Listen Up!
Situation: You want to develop better listening skills. Joe Takash is the author of Results Through Relationships: Building Trust, Performance and Profit Through People, as well as a sought-after media resource and keynote speaker. As the founder of performance management firm Victory Consulting, Joe has worked with clients like American Express, Prudential, Century 21 and General Motors. We recently spoke with Joe, who gave us a few tactical project management-specific pointers and 7 steps to becoming a better listener.So let's start with the tactical tips... Q. Practicing silence is important, but when you feel the speaker is getting off track – what’s the best way to bring him or her back around to the point of the conversation? You have a couple of options. The first is nonverbal which is to nod your head at a faster pace then the person is speaking and open your mouth. These may seem strange, but it gives the nonverbal cue that you’d like to speak. If the speaker does not pick up that signal or you’re speaking on the phone where nonverbal communication is non-existent, wait for a brief pause then use the person’s name with the inflection of a question and let them know you’d like to jump in. Example, “John? Allow me to jump in for a moment,” or “One interjection I’d like to add is…”. Q. The repeat principle is great. Do you have another technique for confirming that you understand what’s being said? Provide the speaker with an example and ask them if you’re on target with their message. Q. You say to “ask good questions”, which can sometimes mean asking the “hard” questions. Any tips on shielding yourself from political fallout related to those good questions? If it’s a hierarchical situation or sensitive subject matter, it’s a good idea to preface your questions with comments like, “Are you open to honest feedback?” or “Do I have permission to speak honestly?” or “No personal disrespect intended, but I’d like to ask a question that may be difficult to answer…” Q. What are some situations where it is particularly important to ask good questions? 1) Determining what value is to a potential client. 2) Clarifying expectations of your role in a project with a boss. 3) Confirming that learning as occurred with a peer or subordinate so you are aligned in understanding. Q. Our audience is made up of project managers. When might they need to emphasize good listening skills? Always, always, always. Listening is the most transcendent quality of managers as it shows respect, builds more, establishes trust and offers the opportunity to develop breakthrough connections not just business relationships. Great listeners are those who differentiate themselves from the poor or average listeners because they serve as trusted advisor and go-to resource for providing feedback. 7 Steps To Being A Better Listener by Joe Takash Listening is as far from a passive activity as anything I can imagine. By being a passive hearer, you may take in some words but give nothing back. Listening requires thought and effort. It means you must work at listening with your head and heart and not just your ears. And it means learning how to respond to what is being said so that you’re listening communicates things your relationship partner needs to hear. Here are seven steps to take in order to gain listening wisdom: 1. Practice silence. As the previous section’s sins suggested, remaining quiet can be a challenge. You’re going to feel compelled to interrupt, to finish sentences and to add your two cents. It takes discipline to remain silent. Make a conscious effort to say nothing until you’re sure your relationship partner has finished his thought. This is easier written than done. Therefore, try practicing it at home before you do it at work. With a spouse or a friend, force yourself to stay silent during a conversation until they’re done speaking. In many ways, it’s more difficult to do this with someone you know well, since conversations are often filled with frequent interruptions by both parties. By practicing silence in a personal relationship, though, you learn the discipline of knowing when to be silent in a professional one. 2. Eliminate distractions. Shut the door, turn off your cell phone, don’t glance at the computer for email. If appropriate—if your relationship partner has communicated that he feels this meeting is important—clear your schedule and tell him that he has all time he needs to make his points. Similarly, don’t bring up tangential or unrelated topics. You want the other person to feel you’ve done everything possible to make 100% listening possible. 3. Focus your attention. This means you can’t daydream, dwell on how you’re going to respond or tune out the other person. Giving your boss or customer your undivided attention is just that—a gift. Reflect on what she’s trying to tell you—consider the literal meaning and also read between the lines. Don’t allow a ringing phone, a conversation going on outside the office or anything else distract you. People are remarkably sensitive to another individual’s attention—or lack thereof. They can somehow tell if you’re only listening at 50%. Give them 100% if you value the relationship and the results it can produce. 