Nov 29, 2009

Star Wars and Project Management

I think the analogies between Star Wars and project management (PM) work are like the Energizer Bunny. They go on and on and on. =)

I found this article that Phil Bennett wrote about the similarities between Star Wars and project management. His children, when they were still small, asked him what did he do at work. This could have been quite easy to answer if he was a policeman or a doctor or a fireman. Necessity was indeed the mother of invention or if might say, creativity, thus the Star Wars metaphor in describing PM work was born from Phil's head.

I have listed below the salient points of the 3 Star Wars parallels that Phil wrote.

Context
Hans Solo was frozen in Carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back and then Luke and friends came to save him in Return of the Jedi.

PM Work Parallel
To "unfreeze" and save a project from "enemies," a project manager uses status reports, letters of executive support and corporate goals.

Context

"The Force" is one of the most ubiquitous concept in the Star Wars saga that it has become part of the pop culture, especially the phrase, "May the Force be with you."

PM Work Parallel
To bend the will of the people around a project manager much like "The Force," he can use strategic plans and stakeholders' sign-offs and support.

Context

The sequence of the Star Wars saga did not follow a linear path (from 4, 5, 6 first then moving to 1, 2, 3 later).

PM Work Parallel Project always tend to move in a non-linear path even if the Gantt charts are all finished and the critical path has been identified. If I may add here, projects are also susceptible to the Murphy's Law laying waste to even the best laid and organized plans.



C3PO and Job Hunting

I got this from {codesqueeze} using my preferred RSS reader, Google Reader.

This is another lessons learned derived from the Star Wars saga. Remember the scene in Stars War IV (A New Hope) when Uncle Owen was looking for a droid and he chanced upon C3PO. Here is a transcript of their conversation.

Uncle Owen: You, I suppose you're programmed for etiquette and protocol.
C-3PO: Protocol? Why, it's my primary function, sir. I am well-versed in all the customs
Uncle Owen: I have no need for a protocol droid.
C-3PO: Of course you haven't, sir. Not in an environment such as this. That is why I have been programmed in
Uncle Owen: What I really need is a droid who understands the binary language of moisture vaporators.
C-3PO: Vaporators? Sir, my first job was programing binary load lifters very similar to your vaporators in most respects.
Uncle Owen: Can you speak Bocce?
C-3PO: Of course I can, sir. It's like a second language to me. I'm a-
Uncle Owen: Yeah, alright. Shut up. I'll take this one.
C-3PO: Shutting up, sir.


Max Pool surmised that 3 simple rules regarding job hunting or even job security could be learned from this conversation. From these 3 rules, quoting him, "It is always better to gain new experience and skills; however, do not worry about lacking the knowledge of everything the universe has to offer. Proving that you know how to learn, unlearn, and relearn is the greatest thing you can offer an employer."



Nov 28, 2009

8 Management Lessons from Star Wars Episode III


Image drawn by hedbonstudios

While cleaning my hard drive today, I found this old PDF file I downloaded I think about 2 years ago. It was written by Vincent Chia circa 2005 and it was about the 8 management lessons that could be derived from Star Wars III: The Revenge of the Sith. Reading through it again, I couldn't help but smile, being a huge Star Wars fan myself, and nod my head in agreement to some of the lessons most especially that of Talent Management (Lesson 2), Performance Management (Lesson 3), Group Think (Lesson 5) and Succession Planning (Lesson 7).

--------------------

Management Lessons from Star Wars Episode III
(Friday, 27 May 2005) - Written by Vincent Chia

It is a widely acknowledged fact that George Lucas decided to release Episodes 4, 5 and 6 first ahead of Episodes 1, 2 and 3 because the latter episodes were more focused on action and less heavy on social and political messages. Do not get me wrong, I really enjoyed Episode 3. There was just the right balance of action, social and political messages as well as the right dose of tragedy. But if you look closely, you can also pick up some Management Lessons too. Here they
are in rough chronological order.

LESSON 1

Context
Chancellor Palpatine has taken control of the Republic Senate, rising to power as Chancellor through a series of political plotting as well as charismatic speeches. He subsequently assumes full control of the Senate by asking them to grant him emergency powers during the Clone Wars. Eventually he dissolves the Republic and turns it into an Imperial Empire. Democracy has failed because of the bureaucratic processes that the Senate has been caught up with. And this has enabled Palpatine to exploit it through his political plotting.

Management Theory
A Bureaucracy derives its authority from Rational Authority rather than Charismatic Authority. Thus, in making decisions, there should be laws and precedents to aid the decision process rather than be swayed by emotions. And while a Bureaucracy should follow rules, the rules should be part of its process rather than the be all and end all. When a Bureaucracy gets too caught up with its rules and forgets its function, then it has strayed from the ideals of Weberian Bureaucracy.

Lesson
A Bureaucracy begins to fail and break down when rational decision making is not practiced. This is further accentuated by its obsession and eventual engulfment in its rules and processes instead.


LESSON 2

Context
Anakin Skywalker is clearly a talented Jedi whose metaclorian count is higher than that of even Master Yoda himself. Still, it is not clear how Anakin is being managed as a Talent. But it is clear that the Jedi establishment will not bend one bit in its handling of Anakin. The suggestion is that he has been treated just like any other Jedi would be, even though he was the "Chosen One". He was even refused admission to the Jedi order in Episode I. Eventually Anakin betrays the Jedi and is turns over to the Dark Side of the Sith.

Management Theory
Talent Management is a fine process. The difficulty is usually in convincing an organization that the people they are nurturing are really the talents they seek. However when this is established beyond doubt, then these Talents need to be managed in a way for them to best benefit the company. Usually they require special nurturing that is beyond the bureaucratic setup of the organization. This is because if they do not receive this special nurturing, it is likely that they will seek greener pastures where they will receive this special nurturing.

