ThingyThing

Chooseday - Tuesdays without cars

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Mon, 26 May 2008 10:40:00 PDT

I have recently started doing some work with Chooseday. Chooseday is a Bristol based organisation which imagines a different world, a world without cars on Tuesdays. It encourages people to take an alternative form of transport to work on Tuesdays, such as walking, cycling, taking the train or bus or car-sharing over longer distances. And if Tuesdays don't suit then any other day of the week will do!

It's a wonderful idea that really helps people try something new. Its not a lot to ask and people all over the city are up for it. The Chooseday founders, Chris Sutherland and Penny Gane are primarily motivated by mitigating climate change. But people are getting involved for all sorts of reasons: health, lifestyle choices, happiness, pragmatic reasons like lack of parking spaces, speed etc. The message hits home with a whole cross-section of society and people are embracing change.

What I particularly like about Chooseday is that its doing something positive and practical about climate change by helping Bristol reduce its carbon-footprint. In Britain, almost a quarter of annual carbon emissions are from transport, 85% of which is from road traffic. It offers a hand to people and asks in a very direct but non-threatening way to make a change. And its a message that is working its way through organisations in a top-down and bottom-up sort of way. Chooseday works with an organisation's staff and recruits Champions who spread the message to their networks and in their own way. The idea of the Champions takes its roots in the Appreciative Inquiry methodology and creates a self-sustaining movement of change.

I can say I am really pleased to be a part of Chooseday and working to change commuting behaviour in Bristol. Its a small step in the right direction, hopefully collectively Bristol will take a massive leap.

7 habits of highly effective people

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:31:00 PDT

I've just finished reading 'The 7 habits of highly effective people" by Stephen Covey. A good book full of food for thought. It's taken me a long time to read, nearly 2 months. That's been by choice and also at the author's recommendation. The idea being to take your time and really think about what's being said and how it relates to you.

I started off not quite sure what I was going to read. I have to be honest I mistakenly read the title as "The 7 habits of highly efficient people". Effectiveness and efficiency are closely related ideas but not the same and this book helped me clarify the difference. Efficiency suggests doing less to achieve a goal by finder quicker ways to do something. Effectiveness means achieving the best possible outcome for everyone, but that might mean you have to do more to achieve it, not less. Efficiency follows effectiveness.

The habits are:

Be proactive
Begin with the end in mind
Put first things first
Think win/win
Seek first to understand... then be understood
Synergise
Sharpen the saw

Summed up, the habits mean you look inside yourself for improvement rather than looking for it from others. It suggests if you want someone to behave in a certain way you must change the way you behave towards that person. But not in a superficial kind of way. In an honest, open and limitless way. It talks about human paradigms which are effectively programs for the way you react to situations. That way of visualising human behaviour appealed to me and I think it's probably because of my computer science background.

I would give this book a bug thumbs up! I read it initially thinking of how to apply it to my work and my interactions with clients. I ended up learning that to be truly successful you can't think of your work self and your home self. You can't try and patch up your behaviour at work but not worry about your behaviour at home. You have to tackle the root cause which is you through and through. You have to do the right thing all the time so that it becomes a natural part of you, not just a quick-fix when a specific situation arises. And this equally applies to the behaviour of organisations not just individuals.

If you're looking to open your eyes and learn some home truths, then this book is for you - even if you think you have it right, you will definitely learn something useful!

The first minature developer in a box

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:42:00 PDT

www.thepocketgeek.com gave me some good entertainment over the weekend. It's a project management flash game where you have to manage a developer to get a project finished by the end of the week. You are given a host of incentives with which to woo your developer, including pizza, coffee, siesta time and other entertainments. Well worth a play with. I particularly enjoyed the affects of giving your developer too much coffee!!

Mission statements

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 12:19:00 PST

At the moment I am reading a book called 'The 7 habits of highly effective people' by Stephen Covey. I am only about a third of the way through and intend to review it when I've finished, so won't go into too much detail about it now. But one section has got me thinking and that is a short section about mission statements.

Mission statements are about defining your goals and what you want when all is said and done. I have always had a mission statement in my head but the book encourages you to write it down on paper. So I did. It took a while to get flowing but once I got going I was surprised at what I started putting down as my goals in life. I came out with 9 goals. The first 3 were easy and the ones that I had always had in my head as my mission statement. The other 6 that came out, whilst equally important to me, were more deeply buried and took more time to articulate. I think it is significant that two thirds of my goals were not obvious to me. Implicitly I know these things are important to me and they have driven my decisions in the past without me knowing it. Now I know what is driving me, I can make decisions more quickly and more confidently.

