July 30th Deadline

Did you make the deadline? For those who did, read the author's interview, which starts on page 12: http://www.systemsguild.com/GuildSite/TDM/DeadlinePreview.pdf .


For those who have a little bit more reading to do, finish and then read the interview. During the first book meeting, we asked you to project what would happen: Did your expectations pan out? Who got married? !(: More importantly, how do you see your experiences reflected in The Deadline?

We would like to extend our gratitude to everyone who participated in the discussions. We really appreciate your willingness to read and share and learn about project management with us. A lot of folks chatted with us outside of the meetings and some conveyed their interest in reading with us. We are anticipating a second reading of The Deadline and another book selection.

Finally, without the formality of a survey, could you let us know if you liked or disliked the logistics, such as meeting time, room, and format. Would you like weekly meetings with fewer chapters to discuss? What about the blog? Did you follow it? Did you add any comments? Would you like a short learning session on how to read, write and comment on blogs?

Thanks again, we are looking forward to reading and sharing more with you! Leslie and Susan

DEADLINE: Turn in your books to Leslie or Susan no later than July 30th.

....and so we have to extend the deadline....

Final Meeting

We left off with approximately 200 days 'till deadline. What's going to happen? Which project will finish on time? Will the air traffic control system be in place for the Summer Olympics? Will Lahksa and Himself return in time to deal with Belok's greed? da-da-da-dun......

We are moving our final meeting to Tuesday, July 13th to give you hard-working folks another day or two away from your projects! Use the link in our email to select your chapter to lead.

Have a safe weekend!

"I don't believe in No-Win Situations"

GR: Admiral Kirk, Lieutenant at the time, re-programmed the simulation program and progressed through training while everyone else crashed and burned.

"I don't like to lose."

Kobayashi Maru

SHE: What did you read or we discuss that reminded you of Star Trek Kobayashi Maru?
GR: Chapter 17 talks about conflict. Dan commented on Thompkins' journal entry where they "arrange up front when win conditions are mutually exclusive or partly so, the parties will be expected to move into mediation to resolve conflict." So he and I both recalled Kobayashi Maru.

During the iteractive simulation, the commander of the Enterprise is faced with conflict and has to decide between two very bad situations. No matter what decision, more conflict is presented.

There can never be a mutually exclusive win situation for both parties...

URLs to Post?

Got any URLs to post?

Steps of Mediation by CrawfordsWorld.com (look at Chapter 18 before considering being a Mediator!)

This website compares and contrasts negotiation and mediation and gives do's and don'ts.

Chapters 7 thru 12

Chapter 7 – Taking on Staff
•Misinterpretation of General Patton as a leader – He was a leader by title, but “he was not the active intelligence of the battle” (p63). (Have you ever had that moment where you know your knowledge and skills are not valued?)
•“What there isn’t in most organizations is a clean way to send a truly anonymous message to your boss. So, bad news that everybody wants to tell and every good boss wants to know never gets through until it’s too late” (p67). Did you know that EIS has (or used to have) a comment and suggestion box? Is it still available? Would anyone use it to convey important messages to project managers?

Chapter 8- The Eminent Dr. Rizzoli
•This chapter has another kidnapping scene. Rizzoli is flown into Morovia under the guise of another country. What’s interesting about his consultation to the projects is that his advice and consultation are provided in a vacuum. Meaning, he’s not aware of the whole picture and some variables are hidden from him. How does consultation like this help when systems need to be integrated and the human factors are not addressed?

•Two very important statements about managing projects came out of Rizzoli’s visit:
1.There is no such thing as a short-term fix. Short-term fixes are a waste of money, time, and do not benefit or invest in successors.
2.Manage each project by managing the risks; there is always some early indication that a risk is actually in transition. Appoint a person to be the “hawk.” This connects to the need to have true anonymous messaging. Rizzoli states, “I think it would be very damaging in court if the prosecution could prove that you had not set up mechanisms for people to tell you when bad news was happening. Or worse, that you inhibited the flow of bad news by establishing a culture of fear, where people were afraid to tell you whatever you so plainly didn’t want to hear” (p82).

Chapter 9 – Ex-General Markov
•“Respect for the team is always a good sign in a manager” (p.85).
•Don’t break up good teams
•Be aggressive about cancelling failed efforts early

Chapter 10 – Abdul Jamid
•There is a trade-off between people, time and productivity; the more people on a team, the more interaction, the more lost time
•Thompkins had to answer this question, “How many people is a good number on a team?”
•The Total Production Rate Model (p 113) is worth reviewing if you are interested in seeing how teams jell and how the transition of people on and off of teams can affect the gain and loss of time and productivity.

Chapter 11 – The Sinister Minister Belok
•We have another tyrant! He’s after revenue and has cut the project timelines in half, doubled the number of people on teams (thinking more people = more productivity), and infused pathological politics. What do you think about office politics? Belinda establishes politics as one of Aristotle’s branch of philosophy. See page 127.

Chapter 12 – The Numbers Man
•This chapter was totally devoted to calculations; people, productivity, function points, etc.
•Leslie highlighted this quote about Waldo’s promotion, “Apply people where their skills and talent can really shine. That’s what management is all about” (p143).

We will discuss Chapters 13 thru 18 on June 22nd during the noon lunch hour. Thanks to those who let us know in advance they would not be able to join our discussion. We are looking forward to reading your blog entries which remember, comments on the blog can be anonymous!

NOTE: Due to the number of available people, we do not have to separate managers and employees. We will all meet in the Large Scrum Room.