Lesson
To bring out the best in your Talents, they need to be specially managed and nurtured, and not left to the established rules and processes of the organization.


LESSON 3

Context
Anakin Skywalker is appointed to the Jedi Council but not promoted to the rank of Master. All members of the Jedi Council hold the rank of Master. And the speculative reason for this is because he is too young. In truth, even his own master Obi-Wan Kenobi has realized that Anakin is more powerful a Jedi than himself, having saved his life on nine occasions. The frustration experienced by Anakin eventually plays a part in his growing distrust and impatience with the Jedi Council.

Management Theory
When doing performance measurement and performance appraisal, it is important to have Key Performance Indicators. And these KPIs have to be clearly communicated to the people being evaluated. Without this, performance measurement becomes unclear and this promotion and promotion prospects become hazy. This haziness gives rise to frustration and distrust.

Lesson
Promotion criteria and KPIs for performance evaluation should be clearly and transparently communicated to the people being evaluated.


LESSON 4

Context
Anakin Skywalker’s appointment to the Jedi Council was courtesy of Chancellor Palpatine. The Jedi Council make use of this closeness between Anakin and Palpatine to get Anakin to spy on Palpatine. However they do not trust Anakin fully with his mission and also limit his involvement in other future missions. This lack of trust culminates when Anakin tells Master Windu that Chancellor Palpatine is the Sith Lord. Windu clearly still refuses to trust Anakin and does not bring him along to deal with Palpatine.

Management Theory
The degree of trust between superior and subordinate is a case of whether you believe in Theory X or Theory Y management. There is no trust in the Theory X management style practiced by Master Windu and the Jedi Council. And clearly we see that this does not make for effective man-management as eventually Anakin, seduced by the dark side of the force intervenes and betrays Master Windu.

Lesson
A Theory Y management where a degree of trust exists between superior and subordinate is clearly a more effective management style than Theory X management, especially in times of crisis.


LESSON 5

Context
The Jedi Council is made up of a bunch of Master Jedis who have been on it since Episode 1. While most of the decisions are made by consensus, there does not appear to be much dissent or disagreement within the council members. So really whether or not the Council meets, the conclusion is likely to be the same. There are no devil’s advocates to question the wisdom of the Council.

Management Theory
While it is good to have consensus as a basis for decision making, it is important to have a fair bit of dissension and disagreement in the decision making body. This strengthens the quality of the decision that is made. And more importantly it prevents this phenomenon called "Group Think." Group Think is when a group of people have worked together so long that they begin to talk and think like each other. This may be good for corporate culture but it is not good for a decision making body which needs diversity of opinion to arrive at an optimal decision.

Lesson
Some dissension and disagreement is important in a decision making body or process, as it prevents "Group Think".


LESSON 6

Context
Led by Count Dooku, the Separatist movement starts to amass firepower to establish a military threat to the Galactic Republic. The Jedi Knights who are the traditional peacekeepers of the galaxy start to take on the role of Generals to lead the Republic’s Clone Army against the Separatist. Eventually they find themselves spread too thinly and in a role that is not suited for their training. It is indeed tragic that most of the Jedi get gunned down by the Clone Army, while leading from the front. Only Master Yoda who has directed his Clone Army like a General survived.

Management Theory
Every company and every person has a core competence. If that company or person engages in their core competence then they will reap the maximum benefit from their time and effort. Conversely if they engage in activities outside their core competence then they will not be optimizing their return on their time and effort. Furthermore, they may even experience a negative return.

Lesson
Always stick to your core competence.


LESSON 7

Context
As the Separatist start to open more fronts of conflicts across the Galactic Republic, the Jedis find themselves spread thinner and thinner. Eventually there are insufficient Master Jedis to handle the various conflicts as Master Windu is left alone to confront Chancellor Palpatine on Coruscant. This lack of numbers is an important factor leading to the demise of the Jedi.

Management Theory
Succession Planning is something that current management always delay. Perhaps it is with fear that grooming the next generation of management to take their place would result in their own demise. However a more enlightened management will treat this as a chance to find themselves in a more elevated role or realize that having more capable managers will allow the company to expand in size.

Lesson
If you as current management fail to embrace succession planning, you will eventually find yourself continually shorthanded and overwhelmed with issues.

LESSON 8

Context
Nearing the end of the dual between Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi on Mustafar, Anakin is on a raft in pool of lava and Obi-Wan is on the banks, uphill to Anakin. Obi-Wan tells Anakin that he has the higher ground and so he is clearly at an advantage as compared to Anakin. Anakin chooses to disregard this established wisdom and choose to believe in his personal powers instead. He executes a jump onto Obi-Wan and gets his legs and hands sliced off by Obi-Wan.

Management Theory
There are certain established wisdom in the field of business and finance. This includes Economics, Finance and Management Theories. Often these theories are pretty robust in their basis as they have been worked on and developed by some of the best human minds for the last hundred years. So it is usually not wise for people choose to depend on personal heuristics or personal judgement over these established wisdom. Put another way, there is real value in the
established wisdom that has been accumulated in the form of Economics, Finance and Management Theories in the field of business and finance.

Lesson
It is wiser to depend on Theory than to depend on your personal heuristics and judgement.



Oct 22, 2009

As One Door Closes, Another Window Opens


Image from Microsoft Office Clipart

This might sound ironic but when I read in the white paper, Talent Management in a Down Economy from Taleo about job creation during a recession,  it actually made sense. According to the article, it is a misconception that hiring stops during a recession. In fact, hiring continues and job opportunities are still available!

As a point in case, data derived from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) showed that in the 2nd quarter of 2001 when the the dot com bubble burst, 1.2 million jobs were lost. On the other hand, in the same period, 7.6 million jobs were created.