Enough about me, how does this relate to project management and running a business? Well, organisations and projects need mission statements too. For projects, I'd say that's your project brief and it lays out your overall objectives. I'm always going on about how important it is to have a project brief, and it still surprises me how many project managers don't have them. Projects run within the framework of an organisation that has long-term goals of it own and its important to know these and use them when you need to make decisions about your work. As a project manager it helps to understand the bigger picture and to be able to refer to an organisation's mission statement.

Not only does having such a statement help going into the future, it helps with the present too. Writing it should involve everyone in the organisation and take their perspectives into view. Its a good task to base an Appreciative Inquiry session around. As Stephen Covey says in the book "Without involvement, there is no commitment".

And if you're interested here is what my mission statement came out like. It's work in progress and something I will come back to revise every so often.

To have a happy life and live comfortably
To contribute to the work slowing climate change and protecting our environment
To have a successful career and be respected in my field
To have a happy and healthy family who love each other very much
To have a life long learning experience
To keep my mind open to trying new things and understanding different points of view
To have a healthy and strong body
To enjoy nature and the great outdoors
To experience and share love and positivity with all around me

Canada vs the UK

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 12:13:00 PST

I'm in Canada at the moment, doing a snowboarding season and taking some time out. I'm staying in a small town called Fernie, pop 5000. Canada appealed to me for a great many reasons. The snow is probably the primary one, seeing as I'm a bit of a snowboard fanatic, but also to see what life is actually like in Canada and North America. I'd heard good things about Canada being environmentally switched on and about Canadians being laid back folk who are happy just to be...

Well, I've been here for 2 months now and thought it would be a good opportunity to reflect on what Canada is like and if it has met my expectations. On the whole, I'd say I like Canada, its a country that is remarkably beautiful and knows how to enjoy and protect its nature. They have lots of outdoor activities here and you see people of all ages out and about enjoying exercise and fresh air. In terms of how I live my life, I think the town enables me to live as greenly as I do in Bristol.

My impression is that Canada is way ahead of the UK in terms of recycling. We have a weekly bin collection and a fortnightly recycling collection here in Fernie. They will accept most stuff in the recycling bag, including nearly all types of plastics. They don't collect food waste here, though with the amount of wild animals running around that type of waste wouldn't last 5 secs outside. Canada also charges recycling fees on plastic bottles which you can redeem at the supermarket when you take the bottles back. The amount is added explicitly to your shopping receipt. Its only cents but I have to say for the effort of taking to bottles back vs the money you can reclaim we tend to just put the things in the recycling for collection from our home. I have also seen more evidence of recycling schemes for old white or electrical goods than at home, although I know the WEEE directive does exist in the UK.

I have also seen a higher percentage of recycled materials in clothing here. I guess that's what happens to all the plastics that are recycled. We went into MEC, an outdoor adventure type shop, and their clothes were labelled clearly, above each rack, with the percentage of recycled material. I have never seen that in the UK! Maybe in a small ethical clothing shop but not somewhere so obviously a chain store. I'd love to see more of that in UK, somewhere like Marks and Spencers proudly saying that they are making their clothes from more recycled materials.

Perhaps the biggest eye-opener for me is the cars and public transport. North America is really addicted to oil and motoring but massively turned off from decent cross-country sustainable public transport. Something I already knew before I came here but having been living here for a while I understand why better. The settlements here haven't been around that long. Fernie has only been around for about 100 years and cars have been around just as long. The settlements are developing along side cars and the town planners just assume that everyone will have a car. It just doesn't seem to register that those that don't have a car are seriously at a disadvantage. Things are really spaced out and sprawling. Places likes Bristol and London have been around for hundreds and hundreds of years, way before the invention of cars. They are settlements that have grown up with people that only have one choice to get around and that's by foot. Things in Europe are compact by necessity, here they can sprawl - there's so much land and so few people. For me the sprawl is unattractive and a turn-off. I miss the quirks of Bristol, of living in a compact city that has hundreds of years of history around every corner and looks as though its built to last. We don't seem to build with the long term in mind anymore, in Canada or the UK.

Also, the weather is a massive influence. We don't have a car here and walking around these icy snowing roads is really quite treacherous. The snow and ice is just phenomenal and its doesn't let up for 5 months. And its cold. I am not a car fan to say the least but even I am starting to watch people go past in their trucks with a twinge of jealousy. We just had a cold spell that lasted for a week where temperatures were quite regularly reaching -20 and for a few days hovered around -35 with wind chill. Tragically, the news reported the deaths of several people, young and old who got lost, left their cars and froze to death. Having a car here means you can face the elements more easily and not get shut down by winter.