4. Show non-verbal attentiveness. We communicate most of our messages without opening our mouths. It’s not enough just to listen attentively; you need to demonstrate this attentiveness. Three easy ways to do so are: nod; make eye contact; smile. Shifting uneasily in your seat or glancing around as if you’re waiting for the police to arrest you are not ways to communicate your attentiveness. Impassive, immobile listeners seem bored. Use your eyes and body language to convey that you’re anything but bored. 5. Use the “repeat principle”. Paraphrase what you thought the other person said. For instance: “If I’m hearing correctly, you’re telling me that” By asking your relationship partner to repeat what you believe is an important point, you’re demonstrating that you want to listen better. Requesting clarification communicates your desire to know exactly what is meant. Now, you can over-use this technique. If you do, you’ll come off as inattentive or hard-of-hearing. Wait until you really aren’t clear on what he’s saying. Or wait until the other person says something where he’s placed a lot of emphasis—either through his tone of voice or because he tells you, “This is important”. This gives you the opening you need to apply the repeat principle. 6. Empathize. Empathy is essential for results-producing relationships, and it’s especially crucial in listening. You have 101 ways to communicate your empathy, not all of them verbal. A knowing look, a nod of your head, a sigh—these gestures can communicate you “get it” faster and more empathically than a long-winded speech. Don’t try to over-empathize—you don’t have to make a melodramatic show of how you’re relating to what a client or manager is telling you. Sometimes, empathy can be expressed by relating your own experience relative to what your relationship partner has described. Sometimes, a simple, “Believe me, I know what you’re going through with Jim”, will get the job done. Empathy really is nothing more than showing you have listened with your heart as well as your head. 7. Ask good questions. Have you ever been in an audience when the speaker asks, “Does anyone have any questions?” and no one responds? It’s as if he never spoke at all—or no one paid any attention to what he said. If you don’t ask any questions during a conversation—or if you just ask perfunctory questions—you’re going to create the same effect. So don’t be shy about asking a few good questions. Even one good question may be enough to show that you’ve listened intently. If you’ve ever listened to a press conference, you know what I mean. Typically, a politician or pro sports coach is asked a bunch of inane questions, and then one member of the media asks the question that really sheds light on a situation. You want to ask that good question. Maybe your boss has just told you that he can’t stand his own boss and doesn’t know how to deal with his unreasonable requests; that he can’t sleep nights, that he’s spending too much work time trying to placate his boss then get real work done. So your good question might be: “Can you talk to the CEO or someone in management and ask them to intervene?” A good question demonstrates you’ve followed the logic of the conversation and are thinking about possible solutions/actions. That’s the mark of a perceptive listener. |
Posted on: May 04, 2009 10:07 AM
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How Does PPM Help You Optimize Resources?
| Situation: You want your PPM efforts to improve resource utilization. CA, the folks that bring you CA Clarity PPM, recently sponsored an IDC Survey - Organizations Optimize  Resources with PPM. We were lucky enough to ask IDC researcher, Randy Perry, a few questions about the survey and what it really means to you. By asking these questions, I tried to draw out some areas that you might want to focus on when conducting these types of efforts. Q: At the beginning of the report you offer a summary of benefits that participating companies experienced. • Number of projects managed increased 35%. • Cost per project was reduced 37%. • Redundant projects dropped 78%. • IT staff productivity increased by 14%. • Project failure rate dropped 59%. • The total annual benefit per 100 users is $83,500. • Payback occurred in 7.4 months. Which of these mattered most to these companies? (perhaps a top 3?) and why? Did the most important results line up with the way they sold the efforts in the first place? Randy Perry, IDC: The first two key benefits experienced by companies were reduction in number of redundant projects and reduction in the project failure rate. Roughly 40 percent of total savings came from reducing failed or redundant projects. Prior to the implementation of PPM software, companies, on average, had nearly 40 percent of their projects fail or deemed redundant. The primary cause of failed and redundant projects occurs in the planning stage due to issues with governance, IT demand, prioritization and selection. Most