History is repeating itself again and the same case will be applied to the current global recession. Old jobs will be lost but, new ones will be created. These jobs are the by-products of new opportunities as businesses look for new markets to grow into, new products to develop and new services to offer. Likewise, new jobs will also be created when businesses go back to their roots and focus on core products and services. Recessions always provide that impetus for businesses to improve the overall strength of its current workforce by making it lean and efficient and at the same time infuse it with new, skilled talent.

I saw this trend starting here in the Philippines albeit the massive layoffs happening in several companies. As an example, one multinational company which shed numerous jobs in its financial department is currently expanding its support operations.

What is the lesson learned here then? Do not stagnate in your current job! Always look for learning opportunities in potential growth areas. This will give you the leverage to capitalize and grab potential job opportunities most especially during recessions. This will also help conquer that fear of being fired.

From my standpoint, the opportunities right now are in service management, business intelligence and process improvement frameworks (ISO, CMMI, Six Sigma). These 3 focus on the identification and implementation of opportunities in reducing costs without sacrificing quality while increasing productivity, 3 critical factors needed right now in this challenged business climate.



Firing a Bad Hire

I found this great article in TechRepublic's Blog regarding a first hand account from Benny Sisko on how he fired a bad hire. He listed 6 lessons learned on how to avoid having a bad hire and I interjected my ideas in some of the lessons.

1. Perform a two-part interview.
Interviews are best done more than once with two or more pairs of eyes and ears in each sessions. Each interviewer is coming to the session with his/her own biases and expectations and this ensures that all questions are covered with the applicant. If not all, at least the most critical ones. Some may consider this as a waste of time but compare it with the lost time in productivity and morale impact later on due to a bad hire, the extra time and effort is well worth it.

2. Test the candidate.
Match the technical tests as close as possible to your technical requirements. If the position requires web development using HTML, JavaScript and CSS, give the applicant a test on how to develop a sample website using these 3 technologies. This will give you a pretty good idea on the skill level of the applicant without asking too many questions. In fact you can even go deeper afterward and conduct a code analysis to further probe on the logic and rationale behind his coding practices and framework.

3. Get more references and then get more references.


4. If he does slip by, coach, coach, coach.
Actually, even if the new hire is not slipping, it is worth it to have monthly or even bimonthly sessions to be more proactive if he/she is already encountering difficulties or only seeing potential problems in the horizon. These sessions will also serve as excellent feedback mechanism to level any expectations or misconceptions regarding assigned responsibilities.

5. Listen to the team.

6. Take the probationary period seriously and make it known that I intend to do so.



Firing: The Bad and The Ugly


Image from Microsoft Office Clipart

Firing is one of the sordid tasks that all managers must face and handle sooner or later. I had my own share in the past and these all evoked unpleasant memories. However which way you sugarcoat a termination, it would always be received negatively albeit temporarily. Unfortunately this will become more of the norm within this year rather than an exception because of the global financial crunch. Not a day goes by that I see news about a company reducing 10% of its workforce here or a company laying off off 3,000 employees there.

The Philippines is not spared even with the expanding offshoring / outsourcing opportunities coming in. I read in the news about Accenture Philippines which laid off 500 employees as part of a redundancy program. There was also the news about the "total shutdown" of Intel Philippines' operation affecting almost 2,000 employees.

In this regard, if you are faced with this dire situation, this might help you ease the tension and stress. I found this great post from Slacker Manager about a US News blog article that Alison Green wrote on how to fire someone. I very much agree with point #6 (Know you’re going to be emotionally drained afterwards) and what Slacker Manager added as point #7 (Don’t take it personally).

Firing always makes me "psychologically" sick. This is the reason why I always schedule this kind of meeting on a Friday so I have a chance to "recuperate" over the weekend. Likewise, whatever is said during the meeting, don't take it personally. Be like a Teflon-coated pan to ensure that nothing sticks to you since all the negative words that will be hurled at you are just the consequence of the outburst of emotions.



Hiring: Interview Questions

Interview
Image from Microsoft Office Clipart

The hiring process is littered with "dead bodies." I considered myself having a high "batting average" in getting great hires but unfortunately I also have my own share of wrong decisions.

From my perspective, hiring is a probabilities game. In order to increase the probability of getting great hires, I need to expand and refine the various tools and techniques I am using in the hiring process. The first one I would like to share here are the questions I use during the interview process.

Interview applicants are always showing their best feet forward during the interview process. As a result, it is my responsibility to ask the right questions in order to peel through these layers and probe deeper to reveal their true personalities and tendencies. I know volumes of books have already been written regarding this topic so I will not be focusing on them anymore.

My focus will be on the list of questions that I amassed through the years. I got these questions from a speed-dating website. It will come as a surprise to some but for me it made a whole lot of sense. In speed dating, a couple is only given 5 minutes to ask questions and assess if there is a fit or "click" between the two of them. As a result, these questions are quite pointed and the answers provided to them can serve as a foundation to deeper, probing questions.

Listed below is a sample of these questions and a small description about their rationale in a job interview situation.

Pursuit for Skills and Knowledge
I would like to know if the applicant is motivated in expanding his skills and knowledge outside that of the domain knowledge he is getting from work. This is usually reflected on the activities he is doing during his sparetime and the kind of books he is reading.
  • When you have spare time, what do you do for fun?
  • What do you do during weekends?
  • What's the latest book you have read?
  • What's the latest technical book you have read?
Attitudes and Values
I would like to know the priorities in life of the applicant, what drives or motivates him to work, who drives and motivates him, who influenced him to be him now.
  • What do you cherish the most in life?
  • What person has most influenced you in your life and why?
  • What attitude do you have right now you want to change?
  • How do you think you are viewed by others?
Education
I usually hire fresh graduates. As a result, I would like to know how did they perform in college since this could be a reflection on what would be their performance at work.
  • Why did you decide to take up {course}?
  • Tell us a little about how well you did in school.
  • Tell us a little about your extracurricular activities.
  • What were your best and worst subjects (favorite and least favorite)?
  • Did you have a job while in college? If yes, can you describe the job and your responsibilities.




