Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
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This Is A Key Tactic for Getting Agreement
| I found something good within all this political news recently. Before you click away, let me explain. A study was done that showed political partisans ignored facts in favor of information that supported their existing views. In fact, while watching a debate, areas in their brain affecting emotions became very active, while areas of the brain involved in reasoning were simply inactive. Partisans get high on their own supply! The longer a debate goes, the more a partisan can become entrenched in his or her view.
What does this have to do with managing your project? It shouldn’t just apply to politics. Any stakeholder you work with can have a strong belief in a strategy, business practice, application, and so on. Your best bet to get agreement from a decision-making group will be to hit them hard with your justification quickly and not allow them days or weeks to discuss it. Sounds like a high pressure vacation condo sales pitch, but you know what I mean. The point is to get agreements quickly from stakeholders before opinions harden irrationally. |
Posted on: April 23, 2008 09:16 PM
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Have I Been Wrong On Wellness?
| Maybe I’ve been wrong about project managers helping workers become healthier. If you have been keeping up with this blog – as you should have – you will remember my call for project managers to actively support wellness programs. There were many reasons for this. Now we hear that Hewitt has surveyed two groups about employee wellness initiatives.
The results? Nearly 90% of firms plan to “aggressively” promote healthy lifestyles during the next 3 – 5 years. Just what the employees are waiting for, right? Wrong, Doctor. They don’t want that medicine. Even though they generally believe that employers should help them understand the health plans, only 12 percent of workers believe it’s their employer’s responsibility to persuade them to choose healthier lifestyles. I’m thinking now that you would just appear annoying, or worse, a Tool of the Establishment, if you set yourself up as a lifestyle champion. Maybe I have to go back to the drawing board on this. |
Posted on: April 18, 2008 08:24 AM
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50/50 for Managers Developing Talent at This Company
| At Bristol-Myers Squibb, they train managers to play their key role in developing and retaining talent. But they also understand that managers may not spend time on “talent management” because they are pulled in many directions, such as, we have to assume
So one of the points of their talent management program was to set a target, which is a good idea that you can borrow. The “stretch goal” was for managers to spend 50% of their time on the usual work and the other 50% of their time managing workers. That’s a serious goal – liable to leave stretch marks – but that’s how serious many companies are getting about talent development and retention. They will eat your lunch if you do not spend time on your own program. |
Posted on: April 15, 2008 10:46 PM
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This Epidemic Costs Business More Than Smoking, Alcoholism
| More studies are coming in now which put the obesity epidemic in perspective for business. The latest data may surprise you into taking action – or more aggressive action.
Your company probably already has an obesity reduction program in place or is planning such a program. More than a third of American adults are “obese,” so, as a leader, you will have to support these programs for the foreseeable future to get the best results. Check with HR before acting, though, because if you get a little too strident, discrimination lawsuits can arise. One easy (and safe) idea is to give workers schedules flexible enough to hit the gym regularly. |
Posted on: April 11, 2008 08:22 AM
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Manage Gov’t Agency E-Mails Like Documents
| We’re talking government this month. And I’m reminding you public sectorians to look again at management of e-mail, whether it is in your projects or in your agency in general. Sure you may have policies that cover behavior in messages, such as “Do not make dates with your mistress using agency assets.”
This reminder, however, is regarding how you deal with the problem of managing the documents produced in e-mails. Yes, they are documents, but they are less formally created than spreadsheets or Word documents. Still, they may contain useful information that should be captured and archived for future reference, so you have to take special and perhaps difficult measures. Even more entertaining, this article hits you with the classic subpoena crisis: “They want all e-mails between our agency employees and the contractor!” How long will it take to gather that set?
Get serious in your project or agency by defining:
The article does a good job of helping you get organized, so procrastinate no more! |
Posted on: April 09, 2008 10:49 PM
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