--Originally published at Hector's Blog
The Deadline: Chapters 13 & 14
--Originally published at Hector's Blog
The Deadline: Chapters 13 & 14
--Originally published at Hector's Blog
The deadline: Capítulo 22 y 23
--Originally published at TI2011 – Alex’s Barn
Es el último blog que escribo sobre esta novela.
En teoría, esta pequeña historia explicaría distintos elementos necesarios para ser un buen administrador de proyectos.
Sin embargo, a lo largo de la lectura me ha dejado con más que solo eso. La idea oculta aqui es, que para ser mejores administradores, es necesario ser mejores gerentes, mejores líderes. Ya que, de forma implícita, el administrar los recursos de una empresa o un proyecto, implica administrar el elemento más valioso que poseen: El capital humano.
Src: Giphy
El trabajo se puede cuantificar, medir e incluso analizar. El dinero se puede ahorrar, gastar o invertir.
Pero el capital humano es un recurso que, es invaluable y los daños a este, son incalculables, así como difíciles de reparar.
Al trabajador, que forma parte de la institución, en su labor creativa, es necesario darle ese reconocimiento, haciéndolo parte de los triunfos de la empresa.
Cuando escuché que, algunas personas recibían acciones de la empresa como parte de su contrato, no comprendía del todo porqué las empresas tomaban tal acción. Ahora, puedo entender que, al ofrecerles stock y volverlos dueños parciales de la institución, su sentido de responsabilidad por el crecimiento y desarrollo de la empresa se hace latente.
El desarrollo de la empresa se vuelve tarea de todos y es una tarea aceptada, pues todos toman parte de ella.
Las empresas deben ser prósperas, preocupándose por sus empleados, acorde a la novela. Yo podría atreverme a complementar esta idea, con que, una empresa y todos sus empleados, deberían preocuparse unos de los otros, para el crecimiento común.
El concepto
DEADLINE, Chapter 10. “Run that simulation again!”
--Originally published at TI2011 – Roger's Rad Records
This chapter felt different from all the prior ones, so this entry will probably do too. Mr. Tompkins was staying in Rome for a few days and Johnny Jay, his old boss, wanted him to meet with somebody that also happened to be in Europe at the time. Since Mr. T respected Mr. Jay so much, he agreed to meet the guy.
Dr. Abdul Jamid had been working on management dynamics. Specifically, on a program that could translate the gut feeling that has been mentioned several times throughout the book into a controlled model that would be able to simulate different scenarios in a similar way to an algorithm. Mr. T was unsure about the viability of such a program, but after a couple of demonstrations and about two days of exchanging thoughts with Dr. Jamid he was convinced and acquired the software.
The book states that the software used by Dr. Jamis is a visual programming language that was marketed as ‘iThink’. Its actual name is a little longer: Systems Thinking, Experimental Learning Laboratory with Animation (or STELLA for short). It was introduced way back in 1985 as a program for system dynamics modelling.
I had never heard the term ‘system dynamics’, so after doing a little research I found that that’s the name given to certain approach that allows to model and simulate the behavior of complex systems by using several components, including loops, time delays and table functions. This small website explains that one of the main applications of system dynamics in business is, precisely, one of the topics from my last entry: improving performance over time. It also explains that when system dynamics is translated into the business/management context it is sometimes
The deadline: Capitulo 20, 21
--Originally published at TI2011 – Alex’s Barn
Vaya, has llegado hasta aqui.
Se va acercando el fin de esta novela, y con ella, también se acerca el horizonte de nuevos proyectos e ideas a desarrollar.
El camino ha sido largo y, si bien, a veces, mientras me releo, creo que estos blogs son un montón de ideas pseudo aleatorias, un conjunto de ideas delirantes, que funjen como válvula de escape, creo que, en resumen, hemos aprendido un poco a volvernos mejores gerentes, al ser más humanos.
Mirando de reojo los problemas.
– Tu no tienes problemas. Oh, solo tienes pequeñas molestias quiza, pero nada significante.
-Es exactamente lo que iba a decir, como lo sabes.
-Porque eso es lo que la gente dice siempre cuando tiene muchos problemas.
-The deadline. Conversation between Mr. T. and Mr. Winnipeg
En mi experiencia, tendemos a minimizar los problemas, o tratarlos como si fueran una situación apasionante o retadora. Es bueno y sano tener una perspectiva positiva de los problemas. Pero a veces, la situación nos sobrepasa. El estrés es magno. Y muchas veces no nos damos cuenta que necesitamos ayuda.
Ni el estrés, ni los problemas son divertidos.
¿Porqué caemos en esta compleja situación, en la cual minimizamos los problemas?
Luego de buscar un poco, armé una teoría a partir de distintos puntos y enfoques que la psicología le da al lidiar y resolver problemas.
Este fenómeno, principalmente se debe a problemas de inseguridad. Esta inseguridad nos lleva a ese deseo de demostrarle a los demás, ( aunque no exista ninguna necesidad) que somos capaces de sostener situaciones que, en realidad, son insostenibles. Esto nos puede llevar a llenarnos de problemas, lejos de resolverlos.
Entonces, ¿de donde sale la saturación de problemáticas?
No hemos aprendido a distraernos de los problemas
Aprender a distraerse es una necesidad. Existen hábitos
DEADLINE, chapters 8 & 9. If nobody notices it will be fine.
--Originally published at TI2011 – Roger's Rad Records
At the start of chapter 8, Lahksa and Mr. Tompkins were wondering what the optimal way of performing the management experiments would be, how would they measure which methods are more efficient? They didn’t know how to answer such a question, but they knew who could be able to.