Oct 5, 2009

Loco Roco 2: Berries Location in Tropuca and Chapo-Wahr Stages

In the first Loco Roco, collecting all 20 berries was, from my standpoint, just bragging rights to friends. This is drastically changed in Loco Roco 2 where getting all the berries in one stage means unlocking a short movie about a character in the Loco Roco world. A great reinforcement indeed!

Unfortunately, knowing the location of the berries is the easy part. Actually, for 1,000 pickories, a Mui Mui will help you find 1 berry. The problem though is getting all 20 berries has proven to be quite a challenging endeavor most especially in the 2nd and 3rd stages.

What I'll do here is to help you out on the easy part. I'll post the location of all berries in the various stages. Getting all 20 will be up to you.

TROPUCA STAGES



Tropuca Stage 1


Click image to enlarge

Tropuca Stage 2


Click image to enlarge

CHAPO-WAHR STAGES



Chapo-Wahr Stage 1


Click image to enlarge

Chapo-Wahr Stage 2


Click image to enlarge



Loco Roco 2: Throne of Mui Mui King



This is the location in the Mui Mui House where you will unlock the Throne of the Mui Mui King. It is located on the topmost portion of the house. In order to build it, you need the following parts:

1 Gorjan Stone
4 Great Horn
2 Pupi Weed
1000 Pickories

You can get the Gorjan Stone either from the Loco Race mini-game after playing it for about 20 times and winning 1st place or from the underground digger that appears when you quit or load a stage (the mine should be yellow / gold in color). You can get the Great Horn from the Mui Mui Crane mini-game. As for the Pupi Weed, unfortunately I could not recall where I got it and searching Google was not helpful. I will update this post once I get more information.

Once you built the Throne, the Mui Mui King would immediately appear sitting on it. All the while I thought something would happen, a new stage or mini-game would be unlocked or a new part in the Mui Mui House would appear. Guess what? Nothing! He is the King and nothing happened?!

Likewise, you may be wondering is he doing something special in the Mui Mui house? From what I am seeing, none! He just sits on the throne waving at the other Mui Muis. I think that is the reason why he is a bit soggy in the mid-section.



Loco Roco 2: Special Story Movie

You would be able to unlock this movie once you built the Special Projector in the Mui Mui House.



To do so, you need the following parts:

2 Shapola Stone
1 See-through Stone
3 Meteorite Fragment
1000 Pickories

You can get the Shapola Stone from the Chapo-Wahr stages, the See-through Stone from the Shamplin 2 stage, and the Meteorite Fragment from the Mui Mui Crane (assuming you have already unlocked it) but it is quite a common item that you can easily find in various stages.

Enjoy the movie.





Oct 4, 2009

Loco Roco 2: Mui Mui Friends


Click image to enlarge.

Here are all the Mui Mui Friends (13 in total) that I am able to get from the Mui Mui Crane. I think I was able to get all of them. As I mentioned in my post about the Lab Counter, you need to get the Mui Mui Friends in order to unlock some of the map parts as well as some songs in the Mui Mui House.



Loco Roco 2: Lab Counter



This is the location in the Mui Mui House where you will unlock the Mui Mui Lab Counter. It is located in the basement of the house. In order to build it, you need the following parts:

1 Ancient Tableau
2 Cheranka Tree
2 Thorn Fragment
300 Pickories

You can get the Ancient Tableau from the Mui Mui Crane, CaloCaro stages 1 and 2 (seldom though in stage 1), the Cheranka Tree is a common item that you can easily find in the various stages, and the Thorn Fragment from the Mui Mui Crane and in Tropuca stage 2 or other stages where you find the item insect.

Once you built and clicked on this house part (to click, press the button X when an exclamation point appears while placing the pointer on top of the counter), you will be able to see 4 maps that also require 3 parts. These are listed below.

Bumpy Map (Maps 1 -3)
Coarse Map (Maps 1-3)
Smudged Map (Maps 1-3)
Soggy Map (Maps 1-3)

This is the process that is still sketchy for me but as you complete other parts of the house (I am not able to document which are these parts and using Google will unfortunately return little information), some of the map parts will unlock. You will also be able to get these map parts once you get the Mui Mui Friends from the Mui Mui Crane.

Listed below are the new stages that will be unlocked once the map parts are completed. To unlock the new stage, press the button X when an exclamation point appears while placing the pointer on top of the completed map parts list.

Bumpy Map -> Perculoka 2
Coarse Map -> Jaojab 3
Soggy Map -> Kelapton 2
Smudged Map -> Buibui Fort 3

These 4 stages are the most difficult stages that I encountered. In the original stages, not even once did my Loco Roco died. In two of the stages, dying is the norm not the exception. The other 2 stages require logic, eye-hand coordination and abstract thinking. I have described below what you can expect from these stages.

Perculoka 2
This is the easiest among the four. You just need to bounce your Loco Roco properly and avoid jumping in the water. Once you are in the water, you will be directed to the end of the stage.

Jaojab 3
You need to think ahead in order to assess where you need to go in this "rotating" stage. If you think you are stuck, you definitely are.

Kelapton 2
A steady eye-hand coordination is required in this stage. I am almost at the last part. Almost!

Buibui Fort 3
If you are a masochist, this is the stage for you. I'm always dead in the first 10 seconds that's why I stopped playing this stage. There must be something wrong with my eye-hand coordination or the stage is just so frustratingly difficult!



