debug that issue (if that’s the problem) when I get into the office.“
“Okay.  Can you hold on the phone while I run with just 20 files?”
Carl: “Sure… if you don’t mind me and the kids eating cereal while you do that.”
“Sure!  What cereal are we having?”

You run your experiment and get all 20 files through stage 6,7,8
              

“Carl – that seems to work.  I’ll manually segment the rest into 20 files groups.  I’ll pipe as many through I can before the meeting.”
Carl: “That sounds good.  Jot down any other notes and I can automate those modifications directly into the batch runs when I get into the office.  It won’t make them for the 9:00 meeting – but it will help in the future.”
“Can do.  And thanks.”

You create a batch routine that takes your 1,578 files and parses them into 20 file chunks through stage 6,7 and 8.  Once the first 20 gets through stage 6, they automatically move onto stage 7 and then into stage 8 (while the next 20 are being processed through stage 6, etc).  This way just in case you can’t get through all 1,578 files before the meeting – you’ll still be able to report some preliminary results at the 9:00 meeting.
While those files are running, you create a PowerPoint slide deck on the 20 files that have already completed.  This way, you will only have to update the data, analysis and recommendations at 8:00am.  You also jot a parking lot note to send both the batch code and files to Carl.

Co-workers start trickling into the office.  Your tests are still running and your PowerPoint template is complete.  If worse comes to worse, you can present your status with these files.  You take your timer with you to the coffee station and chat with others.
At 8:00am your timer goes off.  You return to your desk to complete your report.  At this point, only 750 files fully completed the tests.  You use that data to update your deck.  You take the extra step to create an analysis and next step recommendations.  At 8:30am you see Carl walk down the hall.

               “CARL!”
Carl: “Hey!  How did those tests go?”
“Great!  Do you have a moment to take a look at the results?  I want to bounce off my analysis and recommendations off you….before the meeting.”
Carl:  “Sure!  “

While you and Carl are reviewing the recommendations, an additional 500 files complete.  You and Carl contemplate updating the report and analysis with these new test results.  You decide against it. It would cause unnecessary panic (and risk of mistakes) in updating the slides right before the meeting.  Instead, you decided to add an extra slide to explain the situation on the final 1000 files (more on the importance of full transparency in my online continuous coaching series).  Since a large percentage of the files are still running (nearly 50%), you state that your recommendations may change.  You add an expectation of completion.  You also share that the next 500 files did complete just a few moments ago and they are still in line with your current analysis and recommendation.
Stay tuned for the next article (Replay with additional proactive techniques) to find out how to handle this situation with additional techniques beyond time-boxing.

Sign up for the online coaching sessions for more information on the above techniques or subscribe to my weekly newsletter at http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/

The weekly newsletter contains tips on:
1)      Time management
2)      Career maintenance
3)      Business networking
4)      Work life balance strategies

If you haven’t taken advantage of your introductory time management coaching session, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

Want more time? Think inside the box.

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In my GoTo Academy: Tools for the GoTo Guy and Gal continuous online coaching series, I go into Time-boxing and the use of Parking Lot methods in detail.
If you are interested in more training in these areas, please signup for the continuing online coaching series.

Does this scenario sound familiar?

You get into the office early because you need to review the results of the overnight test run, and mail in the results before the 9:00am meeting.

“Darn, the overnight test failed at stage 6. Why did that fail? I need to figure out why and start it back up.
Man – the error code is so cryptic. I don’t know what it means or how to fix it. Carl is a waste. He is always making my job harder. His stuff is never right. I’ll get him to fix it…it’s his code. Oh – that’s right. Carl doesn’t get in the office until 8:30. But he’s probably awake. Even if he isn’t — I don’t care. I’ll find his cell number in his last email.”

When you bring up email, you notice several urgent emails from your 2nd line manager. You open those up and respond to a few other emails. In the meantime, other co-workers start to come in and you chat over some coffee.
8:45 am you see Carl coming down the hall and something triggers.

“I needed Carl for something. Oh darn! CARL!
Carl: “Hey! How are you?”
“Pitiful. The overnight run failed on stage 6 and the test results were due 2 days ago. I was able to get an extension for 9:00am today but ….”
Carl: “Dude – that’s in ten minutes. Why didn’t you call me sooner?”
“Yeah …. I ….”