of the projects that failed should never have been initiated in the first place because they were not aligned with business goals or IT did not have a clear set of goals at the outset. Redundant projects would never have been initiated had all stakeholders had visibility into project prioritization. The third benefit most appreciated by companies in the study was the reduction in per-project costs. Per-project costs were reduced by 37 percent, which was primarily a result of better project and resource management. Better management allowed for a reduction in the time it takes to complete projects and also led to optimization of project staffing. Twelve of thirteen companies reported a reduction in project time by 13-63 percent (an average of 35 percent). Most companies used this time savings to complete projects that had been put off due to lack of resources. Q: You talk about organization measuring itself in the following areas: • IT governance • IT demand assessment • IT demand prioritization and selection • Business relationship management • Project management • Resource management If you were to come up with a forced ranking, how would you rank these in terms of their importance to an organization’s productivity? In terms of organizational effectiveness? (and Why?) Randy Perry, IDC: These areas are not entirely distinct and benefits of one tend to spill over into the others. For instance, IT governance is critical to an organization; it drives most of the other benefits. Prior to deploying PPM, 54 percent of the companies in the study had no IT governance program. In other words, their IT departments operated independent of the businesses they were supporting (budget setting notwithstanding). The business had no way of translating its goals to the IT department, no way of measuring the success of projects or IT, and, therefore, no real control of IT resources. Implementing IT governance establishes the link between business goals and IT budgets: it measures IT projects by their contribution to businesses’ strategic initiatives and ties changes in the business to changes in IT priorities. IT governance ensures that every project undertaken by IT has been approved by a board of stakeholders. Project goals are set and project successes can be measured. No one can later say: “Why are you doing that?” Resource management is the second largest benefit driver, accounting for 16 percent of total savings. Like IT governance, this is a planning area. PPM provides a way of looking at all the project-related requirements and then prioritizing people and other resources. Project management, perhaps the third most important driver, contains the knowledge loop that enables process improvement and optimization. Each project becomes a knowledge resource, enabling each successive project to be more efficient. Over time, projects are completed quicker with exactly the resources needed – no waste. Q: Clearly tools, coupled with process, have an impact in the following areas: • IT governance. • IT demand assessment. • IT demand prioritization and selection • Business relationship management • Project management. • Resource management. Are there particular tool functions that are important in each of these areas? Are there tools (specific tools or classes of them) that you know of that are particularly effective in any of these areas? Randy Perry, IDC: We really do not have research specific to a single function or tool. We covered a wide variety of tools – looking at seven different vendors. We found that one third of the participants used tools from multiple vendors. Q: At the end of your report, you categorize the study participants by industry, noting their maturity before and after PPM efforts. Which industries benefited most (and least) from PPM efforts? Why do you think that is? Randy Perry, IDC: The top three companies that saw the greatest benefits were financial institutions; the top two of those three were also among the most mature, so it’s all related. Financial organizations tend to have a greater reliance on their IT infrastructures than organizations in other industries do and, as such, their IT operations are more mature. Technology merely enables processes and policies. Companies at maturity level three (those with standardized processes, procedures and PPM tools) experienced 50 percent higher benefits than organizations at maturity level two (those with automated, but not standardized, processes and procedures) and 58 percent higher benefits than companies falling between ad hoc and automated, but not standardized processes and procedures. On a related note, IDC’s PPM Maturity Value Calculator, which was developed from the same IDC research. The calculator provides a personalized PPM maturity and benefits assessment. After using it, individuals can request a detailed action plan by email. The calculator is meant to give an overview of the benefits and next steps needed to build a PPM business case. |
Posted on: April 27, 2009 06:32 PM
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Project Decision Making - Firmed Up.