Loco Roco 2: Mui Mui Crane



This is the location in the Mui Mui House where you will unlock the Mui Mui Crane. It is located in the upper right side of the house. In order to build it, you need the following parts:

2 Curly Tree Branch
3 Superhard Panel
2 Meteorite Fragment
500 Pickories

You can get the Curly Tree Branch from the Bui Bui Forts (1 and 2), the Superhard Panel if ever you encounter and destroy a Bui Bui plane, and the Meteorite Fragment is a common item that you can easily find in the various stages.

Once you built the Crane, it will move out of the Mui Mui House. When you exit the house back to the World Map, you will find the Crane near the Tropuca stages. It has become a mini-game where, for 100 pickories, you can grab unique items. Randomly while playing the mini-game, the Mui Mui Crane will be replaced by the bigger Bui Bui Crane.

One of the most important use of the Crane is you can get here the Mui Mui Friends which you need to get the maps for the Lab Counter. This will be the topic for my next post.



Loco Roco 2: Mui Mui House


My Mui Mui House. Click image to enlarge.

I have been playing the PSP game Loco Roco 2, everyday, for almost 6 months now and I have not finished unlocking all of the secret stuffs. That's how deep the game is compared to its first incarnation.

My favorite and most played feature of the game is the Mui Mui House. You will need to gather specific materials to unlock specific areas, parts and furnitures of the house. These areas will eventually unlock additional stages or mini-games in the game.

The only thing left right now in my Mui Mui House is the Juice Server. Well that is unless something is unlocked again after I completed all the parts. Unfortunately I do not have the patience yet to get the honey material from the darn bees because they are just so hard to get.

I'll provide detailed information in later posts on how to unlock the critical parts of the house to get access to the mini-games and additional game stages.



Sep 16, 2009

Books, books, books!

Jurgen Appelo of Noop.NL posted a great article about books. He posted 8 questions about books and I would take up the challenge and answer these questions.

1. How many books do you read (on average)?
I read about one book a month.

2. Which books did you read lately?
Peopleware
1001 Ways to Reward Employees
The 24-Hour Business: Maximizing Productivity Through Round-the-Clock Operations

3. Why did you choose to read those books?
The 1st two books are about team management and performance management. The 2nd book is about businesses running 24/7 schedules and how to optimize the operations. I am currently into operations management and these three topics are the most important areas that I am working on.

4. What is your (brief) opinion of those books?
These are niche market books with very specific topics. They did an excellent work in discussing, elaborating, providing lessons learned and best practices with the specific topics discussed.

5. What book are you reading now?
Toyota Talent: Developing Your People the Toyota Way
Toyota Culture: The Heart and Soul of the Toyota Way

6. What is your opinion of that book so far?
Content-rich! These 2 books delved into the nitty gritty details of how Toyota produced and retained talented people.

7. Which books are you planning to read?
The 100 Best Business Books of All Time by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten. I am still waiting for my order since the popular bookstores here in the Philippines do not have this book in their list yet.

8. Why do you intend to read those books?
I would like to know what are the additional business books that I need to add to my library.

9 Which 2 books had the biggest influence on you? (Olav Maassen added this question to the list)
The Greatest Salesman in the World
Jonathan Livingston Seagull

I read both books when I was still in secondary school and both gave me that profound sense of drive and motivation coupled with a healthy dose of optimism that enabled me to challenge myself constantly in order to rise against adversity and mediocrity and follow my dreams.



Sep 12, 2009

The Stork



This was one of the advertisements from Monster.com. Watch and be inspired by its powerful message.



Sep 8, 2009

Making Things Happen and The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook


Each time I have a chance to go outside the Philippines, I bring with me a list of books that I am unable to buy locally. Thus, when travel beckoned a few months ago, I took the opportunity to buy the project management book, Making Things Happen by Scott Berkun.

This is the updated version of The Art of Project Management which I partially read before courtesy of a friend who lent me his copy for a few days. It was a great book chock-full of practical advices and best practices from a program manager who has been refined by Microsoft's "furnace."

Much to my dismay, both books are not available locally thus when I arrived to my destination, I immediately went to a Borders store and bought a copy of the book.

I also found another great book, The Lean Six Sigma Pocket Toolbook. I am planning to take the Black Belt certification and this book is a great resource for re-learning the more than 100 tools and methodologies used in Six Sigma including that of Lean Six Sigma.



Career Timeline

I got the idea of a "career timeline" from the resume of my former Director and with his permission, I also applied the same concept to my own resume and made some revisions and improvements along the way. Here's how it looked like.



It was a straightforward graphical representation of my resume but portrayed, in an easily understandable medium and in so few words, my work experiences, competencies and trainings.

Unfortunately, this has been put to shame when I saw the resume of Michael Anderson. His resume elevated the career timeline into a different level. It is better viewed than described so click here to view his career timeline / visual resume. Click here as well to understand his thought processes behind his resume. I think my career timeline needs a makeover.



Aug 29, 2009

Free Project Management Tools


Image from Microsoft Office Clipart

As project managers, we have used or currently using popular project management tools such as Microsoft Project and Visio and MindManager. But, what if your current company has limited licenses for these applications due to budget constraints or you recently joined a startup with no budget yet for these applications.

The answer to this problem are open-source project management tools. There are already a plethora of these tools but the ones I listed below are those that I used and found to be near or even challenges the features and performance of its commercial counterparts.

Project Scheduling and Management: Open Workbench

Diagramming: Dia

Mind Mapping: FreeMind



10 Project Management Trends in 2009


Image from Microsoft Office Clipart

Rudolf Melik, the CEO and founder of Tenrox and the author of The Rise of the Project Workforce: Managing People and Projects in a Flat World, wrote in his blog what he deemed to be the 10 potential project management trends in 2009.

I have listed below these trends and provided some of my thoughts as well.