Although you may not have experienced the exact scenario, but we all have time slip away because of a series of momentary distractions. Although at the time they are occurring they don’t seem sinister, but in a group they can be very destructive.

Stay tuned for the next installment (Replay with Time-boxing and Parking Lot method) to find out how to handle this situation better.

Subscribe to my weekly newsletter at http://eepurl.com/cZ9_-/

The weekly newsletter contains tips on:
1) Time management
2) Career maintenance
3) Business networking
4) Work life balance strategies

If you haven’t taken advantage of your introductory time management coaching session, please contact LauraRose@RoseCoaching.info

Your mission, if you choose to accept it….

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In my GoTo Academy: Tools for the GoTo Guy and Gal class exercises, I ask my students to do the following:

  • First week, I ask my students to list three heroes (dead or alive) that they would like to meet (and why).
  • Every week thereafter,  I give my students a problem or scenario to solve or improve.
  • I then ask them to pretend to be one of their previously listed heroes.  They are to redo the previous exercise with their new mindset.

They are often surprised how their answers differed — even though their knowledge set, their environment, and their resources did not change.  They only thing they changed was their mindset or perspective.

Putting on the robe or attributes of your favorite heroes makes it easier to take that leap.

Your homework, if you choose to accept it:  When faced with a challenge, pretend to be one of your most admired mentors or Brainiacs.  What would they do?  How would they react or respond?  Pretending to be someone else makes it easier to think out of our default ‘box’ and take that leap.  And since we gravitate toward heroes that exhibit more of who we really want to be — we can’t lose.

p.s.  The best part is that no one needs to know that you are doing it.

Let me know what you think.

Effective use of Voice Mail:

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Regardless of which time zones you are working with, answering machines and voice mail has become a part of everyday existence.  Unfortunately, we don’t always make use of the tool effectively.  For instance, I often receive messages like, “Laura, give me a call” without name or contact information in which to call them back.  Or they rapidly mumble the phone number with no hope of duplicating.

Or you call them at a convenient to you but you know it isn’t a convenient to them.  You want to hand-off the information (essentially getting it off your to-do list) but you know that they aren’t going to receive the message right away (because of their time zone or travel schedules).   This is fine to do, but there are some professional things to consider.  See on…