| Situation: You find yourself asking - What did we decide about that? Decisions made in a structured way often happen in meetings. They get captured in meeting notes and that's great.  Decisions made in reaction to new situations pop up every day. We have a brief email exchange about them and we at least feel like we've made a decision. -- or maybe some of us do. In the end those exchanges just create more loose ends.We recently talked to Chris Bright, from Zapproved about yet another simple, cool PM tool that addresses a critical issue - decision-making. I think his responses to my questions are enough to at least get you thinking about how you handle and document decisions. Q. How do you see Zapproved being used within the context of projects? Is it used more for sign-offs or for every day decision-making? Chris: We have users utilizing Zapproved for consensus building around big milestone approvals involving many participants on down to approval of routine, everyday decision-making between individuals. The feedback we get is that the app is helpful for keeping momentum in organizational processes and for tracking and recording tasks. Since a significant portion of any project is collaborating with others, Zapproved offers a solution that is easy to implement and that “sticks.” For larger groups, Zapproved offers several advantages. As is typical, most decisions are being made via email. That presents problems because one decision can fill up inboxes with long email chains that can be difficult to drive to conclusion. Plus, some people do not participate for reasons of travel or to passively resist the group. Tech blogger Robert Scoble posited that the number of emails required to do something in email is equal to the number of participants squared. That feels about right to me! Zapproved hosts the conversation in a single place online so everyone can see comments and feedback at one time and out in the open. If someone has not responded, it is clear that is the case. By bringing decisions into the daylight it puts pressure on laggards to not block the group and reduces interference of politics and personalities. On more routine tasks of acknowledging status reports and procedural steps, scheduling meetings and calls, approving travel requests, new hires, and other decisions that are plentiful but tend to not get tracked well, our system puts them in a repository and associates them with explicit approvals. This can help keep things moving smoothly since it reduces organizational friction around procedural steps. Q. Could you give us a couple specific examples (from your current organizational clients) of decisions that people manage within Zapproved? Chris: I’ve provided a few examples below of how our users are utilizing the system:
Q. I could see people using Zapproved as a way to track action items that come out of status meetings. Do know of any best practices around that? How is Zapproved used in that situation? Chris: Yes, I have spoken with a few people who use it for task management in the way you are describing. After a status meeting, the project manager sends task notifications to the appropriate people that scopes the task and provides a deadline. Once the person completes the task, they can “Approve” it to signal that state or “Deny” it if, for some reason, it was not done or no longer needed to be done. Q. You talked a bit about how Zapproved changes the behavior of people whose it, versus those who use email threads to document decisions. Could you describe those differences in terms of approach, wording, and structure? Chris: Yes, once people start using the system there are subtle shifts in behavior that managers find helpful. When someone is submitting a proposal they know that at the bottom of the message it says “Approve” and “Deny.” Email tends to have a casual tone so people are reluctant to write in an actionable way, i.e. citing outcomes and deadlines, because it comes across as awkward. We see emails ending with phrases like “let me know what you think” and other casual, polite words. Not the best approach when driving something to closure. In Zapproved the context of the system compels users to write in an actionable way. That simple shift helps enormously because it drives explicit statements such as “I am seeking your approval on this item.” As a manager, the amount of energy required to respond is reduced dramatically. We hear time and time again of how group productivity increases by providing a simple framework for process in teams. Q. Which types of decisions are best left out of Zapproved? Chris: Most decisions adapt well in Zapproved especially when transparency and an audit trail are key. Even though approvals in Zapproved are legally binding, one may want to check with an attorney before using it as the final sign-off on a multi-million contract. We are working on e-signatures that would add higher levels of redundancy on identity, so we hope that we will be able to fulfill even that role in the future! Q. How do you deal with decision-tree sorts of situations where decisions are linked to one another? Chris: At this time, that is an ad hoc situation that teams organize as needed. One of our users has built an e-procurement system on Zapproved with hierarchical workflows and it works well. It saves on paper and the alternative of an expensive, complex tool would have absorbed much more energy and resources. However, we are planning to build that functionality into Zapproved in a way that is easy and intuitive to implement. Q. How do you filter out the smaller decisions from the larger ones? Can you tag them with project or category names? Chris: Every proposal has a “Project” field that can be defined by the user. Once a person has entered text in that field, it is stored and is available in a drop-down menu for any future proposals. This helps group and track decisions around a single project (i.e. “NASA Hydrogen Propellant Proposal”), or can also substitute for flagging more routine processes such as “Vacation Requests.” It is an easy way to put proposals in various buckets that makes sense for a team. Q. What’s at the top of the list for future enhancements? Chris: Our development paths are focused on adding functionality and increasing integration. As I mentioned, we are working on creating decision-tree workflows, embedded forms and even e-signatures. Looking at integration, we see Zapproved as a strong complement to other tools. Last month we introduced an add-in for Outlook and we want to expand access to Zapproved through other business applications as well as mobile platforms. |
Posted on: April 27, 2009 02:53 PM
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Does Your PMO... Blow?