10. The increasing correlation between project management and operational excellence

This is true. Senior executives are now highly visible in all aspects of project management to ensure that activities stay in synch with business strategies and ensure ROI.

9. The CFO and the project manager friendship

8. The rise of the Project Workforce

7. Dispersed customers, projects and teams kill politics

This I am skeptical. I reckon that this trend points to bad politics but there is no need to "throw the baby with the bathwater" so to speak. There is still a need for good politics most especially if you are dealing with global teams. For example, due to the distance, the project manager needs to ensure that the right resources are assigned to the team, costs are diligently tracked and the right stakeholders support and promote the project. All these will be difficult to achieve if the project manager is not an adept "politician."

6. Finding the right talent gets a lot easier

I agree. Due to advances in communication and collaboration technologies, we can now tap great talents available in any country. The whole world is now the resource pool! The project manager is no longer constrained by the limits of the resources available in his/her locale.

5. Emphasis shifts from project management to workforce management

4. Uncertainty is the new normal

I think a better word for uncertainty is ambiguity. With this in mind, two critical skills come in mind that will play a huge role for the success of members of the workforce. These are adaptability and sense of urgency. Adaptability to ensure that we flow with and not against change. Sense of urgency to quickly implement an activity or solution to immediately test its veracity.

3. The rapidly increasing service web

2. Enterprise software technology cross-pollination gains momentum

1. Leadership matters

In the light of all the recent management scandals and fiascos, having the right leader has become the cornerstone of the success of a project (micro) or the organization (macro).

Click the links below to view the articles.

Ten Predictions for Project Management Trends in 2009 Part 1

Ten Predictions for Project Management Trends in 2009 Part 2

Ten Predictions for Project Management Trends in 2009 Part 3



Aug 28, 2009

Time Management Tools for Busy Managers Part 2: Xobni for Outlook

According to research, by 2009, 41% of our time will be spent on managing e-mails. As a result, it makes sense that reducing the amount of time of managing our e-mail inboxes will already be a huge help for us to attend to other priorities.

This is where Xobni, a free(!) Outlook plugin, shines like a bright light amidst the daily deluge of emails. I have listed below some of the main features of Xobni which I find quite useful based on my experiences.

1. Email Analytics

  • This shows by ranks, graphs and statistics how you and your contacts use e-mail.
  • This is my favorite feature since for example, I can graphically see what time during the day my contact usually replies to my emails. This helps me know what is the best time to send an email to a contact and when to expect a reply.
2. Fast e-mail search

  • I am very fastidious in organizing my e-mails into specific folders. This helps me constantly achieve my target of retrieving an e-mail that I am searching in less than 2 minutes.
  • With Xobni, I can do away with my 2 minutes search criteria. I can search my e-mails in almost real-time speed. It is that fast! It begins showing the appropriate e-mail as I type the keyword/s. By the way, my PST file is more than 4GB in file size thus you can imagine the power of Xobni in searching e-mails.
3. Web Services Integration

  • Xobni allows you to integrate your Outlook to social networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook and web services such as Yahoo Mail and Skype.

You can learn more about Xobni by viewing the 3 demos below. You can download Xobni here. For updates, you can check out Xobni's blog.

Demo 1



Demo 2



Even Bill Gates demoed Xobni





Aug 27, 2009

Time Management Tools for Busy Managers Part 1



One of my primary goals this year is to manage my time more efficiently in order to be more productive. I currently handle several projects, too many to count since I am too busy LOL.

Kidding aside, I wear two hats right now. The first hat is that of an operations manager, ensuring that my team is meeting the day-to-day SLAs and metrics for the various tasks assigned to us. The second hat is that of a strategist working through business development opportunities in order to further expand the empire so to speak.

Now, I want to excel and be at my best in both professional hats. Not only that, I also want to excel in my personal life as well, in both my family and personal endeavors. A tall order don't you think? I think so too but I believe that it is a good problem that can be cracked, with the right tool/s and mindset of course. As a result, I would like to share in these series the best practices I have learned so far with the hope that it could also help you as well in your own search for time management nirvana.

This is about the 6 time management tools from Julie Morgenstern. This is an excellent article written by Andre Kibbe of Tools for Thought where he summarized these 6 time management tools.

I have listed below these 6 tools to pick your interest as well.

1. Self-Assessment

- "What's keeping me from getting to them?"

2. Estimating how long a task will take

3. The 4 D's (Delete, Delay, Delegate, Diminish)

- I use these to manage my e-mail inbox. What a great help!

4. Develop a big-picture view

5. Time maps

- "It is a template of how we generally allocate our time during each day of a normal week."

6. Planner

- This is the "landscape" that holds everything you intend to do and when you intend to do it.

Click here to get the details about these 6 tools.



Twitter Tools


Image from Geek and Poke

I mentioned in my last post that I am using TweetDeck as my primary Twitter client. Now, I would like to share the other Twitter tools that I frequently use.

URL Shortener and Tracker

tr.im has recently become my favorite URL shortener. I used TinyURL and is.gd before but my main concern was how to track the links I shared if they were being viewed. This is where tr.im shines because it tracks the number of visits to the trimmed URL and the visitor's location. I previously used Tweetburner but I find tr.im's interface more usable and friendly.

Twitter Statistics

I track my Twitter usage statistics through the following tools:

Twitter Grader: You can get here your overall "Twitter Grade" as well as learn the top 50 Filipino Twitterers.

Twitalyzer: This is the tool if you would like to know your relative influence, signal-to-noise ratio, generosity, velocity and clout to name a few.

Mr. Tweet: This tool acts as your personal networking agent by recommending relevant users to follow and improving your Twitter usage through relevant statistics.

Twitter Mobile

I own a Nokia e61i and I installed Twibble Mobile in it to track tweets when I am not in front of my PC. In my opinion, this is the best twitter client so far for S60-based phones.