Its sad to say that given the way North America is evolving I can't see the reliance on cars diminishing too much. I can understand why President Bush is chasing such an aggressive biofuels policy in the US. Cars are a necessity for living here so the obvious way to do something about climate change is to find a better fuel, not a replacement transport system. The lifestyle here means you need some sort of private transport to get around, things are just so spaced out. I'm sure there are some ways the reliance on cars could be dramatically reduced, for example by encouraging car shares. Fernie does have a hitch-hiking system for getting to the resort from the town. The bus is not a very good option here (expensive, slow and runs infrequently) so if you ask a local how to get to the mountain the reply will often be to drive or hitch hike. Its partly the friendliness of Canadians and locals that makes this possible. I'm not sure if it would work in the UK, though perhaps in some of the more rural areas where there is a concentration of snow-lovers it could.

But on the whole I'd say Canada and Fernie has a lot going for it greenwise. It could make some improvements, but then couldn't everywhere? Definitely making cars greener and also moving away from the mindless consumerism, same as at home. But I'd say the average Canadian appreciates the natural world a lot more than us Brits and having the right attitude to our environment is a good start.

Change is the only constant

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 09:22:00 PST

If I had to have one mantra as a project manager then this would be it, "Change is the only constant". You will probably recognise it as a famous quote by ancient Greek philosopher, Heraclitus.

When devising any kind of plan it is foolhardy to say the least to expect that all your assumptions will remain the same for the duration of your project. Things will change, and no amount of planning or control will make everything go as you want it. One of the most important skills of a project manager is being able to anticipate and deal with the unexpected.

Monitoring and identifying risks is one such way to keep on top of the ever changing world. By knowing in advance what could go wrong and having back-up plans or contingencies in store you are more likely to succeed. Revisiting your plan and even your brief is another way to spot any nasty surprises. As your project develops you tend to acquire new knowledge that may render previous ideas useless or mean other ideas become viable. You need to remain flexible to deal with new information and make the best of it.

Of course being flexible starts from the beginning, when you write your brief. You do have a careful line to tread between writing a meaningful brief and something totally vague that could be interpreted to suit whatever situation. The secret is to not tie yourself into any particular way of achieving something if you can avoid it. You need to think of the high-level objectives and end goal of what you're trying to make happen. Leave yourself room to maneuver and react to new info and make changes to what you're doing. But do this without jeopardising actually completely a project or being a victim to the 'grass is always greener' mentality. Sometimes you just need to stick to your guns!

Really, what I am trying to say here is don't write your plan once at the beginning and think you've done all the work. Don't stick to it blindly. Things beyond your control will change and if you want to deliver on time and to budget you will need to make some amends somewhere along the line. Planning is a constant process that needs to react to change. Schedule time in your plan to revise what you're doing and have review points. It's quite a natural process to change some of what you're doing as you go along - its not a sign of failure!

One of my favourite blogs at the moment is Tim Berry. He writes from a slightly different angle of planning start-up businesses. But he constantly reiterates the same point, a plan (in his case a business place) is alive, it needs constant attention to keep it going. It's folly to write it for the accountant and then put it on the desk to gather dust. I recommend Tim's blog as a good read - I enjoy the writing style as someone who obviously knows what they are talking about but isn't arrogant or overly-opinionated about it!

Appreciative Inquiry

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 08:53:00 PST

After spending 2 months doing research into what the Environment Agency needed to boost its project management performance, I realised that it wasn't just the project managers that needed help. It was also their bosses, the project executives.

Helping project managers is quite easy, the majority realise they could improve their skills and they are keen to learn. Offers of training are taken up quite readily. Project executives, on the other hand are a very different kettle of fish. The typical profile of a project executive is someone who has been in the post for at least 5 years and is often the head of a small department or at the very least a senior manager. They are regarded as senior people with a lot of expertise and experience. You don't just walk into the post of a project executive. I realised it wasn't going to be easy to teach these old dogs new tricks, so a careful approach was needed. I wanted to challenge these managers into thinking about what they were doing and to see how they could improve. I had been given one and half hours at their monthly meeting and was looking into how I could make the most of such precious time.

The idea of Appreciative Inquiry came up. I was told it was a way to inspire change amongst a large group of people. So I looked into it and liked what I saw. To cut to the chase, I used AI and developed a workshop. I delivered it in 1.5 hours with the help of my boss. Any boy o boy, did it go down well. It achieved everything we hoped for and started off the momentum of change.

So what is AI and how does it work? AI is a different take on problem solving, it focuses on the positives of situations. It asks what is working well, what can we see more of? It doesn't ask people to think about the problems. It is very clever in that throughout an AI session you influence the way people think, by asking them to think about successes and how that made them feel. By tapping into those past emotions and feelings participants find themselves looking at things in different way and finding solutions that didn't present themselves before.

AI comprises of a 4-D structure. The 4 D's are:

Discovery - what is working well, what is successful?
Dream - how could things be in an ideal world?
Design - what should the future look like?
Destiny - how will you be the change you want to see?