Situation: You are interested in PMO performance issues. At the end of 2008, ESI International conducted a study of 387 Program Managers, inquiring about the maturity and success of their PMOs. Only 8% of those surveyed described their PMOs as being successful.Among the study’s findings: Of the 92 percent who do not believe their PMO is successful, the main reason was a lack of:
Thirty percent of the respondents said the existence of their PMO has been seriously questioned in recent years. Among the attributable reasons are:
We spoke again with J. LeRoy Ward, PMP, PgMP, and EVP of ESI International about the survey. “PMO executives are keenly aware of the obstacles to their success,” said Ward. “Closing gaps in skills, knowledge and tools are critical for enabling PMOs to meet these challenges and enhance organisational project performance.” We then asked him a few more questiosn to get down to specifics. Q. How does the survey define success? It seems as if large numbers of these PMOs achieved some measure of success, but perhaps didn’t meet the higher standard set here. The survey did not set out to “define success”, but to identify barriers to it. Success is something that needs to be defined by each organization and should be determined based on the strategic goals and objectives set out by the executive, executives, or governance committee who supported the founding of the PMO. We have found in our more than 26 years of helping organizations improve their project management performance that success most commonly includes: cost control/savings; improving time-to-market; a decrease in troubled projects; increase in client satisfaction (internal or external); and increased revenue and profit. Other measures of success are more internal to the practice of project management to include better teaming, improved documentation and consistent application of best-in-class methodologies. In the survey, we did ask respondents how they defined success from a very high level/broad perspective. They said: • 25% -- client satisfaction • 22% -- project success • 22% -- consistent methodology deployed • 8% -- number of people trained • 7% -- higher ROI Clearly, these measures reflect the varying roles that PMOs can play within an organization. One of the qualitative survey respondents, a senior PM from a UK-based retail operation, put it this way, “The PMO has to justify its existence and provide quantifiable benefits for its existence.” My one comment on these numbers is that I was surprised that only 7% defined success as proving a higher ROI. In fact, this should be right up there with client satisfaction. While deploying a methodology is an important function from a project manager’s point of view, it is largely lost in the most important issues facing business owners, the very owners who pay for projects. Q. One of your study’s findings was that “The PMO is seen as an extension of administrative support, rather than a professional body with value-add skills.” Was that sort of comment restricted to those that are very governance-oriented (rather than support-oriented)? What are the best ways to demonstrate (and perhaps document) value-add skills in these environments so they aren’t questioned later? Based on the way the survey was conducted, it is difficult to draw a conclusion as to whether or not the role of governance would affect the perception of the PMO as more administrative rather than a professional body with value-added skills. That said, a proper governance structure includes the involvement of senior leadership and provides a direct communications channel that should enable the PMO to consistently demonstrate its value as a professional body with value-added skills. In other words, my 33+ years of professional experience leads me to conclude that the opposite is true. If PMO has a well constructed governance structure, it is more likely to be perceived as a value-add function. The “best” way to demonstrate value-added benefits for PMOs varies by organization. However, framing that conversation in a way that focuses on improved project and business outcomes with an emphasis on financial benefits should speak effectively to executive management. From a financial perspective, this can include, but is certainly not limited to: cost containment due to improved project success; increased revenues driven through smart project selection; or reduced labor expenses brought about by improved project management efficiencies. The greater the degree a PMO can work with executive management in identifying, selecting and aligning projects to an organization’s strategy, the more likely executive management will view the PMO as an integral player in setting such strategy, thus increasing the value of the PMO to the organization. To be sure, the ability to successfully execute those projects to realize the intended benefits is where the “rubber meets the road” and where reputations are earned or destroyed. From an executive’s point of view, the ability to beat a competitor to market, to satisfy existing clients, to expand geographically, or to expand a product line to a new demographic, and to demonstrate that project management