If you want more tools, here are some links to illuminate your path towards Twitter nirvana.

7 Truly Useful Twitter Tools You Might Not Know About

Sanity check: 10 tools that will make you a Twitter power user

Twitter: Top 20 tools

And here are 4 insightful tips on how to use and not to use Twitter.

Ten Twitter Tips That’ll Take You To The Top

Be Careful What You Post

Branding Yourself with a Twitter Background

Finding the Right “Brand Voice” on Twitter



Aug 26, 2009

Twitter and TweetDeck

I started my Twitter account about 8 months when curiosity struck me based on the news and reviews I read about the service.  Within the first 2 months, I "lurked" my way through Twitter and found several great information about project management that I would not easily find in my normal blog searching process. Wow! I thought this could be a great source of information leads for my blogs.

On the third month, it suddenly dawned on me that I could evolve my Twitter usage from just a real-time "encyclopedia" to something more useful and relevant. With the new and profound sense of purpose, I started cranking the wheels so to speak and implemented my plans of using this great service more effectively.

Now, at this juncture of reaching more than a thousand contacts that I follow, I asked myself, how can I manage efficiently the sheer volume of real-time "Tweets" that I am getting from these contacts? I am bewildered to see some Twitter folks with 10,000+ following and followers and again asked myself how are they managing their's?

The answers to these questions lay on 2 great videos (which I embedded below) from Jesse Newhart where he shared his lessons learned on how to follow 15,000+ contacts in Twitter and on how to turn Twitter followers into friends. Great tips indeed! Another wonderful thing here is I have been using TweetDeck for 4 months now and it is only after watching Jesse's videos that I realized its full potential.







Project Status Report Template



One of the critical skills of an effective project manager is about over-communication of project events. In line with this, providing project status reports to the stakeholders is critical to ensure that they will not be surprised of any events during the course of the project.

Techrepublic's project management expert Tom Mochal created a project status report template for this critical task in project management. The template covers in a straightforward manner the following areas:
  • Project description
  • Overall status
  • An explanation of any items that were flagged as potential problems
  • Planned accomplishments for the next reporting period




Microsoft Excel Project Plan Template



I have been using this template for several years now. I use it if I need to quickly create and submit a project plan. I also use it for small-to-medium sized projects that do not need a full-scale Microsoft Project plan.

This project plan is very easy to manage and accessible to everybody especially those who do not have Microsoft Project. You can download the template from Techrepublic.



Aug 25, 2009

All The Books in The 100 Best Business Books of All Time


Image from 800ceoread

I found this list from the book's official site. Reviewing the list, I currently own 12% of the books. It is not much but it is a good start. Time to go the bookstore and start expanding library. Eventually, I will share my own list of books that I find to be the best based on my experiences.
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You (Improving your life, your person and your strengths.)
Flow by Mihaly Csikzentmihalyi
Getting Things Done by David Allen
The Effective Executive by Peter Drucker
How to Be a Star at Work by Robert E. Kelley
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive by Harvey B. Mackay
The Power of Intuition by Gary Klein
What Should I Do with My Life? by Po Bronson
Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss/Theodore Geisel
Chasing Daylight by Eugene O'Kelly

Leadership (Inspiration. Challenge. Courage. Change.)
On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis
The Leadership Moment by Michael Useem
The Leadership Challenge by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner
Leadership Is an Art by Max De Pree
The Radical Leap by Steve Farber
Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will by Tichy and Sherman
Leading Change by John P. Kotter
Questions of Character by Joseph L. Badaracco, Jr.
The Story Factor by Annette Simmons
Never Give In! Speeches by Winston Churchill

Strategy (Eight organizational blueprints from which to draft your own.)
In Search of Excellence by Thomas J. Peters and Robert H. Waterman, Jr.
Good to Great by Jim Collins
The Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton M. Christensen
Only the Paranoid Survive by Andrew S. Grove
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
Discovering the Soul of Service by Leonard Berry
Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan
Competing for the Future by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad

Sales and Marketing (Approaches and pitfalls in the ongoing process of creating customers.)
Influence by Robert B. Cialdini, PhD
Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout
A New Brand World by Scott Bedbury with Stephen Fenichell
Selling the Invisible by Harry Beckwith
Zag by Marty Neumeier
Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey A. Moore
Secrets of Closing the Sale by Zig Ziglar
How to Become a Rainmaker by Jeffrey J. Fox
Why We Buy by Paco Underhill
The Experience Economyby B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore
Purple Cow by Seth Godin
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell

Rules and Scorekeeping (The all-important numbers behind the game.)
Naked Economics by Charles Wheelan
Financial Intelligence by Karen Berman and Joe Knight
The Balanced Scorecard by Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton

Management (Guiding and directing the people around you.)
The Essential Drucker by Peter Drucker
Out of the Crisis by W. Edwards Deming
Toyota Production System by Taiichi Ohno
Reengineering the Corporation by Michael Hammer and James Champy
The Goal by Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox
The Great Game of Businessby Jack Stack with Bo Burlingham
First, Break all the Rules by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman
Now, Discover Your Strengths by Buckingham and Clifton
The Knowing-Doing Gap by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
Six Thinking Hats by Edward De Bono

Biographies (Seven lives. Unlimited lessons.)
Titan by Ron Chernow
My Years with General Motors by Alfred P. Sloan, Jr.
The HP Way by David Packard
Personal History by Katharine Graham
Moments of Truth by Jan Carlzon
Sam Walton: Made in America by Sam Walton with John Huey
Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson

Entrepreneurship (Seven guides to the passion and practicality necessary for any new venture.)
The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki
The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber
The Republic of Tea ** by Mel Ziegler, Patricia Ziegler, and Bill Rosenzweig
The Partnership Charter by David Gage
Growing a Business by Paul Hawken
Guerrilla Marketing by Jay Conrad Levinson
The Monk and the Riddle Randy Komisar with Kent Lineback