Some things to be aware of

  • State your name and number up-front to avoid running out of time at the end of the message.  Pause and repeat your contact number very slowly to allow folks to jot it down, if need be. By stating the number up-front, we avoid being cut-off at the end.   For instance: We naturally speed our speak toward the end of the message to avoid the “cut-off” phenomenon.  When we speed up, our voices often lower and we mumble  – making us difficult.   Also by placing our name and number up-front, we save them from having to hear the entire message again — just to write down our number.
  • Keep your voice clear and strong throughout the message and repeat any important numbers or ‘call to actions’.
  • If you call this person often, you don’t need to leave your contact information each time.  But if you haven’t spoken to this person in awhile, just refresh their memory.  They might have changed their phones and lost your number.  Or you may have changed your number in-between contact, etc.
  • If you know you are calling them at a bad time, tell them. For instance, “Hey, Sally.  This is Laura. Mr. Favor’s number is 555-123-4567, once again it’s 555-123-4567.    I know you are traveling today.  No need to return this call. I just know that you wanted to talk to Mr. Favor while you were in his town.  Once again Mr. Favor’s number is 555-123-4567.”  This shows Sally that you were not only sensitive to her goals, but that you were listening to her when she was sharing her travel schedule with you.  Otherwise, if you had left a message like: “Sally, I have that number for you.”; she might get flustered and mentally note (although she would be too polite to actually say it), “Gosh darn it, Laura.  I told you I would be busy and on the road today!  Now I have yet another thing to do to follow-up on this.”
  • Be explicit about any deadlines and when you will call them back (and state the reason for your call) so that they can be on the watch for your next call.  Most of the time, when you give an explicit time  when you will call back (and reason for your call), co-workers will connect with the importance of speaking with you.  They often give you a call back immediately with the information that you are requesting.  When you are vague and ambiguous about your intentions, people unconsciously dismiss the message. If you are transparent and explicit in the reason for your call, they are allowed to do some ground-work and are prepared with the answer in time for your next call.
  • Share why it’s important to them to return your call.  Put yourself in their shoes and figure out why they will want to return your call.  If you are leaving a humdrum, uninteresting or even negative message, people will find other things to delay their call-back.  If you state your intentions in the form of a win/win or exciting collaborative way, people are more likely to respond positively.  For example: “Sally,  This is Laura Lee Rose at 919-614-9029, (once again 919-614-9029).  I was thinking about your concerns over XYZ and I think I have the beginnings of a solution.  I’m excited about discussing this idea with you.  I think with some collaborative noodling, it would be a Wi/Win for everyone.  Are you available for a 20 minute call today or tomorrow? Maybe sometime between 3:00pm and 7:00pm?  If not, can you leave me three other dates and times in which we can brainstorm together?”
  • Make your message count.  Always leave a message that takes you one or two steps closer to your target goal.  For instance, if you are calling to setup a meeting, leave 3 different date/times that you are available to meet and what number they can call.  This way, when they return your call (and get your voice mail), they can say, “Yes — I am available on today at X o’clock”.  As you can see, this is much more effective than a message like, “Sally, I need to talk to you.  Give me a call, please.”  or even “Sally, I need to setup a meeting with you.”
  • If you get their voice mail and your are just leaving an FYI …. be explicit with your intentions and release their need to return your call. For example: “Hey, Sally.  This is Laura Rose. Mr. Jones’ number is 555-123-4567 (once again 555-123-4567). Mr. Jones said the delivery is expected on June 15th.  There’s no need to return this call, unless you have further questions.  I’ll be away from the office the rest of the day.  So, if you have any further questions, calling Mr. Jones directly would be more effective.”  This is much more efficient than “Hey, Sally, call me.”
  • Leave your client or co-worker uplifted by your message.  Realize that leaving a voice mail for someone requires additional work on their part.  They have to schedule time to listen to the voice mail, jot down any highlights, notes or numbers, and schedule time to return your call.  Acknowledge and value their time.  Anything you can do to release them of additional tediousness, please consider it.  For instance, “Hey, Sally.  This is Laura.  I’ll send you an email update on this, so that you don’t have to make notes.  Just letting you know that the deal is done.  Papers signed. Fax on it’s way.  I knew this was on your mind.  So now you can relax and have a glorious, care-free vacation.”
  • Although not always necessary, I have a habit of also sending a recap-email of my phone messages and telephone conversations.  This gives me a virtual paper trail of our agreements, action items and deadlines.  It’s not necessary for everything, but does come in handy many times.  Some people have more access to email than to phones and visa-versa.  Incorporating both helps assures your message is getting received and acted upon.

Using Time Zones to Your Benefit

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No longer is “I’ll finish this tomorrow”  or “I’ll schedule the meeting for later this afternoon before I leave work”an acceptable business mindset.

In today’s global and international work environment, ‘Waiting until tomorrow’ can cost you and entire day of productivity.  On the other hand, I am not advocating working around the clock either.  What I am suggesting is to merely be aware of both your surroundings and those of your clients and stakeholders.
While this is difficult when you are covering several time zones at once, it is manageable if you are working with one or two time zones on a project.
Some tips:
1) For people that are 3 or more hours head of your time zone:

  • Don’t leave your day without processing their request or (providing them status).  This way they will be automatically greeted with an update and feel that you have been very responsive.
  • Don’t suggest an impromptu meeting or interview late in your afternoon.  They have already gone for the day
  • Call them the first thing in your workday.  This will give them the rest of their afternoon to comply with your request.  And you will still have time to respond to their answers before you go home for the day.
  • Be transparent in your office hours. People at your site can see when you normally arrive and leave work.  Those in other time-zones do not.  If you are not normally in the office in the afternoon, tell them that.  This tells the client that if they want a response today, they need to send in the request by a certain time each day.
  • Incorporate and acknowledge time-zone delays and buffers in your delivery schedules.  This will allow you to accommodate for the delays either by adding time to the delivery schedule or deliberately shifting the work schedule to accommodate the time zone differences..