was the vehicle which helped them accomplish that, will strengthen the role of the PMO and cause it to be seen as integral to business success. Q. Another situation that arose when people questioned PMO value was “Budget cuts necessitating cost justification, a difficulty for the non-revenue producing PMO. “ What are the best ways for a PMO to demonstrate and document ROI? (the more specific the better) Let’s take the case of a PMO in a global drug development organization. Studies by the pharma industry have shown that it takes, on average, 11 years and USD802 million to produce a drug that one’s doctor can prescribe. Needless to say, that’s a long time and a lot of money (no matter what currency you’re using!). As a PMO director in this organization, I would first select a random sample of drug development projects that the organization has completed within the past 5-10 years. We would then be able to average the length of time and money it costs us to produce our drugs; then we could compare that to the global average mentioned above. We would then initiate a number of improvements through the PMO to the Global Drug Organization to help boost performance. For example, we might institute or change the way projects are selected (portfolio management); we might establish criteria to be used in each phase of the drug development life cycle such that, if certain metrics were not met, the project would be terminated. We might change the way we form teams for these projects option for the Integrated Product Development Team approach, in which a core team is assembled at the outset who plans the entire project from start to finish having as its representatives members from each functional group within the company who will work on the effort (e.g., research, toxicology, clinical, legal, marketing, IT, etc.) We may also embrace the “heavy weight” project manager concept on certain strategic projects a concept used in the pharma and global auto industries. Finally, we may provide relevant, targeted training to each project manager to ensure they have the requisite skills and tools to do the job. Based on these and other improvements, we would then begin to gather project metrics that will enable us to benchmark these forward projects against our own experience, as well as the global data. To the extent we have shortened our time frame, reduced our costs, and produced “blockbuster” drugs, which is defined as any drug that earns more than USD1 billion/year, we can draw a correlation between our improvement efforts and our project management initiatives. The key issues most organizations have in demonstrating ROI is that they fail to establish this critical baseline. Project managers can often work with the same intensity as the fervently religious in that their “belief” in project management, far outweighs any evidence they can bring forth to prove their case. Belief, faith and hope work well in religious circles; rarely do these emotions ever convince a group of executives regarding the value of project management. [Editorial note: Electronic copies of the report are available upon request. Contact J. Scott Punk, APR] |
Posted on: March 30, 2009 04:17 PM
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What I Learned (about KM and social media) in Military School
Situation: You are thinking about introducing social media into a challenging environment. We recently spoke with Dennis Cornell, Chief, Project Management Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, Defense Information School. Dennis, along with his colleague and resident social media expert, Army Staff Sergeant Joshua Salmons, answered a few questions about how social media is being used in their secure military environment. Q. Your role, being responsible for strategic planning and maintenance at the Defense Information School really puts you on the hot seat for learning about and appropriately implementing anything new that changes how you deal with "information" in general. Do you have a process for deciding what to experiment with and what you eventually have people use as a matter of policy? Dealing with changes in technology and making decisions on what to use and when to implement is one of the bigger challenges within a military environment, especially here at the school where we are so technology dependent. When my job was mainly focused on the IT world, it was critical to be an internet research junkie. Up to 20% of any given day dealt with researching technology whether it was a new application, a new hardware set, or a new policy governing a particular technology. Life on the DoD’s NIPRnet is filled with restrictions and policies that make it difficult to find that 90% solution that meets the school’s requirements for communication and information sharing. Adding to the difficulty of implementing a common platform is that most people use a lot of different tools outside of the workplace. Being on the so called “hot seat” means having to filter a lot of ideas of those that see a tool for its “cool factor” and focusing on the tools that meet the needs of the organization as a whole. Then it becomes a matter of examining the new, fancy tool