Narratives (Six industry tales of both fortune and failure.)
McDonald’s: Behind the Arches by John F. Love
American Steel ** by Richard Preston
The Force by David Dorsey
The Smartest Guys in the Room by Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind
When Genius Failed by Roger Lowenstein
Moneyball by Michael Lewis

Innovation & Creativity (Insight into the process of developing new ideas.)
Orbiting the Giant Hairball by Gordon MacKenzie
The Art of Innovation by Tom Kelley with Jonathan Littman
Jump Start Your Business Brain by Doug Hall
A Whack on the Side of the Head by Roger Von Oech
The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharp
The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander

Big Ideas (The future of business books lies here.)
The Age of Unreason by Charles Handy
Out of Control by Kevin Kelly
The Rise of the Creative Class by Richard Florida
Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Driven by Paul R. Lawrence and Nitin Nohria
To Engineer is Human by Henry Petroski
The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki
Made to Stick by Chip Heath and Dan Heath

Takeaways (What everyone is looking for.)
The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins
Up the Organization by Robert Townsend
Beyond the Core by Chris Zook
Little Red Book of Selling by Jeffrey Gitomer
What the CEO Wants You to Know by Ram Charan
The Team Handbook by Peter Scholtes, Brian Joiner, and Barbara Streibel
A Business and Its Belief by Thomas J. Watson, Jr.
Lucky or Smart?by Bo Peabody
The Lexus and the Olive Tree by Thomas L. Friedman
Thinkertoys by Michael Michalko
More Than You Know by Michael J. Mauboussin

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** To buy The Republic of Tea, visit their site.
** American Steel is presently out-of-print. Your best bet is to head to your local library. 




Certified Bookworm

I had been on a blogging hiatus for the past 3 months since I had the privilege of being a part of a project team involved in defining and creating a global services solution. The project had very tight schedules, numerous deliverables and I need to be outside the country several times for more than a week. Now that the critical phase of the project has been completed, I can go back to my regular blogging schedules. 

I love books. I can stay in a bookstore the whole day wondering through the shelves and perusing all the books that interest me. I cannot help but be amazed sometimes because all these knowledge, experiences, lessons learned, best practices are right there, immediately available, and the only thing you have to do is open a book. Likewise, I find reading books as the most cost-effective, bang-for-the-buck way of not stagnating in your current job and further expanding your career horizons. How good is that!

As part of my weekly routine, I visit Powerbooks to browse its latest collections just in case the books from Amazon are already available locally. I also frequently visit Booksale, a local used books store. Through this store, I was able to find gems such as Code Complete by Steve McConnell, Managing by Harold Geneen and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig to name a few.

Image from 800ceoread

The latest business book to graze my radar is The 100 Best Business Books of All Time by Jack Covert and Todd Sattersten. I learned about this book through Slacker Manager who gave it an excellent review. Quoting him, listed below are the 5 reasons why you need to buy the book.
  1. It has reviews of 100 books so you know which books you should add to your library (or you can feel smart knowing which of the best books are already in your library).
  2. It’s only $25.95 (or Php 1,795 from Powerbooks), which means you’re investing less than $.26 per book review.
  3. It’s got a wonderful leadership section, so you’ll be able to talk to your manager a little bit more about what her/his favorite book is.
  4. It’s got a management section, so you can be a better manager.
  5. It’s easy to understand even if you haven’t read any other business/management books.




May 10, 2009

Twitter Visual Guide


Image by Applicant.com

If you are still wading through the thick muck of figuring out how to use Twitter, here is a great visual guide (from the folks at applicant.com) on how to use Twitter as a business management tool, a way to improve customer service or even as content trafficker between social media websites. Kudos to the folks at applicant.com! Click the image to view its original size.



Big Bad Beetle Mecha!



I think Gundams is well on its way to become a reality in Japan. They currently have the popular humanoid robot, Asimo, and it is constantly being improved and now this, a real mecha beetle developed by a Japanese engineer over the course of 11 years. Its design is based on a rhinocerous beetle and dubbed the Kabutom RX-03, an obvious tribute to the Gundam mobile suit RX-78. It has no practical use right now since it is still a prototype but its development can serve as small steps in ultimately building mobile suits in the future. I will be more than glad to see it have a fusion reactor and huge laser cannons on its back. LOL!

Check out the video above and click here for more details about the "Mushi Mecha."



Apr 10, 2009

TedTalks: Information Design and Statistics

Before, I see statistics as numbers, graphs and charts with boring imprinted all over it. But, when I saw Hans Rosling presentation at TED about third-world myths and how he debunked them, I was blown away on how he creatively presented (using Trendalyzer) the huge volume of data and statistics.
Hans Rosling: Debunking third-world myths with the best stats you've ever seen




TedTalks: Creativity

I discovered TED via Twitter when one of my contacts posted a great video about why we do what we do. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design which started out in 1984 to bring people together from these 3 disciplines in a conference. TED's website makes the best talks in these conferences available for free for the public.

Imagine that! All the great ideas from the world's greatest thinkers readily available as a source of inspiration to us. I salute and commend all the people from TED for such a wonderful endeavor and powerful mission of spreading these great ideas. In this regard, this is my own small way of spreading these great ideas. I will compile by topic the best videos, from my standpoint, where I learned and inspired the most.

The first topic I am posting is about creativity. The first video is from Tim Brown who is the CEO of the "innovation and design" firm IDEO. He discussed the vital link between play and creativity. The second video is from the author Elizabeth Gilbert who shared the radical idea that instead of the "rare" person being a genius, there is a genius in all of us.

Tim Brown: The powerful link between creativity and play


Elizabeth Gilbert: A different way to think about creative genius