"Productive insight; clear (often sudden) understanding of a complex situation." Free Dictionary
Pop the bubble of conditioned thinking and emerge into the creative realm of "no absolutes," continuous change, uncertainty and unlimited possibilities.
Then, there can be innovation, adaptation and optimal performance.
Performance & Open-minded Mindfulness:
Open-minded: questioning everything, accepting diversity and uncertainty.
Mindful: consciously aware; concentrated.
Foundation for blending process, project, engagement and knowledge management into a cohesive approach to optimize performance.
This Newsletter
Our aim is to stimulate the kind of thinking, dialogue and understanding that leads to optimal performance.
"A Foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds."
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
Quality and maturity improvement programs promote consistency as a way of optimal performance. This often devolves into people blindly following standards and procedures even when they are counterproductive. Paradoxically, when this happens it motivates many to rebel against all consistency.
Foolish consistence is consistency for the sake of consistency. Wise consistency is consistency that promotes future successes with the least risk, but recognizes the need for flexibility and change.
Wise consistency is the result of learning over time tempered by an open-minded approach that questions even the most tried and true best practices and applies them based on the needs of the current situation and changes them as new and better ways become available.
Thomas Jefferson summed it up nicely - "I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
Is Optimal Performance Achievable?
Of course it is. Once we understand that optimal performance does not mean completely flawless performance we see that optimal performance is achievable if we are willing to apply our energy to achieve it. "Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack, a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in." Leonard Cohen
Is it Worth the Effort?
To answer this question perform a cost benefits analysis. Consider the cost of quality. How much do errors, omissions and defects like late projects, turn-over of the most valuable players, excessive cost of ownership of project results cost financially and in terms of customer satisfaction? What is the vision? What can be done to get better? What does getting better mean in terms of measurable results? Is it feasible to achieve? How will you do it? How much will it cost and how long will it take? Who will do it? What are the risks of attempting and not attempting to achieve and sustain optimal performance?
What does it Mean to Perform Optimally?
Optimal performance is the ability to succeed in the face of changing and often conflicting criteria. It is being completely immersed in performance while being aware of what one is doing; being focused, in control, able to adapt to changing conditions. It is balance between thoroughness and efficiency and between resources and what is expected from them. Optimal performance is sustainable.
Stop Blaming and Start Seeking Causes
By George Pitagorsky
Management by blame is an all too common easy way out to deal with problems, defects, errors and omissions.
As long as there is someone to blame there is no motivation to look for the real cause of the problem. Dr. Deming, a father of the quality movement, counseled people to stop blaming and instead turn their attention to the process or the system of management. He estimated that that the system was the cause of 85% of defects or problems.
Problems like late/overbudget projects or dissatisfied
customers are often chronic. Overcome the knee jerk reaction to blame someone. Instead, seek causes.
The first layer of cause may be a performer. "It's the project manager's fault that the project is late." The project manager therefore needs to be re-trained or maybe demoted or let go, then the problem will go away. Easy answer; but, does the problem go away? Or, is there a deeper cause, like overloaded resources, too many interruptions, etc.? Seek the root causes before deciding on any solution. Stop blaming. Stop taking the easy way out.
How? Use root cause analysis. "Cause and effect are two sides of one fact." Ralph Waldo Emerson. Everything is caused by something. Act on the cause and the effect is eliminated or modified.
The first step is to get over the emotional reaction to the issue. Emotions like fear, anger, sadness, or glee (sometimes we are happy that someone we don't like experienced or caused a problem) cloud the mind.
Next, assess the extent and impact of the problem. This won't necessarily help to find the cause, but it will inform you about how much time and effort you want to spend to address the problem. For example if someone is bleeding profusely, you probably don't want to immediately spend time figuring out how he got cut. Instead you will treat the symptom and save the poor guy from bleeding to death.
Once you have dealt with the immediate response needs, you can get to the cause(s). The idea is that if you don't want the problem to repeat, it is best to address its cause. To find the root cause simply pose the question "Why did this happen?" Fate or karma is not an acceptable answer in this process. The 'root cause' is usually the one before you get to fate or karma. A rule of thumb is to ask why five times. Generally that is enough to get to the root cause.
Move from blame - "it was so and so's own fault because he was clumsy" to cause analysis and the cause removal possibilities it enables.
When we carry this into our business or personal lives we empower ourselves to find the causes which when removed will eliminate recurrent problems. If the recurrent problem is late projects, firing or retraining the project manager is probably not going to make much of a difference without doing something about the process of taking on new projects without regard to the availability of resources to perform them and/or an uncontrolled flow of changes in requirements, assuming these are found to be causes.
What if we can't do anything about the root causes or decide not to? Well, the sad news is that we will have to find the best way to live with the chronic problem. Sometimes that is the best thing to do because the cost of taking action is too high or not feasible for one reason or another. Sometimes not doing anything to address the cause is the easy way out for the moment but a disaster for the long term. Either way, stop blaming the "victims" for the problems that are caused by the system they are a part of. Instead determine the real causes and decide what to do (or not do) to address the problem in a practical way.
What are the causes of your problems?
Here is a checklist of possible causes for use as a starting point for your cause analysis:
Perceptions - beliefs or mental models that make what isn't a problem at all a problem.
Miscommunication
'Up-stream' processes - the results of actions, procedures or steps that precede the one in which the problem occurred.
Poor planning and design
Inadequate training
Irrational or otherwise inappropriate policies
Poor performance - errors or omissions
Defective or inappropriate tools, resources and facilities
Strategies that focus on the short term but disregards long term impacts
Congratulations to Kimberly Reed, for winning a signed copy of The Zen Approach to Project Management.
Tell your friends and family to sign up today for their chance to win in next month's drawing by visiting our website at www.pitagorskyconsulting.com
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