to see if it holds any benefit for internal operations, if it needs to be included in the “here’s what’s out there” list, or if it’s yet another product. We do have an internal development network that allows us to test new applications that are either recommended by leadership or through our planning team. We use the DINFOS staff to provide feedback during our test and evaluation approach before any decision to implement into the live environment is made. The difficulty is with applications that we cannot host internally. External policies of the DoD play a huge role in whether or not those applications can be leveraged as a resource for information sharing. Many of the current social media tools are on the “blocked” list within the DoD community. The challenge then becomes a matter of having an exception granted and proving to the decision makers at the DoD level that the tool not only is vital to mission success, but that it poses no threat to the DoD network. Q. What does a power Social Network user look like at the DOD? Is it the "Coolness" of the apps that attracts them or is the functionality? I’m going to call on the school’s Social Media guru, Army Staff Sergeant Joshua Salmons to give you the “cool” answer for this. From Joshua Salmons: “I’m going to define the DoD power social network user as someone who has a healthy knowledge of social media and IT, who knows how SM can augment the public affairs mission and which precautions should always be exercised when speaking to the public. Basically, the power user is a social media advocate and is well versed in explaining the value of these new applications. These individuals have endured constant conflict with nay-saying bureaucrats and doubters and are very sharp on the monetary-, labor- and process-saving benefits to social media applications. People who are drawn to apps just because they look cool aren’t power users. A big part of leveraging social media apps in the workplace is user adoption. Functionality alone does not ensure widespread use amongst the masses. Applications should have a certain coolness or sexiness to them—meaning function should meld with form and interface to exude gestalt. When Xerox engineers first developed the mouse and graphic user interface, company execs dismissed the “cool” new technologies. They said computers were for professionals, there was no need for anything to make them more accessible. Steve Jobs bought the idea for the mouse and GUI and, today, Apple products are still very artistic in their design in addition to their functionality. In turn, they attract an extremely ardent following.” Q. Do you use any of the older (what we used to call groupware) collaboration apps within the DOD? What do you see as potential replacements for them and why? I’ve been a Sharepoint user since 2001. I first introduced it into the school as a means of sharing documents and collaborating in a single-source environment. With the latest version of Sharepoint, some of the more common social media tools have been implemented. This has allowed us to grow a wiki-like applications which we’ve named the DINFOPEDIA. This tool has allowed us to more readily share information internally. One of things that the school has had to overcome with collaborative tools is the old school mentality of knowledge is power, and if it’s my knowledge then I also have job security. There are numerous portal products on the market and new ones being developed all the time. While I don’t foresee implementing or find a replacement for our current platform, if there is a tool that provides the greater than 90% solution and is cost effective, I’m sure it will be something that I recommend for test and evaluation. Q. Are any leading edge applications used to collaborate between agencies at the DOD? Are there any used for collaboration with outside organizations, suppliers or vendors that work particularly well? Platforms like Intelink are becoming places where dozens of agencies can contribute toward projects at various levels of classification. The biggest advocate for collaborative communication in the early part of the decade was the Army with its push to have all service members use the common platform Army Knowledge Online. The DoD piggy-backed on what the Army did and followed AKO with their version called the Defense Knowledge Online (DKO). Both provide email service, file sharing, and discussion groups. They are very expansive portal systems which, in my opinion, have grown to the level of actually being overwhelming. Q. What Web 2.0 or social networking application do you see the biggest potential for within the DOD? If I had to pick one, I’d say wikis. Given the transitory nature of the military, the opportunity to store and transmit tacit knowledge is amazing. Policies, field manuals, regulations, personal tips from vets can all be collected, organized and given out where it’s needed. The monetary savings on printed material would be worth it alone. The benefit of current, up-to-date TTPs, regs or even phone rosters—all secured as appropriate, of course, is great! |
Posted on: March 30, 2009 12:47 PM
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