Monthly Archives: November 2011

Disengaged Workers are a Symptom, Not a Problem

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I saw an interesting discussion question on LinkedIn this week:

A new Gallup tracking poll shows that an astounding 71 percent of U.S. workers are either “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” in their work. In other words, these workers are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces.”

I immediately responded:

Outsourcing. Off-shoring. Mergers. Acquisitions. Divestitures. Down-sizing. Right-sizing. Re-organizing. Re-positioning. Consolidating. Achieving synergies. Cut-backs. Automating. Focusing on our core competencies. Re-badging. Apply for your current job with the new service provider. Bottom-pruning. Doing more with less. Increased insurance premiums. Eliminating the 401(k) match. Pre-existing conditions. Increased deductible. Coverage limits. Reachable on vacation. Training budget cuts. CYA. Performance improvement plan. Locked supply cabinets. Executive compensation. The holiday potluck lunch in the conference room. Motion detector light switches. Eat at your desk. Exempt employees. Saturday work. Across the board. There will be no raises this year. Executive bonuses. Corporate jet. Stockholder value.  And you think it’s the WORKERS who are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces?

The observed phenomenon of employees being actively disengaged, frequently termed “presenteeism,” is a symptom, not the problem.  Workers are rational beings, with needs, expectations, and emotional responses to social stimuli.  When employees start putting up signs in their cubicles that read, “The beatings will continue until morale improves,” you’re seeing their organization’s culture.  When Dilbert cartoons are appearing on every public surface, it reflects how these people feel about their workplace.  It’s morbid humor.

My oldest friend, Steve Miller, just called me to have me take a look at an interesting URL – “The Asshole Self-Rating Exam.”  From Bob Sutton, author of “The No-Asshole Rule,” it lists 24 affinity questions that are only morbidly funny.  They reflect abusive behavior from the point of view of the abuser, rationalizations and all.  Unfortunately, they also reflect an increasingly toxic workplace, populated by people who feel little affinity with the people around them.  We’re seeing a gradual shift in behavioral norms, in a direction which no one should like.  Worse, we’re coming to accept it as legitimate.  As Steve pointed out to me, “Steve Jobs was one of the biggest assholes in Silicon Valley.  And we’ve decided that he was a hero.”

That Sutton’s book and Scott Adams’ Dilbert strip are so popular should be of concern to senior management in every organization.  Unfortunately, many of them are driving these behaviors.  And self-criticism is not necessarily one of their core competencies.

The bottom line is, lousy management gets lousy followers.  But I’m sure that’s obvious to everyone, except maybe lousy managers.

New PM Articles for the Week of November 7 – 13

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New project management articles published on the web during the week of November 7 – 13, 2011.  We read all of this stuff so you don’t have to!  Recommended:

  • Ty Kiisel looks at an emerging trend – gamification.  Would making projects more like a game improve our ability to complete projects on time, on schedule, and with the requisite scope and quality?  Or, would those things even still be the objective?
  • Elizabeth Harrin interviews Dr. Suzanne Doyle-Morris, author of “Female Breadwinners.”  You might remember her as the author of “Beyond the Boy’s Club,” and her advice to women: “Project gravitas.”
  • Peter Saddington shares ten myths debunked in Govindarajan and Trimble’s book, “The Other Side of Innovation.”
  • Derek Huether isn’t just teaching a PMI-ACP prep class – he’s actually taken the exam.  And he has some pointers for those studying to take it, too (besides signing up for his class).
  • Bruce McGraw looks at the challenges in finding a content management system.  Hint: the users and the content are part of the solution!
  • Eric Willeke continues his series on Kanban, with a look at small projects with short durations.
  • Chuck Morton looks at deliverables, in the context of managing a project under contract.
  • Johanna Rothman concludes her five-part series on schedules and budgets.  Missed the first part?  It’s right here.
  • Marian Haus has been thinking about project planning, and she lists what she believes to be the seven essential planning documents.
  • Sam Palani has five steps to getting your project schedule correct.
  • Glen Alleman continues his series, “5 questions PMs must ask,” by looking at the U.S. Department of Defense approach to managing risks.
  • Kelly Kazimer tells it like it is.  “Not everyone can be a project manager.”
  • Joel Bancroft-Connors and Hogarth, the gorilla, consider success and failure.  Was Apollo 13 a failure?  Only if you think getting to the Moon is more important than getting back alive.
  • Bruce Benson notes that successful projects tend to draw a crowd – which can threaten the success of the project.
  • And Brad Egeland looks at the challenges of integrating the product of the project into the rest of the business of the organization.
  • Kevin Purdy gleans four important project management lessons from the raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound.  “Plan backward from the goal …”
  • Kiron Bondale looks for project management wisdom in the words of one of the nuclear power industry’s most quotable men – Homer Simpson.
  • Bas de Baar, the Project Shrink and principal resident (aside from MacGuyver) of Shrinkonia, is soliciting nominations for the 2001 Shrinkies – “Awards for Awesome People.”  I nominated a whole list of them – add your voice!

Enjoy!

Multiple Phases, Multiple Timelines

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I’m about to begin planning for a new project.  This one’s a bit complicated, in that we’re going to roll out different functions at different points in time.  Each go-live will be the culmination of a phase, and of course, each phase includes various stages.  Of course, there will be two major upgrades during the course of the overall project – this is Workday, after all, and they do three a year.  Even better, we’re doing both U.S. and Canadian payroll, so we have to figure out how to run parallel tests against the two current payroll systems.  There are a total of four systems with current data to be converted, plus a bunch of integrations to other system to be developed.  There are even several completely new integrations which will replace current processes that are entirely manual.  Does your head hurt yet?

Obviously, I need to look at this graphically in order to identify the interactions and possible dependencies.  So, I used Visio to plot a view of the timelines of the four phases and the two upgrades.  The next step is to identify the deliverables for each phase, build a WBS, and then try to schedule it out.  Along the way, I need to develop a management plan for the various implementation tenants (Workday-speak for “instances of the software”).   I’ll also need work with Scott, the Conversion God, to figure out the details of migrating phases 2 through 4 to a working production system.  We do it when we need to, but three times in four months will require some detailed planning.  Especially for the payroll phase, as we bring in year-to-date balances from multiple sources.

You might see some more posts on this project, as it evolves and as time permits.