The Start-Up of You

The title is a reference to Thomas Friedman's Op-Ed column in the NYTimes, dated 12-July-2011. Click here for the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/13/opinion/13friedman.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=thomas%20friedman&st=cse

 It caught my eye because it sounded similar to "The Brand of You" by Management Consulting guru, Tom Peters.

In any case Friedman is dead-on. So dead-on that I came out of semi-retirement to even write this post! :)

I won't rehash what he writes but I will raise examples in my own workplace that illustrates what he states.

E.g., We've been having cuts at the investment bank where I work, and it's just one in a parade of many. People have to constantly look for new jobs or are worried that they'll lose their existing one. Constant re-invention is a must. Workers must always look for ways to add value (which is one of the things I stated in my earlier posts). You can't be idle in this day & age. Look around for what else needs to be done. Kaizen! Continuous Improvement! People who are bored at work simply aren't looking. If you claim to be bored, look at it is a tremendous opportunity to use your imagination to poke into something/get involved and make suggestions.

Another eg. I've seen is what happens after the layoff. In my own group, we were at a height of 100+ people at one point. Now we're down to under 50. People got let go & others left on their own. But the company never replenished. We still have to maintain our ongoing operations however. So what does that mean? Many people are filling multiple roles and are busier than ever. We've gotten pretty damn lean and efficient. And furthermore, we're not just going to hire anyone. We did have a few openings for contractors. But it took several months to fill them. Why? Why when there's a glut of IT people out there did it take us so long? Because as Tom Friedman put it, "we are increasingly picky". We want "people who not only have the critical thinking skills to do the value-adding jobs that technology can’t, but also people who can invent, adapt and reinvent their jobs every day, in a market that changes faster than ever."


I also look at how I can make the job more efficient. I think in terms of the franchise model. The key to franchise success is how to replicate your business easily and cheaply. McDonalds hires burger flippers. These burger flippers don't stick around all that long, I'd gather. It's an easy skill to train them in, and if they leave, you train the next one. And so on. They have it down to a science. Well, even in IT, a similar thing can happen. I am working with a system that has traditionally caused a lot of noise. It takes someone of high intelligence to figure out what's going on. Since I've come into the group, I've whittled the noise down slowly but surely. I've gotten rid of the false positives. Now the system is beginning to hum. Any errors that actually do pop up are being documented in a HOW-TO guide. When I am done, suddenly we don't need that person of high intelligence anymore. That person can be re-assigned to work on more interesting tasks. And in that person's place? You got it: a burger flipper. Someone of mid-level intelligence who can follow instructions and handle basic tasks and attend to those errors. Not the greatest job, but hey, it's a foot in the door and people can move on once they get bored. Even for this job, though, I wouldn't just hire anyone. I'd want someone who could master the task easily and then say "What else? What else can I do?" 

Pure PMs vs. BAs

I've been noticing lately that pure Project Managers on Wall Street are losing popularity. Of course I have only a limited perspective but the sentiment I'm getting is that pure PMs aren't adding as much value. In fact I see a trend towards hiring more BAs with PM experience, or Senior Dev Leads/Project Managers. So some specialty role + PM experience is a more popular choice with employers.

A pure PM might fit into a PMO role better, but an actual project manager doing projects is better off diving into the details.

Collaborating & Engagement with Colleagues

I am on a new project with new colleagues. I had been working with the same personalities for so long now that I forgot what it was like to go through the Forming/Storming/Norming phases again!

It's interesting to see how some people prefer to work alone even when the work requires collaboration. I actually think this is an easy trap to fall into. In this era of the knowledge worker, each worker has such specialized skills and knowledge of his/her area that it requires serious effort for someone else to intervene and pick up a new task or role. It is just easier to wait for the person who specializes in that area to pick up the task. This can result in long wait times for things to get done, but that's a topic for another post.

A side effect of this type of specialization however is that people start to work in their own silos. Because one person can do so much in just their one area, a type of rigidity sets in and people only do what they know. If something is outside their bailiwick, they will assume someone else will pick it up; or they'll punt the task over to someone else and wash their hands of it and rush back to their own specialty business. In fact, that other person may be new and has no clue and is waiting for direction from you!

It's becoming harder to recognize that picking up the phone and talking to your colleague might be a good idea. A few face to face meetings and phone calls are the equivalent of 1000 emails (or IM chats) just as a picture is worth a thousand words. I moved the project many fold in 1 day than it had moved in several months.

There is nothing like the feeling of several of your colleagues hunched over a screen trying to work out a problem together. Research shows group problem solving is way more productive and efficient than solo solving. In fact, in a project management course I took a few months back I was witness to this exact phenomenon. We were told to do an exercise by ourselves. After that, we had to do the exercise as a group. This provided for a lot of debate because each person had their own views on what the correct answer was. We had to come up with a consensus and convince each other. Eventually we arrived at a solution. Then we graded our own individual solutions and then the group solution. What do you think the result was? The group solution score was higher than any of the individual solutions! I was astounded.

I can see myself get lethargic at times as well and just want to stay at my desk and manage from there. I have gotten facile however at recognizing when this happens and am able to override it and keep myself moving. I will make that extra phone call to push a dev ticket ahead or will sit with my colleague at his cubicle for an hour discussing an issue and how to address it. These are the little things that when added up move projects and eventually implement a company's strategy.