A session starts by 'discovering' what is already working. People focus on and share success stories. In this case we asked our participants to think about a time they had seen someone do a good job as a project executive. We gave them the choice of describing themselves or someone else. Everyone had the chance to speak and share something. We asked them to describe how it made them feel when they did something well and you could see smiling faces as they thought about those good times.

We then asked them to think about what their role would look like in an ideal world, without constraints and real-world barriers. This is the 'dream' section. We devised an activity which got them thinking and discussing their ideas. Firstly they worked in pairs, then in groups of four and then we shared the best ideas across the whole room. People were already reevaluating the way they perceived their job and were seeing ways to change.

'Designing' is about reigning in those free thoughts and coming back to reality. How can you make those ideals happen in the real world? Why shouldn't you be able to achieve the ideals? Because the mind is thinking in a different way new ideas come to light. Again we got them doing activities in pairs and shared the best answers around the whole group. We asked them to prioritise their ideals. Which things were the most important to them to change?

The last part is the easy part. All of the session leads towards the 'destiny'. AI creates self-organising innovation rather than some engineered answer. It relies on people to go away and make the changes for themselves in the ways they see fit. This allows everyone to do things in a way which is right for them. Everyone is different and AI makes use of that. It means that at the end of the session we had a loose list of what the priorities were and a lot of very happy looking, enthusiastic project executives who were empowered to go away and make the changes for themselves.

The feedback from the session was fantastic. Our group of executives hadn't experienced a session like this before. We brought in a fresh approach which made their day a change from the norm. Even at a senior level something fresh is welcomed and needed. Consequently, they took our messages on board and identified all the problems with their roles that I had in my initial report. They had worked the answers and solutions out for themselves and had ideas on what to do which were relevant to themselves and their situations. I didn't need to tell them very much at all, my job was just to create the right environment and the thinking space.

The momentum AI creates is somewhat akin to a snowball effect. With change spiraling about all over the place. For me personally, AI is a great discovery. I love the way it taps into a positive psyche and makes change seems natural and also personal. I will certainly experiment with AI in the future when I am running my own projects. I can really see how AI will make all the difference to teams of developers who often need carefully handling. I'll be posting about my experiments with AI in time to come, but in the time being for more info, check out the home of AI, http://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu.

In my mind, AI is the future of bringing about organisational change.

Speaking plainly

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 08:30:00 PDT

At the moment much of my job involves helping project managers clarify the work that they are doing. They’ll write a project brief and then send it to me for assessment. What’s interesting about these briefs is how much waffle and jargon goes into them. So much of my time is spent, not helping project managers identify objectives and make good plans, but rewording what they’ve written into something anyone can understand – most importantly, their team and funders!

Terms like ‘ringfence’, ‘add-value’ and ‘forward-thinking’ are scattered around without much regard. TLAs, or 3 letter acronyms (in fact any length acronym) are popular too. Sorry, what does VPL mean in this context?

The sign of someone that really understands what they are doing is the ability to explain something really clearly and concisely. A project brief won’t get read if its anything longer than 4 pages in an organisation such as the Environment Agency. Something short will communicate an awful lot more than a tome, even if it doesn’t contain the same amount of information. At least the information that is in there will get read and digested!

The old saying ‘Keep it simple, stupid’ has never been more true.

What is good enough?

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 03:46:00 PDT

Good enough is the fight between quality and time. It is about knowing when you have achieved the minimum to satisfy your customers and knowing when to move on.

Quality is a constant issue in projects and often hard to define tangibly. The best possible quality is everyone’s idea of perfection. But trying to get everyone (customers, stakeholders, managers and workers) to agree on what perfection is, is impossible in itself.

Instead, doesn’t it make more sense to define the threshold of good enough – to think about the absolute minimum from the start? To say, this is what is absolutely essential, these are the bells and whistles that if we have the time we will come back to in future iterations. If you wait until a product is perfect before you release it, you are more than likely to never finish! We live in a world today where we have very little boundaries and where there is infinite scope to just keep on making things better.

Sometimes my conscience jerks me when thinking about what is the absolute minimum I can get away with. It can seem somehow dishonest – shouldn’t we all do our best all the time? But you have to be realistic about what you achieve. Delivering a whole something that works on time rather than something that’s not quite finished but will be really really good when it’s done, is much better. Also, if you do the bear minimum and have the time to do the bells and whistles you’ll have an even happier customer. It’s much better to under-promise and over-deliver.

Of course, its easier said than done to define it all at start and then stick to it. Managers play a pivotal role in helping those on the ground keep a focus of what they’re trying to do. But its all too easy for anyone involved in a project to see the potential of the a new improvement and take your eye off the bigger picture. Achieving the best quality can sometimes just be a distraction. And sometimes there are things you overlooked and a small improvement that wasn’t planned could make all the difference. There’s no exact science.

