Orbo…Changing the Way We Power Everything?

Happy New Year! Here’s a great link that is very relevant to anyone looking to help the cause…What cause you ask?

The human cause. Revolutionary ideas like this are what allows us to make real progress with our species.

Checkout <a href=”http://www.steorn.com/”>www.steorn.com</a>, for more information.

The 8 Rules of Lean Project Management

The eight rules of Lean Project Management (LPM), re-posted from the Project Times, Summarizing the Rules of Lean Project Management by Claude Emond. A great set of  rules for any PM to follow:

Rule # 1: the “Last Planner” Rule. The one who executes the work is the one who plans the work. This saves time, money and resources due to reduced waste.

Rule # 2: the “Tracking Percent Promises Complete (PPC)” Rule. Do not track time (effort) or cost; track small promises that you can see over time.

Rule # 3: the “Expanded Project Team” Rule. Expand the project team to include and integrate all significant stakeholders, as part of the team as early as possible.

Rule # 4: the “Humans, humans, humans” Rule. Humans execute projects, and project deliverables materialize through humans and for them. So be considerate to humans as, without them, no project can be a success.

Rule # 5: the “Rolling the Waves” Rule. Roll the waves. Make your choices and commitments (promises) at the last responsible moment. Make them in the form of work packages that will deliver the desired results anticipated with a high degree of certainty. Plan the work, execute the work, learn and adapt, plan the work, execute the work, learn and adapt, plan the work, execute the work…succeed!

Rule # 6: the “Opening, Adapting and Closing Often” rule. Open-Adapt-Close, Open-Adapt-Close, Open-Adapt-Close… all the time. The IPECC (Initiate, Plan, Execute, Control, Close) cycle is a recurring process; this recurrence is the true key to successful projects, lean-influenced or not. In order to close a project, you have to open-adapt-close formally at the phase level, to open-adapt-close formally at the work package level, to open-adapt-close for each required deliverable (small concrete promises), to open-adapt-close each required activity undertaken.

Rule # 7: the “Executing Your Small Promises on Single-tasking Mode” Rule. Execute your small promises on single-tasking mode. Once your deliverables are cut into smaller pieces, deliver them one after the other, as much as possible. By cutting your project work in smaller pieces/promises, you will save on set-up time each time you are interrupted, thus accelerating delivery. This accelerating effect can be increased furthermore, if you also try to execute these promises, one after the other, this saving an additional amount of set-up time. In a multi-project/multi-tasking environment, the most productive strategy is to single-task, doing these multiple tasks in series, when possible.

Rule # 8: the “Using LPM Principles to Implement and Adopt LPM” Rule. Live and use what you preach to implement LPM; by “walking the talk”, you will succeed in increasing the speed and extend of LPM adoption and ensure a lasting and fruitful change.

Leading Strategic Change

Here are a few resources that I found very useful when leading projects that involve a great deal of change management, of the people variety, which is about 80% of all the projects that I’ve ever worked on.

Leading-Strategic-Change is an excellent e-book that I was given during my Six Sigm Black Belt Training from one of my favourite mentors Norm Rudd, who in my opinion is the Six Sigma equivalent to a Rockstar. If you don’t get what I’m talking about check out this intel commercial.

The book takes the reader through the three “brain barriers” that teams must overcome to accomplish a task successfully, as well as the solutions to help teams break through the brain barriers. With out giving too muchaway, here are the three brain barriers that the book outlines:

• Failure to See
• Failure to Move
• Failure to Finish

Also, if you’re really interested in this kind of thing, check out the Change Management Blog. It’s an interesting read.

Career Credentials

Two goals of mine this year are to obtain the final bit of electrical design experience required to obtain my P.Eng and write the PMI PMP exam to obtain my PMP designation.

I figure since my career has afforded me the opportunity to get this close to both of these “resume builders”, I may as well make an effort to add them to my portfolio of qualifications. Or more eloquently put “I should walk the walk if I’m going to talk the talk.”

Prediction: I see the next few months being dedicated to achieving these goals in my off hours.

Posted Resume Page

My resume details are now posted to a new page, conveniently titled Resume, on this site. I figure since I spend the majority of my work day in front of a computer, most recently a MacBook Pro, I could keep a formal up-to-date archive of my career experience more easily. Experience being defined, in this case, as enough time to make mistakes and learn from them while celebrating the odd victory here and there.

Shameless Plug: I’m always looking for interesting challenges to take on that will help better a company, non-profit, organization or community. The always evolving online resume will help future clients learn more about my background and how I can help their team achieve their goals.