Dr. Hector Rizzoli was an important personality in the field who had run several controlled experiments in the past. Thanks to Lahksa’s shenanigans, the doctor was tricked into staying in Morovia for a few days. Mr. T took this opportunity to get his help for their big experiment.
Belinda, Dr. Rizzoli and Mr. T decided the main structure for the projects and their teams. Each of the projects would have three different teams working on different instances of the same product, every project would try to prove or disprove a particular effect set by specific learning goals.
Dr. Rizzoli and Mr. Tompkins got a chance to talk just the two of them. Mr. T told the doctor that even if they had three teams for each project there was no guarantee that any of them would create good enough products. He was scared of failing even if a lot of learning were to take place. This led to the two topics that Mr. T included in his journal:
First, productivity improvement. When Tompkins asks for a way to improve productivity in the short term, the doctor clarifies that there’s no such a thing. Productivity is improved by investing for the long-term. When I googled “How to improve productivity” all of the first results were articles with titles like “15 EASY ways of improving productivity in the workplace”, and they all seemed somewhat sketchy.
DEADLINE, chapters 6 & 7. It feels like this woman fell from heaven.
--Originally published at TI2011 – Roger's Rad Records
Mr. T starts chapter 6 in a tough situation. Not only is he afraid of how many people he’ll have reporting to him, but he also must choose each one of them. At least, eighteen, according to his calculations. How is he supposed to start deciding among 200-ish software managers? Well, Mr. Tompkins uses his secret weapon, a hidden ability that has been in his possession since his early years…the art of procrastination.
To avoid facing the work he had pending, he started reading a book called Structural Cybernetic Management that Lahksa had given him. After a while, Waldo started a conversation which eventually led Mr. T to realize that he needed somebody to help him make decisions, to which Waldo suggested the person who was originally chosen to take Mr. T’s position: Belinda Binda.
After reading her resume and hearing about her from Lahksa, Mr. Tompkins was 100% positive that she would make for a great consultant, even if she was a bag lady living by the docks. He headed out to look for her and once she was found, they had a weird first conversation.
In a few words, they both agreed that the book Mr. T was reading didn’t seem to understand what management is about, to which Binda began to explain the essential “body parts” of a good manager. After a long conversation, Mr. T asked Belinda to work for him and she took the offer.
The body parts Binda mentioned were:
- Heart. It is what people respond to. Leaders with no heart can lead, but people won’t follow them.
- Gut. That little voice that tells you if you’ve found what you were seeking for or if you Continue reading "DEADLINE, chapters 6 & 7. It feels like this woman fell from heaven."
“PEOPLE UNDER PRESSURE DON’T THINK FASTER” – Chapter 15
--Originally published at Meeting the Deadline
It is what it is. People can’t think faster, wait faster, or work faster, even if pressure is applied to them.
(Did you hear me, stupid Belok? You’re crazy for wanting people to work all 7 seven days a week with overtime! So selfish)
This is not only obvious or trivial, but it was modeled by Mr. T and Belinda. With data recovered by Waldo (Mr. T’s assistant) from older projects done in Morovia, they could uncover and prove that higher pressures or impossible work conditions can’t accelerate a project’s speed or efficiency.
On the other hand, they found something rather curious:
Overtime makes people work less!
Funny it came out, because this very thing is happening to me right now in my job.
Turns out people who do overtime tend to say “Meh, I can do it later at night, it’s okay”.
But no, it isn’t. By doing this, the work done in regular hours is of less quality and/or quantity due to the “flexibility” that the new added hours present.
Instead of the goal that is really work the paid hours and deliver something of value.
So, what’s the alternative here?
Send people home. For real.
All managers should state that employees should not stay up late doing work. They should turn off the lights and say “everybody OUT”.
Maybe they usually apply pressure and overtime because they don’t know better, or they’re afraid of the difficulty that other methods present. But reality is one must do what’s right and what’s best , for the employee, for the company and for the project.
So, no more overtime and no more slacking.
From now on, I’ll only work on the designated hours. Afternoon hours won’t be used as overtime no more.
Thanks Continue reading "“PEOPLE UNDER PRESSURE DON’T THINK FASTER” – Chapter 15"
Hey you, just chill, pressure never increase productivity rate
--Originally published at Blog de Célia
I’m still reading the book the Deadline and I will still keep you update on what happen in it. In Chapter 15, we assisted in a big debate about the productivity rate and how to do to increase it. Each person had a different point of view. Some of them were thinking that if you put a lot of pressure on people, they will gain in productivity, some of them will loose productivity… Even with overtime hours, some of the manager team were totally in favour of putting some hours (Belinda for example, was in favour to put more overtime hours at the end of the project but reasonably) some of them were in favour to put many overtime hours to finish the work on time (60/70 hours per week of work, that hurts). However, at the end everyone discovered that putting pressure, having more overtime hours do not increase the productivity and do not decrease it neither, it does not change anything.
“PEOPLE UNDER PRESSURE DON’T THINK FASTER.”
Best regards,
The Oracle
This quote is a good illustration of putting pressure in a company. Adding overtime hours, putting people under a huge pressure will not help you to achieve your project faster. Your employees will be unhappy to go work; they will be stress… Moreover, you can try with thousand solutions, it is not because you put pressure on people, that they can think thousand times faster. The human brain does not increase his performances by 100%, when you are under pressure (to me, it is even worst to work under pressure if you are someone anxious).
To my opinion, to be productive in your daily work, you have to be in a feel-good environment, and you have to cut your private life from your personal life. The