But on the whole when considering whether to that make that improvement you have to ask yourself ‘is what I have now good enough’. If so, move on and be content that there is room for improvement – add it to your feature list for version 2! If not then plan what you are going to change and tread the slippery slope with great care.

Confidence vs Competence

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 14:30:00 PDT

Timesonline are doing a series of video clips around management themes. Their first one is 'The virtuous circle of competence vs confidence', a 3 min video by Gill Rider.

It highlights the relationship between how well you project yourself and how good you are at doing things. It especially relates to women apparently, who do not wish to appear egotistical or arrogant and consequently do not assert themselves enough. Useful ideas to take on board...

A blank piece of paper

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 01:41:00 PDT

Making decisions is a tricky part of running projects. It's particularly hard to make good decisions when a number of people need to be involved and they are probably stretched quite thin. It gets even harder when they work in different departments or organisations as well, and the chance of getting everyone around the table is null.

I've found that if I want to get things moving quickly, I never approach someone with a blank piece of paper. I always write an idea down as a starting point and let the discussion flow around that. The funny thing is, it often doesn't matter what the quality is of my words, it's just the fact that something is there. Time and time again this method proves more successful than saying 'let's just chat about this issue'. Rather I always try and say to people 'let's talk about what I have written down about this issue'. Usually what I have written down gets torn apart and rebuilt but that's fine; it's hard to be a good project manager and have an ego!

A blank piece of paper gives too many options. By narrowing the ideas to start, you allow their brains to focus on a narrower field of possibilities and hence get better results and happier people. You've got more chance of a response too. Most people I work with will happily critique what you're suggesting until the cows come home, but if you ask them to fire some ideas across you often get the 'sorry, too busy' response.

Blink

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 12:05:00 PDT

I've just finished reading 'Blink' by Malcom Gladwell. A really interesting book that talks about the decision-making power your subconscious has.

I was drawn to it by a phenomenon I'd noticed when playing tennis on my Nintendo Wii. To serve an ace, you must press a button to throw the ball upwards and swing the controller when the ball is at its apex. I noticed when I didn't really think about how I was going to serve an ace I did it every time. The times I spent ages shuffling my position and focusing on what I should be doing I never got it right. I realised that letting my subconscious do the work for me was much better.

Gladwell explores this theme is some depth in a very accessible, anecdotal manner. He draws on many stories and examples from around the world. It says you can make a good decision without reams of information. If you just let your subconscious process the situation you get an accurate answer. Trying to figure out why you have the answer is where the complication comes in. It slows you down. You start to take irrelevant factors into account unproportionally and can end up with a different answer. I've mentioned the idea before in my post about making better decisions, this book backs it up.

One slight disappointment about the text is that I didn't come away feeling I knew how I could use my subconscious. I now strongly believe that this phenomenon exists and have ideas of what to look for. It also highlights the opposite - you can't always trust your instincts and you have to be careful about first impressions.

But the whole, Gladwell raises many interesting points that are worth a read!

Chaordic Management

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 08:24:00 PDT

Chaordic is a term coined by Dee Hock, founder and former CEO of the VISA credit card association. Being chaordic is something that is a blend of chaos and order. Translated into a business context it is a harmonious mix of co-operation and competition.

The term is something new but the idea behind has been around for a very long time. Dee Hock came along, gave it a name and formalised it. And what a good idea too. By formalising something it becomes more acceptable to the mainstream.

The chaordic theory makes sense: create a sensible, ethical and robust structure in which people can thrive, create an agreed set of outcomes and then get out of the way and let the magic flow. It’s all very people-centric, aiming to provide the right environment in which people can flourish but similarly acheive business goals or a common objective. Mr Hock has written a very accessible article on chaordic management which I recommend everyone to read as it sums up the chaordic principles quite nicely and explains how management should be done. It’s something I truly buy into.

A good example of a chaordic organisation is the open source software movement. It is both chaos and order at the same time. There is order in that the agreement is to make some software that meets a specific need and chaos in that anyone can contribute however they like. And look at open source software go – it’s works quite nicely.

For more in depth info on what it means to be a chaordic organisation check out collectivechaordicspirit.com and in particular this pdf of their research findings.

Why won't cyclists stop?

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:45:00 PDT

Hmmm... time for a slightly off topic rant...

It's a bit worrying the way a lot of motorists drive, particularly when it comes to the way they 'share' the road with cyclists. In the defense of many, the law of the road favours motorised vehicles and does marginalise though who travel by two wheels. But still a little bit of consideration for others goes a long way, we don't really want to live in a world where every man is out for themselves, do we?

As someone who cycles a fairly long way to work, it's about 6 miles each way, I do come into contact with a lot of motorists who I have to share the road with. These are just some of the really stupid things I see motorists do everyday and just have to ask, why??