2) For people that are 3 or more hours behind your time zone:

  • Process their requests first thing in the morning.  Because they are not in the office yet; and this gives you an opportunity to comply with their request without them waiting.  This way they are greeted with your response the moment they start-up their computer.  If you wait until the end of your day to respond, you have delayed your progress two days (they have to wait until tomorrow to work on your follow-up request).
  • Give them a lunch-time (your time zone) call with any of your requests.  If you greet them with a lunch-time call, you can interactively review the materials that you have previously sent them earlier in your morning.  This allows you to answer any of their questions and give you time to respond to any follow-up requests before you go home (at your regular time).  If you call them the moment you get to the office, you know you will be leaving a voice mail and adding another to-do item on their list to call you back.  Deliberating orchestrating a ‘voice-mail’ tag game is non-productive and frustrating for all involved.   It may seem like you are ‘trying to communicate’ — but you are actually merely delaying the interactive interchange.

**Some people actually do this on purpose because they want to deliberately avoid confrontation and extend the deadlines.  Don’t dance to this song with them.

  • Be transparent in your office hours.  People at your site can see when you normally arrive and leave work.  Those in other time-zones do not.  If you are not normally in the office in the afternoon, tell them that.  This tell the client that if they want a response today, they need to send in the request by a certain time each day.
  • Incorporate and acknowledge time-zone delays and buffers in your delivery schedules.  This will allow you to accommodate for the delays either by adding time to the delivery schedule or deliberately shifting the work schedule to accommodate the time zone differences.

5 Tips for managing cultural or process change in the workplace

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 “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”

Buddhist proverb

The most effective way to lead and mentor, is when the student is wanting or asking. An inherent problem occurs when you are mentoring or leading groups (such as in a corporation). Often times a company, division or department will adopt a new process or software life cycle method without regard to the culture or readiness of the employees. This creates a frustrating and possibly a “no-Win” position for anyone responsible for auditing or managing this process change.

Sometimes when people are having trouble with change, it is because they are not ready for the change. Forcing them in a direction that they are not ready for is more difficult than merely allowing them the time to adjust and continue to lead them in that direction. Allowing and recognizing the stages of acceptance are also important (see 10 Tips for dealing with change in the workplace for more information).

Some additional points to consider when leading folks toward a new culture, development lifecycle method or process:

  1. Acknowledge that it isn’t your responsibility to ‘force’ everyone to adapt to the change.
  2.  Share reason for the process change
  3. Celebrate even the smallest process successes.
  4. Ask for help
  5.  Lead by example

Read the full article at :

www.lauraleerose.com/5 Tips for managing process change in the workplace.pdf

Email or not to email – that is the question.

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Have any of these happened to you?

  •  An email is sent at 4:00am to tell you that the 8:00am meeting location (for the same day) has changed.
  • You are waiting for your next private student and they never show.  When you return home, you find an email send 1-hour before the class saying that they will not be able to make it.
  • You need answers to some important project answers.  You continue to send email requests without success.  Your report is late.

Email is very convenient, but it’s not the best way to communicate time sensitive information.  In all three of the above examples, email isn’t the enemy but it contributes to the problem.

Some problems with the above examples:

  • Sending the message doesn’t assure that the message is received.
  • Avoid imposing and passing along your chaotic schedule onto others.  Consider that your late notices are the results of your poor planning, not the person’s that you just passed it along to with a quick email note.  In this example, you essentially “washed-your-hands” of your responsibility for your last minute change and left it up to the other person to manage it.
  • Sometimes emails can be lost and automatically filtered into junk or spam folders.  Don’t automatically assume that they are deliberately ignoring you.
  • Not everyone has email capability strapped to their belt or in their purse.  It may be several hours or until the next day before the message is actually received.

Many times we use this method to avoid conflict or embarrassment for something we are uncomfortable saying in person.  Many times we use email to simply cross a to-do item off our list.  The mistake is that we feel that once we “send” we are done.    As you can see from the above examples, that is not always the case.  Communication is (at minimum) a two-way street.   Your initiated email or text simply doesn’t complete the circuit.

