- Collect: Grab everything that needs your attention. Whether you use David Allen’s mind sweep or you prefer a list format, go through your messages, e-mail, missed actions, etc. and capture all the items that require some action.
- Meet: Sit down with co-workers. This is the people version of collecting. Find out what was managed was you were away, what new issues have arisen and add these to your mind-sweep list. This is also a good time to thank them for covering your unexpected absence.
- Process: Once you’ve collected all the open loops, figure out what you need to do to close them. Whether it’s as simple as throwing a brochure in the garbage or as complex as planning a management retreat, you need to identify the steps needed to move the item forward.
- Prioritize: Next, you can organize the action steps into lists of what you’re going to do.
- Get it done: Now that you know what you need to do, get started. It may take time and effort to get things reorganized to move forward, but don’t stop at the end of step four. Here’s where you can pull things back on track.
From: Ian’s Messy Desk
- Do I heckle my subordinates or strengthen and encourage them?
- Do I use moral courage in getting rid of subordinates who have proven themselves beyond doubt to be unfit?
- Have I done all in my power by encouragement, incentive and spur to salvage the weak and erring?
- Do I know by NAME and CHARACTER a maximum number of subordinates for whom I am responsible? Do I know them intimately?
- Am I thoroughly familiar with the technique, necessities, objectives and administration of my job?
Do I lose my temper at individuals?
- Do I act in such a way as to make my subordinates WANT to follow me?
- Do I delegate tasks that should be mine?
- Do I arrogate everything to myself and delegate nothing?
- Do I develop my subordinates by placing on each one as much responsibility as he can stand?
- Am I interested in the personal welfare of each of my subordinates, as if he were a member of my family?
- Have I the calmness of voice and manner to inspire confidence, or am I inclined to irascibility and excitability?
- Am I a constant example to my subordinates in character, dress, deportment and courtesy?
- Am I inclined to be nice to my superiors and mean to my subordinates?
- Is my door open to my subordinates?
- Do I think more of POSITION than JOB?
- Do I correct a subordinate in the presence of others?
From: Leading Blog: A Leadership Blog
- Know what you are doing: Make sure there is a project plan.
- Know why you are doing it: Make sure the objective is clearly defined.
- Be prudent, honest, and prepared: Few organizations have limitless budgets, prudence, honesty and common sense are critical.
- Plan to your strenghts: Make sure you have the right team for the project.
- Know how to navigate: Understand how to get things accomplished within your organization.
- Know how to communicate: Good communication skills are critical. Project managers must communicate with team members, end users, and stakeholders.
- Know how to succeed: Project success should be clearly defined and understood.
- Know how to fail: There should also be a definition of what constitutes failure.
- Know when the project is over: Don’t let scope creep turn the project into the never ending story.
- Know how to learn: As the philosopher Santayana suggested, if we aren’t willing to learn from history, we are destined to repeat it. I believe the ability to learn from experience is one of the most critical project management skills.
From: AtTask
It is possible to measure virtually any activity in the program, but if the measurement does not support a key objective, it is not worth the cost of data collection and analysis.
- A caution in The Integrated Project Management Handbook, Dayton Aerospace Inc.
From: Herding Cats
- A clear, concise statement defining the program has been prepared and reviewed by knowledge parties for consensus.
- Performance objectives have been written following guidelines and each contains an actual calendar date for completion,
- A Work Breakdown Structure has been developed to a level sufficient to prepare accurate estimates of cost, resources and working times for all program activities.
- A Statement of program scope clearly defines the limits of what will and what will not be done.
- Specifications that must be met are either identified or contained in the program notebook and the Control Accounts Managers (CAM) notebook.
- Tangible deliverables have been identified for specific milestones to permit performance measurement.
- A Linear Responsibility Chart shows involvement of key contributors to the program.
- A working schedule has been prepared with resources allocated so that significant planned overtime will not be required to meet program deadlines.
- A Critical Path Method and Program Evaluation Review Techniques diagram is the basis for all bar-charts working schedules, so that dependencies are known.
- A spend plan cure has been prepared to show cash flow throughout the program’s duration.
- Strengths, Weaknesses as well as Opportunity and Threats (SWOT) analysis have been prepared, with particular attention to program risk.
- Where risks have been identified, contingency plans have been started to deal with them as well as a risk register to tract the potentials for the risk becoming a problem.
- If capital equipment is needed in the program, appropriate requisitions have been prepared, with cost justifications attached. The Program plan was prepared with participation and/or input from the Control Account Managers.
- The program notebook has been signed off by stakeholders and copies distributed to contributors.
- A control system has been established using variance analysis to assess in performance measurement.
- All components of the program measurement system are in place as defined in the Earned Value Management System description.
- Individuals have been selected for assignment to the program whose individual needs will be met through participation, where possible.
- The program is planned to a manageable level of detail at no less that level 3 of the work breakdown structure (WBS).
- Work has been broken down into reasonable durations tasks (work packages) which are assigned with a budget and to a responsible Control Account Manager.
- A post-mortem has been done at each milestone in the program and a final one has been done for the overall program and placed in the program and CAM’s (Control Account Manager) notebooks.
- The program notebook has been placed in a central file for use in the future program planning.
- Members of the team have been instructed to record their working times on the program daily.
- A chart of control accounts (level three of the WBS) has been developed to track earned value against the plan and the contract deliverables of the program.
- All members of the team are clear on the expectations of them in terms of authority, responsibility and accountability.
- The standard operating procedures for empowering people has been applied to every member of the team.
- Limits have been established to determine when the program plan will be revised, such as plus or minus 10% total authorized budget variation, etc.