Why do motorists think they're bikes when it suits them? I mainly speak of those who stop at the front of the designated area for bikes at traffic lights. It won't help you get anywhere any faster and you take away my safe stopping place.
And again, why do motorists think its ok to forget they're cars and drive up cycle lanes in heavy traffic to turn quicker off a long road? This trend seems to be worse when its raining, making life a bit crapper for cyclists when at least the motorists are in their cars all nice and dry. You won't get anywhere any faster because inevitably there will be something blocking the cycle lane and you'll have to cut back into the traffic. Everyone who just saw you pass will think 'no way, you cheeky bugger' and you'll be stuck there just blocking the way. Please, just leave us a bit of room to carry on past you without having to stop if you have to do that.
When waiting to turn left at a traffic light, why do motorists have to stop at the very left side of the lane? It won't help you turn left any quicker will it? And where I am supposed to go...
I find this one quite funny: motorists who are glad to overtake you, accelerate really fast just to stop at the tailback which you could see 30m ahead. The bit I don't find funny is when they then stop in front of you blocking the way. I appreciate driving is frustrating but you're in a car in a city, where the hell do you expect to go so quickly?

If you've got this far you're probably wondering why I called the article 'why cyclists won't stop'. I've just been ranting so far! Well two reasons really.

Firstly, cycling requires physical effort, driving does not. So help a tired cyclist out and give way so they can keep going. This Cambridge Cycling Campaign article gives a scientific explanation of 'why cyclists won't stop' and it proves we're not just cheeky. A cyclist's momentum is really important so it would be good if you (and the Government) could understand that and give us right of way.

And secondly, I love my bike and I will never swap it for a car! Bikes are a really good mode of transport for short journeys. They reduce pollution and congestion, they help people keep fit, they hardly cost a thing to run, they help keep your carbon footprint smaller, they're a great family activity and most of all its easy to park them!

Get involved!

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 08:54:00 PDT

Two things I've been mulling over recently - eliminating waste and the design process. We know that planning is the majority of the work in project management, and in IT the design of a system is a large part of the planning. So if we eliminate waste in the design stage we should be targeting our efforts at the area with the most potential for improvement. Obviously you don't want to forget other stages as well but if you get the planning right the rest is a lot easier!

According to Lean thinking, which originates from the Japanese company Toyota, there are 7 types of waste to eliminate:

Overproduction - making more than you need
Transportation - moving stuff when moving doesn't make you any money
Motion - relating to people, such as not having the things you need to hand and having to reach for them
Waiting - idleness whilst a process further up the chain is completed
Overprocessing - doing something over-precisely, e.g cutting something
Inventory - keeping things in storage, then you have to count it, look after it etc
Defects - making a cock-up and having to do it again

The worst would be defects as this contains elements of all the above. Killing off defects starts at the design stage. An easy way to help with this is by ensuring the production team are involved in the design process if not actually doing the design themselves.

This is good on so many levels. You get a better design and more likelihood of innovation resulting in a better product for your consumers. You achieve buy-in from your employees and increased satisfaction usually leading on to more productivity. And key to all of this, your better design should lead to fewer mistakes and fewer overlooked risks. Everyone's a winner!

Climate Change calling Mr. Brown

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 07:10:00 PDT

All this extreme weather... June has been the wettest since records began. Last week 4 people lost their lives due to floods, may they rest in peace. Only a short time ago we were all going on about how warm April had been and that turns out to the be warmest April since records began as well. We've got August and monumental heat to get over next...

...And people just don't seem to be batting an eyelid. This is us reaping the rewards of our own laziness and overconsumption - there's no doubt about it. What will Gordon Brown and his new cabinet do to turn things around? Anything? This is no doubt our biggest single threat, we should be applying resources to making changes and fixes now. A lot of people say we can't do anything about Climate Change, it will damage our economy. The recent floods are estimated to have caused around 1 billion pounds of damage. That is in my eyes 1 billion pounds that could be better spent elsewhere. And you can guess where I'm thinking it could have gone towards...

Whilst I hate to paint a bleak picture this is just a small taster of the disaster to come. It will not just arrive at our doorsteps but worldwide. For whilst we are suffering from more rain than we know what to do with, Greece is burning up with massive forest fires. And not only will more countries in the world suffer from abnormal weather conditions, it will become more extreme and more terrifying each time we're hit. The poorest will suffer most, both here and in developing worlds. That is just the pattern of things to come.

It's in our power to do something about it. It's the power every single one of us has as consumers and citizens to stand up and make a difference. Start by adding your name to this petition, http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/ClimateEffects. It calls for the Prime Minister to make Britain prepared for the consequences of Climate Change. Good call I'd say in light of April and June.