An good way to avoid a mistake with email is to:  review why you are sending this message and what you hope to accomplish with it.  What is your goal?  Is the goal for them to actually receive the message and take some type of action?  Or are you merely giving some background information or reference material for later use?

Also consider:

  •  Would you be inconvenienced if they don’t get this message?
  • Would they be inconvenienced if they didn’t get this message?
  • Are you sending this email to avoid talking to them in person?
  • Are you deliberately ignoring their request for response to avoid conflict?

None of these are very good uses of email alone.

But how does one know when it’s appropriate to send an email message and when it’s not enough?  Some things to consider is the type of message, urgency and amount of lead time available.

Some good general communication rules:

  • Provide the recipient enough lead time to actually receive and respond (at least 2 business days).   If less than 2 days, call instead.
  • If 2 days passes without a response, switch to another (more urgent) form of communication preferably a phone call or a meeting.  This way you can get your response immediately through that interaction.  Both email and text is a delayed form of communication ( i.e:  send a one-way communication and wait minutes, hours, days, weeks for a response).
  • If you are not interested in continuing the relationship, respond “I’m not interested; please remove me from your subscription list; please remove me from this project; etc”.  Ignoring their emails in hopes that they will get the message is neither considerate nor effective.  They may be giving you the benefit of the doubt and are assuming that you are not receiving the communications.   Once you have explicitly stated that you are not interested and asked for them to stop all communication, and then most reasonable people will take you off their project status list.

Conclusion:

Take the time to put yourself in the other person’s shoes.  If your positions were reversed, how you would like someone to notify you about a last moment change; how much time lead time would you like before you reschedule and rearrange your day;  how would you like the other person to deal with a difficult situation?

Why put off until tomorrow, if you don’t have to?

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I just had a glorious conversation with a great friend.  We were chatting about sales and marketing opportunities that would benefit both our business goals.  We were using Skype.com to video chat via iphone and computer.  She was in Rhode Island on vacation and I in North Carolina.  It was amazing.

At the end of the conversation, I asked permission to call her next week to get status on some of these action items we had been discussing.  Her response was, “Absolutely, but can you email me instead?”

My response, “Absolutely.”

When I hung up, I immediately brought up my email, itemized our action items and wrote my “next-week’s Check-up” email requesting status.   I then hit my “send-later” button and scheduled the delivery for next week (cc-ing myself in the process).

Conclusion:  I certainly could have opened my calendar and noted a reminder to  “email Jane Doe about status” on the proper day.  But then there would still be something left for me to do on that action item.   This way, it’s off my plate and my mind.

Check into the tools that you are already using.  See if there are any features that you can take advantage of like:

  • scheduled reminders;
  • send later;
  • auto-responders;
  • auto-filing
  • and auto-deleting.

Taking advantage of some of these features will save you time and give you peace of mind.

If you need help in deciding how to best handle some of these issues, please consider using your free introductory success coaching session.

Multi-tasking or “allowing interruptions”?

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To me, multitasking is merely a euphemism to “allowing interruptions”.

One technique I use is the Sprints and Buffer technique.

  1. Divide your tasks into smaller mini-tasks with scheduled buffer time between the tasks.   This way you can make forward progress on a multiple of things — without churning from task to task.
  2. When an interruption enters the queue, simply schedule that interruption at the next available “buffer time”.  This allows you to complete several different categories of tasks AND handle the unexpected interruption.
  3. If you are a valuable component of your company or business, then you will be interrupted…you will be in demand. That’s the definition of an MVP.

The trick isn’t to turn-off that flow of influence and appreciation; the skill is to merely manage your time better. Planning for the unexpected is the key. We don’t know what will show up — but we do know something will show up. Therefore, it makes sense to actually schedule for those inevitable interruptions.

How to Repel a Current Client From Ever Returning

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Laura Lee Rose is the Corporate Exiting Strategest for blooming entrepreneurs.
Laura helps others to easily transition into their next chapter whether it’s the next ladder of success within their corporate environment or into the entrepreneurial playground.

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