- The needs of customers have been carefully considered and documented in preparing the program plan.
- Qualitative guides have been developed for non-quantifiable program objectives, such as program performance.
- Checklists have been prepared for major segments of the program so that nothing is overlooked.
From: Herding Cats
The Department of Methodology and Evaluation Research at Universität Jena has made available a set of free online video courses on data analysis. They cover topics that are particularly relevant to psychology and social science researchers, including SEM, causal inference, regression, R, and psychometrics. Some courses are in German, but many are in English, and the language of the course is clearly marked. Some require that you register, but registration is free. Their website allows you to filter just for English Language courses. Below are some courses that Jeremy Anglin found particularly appealing.
From: R Bloggers
Program success means…
- Knowing what DONE looks like begins with the Integrated Master Plan.
- Recognizing what DONE looks like when it arrives means measuring the planned Technical Performance.
- Measuring Physical Percent Complete tells us how far we have moved toward DONE by calculating the “Earned Value” we’ve achieved.
Connecting Earned Value, Technical Performance, and Physical Percent Complete establishes a credible measure of Progress to Plan.
From: Herding Cats
- Where are we going?
- How are we going to get there?
- Do we have enough time and money to make it?
- What’s going to prevent us from showing up on time, on budget, and on specification?
- How are we going to measure physical progress to plan?
From: Herding Cats
A great example of the importance of perception:
There was an experiment where researchers were given a set of rats and told to rate their ability to learn mazes. They were told that certain rats were “smart rats” and had an abnormally high IQ. When the researchers tested the rats, their studies showed that the “smart rats” performed significantly better than the ordinary rats.
The experiment, however, wasn’t focused on the rats, it was testing the researchers. All of the rats were the same, but telling the researchers that some of the rats were smart caused them to rate the rats better, even though there was no difference.
People will view what you do through their own set of prejudices. To a certain extent, your ability to succeed is determined by what people think of you ahead of time. When it comes to humans, very few things are actually objective.
By being aware of this, you can help yourself prepare for the future by nurturing positive impressions of yourself with those around you. If they expect you to succeed, you are more likely to (at least in their eyes) than if they expect you to fail.
From: Productivity501
Remember risk management has five easy pieces:
- Hope is not a strategy
- No single point estimate of cost or schedule can be correct without knowing the variance
- Cost, Schedule, and Technical Performance are inseparable (this is the REAL Iron Triangle)
- Risk management requires adherence to a well defined process
- Communication is the Number One success factor in Risk Management
From: Herding Cats
Here is a newly discovered blog with lots of useful articles about practical statistics.
GENERAL STATISTICS
OTHER
From: Jeromy Anglim’s Blog: Psychology and Statistics
Below is a categorized list of the articles currently offered in the R Tutorial Series.
Introduction to R
Descriptive Statistics
Data Visualization
Correlation
Regression
HLM
ANOVA
From: R bloggers
I had to face the fact over the last week while I was on vacaction that I need to prune my blogroll again. And as I have done in the past, any blog without a full-text feed is gone. End of discussion. If you don’t understand why, read the following article:
Truncated RSS Is A Bad Business Decision http://bit.ly/bQ5X9Z
Net result – if you want my attention, then communicate how I desire. No, that is not curmudgeonly – I just have no time for anything else.
When you separate the “doing” from the measurement of the doing, you start to establish credibility for the work.
From: Herding Cats: The Role of Program Planning and Controls (PP&C)
- Baskerville – cultured, dignified and just and admirable
- Bodoni – elegant, subjective, both classic and modern
- Caslon – dignified, formal, vigorous but graceful
- Franklin Gothic – classic sans serif
- Frutiger – strong, readable, simple, smooth
- Futura – elgante sans serif
- Garamond – classically elegant, adult
- Gill Sans – sans serif font with a strong, warm and friendly personality
- Helvetica – neutral without being boring, simple, contemporary
- Optima – smooth, refined, calming, elegant, in my view, however, partially limited line width for presentations
- Rockwell – owned, bold, confident
From: Warum ignorieren Sie Typographie in Präsentationen? Die wichtigsten Regeln!
Read the passage carefully. Determine its structure. Identify the author’s purpose in writing. Make a note in the margin when you get confused, or when you think something is important.
Reread. This time divide the passage into sections or stages of thought. The author’s use of paragraphing will often be a useful guide. Label, on the passage itself, each section or stage of thought. Underlying key ideas and terms. Write notes in the margin.
Write one sentence summaries, on a separate sheet of paper, of each stage of thought.
Write a thesis: a one or two sentence summary of the entire passage. The thesis should express the central idea of the passage, as you have determined it from the preceding steps. You may find it useful to keep in mind the what, who, why, where, when, and how of the matter. For persuasive passages, summarize in a sentence the author’s conclusion. For descriptive passages, indicate the subject of the description and its key feature. Note: in some cases, a suitable thesis may already be in the original passage. If so, you may want to quote it directly in your summary.
Write the first draft of your summary by (1) combining the thesis with your list of one sentence summaries or (2)combining the thesis with one sentence summaries plus significant details from the passage. In either case, you eliminate repetition and less important information. Disregard minor details or generalize them. Use as few words as possible to convey the main ideas.
Check your summary against the original passage and make whatever adjustments are necessary for accuracy and completeness.
Revise your summary, inserting traditional words and phrases where necessary to ensure coherence. Check for style. Avoid a series of short, choppy sentences. Combine sentences for a smooth logical flow of ideas. Check for grammatical correctness, punctuation, and spelling.
Behrens, L., Rosen, L. J., & Beedles, B. (2002). A Sequence For Academic Writing. New York: Longman.
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