On the road to project management

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 10:33:00 PDT

It takes the fear of losing something before you realise it's true value. Working in an environment where there's no/little project management has done exactly that to me. I'm really understanding the value of having a structure to run your projects in.

Not having a structure manifests itself in many ways, here's a few I've observed:

no idea of what constitutes success and when to stop
lack of clear responsibilities and signoff
for larger programmes, bad communication and massive overspend
stressed out staff doing too much leading to sickness and a high turnover

To the casual observer these things seem obvious and you'd think, well why would I want any of that, bring on the project management. But there's such a fear of change and losing valuable time digging yourself out of a mess. It's a false economy really but it takes a brave decision to make such a big step and admit you're over your head.

One of the ways we're looking at getting people out of their mess is by using a softly softly approach. There's no point in coming in guns blazing and explaining everything about project management in one go, it makes it seem like too high a mountain to climb. We're developing a flexible structure that allows project managers to focus on doing the things that really make a difference.

It's called a 'light touch' approach, with crossovers into agile thinking. The starting point is creating a project brief and getting the context of the project laid out. Scoping out the why, what, who and when gets people thinking in a straight line. The flexibility comes from being able to expand any one of these areas out depending on the requirements of what you're doing. Otherwise a few bullet points are sufficient as long as there is something for each of the main sections. It's about keeping it as short and sweet as humanly possible.

So, if you're starting on the road to project management make your first step writing a brief.

Satisfaction amongst employees

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 10:18:00 PDT

I've recently picked up some work with the Environment Agency spreading the word of project management far and wide. Interesting experience so far and I have been pleasantly surprised about the agile nature of the place. But I'm not planning to critique the Environment Agency just yet...

...right now I'm more interested in thinking about being happy at work. In my quest for refining my ideas on the benefits of project management today I came across some nice pointers about what makes you happy and what doesn't. Frederick Herzberg and many subsequent studies have shown that the following 5 factors help to do the trick:

1. Achievement

2. Recognition

3. The work itself

4. Responsibility

5. Advancement

Apparently achievement is the primary one to take note of. Employees are happiest when they understand how their actions build the bigger picture and contribute.

I think this makes sense on the whole. Seeing it from my perspective, yeah I'd like all those things, they'd make me happy. Achievement makes sense, most people value their work because they are left to get on with it and get stuff done. Recognition too, if you're going to work so hard making things change you want people to see it, hopefully be inspired by it and let you know it was worth it. I presume getting a good salary would fall under recognition too, as I think that's a major one for a lot of people under financial bind.

Big Green Switch

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Wed, 23 May 2007 13:19:00 PDT

I like this site - http://www.biggreenswitch.co.uk

It's an environment-themed site aimed at adults. I don't feel patronised by it which I think is very important in getting the Climate Challenge message across. You can pledge your support for making a small change and there's a counter on the sidebar that says how many pledges have been made. The counter actually goes up properly when you make a pledge too so I feel that I trust the number.

Its great to see the forums too. Had a quick say about the sudden fashion of being green and environmental (for the record I think it's good) and nosied around the tips and facts.

With these sites though it's often the case that I find them and never come back. I've made an account so here's hoping they send me updates and reminders so I keep my interest and get involved.

How to make better decisions

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Mon, 14 May 2007 08:02:00 PDT

An interesting article came up in the New Scientist a few weeks back (well, nearly all the articles in there are interesting) about how to make decisions. We all have to make decisions all the time but as a manager you're often under pressure to make the best decision as quickly as possible, often on the spot. Here's what gems of help the NS had:

1. Don't fear the consequences
When we lose it's often not as bad as we think it will be. This is due to 'loss aversion' - the thinking that a loss will hurt more than a corresponding gain will please.

2. Go with your instincts
Having the time to weigh up a series of options doesn't necessarily mean you'll make a better choice. Sometimes, when given a large or complex choice, it's best to allow your subconscious to decide for you rather than studying the facts.

3. Consider your emotions
All emotions affect our way of thinking so it's best to avoid making decisions if under the strong influence of one. Surprisingly being sad can make you the most prone to considering the options more carefully and making a better choice! Many studies have shown that depressed people have the most realistic take on the world.

4. Play the devil's advocate
Instead of trying to prove a theory, it's best to try and disprove it. If you want to make good choices you need to do more than just latch on to facts that support the opinion you suspect is best.

5. Keep your eye on the ball
Our ability to make decisions is weirdly linked to random or irrelevant facts, called 'anchoring'. It's most likely to kick in when we have to decide something which we have little information about, for example picking a random number.

6. Don't cry over split milk
The more we invest in something the more we feel a commitment to it and this is sometimes known as the sunk cost fallacy. Avoiding letting your present choices be influenced by past bad ones. We all hate to make a loss but often the wise option is to stop throwing good money after bad. If you're considering whether to continue a project after you've decided you would never have started it in the first place, it's probably best to cut your losses and stop.

7. Look at it another way
The 'framing effect' is the way in which our choices are irrationally coloured by the way the alternatives are presented. For example, healthy snacks are marketed as "90% fat-free" instead of "10% fat".

8. Beware of social pressure
If you suspect you are making a choice because you think it is what your boss wants think again. If you are a member of a committee, never just assume the group knows best, play the contrarian. Be most wary when making decisions in which you feel you have little individual responsibility, you're most likely to choose incorrectly then.

9. Limit your options
We often think the more choices we have the better. In fact when we're offered too many choices we don't tend to decide at all. Your chances of making a mistake are higher and you can end up feeling less satisfied because of the niggling fear you missed something better. 'Satisfiers' (rather than 'maximisers') will tend to fair better as they tend to only search for the option that is good enough.

10. Have someone else choose!
It can be better to relinquish control than to feel dissatisfied with the process of making a choice, especially if the options aren't very good.

Summarised from New Scientist, 5th May 2007 edition.

Agile development and Google

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Thu, 03 May 2007 09:37:00 PDT

I've got a lot of time for agile development, or also sometimes called 'light touch' management in some other spheres. I like anything that allows people to have a bit of autonomy over what they're doing and to achieve that much needed flexibility in projects. In the quest for reading up a bit more on agile practices I came across a rather lengthy inside perspective on agile development and how it's implemented in the success story that is Google.

It's quite a long article to read and I managed it and a fair stack of the comments in 2-3 sittings. I found the author's tone a bit grating and possibly arrogant but the content was really interesting to think about. There's lots of banter about how agile works and how it fails and like any methodology you can make it work or make it crash and burn if you get it wrong. The work ethic at Google is particularly interesting to read about: peer respect, launch days, incentives for just about everything, the chance to try out crazy ideas. It sounds like a great place. Reading a bit further down and seeing comments from other readers about how Google is a bit of a special case and their ideas aren't necessarily going to work for everyone made a balanced read. The article's written in a fairly naive way from a business model perspective. Most companies don't have the resources that Google have nor the reputation and ability to attract the creme-de-la-creme. It's a largely unique set-up. For your average Joe I'm not convinced it could work like that though I'm positive, as with any methodology or example of good practice, if you take some bits and pieces here and there that suit you and implement them slowly you'll get some unique hybrid that works for you.

Fair Shares, Fair Choice

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 10:46:00 PDT

A neat little site encouraging you to take action against climate change. Have a look at http://www.fairsharesfairchoice.com. It aims to get you to ‘lower your carbs’ by taking actions to reduce the amount of carbon your lifestyle causes you to emit. It’s aimed at a fairly wide audience by the look of it: individuals, businesses and schools.

On the whole I like it. I like the idea behind it and the branding. It offers you personal coaches to guide you through what you should do, one coach for type of audience. Whilst I do like this site immensely I can see areas for improvement. There’s not much community feel here, nor do I feel the content updates much. The features that list the most recent people to signup is a good one - you always like to find yourself and any mates on there. There is a section to contribute stories but this seemed a bit vague and you also had to write an email. Problem with an email like that is it doesn’t give you any guidance as to what’s expected. Length, content, important info etc. Something automatic here would be nice and ideally something where you can comment on other people’s stuff.

I do also like the banner ads at the top of the site. Although they appear to be ads they seem to designed to fit in with the look and feel so the ads don’t stick out like a sore thumb. They’re subtle and simple. In fact one ad came up for MPS, Mailing Preference Service who help you get your name taken off mailing lists. A great move to help the environment, who wants all that junk mail anyway?

On the whole thumbs up, but I'd like to think this is only stage 1 and stage 2 will come along to give the site a dynamic feeling.

Welcome to my blog!

noreply@blogger.com (Hannah) — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 05:54:00 PDT

Hi there!

Welcome to my blog. You'll find me writing on all sorts of topics in here from project management, software & the internet, the environment and my latest fads.

Here's a bit about me first:

I am 23 (soon to be 24) and I live in Bristol. I have just left my first full-time job as studio/project manager for the digital-media company Team Rubber and am now braving the world of freelancing.

I studied Computer Science at Bristol Uni so I'm somewhat of a techy. My drive in life is to make things efficient and organised and to get things running better. I think that's why I like technology so much as it's a real empowerment to productivity. Being pretty young when the internet kicked off properly I've been brought up with computers and the web. I'm not entirely sure how people managed to get things done without the internet. Fax, phone, memos and post are all great ways of communicating but the power of the internet really opens doors. My passion is exploring ways of how to make best use of what we've got and innovate to make what we need for tomorrow.